Off to a slow start

This week we regroup and make our plan for 2020 stroke recovery. It started with a trip back to Marietta for the sign off of the cardiologist. One more trip in February and we should be done with the long rides, putting the event in the rear view. Mr Wazoo is doing very well. His most frustrating task is fastening his seat belt in the car. He has given up wearing jeans for now because of the near impossible task of buttoning the top of the fly. I got him a tool for buttoning shirts and zipping zippers but it doesn't work on jeans buttons. They are too big and tough. Sweat pants for now!
I finally worked up the ambition to get back in the studio. Mr W sat and read his discharge instructions and exercise regimen, snoozing on and off. The quilt was a big one, taking three days to complete. The wide borders are a panto and the embroidered blocks are custom quilted. As a first project, it was a challenge. Here it is, all done!

The customer did all the embroidery, and found there perfect border fabric for her mountain home.

The Panto on the borders is Modern Leaves

I stitched all the ditches and then stitched around all the appliquéd and embroidered elements. Then, I echoed each one once. I did the same in the bear paw blocks in every other row. She wanted the quilting kept looser and soft, as the quilt will be used on her bed.

I love this backing fabric! Look closely and you cans see some  of the quilting.

To finish up the year 2019, I reviewed my photo log and came up with these statistics.

Number of customer quilts done with pantos and custom: 259

Number of commissioned and repaired quilts: 25

Quilts I made (both for customers ands for show, for my stash and charity donation): 43

Quilts of Valor: Quilted- 32, Made by me: 2

I hope to do more sewing for myself and my friends and family and do less customer work in 2020. I will start by not taking custom quilting for a while so I can devote more time to Mr Wazoo and his recovery. Time is precious, and I need to adjust my priorities and live every day conscious of how fleeting the time is.

Stay tuned for the 2020 adventures of the Wazoo quilters!