A little road trip and some tweaking

 Yesterday I decided to change the things I had a problem with on block #1 of the BOM. The yellow flower and bud changed to pink, and there is a proper stem for that flower. I added one more berry to the right side flowers, too.

I'm happier with this. I think it can now be sewn .

I took a speed trip to Dahlonega to pick up glue stick refills and some fabrics for the BOM that I really wanted. My stash is huge, and I have loads of possibilities, but I decided to make all the vessels for the blocks blue. I needed interesting fabrics with bigger patterns. (any excuse to add fabrics to the stash, right?)

Here are the fabrics I selected for the vessels. They may change as I go along, but I really like what I picked so far.

I also got a few more leaf and stem fabrics, some interesting backgrounds, and a few other flower colors.

These are the fabrics I used in block #1. I need to cut some squares from them for the future dogtooth border.

Here is the view outside at 7:30 this morning. It looks like something from a horror movie!

Later today, it is supposed to rain, sleet and snow. 

I'll be inside sewing!

TA DA!!

Everything is glued down and now, the hand stitching and machine appliqué starts!

The only thing I'm not sure about is the yellow flower on the left side of the picture. I changed the berries on the right to yellow-orange ones, looking for balance . I also added the yellow bud to the top of the branch the yellow flower sticks out of. I also don't like the way the stem of that flower just disappears behind a leaf. I may change that, too. I added a short stem to the flower on the vase that was just hovering there.I guess that's all the changes...we'll see.

The extension next to my sewing area is piled with the fabrics  used in the block. I need to cut pieces from them before putting them all away for the dogtooth borders. What a mess I've made!!

I took in two repair quilts yesterday and need to attend to them today. Something to work on tonight! After I fix them, I'll start on the BOM appliqué. I see a lot of fun ahead!

 

BOM underway

 Wow! This block of the month is more difficult than I first imagined. Some of the pieces of appliqué are teensy. I originally cut circles for the little berries, intending to use Karen K Buckley's Perfect Circles and starch to form them. No dice! I switched to my travel iron to get better control over the gathered and starched bits, but it was nearly impossible to hold them down with a pencil eraser and pull up the thread to gather the edges. I made three berries in an hour. There are 40 of them on block one!! No way. I re-grouped and made fusible berries instead. These, and the 1/8 inch stems (that's another fiddly bit), will be sewn down by machine.

Here are the first bits of appliqué. The dark pink circles are the berries. I did the running stitch on all of them while watching TV.

I have the background chosen and prepped for the first block, and was just getting started on motif placement in this picture.

Of course, the studio is a giant mess, with the pulled fabrics all over the place. These are stem fabrics, being cut and put through the bias maker.

In the end, there will be 300 inches of stem on this quilt!

Over at the sewing area, I have a small ironing station set up for the prep of the appliqué bits.

I didn't take a picture of how much I got done, but will do that today when I get home from the longarm group meeting. I'm showing some free motion patterns to the group to hopefully get them excited to play on their machines, and not just do computer guided stuff.

Thankfully, the ice and snow is mostly gone today, and I don't fear the trip to town. It was certainly beautiful, though!

At 7:30 yesterday morning, this was the scene.

One last look at the Christmas tree, while it really looks like Christmas. Mr Wazoo spent the day disassembling it and putting everything away. Christmas is over.

Later in the day, the sun came out and gradually melted the snow away.

I made a big pot of potato-corn chowder, and Mr W enjoyed his bowl of steaming goodness for lunch. 

Sometimes staying inside is a wonderful thing!

First finish of 2022

 What a wonderful day I had in the studio! New Years day was spent sewing and fondling my fabric. I finished the scrap quilt, hand sewing the binding during a marathon of Columbo episodes on the tube. It's a happy quilt, and we need some happy these days.

Here it is, quilted and binding sewn on. I finished the hand sewing in the evening.

Panto: Jetty. I'm still trying to conquer the sizing part of computer panto set up.

Still too big!!

The backing is a cute 30s reproduction. I think they look like Pez, the candy!

We were supposed to have a whopper of a storm last night, but it turned out to be just rain and some wind. Mr Wazoo put my car under the deck for safety because the garage is full of the boxes and bins for all the Christmas decorations. They belong in the closet under the stairs, but it is an ordeal to get them out, and back in! Bless his heart, Mr W did it all this year. Now that my back is getting better, I'll be able to help with the take down and storage bit.

This was the sky at 5:30 when I quit for the day. 

Today, I will be prepping fabric for the first block of the BOM on the Quilt Show. I've watched all the videos and read the instructions, making a disaster of the studio by pulling piles of fabrics from the stash. There is no better balm for the Covid blues than fondling fabric and wallowing in all those bright colors! I'm rejuvenated and ready for the challenging appliqué ahead. Bring it on!

I am also ready to start quilting for customers again. I'm going to start slowly...maybe one quilt a day, until my back tells me it can handle the work. So far, I can do a small quilt in a day, so bigger ones will take longer than usual. At least I can do it! Yippee!!

Off to the studio, and more quilting in 2022.

Happy New Year?!

2022 started with a thunderstorm here in Georgia. While I watched the festivities around the world on TV, the skies opened up and we had a deluge, pounding on the roof and scaring Penny onto my lap. Mr Wazoo retired to bed at 8:30, and I watched the videos of the first month's block construction of the Quilt Show BOM. It will be a lot of work, but it sure is a lovely quilt!

The plumber came yesterday and installed my Christmas gift...a swanky new faucet for the kitchen.We finally have a sprayer! It has a magnet that holds the head tight to the stem, three different spray patterns, and a soap dispenser. Yowza!!

Brushed nickel finish and a sleek design.

Pump up some soap for the many hand washings each day.

I didn't waste time on the last day of 2021, I was in the studio with the music playing and the sewing machine humming. First up, I hemmed the three new pairs of pants I got for Christmas. My legs are too short for the regular length, and too long for petite! Easy peasy fix.

Two pairs of jeans and one pair of corduroy.

Next, I finished up four more masks to send to family members. Two Wisconsin Badgers ones for Carolyn and two for little Dechen.

Happy dogs and Marvel heroes for the grandson.

This is the best pattern yet. It has a nose wire and is adjustable. No glasses fogging, either.

It starts with two flat pieces of fabric. No curved sewing.

It hugs the face and sits under my glasses for the no-fog action.

The ear elastics are adjustable, even fit my giant head!

Here's the link to the YouTube tutorial. I got the wires with the sticky side from Amazon .

https://youtu.be/qnyhsj21qrk

I have a bundle of lucious plaids coming this week from the quilt shop in Jasper, and I knew just what I want to make. I found this picture on Pinterest and have figured out how to make the blocks. I thought I would make a charity quilt to test the block size and construction, so I got out my 2 1/2" strip bin and began to play. I started the cutting at noon and quit sewing at 5:30! I think I will like the quilt when it is finished. It will be the first quilt of 2022!

This is the Pinterest quilt. I love it!

What's more fun than digging into a bin of colorful fabrics?!

I made some blocks and arranged them on the design wall.

Half of them were sewn wrong! I was in such a hurry to get something done, I failed to notice there were two different blocks. Oops. I took half of the blocks down, unpicked them , and re-assembled them correctly. No photos of the mistake...here is the corrected batch.

I picked some color-on-black fabrics for the squares, and randomly sewed the strips in pairs and cut them to fit. The block ends up a workable 8 1/2". Here, you can see the two different blocks.

This is the third iteration of the layout. 

I thought it would be a bit small when finished, so I did some more digging in the bin and cutting more strips. I made one more column for width.

I think this will be the final layout. I had to make four more blocks to make it a nicer size. The Pinterest one has 8 blocks across and 10 down and that's the size I'll make the plaid one.

This one, at 6x7, will be a nice lap size, finishing at 48x56.

 I'll get it sewn together, and maybe even quilted, today.

Our Texas trip is in jeopardy with the latest Covid surge. Mr Wazoo is worried about traveling and spending the night in the hotel. He also wonders if the visit would expose us, and my family there, to someone with Covid. We have a bunch of KN95 masks for the trip, as well as the homemade ones for while we're there. I  really want to go to visit my 99 year old Dad, but we'll have to see what the numbers are in a week. 

I wish all of you out there in the blogosphere a better year in 2022. I'd like to think it can't get worse than 2021, but I fear it could. Stay safe, and for Heaven's sake, GET VACCINATED!! Happy New Year? Let's hope so.

The after Christmas lull

There isn't much action here at Wazoo between Christmas and New Year. I am making masks for my friends and family again because of the rise in Covid cases across the country. Unfortunately, I live in northern Georgia, where people are resistant to vaccines and especially mask wearing. I'll never understand how so many people could risk their lives and the lives of everyone else by demanding 'freedom'. I have little sympathy for folks who defy the precautions and end up with Covid. They definitely have the freedom to choose to be ill or die.

Okay, I'm done ranting. It's just that our lives are turned upside down again for a preventable spike in cases. Anyhoo, I gave masks to my Christmas guests, and have made 20 more that will be sent off to family and friends soon. We also ordered some N-95 masks for our trip to Texas.

Here is a sample of the masks. The small ones are for kids. There are another 15 in the works down in the studio.

My daughter has been on a short vacation to Maine with her boyfriend. Every day she sends beautiful videos and pictures of there places they are visiting while there. His parents live in Maine, and that is the home base while they are there.

I like this selfie with a Maine lighthouse in the background.

A sliver of the setting sun shone on the top of the lighthouse making this pretty shot.

It looks cold, doesn't it?!

Meanwhile, back in Georgia, we have been having warm days and rainy nights. So weird! I finished quilting and binding another Christmas quilt I had on the hanger, and will put it away with the others until next year.

I like this collection. It has a retro feel to it.

This panto is included in my Handi Quilter software. I'm still learning how to size the patterns appropriately. This came out too big. Darn!

Backing fabric from the sale room . The binding is the same fabric.

I finished it last night while watching the Two Set Violin virtual concert.

Back to the studio for me. There are masks to finish before I start the Quilt Show block of the month this weekend. I'm excited about it and hope I can keep up. Here is a picture of the quilt. Cool, huh?!

Lots of appliqué and some tricky piecing. It will challenge my skills, for sure!

Wishing you a happy and peaceful Christmas

 

It's Christmas Eve and we're snug at home here in the mountains. No snow this year. Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and we look forward to greeting our friends tomorrow. I hope everyone has a happy day.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Merry Christmas!

Susan

Christmas time is here

 

It's been a while since I have posted, after all, it is Christmas time. The shopping is done, the cookies are baked and the parties are over. Hallmark is still pumping out cheesy Christmas movies, and people are on the move for the holidays.

None of my kids are coming this year. With Covid on the rampage again, my son and his family won't be here. They will be staying home and having a merry little Christmas in their apartment. Daughter number one has been recently engaged, and will be enjoying Christmas with her beau's family. Daughter number two has used her vacation time for a trip to Jamaica in January with her girlfriends. I hope it won't be cancelled at this late date because of the virus. Daughter number three is traveling coast to coast with her boyfriend to meet and have Christmas in Maine with his family. 

Mr Wazoo and I are staying home and will have a few otherwise 'orphaned' guests in for a few laughs and a nice dinner. The man put up less outdoor illuminations than usual, grumbling about the fact that half of the lights won't work. He put up and did most of the tree decorating, as well. Not as many ornaments as past years, but it is still lovely.

I want to thank you all for joining me here on my quilting and life journey. It has been a strange and difficult year for us here at Wazoo. After spending the summer in Texas and having the back surgery, I realized just how little work I did in 2021. I didn't quilt for customers from April to the end of the year. I have the new Handi Quilter, and we are gradually becoming more acquainted. The last quilt I did this year was a gift for my daughter's boyfriend. I finished the Tula Pink quilt and a couple of Quilts of Valor, as well as some nursing home quilts for the guild. 

Here is how it breaks down:

Tee shirt quilts made- 13, Repairs done- 9, commissions made, quilted and finished- 10, Charity quilts-14, QOVs quilted- 14, My own quilts for gifts and fun- 22, Customer quilts quilted- 103

Altogether, I made 59 quilts and have 20 still here in my quilt stash, and two on the rack waiting to be finished. The bathroom shelves were full, so I pulled out some of the older quilts I made and donated them to Family Connection in Blue Ridge. After giving a few as gifts, I recon I have 12 of the 2021 quilts in the stash. Not bad for being laid up for months on end.

I hope the pall over the world will lift in 2022. We all need to be together without fear again. Get vaccinated, get boosted and help your neighbors and strangers you meet live another year. No excuses! This is everyone's responsibility to humanity.

Happy Christmas, and I'll see you again soon!  

Susan

Merry Christmas!

A little nurse troll given to me by my Norwegian friend

No candy canes this year, but plenty of red.

My cheesehead snowman from my daughter

Tula Pink quilted and finished. The binding(not pictured here) is the green and pink hexie fabric.

I pieced the backing from all the leftover bits

Panto: Stacked Snailz