Mystery solved!

The reveal! It's a chicken.

I finished the project on the design wall, and now, I have the borders to contemplate. I spent the day putting away all the bits of fabric left from the project and vacuuming the studio. Now that I have it back to normal, I can get on with the quilting in an area suitable for company to see.

From this...

to this. A bit better, but newly messed up with the next project's stuff.

We are having a display of woodland creatures at the quilt show, and I dressed mine today. All I have to do is get the props sewn on and she''ll be ready. Betty Bear.

Betty is ready for bed, with her bear slippers on!

She was much more comfortable in the recliner.

I loaded up the next customer quilt and got a few rows done before it was time to quit for the day. I also sewed the binding onto another customer quilt. I'll finish that tomorrow.

The customer sewed these antique Dresden plates to background squares, and made a quilt!

The first go-round is finished, and the binding will be pressed and sewn on the other side tomorrow.

Mr Wazoo and I spent the morning on the phone and the computer filling out forms and talking with the hospice nurse, the nursing home people and the final arrangements man at the funeral home. After all was done and dusted, we talked about our own futures and decided to start our final plans, too. We don't want our kids to have to do what we are doing now, especially when family is under a lot of stress and things are chaotic. Mr W will sleep better tonight, and face whatever comes tomorrow with a clear mind and a plan.

Molly is back in her element after the cleaning woman finished picking up all her toys and putting them away in her toy box. Molly picked through the pile of furry goodies and took out her three lambs. Huey, Dewey and Louie, with various limbs missing and mended. The planets are realigned.

Mixed up day

Mr Wazoo journeyed to South Carolina to see his mother and talk about arrangements with the nursing home staff. It was a tough day for him. We had a call from there yesterday about her quick decline. He said she is in bed all the time now, and sleeps most of the time. They were excited when she opened her eyes for a moment when he was there, and actually took a drink of water and a bite of applesauce. Otherwise, she didn't speak or acknowledge his being there. The hard decision was made and the admission started for hospice care right where she is. No more hospital trips. Comfort care has begun. Needless to say, he is heartbroken.
I stayed home with Molly, and took a small trip to see a man about a computerized Millie, but was unhappy to learn he does not have the same software as I do. Rats! The big adventure was Molly's, She rides in the truck with MrW to get the mail and tour the neighborhood, but today, we took a real ride into the countryside and back.
In the afternoon, I worked on getting malware off the computer and phone. Someone hacked me and I am ticked off about it. I think it is fixed, but took hours to scan and remove the offending bugs.
The light side of the day was an email with pictures of the little girl who I gave a quilt to at my trunk show. You may remember her...she was so excited and happy. It made my day. Later, I saw her at the Cobb County show and she hugged me and said she had slept under the quilt every night since getting it. Her Mom sent a picture today. Made my day again!
Tomorrow has to be better.

Here we are at the trunk show when little Harmony got her quilt

Typical little girl. Stuffed animals and princess posters.
I don't know why she has a towel on her head, but she looks happy, the quilt is nice and fits her bed.
What could be nicer?

A little field trip

Yesterday, I took a break and went to Blue Ridge for their annual Fiber Arts Show at the Blue Ridge Mountains Art Association. It is a small show, but is always lovely because of the setting in the old courthouse courtroom. Here is a slideshow of the quilts. Some are mine, some are my friends, and some are from artists I don't know. Enjoy!

This photo slideshow personalized with Smilebox

When I got home, I worked on the mysterious quilt I am making. Can you guess what it is yet? I bet you have a good idea!!

I'm getting there...

Happy Independence Day!

Day two of the mystery quilt progress

I passed the morning adding and sewing down bindings on customer quilts. After lunch, I worked on the mystery quilt from yesterday, adding two more blocks. It is really slow going, even though it looks easy. The applique pieces are tiny!!Just making them with my fat fingers is hard work.
Here are the results of today's labor.

My studio looks like a fabric bomb went off.

All for this little bit of progress. Do you see it yet?

I did the ditch stitching on another row of the applique quilt. One more to go!

I think this quilt ranks in the top three of the most beautiful quilts I have ever worked on.
I hope I can do it the justice it deserves. It will be a precious family heirloom for generations to come. It's a big responsibility and I am being very careful with the quilting.

Tomorrow is another work day! We will be taking the fourth off, but will be back in the studio on the fifth.

Happy Independence Day to everyone out there. We are all blessed to live in this country, even with the bumpy ride we're on now. E Pluribus Unum. Out of many...one.

Photos of stuff

I am so tired, I need to make this brief! So I have decided to just add photos with captions. I'll re-boot tomorrow (or really, today, since it is after midnight) and make better sense of what's happening here.

Tie quilt number 2 is finished but for the binding.

Panto: Woven Wind

I sacrificed some of this beautiful fabric for the border. I thought the quilt needed something a bit feminine. It is for the daughter of the man whose ties these are.

Basic black back.

I worked all day and only finished one block of this mystery of a quilt. You'll have to follow along and see what it is.

The quilt will use all these fabrics. H fell off. It is also red.

The hosts are about to bloom!

Everything at this end of the garden is blooming pink!

Russian sage in the late day sun.

The garden view from the deck.

Another deck shot.

Mr Wazoo spent the day mulching and making a drain field for the roof run-off.

TGIF

Hey, It's Friday!! Mr W worked outside all day, mulching stuff and putting in a gravel path to better access the top of the back garden.

He pulled out tons of weeds and rocks to make the berm by the bird feeder look better.

He says eventually there will be shrubs in the mulched area.

The gravel path.

I worked in the studio, multi-tasking three things at once. I loaded and quilted a big customer quilt on Millie, continued the stitch in the ditch on the applique quilt (until my feet hurt and I had to switch tasks), and sewed the remaining tie blocks. I have begun sewing the quilt top together and hope to have it ready for quilting tomorrow.

Another king sized quilt! I do like the color combination.
It is for a wedding present.

The customer requested Quilter's Dream cotton, so the definition is not the best.
Panto: Stacked Snailz

The back is pieced with more fabrics from the top.

This row is done and there are two more to go before the decorative quilting starts. Going around all those little pieces is tedious, but so worth it! The motifs, like the filagree heart, just pop.

Sewing the tie blocks into a top.

Many more vertical rows to sew, and more blocks on the ironing surface.

I leave you with some more pictures of Mr Wazoo's artistry.

A Father's day gift gets a home

The plants keep the water clean without having to use chemicals. The birds love it!

Bee balm and a garden gee-gaw raccoon

Bright pink phlox.

The butterfly bush is about 6 feet tall!!

At the end of the day, watering the new grass seeds.

Butterfly bush flower cluster.

Another ornament saved from our Door County, WI home.

Garden sentinels. Only one has birds in it.

Our flying pig gee-gaw

Our 'mutant' squirrel

Mr W's garden fairies.

6:30PM in the mountains. Beautiful!