A big finish on a lovely Autumn day

It has been absolutely beautiful here in the mountains lately, with the daily highs in the high 70s and the lows a great sleeping 50s. Mr Wazoo quickly finished the quilt on his frame and went outside to do some mulching in preparation for the coming winter.

All finished and gone out the door!

Panto: Alfresco

The new shrubs are in and the mulch applied.

Meanwhile, I spent most of the day working on the Be Colorful quilt, making thousands of pebbles and adding a different background in each of the flying geese circles. I finished the quilt in the afternoon, and had some time to make the bias stems for my own project in progress. I think it will take months to complete this quilt, but will be worth it in the end.

Wow. I wish this was my quilt.

Any quilting on black is hard to see in photographs. I hope you can see some of the work I did.

The back is a teal batik

A few burnt fingertips later...bias stems!
I used my 1/4 inch bias bar for the pressing.

I can't believe how long it took just to get one block laid out!
Sewing it will be a challenge, but fun!

Just work...

A couple of customer quilt pick-ups and a lot of quilting filled the day for me. Mr Wazoo had a doctor's appointment in the morning and spent the rest of the day planting shrubs and mulching. He is still outside at 6:15 watering things. I'm hoping he comes in soon, because I am really beat and don't want to be making supper at 8 pm!
We were supposed to be in Hiawassee today, helping a customer put her new longarm machine and table together, but had to re-schedule because of Mr W's appointment. Another day...
This is the beautiful Jacqueline de Jonge ' Be Colorful' quilt my customer made, and I am having a blast quilting it. The stitch in the ditch was boring, but I finished it before lunch.

Ditching done! Ready for quilting.

I spent the rest of the day quilting with various variegated threads, and finally, black for the background. I will probably finish the background quilting tomorrow. Until then, here are a few shots of my progress so far. See you tomorrow!

The border

Some of the stars and flying geese.

Detail in the center medallion.

The quilt center.

Weekend quilting and sewing

Yesterday, we worked in the studio as well as doing some much needed house clean-up. Mr Wazoo does the outside cleaning, and I do the inside... Needless to say, I did very little on my end, but did vacuum the studio and put away the stuff I got on the shop hop.
While I was shop- hopping, Mr W quilted this big lime green quilt on my machine. When I got home, I did the memory quilt for a customer who made it from her Dad's clothes and photos.

Big and green!!

Panto: Big Splat

Woo-ee! That's lime green!

Heartwarming memory quilt to keep the customer
wrapped in a father's hug.

She wanted the quilting to be loose and open. The quilt is very soft.

Brushed plaid homespun on the back. It feels like flannel.

Today, I quilted three charity quilts for another customer before taking the afternoon to start a project of my own. I have been wanting to make the quilt since 2007, and today is the day I started it!

Three nice charity quilts

Panto on all three: Basket case

All the applique pieces are ready, and the piecing fabrics gathered.

Mr Wazoo spent the day outside raking the grass and cutting back the plants in the gardens. It is really feeling like Fall, and the leaves have begun their color show on the mountains. I love it!

Color in the front...

color in the back...

we even have color on the side!

Some quilting and a grand day out

I am posting this a day late, but it is because I was out and about on a shop hop today. Mr Wazoo held down the fort, and quilted a king sized quilt in my absence. I'll post that tomorrow. Here are the quilts we finished yesterday.

Mr W did this nice tee shirt quilt for a customer's grandson.

Panto: Dazzle

Here is the small wall hanging I started a couple of days ago

The back is pretty cool, too!

Quilting detail

I decided to show you the first of the three quilt repairs I am doing for the same customer. It is a utility quilt, found in a cabin the customer bought furnished. The former owner of the cabin said her mother made the quilts. I think it's wonderful that the new owner is having them repaired with the aim of having them displayed in the cabin.I finished this one a few days ago.

I didn't take a before picture...oops.
Can you spot the replaced blocks?

Here are three of them. Hint: The dark gray one is original to the quilt.

Today, I went with a friend to Dahlonega and Cumming on a mini shop hop. I needed some fabric for two customer commission quilts, and a few small pieces for a quilt I am planning.It was hard, but I   resisted buying all the wonderful fabrics I saw today and drooled over. I did get a couple of new seam rippers to replace the ones I broke trying to dismantle the horse blankets! Ah! Fond memories...

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A finish and a start!

Yesterday, I finished the feathered star quilt, and it will go out today to Michigan, and its owner.

The center medallion. I should have taken a closer picture. 

After the quilt was off and trimmed, I spent the rest of the afternoon prepping a repair project for evening sewing. This little quilt has about 90 spots that need repair, and some that need all new pieces. Thanks to my friend, Marlene, I have the old fabrics to do the work! I put a safety pin in wherever I need to do some repair.

Because both front and back need repairs, I think this will be at least a week long project...there are lots of places where I have added batting, too! Here are a couple of pictures of what it looks like in progress.

I stick the pins in the chair arm as I go along...
probably no good for the chair, but it works for me!

One of the new pieces waiting to be appliquéd in and quilted over.

The bottom of the picture has been repaired,
the top shows pins in places I need to work on.

Before the day was done, I did load the next quilt and do about half of the stitch in the ditch. Mr Wazoo was working on a tee shirt quilt a customer made for her son.

The man at work.

I sincerely hope my Florida friends are hunkering down in preparation for hurricane Matthew, and that it doesn't cause the damage predicted by the weather channel. Living in the mountains makes us feel safer, but our hearts still break for the people in harm's way. By tomorrow, we'll know how it went.

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Quiet, nice day in the studio

The autumn weather has made working nicer! We have had the windows open for a couple of days, and the breeze has been wonderful. It helps to be in a comfortable room when quilting something nerve wracking. That was me today. The feathered star quilt has been a difficult one from the beginning for me. It is an intimidating pattern in that it has such formality to it, and I am not a formal type quilter.I have spent many evenings looking at pictures of other quilts trying to devise a plan for this one. Once I got started, I was okay, but did a lot of picking out along the way. I finished all the magenta thread quilting before calling it quits for the day.

The only color besides black, gray and white in this quilt is magenta.I decided to use it in the black areas 

I used it in the patterned fabric, too, but its hard to see.

You probably think I was fooling around all day to get such a small amount done, but you are wrong! We had four customers come with quilts and one with tee shirts for a quilt, and that takes time away from the quilting machine. I love my customers, and try to give them the attention they deserve for bringing their treasures to me and trusting me to make them special.

Mr Wazoo did some yard work before starting in the studio. He quilted this summer spread for a customer today. This was the first time he did a quilt with no batting. The project has flannel on the back. I think it came out great!

Pretty quilt with decorative stitching over all the seams!

See the stitching? So sweet!

Flannel backing, panto: Quirky

Tomorrow, we start fresh...windows open and ready to roll. A customer is coming at 9:30, so I can't sip coffee in my pjs too long!