On the seventh day of Christmas...

 We were busy elves inside and outside! I finally got to work in the studio and finished the 21 gray and white placemats. I will get the 12 white on white ones done tomorrow.

Here is where I started my day. All 32 mats ready for binding.

Work underway sewing the bindings on. After doing a few completely, I figured it would go faster if I sewed on the binding to all the mats and then sewed all the bindings down. I was right!

A few hours later, I had the 21 gray and white ones completed!

I made the white binding and will do the same to these tomorrow.

The quilt I finished yesterday was trimmed and had it's pictures taken so I could get on with the next project.

Simple half square triangles make a bold statement when done in jewel tones and framed in black.

Panto: African Samba

Bright orange backing is the finishing touch to a sizzling quilt.

Next in the queue was this scrappy foundation pieced strip quilt. The blocks are orderly with the fabric placement, but a couple of them have gone rogue to give the quilt some sparkle.

The bright green sashing and borders were the inspiration for my thread choice for the quilting.

Panto: Splat, in bright green thread!

The backing is from Connecting Threads. If you haven't tried any, their fabrics are quite soft and yet sturdy. For the price, you can't beat them for backs or any quilting project.

Outside, Mr Wazoo supervised the installation of our new fencing in the back yard. We wanted a place for Penny to be able to run and play off leash. Because of the slope and rock garden retaining wall, we only had to have two spans of fencing put in. The house makes the fourth side of the enclosure.

We can't try the gates until tomorrow, after the concrete sets fully.

Penny is taking a close look at her new play area.

There is a five foot wide gate at both ends so Mr W can get his tractor through.

The strip of dirt about two thirds of the way down is where the new electric cable is buried for Mr W's new garden lighting. 

It may not be a huge space, but it is good enough for a little dog to have some fun in.

The first quilt for tomorrow is loaded and ready for Millie. One short trot outside with Penny and I'm off to bed.

I'm getting a little nervous about the main gift I ordered for Mr Wazoo. Only three days left and it still hasn't come!! The surprise has some assembly required, and I wanted to get it put together and in its place to surprise the man. Fingers crossed it arrives  soon. Until then...

Seven swans a swimming...

six geese a laying, five golden rings. Four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves

and a partridge in a pear tree!

On the sixth day of Christmas...

 I finally got a haircut!! We spent a lazy day here at Wazoo. I didn't work and Mr W passed on yard work for a wonderful ride in the countryside. Unfortunately, Penny wasn't  having as good of a time as we were, barfing in my lap and down the space between the seat and the console. *sigh* There was no pre-puke warm up to give me a clue what was about to happen; just an immediate flow of kibble and juice. Mr Wazoo was kind enough to clean up the car when we got home, while I changed my pants and washed off my purse and the dog. Penny seems none the worse for wear. Note to self: Get travel sickness medicine from vet!

Mr Wazoo grilled spareribs for supper, and we had a yummy meal followed by a Christmas movie, The Bishop's Wife, with David Niven, Loretta Young and Cary Grant as Dudley the angel. There is a newer version with Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington, but this one is classic, and well worth watching. Everybody went to bed early. It wasn't until this morning that I realized I hadn't posted on the blog! All I can offer is a picture of the other twin's Christmas tree, all decorated and lit up. My kids love decorations as much as I do!

A skinny tree fit for an apartment.

Six geese a laying...

five golden rings. Four calling birds, three French hens, and a partridge in a pear tree!

On the fifth day of Christmas...

 ...I bound placemats. There is a huge amount left to finish, but I'm getting there. I also quilted a customer project, but haven't taken the pictures of it yet. What a slacker!!

Penny and I spent the night in the living room last night. She was in her pen and I was in my recliner. You see, she is still pooping gravel. I think she's done now, but there were a few episodes overnight and I didn't want Mr Wazoo to be disturbed over and over. It was fine, but I'm tired.

My daughter got her quilt and put it on her bed. She texted me the photos with a lovely note thanking me for all the work that went into it. Gotta love kids like that!

The quilt on the bed. Curtains cast a weird color on the fabrics.

Curtains open...way better!!

My daughter in law turned 40 on Thursday. I wish I would have looked that good at 40...

My son baked her cake, complete with Totoro in the decoration! My grandson approved wholeheartedly.

Mmmm..chocolate pound cake with fresh strawberries.

I promise I will have quilt pictures tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get a full night's sleep tonight!

Less than a week until Christmas! Are your cookies baked and your gifts wrapped?

Five golden rings

Four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas

 Binding the pile of placemats has begun! I quilted the white fabric and cut 12 mats from that, then started the binding on the 21 gray and white mats. I forgot to take a photo of the pile. I'll do it tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, sometime before last night, Penny ate some small gravel while outside. Today she is squatting a lot and producing either nothing, or a little stone and then a large amount of poo. Oh joy. We have been in and out many times and she is otherwise frisky and playful. I bet her hiney is sore...We'll see how it goes over the weekend and hope she passes whatever might still be in her. So far, three small pieces of gravel about the size of lima beans. I have to keep telling myself...she's a puppy, she's a puppy...

I wrapped Mr Wazoo's Christmas present and now there are two gifts by our little tree! Opening gifts Christmas morning should take minutes, not the usual hours. And we won't have to get up at five with excited kids!

I promise I will have some quilty pictures tomorrow. For now, enjoy what a lapse of thirty years looks like! 

Our goofy kids in 1987

Our goofy kids in 2018.

Four calling birds,

 three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree!

On the third day of Christmas...

Yesterday afternoon, I joined the line of people waiting to vote. We braved the light rain and the cold wind to do our civic duty and vote in the run-off election. Too bad we still have to endure 20 more days of wall to wall political ads...

I was glad I wore my raincoat. Some people just put up with it.

 I did the most boring job ever today. I need to make 32 placemats for a customer, and quilted rows and rows of the pattern Curley Q's onto white fabric! The back is a gray tone on tone, and there will be 21 of these. Then I will repeat the process on white with white backing for another 12 mats. The binding alone is 1749 inches long! I finished the quilting and cut the 21 gray/white mats. Hopefully, I will get them bound tomorrow while I quilt the next batch.

Quilting on white is boring and hard to see.

The gray fabric was 106 inches wide, so I quilted two pieces of white that were 64 x 42 in succession so I didn't have to load them twice. It worked well and I finished before I had to leave for my eye doctor appointment.

Today was the first time I left Penny out of her playpen in the studio. She ran around a lot but settled down and took a good nap in her furry bed under Big Gammill.

Penny likes to take her nap with a couple of friends.

After nap time, Mr Wazoo took this picture just before they went for their afternoon walkies.

Look at those huge feet! They are like soft furry mittens.

The first table runner gift is finished, and I will be doing the hand sewing on the second one tonight during my Christmas movie fix.

I like how it turned out and I'm glad I picked the red fabric for the binding instead of the black. Hand sewing black gets harder and harder as I age.

I can picture it on a table with a nice pine centerpiece on the birch tree part.

The panto is Falling Snow in off white Glide thread.

I had this fabric in the stash, too, so why not use it?!

I left for my 2:30 doctor's appointment at 2:10 and finally made it home at 5:45! My eyes are dilated and foggy, and I am tired from all the sit and wait. I struck up a conversation with the five other people in the waiting room after an hour of silent sitting, and we had a great time. Two of the ladies asked for my card when they found out what I do for a living. We talked about grandmas who hand quilted and crocheted for them as well as the losses they have had in their lives. The cards were for future tee shirt quilts they want made, and a couple of tops one lady got from Grandma that she would like quilted. Aside from our political views being polar opposites,( I didn't reveal my preference)  we had a wonderful chat about all sorts of things and parted one by one with Merry Christmas wishes. 

Today we have three Franch hens, two turtle doves and a partridge  in a pear tree!

On the second day of Christmas...

 Oh dear! Penny got me up at 3:30 AM to go out and poop. Then she wanted to run and play. Mr Wazoo was not amused, and the dog and I were relegated to the living room to her pen and my chair for the rest of the night. Fortunately, my chair is really comfy and I went back to sleep in a flash. Penny played and napped in her pen until Mr W came out in the morning.

Down in the studio, the quilting continued on the vintage rose of Sharon quilt, and it was finished by noon.  As a Merry Christmas for the customer, I made and applied the binding from 40's pink fabric from my stash. The quilt is beautiful. Later, when she picked it up, she told me she got it as a gift from a friend who found it at an antique shop. Not a family heirloom after all. The customer went ga-ga over the finished quilt and was very happy.

This is the kind of quilt I am always on the hunt for. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It looks like a kit quilt from the 30s or 40s.

The appliqué  is nicely done and all intact.

I chose to stay traditional with the quilting and chose Baptist fan for the pattern.

Soft, Kona muslin on the back.

Here is a look at the finished binding.

Today's walk with Penny took us on the deer path through our property. There are piles of leaves on both sides of the path for her to romp in and grab sticks to carry around. It was a beautiful day, but brrrrr...cold!

The deer trail goes through our land and over to the vacant land next to us. Deer use this like the super highway to the national forest land behind us. We see loads of them and Mr Wazoo gets irritated when they stop for a snack in his gardens.

Penny is camouflaged by the leaves. She loves to plow and roll in them.

The deer trail runs parallel to Mr Wazoo's path around his garden and the gravel path to the rock garden in the back yard.

Penny stopped to watch the birds fighting over seeds on the feeders. Later, she pooped and walked in it as well as sat on it. I gave her a bath and she had to sleep for an hour to recover. ha ha

I made the backing for the three table runners and loaded it up about 3:00 PM. I finished two of them by quitting time, and had (you guessed it) one row to go on the last one. I'll finish them up tomorrow. The binding was made during Penny's nap, so I am ready to get it on and have them done!

I made one big backing piece and quilted all three in a row rather than load them three times. One row left and it is back to customer projects.

Two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree!

On the first day of Christmas...

 On the first day of Christmas we mailed five boxes of cookies, an easel for the grandson, a birthday card for the daughter in law, had a check up at the doctor, sewed three table runners and quilted a customer quilt. It has been a long and busy day, and I am going to bed early because I had to walk Penny in the pouring rain at 4:00AM, followed by a big dry off and puppy frolic. Puppy energy is a remarkable thing. 

I left this customer quilt with the customary one row to go. The top was made by her grandmother and the quilt was never finished. It is all hand appliqué and hand pieced. Tune in tomorrow for the finished pictures. Its a very pretty quilt.

I tried to get this done, but really had to go and make our dinner!

And a partridge in a pear tree!

Odds and ends

 There has been some quilting going on, but I really needed to get some Christmas stuff taken care of. I took the day off from quilting yesterday and made cookies. There won't be anyone here for the holidays, so I am sending each kid a box of cookies along with their gifts. I usually make 15 or so varieties, but stopped after making nine kinds in one day! No cut outs or candies this year. I'll probably make some gingerbread cookies later.

The kitchen was a disastrous mess half way through the day, but I plowed on and got the work done.

The first couple of batches on the cooling racks

Mmmmm...Magic cookie bars, the kid's favorite.

The last batch of the day, Chocolate crinkles.

Everybody gets three bags of goodies

Bag number two for each kid (I call them kids, but they are all over 40...kids to me.)

The rum balls go in their own zip bag to keep the flavor from wafting onto the other cookies.

They all go to the post office tomorrow.

Today I quilted a lovely scrap quilt. My customer made it from pieces left over from all her projects. I love the mix  of all sorts of fabrics in a quilt. It was fun to quilt it while looking at the quirky mix of prints.

Isn't this a beauty?!

Look at all the fun fabrics

The customer chose the panto Curley Cue for her quilt.

The creamy backing shows the quilting well.

I had one of those five inch squares packs of Christmas fabrics, so I took an hour for myself and made a start on three table runners. I cut the squares in half and sewed them Chinese coin style. I found the birch trees and cardinals fabric in my stash and cut it lengthwise to get the strips for the center of the runners. The black strips set off the focal fabric well. Pretty nice project for just fooling around.

If I get them sewn together and quilted, I'll gift them to the postal lady, our trash pick-up guy, and my cleaning goddess.

On my cookie day, the kids all got on their phones and we had an ongoing conversation through texts. My phone was dinging all day! Pictures flew back and forth and we all had a good time. Here is a snapshot of our day.

Enjoy a bit of holiday cheer! Tomorrow starts the twelve days of Christmas!!

My oldest was doing Covid testing for the Army

My youngest was snowshoeing around Mt Hood. This picture is apres hike.

This is the view she sent me. It looks like a postcard.

Her twin sister was decorating Christmas trees at her home. This one is outside on the balcony...

This one is in her living room.

My son, his wife and my grandson were enjoying the new snow by building a snowman.