A whole day away from the studio?!

Today was only the second time I spent a day away from the studio...unless we were out of town, of course. I went to a friend's house and we watched Hamilton. It was awesome. Plus, there were sandwiches, cake, strawberries and ice cream! Worth playing hooky for.

There was some quilting and sewing done before that, though. In the mail on Friday, I received a repair job from a friend. If you've followed my blog at all, you know I do repairs on quilts and quilt related objects. This is a small pillow from the 1940s. It was truly trashed and in need of some TLC. Let's take a look.

When I opened the box, this is what I found. The pillow and some bits of feedback and muslin.

I trimmed away the frayed parts and made templates to fit the areas. The piecing pattern is Hummingbird, so I used the scraps sent to me as well as some of my own stash bits to make the appliqué parts.

I started with the background, cutting pieces to fit from the small piece of muslin in the package.

Next, I made templates for the hummingbirds and made those.

After all the background was done, I appliqued the 'birds' in place. Then, I quilted around the birds and through the background pieces.

I soaked the pillow in Oxyclean, then gave it a thorough rinse. It may take a couple of days to dry completely, but I think it looks quite good! If the owner wants it to look old again, she can always tea dye it. I think I would leave it clean.

Mr Wazoo gave me a hand for a day and quilted this starry scrap quilt. He wasn't keen to go outside in the muggy heat, so it was a fine second choice to keep him occupied.

Mr W isn't good at photos, but he did manage to get most of the quilt in the shot. It is nice and scrappy, in fact I spied some of my fabrics in it! I had given the customer a bag of scraps to use as she pleased.

Panto: Fantasia

It had this yellow garden themed backing.

I was working in the studio on an early Christmas project for a Florida customer. She was up here for a week and dropped the quilt off for a speedy finish.

The customer plans to use this on her bed at Christmas time. It has a lovely combination of yuletide fabrics.

Panto: Holly Berries

The backing is pieced from fabrics used in the quilt, plus a couple of white ones. The customer and quilt went back to Florida yesterday.

My next project was a lone star quilt the customer made 50 years ago!. Better a quilt than a top folded on a shelf, she decided to have it quilted. I really didn't think it was very pretty at first, but after quilting, it looked wonderful. Thank goodness the fabric selection today is a bit livelier than it was in the 70s!

Here it is, out of the closet and ready for it's debut!

Panto: Amethyst

The quilting looks beautiful on the back, too.

I am still working on the block pieces for the shabby chic quilt. I have 144 half square triangles left to go, but I'm making progress. The worst part is squaring up all those pesky 2 1/2 inch squares! I have 17 blocks done, 31 more to go. I jumped ahead for a while and started making flying geese for the star blocks. There are 144 of those, too. Don't go away...there are more to come.

Flying geese in the making

When work was done, I sat out on the front deck for a while, and surveyed the beautiful lawn and gardens Tim has lovingly grown. The view straight down on the plants and fountain is really cool. Abstract. So is the close-up of the burning bush from above. Isn't nature grand?!