The end is in sight!

 On Wednesday I worked all day on the custom quilt. I have to get it done to be finished with all the quilts in the line. While I quilted on Big Gammill, Millie ran in the background, finishing Quilts of Valor for my local group.

The first QOV was this striking panel.

I used the panto simply stars on all three quilts. This one, with gold thread.

The backing on all three is this swirly pattern.

Number two is a split 9-patch.

I used off white thread.

The last one is this pretty square in a square pattern.

I used red thread on this one.

I finished all the blocks with the magenta thread, and have the borders done, as well. 

The blocks have 2882 leaves in them! The borders are a combination of leaves, flowers, berries and tendrils. The Bottom Line cone of magenta is gone! Loads of bobbins used on this one.

Here is a little flower

All the purple blocks have two leaves in each log.

I'll start the lime green today.

As you know, I have also finished two vintage quilts, and one has been washed and is ready to ship home! The other one I finished last night and is in the wash right now.

Fixed, quilted and bound!

Yesterday, I went to Chattanooga with friends to pick up a repaired sewing machine. We enjoyed our day out with visits to three fabric shops. I bought a few things and will add them to my kit stash for Texas.

I am not one to be up early, so I snapped this photo of the sunrise over the mountains from the road. The tallest one is Brasstown Bald, the highest mountain in Georgia. If you enlarge the picture, you'll see the tower on top where I have visited, taking lots of pictures of the surrounding area.

I am amazed how quickly my finger has healed after my rotary cutter accident.

It is still tender if I bump it, and the nail is weird, but it really looks pretty good.

Penny , posing with her favorite outdoor toy...a floppy frisbee. 

She loves to run and fetch. I think it is the retriever part of her make up.

 

Finishing up and chasing butterflies

 I finished the last pantograph quilt, and just have the custom one to finish before leaving. My customer brought by new backing to replace the too small one, and had enough of it to sell me a piece for the vintage quilt I repaired and needed to finish. Life is good!

The customer quilt is lovely. It was a from a mystery quilt class she took. 

Panto: Delicate vine

The backing is a surprise. I'm not sure I would have used this pink, but she is happy with it. 

Remember the Penny escape and capture from Ester? Here is what she is trying to get when jumping wildly on the rock garden. Silly dog. She nearly snagged one yesterday!

Butterflies are abundant on the phlox.

This one was almost Penny's morning snack when it lingered a bit too long on a low clump of flowers.

Penny can stretch out to an amazing length when she is trying to reach her quarry.

No luck this time.

She watched while the butterfly made it's escape.

I'll be putting the vintage quilt through the wash today. I finished the binding last night and have one more to go. More hand work today. Off to the studio!

Funday Easter Sunday

The first order of business was to finish the big quilt on the frame. It only had a few rows to do, and I used that time to cut and sew borders on the first of two 'fix and finish' quilts. They are potentially the last quilts I need to finish before leaving.

The quilt is a cheerful combination of fabrics featuring daisies and ladybugs.

I have a pantograph that looks very much like the flowers in one of the fabrics, so I chose it for the quilting. It is called Keepsake Daisies.

The backing is the ladybug fabric.

 Determined to finish the last two quilts in the line, I went to work yesterday with renewed energy. I made the borders for the customer project, and had them sewn on before noon. I also made the back, pressing it and loading it up on Millie. When the quilting was underway,  I began the next customer fix and finish quilt.

I would have liked the borders to be larger, but had to work with what I was given. I used every inch of the fabric for the borders and binding!

I chose Funky Fans for the panto, flipping every other row to make it a more interesting texture.

The customer provided the stethoscope fabric, and it was just big enough to be a strip down the middle of the backing. The outside strips are a light gray Grunge fabric. I made the binding and had it on by the  6PM quitting time. Last evening, I did the hand sewing, getting it about half finished. Another sewing session tonight, and it will be ready to go.

A bright spot in the day was a visit from friends, who came over with  a lunch time treat. We had a wonderful time, chatting and enjoying the delicious dark chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. We sat on the back porch and watched Penny play. The weather was perfect, and so was the well deserved  break. 

Mr Wazoo took Penny out for a run in the yard, and she managed to escape by running up the slope! We had a few minutes of chaos while trying to corral her, but managed to get her down and the leash on. Thank you, Gary!

The phlox is splendid this year! Lush mounds are spreading nicely over the front of the rocks, just like Mr W planned. Unfortunately, he had to add fence some areas where Penny could jump up and escape again. I figure they will be there for the time being until we come up with a better solution.

These purple flowers are growing right where the pup made her break out. She was able to jump up on the flat rock in the foreground and scramble up the flowery bit and onto the path above. After her adventure, she had to nap for a few hours in the studio to recover. She is well rested and raring to get into new mischief today. 

It's back to work for me today, one quilt to fix, quilt and bind, and four QOVs I could do and hand in.

Enjoy your day, and do something self indulgent to celebrate Spring!

Almost done!

 I have a couple of quilts to do, and then I will only have the ones that require sewing and fixing before I can quilt them. I'm making progress. I quilted the day away on Thursday, finishing both customer quilts and my own.

This quilt is one of a series by the customer, all very similar, but quilted differently. 

I think they are for family members.

I chose a panto that echoed the leaves and vines in the fabrics, and quilted it with light gold thread.

The muslin backing shows the quilting well.

The next quilt was a flannel project, but I had one row to go at 6:00!

I stitched the label and binding down on my recent quilt, and retired it to the shelf until I have someone to gift it to.

Friday was a good day, sunny and cool outside and comfortably warm in the studio. People came and picked up quilts, and I have caught up with the batch in the line. The flannel quilt is finished and went home immediately. Hot off the press, you could say.

This quilt is beautiful! I have the pattern, but have yet to make mine.

The customer requested Splat for the panto, but it is hard to see. Also, the dusty plum color thread was sucked down into the nap of the flannel and was nearly invisible.

The quilting shows on the flannel back, but the thread still disappeared.

The next quilt is a king size one, and I have a few more rows to do to finish it. The quilting pattern takes 25 minutes per row, so it is slow going. 

I also worked on preparing this strawberry quilt for repair, stabilizing the strawberries I had removed and getting them back in position for the hand embroidery. I may be mailing this one to Texas to work on there.

My customer's daughter has had this quilt since she was a little girl. The strawberries are falling off and some were frayed badly at the edges.

I removed the worst ones and applied lightweight stabilizer. I trimmed the edges very close to the original size and pinned them back in place for the hand sewing. The rest of the repair is slow and relaxing hand embroidery.

This cheerful quilt will be finished today.

I hope to get the last two customer quilts ready for quilting, and then I should be able to finish them next week. Mr Wazoo is bugging me to get the taxes done before we leave, so I had better get the nose to the grindstone with that project. I hate doing them, but Turbo-Tax makes it tolerable. 

Tomorrow is Easter, but I will be working. I'm determined to get the quilts done and have a few days to organize and stage whatever we are taking on the trip.

Yo-yo weather and another finish!

Rain...sun...cold...warm...What the heck is going on with the weather?! We have had everything but snow in a week's time. I'm ready for Spring, but I guess she's not ready for us!

It seemed like the right thing to do to just stay in the studio and quilt. So, that's what I did. I snuck my quilt in between two customer quilts so I could get it ready for binding. I am really happy with it, and am still amazed that one jelly roll made a twin sized quilt.

I like the colors, the pattern and the quilting! It's a winner.

Panto: Flower Power, one of my favorites.

I had to piece the backing, but it looks fine.

I finished the pinwheel quilt, and like how it turned out. It is an eye popper, for sure.

The colors are much brighter than how they appear here. Maybe it is my fluorescent lighting that changes them. The blue small inner border really pops against the orange.

It is a big quilt, I'd say a long queen.

I knew any floral panto would get lost in the busy fabrics, so I went for texture with the quilting. 

Panto: Fork in the road in orange thread

The backing is this wild feather pattern. 

The next customer had two quilts, both bed size. I started with the Irish chain.

The use of different background fabrics makes the quilt more interesting.

Panto: Beauty, in off white thread

The quilting looks nice on the tone on tone backing.

The second quilt is this log cabin in the streak of lightning setting.

Panto: Climbing Ivy. I liked how it 'climbed' up the blocks. I used a light brown thread.

As you can see, I had to add to the too small backing. I just happened to have the same fabric as one of the ones in the quilt blocks, so I used that to increase the back's size to an appropriate length.

A few days ago I got out a little quilt I started but never finished. I don't know what my plan was, but it failed. I took it apart, cut it up some more, added bright strips to increase the size and added horizontal borders and a pickle strip (it just needed some pickles!) to make it longer. It was a wonky top, but quilted up okay and is ready for binding and donating to a kid in need. The perfect end to my day!

Bizarre, but colorful.

Panto: Modern Twist in lime green thread

I used up two Peanuts fabrics for the backing and had enough for the binding, too!

Well, that's it. I wonder what the weather will bring tomorrow. Locusts? Frogs? We'll see.