Barb's quilt, Elsie & Cookie

Michael left at 8 AM on Tuesday (5/16) for a routine dentist appointment, then a stop at Southern Spirits and the newly re-opened ALDI’s.  I headed downstairs, determined to make headway on Barb M’s quilt!  First up, basting:  

Then I spent 1-1/2 hours getting the program right and winding bobbins.  By then it was after 11 AM and I was starving so I headed upstairs for brunch.  I thought maybe the weather was getting too hot for snuggling (it's been over 90 degrees the last 2 days), but my little pumpkins proved me wrong:  

I made diet pizzas (and old, old, old Weight Watchers recipe) and read my book for a bit before starting the quilting.  I’m using King Tut (you know it’s my favorite but wicked expensive) variegated thread in a black/purple/dark blue color way and I think it looks nice on the quilt without taking anything away from the gorgeous colors in the blocks:  

note orange basting thread!

I worked on that until 6 PM (and am over 1/2 way through with the quilting) when Michael left to go to a Charlotte Knights game (baseball) with his buddies and I headed upstairs to head to Zaxby’s for a dinner salad, and Harris Teeter as I didn’t have enough flour to make up Artisan bread for my class on Wednesday.  The good news is, I saw Paula on the way out and she also needed flour, so I bought enough for both of us.  When I finished my salad, I got to work on other things.  After I finish Barb’s quilt, I am changing my pricing structure.  Right now I have sizes listed for wall hanging, lap/twin, double, queen and king.  They all have a size in inches by width and length associated with them, and I indicate on my form that if the quilt is larger on either dimension, it goes to the next highest charge.  But…I’ve never felt right about that if the quilt is just a couple of inches over….so in the past I’ve just added a small surcharge instead.  I talked it over with a couple of my customers who have given me multiple quilts and they liked the price-per-square-inch charge for a quilt.  That way, you pay for just how big or small your quilt is…so that’s what I’m going to do.  But, I also have to sort my designs into categories, depending on how long it takes the design to stitch out...since that will affect the price.  That’s going to take quite a bit of work.  ANd, I need to print out a picture of each of my designs to sort them into the categories in a book for my customers to look at.  PLUS, I think I am going to change the thread I have been using…also necessitating a change in price as the new thread is more expensive (but I believe a better quality) that what I have been using.  It's not just that it is a better quality thread....when I re-ordered a color from my old company...it came in, in a totally different shade!!!  Way more than a simple dye lot difference and I can't have that if I run out of thread on a quilt, and then can't get the same color again  :~(.  Anyway, I worked on my designs for over an hour, then Paula (who got out of her card game early) came by for a visit.  That was REALLY nice as we haven’t seen each other in several weeks and we got all caught up during her visit.  I watched a bit of TV after that and when Michael got home at 10:45 PM, we both headed for bed.