Saturday, October 7, 2017

A lot to be done...a lot done!!

We have been very busy here at Wazoo, and it has paid off in finished quilts! Mr Wazoo has sacrificed a couple of lovely days in the yard for time in the garage studio. He made good use of the time.

Pretty Autumn table runner

The batiks are saturated and beautiful

Panto: Forest Floor

This quilt is the customer's first! She went to our quilt show and was inspired to start. Our repeat customer (her sister) was the teacher. Good job!

Panto: Daisy Swirl

My friend,MaryAnn made this space ship quilt

The rocket fabric is called 'Blast Off', and so is the panto!!

There are some people actually on the ball enough to be getting their Christmas projects finished! Like this festive quilt.

It has a jolly assortment of holiday fabrics
Panto: Snazzy Snowflakes

While he worked on pantographs, I was in the studio doing some custom
 on the big dresden plate quilt. It may have taken three days, but I think it was worth the effort! The customer was so pleased. She said she couldn't believe it was the same quilt. High praise indeed!

All done!



Nice backing, too!
Once the big Dresden was off the table, I set to work finishing the tablecloth to wall hanging project. I have to admit, it turned out to be an eye catching piece!

Ta da! Here it is



A peek at the back.
I am already working on the table runner I made out of the leftover pieces of the tablecloth. It will be a bonus freebie for the customer!


There were some other quilts in the works, as well. The machines were humming, and we were in the groove! Enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Roman stripes with a modern twist!

The complimentary colors make the blocks vibrate.

The backing is this wonderful cobalt color.

Another modern looking quilt. So pretty in batiks.

Here's the back. 

Panto: African Samba

This doesn't look like much, but it is part of a set for a customer. This will be a pad on top of a cedar chest in the room where the whole cloth quilt I did a couple of weeks ago is already on the bed.

It has the same panto: Swan Song
Tomorrow, I plan to take a day for some 'Me' sewing. If I don't let some of the ideas out, my head will explode!







Thursday, October 5, 2017

Quilty fun

Yesterday, I worked on three projects and only finished one. The one I did get done is a pretty memory quilt by a customer who specializes in making these for her customers. This one is made from silk Tommy Bahama shirts and is soooo soft!! It will go back into the post today.

All silk except for the sashing and backing

Panto: African Samba

Hard to see here, but in the pieced square is the actual chest pocket from one of the shirts. How cool is that?
I finally got a start on the tablecloth wall hanging, too. The computerized motifs are stitched, and I will re-load it onto the Gammill for the hand guided background quilting. I am not confident enough on the APQS to do it there yet.

I combined three central motifs down the center, swags with birds and flowers in the corners, roses in the narrow side areas and more roses to fill the empty areas.

Two motifs with ribbons and roses

The center has this scrolled frame with a rose in it

A rose swag along the edge

In the corners, a feathered swag with roses and a bird.
I'll do the background areas after I finish the big quilt on the frame already.
On the Gammill, I have this behemoth Dresden plate quilt. It is 103 x 103. I have to admire the fact that the quilter did the plates by hand. That had to be difficult to keep flat while stitching, but she did very well with her work. After the Stitch in the ditch, I worked a  large swirl motif in each blade. I'm still doing the plates, and hope to get to the background and sashing tomorrow.

As I do the stitch in the ditch sewing, I am working on the plate blades. You can see how big they are, since only one half of the plate fits between my rollers! There is 18 inches of quilting space there! It will certainly make a statement on her king sized bed!
Today, My quilt show co-chair and I are off to Murphy, NC to meet and photograph the Best of Show winner from our quilt show last week. She was on a cruise when she won, and we were unable to get a picture or comment at the show. After that, we will be touring a house my friend is interested in and then having a nice lunch out. My kind of day!! I'll be home this afternoon and back in the studio, working  and singing along to John Denver while I quilt. Love my job!!




Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Finally Autumn

We have been enjoying the crisp Autumn weather for a few days, and the trees are starting to change colors on the mountainside. I wish we could be outside more, but there are many quilts waiting to be finished for our patient customers.
I finished the skyscraper modern quilt yesterday, and the customer loved it.

Quilting in progress. Unfortunately, the back isn't as pretty. Light fabric with dark thread is icky. Starts and stops all show. Sigh...

The front is wonderful! I love this modern take on a skyline at night.

I kept the quilting simple, but it took two days due to the numerous color changes.

I did the sky with a variegated King Tut, adding just a bit of sparkle to the
swirly quilting.
Mr Wazoo has been busy in his space, quilting one beautiful quilt after another. This is my favorite of the latest batch. Simple pattern, but wonderful fabric colors and placement. Between us, the quilts are flying off the rack and into the 'going-home' bags.

My favorite this week!

Panto: Forest Floor


I did this patriotic quilt the customer is donating to a raffle.

The pattern is like card trick with a pinwheel in the center

Panto: Simply Stars

Mr W liked this Buzz saw patterned quilt.

He used a buzz saw type panto for the quilting. Brilliant!

Autumn colors in this one

Panto: Retro Leaves
Today, I start on a project I have been avoiding for months. It isn't fair to the customer that I have balked on doing this project; making a tablecloth into a quilted wall hanging. I have had it out many times, only to re-hang it in the queue because I didn't have a coherent thought of what to do. Yesterday, I bit the bullet and cut the oval into a rectangle and loaded it on the machine. I then spent two hours looking at patterns and trying to decide where to begin. 6 pm and a headache later, I quilt for the day without sewing a stitch! We'll see what today brings...

Something WILL happen today!!

Meanwhile, early this morning the deer family came for breakfast. There were seven family members all enjoying the back garden and beyond. Its hard to capture them through the door and porch screening, but you get the idea. 

Mama and twins came the closest. The babies have lost their spots and are growing like weeds. I hate the thought of someone shooting them, but the circle of life goes on here in the mountains, and it is an inevitable end to some of the deer here. I haven't seen any of the pie-bald white deer this year. Probably shot for their novelty, not for the use of the hunter's family. So sad.