Saturday, January 20, 2018

More sewing

I finished the pastel quilt, and just need to apply the binding.

Not my cup of tea in the end, but still very pretty. Made primarily with the collection, Laundry Day.

Digital panto: Twinkling swirl

Cute little birds on the back.
After finishing the pastel quilt, I set out to get the 9 small quilts started for Dechen's day care . There are more boys than girls, so I started with dinosaurs. One Moda layer cake will make four of these half- square- triangle quilts. I had some fun rearranging the blocks to make them different. Number one is ready to quilt, and number 2 needs to be sewn together.

All ready for quilting

Blocks done, I'll sew this together later today
Today, I am off to Dahlonega on a planned trip with a friend to go to a big fabric sale at The Common Thread shop. I did buy a good portion of backing for the 9 quilts at the local fabric shop, Quilts Galore, from their sale room, but need some tone on tone, border and girly fabric for some of the quilts. I have a giant stash, but it seems I have used much of my "kid" fabrics making charity quilts in 2017. Time to replenish!
On the repair front, I finally made it all the way around the biggest row of the polyester quilt. 46 more squares, and it will be ready for the wash!! Yippee!! More on this later.


Thursday, January 18, 2018

Snow days are sewing days


I finished the big Hawaiian quilt and sent it off to Florida today.

It is a lovely quilt, but any quilting on black is a challenge.

Hard to see the quilting

Each motif is quilted, and the background echoed



Nice batik on back
Mr Wazoo braved the icy roads to get the quilt to the post office, and also get a well needed haircut! I stayed snug and warm, taking a couple of days to sew for myself. Actually, for a young friend who is expecting twins! She is like family to us, having grown up with my kids. I sent a quilt for her first child, and now, there will be two more added, a boy and a girl. I'm making the girl quilt first. I bought the pattern and fabrics at a shop in Tennessee when I went to pick up my new Bernina last June.

I assembled the fabrics I wanted to use and commenced cutting...

I took a picture of the quilt in the shop as inspiration

I finished one block before quitting for the day, yesterday.

The directions at hand, and the pile of block bits at the ready. 

The quilt top is almost done. I just need the final border. Something to do tomorrow.
Icicles on the car


Long, late afternoon shadows in on the snow.
We're hoping for a warm up in the next couple of days. Until then, the fireplace will be burning and we'll be enjoying some down time.


Monday, January 15, 2018

Sewing, quilting and blowing my nose

I'm finally feeling a bit better with this flu thing. Still keeping the Puffs tissue company in business and still coughing, but I am so much better, I am able to work almost a full day!
Yesterday, I made a small nursing home lap quilt for a demo I'll be doing at my evening guild next week. I'm going to show the invisible binding technique I learned at the Bernina booth during our show. I have used this method for charity and utility quilts, and love it. I can get the binding on and sewn down on a twin sized quilt in about 25 minutes. Yup...25 minutes. I timed it on the last one I finished.  Maybe I'll make a little tutorial here. Stay tuned!

My go to pattern, Warm wishes. It is a free download from Quiltmaker magazine's website. It goes together in an hour or so start to finish!

Panto: Flower Power, another favorite.

I had this feather fabric for the back. Sideways, but nice.

Mr Wazoo quilted this little table runner for a customer before doing a bit of yard duty. He does love to go outside to play. Too cold for Molly and me!

A pretty runner ready for next Christmas!!

Panto: Poinsettia
These are pictures from yesterday, working on the Hawaiian quilt and finishing all the borders. Today, I did the quilting in the block motifs and tomorrow, it will be taken off the machine, trimmed and sent back to Florida! I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

The motifs in the borders are this beautiful batik. 

I changed up the background fill only slightly, adding hook-swirls I picked up watching Jamie Wallen on Youtube. If you're ever too sick to quilt, go to Youtube and watch other people quilt!
Tomorrow is the guild board meeting, and then I'm off to see my friend's new house! I'm so happy she will be a bit closer to town, and that she and her husband will have a huge new studio to work in. 
Home made chicken soup for supper, some TV and early bed. Getting over the flu one day at a time.