A little road trip and some tweaking

 Yesterday I decided to change the things I had a problem with on block #1 of the BOM. The yellow flower and bud changed to pink, and there is a proper stem for that flower. I added one more berry to the right side flowers, too.

I'm happier with this. I think it can now be sewn .

I took a speed trip to Dahlonega to pick up glue stick refills and some fabrics for the BOM that I really wanted. My stash is huge, and I have loads of possibilities, but I decided to make all the vessels for the blocks blue. I needed interesting fabrics with bigger patterns. (any excuse to add fabrics to the stash, right?)

Here are the fabrics I selected for the vessels. They may change as I go along, but I really like what I picked so far.

I also got a few more leaf and stem fabrics, some interesting backgrounds, and a few other flower colors.

These are the fabrics I used in block #1. I need to cut some squares from them for the future dogtooth border.

Here is the view outside at 7:30 this morning. It looks like something from a horror movie!

Later today, it is supposed to rain, sleet and snow. 

I'll be inside sewing!

TA DA!!

Everything is glued down and now, the hand stitching and machine appliqué starts!

The only thing I'm not sure about is the yellow flower on the left side of the picture. I changed the berries on the right to yellow-orange ones, looking for balance . I also added the yellow bud to the top of the branch the yellow flower sticks out of. I also don't like the way the stem of that flower just disappears behind a leaf. I may change that, too. I added a short stem to the flower on the vase that was just hovering there.I guess that's all the changes...we'll see.

The extension next to my sewing area is piled with the fabrics  used in the block. I need to cut pieces from them before putting them all away for the dogtooth borders. What a mess I've made!!

I took in two repair quilts yesterday and need to attend to them today. Something to work on tonight! After I fix them, I'll start on the BOM appliqué. I see a lot of fun ahead!

 

BOM underway

 Wow! This block of the month is more difficult than I first imagined. Some of the pieces of appliqué are teensy. I originally cut circles for the little berries, intending to use Karen K Buckley's Perfect Circles and starch to form them. No dice! I switched to my travel iron to get better control over the gathered and starched bits, but it was nearly impossible to hold them down with a pencil eraser and pull up the thread to gather the edges. I made three berries in an hour. There are 40 of them on block one!! No way. I re-grouped and made fusible berries instead. These, and the 1/8 inch stems (that's another fiddly bit), will be sewn down by machine.

Here are the first bits of appliqué. The dark pink circles are the berries. I did the running stitch on all of them while watching TV.

I have the background chosen and prepped for the first block, and was just getting started on motif placement in this picture.

Of course, the studio is a giant mess, with the pulled fabrics all over the place. These are stem fabrics, being cut and put through the bias maker.

In the end, there will be 300 inches of stem on this quilt!

Over at the sewing area, I have a small ironing station set up for the prep of the appliqué bits.

I didn't take a picture of how much I got done, but will do that today when I get home from the longarm group meeting. I'm showing some free motion patterns to the group to hopefully get them excited to play on their machines, and not just do computer guided stuff.

Thankfully, the ice and snow is mostly gone today, and I don't fear the trip to town. It was certainly beautiful, though!

At 7:30 yesterday morning, this was the scene.

One last look at the Christmas tree, while it really looks like Christmas. Mr Wazoo spent the day disassembling it and putting everything away. Christmas is over.

Later in the day, the sun came out and gradually melted the snow away.

I made a big pot of potato-corn chowder, and Mr W enjoyed his bowl of steaming goodness for lunch. 

Sometimes staying inside is a wonderful thing!

First finish of 2022

 What a wonderful day I had in the studio! New Years day was spent sewing and fondling my fabric. I finished the scrap quilt, hand sewing the binding during a marathon of Columbo episodes on the tube. It's a happy quilt, and we need some happy these days.

Here it is, quilted and binding sewn on. I finished the hand sewing in the evening.

Panto: Jetty. I'm still trying to conquer the sizing part of computer panto set up.

Still too big!!

The backing is a cute 30s reproduction. I think they look like Pez, the candy!

We were supposed to have a whopper of a storm last night, but it turned out to be just rain and some wind. Mr Wazoo put my car under the deck for safety because the garage is full of the boxes and bins for all the Christmas decorations. They belong in the closet under the stairs, but it is an ordeal to get them out, and back in! Bless his heart, Mr W did it all this year. Now that my back is getting better, I'll be able to help with the take down and storage bit.

This was the sky at 5:30 when I quit for the day. 

Today, I will be prepping fabric for the first block of the BOM on the Quilt Show. I've watched all the videos and read the instructions, making a disaster of the studio by pulling piles of fabrics from the stash. There is no better balm for the Covid blues than fondling fabric and wallowing in all those bright colors! I'm rejuvenated and ready for the challenging appliqué ahead. Bring it on!

I am also ready to start quilting for customers again. I'm going to start slowly...maybe one quilt a day, until my back tells me it can handle the work. So far, I can do a small quilt in a day, so bigger ones will take longer than usual. At least I can do it! Yippee!!

Off to the studio, and more quilting in 2022.