Moving along with projects

 I have been quite busy these past few days, quilting customer projects as well as doing some sewing. The next tee shirt quilt flimsy is finished and ready for quilting, and I have the swags cut for a  customer quilt I am enlarging for her. Last night, I cut them out and turned the edges so I can begin the appliqué.

The black border is also on, but I took this picture before I sewed it.

14 long swags and 4 corner ones, all ready to be trimmed, turned and appliquéd. I have the 18 flowers ready, too, but need to press them better before turning the edges.

My customers have been busy at home, sewing up some pretty tops.

First is this spectacular hexi quilt. Most of the flowers are fussy cut, making it even more special. The colors are wonderful, too!

The maker chose this panto that I think looks a lot like the hexies! I don't remember the name of it, but I call it Covid...

The backing is appropriate for the design, too!

This customer has made several of these controlled color, plaid looking quilts. Her use of dark-medium-light to give the illusion of a woven plaid is very clever.

Panto: Lockets

The hears are sweet and feminine. The quilt is for a granddaughter.

Charlie Brown!! I love Peanuts, and had the book Happiness is a Warm Puppy when I was in High School many moons ago. The customer said she has had the kit for this quilt for ages and was finally determined to make it. Good job!

Panto: Simply Swirls in bright yellow thread

The quilt is  "big-boy" bed size for a grandson.

Remember Baby Einstein? I had some of these fabrics way back when, and made a couple of baby quilts from them,. The customer had the panel and supporting cast of prints and finally put them together.

Panto: Stars and Swirls in fluorescent green thread.

I love the red dot fabric for the back.

All week, I have been slowly making the men in hats blocks. I now have 20 of them, but think I need one more row...

I had them laid out four across and five down, but the quilt looked too long for the width. One more row, some sashing and a border will make this a fairly large quilt. Not sure yet where I am going to end up with this one, but I like it so far!

Here is the last photo of Penny in her soft collar. I took it off yesterday and gave her a thorough brushing. She still looks like a ragamuffin, but at least she has no mats or tangles in her super soft, curly fur.

Today I hope to get the borders with the swags ready and maybe sewn. I also need to get pieces cut for the spider-web repair. 

I'll be going to Texas in April for six weeks to look after my Dad. My sister needs a respite, and my brother and I will be splitting the time in the Summer to give her a well needed break. I hope to take a few projects to work on as well as a couple of repairs to finish. I can mail them back when I'm done, making everyone happy.

My Dad's 14 year old dog, Millie, passed away this week and I'm sure he is acutely feeling the loss. That dog was the world to him. Maybe my sister's dog and Penny will give him his pup fix to get him through this difficult time. I hope so. Dad is 98 years old, lives by himself with assistance from my sister and home health, and manages pretty well. I'm happy to step in for a while and cook for him as well as ferry him to doctors and shopping. Mr Wazoo has decided to go along, so it will be a family affair.

Millie and Dad at her graduation from obedience school

Millie doing her tricks with Dad

Miss Millie

Nice day at work

 The rain finally stopped and when the sun shooed the clouds away, it was a perfectly lovely Monday! Of course, I spent the lion's share of it in the studio. The quilt I loaded at the end of the day yesterday was ready and waiting, so I got Millie fired up and off top the races. Meanwhile, I worked on cutting blocks for the next tee shirt quilt and getting therm organized on the design wall.

Another table cloth quilt for my steady customer. She says this is the last one. I think I have quilted eight of these. 

Lemons on the back of this one. Same panto: Bush Berries

I forgot to take a picture when I was arranging the blocks. This is later, when I already started sewing the rows together. Oops!

Even though I seem to work in chaos, I am truly organized when sewing. All the parts laid just like I want them.

I am still fixated on the men in hats, and made a few more while quilting quilt number two for the day.

Its starting to look like a great club to be in...Men in Plaid!

This customer makes perfect quilts. They are always pretty, too.

Panto Fairy Garden

Coordinated backing.

Her second quilt is loaded, but will have to be patient. I'm going on a road trip tomorrow.

I'm on a mission to locate some solid colored fabrics to increase the size of a customer quilt.

There is never a lack of weird challenges here at Wazoo.

While I worked today, I listened to a series called Monsters in America. A couple of them were about Bigfoot encounters, so I thought I'd share a couple of Bigfoot jokes. I'm feeling good!

Funday Sunday!! How I missed it.

 I am good to my word! I figured out the block for the man in a hat and made some today. The block is in Barbara Brackman's new version of quilt patterns as Oklahoma Boomer. It was first Published in 1898 by the Ladies Art Company and was a popular block in patriotic quilts. Boomer is usually red or blue, but I am making mine with plaids of earthy colors and a couple of zingers. I worked it out on EQ and am anxious to see it come to fruition.

Here are my first five Boomers. I was going to have different backgrounds, but I like this green dot fabric and want to use it here.

Barbara Brackman lists the block in her new book, the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns , Third Edition.

If you don't have it, it is worth the big price. It lists over a thousand blocks, with pictures and piecing diagrams. She is also coming out with a Block Base for it. Oooooo!

My first two Boomers...

and their neighbors.

Here is my mock up of where I am going with the quilt.

This is a sample of an OK Boomer quilt from Judy Hopkins and Nancy Martin's book.

Okay,  enough of my new obsession...I did get some work done today. First up, my colorful quilt. I wanted to get it done so I could move on to a new project. Its not a favorite, but it got me over the creative slump I was in.

I ran out of the black and white stripe fabric, so it doesn't have binding yet. I really want the striped stuff, so I will wait until my quilt shop fix on Tuesday to get some.

I tried a new panto called Conduit. It has squares with ovals inside. It made a nice texture, but I think I'll do it smaller next time.

Mr Wazoo thinks the backing is too flashy. ha. ha ha

Never too flashy for me!! I love bright colors!

Well...I almost finished the second customer quilt, but Penny wanted to play, and I couldn't resist that face.

She is especially helpful when I am working on the computer...NOT!!

Busy day

 I started early yesterday because the studio was such a mess and I needed to get some order there before customers started coming. Its so much nicer to work in a tidy space  than chaos! I loaded up the next quilt in the queue and started the quilting process. I love this quilt! It is funky and cheerful.

These primitive guys make me smile. This pattern was from the 1930s. I found a picture of a similar quilt made during the Depression. I am going to try a block today to see if I can replicate it. There may be a quilt of little men in hats in my future!

The fabric selections are wonderful! It was a bold choice to use the pink patterned fabric for the background. Some of the figures almost disappear.

I used a simple panto that mimics the shape of the figures.

The only thing I didn't understand about the quilt was it's dimensions, 49 x 96". Long and skinny. Maybe for a bunk bed or long twin? I don't know.

Here's the 1930s quilt.

I remembered to take pictures of the quilt with the little hole. It is a nice Kaffe Fassett display of the autumnal line of fabric.

The quilter showcased the line of fabric well. Large motifs were fussy cut for the blocks.

She wanted a swirly pattern for the quilting. It is called Lorien's phoenix

You have seen the backing...I made the patches from the trimmings.

While I was doing the quilting on customer projects, I sewed the colorful quilt together and finished the flimsy. I hope to get it quilted today.

Here is the finished flimsy.

This will be the backing! I got it at a sale and knew I would find somewhere to use the wild, bright fabric.

Next was a gigantic quilt with mutant tulips machine appliquéd on the blocks. These tulips are as big as your head! The quilter used all sorts of different kinds of fabrics to make the motifs, from silky prints to double-knit polyester. The stems and leaves are a thick decorator fabric. I think she used old clothing and whatever she had on hand. 90X113" of funky flowers. I added 15" of length to the muslin backing to make it big enough for the top.

I started the quilting at noon and finished at 6:00 on the dot. Huge quilt!

The panto is a simple Baptist fan pattern.

The customer had already added bits and pieces to the backing in an effort to make it big enough. The white fabric is one of her additions.

Some of the quilt is over the back and not in the picture. It felt good to turn the lights off and go sit down.

I worked hard and had a glass of wine while Mr Wazoo grilled chicken. Life is good!

Today, I hope to have some fun and mess around with some fabric. I'll probably get some customer work done, but mostly I need to do something creative. Enjoy your day, too!