Friday, May 31, 2019

Busy day in the studio

All three machines were humming today, as well as my Bernina. I finished the vintage quilt top and loaded it at the end of the day's work. I will quilt it tomorrow.
I quilted a charity quilt while starting the stitch in the ditch on the custom job. Mr Wazoo finished quilting the tee shirt quilt I made for my customer, and I answered the telephone a hundred times!! I am sure sick of the robot sales calls... Having a business, I can't ignore calls. It may be a customer. Now, the robot calls even have people's names on the caller ID. So frustrating.
Oh well, here's what we accomplished between calls.

This one patch scrap quilt is a charity quilt given to me by a customer and friend.

Lots of fun prints

Johnny Appleseed under the panto Funky Fans.

Jinny Byer backing from the 80s.

SID started. Boring, but necessary for a good result.

The vintage top turned out nice. I'm using the same panto (funky fans) for this one, too.

I need to add the binding so the tee shirt quilt will be ready to go home.

Panto: Square Spiral

Multi colored back

A better view of the shadow effect.
Outside, the foliage is sure lush and green! Unfortunately, we need rain. The hot, windy weather is really tough on the garden plants. Just look at all the shades of green in these pictures!

Yup, we live in the woods!!

More woods
There is a happy ending to the turkey bomb story from yesterday! Mr W took the truck into the Chevy dealer today, and they were able to fix the damage by pushing the front back into the truck. Seems there are 9 clips that hold the whole thing in, and the turkey knocked the entire unit off its clips!! The lights all work and everything is secure. No charge. Yippee! We'll have to see what he gets up to next!

Quilts, mice and a turkey

We have been quilting and getting things done here at Wazoo, but I am still running against the wind with the back log of quilts and commissions. Mr Wazoo has spent quite a bit of time out in the yard and gardens, putting in some needed drainage for the front of the house while the weather cooperates. He did finish one quilt before abandoning his post in the man cave for sun and a shovel. It is still on his machine, waiting for me to unpin it and take the pictures...

This pretty Spring like quilt was a project he did yesterday
Panto: Featherize
The back is this coordinating floral.
On the other hand, I have been working my fingers off quilting the projects Mr W can't do.


Wow! I l-o-v-e this Tula Pink zig zag quilt! The customer made it for her granddaughter's bed, but liked it so much, she also made one for herself! You'll see the second one soon.

Panto: Chevron

Underwater backing, too!

This cute truck quilt is for a new grand baby.

The fabrics are soft flannels. The panto is Stacked Snailz

Cute tire tread backing
I also finished the signature comfort quilt for the evening guild. My friend Pam and I are the co chairs of the comfort quilt committee (yup...its just us). We will have the members sign it at the June meeting and then deliver it to a member who recently lost her husband.

30s reproduction fabrics and crisp white for the signature strips.

Panto: Flower power

I hope it gives her comfort. 
I also goofed around with some vintage blocks (all hand pieced and wonky), and decided to make a small quilt from them. There are nine of these Half square triangle 16 patch blocks, ranging in size from 9 1/2 to 10 1/4 inches square. I added a 3 inch frame to all the trimmed blocks and then cut them all to a uniform 12 1/2 inches. I don't think anyone will notice the block centers aren't the same. Later, I'll add sashing and a border. Nothing fancy, I just want it to be a finished and useful item.

All the blocks started like this. A good spray of starch and a press, and I could trim them into squares.

Like this! Some points were sacrificed, and some weren't there to start with.

Here are the blocks with the frames, all trimmed to a uniform 12 1/2 inch square. More fun tomorrow...
Mr Wazoo and I had to take his truck to the Chevy dealer because some pesky field mice made lunch out of the wiring!! On the way to town, there was roadwork going on, resulting in a 10 minute wait for the sign guy to turn from stop to slow. Mr W hates to sit, and I could see him in the rear view mirror getting more frustrated by the minute. We finally got to the shop and dropped off the truck. He said we had two hours to kill, so we took the car (I followed him there) and made the trip to the store. I wanted to call to see how the truck was coming along, but he told me they had said it wouldn't be ready until after 4:00. It was 3:15, so we went along home to drop off the groceries. Oh dear...we forgot about the roadwork, and sat another ten minutes at the other end of the road before being let through. 
At home, we unloaded everything and as I was putting the frozen and cold foods away, I noticed the blinking light on the phone. Oh sure, the truck is ready. I wanted to take the long way around and avoid the traffic jam, but he wouldn't hear it and we sat the ten minutes again before I dropped him at the service department.
I took the scenic long way home through the countryside and up and down hills. It was a beautiful day, so I took my time. Molly went with me, so we had the windows down and the hot breeze flowed through the car. Once I got home, I went to the studio to trim a quilt and load the one for tomorrow. Mr W didn't show up for almost an hour. "You'll never guess what happened to me!!" he declared when he burst in the studio. "I hit a turkey!!" 
I never figured a turkey was capable of the damage it did to the truck. Tomorrow, when he drops off the paperwork for the mouse damage, he will file a report for the turkey wreck. Aaah...another day in the Georgia mountains.

The whole lights and grill portion is cattywampus!!

Turkey feathers, blood and poop stuck to the truck.

Molly found the smell to be wonderful. Yuk.

The next quilt is almost loaded. Needs batting.
I'll tackle this tomorrow.






Sunday, May 26, 2019

Big ass quilt!

Excuse me, but that is what it is. The quilt I quilted yesterday was huge. 120x132. I will not do another! The handles on the back of the machine kept hitting the sides of the table frame, and I had to inch the quilt to the left with every roll to account for the wonk in its squareness. The backing went from one end of the leader to the other, making changing the bobbin (and there were loads of bobbins!) very hard. The back is pieced, too, making the right side droop when the rest of the back was flat between the rollers. Yikes! I got a tuck in the back at one point and had to do a bunch of picking and re-quilting to fix that. In the end, the quilt turned out well and I am glad applying the binding falls to the customer!

I admire anyone who takes on a project like this one. It is a lovely quilt, but must have been a bet to shove under the sewing machine while joining the rows!

I had to puddle it on the floor to get the pattern in the picture...

This is the rest of the quilt on the back side of the table!

Panto: African Samba

Most of the back is this lavender fabric.
Mr Wazoo took a couple of hours to quilt this happy carrot quilt.

Aren't they cute?!!

Panto: Yodel

The dreaded all white backing.
It was a long day, and when I finished, I spent some time enjoying MrW's passion for flowers and gardening. He is out there right now, doing what he loves and making our home beautiful.

The front yard id beautiful even though some of the blooms are past their prime.

The primrose are fading, but I still love their delicate beauty.

The clematis is full-on gorgeous. It has started dropping petals, so we'll enjoy it while it lasts. Too bad these things are so fleeting.


A patch of color amid the later blooming plants.


The roses need a dead-heading, but their fragrance is  wonderful.

Another clematis and rose bush hiding the propane tank.

Stella d'oro lilies

The first bloom on the St. John's Wort.

The plant is loaded with buds, so it should be a good show a few days from now.


The garden fairies, having a conversation.
Off to the studio for me! I have to get my stuff around for the guild trash to treasure sale on Tuesday, and finish the comfort quilt I'm making for a member of the evening guild. Busy day ahead.