Tee shirt quilt finish (almost...)

I worked hard on the tee shirt quilt, and have it quilted and ready for the binding. In my stash, I had some fun bicycle fabrics to use as the border, and for the strip down the back. I had some extra blocks, and they are on the back, as well.

Here I am, sewing down the elements of the 'bicycle' to the front of the quilt.

I use a small buttonhole stitch, with the needle down feature, to do this.
You can see evidence of my klutziness on my hand, where I burned myself with the iron. 

Ta-Da!! All quilted and ready to have the binding put on.
The tan bike print for the border added a nice finish.

Here's the finished bicycle.

To save time and money for the customer, I used a simple meander for the quilting.

A bicycle close up.

The back is blue chambray fabric with a strip of blocks and a blue background bike fabric offset to one side.

Yesterday was guild, and we had Mary Ellen Von Holt from Little Quilts as our speaker. She was wonderful! She brought many of the quilts featured in her books, and gave us a brief lesson on the 'magic colors' she uses to make her quilts sparkle. If you live anywhere around the Atlanta area, you should get her to speak at your meeting.

Today, I will be running around a bit, tending to David Gilleland from Vector Quilts. He is teaching a class in paper piecing to 18 members of the guild. Check out his patterns on the Vector Quilts website. The class will be making the Star Voyage wall hanging.

Tomorrow, I am off to Cleveland, GA to deliver the raffle quilt to the Quilt n'Kaboodle shop there. Over the weekend, we sold a bunch of tickets and took in over $1000!! Wow! Now, we have to order more tickets, as we are down to a mere 257 left! I knew it was a pretty quilt, but didn't anticipate how many others would think so, too. If you would like some tickets ($1 each or 6 for $5) you can email me at wazoo4u@gmail.com and take a chance on winning it for your bed.

Butternut Creek Festival success and some sewing

The girls out did themselves selling tickets at the festival this weekend! The weather held up and the park was jammed with vendors and shoppers. Mr Wazoo and I went on Saturday morning to beat the heat. He bought another birdhouse for the yard and a new garden fairy from the metal working guy.
We couldn't get near the guild booth where the ladies were selling tickets like crazy.

We made a stop at the metal-man booth to get the new fairy.

There's the raffle quilt! The booth was busy every time we went by!

Guild members selling tickets to a hopeful customer.

There really is a Butternut Creek, running through beautiful Meeks park here in Blairsville.

Today, I worked on making a customer tee shirt quilt. After cutting and prepping the shirts, I arranged them on the design wall and made the bicycle the customer requested. I added the sashing, but only sewed three rows together so I can sew down the bike without having to shove the entire quilt under the machine to manipulate it for applique. Hopefully, I will have the top done tomorrow.

I arrange the shirts for size and color, then construct the bicycle from more shirts.

All the rows are sewn, and the bike temporarily glued down.

Here is a closer look at the shirts in the bike.

I guess the customer saw my other tee shirt quilt with a bike and thought it would be perfect for her son's quilt! He must love to ride...all but one shirt are from bicycle riding events.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

All over the country, people are hot. There is no difference here, we have been under the sticky heat wave, too. MrWazoo isn't able to spend time in the yard, and for this I am relieved. We have both been indoors and tackling the chores we hate to do. Nobody likes to tidy up, and I am the world's worst clutter monger! We managed to sort and toss magazines and papers, and briefly see the table tops. Enough of that! I'd rather be sewing!!
I finally decided on the borders for the chicken quilt. Plain black. I am surprised to have chosen this fabric. I auditioned a few other fabrics, but this is the one.

This rooster is ready to have the applique sewn down.

One of the borders had some small chickens running to and fro, but it was nixed. Too busy. Rather than toss the chickens, I made some small blocks with them and have been assembling a wall hanging from them. The next time you see these, it will be done!

I have added sashing and cornerstones, but didn't take a picture yet.

Customer quilts are also being quilted, and both of us have been busy. I had 4H quilt camp and a couple of meetings, so my output isn't remarkable, but it is progress!

This quilt was made from leftover triangles from another quilt! Stunning!

The Tula Pink fabrics are all ocean themed, and the customer requested that as the quilting design.

Octopi, crabs, seahorse, fish and starfish are in the pattern.

From under the sea to in the air! This quilt has a bird theme.

The customer has made one of these quilts for each of her siblings, and they all have the same pantograph: Little Birds

Maybe you can see it better on the plain back.

Mr Wazoo did two quilts for the same quilter. I think she did a really good job with both of them.

Disappearing nine patch is always a good design for a quick and pretty quilt.

There are tiny butterflies on the background fabric, so we used the panto Angel Wings. It looks like butterflies.

This one is a stack-n-whack from a kit.

The fabric is bright and colorful...right down my alley!
Panto: Small Splat

The quilt show is looming on the horizon, and registration closes at the end of the month, so I have been taking an hour here and there to get my own entries moving toward completion. Yesterday, I quilted the Japanese quilt I made at the retreat. Sleeve, binding and label will put it into the 'finished' pile.

Quilted!

The panto is called Clamshell with grasses. I chose a simple design to match the elegance of the Japanese fabrics. Custom quilting would have been lost on this busy quilt.

The backing also came from Japan. It has a large noshi design on the blue background.

Even without his loving care, the yard looks wonderful. Heat and rain made the plants happy.

We are going to our town's Butternut Creek Festival today, and hope it doesn't pour rain on us. The guild has a booth and will be selling tickets for the raffle quilt there. Mr Wazoo wants to buy another birdhouse for the yard. Fingers crossed for a nice day...

The view down the driveway. The brown ramp was built so Mr W could get the tractor into the yard without having to drive all the way around the house to get to the yard.

These hydrangea are only two years old!

There is the welcome to the garden post we got in Oregon.

The walkway to the studio.

The front garden view from the studio.

The fountain/birdbath automatically shuts off at 6PM.
This is what I see when I step out of the studio.

Carolyn sent Mr W the sign for the garden for Father's Day.

We are starting to see more butterflies on the flowers this week. The roses are still struggling along after being attacked by beetles. . Mr W carefully picks the beetles off and drowns them in soapy water. He could spray the bushes, but he doesn't want to kill the bees.

Mr Frog among the roses.

Everything along the flagstone path is looking lush and pretty

Not a lot of color in the back garden, but it is still lovely.
Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds come and go here. I love to sit on the porch and watch the action at the end of the day.

Another view.

Mr Wazoo wants to add a green birdhouse to the row houses. Only one has a tenant right now, a little Carolina wren.

These hydrangea are a hybrid variety. The heads are huge, but less ball shaped than the regular ones.

Finished!!

I am nearly out the door to quilt camp for the Blairsville 4H, so I'll make this short. I finished the applique quilt! I will post more later, but here it is.

I'll be back n the studio this afternoon, back at work and feeling good!

Progress!!

Remember where we started?

Half finished when I quilt yesterday.

I finished the quilting and have it all trimmed and ready to go home.

Patriotic quilt for the customer's guest room.

The new panto is called Starstruck and has pretty swirls and stars.

It really is a lovely quilt.

All day I worked on the applique quilt. I am at the last row and starting the filler there. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have the borders going. Done by the weekend? We'll see how it goes.

Mr Wazoo was on the phone a lot again today taking care of his mother's business. It looks like we can't have the memorial service in NC until late this month. Next week he meets in Greenville with his sister to make those plans. He is holding up well, and doesn't seem as down as he was yesterday. We'll be fine.