On the eleventh day of Christmas..

We had snow!! It looks like we will have a white Christmas here in the mountains. It started snowing late in the afternoon and piled up quickly. It is so beautiful.

Penny is intrigued by the snow. She doesn't know if she should play in it or eat it!

I worked hard today and finished two quilts for the same customer. They included adding the bindings and labels.

Giant log cabin is quilted and now ready for binding. I sewed the binding and applied it while quilting the second one

This Chinese coin quilt is colorful and fun. I love looking at all the different fabrics.

Panto: Funky Fans

The backing is pieced from leftover fabrics from the top.

The binding is done and the label made and attached to the big log cabin quilt.

I finished the binding and label on the Chinese Coin quilt while beginning the quilting on a rush Christmas job. 

This quilt is ginormous!! No way it will be done for tomorrow. I plan to not work tomorrow...

each row takes 30 minutes to quilt and one large bobbin does 1 2/3 rows! Yikes!!

Meanwhile, the snow keeps coming. The back porch screens are snowed in! I got out my winter coat and gloves for the middle of the night pee trip with Penny.

Brrrrr!!

Six quilts ready for home. The placemats were a hit. They went home today.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Eleven pipers piping.

Ten lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking, 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.

Wow! That means I would have received 273 fowl and 90 extra people to take care of! Not to mention the 32 cows needing attention!! Of course, 35 golden rings would be nice. I could make a swell necklace...

Santa Claus comes tonight!

 

On the tenth day of Christmas...

 My packages finally arrived! Tomorrow night after Mr Wazoo goes to bed, I will get my surprise out and put it together!

Today I finished the placemats!! I am so happy to have that job out of the way. What's more remarkable is that they are all the same size! I'm impressed with myself on this task... I made and applied 1792 inches of binding, turned 128 corners and joined the ends 32 times. Good thing I like doing binding.

32 placemats ready for a wonderful wedding reception.

12  of them are white on white prints on both sides. My guess is these are for the couple and their wedding party.

Panto: Borneo

The other 20 are gray swirly fabric on one side and white on white on the other.

Panto: Curlyque

I also finished up the quilt from yesterday. It is a wonderfully scrappy Autumn leaves quilt from a Bonnie Hunter pattern. I can't believe my good fortune to have two perfect quilts in a row! This quilt is an extremely well made project. I love it.

The subtle prints and colors for the background fabrics make this quilt fun to look at. My job is made better by interesting fabrics used in people's quilts. Eye candy for this quiltaholic.

The customer wanted the quilting to look like wind, so I chose the panto, Undulate and reversed every other row to achieve the look.

Gorgeous paisley backing.

In the afternoon, I tackled a large log cabin quilt that will be an 80th birthday gift. Unbelievable as it may be, this quilt is also perfect! Joy unparalleled! It quilted up beautifully and I finished it at 6:10. Well worth a bit of overtime in the studio. I need to trim it and add the binding and label tomorrow.

Beautiful quilt for a man's birthday.

Panto: Come Dance With Me in green thread.

It doesn't show well in photos, but the texture of it is wonderful. It is one of my all time favorite pantographs.

Here is what it looks like. Isn't it pretty?!

Guess what?

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Ten Lords a leaping!

Nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking, 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! Whew!!

Speeding up the countdown!

 Lying in bed last night, I was thinking about the twelve days of Christmas  and realized I started the countdown on the wrong day. Oops. Well, today you'll get a thrill...two days!

There you have it!

Eight maids a milking.

Seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, yada, yada, yada.

On with the quilting news. A few days ago, I got an email from IQA who puts on the Houston show. They have gone belly up!! Kaput. No more. In their email they say that if you have a multi year membership (yes, of course I do) it would be great if you donated the amount paid toward their final expenses instead of a refund. Okay...I'm good with that. Then they go on to say there will be a show sponsored by Quilts, Inc.. We'll just have to see what happens. Covid hits the quilting world, too.

Today I had all three machines going. Millie helped with this beautiful reproduction quilt while I quilted another row of blocks on the custom job.

This quilt is so lovely, I wish its was mine! Perfectly sewn, points intact, square and flat with an ample back sized to make the quilter happy.

This panto is a freebie from APQS and doesn't have a proper name. I'll call it Feather Flower.

The backing is a pattern from the top, but in a new color way.

I'm still working the light gray areas, and did this cute dog block today.

The background fill is cursive writing of things dogs say, and some curls for his beard.

This is the door on the schoolhouse block.

Flowers for the flowery block

Later, at the Bernina, I sewed some of the bindings onto the white placemats. I have four more to get the binding onto, but will then have all 12 to sew the binding down waiting for me tomorrow.

They're piling up!

Four to go and one with a flaw. I think I can cut another one from the quilted fabric.

The next quilt is about half quilted, and I left the studio a bit early to get supper started.

Christmas is coming so fast!! Mr Wazoo's big gift still hasn't come. Rats!

Nine ladies dancing! Aren't they cute?

All the other stuff, and a partridge in a pear tree!

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!