Rain, rain, go away! Its Halloween today.

What a weird day. More gray skies and buckets of rain soaking us all day long. The temperature dropped like a rock starting at 2:00, and we expect our first freeze tonight! No rain tomorrow, so I will get the man out of the house and out of trouble. He spent the day changing the batteries in our five smoke detectors, which involved two trips to Home Depot and lots of ladder clunking and muttering. Spooooky!!
The town has moved the Halloween festivities around the square to Saturday evening to avoid the soggy weather, and now the kids will trick or treat in clear cold air. Nobody comes here...we are too far out and the driveway is too steep for kids to want to climb, no matter what kind of candy we may have. We used to live in a big family neighborhood, and did Halloween with gusto, pumpkins, spider webs, spooky sound effects and a giant Frankenstein on the porch. We'd pass out bags and bags of candy, and I took Polaroids of the best costumes. Mr Wazoo wore his skeleton tee shirt today, and he was quite pleased with himself!
I spent the day doing custom work in the studio and finished three projects! One I finished I forget to photograph! The customer came and whisked it away just after I finished trimming it. She had another quilt to pick up, and I just happened to finish her second one when she showed up. Oh well, here is the first one...

Ta Da! The giant custom quilt I have been working on this week is done!

Custom quilting is lost on busy fabrics no matter how puffy the batting. Its a shame to do it and charge the big bucks, but the customer wanted it, so I did it.

Its hard to see on the back, too, but the quilting is really nice.

Next up was the first of two David Gilliland patterns done in class by guild members. The first one has the opposite problem than that of the giant quilt. The batting had very little loft, so the quilting is flat. I wish she had given me something fluffier for this. The quilting is wonderful, if I do say so myself!

If you click the picture, it will get bigger so you can see the quilting better

Detail

The center star

My interpretation for the white areas

And a good look at the back. Ooh la la!

This quilt is tiny, so I finished it in an hour or so. It will be a fun addition to the customer's sewing room!

Colorful little house block! The customer wanted smoke coming out of the chimney.

Some detail

The quilting brings the house to life.

I didn't have a customer quilt prepared for Millie, so I went ahead and quilted my just-for-fun quilt. The binding is on, too. I sewed it while watching a few episodes of Quilting Arts that I have on DVR.

I'll add this to my utility quilt pile after I give it a wash and dry tomorrow.

Panto: Funky Fans done with variegated thread.

I like this backing. It compliments the quilt and is very soft.

Before I began quilting, I auditioned various fabrics for the circles on my red and black quilt. I finally settled on a layout with a dark center, becoming lighter as the circles radiate to the edges. I haven't turned the edges of them yet, nor have I sewn anything down. Just blocks for now, but fun to play with.

Oh, I see two I need to switch...I'll do that tomorrow!

Our daily reminder of Trick or Treat is on the sofa! I think it is 'Trick'. Happy Halloween!!