Beautiful day...stormy night

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful! I had to drive through the pharmacy for my prescription, so I enjoyed the ride with the windows down. The drive from town to our house is a very pleasant one, with old farmsteads and green farm fields. The pasture with the three horses is always my favorite, and yesterday, I caught the big draft horse taking a rest. The dogwood trees by the edges of the fields look lacy and pretty amid the green budding trees.

This pasture is my favorite. The horses are always there, grazing or resting.

The small mountain we live on is outside this picture to the right. You can just see where it is beginning its elevational rise here.

I usually pass through the yard on the way to the studio to see what is blooming and enjoy the fresh air. The iris are at their peak and looking marvelous. Mr Wazoo loves pink and purple flowers, so the French lilac is a favorite, too.

Iris

French lilacs. They have more delicate flowers, but are bursting with wonderful fragrance.

In the studio, I finished the spiderweb top. Deja vu with the selection for the border. I auditioned several colorful fabrics for the big border, but decided the same fabric I used on the back of the orphan block quilt was the perfect choice. I have it loaded and will quilt it today.

It turned out to be a generous lap size quilt.

I love this border fabric. It came from Connecting thread a couple of years ago.

Millie chugged away on customer quilts while I sewed, and I finished the quilting on these two projects.

This is for the customer's husband, who must be an outdoorsman. The fabric selections are masculine and quietly colorful.

She chose Woven Wind (my favorite panto!) for her quilting.

Soft flannel fish and pine patterns on the pieced back.

This panel of unicorns is for a little girl.

Panto: Frolic, done in a soft lavender thread.

Unicorns on the back, too!

I don't think I posted this sweet quilt made for a granddaughter. The customer hand appliqué her fussy cut pink fabrics to make the pretty hexagon flowers. I hope the recipient appreciates the time and effort that went into making this quilt. It is beautiful.

My favorite is this bunny block.

Owls

Cats

The little girl favotie, unicorns.

Flowers

More flowers.

Here is the finished quilt. The sashing is strip pieced  from all the flower fabrics.

Panto: Butterfly Swirl.

We had a loud storm pass through during the night. Poor old Molly trembled and changed position on the bed every time there was a big thunder clap. Thankfully, it is shaping up to be another beautiful day today, so I will end this and get to work!

I'll leave you with this COVID 19 message, made by someone with a big library and oodles of time on their hands! Click on the picture to be able to read the titles.

Goofing off...yet again!

 I have been in the studio these days, but do more goofing off than serious work. Mr Wazoo has been able to go outside and play in the yard, so I have been doing my own thing in the studio and loving it.
I get some work done to ease my conscience, but most of my time is spent sewing.

My sewing station is a cacophony of color with all the strips of scraps at my finger tips. I have been making string blocks for a spider web quilt. My friend Audrey did a demo at guild and I wanted to make one. Now is the time!

Kay and Henry came by yesterday to get a couple of masks for their friends. Henry made his mask, and I think it will surprise the grocery store checker! He painted the face on it.

I finished the quilting on the orphan block quilt, and added the bright green binding.  The hand sewing is now done, too.

I used one of my favorite texture patterns: Woven Wind.

I have been hoarding this beautiful fabric for a long time. At one time, I thought I would make a stack and whack with it, but it didn't happen. It makes a nice back, don't you think?

I made and applied the plaid binding to the giant flannel quilt. I started the hand sewing last night, and will finish it tonight.

Block parts in progress. They are a bit tedious to make...lots of trips to the ironing board for pressing.

As I made them, I put them on the design wall to keep my mojo going.

Three days in, and this was the result. Very slow going. 

The iris made city through the big storm the other night, and are putting on quite a show.

Mr W's Japanese maple is getting filled out with these delicate leaves.

Lily of the valley blooming it's tiny white bells. My mother had a large patch of these next to the house when I was a kid. I have always loved their scent and the tiny white flowers.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the mountains. The sun was out and the temperature was perfect for having the door open in the studio.

Another batch of blooms opened on the irises.

I did this customer quilt yesterday, too. The customer made it for her priest-brother as a gift.
I think it turned out really pretty.

Panto: Dazzle

This is the backing.

I also sewed like a crazy person, making spider web blocks for the design wall.

I worked hard on the blocks and got quite a few done. This is what they look like before trimming.

Here are some, all trimmed and ready to be made into blocks.

Audrey says to keep the trimmings for those pesky, small corners. I have a big bowl  of them by the machine now.

I finished all these pieces, and hope to get them sewed together today!

I can't explain why the strip bins look just as full as they did when I started...I have enough strips to last me forever!! See the bowl of corner pieces next to the machine? I have  hundreds of them, too!!

I'm off to the studio to start my day. I need to make some more masks for the guild and for my neighbors. I'll be happy when I don't need to do that kind of sewing anymore. Stay home!! Stay safe and keep quilting!

A good day for quilting

I spent the better part of the day in the studio quilting and sewing. Time passed quickly and I had a fruitful day. The flannel quilt top is done and is bigger than I thought it would be. It figures I would get it done just in time for warm weather! We'll put it to good use in the Fall.

Ta Da! I'm happy to see it ready for quilting.

So you can see it really is big, this is the back view of the quilt draped over the table.

I loaded a customer quilt and it took most of the day to finish the quilting.

My friend made this bee quilt for her granddaughter.

She chose a bright yellow variegated thread and this Honeycomb panto.

The quilting shows nicely on the teal backing.

At the tail end of the day, when I had turned off the lights and was getting ready to lock up, I looked back and had to take another picture of how nice the quilt came out.

While I quilted the bee quilt, I sewed another pile of 2-3-2-6 orphans together into a charity lap quilt. I swear these blocks multiply when I'm not looking! I still have a huge pile of them to use in another quilt top. I am determined to use them up!!

This is what I came up with for the center.

I auditioned several color-on-black fabrics for a small border and settled on this funky snail print.
I'll get the borders sewn on tomorrow.

I shot a few more garden pictures on the way up, and had to marvel at how changed they were from just one day ago!

More of the iris have opened, and there are many more to come!

They remind me of my grandma's garden.

The lilacs are also getting bigger. Their aroma is heady and wonderful.

The honeysuckle is blooming, too.

I thought this French lilac was doomed, but it perked up and will have some lovely flowers soon.

The weatherman says we are going to have heavy rain, high winds and possible tornadoes tomorrow. That will surely do some damage to the flowers and trees, so I'm glad I took pictures today. Poor Mr Wazoo spent the entire day outside planting and weeding. Let's hope the worst of the weather goes around us.

I promised him a turkey dinner when he got over his stroke, and tomorrow is the day. We didn't have the Christmas turkey this year. We had a spaghetti dinner instead, but had a wonderful Christmas all together. I'm not doing the whole shebang...just turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy and a couple of vegs. We'll be eating turkey for a few days and still have some to freeze for later.

You all have a happy Easter, and stay safe. Call the family and share the love.