Out of Quarantine with a clean bill of health

 The prep...oh, the prep. I had a hard time with the prep but soldiered through and did everything I was supposed to. The colonoscopy went well, and I am cleared to eat! Upon returning home, I made myself some French toast and a cup of coffee, then I went to bed for a few hours. 

I spent some time in the studio, photographing the quilt tops from one of my customer who wants me to get the backing for her. I'll be going to Cumming to pick up my repaired Singer 401, so I thought t would be a good opportunity to look for fabric at the quilt shop next door to the repair shop. I love picking out fabric!  I loaded up a quilt that needs light custom quilting. It has  freeform flower shapes layered and sewn down with a straight stitch a quarter inch from the edges of each layer. A panto wouldn't work, so we discussed it and decided to do some easy custom to hold things together. I finished the stitch in the ditch, and about half of the blocks. Tomorrow, I'll finish the blocks and do the borders. Should be an easy job.

So no pictures to show you. Here's a little joke from my sister. See you tomorrow!

Funday Sunday leads to Bluesday Tuesday...

 On Sunday, I finished my dots quilt top. Yesterday, I finished the quilting and the binding! I really like this quilt. It's soft and colorful...right up my alley.

The pattern is Off Track by Cluck Cluck Sew. I have made a few of these in different sizes and I love how they turn out. One of them is my most re-pinned photo on Pinterest!

The panto is Bubblicious. I wish I had made it just a bit smaller, but it came out so soft and nice, I'm okay with it. The big circles are about 3 1/2 inches across.

Yowza! Most of the back is Tula Pink's Disco Cats. I bought all they had on the bolt, and it wasn't quite enough. I added some of the leftover fabric from a quilt I made a couple of weeks ago.

The binding is the same solid fuchsia as the inner border. I sewed it down by machine since it will be a utility quilt and be washed frequently.

Polka dot label!

The first customer project was this veggie and labels table cloth. It is the second table cloth for the same customer I quilted one for a couple of weeks ago. She informs me there will be seven of these, all the same. At least I'll know what to do on them!

The customer told me that she had to scour the internet for more of the panels that she used on this, because, after her family saw the first one, everybody wanted one! She found them on Etsy and bought all they had.

Panto: Bush Berries with variegated yellow thread.

Same Delft plates on the back.

Next on the docket was this fun chicken quilt.All the chickens have their names on their nesting boxes. How cute is that?

A full coop!

Panto: Chicken wire, in tan thread

There are chickens and sunflowers on the back.

I also finished quilting this pretty quilt for the maker's granddaughter. The customer knows the fabric designer, and was happy to use the collection in this project.

The customer hand appliquéd the daisies with a big buttonhole stitch. The entire quilt is charming.

Panto: Flower Power

The backing is also from the collection.

Bluesday Tuesday starts now. I will be spending my day in preparation for a colonoscopy tomorrow morning. I'm not sure how much work I'll accomplish, but I'll be in the studio, drinking lemonade spiked with laxatives. Oh joy.

I have been thinking about all the people who crowd into the president's rallies and then return to their neighborhoods. Please, dear readers, socially distance, wear your masks when you go out and wash your hands!! And most of all, VOTE!! Here in Georgia, the lines were long for early voting, and I'm sure they will be long until this is over. I'm not shy in saying that I am hoping we will get the present administration out of Washington and a new saner one installed. Everyone has 45-fatigue. We need to get the country back on track for the citizens and for the world. Okay, I'm done. 

Be kind to each other and stay safe!

Looking forward to a great studio day!

Yesterday was cool and wet. In fact, all night, it was raining and blowing outside while I lay alone in the guest room enjoying the sound and smell of the rain. Funny how these things make us relax and feel a part of nature. I love the sound and feel of wind.

I worked on a quilt made from a panel of hot air balloons most of the day. The quilter used the attic windows design to showcase the subject. The backing was a beautiful ombre of rainbow colors, and I decided to echo this with the thread selections. Yes, more than one color of thread...in fact, six colors! When the sky and balloons changed colors, so did the thread. It was fun to pick the colors and see what happened.

Here is the overall shot of the quilt. I think she has done a great job making us believe we are looking out the window at a balloon rally!

The panto is Oriental clouds.

Parts of the quilt had a whole spectrum of colors, and I chose a thread with those colors, too. I changed the bobbin threads along with the top threads to match the ombre on the backing.

Here is the back. There was a lot of fabric shatter in the dark blue part. That's when the needle punches through the fabric and the white of the base fabric shows as a dot. I thought it was bearding at first, but needle change and tension adjustments didn't change the outcome...white dots. Perhaps it is because the dark colors had to have a lot more dye to achieve the correct saturation of color. I spritzed the blue bit with water and let it air dry, thinking that may close the holes a bit, but no dice.

The other colors did fine, and look really cool with the cloud pattern.

These are the threads I used . Left to right, the darkest one at the top of the quilt, and moving down from there. They are all Superior King Tut variegated threads.

I sporadically worked on my dots quilt, making the borders with the leftover bits. Today, I have to do a few adjustments to make them fit. I'm pretty happy with how it looks! I have a wonderful Tula Pink backing to use. I got it at the big sale for $6 a yard!! I know!! I couldn't believe it, either.

Ooh la la! Isn't this perky!

Of course, I left the machine with one row to go on the next quilt...after all, it was 6:00!

Even in the rain, the view from the sewing machine is wonderful!

Exactly!