Machine running smoothly and I am happy!

 I have been a busy bee in the studio, quilting all the projects in the queue. I was totally caught up (except for the custom job I am working on) when I took in three more quilts. A manageable number. Here are the latest finishes.

Number one is this beautiful batik strippy quilt.

Panto is Feather swirl

The backing is a soft linen fabric.

Next is this Kaffe Fassett project, also using a jelly roll. Everything pops on the black and white background

Panto: Woven wind

Milifiore backing is really pretty, too.

This was a challenge at the customer's guild. They had to make a quilt with a pieced border. For a brand new quilter, she did a great job!

Gotta love a John Deere tractor!

Panto: Funky fans

Everything used to make the quilt was free! Scraps from a friend, the panel from the free table at guild, and the soft flannel backing from a family clearing out grandma's stash.

I did some sewing on the weekend and put together one of the quilts I made blocks for at the retreat. It is a charity quilt for Family Connection in Blue Ridge. The other quilt is also a charity project made by someone in the evening guild. I had two Quilts of Valor here, too, and got one of those done.

This is a lovely pattern for a QOV.

Panto: Simply stars

A real wowser of a backing, too!

I made these blocks from a 10" squares pack at the retreat

Flower Power panto.

I got this bright backing from the sale room at my local quilt shop.

Someone in the evening guild made this one.It is a simple but elegant looking pattern, don't you think?

Panto: One side feathers

Pink back and gray stripe for the binding.

I'll get that sewn down tonight.

I did one repair and two tee shirt quilts this week, as well. The tee shirt quilts are wall hanging size, and were a challenge because of the condition of the shirts. They were full of holes!! Big holes and small holes...lots of holes! After stabilizing the shirts with fusible interfacing, I mended the holes with the darning stitch on my Bernina. Once the holes were flat and mended, the projects were easy to put together. The customer provided the fabric for the sashing and borders. I used fabric from my stash for the backs and customer fabric for the bindings.

Have never heard of the band the customer's son liked. Probably either heavy metal or grunge.

I used my favorite tee shirt quilt panto, Rounded diamonds

I had globs of this solid from a lady who was getting rid of her sewing stuff. Perfect for this project.

Here is the second one. One for Mom and one for girlfriend. 

The guy with the shirts died quite unexpectedly.

Same panto on number two.

Same backing, too.

This was the dumbest repair I have ever done! I got a call from a woman in Ellijay that she had a quilt needing repairs. She said it is the quilt she uses on her bed, so it needs to be done quickly. I said okay and told her I would meet her at the fabric shop to get the quilt. She brought it in a pillow case and handed it to me, thanking me for doing this for her. Then she left...without us looking at the damage and making a plan for repairs and the cost. To my surprise, the quilt had only 5 small (nickel sized) holes and a small place where the fabric was worn on the edge. I did the repairs and washed the quilt . Here it is. It is a really nice, soft, hand quilted  and colorful quilt. I like it very much. I can't believe I have to drive 22 miles to Ellijay twice for a $15 repair. Oh well, it looks good as new!

This was a vintage top another customer bought from Ebay and wanted finished for a bed in her home. After starching the daylights out of it, I quilted and bound it.

The panto os Basketweave

I wouldn't have chosen this fabric for the back, but it's not my quilt.

After washing the quilt is brighter and softer.

A friend made this at the same retreat I was at. The fabrics were a fat quarter pack and look beautiful and restful together.

I used the swirly feather panto again. I like it!

Gorgeous ombre Gulf stream colored backing.

Another friend made this at the retreat for her niece. The fabric has ghosts and bats on it, so I chose ghosts for the quilting.

I like all the fabrics used in this quilt. I like the ghosts, too!

I also made and applied the binding.

My show quilt top is finally done and in the queue. I trimmed it today.  I have to do the customer's show quilt first, then will begin quilting mine. The show is looming! I have been organizing the demos and the quilt turnings, and preparing for the judging room. Before you know it, the show will have come and gone and will just be another memory. After the dust settles from the show, I hope to do some serious sewing! So many quilts to make...so little time to make them. Here is the photo with the bottom border on but not trimmed, and the customer quilt I am working on. It's a beauty!

I hope to get to this sometime next week.

Stitching the ditches is slow going. There are LOTS of ditches!!

My daughter has been in Wisconsin visiting the family before her three month trip to France. On a lovely Summer day, she took my grandson on a hike in one of the parks near Madison. Grandson face-timed me that evening, all a twitter about the day and his big adventure with his aunt! I miss my hometown, but I miss these people more.

Meanwhile, I'll quilt!

The view from the top of the hill at Pheasant Branch Conservancy

The state capitol is the bump on the horizon on the far left of the photo, next to the clump of trees. There is an ordinance in Madison that buildings within a number of miles from the capitol can't be over five stories tall. So, no matter what direction you are from Madison, you can see the Capitol. That is so cool, and I have loved spotting the dome every time I returned from a trip.

Two tired hikers taking a shady rest.

Yes, I'm still alive and well

 I have been very busy since the HQ came home. My dealer says it is running fine now, and the problem was the tablet. (The only part we didn't replace!) The Windows software was up-dated and the downloads cleaned up. The machine has been serviced and cleaned. I hope it continues to quilt without a problem.

Here are the quilts I have finished after bringing the machine home.

This is the vintage quilt that languish on the table, waiting for the machine to be repaired.

After a bunch of finagling, I re-entered the pattern and finished the job

I used a lovely swirly, feathery pattern for the quilting.

Here is the back.

This is another Sudoku quilt. I like the bright colors.

This pattern (Ikat) is becoming a favorite for modern looking quilts.

Great dark blue backing

My loyal photo-bomber had to get in on the action...

Pretty blue scrappy quilt.

Another favorite pattern, the rounded squares.

Blue backing.

This customer told me she had a bi**h of a time with this pattern, Snail trail. 

She did loads of picking out and re-sewing, and still has two glaring piecing mistakes!

It will be a gift to someone who does NOT quilt! ha ha

I really like this pixelated purple fabric.

Purple back, too.

Custom job for a customer. The pieces were fused but not sewn down.

That presented a pesky problem as some of them were coming off as I was quilting.

The small quilt also had two batts and was difficult to hold the pieces down and sew at the same time due to the thickness of the battings.

I still like it very much. She used a bunch of wonderful fabrics for the 'stones'.

Nothing showed on the busy blue backing, so I won't bore you with a picture.

My customer made this motorcycle quilt for her nephew while she was at the retreat.

It is one of the 3 yard quilts that are popular now.

I used a gears panto for the quilting.

Same handsome motorcycle fabric on the back.

She also made a quilt for her niece which is finished, as well. I'll post that next time.

While I have been busy with customer quilts, I also had to get my show quilts in order. I finished the bottom border for the pinwheel quilt, and need to sew it on to finish the flimsy. Then, I will have to get it quilted! Yikes! I am behind the eight ball with this quilt, but am determined to get it done for the show. I had my daughter send me the OK Boomers quilt, and will also enter that one. I finished my card trick entry. It is plug-ugly, but it's done. I'm embarrassed to have it in the show, but I have never reneged on an obligation, and won't start now. Here is my pitiful show line-up. I think there will be no winners in this group.

The pinwheel quilt (sans bottom border...)

My hand quilted rabbits

The bright birds (exhibition only)

The Boomers

My card trick entry (10 of clubs)

Snowbirds at the beach. An oldie, but a goodie.

The customer with the purple quilt gave us this pretty geranium because it clashed with her hot pink impatiens. Looks fine in the cornflower blue chair! Thank you!

Now, back to work!

Susan! Where have you been?!

 I have been adrift without the HQ here. I finally got it back on Tuesday and finished the quilt that had languished there for weeks! Hopefully, I will get caught up soon. The problem (after replacing everything on the computerized system) turned out to be the tablet and it's out of date software. The Windows software was up-dated, as well as the Pro Stitcher software, and now it runs like a champ. Fingers crossed it will continue to quilt without error.

Meanwhile, I worked on a few of my projects. I made a few wool appliqué blocks for a quilt I have been wanting to do and started on the borders of the pinwheel quilt. The center is totally done, so only the borders remain. I thought using pinwheels for flowers and triangles for leaves was a brilliant idea. I'm liking it so far.

One border sewn and attached. The other side border is laid out and needs to be sewn.

I have finished prepping eight of these blocks. The sewing will take some time, but it is very relaxing to me.

Here is one of the blocks.

I also quilted a customer quilt, whose pattern may look familiar. It is the bunny pattern I am using for my quilt...in the same color way! Oh well, they both look great.

This quilt is made from a pattern called Usagi, which translates to rabbit. 

2023 is the year of the rabbit, so I guess it is the perfect time to make this!

The customer made hers a wall quilt.

You can see some of the quilting here. I'll show mine in the next post. I just finished it!

Last week, I helped with Quilt Camp, an outreach project with the day guild to teach sewing and quilting skills to kids. These kids were all 4-H members and were a joy to work with. They made a small quilted box, a quilted zipper pouch, and one even made a drawstring purse! Really good workers, and funny as well. You can see in the picture that they love being silly, too, wearing their boxes as hats!

Silly but industrious students from the 4-H camp, holding the projects they made.

Penny has been my constant companion in the studio, so when she started limping and not using her right back leg, we made a trip to the vet. It seems she has hurt her back somehow and needs to stop jumping and running to heal. Oh dear...her favorite activities are jumping and running! Mr W and I are trying our best to keep her calm. As you can see, she is using her downtime to rest. ha ha

Penny in the studio, not jumping...

How can she sleep like this?! My back would hurt, too.

Last weekend was the Butternut Creek Festival was held at Meeks Park and the guild had a booth to sell raffle tickets. I worked a couple of hours both days and had fun with the other ladies, luring people in and selling them tickets. Mr W came on the second day and we walked around and bought a couple of things. The guild made over $800! Very good!

It was a lovely (but very hot) day at Meeks Park. 

The booths are set up all along the walking path next to the creek. Every year, hundreds of people flock to Meeks to shop the arts and crafts. The guild booth (#77) was waaaay down there on the left.

It's time to get to the studio and start my work day. Just one more thing to show you...

I went to a fabric shop when I took my machine to be fixed, and saw this quilt on the wall there. I have had this pattern for years and now that I see it made up, I want to make it! How long do you think that will take? Stay tuned!!

Do you think I'll finally make this? 

Some sewing, no quilting

 Oh dear! It has been a depressing week here at Wazoo. The Handi Quilter is now in the shop at my dealer and they are testing it after the latest repair by the tech person. The report was not encouraging, as it took a few tries to get it booted up without the dreaded motor errors. They said the next step would be to send it to Utah and have the factory guys look at it. I don't know the exact procedure to have something declared a lemon, but I think I must be getting there with this machine.

I've been taking a few days off to work on a quilt I hope to have done for the show. Everything was going along swell until I got to a row that is 1/2 inch too long. How did I manage that? It was 6:00, so I quit for the day and will tackle it today with a fresh mind.

I started last week by making hundreds of half-square-triangles, and then, trimming them all down to 2" and 3 1/2 "

Press, press and press!

These are the 2" ones

When I made all those pinwheels, I did the Eleanor Burns clip and twist thing with the seam allowances. They lay really flat!

All the big pinwheels done

I had to make some more because I realized I didn't make enough HSTs

Here are the blocks I didn't like. I made even more pinwheels to take their place.

The first four rows went well.

The next row has the top of the large pinwheel. See on the right side? It doesn't fit.

I'll take it apart and try to fix it today. Sewing rows is slow going due to the need to align and pin all the intersections. So far, it was perfect. I sure hope I don't have to take the whole thing apart!

 

We have had pouring rain on and off for three days. The surroundings are green and lush, but Mr W isn't happy to be run off the yard by the periodic deluges. The garden is happy.

Meanwhile, I have been hand quilting the bunny quilt, and have one long border done! It is coming along slowly.

Fourth of July was just another day for us, but my son and his family had a fun day with a cookout and a trip to the local fireworks display. I hope you all are having a fun packed Summer. It sure is a hot one!

This side of the studio looks bare without the HQ on the table.

I'm hoping for some good news...