Adapting to the slow lane

A week has passed since Mr Wazoo came home from stroke rehab, and I am seeing the areas where he needs work. The seatbelt is a major frustration, as is turning the knob on the outside door. These little things drive him up the wall, but he doesn't give up trying. Anyway, there are some things that slow us down, but don't run us over! He is making a jigsaw puzzle to exercise his brain as well as improve his motor skills picking up the little pieces. Fatigue sets in around three or four and he is in bed by eight.
On the quilting front, I successfully hooked up and updated my Millie's computer, but it has a couple of glitches that are making me crazy. I need to get moving on the four Quilts of Valor, as well as the remaining custom jobs. I'm reading the new instructions for the computer and hope my tired brain can remember what I have read and apply it to the machine!
I finished a repair for which I forgot to take 'before' pictures. Oops! There were only about twenty worn and torn pieces, so the repair went along quickly once I found compatible fabrics for the job. We sent it off to the owner yesterday. She was Mr W's physical therapist in Marietta! He told her what I did for a living and she brought me the quilt the next day. A week later, it's good as new.

Here is the quilt, all finished and pretty.

My gray fabric is somewhat lighter than that in the quilt. The two patches with the 'smudges' must have been bleached in the past. They are perfectly fine.

My brown is a bit darker than the quilt brown. The slight color differences aren't too noticeable after re-quilting. You can just spy black repairs on the left of the picture. There were more black pieces worn out than any other fabric.

Another gray repair.

My dots are different, but still look similar enough to blend in.

My pink floral also blends in well. It is in the upper right hand corner.

The backing was really hard to find a match for. It had bleach spots and almost white areas on the light blue patterned fabric. I used a blue and white cloudy looking fabric to mend the holes, after adding bits of batting to fill in between the top and back patches.

We traveled to Cumming this morning early to have the car's windshield looked at. Remember when we went on vacation and had two rocks hit it and crack it badly? It was replaced, but has leaked into the cabin on the passenger side every time it rains! We would come out to find a large puddle in the Weathertech mat and water dripping from under the dash. There has been a rolled up beach towel there for weeks! We'll know if it is fixed tomorrow morning...it is supposed to rain tonight!

While in the big city, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bolt of Kona black for the studio and six yards of Kona red. I use black and red solids often in customer tee shirt quilts, and was totally out of both. My 40% coupon there made a huge difference. Then, over to Joann for a new Ott floor lamp for next to my living room chair. 50% off that one! A good day shopping, for sure.

Ribs for supper, the man settled in the recliner and a fire in the hearth. Life is still good.

Off to a slow start

This week we regroup and make our plan for 2020 stroke recovery. It started with a trip back to Marietta for the sign off of the cardiologist. One more trip in February and we should be done with the long rides, putting the event in the rear view. Mr Wazoo is doing very well. His most frustrating task is fastening his seat belt in the car. He has given up wearing jeans for now because of the near impossible task of buttoning the top of the fly. I got him a tool for buttoning shirts and zipping zippers but it doesn't work on jeans buttons. They are too big and tough. Sweat pants for now!
I finally worked up the ambition to get back in the studio. Mr W sat and read his discharge instructions and exercise regimen, snoozing on and off. The quilt was a big one, taking three days to complete. The wide borders are a panto and the embroidered blocks are custom quilted. As a first project, it was a challenge. Here it is, all done!

The customer did all the embroidery, and found there perfect border fabric for her mountain home.

The Panto on the borders is Modern Leaves

I stitched all the ditches and then stitched around all the appliquéd and embroidered elements. Then, I echoed each one once. I did the same in the bear paw blocks in every other row. She wanted the quilting kept looser and soft, as the quilt will be used on her bed.

I love this backing fabric! Look closely and you cans see some  of the quilting.

To finish up the year 2019, I reviewed my photo log and came up with these statistics.

Number of customer quilts done with pantos and custom: 259

Number of commissioned and repaired quilts: 25

Quilts I made (both for customers ands for show, for my stash and charity donation): 43

Quilts of Valor: Quilted- 32, Made by me: 2

I hope to do more sewing for myself and my friends and family and do less customer work in 2020. I will start by not taking custom quilting for a while so I can devote more time to Mr Wazoo and his recovery. Time is precious, and I need to adjust my priorities and live every day conscious of how fleeting the time is.

Stay tuned for the 2020 adventures of the Wazoo quilters!