Thanksgiving in the rear view

I can not believe it is December!! I did some armchair shopping on Black Friday, and plan some brick and mortar shopping this week. Mr Wazoo has all the exterior illuminations out and twinkling, and the tree stuff is staged and ready for decorating. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
In the studio, I have been sewing and quilting like crazy, getting things out the door for my holiday customers.

After sewing down all the fused elements on these two wall hangings, the quilting was a snap. The customer picked them up on Thanksgiving morning, on her way out of town. One is for her and the other for her son, who she was visiting that day.

Panto: Simply Stars

I sewed the two backings together and quilted both wall hangings at the same time! I'm more clever than I look. Ha ha.

My daughter and her boyfriend scored tickets to the Packer game in San Fransisco, where they had a good time despite the Packers playing pitifully on the field. One for the loss column.

After the cat quilt came the dog quilt. They're both cute, but I am partial to dogs.

Some of the custom quilting.

And some more...

The back. During the evening TV watching, I am doing the hand sewing on the sleeves and binding I made and attached yesterday. The cat quilt is done and the dog quilt ready to be sewn tonight.

The same customer made five small vignettes to be stretched on canvas stretchers to be hung on the wall. She fused the designs, but (once again) didn't sew anything down. First order of business was to do all the invisible thread sewing to secure the elements. Then, each one got a different background treatment. 

She had the measurements of the finished piece on her instructions, so I tried to keep the background filler to the edge of my chalked perimeter.

All those pussy willows and bird beaks were a booger to sew without messing up the edges.

This was the biggest one, at 14 x 18 inches. I also sewed down the leaves and bird with some decorative stitching.

To understand how small the bits are, this bicycle piece is only 10 x 10 inches!

Millie had to chug along on this quilt for two whole days! It wasn't especially big (90 x 90) but the pattern took over a half an hour to do one pass. This photo is from day one.

I love my Bernina 770, but when I take the bobbin race out to oil it, I can never get it back in correctly. I messed with it for what seemed hours, and then Mr W came in and wiggled it into place in just a few minutes. Thanks, Babe!! I was back in business making miles of binding and two hanging sleeves.

Non-plussed as usual, Molly napped under the Gammill while I worked overhead.

Ooh-la-la! Naked tattooed girls and loads of skulls on the fabric for the Steam Punk quilt. 

If you don't know what steam punk is, it always incorporates gears in the design. This fabric is from Spoonflower, where you can design your own fabric and they will print how much you need. 

Meanwhile, Mr W was back in his garage staging area, trying to get the garland of lighted balls to work.

One at a time, he checked the lights until he got them all working. Clark Griswold, anyone?...

I finally finished the steam punk project in the late afternoon yesterday.

The daughter, who this is for, also loves sunflowers.

The Panto is called Steam Punk (duh)

This is the backing. 

There are embroidered elements throughout the quilt, all done by  the customer. I made the binding before quitting for the day, but didn't get it on. I will be sewing that, and making two pillows from tee shirts for another customer today.

We were going to get the Christmas tree up and start decorating it, but the sun has come out and Mr Yardman wants to go outside and play... He'll get to it tomorrow. The Sunday morning shows are over, and it is time to go to work. I hope your Christmas season is off to a good start. 24 days left to get everything done. Yikes!!

I'm still here!!

Gosh, I have been getting emails and texts wondering if I am okay. Its nice to have friends who would worry if I fell off the earth. No, I'm fine, just tired. The quilts from the last few posts are all gone home and I am working long days to get the rest of the queue done before Christmas. I have a few custom quilts still to do, as well as sewing down a few fused McKenna Ryan pieces for customers. On top of it all, I got two quilts of valor in the mail today. While I worked on a custom quilt I ran Millie over the first one. No more whining...let's look at some quilts!

On Thursday, I finished this sampler for a customer who made it for her sister. They both made blocks, but the sister thinks it has gone to a charity. It will be a fun surprise.

Panto: Frolic

The sisters are both quilters and love to sew, so she put this fun button fabric on the back.

On Friday, I did this huge log cabin quilt while quilting for the second day on another giant custom quilt.

The Panto is Star Swirl

Here is a peek at the back

My constant companion wondered when we were ever going to quit and get something to eat!!
She's such a good girl.

Saturday morning and the Millie was humming.

I finished quilting this lap quilt in the early afternoon.

The Panto is Maple Wind, and looks perfect with the Autumnal panel.

I like the pretty backing, too.

Sunday morning, I finally finished custom quilting this big quilt.

There is a flower in every white square and two leaves in each colored 'brick'.

The inner border got a swirl pattern, and the corners have a feather motif.

I used two colors for the quilting; melon and light teal.
All my custom quilting is hand guided. That's why it takes me so long. The stitch in the ditch can take up to two days on a complicated pattern.

The backing was  pieced from the same fabrics as the front.

The next custom quilt is this one with crazy cats. I loaded it up and did the stitch in the ditch on Sunday afternoon.

On the Millie, I did this quilt for a Christmas gift to the quilt maker's son.

Panto: Woven Wind

The design really shows up on the backing
Next, I made the binding and applied it as well as adding the label.

It took several hours of hand sewing on Sunday night to get the binding sewn down.

The customer made the label, and I finished it and sewed it on.

I'd be remiss not to mention Mr Wazoo coming inside to quilt one of the customer quilts on Saturday. It rained, so why not quilt?

Panto: Angel Wings

The minkie backing made a terrible mess of the cutting table, but it is oh so soft!!

I sewed the backing and quilted this completely hand pieced log cabin .
I am so impressed with how flat it is!

The customer has bad arthritis in her hands and isn't able to hand quilt anymore. She said this may be her last quilt. It is a gift for her son.

I just happened to have the exact fabric from the center squares, so I made binding and gave her a little gift of a totally finished quilt. I don't know how she would do with the hand sewing of the binding, so I did it while watching a Christmas movie on TV.

Three long days later, the cats are done! I would be thrilled, but there is a dog one like this yet to be started!

I did all the red bits first.

Next, I quilted the black parts with a dark gray

Last came white!

This is a view of the back

Here's the first QOV.

My go-to Panto:Simply Stars

Lots of stars on this quilt!!

Well,  I am finally up to date with what's happening here at Wazoo, and I hope you enjoyed seeing the quilts we finished in the last few days. I'll be back in the studio after a brief run up to Murphy to deliver a quilt to a customer who has hurt her back and can't get here to pick it up. Oh boy! I get to go out!!