Big adventure and anticipation!

Yesterday, I did some quick sewing and binding for an up-coming tutorial I'm doing, and then spent some quality time looking through quilt books and trying to decide what quilt to make for our bed. It will have to be uncomplicated because I don't have time to make something with ten thousand pieces!
I'm thinking something like a triple Irish chain... Until then, I'll keep on working on charity stuff and little UFOs.

Little charity quilt. I have it quilted, bound and ready to hand sew.

The big adventure came this morning veeeery early. 6:30 early! We got up and mustered out to town for the Blairsville Garden Club annual plant sale. Boy, I'm glad we got there early! We scored a truckload of nice perennials for the new flower beds at half the cost of nursery plants. It was raining right along, which seemed to slow down the crowd we expected to see there, but that was short lived. By the time we left, the place was buzzing, but with slim pickings as far as the plants left. I hope it will be sunny tomorrow so Mr Wazoo can have a happy day with his dirt and plants.

Rainy morning at the plant sale

Truckload of wonderful

Then there is the anticipation. Two of my friends from Punta Gorda will be here this afternoon for a visit! They had the good fortune to go to Paducah for the big quilt show, and are taking a detour to come to the Georgia mountains to have dinner and some fun. Our first guests! Everything is ready, and I am doing hand sewing until they come. I'm like a kid on Christmas eve.
Tomorrow, I will be cutting the setting pieces for the second lone star customer commission quilt. The first one was a big hit, so I hope the second one will be, too. I'm always happy to be in the studio and play with fabric! It's a good life.

A Really Quilty Day

Yesterday, I stayed in the studio most of the day, working on two customer quilts. The first was a raw edged flowers quilt done in shabby chic colors. I had never done a quilt with so many un-sewn parts! Finally, I decided to go around the centers and echo the flowers with leaves in the corners. It turned out very soft and pretty.

The next project was a tee shirt quilt made by a young woman for her evening TV watching on the sofa at home. She went to North Georgia University, and belongs to Phi Mu sorority. I love the quilt she made with her college tees! The backing is a snuggly flannel, perfect for the sofa.

Phi Mu tee shirt quilt

Soft flannel backing

Mr Wazoo spent the day outside, planting the rest of the specimens we bought the day before, and preparing the bed for whatever plants we find at the Garden Club sale on Saturday. The dogwood is nearly past peak, so I took some pictures of the flowers to show you.

I think dogwoods are one of the prettiest of the flowering trees!

Beautiful day and trees finally getting their leaves!

A trip to the dump rounded off the otherwise perfect day. I guess I'm a bubble off plumb, but I like going to the dump. My Dad used to take us to the dump when we were kids, and it was a fascinating place. The dump in Blairsville is so tidy, you wouldn't know it was a dump! There weren't many people there, so the trash building was nearly empty and the guy was all the way in it on his bulldozer. We dumped our bags and made our way home on the picturesque road that takes you there.

Slow day at the city dump

Mr Wazoo doing his manly duty

                                       

Even the road to and from the dump is nice!

                                     
Later in the evening was the Pieceful Mountain Quilt Guild, so I think it had to be an almost perfect day, in retrospect! Now, it's time to go to the studio and see what magic unfolds today.

Hello Sunshine!

What a glorious day it is! The sun is out and it is cool and breezy. Just perfect. I was up early for my mammogram and then some grocery shopping. There aren't too many shoppers out at 9 AM, so I may change my habit of going in the afternoon. Who knew?
Yesterday, we had a mix of heavy rain and wind and some sun. In the morning, Molly went for her fluff and buff, so as a reward for being confined in a crate for hours, we took the mountain top walk along our road. The air smelled so clean and fresh, with hints of the blooming flowers along the way. Everything is getting greener and the trees are leafing out so much that we can't see the bend in the road form the porch anymore. I would say Spring has sprung!

Molly needed a nap before going up the mountain

First, we had a game of fetch the skunk in the clean studio

Mr Wazoo was working outside in the back and heard a loud WHUMP! in the woods. He came to the studio and   we both went up to the top of the ridge behind the house to investigate. A huge branch broke off a tree and came crashing down and breaking into chunks. I'm glad it wasn't close to the house. We had a tree fall onto our porch in Wisconsin, and I don't want to repeat that experience here.
The view over the top of the mountain is just forest on the steep slope. We back up to the Chattahoochie National Forest, just  beyond a small strip that is privately owned. I have never ventured up there because the land owner has No Trespassing signs facing our property all along our lot line. They even have one that says they monitor their property with cameras! I hope they aren't watching us too closely...

I guess I expected something different, but this is what the top of the ridge looks like. It drops off at the line about mid-photo, and we can see mountains in the distance.

The tree that lost a limb is just behind the big tree. You can see the scar on the tree and the broken branch on the ground.

Here's what our house looks like from the back.

Molly wondered why we left her in the porch.

I have been working on a big customer quilt, and need to finish the two rows I didn't get done yesterday. Normally, I would have the quilting done, but I spent the morning cleaning the studio which had become a dust bunny haven! I'm going there now, so Molly and I can repeat the walk we enjoyed so much yesterday.
Happy quilting!

Three rows to go on this 106x106 beauty!

Mr Wazoo finished his work and was outside in a flash!

Tim put in the lilac bush. It smells divine!

He also planted several clumps of phlox around the yard, too.

Rain, rain, go away!

After a full week of gray skies and nothing but rain, the sun peeped out for a moment this morning. There is hope of some drying out today. Mr Wazoo will be thrilled!
                                     

Even Mr Penguin is enjoying catching some rays!

                               

Yesterday, we both spent some quality time in the studio finishing quilts and just having fun. The man got these two quilts finished and ready to go to their maker.

Customer split 4 patch.

                           

Forest Floor pantograph

                                     

Colorful customer quilt

                             

Daisy Swirl pntograph

        I quilted the coffee quilt with a freehand feather flower pattern and got the binding attached.

                                      

                                      

                                       


Then I spent several hours playing with bits and strips of an orphan quilt I bought at the guild yard sale last year. Someone had started the Perkiomen 9 patch project from a class years ago and just gave up after making a few blocks. Some of the block components were stitched, and some were cut out and not sewn, so I sorted them and fooled around with them on the design wall, adding new blocks as I went along. I came up with this little wall hanging. The blue rick rack will be the stems for appliqued flowers and leaves. There will be applique in all the pink borders, but it was time to quit for the day so I left them for another session. For the $2 I spent on the bag of misfit bits, I think it will be kind of cute!
                                      

Before quitting for the day, I put together this manly 2-3-2-6 quilt top

                                   
For now, it is off to the studio for another day of sewing and quilting! I can't wait to begin another enchanted day of quilting!