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!!

Back to rainy days and more customer quilting

Yesterday, I spent some time trying to discover what is making the loud vibration clackety noise in my big Gammill. I just had it serviced and it should be running smoothly, but the clacking is driving me nuts. Mr Wazoo took off the side panel and we had a thorough look, but haven't been able to pinpoint the cause of the noise. Cover back on, I quilted on the large custom job, gritting my teeth at the constant rattle. I turned the music up a bit, and tried to enjoy the familiar songs, but had a headache by day's end. That's life...
I finished the quilting on the two girly Christmas gift quilts, and did the hand sewing on the second one last night. These will be going home today.

A varied collection of pastel batiks made this soothing palette. 

Panto: Daydream

I made the binding from the backing fabric.

The second quilt has a luscious collection of Laurel Burch fabrics.

Mr Wazoo quilted this one with the panto Popcorn

The backing is  this night sky fabric, and the binding is the same . I just finished sewing it down this morning while enjoying my morning coffee.

Not much else to show you...I have my Kaffe Fassett double four patch quilt on Millie, and still have the customer quilt on the Gammill. The weatherman says rain all day, and tomorrow, too. Hopefully, Mr W can find something to do because I have finished all the pantograph quilts he could have helped with. Sometimes I wish he had a 12 foot table, too, so he could help with the big quilts. He has a 10 foot table which limits his quilt size ability. I imagine he'll find something to keep him occupied.

Down to the studio I go!

Another studio day

Wow! It was sure a busy day in the studio yesterday! I had 16 phone calls, and seven customer visits during the eight hour stretch, so quilting was done in fits and starts. I'm busy quilting the big custom order, trying to move ahead with the back-up of custom jobs waiting. People are becoming aware Christmas is fast approaching, and bringing their projects in. We'll be quilting like mad again this year, trying to fulfill the demands. You could say this is our busy season!
Here are the quilts I managed to quilt on Millie while working the custom job.

Too bad you can't see sparkles on these pictures! This quilt for a pre-teen girl has fabrics that have glittery sparkle on them. She'll love it.

Panto: Flower Power

The girl loves pink and owls, so Grandma found this great backing on the internet and had to get it!

Here's a gift for a husband. Nice selection of patriotic fabrics.

Panto: Simply Stars

Masculine patriotic plaid on the back.

I quilted another quilt, but had to quickly get the binding on at 6:00 so I could do the handwork while watching Midsomer Murders. I'll post that one later.Hopefully, I'll get closer to finishing the custom quilt, too!

On Sunday I made the rest of the blocks for the red and black quilt, and now, I have to make the circles for the red blocks. Won't happen today...

This will be on the design wall for a while. It has 23 circles to go, as well as three borders. I made the half square triangles for the second border on the weekend, but there is more to sew before I get that far. Stay tuned!

I finally finished this repair over the weekend. I have been working on it for almost a year, on and off. At any given time, I have three repair projects in the works, and work a bit on each one in turn. This one needed a ton of work, and  to be re-quilted when I finished it. Here are the before and after photos.

Side one, in tatters. The edge completely gone

Ooh la la! The patches had shreds and holes throughout.

Side two was equally bad. 

I had my work cut out for me. You may remember  back during the repair when I discovered that the batting was actually a nine patch quilt sandwiched in the middle! It is there, waiting for the next reincarnation many years from now. A little secret treasure .

Side two, all done

Side one, done and quilted, binding finished, too.

On Sunday, my grandson and his Mom took a trip to the zoo for the Vilas Zoo Trick or Treat. It was the maiden voyage for the Totoro costume! I think it looks great!! My son sewed on the arms, ears and tail and it was ready for it's debut. My Daughter in law went as No Face, another character in the movie, My Friend Totoro.

At the zoo, some kids thought he was a bunny!

Here is a still photo, in case the video doesn't work for you.

At the end of the day, Tired and happy, I snapped this picture of the autumn leaves against the bright blue sky. All the leaves are colorful now, and many have fallen due to the heavy rain last week. Hopefully, the temperature will cool off soon!

Late day sunshine makes them glow. I love Fall!