An all around good day

Molly got her fluff and buff, the dryer got fixed, Mr Wazoo finished his garden project and I did a whole bunch of quilting. It turns out the dryer had a defective part that is so common the repairman had it with him in his truck. We are back in the laundry business! I need to wash repaired quilts.

                                          

This is all that is left from the septic tank invasion yesterday. Mr Wazoo will be dealing with this tomorrow. Today, he took Molly to the groomer and the trash to the dump.

Okay...here is where I left you yesterday.

This is the finished trellis that will have honeysuckle vines growing up it in the future. He made it like a stylized pine tree.

We have had this weathervane for over twenty years, and I'm ecstatic to have it in the garden once more. If you can't see it, there is a little dog sitting behind her.

At the end of the workday today, the wind had shifted, and so did the girl with the umbrella!

From the house it doesn't look quite as overwhelmingly large.

I did an Oxyclean and Dawn soak of the quilt I repaired yesterday. I thought I would show you the first sink of water! Nasty!! I rinsed it twice and then washed it. It is in the dryer and I will take an 'after' picture when it's done. I hope I won't find some more squares to replace. Sometimes that happens with washing. It's like the dirt was all that held the fabric together.

I quilted this Mardi Gras quilt today. The pattern is quite complex, so it took from 10 until 3 to get finished.

Panto: Borneo

I thought it looked like the feathery masks in the focus fabric.

You can decide.

It shows up well on the back. 

I have been working on the custom double wedding ring quilt for about a week now. The stitch in the ditch took forever and all of it had to be done with rulers. Yuk. I'm up to the quilting now, and slogging my way through the hundreds of cells in the arcs. Each one gets a swirl, and the corners get four long swirls. I'd say I am about half done with this part. Then I have to do the  melon shapes and the centers of the rings.

Working may way down the rows with the swirls in the arcs.

It is a beautiful quilt. Nice to work on while listening to classical music.

I want this backing!! Wouldn't it look boffo on my shabby chic quilt? I plan to try to find it for that project.

My next repair has these blocks. I've never seen this before and had to draft one so I can reproduce them to replace the trashed ones. The customer got the quilt as a wedding present from her mother and it is really old and well loved. The customer told me she is 90 years old and had used the quilt on their bed until the blocks started to fall apart.  When I get started, I will take a picture of the whole quilt for you. It is a hot mess!

Here is the repaired quilt fresh from the dryer. I am totally gobsmacked by the transformation of this quilt! It is clean and fluffy. I bet it weighs at least a pound less. It's gross to think that much dirt was in the quilt.

The back is now its original muslin color instead of brown.

This is where I started. It was flat, lifeless, torn, smelly and filthy. Good job, Susan!!

Miss Molly is looking regal with her new coif and perfumed aura. We'll be back in the studio tomorrow, getting messy and having fun.

Work, work, work!!

Wow, It sure has been busy here! I am quilting and sewing like crazy and just staying even with the in and out of quilts. Have fun seeing what we have been up to here in the past few days. Nothing else happens here...except that the dryer died and we had the septic tank serviced. Tomorrow the dryer guy comes and I had better have it working when he leaves!! I am nearly out of clean undies and I don't want to start washing things by hand. But I digress. Let's see some quilts!

We'll start with this HUGE tee shirt quilt. Note to quilters everywhere: use lightweight fusible interfacing in your tee shirt quilts unless you deliberately want them to weigh 20 pounds finished. This turned out fine, but quite heavy.

My favorite tee shirt quilting pattern, Rounded Squares

I would like to find this backing. It is a wonderful color.

This is a small charity quilt, and surprisingly enough, is a panel!

I did a medium sized meander for there quilting.

Great tartan plaid backing.

Mr Wazoo stepped up and quilted this contemporary quilt.

Panto: Featherize

I quilted this tumbling blocks modern quilt.

The panto is Simple chevrons

It has a pieced backing.

This is a small antique quilt that I got as a repair. I removed a big gray rectangle that was over the largest tear, and made a better matching patch for it and the other tears.

the edge was also worn through, so I made binding and applied it.

Here is the back after I appliqué the patches on and quilted them, as well as adding the new binding.

I think when it is washed (have to get that dryer going first...) it will all match well.

Here is the front. The customer's Aunt made this for her when she was a little girl.

Back to the machine, I quilted this gold flecked quilt

The pattern is called Climbing Vine

You can see the quilting better here.

Wow!! This is an eye popper!

Panto: Malachite

The teal backing is beautiful!

I have been sewing a few blocks every time I finish a quilting job, and am making progress on the shabby chic quilt.This isn't even half the blocks. Yikes!

The stars are very pretty. I have to make 14 more. None of them have the same fabric for the star.

Late in the day, I made the patches for another repair job. Here they are, pinned in place and ready to go. I use freezer paper templates on the right side of the fabric, that's why they all look white.

This is the whole scrappy quilt. 

Last quilt today was this Marimeko looking one.

I have this perfect panto, which has a stupid name I can't remember. Something like Diane's number one. I think it should be called Marimeko!

The backing is cool, too.

Mr Wazoo (not in this picture, but close by) was noticeably nervous when the guys began digging deep holes in his yard. Getting the two new bald lumps of red dirt re-sodded will keep him busy for a while.

See...there he is on the right, hovering and supervising the work

Molly was so frightened by the big, loud truck, she shivered and ran up to the house by way of the garden instead of the usual saunter up the driveway. 

The hole is about four feet deep. Yuk. Too bad this isn't smellavision so you can truly experience the aroma of our poop.

The mystery construction looked like this in the morning.

Mr Wazoo finished it in the afternoon (not this picture) but it was too dark to get a good picture of there final result. Can you guess yet what it is? Stay tuned and I will post the big finish tomorrow!!