Early start to a good work day

 I started early today, trying to accomplish as much as I could before getting tired. I have been becoming so tired, I have to sit a while in the late afternoons. I think it is connected to the disturbed sleep patterns since getting Penny. Neither of us has had a full night's sleep in three weeks. I'm tired, so I would guess Mr Wazoo is, too. He would never admit it, though. But I digress...back to the work

I finished the quilt on the Millie, but I had a lot more to do than I originally thought. It turned out very pretty and the customer was pleased to have a Christmas quilt to display.

This pretty quilt was a booger to load! The customer made the backing like a big four patch, and wanted the quilt centered to the backing. This is simple top to bottom, but side to side matching the center of the top to the seam in the backing was a challenge. It all turned out right, and made us both happy!

Panto: Snow Fall, in white Glide thread.

Here are the two fabrics used in the big four patch on the back.

I worked on the custom quilt, finishing the body of the quilt. I noted one block I hadn't done the quilting pattern in, and marked it with a safety pin so I can fill it in later. I spent some time on EQ trying to figure out what to do in the large border, too. I intend to duplicate the pattern in the blocks in hexagons. Hopefully, I can get this mapped out and marked tomorrow and finish up the job.

Next, I quilted a lap quilt from a customer who requested I get backing for it as well as make and apply the binding. A search of my stash revealed a suitable backing and some fabric left from a quilt I made for charity that was part of the collection she used in her quilt! I finished the quilting and made the binding, then took Penny out for her exercise before sewing the binding down.

I bought some of these fabrics, too, and made a wall hanging from them. Good for me that I had some of the checked fabric left to use for the binding on this quilt.

Panto: Diagonal plaid in light brown So Fine thread.

I've had this fabric for a while, just waiting for the right quilt!

My coordinating binding was the lucky find!

I washed and dried the repair quilt and it looks wonderful!

Fluffed up and soft. Just like new...but old!

Penny goes to the vet for her second check up tomorrow afternoon. We have had her in our home for three weeks now, and we're so happy she is ours. We can sleep later. Right now, Penny is our world!

I'll always take a break for some donut play!

A bit of side eye from Penny...don't even try to steal my donut!

Awwww...

So fluffy and soft. Kind of like the old quilt. Comfortable.

A little snow, a little dog and a lot of work!

 I've had a full couple of days, and finally have a few minutes to blog about it. Miss Penny has kept us on our toes and short on sleep, but she is learning her manners every day and doing well with being a good puppy. I have been working tirelessly to get her to have a soft mouth and stop nipping at us all the time. She understands OFF! from me when she runs under my feet and bites my pant legs, but Mr Wazoo doesn't have the authoritative voice down pat yet. She dominates his pant legs! At least once a day, she crashes and I get a couple of hours to do some power quilting.

I finished the gray and yellow quilt for there customer's sister, and also quilted and bound two grandkid quilts for another customer. All this while working on the custom quilt on Big Gammill. I'm mastering multi-tasking!

This quilt will surely be the highlight of the recipient's Christmas. Her sister made the quilt with her favorite color combination, even though it is way out of her box for quilts. It's beautiful.

Panto: Chantilly in yellow Omni thread.

She used a grunge yellow backing. I love the way it looks!

Two little sisters will have cuddly quilts from their Grandma this Christmas.

The first one is pink, pink, pink! Just what the little girl ordered!

The hearts panto is one that comes with the APQS machine. 

I used King Tut variegated thread in shades of pink.

The backing is a bright pink Minkie that looks darker than it is in this photo.

The other sister requested pink and purple. Grandma did a good job with the fabric choices.

Same panto and thread selection.

Purple Minkie backing. Both quilts also got batik binding .

The custom job is moving slowly along. I hope to have the body of the quilt finished tomorrow.

There are 8 thread color changes so far!

I think I have about a third of the quilting to go on this one.

We had a dusting of snow along with some plummeting cold temperatures at night, but recovered to around 50 degrees by early afternoon. Mr W has been anticipating this turn and already had all the Christmas lights up and running. 

Meanwhile, Penny took a nap. Doesn't she look like a  chunky teddy bear? 

She weighs 10 pounds.

I did one more row on this Christmas quilt before quitting for the night. It should come off the machine tomorrow.

Mr Wazoo decorated the little live tree we bought instead of putting up the big tree. 

We know it would be a temptation for Penny to have so many sparkly, bright things dangling at her level. I don't think she has even noticed this tree, and it is on a table right next to her playpen.

I finished the handwork on this repair job and will get it washed in the morning. 

It only needed one block repaired and a few pieces replaced. Then, I re-quilted the places I fixed. 

Making and applying the  binding took the longest. Sewing by hand through the thick, lumpy batting in these old quilts is a challenge! This quilt is so soft and cuddly. I wish it was mine...

I need to collect the pup and go to bed. 3:30 comes quickly when I don't turn off the light until midnight.I'm looking forward to the day when Penny sleeps all night! 

My son and DIL sent Mr W and I Crocs for Christmas, and we are already enjoying them! So easy to slip on for the dog outings. Comfy too!

                                          

My new snazzy Crocs. I am also wearing my snazzy Crocs socks!

Baby, it's cold outside!

 Thanksgiving was warm and lovely. Not so much after that! The cold air has crept in and today we had some snow. Taking the pup out at 3:30 in the morning when out is cold and raining is not high on my list of likes... its a good thing she's so darn cute.

The next quilts on the Christmas list were a couple of pretty banners for the maker's church. I chose stars for one and a swirly panto for the other. I think they will look nice hanging in church.

The first one is this Joy, love, peace, rejoice banner

The background is a sky full of stars, so I chose to add stars in gold thread.

The backing is this interesting print.

The second quilt has the lyrics from the carol Silent Night between pictures of the journey, birth and visitation of Christ. 

I quilted a swirl design in a mid tone blue thread.

You can see the swirls well on the back

After these church quilts, I loaded a really big quilt for a lucky husband for Christmas. With the cold weather, she may want to get the binding on and go ahead and crawl under the quilt ASAP!

This is the quilter's second project! Yikes!! New quilters are unaware of the pitfalls that can happen making huge quilts, and some of their efforts are wonky at best. This quilt was astonishingly flat and pretty square. I am impressed with her attention to proper seam allowance and careful block joining.

The majority of the quilt is solid colors in many bright hues. The center is all shades of gray prints, with a square of color appliquéd to the center. The panto is Funky Fans in a gray-green thread.

I loved this backing so much, I bought a bunch of it for the tee shirt quilts I have to make for a new customer.

56 two sided tee shirts to be made in to as many lap sized quilts as possible.

 Should be a fun challenge!!

All day today, I worked on two quilts. One is a large pantograph project for the maker's sister for Christmas. The other is a custom job that has been patiently waiting while I did the 8 embroidered quilts for the same customer. I am finished with the stitch in the ditch on the custom quilt and am on the second to the last row on the other quilt. Not bad for a day's work. Everything gets interrupted with a puppy in the studio. In and out...sleep...in and out, etc.. Add in people coming and going to drop off or pick up quilts and my work is piecemeal. At least I can say I am making progress even though I may not have much to show for it.

SID done, I will start the quilting tomorrow.

This is a very nice gray and yellow quilt. Wait until you see it finished tomorrow. I think the sister will love it.

Meanwhile, here is where I ended my day.

Wazoo exterior illuminations are up and lit! Thank you Mr Wazoo!!

Trial and error

 I managed to finish the quilting on the king size quilt. It took three days with all the interruptions to fix things. 

The quilt is so big, I couldn't get back far enough to get it all in the picture without it being a side shot.

The panto is Espallier done in blue variegated King Tut thread

The quilting shows nicely on the black backing.

There is nothing else quilting related to show you right now. Mr Wazoo changed the white belt on the Quilt Path unit and I tried it out. We still had the shuddering. He tightened the belt up, and I tried again. The machine began to move and then the motor completely froze. Everything undone, still frozen. I sent an email to the tech guru and haven't heard back. I think they are off for Thanksgiving. Rats!!

Calm down, Susan...there are plenty of things to be thankful for right outside the door!

Winter is coming. The temperature dropped yesterday and the sky looks cold, too!

The birds are here in great numbers enjoying the feeders in the yard. This one was a Christmas gift from friends. 

The fawns from a few months ago still come every day with their mama, and are now just about fully grown. We have quite a herd coming every day, including a stunningly handsome 8 point buck. I fear he will be a goner come hunting season. All around us, shooting practice is in full swing. It drives me crazy! It is one of the things we put up with to live way out here in the woods on a mountain.

Last night it got so chilly in the bedroom, I added the flannel quilt I made for Mr W to our bed. We were certainly warm and cozy with two quilts over us! Too bad I had to get up and take Penny out twice! 

Brrrrrrrr!!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Mr Wazoo wants the whole shebang dinner, so we are having turkey with the trimmings and pumpkin pie. We will be enjoying turkey for a week! Exterior Christmas illuminations go up on the weekend! Thirty days left...

Hurry up and wait

I put my call into APQS at 10:00 eastern time and left a message for the repair expert. Nothing. I called the gal who helped us the last time Millie had a meltdown and also left a message there. Nothing. After another half hour with no response, I called the APQS 800 number and was put through to the service department. Voice mail again. I left another message there and decided to go about my day. By noon I was getting pretty hot under the collar with APQS. While feeding the puppy and having a bite of lunch myself, the phone rang and it was the service person who said she had sent me an email with a link to a video that would fix our machine's  problem. 

Mr Wazoo watched the video a couple of times and went to work. We removed a bunch more parts and tightened up others. After putting it all back together, I took the machine for a test run.

Still jiggling and shudderimng but able to sew. I hope we can figure this out soon. I plan to keep quilting as long as the stitching is good. 35 days unti Christmas...

Another row sewn. At this rate, I will have this 101 x 106" quilt done before the year is out. ha ha

Life with a puppy...