Lots of rain means lots of sewing!

 We have had foggy, soggy, rainy days all week. That means (when the doctor's appointments are done) I can sew quilt all I want! Mr Wazoo has been in tree decorating mode, and every time I come up from a day in the studio, he has added more stuff to the tree. I like to do the tree, too, but he is having such a good time, I'm taking a pass on decorating and praising his efforts effusively! I really have to stop sewing for a while and bake cookies and write my Christmas cards. All of it has to be sent to far away places, so I need to get busy.

Here are the latest quilts from this week, as well as some of Mr W's efforts. 17 days left! Yikes!!

Quilt for an elderly neighbor who has no family to share Christmas with.

Fun panto called Frosty

A little label

I made one for us! All from my stash of Christmas fabric. I made a dent in the stack, for sure.

My Fav, Stars over Lake Minoqua.

Geometric panto.

Soft and snuggly flannel backing. The binding is ready, but I ran out of time to get it applied.

It started like this, and then got better!

Dogwood full of lighted balls.

Porch illuminations

Back porch lights and bows.

After seeing a picture my daughter sent, he added the lights on the trunk.

The great room is a mess, but the tree is beautiful...

Cudos to Mr Wazoo! Seen here finally relaxing.

That's it for now. I have about half my shopping done and am waiting breathlessly for things to arrive so I can wrap and mail them. I fear everything will be late. Rats. I have to make a list and check it twice. And get busy.

Christmas sewing and decorating

 I've been enjoying some festive sewing and quilting as well as a bit of gift giving. After all, 'tis the season!

I made this lap quilt over the weekend. I added a border and it is loaded on the longarm for quilting today. The pattern is from one of my quilting with pre-cuts books. This one used a layer cake (pack of 10" squares) and a bit of another fabric for the stars. I'll post pics of the finished quilt later.

Meanwhile, Mr Wazoo visited our neighbor, who fell in his yard and broke his ankle, in the hospital where he is recovering from surgery. He took him the Christmas quilt I fmade last week and a package of Oreos ( a request from the patient).

This one

The sunrise here has been especially beautiful on the few days that we haven't had gloomy, gray days. Flocks of geese flying in formation pass overhead often, on their way to warmer places for the Winter. I like this time of year despite the grayness of most days. Gray days are wonderful for hanging out in the studio, listening to Christmas music, touching fabric and pondering what to make next. So many ideas...so little time.

Dawn starts like this...

And morphs into this! It is amazing how quickly the sky changes, getting a paint job for the rest of the day. It doesn't look like this today.

I finished another repair of an interesting quilt. This courthouse steps quilt is all silk fabrics, assembled like stuffed sausages sewn to a muslin foundation. I neglected to take a photo of the missing sausages, but did remember to get one of the finished quilt and a close-up of the new blocks. My silk stash has taken a hit after fixing two silk quilts! I'm hoping things will normalize with cotton quilts soon.

This quilt is extremely heavy and slippery! Someone took a lot of time sewing and stuffing all those logs!

I replaced these two blocks. It took me a while to figure out how to do it without my stitches showing on the purple backing. It was added after the maker finished sewing all the logs to the muslin foundation. I made tubes in the sizes of the logs, lightly stuffed them with wool batting and then, sewed them carefully to the surrounding blocks and each other. The quilting in the ditches holds the blocks to the backing.

Well, it's time to get going for the day. Here are a couple of funnies that I found while surfing random sites last night. The cat one made me laugh out loud! People sure can have some weird ideas. Have a good day, filled with snippets of fun and adventure.

This is the actual comment that went with the photo: 

"These cute little kitties are in fact wearing cone hats made from their own hairballs. We think that is lovely, a little bit weird, and icky, but also lovely."

And one for my friends who are either having knee injections, or have already enjoyed the procedure.