The mouse man and other interesting subjects

 The mouse man came on Friday and now we have an ongoing contract for mouse elimination. At first, I thought I was being a bit cruel, but when I was sorting a stack of my quilts, a shower of dog food pellets fell out all over the place! The stinking mice had taken Molly's food and hidden a stockpile in between two quilts. I cleaned up the mess and looked over the quilts to make sure the mice hadn't't damaged them, then put all the quilts away. Now when I am finished for the day, I have added the task of emptying her bowl into a zip lock bag until the next day.The mouse man also put two cardboard box traps down to catch the striped lizard who has also taken up residence in the studio. He says it will take a couple of months to see the end of the mice, and then it is a maintenance thing.

Okay, what else? I finished the quilt from the day before, and it is beautiful, as usual. Kind of shabby chic!

Pinks and grays are a lovely combination for this type of quilt. Soft and feminine with a modern edge.

Panto: Frolic

I really like this backing fabric, too.

A customer came with a challenging proposal, to fix, quilt and finish seven tops her great grandma made. They had been stored in a box at her grandma's house for years, and when her grandma passed, she found them when sorting her stuff. They are all wonky and stinky and some have unsewn seams and some damage. I agreed to take them on, and spent the remainder of the day pressing them with starch. 

There are two of these, as if great grandma thought if she tried again they second one wouldn't  be wonky. No way! These are the worst constructed of the lot. I will have to ponder how to get them under control enough to quilt.

Here are the first four of the lot. I ironed the last three today and they are all on hangers waiting their turn in line. Some need repairs and some need a border of some kind. All that will come later.

Logging in the last of the quilts before the ironing is done.

Pressing one of the machine pieced tops. Three were hand pieced (including the two swirling circle ones) and four are machine pieced.

I worked on another big quilt while I wrestled with the tops, and ,as usual, had one row left to do at quitting time. Too bad, so sad. I finished it today and moved on.

One row to go...but supper was calling.

This morning, I finished the quilt. It is a bright and fresh looking star, using modern prints.

Panto: Splat

Turquoise backing.

I finished up two of the borders for the bear wall quilt, but the other borders will have to wait until I have some spare time to make them. Maybe tomorrow.

The pattern didn't say I had to cut down the size of the panel, but there isn't enough fabric to make more of the border pieces to make them fit. I'll figure it out later.

This quilt was next in the line. It was made for the family of a quilter who succumbed to cancer.

Panto: Maple winds

There was an extra block that they requested be made into the label. Here it is, after I cut it down to a manageable size. I will appliqué it to the quilt tonight while watching a movie on Netflix.

The panto shows well on the back, which is much darker than in this photo.

The next quilt is one of two featuring pets! One has cats and the other one, dogs. I was only able to get the cat one done today because the dog one's back wasn't (you guessed it) big enough side to side. It had enough length, so I cut off from there, re-stitched the pieces and attached them to the side. Voila! Big enough. I will quilt it tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy some Christmas kitties.

This is a clever way to highlight a panel. The on-point blocks frame it nicely.

Panto: Snowfall

Christmas lights on the back.

I'll be doing hand work tonight, as well as trying to get the newsletter done. Happy Birthday to Mr Wazoo, who was favored with his favorite dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and lima beans. GAG!! I made myself a patty melt and am a happy camper! See you tomorrow.

Success!! Upward and onward!

 Through pure willpower and perseverance, I finished the too-small-back quilt! Yippee!! Never give up, and don't let the bots win. The quilt is lovely and I am sure the customer will be thrilled to see it.

Here it is. Isn't it a beautiful quilt? When I called the maker, she apologized for the backing and will see her quilt today! I know she will love it.

Panto: Simple Curled Feathers

Ooh la la! I love feathers on a floral beauty like this.

Here is the beautiful backing fabric 

Okay...I have to show you what I am talking about. This is the untrimmed  top of the quilt from the back.

This is the top of the quilt from the front. See how close I got to the edge? The pins were just millimeters from the whirring needle. Once I got past this row, I hoped it would go okay.

When I approached the bottom, the pins rolled into view about an inch and a half from the bottom of the quilt top. Thankfully, the overshoot of the pattern just missed them!

Now, that's close, folks.

To get over the last quilt, I did this adorable baby quilt from a first time Grandma. She is so excited about the new baby coming next month in Florida. She is moving back to Florida (it's the state she's from) to be by the family, especially the new baby girl soon to join them. I love the story, and I love the quilt!

Whales! So cute, and just what the parents requested. The maker was happy to include some pink ones!

Panto: Ebb and Flow

The blue backing really shows off the quilting.

I had enough time to start another quilt in the afternoon. As usual, when it was 6:00, the quilt had one row to go! I'm sure it will be done quickly today.

Here is where I left it.

I cleaned up the studio in preparation for the mouse man, so there was a minimal amount of sewing accomplished. I started a new project featuring a panel I got on my hop to Jasper. I have seen this panel in other quilt shops, but I really liked what they did with it in the Jasper shop, so I bought it! I'm not too far along, but here is a taste of what's to come.

My favorite...half square triangles! 

My inspiration. Woodsy bear. I can't wait to get back to it!

Now, where is that mouse man?!

A little sewing, a little quilting

 Yesterday started with a frustration common to longarm quilters everywhere...too small backing. I started with the next quilt in the queue, measuring the backing and the top. Three  inches difference in the length. Rats!! I stared at it for a while, contemplating cutting some width off and sewing it to the length, but decided it would look more stupid to have a tiny piece with a seam at one end than to simply attempt to do with what I was given. On top of the short backing, the quilt is another giant one, making the task of keeping it straight during the quilting a challenge, too. I started by pinning the quilt rather than using my Red Snappers which use up to five inches on both ends to properly apply and quilt. I snugged the batting right up to the pins, and started about 3/4 of an inch down with the quilting. Every row takes 15 minutes. The pattern is curled feathers, a beautiful allover pattern of elegant feathers. Between thread breaks (changed the needle to a smaller one) and computer glitches (froze up the screen twice!) the quilt took all day and still isn't finished. Sigh.

Midway through the quilt, I released the top and floated the remaining bit in an effort to keep it straight. You can see the sides had plenty of space. The backing was a 108 inch wide fabric and is square, so 108 inches wide, too. Unfortunately, the quilt it 105 inches long. That's a major oops on the quilter's part. I found that if I notify the quilter and they take the backing home to fix, I may not see it again for weeks or months! I'd rather solve the problems and get on with my part of the process.

Meanwhile, I sporadically sewed the Route 66 quilt rows, and by the end of the day had it all sewn and the back made. It is now on a hanger, waiting for its chance to be a quilt.

The backing is another Route 66 fabric, so the quilt will follow the theme all the way through.

The boxed square quilt is quilted and bound, ready to go to Hiawassee and be sold to a new home.

I bound it with the border fabric and sewed it down by machine.

Panto: Holly Berries

The backing was from my stash, and was a perfect match to the top fabrics!

I'll start my day with the fight on the Millie. The computer froze twice yesterday, requiring unplugging the machine, and then re-entering the specifics for the pattern and relocating my spot on the quilt. Now, it has placed  two long quilting lines from one edge of the pattern to the other, crossing all the feathers! What the heck? I'll be glad to get this one done, and can only pray the next one is easier. Upward and onward!!

Mouse man comes tomorrow!!

Not one phone call!!

My quilting day was a fun one. The phone was quiet, except for one hang up. Oh my! I checked it a couple of times to be sure we had dial tone, because we have had recent outages that affected our incoming calls. Nope. I guess everyone is home sewing...

Meanwhile, I finished the QOV by the same quilter as the dahlia and Tee shirt quilts. It feels good to have these combined orders done.

This looks complicated to me. It is very pretty, but I won't be trying my hand at this pattern. I'm such a wuss when it comes to making blocks with a lot of pieces.

I used one of my star patterns for the quilting

The backing is this rain-on-water looking pattern.

I spent some time cleaning in the studio, sweeping and vacuuming. I found evidence of mice in the room and that freaks me out! They picked at the batting roll and took bits off to pad their nests. I have a lot of batting here, and I can't have mice messing with it! One call to our pest control company, and they will be here on Friday to address the problem. Mr W visited Home Depot and got some traps to hide around the room (can't have Molly getting her nose whiskers snapped) until the guy comes. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, I did manage to get a bit of sewing done. I sewed the rows  together for the Route 66 quilt, and am almost ready to assemble them.

I also finished the binding on the log cabin quilt

The horizontal sashing rows are sewn, but it was after 6:00 and I needed to get the lasagna in the oven. (it was delicious!) I'll get them cut apart and pressed, and then it will be on to the assembly.

All the block rows are done and waiting.

It's time to go see if we caught any rodents! I know I sound like a mouse hater...I'm not. I just don't want them damaging hundreds of dollars worth of batting and fabrics. Mr W set a live trap, too, but I can't see the catch and release working...they will come right back. Nope, the mice need to go.

Bedtime post

I have a zoom meeting in the morning, so I will tell you what happened in the studio tonight before I turn in. How exciting!

I started early and finished the log cabin quilting like I planned. I'm not too pleased with my new pattern. Some of the rows touched or even overlapped a bit, and some were 1/4 inch apart. I started right where the computer said to, so what went wrong? I believe I have mentioned before that I really don't like this machine... but I digress.

Here it is!

I admit it looks better quilted than as a flimsy, but still blah to me.

Binding tomorrow.

Those pesky fans...

Maybe I should have used patterned backing so we wouldn't notice the mistakes...

 I also finished the boxed square flimsy and made the back. It is on a hanger in the queue with the other 17 quilts

I'm hoping to get this to my friend's shop in Hiawassee to sell before Christmas.

Next, a funkalicious tee shirt quilt by the same quilter as the giant dahlia. Who'd a thunk it?! I L-O-V-E the colors and wild fabrics in this quilt. They make a tee shirt quilt really exciting rather than boring.

Wowie!! This is one of the most beautiful tee shirt quilts I have ever seen. Good job.

Panto: Jetty, in lavender thread

The backing is pieced from the same fabrics as the front.

When I was trying to clean up in the studio a bit, I came across some blocks I made with the four patch posy pattern; very similar to a stack and whack. I quilted one last week and that spurred me to get the blocks out and play with them on the design wall for a while. I settled on red sashing, and then gave it a spark with the turquoise cornerstones. They create a glow against the red, and bring out the colors in the blocks. I will cut some more tomorrow and see what happens.

I bought this fabric eons ago to make a quilt for my daughter who took her kids on Route 66 for a vacation trip. I'm sure they stopped at all the quirky attractions along the way and enjoyed the time together. I thought I'd make her a memory type quilt, but never finished it. Bad Grandma.

 

This is what I have so far

The fabric flopped as a stack and whack. Not enough diversity in the patterns, and also they were too far apart on the background. Too much tan. I'l get it going and finish it for my daughter while she can still remember the trip!! Ha!

It's time for bed. If you didn't watch Michelle Obama's speech, you should go to Youtube and look for it. Very poignant without being nasty in any way. She truly is a class act. No matter what your politics, the Obamas are a kind, loving, intelligent and concerned couple. There should be more people like them in America right now.