Whistle while you work! Lots of finishes.

Mr Wazoo and I went straight to work today and quilted like Speedy Gonzales. (you can guess my age by my cartoon knowledge...) I finished the Farmer's Wife quilt sashings and borders, and am very pleased with how it looks.

I wish I had the patience to make so many different blocks with so many little pieces!!

View from the back of the machine.
This is a big quilt.

Block and sashing quilting

Border quilting

And that gorgeous backing!...

Next up, I quilted the memory quilt and put on the lace trim the customer requested, as well as the binding. Handwork tonight.

Panto: Big Splat

The comforter fabric on the back is really soft from years of use.

Mr Wazoo finished a double wedding ring quilt he put on yesterday afternoon. I am so proud of his progress! A couple of years ago he would have been frustrated and whiny about doing this quilt. This time, he quilted right along and finished without complaining once! I think he may get Employee of the Month for September!!

The man hard at work

The lovely double wedding ring quilt

Panto: Come Dance With Me

In the afternoon, I managed to put together, quilt and bind two more of the dragonfly charity quilts for the Blue Ridge guild. Several members made the blocks, and I am making them into quilts. I have enough blocks for three more of these quilts! Some children will be very pleased to get them!

The two quilts I finished today.
I don't usually machine sew the binding, but lately I'm pressed for time.

I chose these blocks for the next quilt. Tomorrow, I'll pick sashing and borders and get it together.

Two more sets of blocks waiting to be transformed into quilts.

 Mr Wazoo used the afternoon to quilt another project made by the customer who made the Farmer's Wife quilt. She has great color sense, and I love her stuff. This is so different from the other more traditional quilt, yet still very pretty.

I really like this simple, yet complex looking quilt. It sure has happy fabric selections!

Panto: Small Splat

The backing is this soft, pretty floral

All in all, we had a productive day here at Wazoo! I look forward to doing it again tomorrow.

The long, long slog

Yesterday, both Mr Wazoo and I spent the day each quilting just one quilt. He had a beautiful batik log cabin, and I had the Farmer's Wife quilt from the day before. The workshop hummed all day with no conversation, and we both finished our task by 5:30. He went outside to commune with his gardens, and I perused the new Connecting Threads catalog. It was a long, arduous day all around, but it feels so good to be this far along in a custom project. Today, I'll quilt the borders and finish it up!

All the blocks are finished, and now, I need to do the borders.
Even the backing on this quilt is wonderful! See it there, around to take-up roller?

This is a lovely quilt!

Panto: Featherize

A peek at the back

Catching up

I found the pictures of the customer commission made from clothes, pillowcases, a table cloth, dresser scarf and length of fabric from Lithuania. I hope you can see the blocks in this picture. I really liked the design, even though the fabrics were a bit iffy for me. The backing is made from the front and back of a family comforter that I dismantled and cut into squares. Once the puff batting comes, and the quilting is done, it should look okay.

These are the light custom table runners.

Mr Wazoo quilted this big quilt to the last border, where it had (I'm not kidding here) nine inches of excess fabric in the corner miters!!! I wish I had thought to take a picture before I fixed them...oh well, I did a happy dance after I folded and invisibly stitched them into submission. Square corners, and the pattern even matched! All without taking the quilt off the machine, too.

I am so pleased with myself with this job...and Mr W did a fine job, too!

We had a frantic call from a customer who pleaded with me to quilt her baby quilt for her churches bazaar on Saturday. She brought it right over and I had it quilted in an hour. Because she wasn't coming for it until today, I also made, attached and hand sewed the binding just to help her out. I happened to have one of the fabrics from the quilt in my stash. Her husband came and picked up the quilt today, so I don't know what she thought when she saw the totally finished quilt.

Panto: Flower Festival

Today, I worked on a beauty of a quilt. I think it is the farmer's wife quilt, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the quilt maker used the most pleasing variety of reproduction fabrics to make all the 6 inch blocks. I love it. The stitch in the ditch took most of the day, but I did get the first row of quilting done before it was time to quit. I chose a stencil that is appropriate to the quilt, and it will take a while to do all the blocks in this generous queen sized quilt. So far, so good. Tomorrow will be a long day, quilting the same motif over and over, but the result should be the reward for the work!

Yippee!!

Grab a drink and a snack...this is a long post!
We got the wayward suitcase on Thursday evening and I immediately plugged in the laptop to charge. I had never realized how much I rely on it being up and ready when I want it. Do you ever think about your electronic footprint and how much you use these devices every day? I never thought I would be one of the hoards of folk who need the computer for many of our life tasks! I got the banking done and the bills paid, as well as answering loads of email. Whew!! Where were we when we were so rudely interrupted?...
First, we has a blast in Oregon while we were there. I have added NewJersey, Oregon and California to my 'states I have been to' list. We changed planes in Newark going out, and saw the lower Manhattan skyline from the plane and again from the gate at the airport. Couldn't see San Francisco at all because of the plane's wing being in the way of the view outside. That, and the fact the lady by the window kept closing her shade...
We went to Crater Lake National Park as well as the Redwood Forest National Park. I stuck a foot in the Pacific at Brookings beach, too. We ate al fresco at  a marina in Crescent City, California where seals and cormorants were bobbing for fish next to the patio we were on. Shopped at Jacksonville and  Ashland, Oregon. Even went to a quilt shop! My daughter kept us busy, and we were tired when we boarded the plane for home. She has gone to Australia for ten months. I miss her already.

Popular wading pool in Lithia Park in Ashland, OR

Carolyn tried it out along with some local kids

It was a lovely day for a walk in the park...

and to visit the local quilt shop! 

quilts in an antique store

We hiked to this lookout site to see the waterfall

What would a hike be without DANGER?!

Next, we hiked in to see the Rogue River Gorge

Carolyn and her Dad

They weren't kidding!! It was like a loud, constant flush!

Do I look weary? I'm not much of a hiker...

Mr Wazoo tried out Paul Bunyon's chair

This little place had a terrific lunch, and 12 kinds of pie! I had pecan,
Carolyn had chocolate mousse and Mr W had cherry with ice cream.

Crater Lake

The sad news is, I can't get the photos off my phone and onto this laptop. I don't know why, but they just won't go...You'll have to trust me that the redwoods were awesomely huge, and the Pacific Ocean was spectacular.

Finally back home to the waiting quilts. Here are the ones we've done since we got home.

Just, WOW! Mr Wazoo did a beautiful job on the quilting, too.

Another wonderful hand embroidered quilt with such colorful sashing!

The custom quilting shows well on the back.

I finished the quilt for my daughter and sent it to Wisconsin

Customer tee shirts and smaller pieces ready to sew
for a commissioned quilt.

Tee shirt quilts make plenty of rags!

Fusing and sewing on the smaller bits finished and shirts arranged .

Tee shirt quilt with the sashing and quilting done!

Mr W did this traditional quilt

Same customer, beautiful machine embroidered appliqué quilt!

The same customer made this bit of whimsy, too!
Panto: Ebb and Flow

I quilted this behemoth. 104 x 114"
Panto: Bayside

Here it is from the back of the machine

Mr Wazoo and I tag-teamed this little wall hanging! He did the
center with a panto, and I did the borders custom.

The colors are what make this simple quilt sing!

Look familiar? Another student quilt from my
Garden Delight class.

I like the southwestern look of this jelly roll quilt.
Panto: Modern Loops

Same customer...totally different quilt.
Panto: Popcorn

This really Irish signature quilt will be presented soon!

What better panto than shamrocks?!

We expect the Christmas quilts will be rolling in soon. This one has some nice appliqué.
Panto: Snowflakes

One of my favorite customers made this sweet quilt. All her quilts are square and very well done.

Custom quilting

 That's all for now. I did some customer quilt repair today as well as get a memory quilt top done and the back pieced. Then, I quilted three small Autumn table runners. To tell the truth, I'm beat! Just like my Packers... Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

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