Sari quilts progress, and other miscellany

Yesterday was a wonderful day for finishing up some of the sari quilts. I quilted the big wall hanging, added the hanging sleeve and binding, and did the hand work last night! It is finished.

The quilting went slowly, with thread breakage in most rows. I don't think the gold threads in the fabric liked the So Fine thread! I changed the needle twice, finally settling on the size 16. 

The pattern is actually a block pattern. I used it like a panto and it worked perfectly for the project.

I had this wide backing in my stash, and opted to use it instead of the swanky fabric I originally chose. The quilt will be on a wall, so why use the expensive fabric for the back? Good choice to use for this project. The binding is the batik in the outer half square triangles. 

The next quilt is this eye popping unicorn quilt for a customer who needed it done ASAP. She requested unicorn quilting, so I found the pattern and went for it. 

The quilt is a panel with bright blocks and borders. A little girl will love this!

Hopefully, you can spot the unicorn better on the solid backing. The panto is called Stars and Unicorns

Back to Saris for the next quilt. One of the elephant baby quilts. The soft and very squidgy fabric made the quilting a challenge, but it came out soft and cuddly for one of the twins I made them for.

Elephant quilt number one! All done. I added the purple binding by machine (not shown here) and it is ready to go.

I found two different elephant themed backings. This is the first one.

The panto is a stylized meander that came with the computer program. I can't remember the name of it, but it looked a lot like the pattern in the fabric, so I chose it. You can see it best on the solid color elephant.

The second quilt looks very much like the first one.

The blanket on the elephant is different, but the same panto was used.

I also used a different backing. The binding is on and sewn down. One more quilt to go!

The blue and silver sari was the last quilt. I used the sari for all but the solid blue in the  Dresden plate and the background fabric. With the fused interfacing, it was so much easier to quilt than the baby quilts!

I wish you could see it in person...it is so much prettier! The silk has a sheen, and the depth of color is much more apparent.

The backing is also from the sari. The whole quilt is very soft and lovely. The sleeve and binding are the same blue as seen in the dresden plate. I will do the hand sewing tonight.

Panto: Taka

The last quilt for this customer is an eye spy quilt for her little grandson. She didn't want him to feel left out when the grown daughters get the quilts for the twins and the wall hanging. She wanted the fabric from the twin quilts and wall hanging to be in his quilt, too. The big wall hanging is for the customer's husband, whose mother it was who wore the saris.

The quilt has its red binding on now and is ready to go! Can you spy the sari fabrics?

I did a simple meander for the quilting

The bicycle backing is from my stash.

Also yesterday, My friend Audrey came over and took Mr Wazoo's Gammill for a spin. He guided her with the loading and stood by while she did the quilting. She did a great job on the charity quilt I made a couple of days ago. Thanks, Audrey!!

Remember these wild cows? They turned out really cute!

Panto: Popcorn

The backing is this laundry-line print.

I haven't shown many yard photos lately. It seems to rain every time I'm ready to quit for the day! Today was no exception, but I just beat the shower while trudging up the hill.  I hope it's nice tomorrow for the holiday. Mr W will be grilling some ribs!

Mr Wazoo added this laughing Buddah riding a turtle to his Japanese maple berm.

The day lillies do their thing and then die during the night. I always think its a shame they only live one day!

The drift roses have something nibbling their leaves, but the heavenly scent makes up for the 'holey' leaves! ha ha...see what I did there?

Have a wonderful Fourth, and stay safe!

Daily progress

I have so many projects in the works, I feel like a circus juggler! Yesterday, I took a few hours off from the studio and defied death again by going to Cleveland, GA with a friend. We went to a quilt shop where they are not Covid concerned, and I was very uncomfortable with the lack of distancing and masks there. I won't go there again until the Covid thing settles down. We wore masks and I stayed to myself despite the workers who kept coming around and asking if I needed help. People just don't seem to care about acquiring a deadly disease. I do. 

In the studio, I finished the pantograph on the big quilt, and it turned out beautifully. This is a stunning quilt for the quilter's bed. I love it!

Blogger put the pictures in reverse order, but I don't want to mess with it right now. This is a picture of the back, where the quilting shows quite well.

The panto is Adore. I think it fills the open areas nicely.

Lovely quilt, well made.

Next, I quilted this Tee shirt quilt, finishing at a tardy 6:30! That's what I get for going out during working hours...

Okay, if I import pics one at a time, they will be in order. Sheesh...what a pain. This is the Tee shirt quilt. It's the first one the quilter has ever attempted and has a few boo-boos, but looks fine.

Panto: Rounded squares

The backing hides any quilting wobbles.

I used the fabric I got on my outing to quickly make a set of blocks for a 2-3-2-6 charity quilt. My friend is learning the longarm, and this will be a good practice piece.

The cows were too darn cute to leave in the shop.

My Grandson got his sticker-face game yesterday. I sent it along with their new quilt. Isn't  he just too adorable?! I'm a bit biased, but aren't all Grandmas? Time to go to work!!

The new Blogger SUCKS!!

As far as I am concerned, the new version of Blogger really is horrible. You either have to have this tiny print, or this giant print. The first size is called 'normal'. For whom is this normal? Some of us are trying to read these posts on phones, and it is like looking at gnats on a screen. It also doesn't work on my Safari browser. I am bummed.

On with the post. Yesterday, I sewed the sari project together and added the first border. I will be doing the mitering and adding the final border today.

There was no way to turn the blocks to change the sheen color of the silk. It still looks fine to me.

No photos of what I did with the rest of my time. I emptied and cleaned the drawers in the cutting table. What a mess! I tossed a bunch of useless stuff and can now locate the rest of the useless stuff more easily. Sigh...I admit it, I am a packrat!

My daughter sent a photo of the mask I made for Army duty. They had troops doing Covid testing last weekend. Now I have two daughters swabbing noses. Not good. We are up to 68 cases in our rural county. That boggles my mind. I will blame it on the tourists who come from infested areas and spread it to the unsuspecting locals. Wear your masks, people!!

I'm pretty sure she is smiling under there. Taking no chances in Arizona is important. 3000 new cases there just yesterday!

I am one row short of finished with the big quilt on the Millie. I will have it off and photographed this morning, and will be on to the next one.

So much to do...not enough hours in a day to do it all. Stay safe and carry on.

Slow going, but doing okay

There have been some down days here at Wazoo while I regroup from the recent breakdown of the Millie. Mr Wazoo got her up and running with the new carriage and I quilted my son's quilt and a customer quilt with only minor hiccups.

The finished quilt for my son and daughter in law.

Panto: African Samba

Marbled backing

Customer Star Wars quilt

Panto: Meander stars

Star Wars on the back, too!

We sent the quilt off to Wisconsin, and hopefully it will arrive today. The Star Wars quilt had the thickest batting I have ever worked on (except for the alpaca batting...that's another story) but went along without incident. I have the next quilt loaded and in the works. It is really big (does that surprise you? I didn't think so) and each row takes 25 minutes to chug across. I should have it done today. 

I cut up the last silk sari and have the blocks backed with stabilizer, constructed and trimmed up. At the end of the day yesterday, I arranged them on the design wall. There will be some tweaking, because of the difference in color when the silk is turned and the purple weft is more prominent.

The border of the sari wil become the inner border of the quilt.

I got a few batiks that are very similar in color to the weft in the silk for the accents in the quilt. The entire thing is half square triangles, so it was easily constructed.

Lots of sliver trimming done to square up the blocks.

Here are the blocks on the design wall. See the difference in color in the backgrounds? The pinwheels have the embroidered fabric from one end of the sari. The other background is the main part of the sari that has small diamond shaped embroidery scattered on it.

All the stitch in the ditch is done on the big circles quilt. Now, I have the backgrounds to do before moving it to the Millie for the motifs in the circles. Unfortunately, there is only one of me and I can't sew the silk project and quilt on the circle quilt background at the same time.  I'll get the wall hanging top finished, then begin on the circle quilt while doing the other quilt on the Millie. 

This quilt is so beautiful! I am itching to get going on the actual quilting.

In the middle of all this, I need to be on a Zoom call with the board of the quilt guild to discuss what's next in this up-ended world of Covid restrictions. We haven't met since March. I just cancelled the July speaker and class, and am looking ahead at the schedule to see who will be disappointed in August.

It looks like our trip to Texas won't happen in July since they are having a major up-tick in the number of virus cases there. My Dad is there, and my brother is, too, staying at my sister's house while she and her hubby take care of family business in Wisconsin. I thought it would be a good time to go there because I would get to visit with my brother for a few days. As with everything else, it's a wait and see thing.

On Saturday, we defied death and travelled to Chattanooga to get a couple of feet for the Bernina. I wanted to speak to them about the Handi Quilter longarms, too. If I can sell Millie, I would be able to replace her with a simpler machine  with in-person customer support offered. I have been thinking about it since the first breakdown in March. We'll see how that goes.

My friend, Birdie, has been sticking close to his wife while she sits on the nest. When I try to take his picture, he flies over to another part of the garden, so it was quite a coup to get this one blurry shot of him on the bird feeder crook. The nest is on top of our floodlights  for the back yard. This is the third time they have had it there, and I expect babies to be chirping soon! Tiki man continues to mock me...tongue out and eyes squeezed shut. He is such a prankster...