Friday, December 9, 2016

Brrrrrrrr!!! It is cold here today!

Tim spent some quality time with his plants before coming in for supper yesterday. We had the first hard freeze of the season, and he brought in the tenderest plants, and covered the ones too heavy to bring in. Sure enough, there was frost on the car this morning and the geraniums are looking spent.
The studio and living room are festive with flowering plants, so it seems to be a win-win situation!
The plants are under cover and safe again tonight.
In the studio, the Christmas quilting continues. Mr Wazoo came in from the cold to quilt a Harley Dvidson tee shirt quilt with a flaming motif. Radical!


Panto: Hot Rod

My day started with a small indulgence; quilting the pillow front for my daughter's winter decoration. While the machine chugged its way through a row of pantograph, I made the envelope back and finished the job!

Top all quilted and ready to sew

Finished pillow

The soft flannel on the back matches the quilt I made for her a month ago.

This is the quilt I did while messing about with the pillow project. 

Cute 30s wonky 4-patch

Digital daisy panto

This cheater fabric on the back is perfect for the quilt. I'll get the binding on it tonight.
I also did this bird quilt for the same customer. I found a wonderful bird panto on line and it looks perfect on this quilt!




I forgot to show you what Mr W did yesterday, so here is one of the cutest retro circus panel quilts I have seen. I love the fabrics...so 1950s!


Panto: Quirky


Binding done! Quilt ready to go home.
Now, I have to get back to work...I have to finish the binding on the wonky 4-patch quilt before going to bed!





Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Productive day at the salt mine

We took in some Christmas quilts from two customers yesterday, and Mr Wazoo jumped right on it. I had a custom job to finish, and I'm happy it is now done!

i like how the entire pattern repeats the stars in the 9 patch!



The back looks good, too.
Mr Wazoo quilted this batik quilt for a customer's friend battling cancer. I'm sure it will cheer him up!


Panto: Yodel

He also quilted this lovely winter panel quilt. What a great gift this will make!



In case you couldn't make them out, it has snowflakes on it.
Panto: Flurry

When I finished the custom job, I quilted this oriental project, made by a man! See! Men can quilt and make beautiful heirlooms, too. All this, and it was perfectly square and flat. Engineering at its finest.





 Everything finished and trimmed...time for a bit of Christmas fun. I cut out the pieces and fused this snowman to make a pillow for my daughter. Hopefully, I'll get it buttonhole stitched and quilted tomorrow after work.
Isn't he cute?!





Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Rainy days make for productive days!

Sometimes a big project just falls together and comes out wonderfully. Other times, it is a struggle to get the bits to go together and make the quilt the customer was expecting. Like this one...Customer brought me a comforter her daughter made and wanted it taken apart, made bigger, re-quilted and bound. Okay, I'll bite. I removed all the machine stippling from the quilt, removed the binding and added two complimentary borders. Then, I used new, more wonderfully puffy batting from Quilter's Dream and a new backing for the quilt. Everything was going swimmingly until, Oh No!! the quilt is two inches bigger than the backing!! How did this happen? I am sure I measured before I put it on the frame! An hour later, I had an extension piece of backing attached, re-pinned the quilt on the frame and finished the last row of the quilting. 103 x 108 finished. The binding took two nights, but the result is just what the customer ordered. Things worked out fine, but not without some weeping and gnashing of teeth!Oh yeah, I still love my job!

EEK!!! See how the quilt(blue part) is longer than the backing (white fabric pinned to the tan canvas leader)? This kind of thing makes a quilter pull her (or his) hair out.

Two days later, the quilt is finished and looks beautiful.

Lots of definition in the quilting with the puff batting.

The back and binding.
The rest of the time, we hummed along like a well oiled machine with the Christmas music playing in the background.
I went on to quilt this pretty log cabin.

Digital panto: Purple Meadow


Then, I custom quilted this  quilt with what looks like blue plates
in the blocks. The horse block is paper pieced.

I used two wreath patterns. This one with leaves, and another with flowers.

The backing is an ultra-suede fabric. I've never quilted with this before, and now, I have had two quilts in a week with it on the back.

Mr Wazoo quilted this lovely floral quilt today. Another short backing gave us a challenge, but I added 22 inches of a coordinating fabric, and everything came out fine.

There was a dazzling array of these bright florals.
Around 5pm, I sewed this charity quilt for the nursing home. I just wanted to make something, and this is my go to pattern.


I got this bird house fabric at the guild yard sale!

A peek at the back.
After supper, I sewed the label onto the raffle quilt, and hand sewed the binding to the charity quilt I made earlier in the day. Now, it's time to go to bed. The wind is howling and it is spitting rain. Perfect sleeping weather!! Good night!