Sprint to the finish

Yesterday, I finished the customer quilt top and made the backing. It will have to wait to be quilted while I work on this behemoth! Pretty and very large.

Once the SID was done, I was happy to start quilting the backgrounds of the blocks.

Mr Wazoo worked this baby quilt. Sweet!

Panto: Alfresco

I lost a chunk of quilting time doing grocery shopping, visiting the quilt shop for the backing and breezing through the drive up at the bank. Today, I have to drop off quilts and have blood drawn at the doctor's office. Too bad these things aren't aren't able to be delegated to my employee...

As I run out the door, I will leave you with your smile for the day, my grandson looking happy!

Nearing the finish line...and a birthday!

It has been an intense couple of days here at Wazoo, trying to get the customer quilt top with all the handprints and words done. Of course they want it king sized, so the blocks are huge, and maneuvering them for sewing is tricky.
Worse that this, I went through three sewing machines before I got one that didn't have a problem! I started with my newest Pfaff 2056. The thread won't stay in the tension disk causing nests on the back. I have had this looked at before, but it never does it for the technician...I put it away and got out the Pfaff 7570, my workhorse of a machine. It started acting up almost immediately, skipping stitches and getting needle jams in the bobbin area. Trust me, I tried everything  to get them going, wasting time in the process. Oh well, I thought, I'll get out the Janome 6500. Guess what? One seam fine, the next had no bobbin tension. There is no bobbin case, per se, on the Janome, so I just gave up. Going on down the line and further into the past, I pulled out the Bernina 1260. Good old girl, ran like a top. I had to get out the book to refresh myself on setting up for buttonhole stitch, but it went smooth as silk after that. Thank goodness! I only had one machine left...the Singer 301. People kid me about having so many machines, but this proves it is absolutely necessary!
Back to the quilt story. I used EQ to come up with a plan for the blocks and fabric the customer gave me for the quilt. Giant 30 inch blocks on point! Works for me.

Day one's work on the design wall

Day two, sew down the hands

I had added the names before starting to stitch them down

Today started early making the sashings, cornerstones and setting triangles. I had to sew all the embroidered words the customer gave me (she did them on her machine) onto the sashings before I could start sewing the whole shebang together.

Here it is...just lacking the outer borders.
I had to go make supper, so those go on tomorrow.

Words sewn to the sashing.

Mr Wazoo was working, too. He did this cool sewing machine quilt, as well as the cute kite quilt.

Panto: Bayside

I had to make binding and apply it to the kite quilt, so I did that before shutting off the studio lights and calling it a day.

On the way back up to the house I saw something moving around up on the ridge. It was Tim, surveying the land and having a beer. He got us a new screen door, too, and painted and installed it. What a guy!

Thanks to the kid's Christmas gift card, we have a door that works!

After supper, I sewed down the binding on the kite quilt. Today I worked from 9AM until 10PM. I'm ready to call it quits for today and go to bed. 

Done!

When I wake up tomorrow, it will be my birthday! (oh yeah, I have PT at 8:30 AM, too...yuk) I still have to work, but there will be phone calls from the kids and maybe a cake...

Beautiful day outside...work keeps me in

Yesterday and today are supposed to be the nicest days so far this year. Tim spent most of the day yesterday cleaning up the gardens and the yard, and just puttering around in the sunshine. I spent the day in the studio, quilting and sewing. I did get to go out to walk up to eat lunch. There are two ways to get to the house proper from the studio...stairs inside, or driveway outside. I took the driveway route.
As for the quilting, I have loaded a big sampler quilt with a block for each month of the year. I am almost finished with the stitch in the ditch, and should be doing some of the quilting later today. I didn't think to snap a picture with it in progress, so you will have to wait to see it.
Later in the day, I started the next repair project; a quilt chewed by the dog of the customer. There are only a few places to work on, but they are two sided and will take a while to do.

The work went along smoothly through Father Brown, Keeping UpAppearances, As Time Goes By and two episodes of Homicide Hunter. By the time Saturday Night Live came on, I was on the last rip in the edge of the quilt. Not bad for an evening's entertainment! I finished the project just as they were ending the show, congratulating each other and hugging up a storm. Off to bed!

On Friday, I really wanted to try out a block my friend, Stephanie, saw online and made to show to me at guild. I was hooked! It is a variation of the split four patch that starts with a wonky looking four patch and ends up having a few more seams to sew for the final block. I like it so much, I plan to make a couple of them every time I have a few minutes free. It will take a while to get enough for a quilt, but it will be fun!