Happy Birthday to me!

I had a very nice day today. Mr Wazoo got me a lovely Crabtree and Evelyn set of lavender-rosemary foaming soap and hand cream in a pretty holder. It will grace the bathroom counter. He also granted my wish for a chaise for the yard. I will be using it when the weather warms up, for sure! Friends dropped by and I shared my cake with them for lunch. Dinner was a steak, grilled to perfection by the main man, accompanied by a baked potato and steamed broccoli. Plus, I had flowers delivered from my daughter! They fragranced the studio while I worked. A good day all in all.

The binding on the second vintage quilt had to wait because I had a rush baby quilt come in today. The new baby arrived early, and the customer needs the quilt finished before she leaves on Friday to see her. I made the back bigger (no surprise here),  quilted it and just finished the hand sewing on the binding. I think it will be a nice gift.

A fairly new quilter, she did a splendid job on this on point quilt.

Panto: Frolic, in variegated pastels thread

Because I had fabric for the binding, it was easy to add a strip to the backing that matched the quilt.

The binding is on in the pictures, and it is now sewn and finished! Yippee!

The next quilt is a bold, colorful quilt for a young lady. The fabric screams modern and chic. I love the big block pattern. It suits the large scale of the prints.

This is so fresh and pretty. I love it!

The4 panto is new. It's the name of a flower, I think...Alegeria?

I hope that's it.

Anyway, the customer picked it and it really does look good on the quilt.

At the end of the day, I'm okay with "pushing 70" as my daughter reminded me. At least I got flowers!

Busy weekend with some quilting thrown in

 I spent some time on my presentation this weekend, and have all but the live part done. I will be giving a Zoom presentation for a virtual quilt show on the 9th. When I have all the particulars, I'll post them here so you can come see the fun. The show is free, put on by the Rio Grande Valley Quilt Guild. Fingers crossed it will not be a disaster!

I also put together the January newsletter for the evening guild. There isn't a pack of news because of Covid, so it is more of a "what's up?", with show and tell. Loads of pictures and some newsy bits from the members.

Work is progressing well on the black, whits and red custom sampler. I have finished all the colors but black. Quilting black on black is hard on the eyes and difficult to keep designs from running into one another. All I have left is the four appliquéd border backgrounds.

I was working on the red when I took this picture

Meanwhile, I added the borders onto the vintage wedding ring quilt and quilted the vintage Dresden plate top. The binding is on and I did about half the hand sewing on Saturday night. The binding went on the wedding ring quilt today, and I'll finish that one after the other is done. Then they will both get a thorough cleaning before going home.

The Dresden plate has a few tucks accidentally quilted in, but I am not too upset...the top was wonky with a lot of fullness in the blocks.

Panto: Baptist Fan

Plain muslin backing, but with a lovely hand. It is a Moda fabric.

This is a strange wedding ring quilt. I love that the maker probably saw one somewhere and decided to make it with no idea how to go about it. There are arcs that overlap eachother, but weren't sewn down where they overlapped! The pink squares and triangles are sewn over the arcs. It may be a weird way to make the rings, but they look fine. I added the pink inner border and calico outer border. The binding is also pink.

Panto: Splat

This is the silkiest cotton fabric I have ever seen. It is soft and drapes fabulously! It is a Moda, along the feel of the French General fabrics.

I also did some customer quilting over the weekend. This beauty is the customer's first quilt! It was absolutely perfect. I love perfect quilts!

The colors are pleasing, the blocks all square and flat and the backing (drumroll please...) was plenty big enough!

Panto: Garden Fairies, although there are no fairies in the pattern. Go figure.

This fabric is so pretty!!

Today, I quilted this log cabin quilt that will be a wedding gift. Too small backing. A couple of seams open. It took an hour to remedy the situation and get the quilt loaded. It was smooth sailing from there.

The ciustomer made the quilt with the requested colors from the happy couple. Do you see the misplaced block? She's going to kick herself later.

They also wanted a geometric panto, nothing cutesy. This is Woven Wind, like a curvy log cabin!

The backing is ombre brown. I added a similar color brown to both sides to make it big enough.

I started my next repair job on Sunday. I needed one for the demo that goes along with my presentation. The quilt is colorful and scrappy, but has 55 pieces to replace. It will take a while to do.

This is the quilt. the spiderweb blocks are a little wonky.

I have placed safety pins where I need to replace a fabric.

One border really needs help. Holes all the way through the quilt are a challenge.

You have to admit, the fabrics are fun to look at.

I'm off to bed after I take Penny out for her last trot. Tomorrow I get my second Covid vaccine, and will have a zoom meeting to give my presentation a dry run. I hope I don't fail too badly. I've worked hard on this! I'll tell you how it went in the next post.

Where did the week go?!!

 I couldn't believe it when I opened the computer and it told me it was Friday! Yikes! Where did the week go? One thing is for sure, we have a lovely and sweet smelling little dog.

Penny: Before grooming

Coquettish Penny: after grooming

I think she knows she looks great. She has been better behaved, too. Maybe she thought we were leaving her there...

Once I got home, I finished the dogs in sweaters quilt.

These pups are so adorable in their plaid sweaters!

Panto: Begging time (it's dog bones!)

The backing is a soft flannel houndstooth. ha ha ha...get it?

The same customer made this quilt, too. I love the subtle colors and , 

of course, the half square triangles.

Panto: Garden Fairies

All the fabrics went together well.

The next one is loaded, but will have to wait until morning for quilting.

Notice I was able to have the door open at 6:00 to let in a bit of the fresh 40 degrees air.

Smile!! It's the weekend!

Pretty day, rainy evening

All four of my kids had snow yesterday. This may not seem strange until you find out one lives in southern Arizona where it is usually hotter than Hades, and one lives in Portland, Oregon where the weather is mild most of the year. Portland girl said if we had snow in Georgia, all the bases would be covered. Nope! It was 60 degrees and lovely. Lovely again today, but that deteriorated and now it is pouring rain and chilly.

Sierra Vista, Arizona

Madison, Wisconsin

Portland, Oregon

Blairsville, Georgia

Just outside my studio

Aside from the weather...I have been quilting and sewing the time away. I finished the Packers commission quilt and sent it off today.

Keeping everything straight was a challenge, but the writing is all right side up!

Panto: Jetty in cheddar yellow thread.

The backing is this packers flannel. Cuddly and warm for Wisconsin winters. The binding is the fabric used in the narrow strips in the blocks. I did the hand sewing last night.

I quilted another of the never ending stream of Christmas quilts from one pf my best customers. She has made 24 Christmas quilts for all her family members! Wow! She plans to make one for herself, then she'll be done.

This customer must have a huge Christmas fabric stash. 

On my shelves? Maybe four Holiday fabrics.

Panto: Snowfall with red thread as requested by the customer

Another nice Christmasy backing.

After 6:00 and one row to go. Rats!!

Tomorrow, Penny goes for her first real haircut. I should have some fun photos tomorrow evening!

Hmmmm...what look should she get?

um...NO

Goodness! Who thought this was a good look?

He can't make up his mind which animal he is!

A chicken?...Please, no.

I'd be happy if she looks like this!!

Happy, Rainy Monday

 There is no joy in Mudville...the Packers lost yesterday to Tom Brady. To add insult to injury, he plays for the Buccaneers now! Oh well, I had work to do and got on with it.

I have a commission for a Packers lap sized quilt and found it ironic that they were playing while I was sewing. I had the sound muted and lovely Bach music playing, so the sting of defeat wasn't quite as harsh.

I'm making a BQ2 quilt but it is slow going because the fabrics are directional! I have to lay everything out to get the lettering going in the correct direction. Three of the five rows of blocks are sewn while the Packers play on the TV.

While I sewed, the Millie was chugging along on customer quilts. Both of the quilts are from the same customer and will go home as soon as she can pick them up.

This colorful project is quite large. It will certainly add some brightness to a bedroom!

I chose a simple swirly pattern for the quilting to mimic the linked circles in the focus fabric. I used yellow thread.

Tone on tone green backing.

The second project was this sweet baby quilt

I used my favorite butterfly panto for the quilting with pink thread to echo the butterflies in the focus fabric.

Soft flannel pink elephants on the back.

Penny has started a new thing. She sits in front of me and 'talks'. Barks and growls and head tilts didn't get me any closer to knowing what she was trying to say, but it was cute. She did it again this morning...