Wednesday, January 29, 2020

A good day in the studio

Yesterday was quilt guild, and I had arranged a program of members who do other things besides quilting with their spare time. Wow! These are some talented ladies. There were basketmakers, a master knitter, crocheters, a ceramics painter, a rug hooker, a master seamstress, one who made hardanger embroidery, chair caners and a rush weaver, one who made beautiful gourd vessels, cross stitch wizards, a scrapbooker, and two enchanting pianists. The whole program was a bit longer than I expected, but it was worth it to see the lovely things they made. I am so humbled!

Today, I had to go back to work and get things done! Mr Wazoo also returned to his man cave and quilted a nice lilac quilt for one of our favorite customers. I'll get the pictures tomorrow. He forgot...

Hey! I didn't forget! In the morning, I quilted a really pretty scrap pinwheel quilt for a customer's granddaughter. It was a breath of fresh air to quilt a perfectly square and flat, well pressed and securely sewn quilt! The back was plenty big enough, too.

This is a sweet quilt for a little girl.

Panto: Popcorn. I love this pattern on kid's quilts.

It looks nice on backings, too.
After the girly quilt, I loaded a customer tee shirt quilt she made for her daughter. It was a twin sized quilt, so while Millie worked her magic, I quilted on the custom project. I think I will transfer it to the Millie tomorrow to do some fancier quilting than I can do freehand. We'll see.
I sewed the other teddy bear together and got him stuffed and sewn up. It was a productive day all around!

Here are both bears together. The first one has cloth eyes and embroidered nose and mouth. I found some kid-proof eyes and nose in my storage cabinet and used those on the second bear.

Here he is with his turquoise bow.

The tee shirt quilt had loads of cool shirts in it and I loved looking at them while quilting. In the bottom right corner are two from The Dragon, a hair raising road in Tennessee. I have been on it twice, once while I was driving. It was a wrong turn that took us there on the way home from a Pigeon Forge quilt show. My two friends and I drove it with our hearts in our throats, believe me! 318 hairpin curves in 11 miles. Motorcyclists come from all over to ride it. Egads! Never again for me.

My go to panto is rounded diamond for these.

The customer sent a soft flannel sheet for the backing. I have the red binding made and will get that on tomorrow.


Monday, January 27, 2020

What is it with the gargantuan quilts!!?

Just a short post today, as I need to get Mr Wazoo to his PT/OT appointment for some  fine tuning of his recovery. I did another giant quilt yesterday that had some wobbly bits on one side. The maker had some problem getting her flying geese to fit, and the blocks were a little puffy where she stretched them to fit. This led to minor ripples in the quilting, but I was able to avoid tucks by manipulating the quilt as it was being quilted. Standing in front and pressing down with my hands around the puffy areas kept tucks away, but there are some noticeable wrinkly areas, for sure.

Here is the quilt, fashioned around a panel of horses.

The panto is Rounded Diamonds

Here is the back.

The stitch in the ditch is finished on this beautiful (and perfectly sewn!) feathered star. After we get back from the PT, and a trip to the movies to see Little Women, I will be starting the quilting. Tomorrow is guild, so there won't be much quilting going on. I hope to finish it by the end of the week!