A tribute to perseverance

One of my favorite customers has died suddenly. I met Louise when she came to the studio and asked if I could quilt and bind a king sized quilt for her brother. Of course I said yes and we began her odyssey to complete a quilt for each of her siblings.  In the time I quilted for her, she had completed 4 huge quilts and given them to her siblings. Today, her husband came with a quilt in progress and a sad story. My friend, his wife, had died suddenly two nights ago. He doesn't yet know what happened exactly, but she was discovered in the bathroom during the night and died soon after. He was still shocked and sad today when he and his son came to see me with a request. Louise had nearly finished the next quilt, and he wanted me to finish it for him. This was a no brainer, and after some conversation and reminiscence, I took the project and wished him well. The funeral is tomorrow.
Be kind to each other. Say 'I love you' every chance you get. Treat every day like your last day with the ones you care about.
I was reminded of my immortality today, and about my duty to the people who care about me and are my friends and family. I love you all.

One of Louise's quilts

She always asked for patterns with hearts, to show her love to the recipient.

Another giant quilt for a sibling

And more hearts

Another of Louise's quilts. I can't find a photo of the fourth one, but I know its here somewhere.

Her love for her family is in the quilts.

A fine day in the studio

Today was one of those days where I just got in the zone. The sewing zone. The nine little day care quilts are all pieced, and eight of them are quilted. I need to have a binding marathon day, but not until the weekend. Unfortunately, I still have a business to run with sewing and quilting for my customers. I did enjoy the little sewing side trip though.

All the strippy quilts are very similar, so I laid them out with their backs showing

The HST quilts are all different, so I'll show you one at a time.

This is the one I forgot to take a picture of yesterday.

My favorite. Its lime green and has monkeys on the back!

The best part of this one is the wild sock backing.

The last one is pieced and ready for quilting.

The stack is so pretty! I'll be so happy to send them to the day care kids.

Sunday sewing

After quitting for the day, I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the last two half square triangle day care quilts. Oh well, I'll take them after the bindings are all on. I did get all four finished and quilted, as well as cutting out pieces for five more little quilts. One is sewn and four are waiting their turn under the needle. Its fun looking through the stash and finding backings that are fun for kids. I'm making a dent in my kid fabric stash, for sure. I'm going to allow myself one more sewing day before getting back to my customer quilts. There are only three custom quilts waiting in the queue right now, and I should be able to get them finished in a couple of weeks of work. Sometimes we need to slow down a bit and catch our breath. Mr Wazoo has quilted the last of the pantographs and is free to do some yard work now that the temperature is decent. I guess all is well at Wazoo.
Now, if I could just get over this flu... still queasy and nose blowing. This too shall pass. Enjoy some colorful pictures.

One of our customers made this pretty tumbler quilt for her granddaughter

The fabrics are under the sea prints. Perfect for the Ebb and Flow panto.

The backing has mermaids and octopi! Cool.

Mr Wazoo quilted this customer tee shirt quilt. Its soft and nice thanks to the flannel borders and backing.

The old stand-by panto for tee shirt quilts; Square Spiral

Here is the back.

This is the first of five strip quilts for the day care kids.

The next one is staged and ready.

The four HST quilts are ready for binding.

Don't you love these crazy prints for the backs? I do!

I did a simple stipple for the quilting. All of them are done with lime green thread. My favorite color!