marching one step closer . . .

"Marching" was my segue word for transitioning from Veteran's Day back to quilting. I'm so clever I amaze myself. Ahem.

But I am closer to being ready for some big sewing on Saturday. Tonight's star was this guy:

And I don't know why I refer to my iron as a 'him', but he is, so there you have it. He worked hard tonight.

Now I know this all looks like the same photos from Tuesday, but I promise you, these are all neatly pressed.

Crisp and flat. Ready for some design wall, these pieces are.

These pieces are definitely ready to hit the sewing machine!

All those pretty, pressed points!

These little babies looked so good, I could resist working with them a little longer.

Yep. I went ahead and pulled out the triangle ruler and cut out all my triangles.

These are ready for stitching on Saturday, too. If I can wait that long!

Tomorrow after work I'll take a trip to the fabric shop to see if I can find a solid I like for the last set of hexagons I need to cut. Yeah, and once those are done? This thing really *will* be ready for the design wall! WOW!

For now, sweet, quilty dreams!

:)

a day job . . .

I do have one. One, on most days, I enjoy very much. Today just happened to be one of those days. I spent my day working on our brochure graphics and playing in autocad. Here's a sampling of what I did, and consequently, some of the beautiful ornamental iron work we do here . . .

and the inside . . .

We primarily do custom ornamental iron handrails, fences, and mailboxes. But we can do a huge variety of stuff. Like curtain rods. And vanities and tables and grills and beds and just let your imagination run WILD!

I like playing around in autocad/fabcad. I've even done some quilt designs and layouts using the program. Joc's wedding quilt was done that way, and so was my 2008 challenge quilt. I've also created some quilt patterns in autocad. I haven't put fabric to those yet, though!

Once I've got a design in autocad -- whether I drew it or the boss man drew it -- I can screen copy it and pull it up in paint or photoshop to fill it in, tweek it, and save it as a graphic.

This custom gate I absolutely love. We did it for a customer with a "W" in the center; but I put our NMIW in the center. It looks better!

Our new logo . . .

Isn't this Iris Gate beautiful?? I love it! Can you imagine having such a whimsical driveway gate? We actually did this for a customer. We plasma cut the irises out of steel plate and welded them into the frame. Something like this would look so cool at the entrance of Camp Macoba!

And this final photo is a custom bed frame & headboard our ornamental artist, Neil, just completed. It's incredible! The thing is HUGE and quite solid. I don't envy the install crew on this one! It's waiting to go into powder coat and then it will get a hand finish. The customer wanted a Celtic look. I think she got it!

So, when I'm not working on graphics and drawings and with customers, I do the (*yawn*) fun things . . . like answer the phone, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll. LOL! Actually I do enjoy that part of my job too -- when I have enough of it to keep me busy!

Today let's just say I didn't have time to yawn.

:)