Work and play at Wazoo

Last weekend we took some time to get other things done besides quilting. Sometimes, even us die hard quilters need to do something else to keep our sanity. Mr Wazoo mowed lawns, laid sod and pruned everything in the back yard. You won't catch me outside in the Florida heat digging in the dirt! I am not a gardener at all, but I sure do enjoy the fruits of his labors. We have four pineapples coming on, and they are so cute! Miss Molly chased a bunny all over the back area, in and out of the plantings and finally to the bunny's escape through the space next to the gate. That called for a two hour nap on her part afterward.
My day was filled with the chores nobody likes; cleaning, paying bills and doing the laundry...yuk. When its done, I feel better, but actually doing it is a drag. I'd rather be sewing.
Speaking of sewing, I got to quilt a lovely hand embroidered piece on Sunday and Monday. The customer has to have the best satin stitch I have seen on an embroidered project. Really wonderful.
I finished the zig zag quilt I started at retreat, and made my demo pieces for my talk tonight at guild. I'll be demonstrating the 'world's easiest quilt' that I saw at the Fort Myers show. Fast and easy and just the size needed for our guild's Head Start quilts.
Today, I am back at work and happy to be there. Did I mention, I love my job!?

Customer embroidered quilt

A look at the quilting

One of the beautiful blocks

Border feathers

Do you see all four pineapples?

Here's one!

All neatly trimmed

One of many pots

portulaca

Molly take a breather

The easiest quilt in the world

Queen Anne's wreath in it's full glory

It reminds me of lilacs bck home in Wisconsin

A look back

I was cleaning up my computer files and came across some pictures from our guild class with Bonnie Hunter. If you ever wonder what makes me so happy every day, it is this; quilting! A little chain piecing and pretty soon, a whole quilt top. Put it on the longarm, and soon, it's a quilt! Honestly, I just love making quilts. It is my Zen.

Sewing at my nifty Sew-Ezi table Mr Wazoo gave me for Christmas

Chain piecing blocks

Just keep adding the next one and ...

Voila! The finished quilt!

Easiest quilt in the world tutorial

I have never posted a tutorial before, but this quilt is so cute, quick and easy, I felt it needed to be put out there. I first saw it at a quilt show demo in Fort Myers, Florida, and would like to give them props for the idea. I have made at least ten of these so far, as they are the perfect size for two of my guild's charity quilts for kids. It is also a great size for a last minute baby shower gift.
So, without further ado, the easiest quilt in the world.

For a 38 x 48 inch quilt, you will need 10 width of fabric strips cut 5" wide.

Begin by sewing the strips together into a 10 strip wide set, pressing each seam in the opposite direction as the previous one.

See how the seams are pressed? This will be important later!

When the strip set is finished, sew the first strip to the last strip, making a tube.

Lay the tube with the strips vertical, and cut 5" segments. You should get 8 of these.

Pick a fabric to be your upper left corner of the quilt. Pick out the stitching ABOVE this fabric, releasing the strip from its tube shape. With the second strip, pick out the stitches between the corner fabric and the one just below it. Continue doing this until all the strip sets are flat, and not tubes.

Because you pressed the seams in opposite directions, the strips will nest together nicely when you sew them together! Sew the strips in the order you un-picked them to get the diagonal effect shown. Or, mix 'em up, if you want! They always look cute because of the variety of fabrics.

Press well (I pressed mine all to one side because that was fast), sandwich and quilt.

All quilted and bound, ready to be loved by a lucky child!

I used all sorts of fun prints for this one.

I dug into the stash of cowboy prints and made seven of these!

More cowboy prints.

Thanks for looking at this tutorial! I hope you like making this easy quilt as much as I do! 

Disconnected Piecers 2014 Retreat

I went up to Sarasota for a few fun filled quilty days with the girls in the guild, and we had a blast! I had the time to get caught up on my mystery block of the month from my other guild as well as make the challenge quilt for yet another guild. After those were finished, I managed to get my next retreat project quilt half done! We all went shop-hopping, ate a lot of junk food (yum), drank a bit of sangria (thanks, Arleen) had a pizza party and an ice cream social (oooo! banana splits!). Now, I am back home, on a diet and working at the Gammill. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!
Enjoy the slideshow.

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Another big quilt and a decision made for the 2016 raffle quilt

This is the week of the giant quilt, I swear it is!! Another quilt done and packed for shipping.
I went to the board meeting for the Disconnected Piecers guild tonight and presented my two quilt ideas for the next raffle quilt. They chose the one I designed with a dresden plate border. I really like the design and can't wait to choose the fabrics for it! Thanks to EQ for finally recognizing us Mac users. It was easy to use. Beats graph paper any day!
This weekend is the retreat for the guild, and I will get a few blocks mocked up to see how they look. I am looking forward to a retreat where I am not in charge of anything! Oooooh! Sewing time, here I come.Mr Wazoo will be holding down the fort with Miss Molly for a few days. It will be fun for them, too. I'll be getting my stuff packed and ready tomorrow. Yippee!

Very pretty Civil War sampler, really huge!

It is so big, it hangs to the floor on both sides of the machine table, which is 4 feet off the ground!

Panto: Rosie

Another wonderful Civil War sampler from the same customer!

Feather meander with piano key border

the back

My design for the raffle quilt, simple but complex at the same time. I can't wait to start!!

Third place in NQA!

I am excited that the raffle quilt for the Peace River Quilters Guild got a third place award at the National Quilting Association show in Columbus, Ohio. This is the quilt you see in my header on this blog. I quilted it for the guild. Sometimes it's nice to be recognized for my work, and I think this is a tip of the hat to Wazoo.
Now, I just have to get the Disconnected Piecers Guild raffle quilt in the works!! Stay tuned for that.

Big, Bold and Beautiful!

The quilts I have done in the last few days have been HUGE! Three big quilts in three days, not too bad. The aqua and tan quilt was made for a sister's 50th anniversary gift. Wow, that's quite a gift! My customer is off to Newfoundland to deliver it.
You may recognize the blue and tan stars quilt as Bonnie Hunter's My Blue Heaven. My customer took the class from Bonnie while she was here and made this scrappy, wonderful quilt. I finished it with scrappy blue binding and a nice label because my customer has neuropathy in her hands, making handwork difficult. My little gift to a great customer.
The zig-zag quilt was made by my friend, June, who loves to create with oriental prints. She must have had a scrap from every quilt she has ever made to get this variety in her king sized jewel. I quilted it with an edge to edge pattern of oriental clouds. It turned out really nice.
I also did a custom quilt this week that is all wool applique. The photos must be in Mr Wazoo's camera. I'll post them when I download his pictures.
Have fun quilting!

I only have this snap of the Newfoundland bound quilt. Mr Wazoo is pitiful at picture taking...

Bonnie Hunter's pattern, My Blue Heaven

It's a two block quilt. Makes a great statement in these scraps.

I quilted it with the Texas Fan pantograph

The back is cool, too!

This quilt is really big! Here it is from the back of the quilting table

June's marvelous oriental zig-zag

pretty prints and fluffy cloud quilting

Turned out stunning!