Fall back?! All it does is mess up my sleep schedule

 Penny is now getting me up at 6:00. She doesn't know about daylight savings...All I know is the dark walk to the upstairs at 6:00 every day is here. Oh well, my clocks and appliances got some exercise.

Last week was a choppy ride. We went to Gainesville for a visit to the pain doctor and Sams run. My back has been increasingly painful on the lower left side. I attribute this to the fall I had a while ago. We set up another appointment for an ablation on the left side, and hopefully that will take care of it. We also browsed at Best Buy for a new TV. Our big TV in the living room has developed ghost donuts on the screen. Donut shaped white patches are invading the screen. Mr Wazoo likes TV and was on a mission at Best Buy. We came home with a new TV that took me over an hour to set up and program. We're back in business!

I managed to finish a couple of customer quilts the next day, and then it was off to Gainesville again!

This customer doesn't want her quilts trimmed, so you get a good view of the batting as well as the colorful quilt.

I found a panto that mimicked the pattern in this fabric perfectly!

A peek at the back.

This is another vintage top to be quilted and finished. I love this quilt I studied it closely and figured out how it was made, and drafted myself a pattern, just in case I get a wild hair up my nose to try to make one. I probably never will, but it was a fun exercise.

I used a swirly panto to accent the bullseye motifs.

Very soft old sheet shows off the quilting nicely.

Twice in a week, I was off to Gainesville! The second time was to have lunch with my high school friend and her hosts for a couple of days. I hadn't seen her since she stopped in on her way to her new digs in Florida a couple of years ago. I had a wonderful time with her and the couple she stayed with. She was going to an Eagles concert with her sister later that night. I drove back over the mountain and settled in after supper to hand sew the binding to the circle quilt.

The next day, quilting room fun began anew!

The center of the orphan-block Kaffe quilt was sewn together and borders were added after this photo was taken.

Customer's Charlie Harper fabric quilt for her brother. Harper's art reminds me of the fifties with its clean lines and bold colors. The customer used the fabric perfectly, fussy cutting the birds, fish and plant life to their best advantage.

I used a new panto called Rosemary for the quilting.

You can see the fifties vibe here on the back.

Her second quilt was this baby quilt. The red fabric and bold tumbling blocks pattern are quite striking.

The panto is called Forest Friends. It has deer, foxes, cats, raccoon and even skunks! I chose it because of the backing fabric.

On the back is a black and white print of animals.

Look closely and you'll see the patch on this repair project. The red heart is an appliquéd patch. After appliquéing it on, I did some Boro stitching by hand to snazz it up a bit. I did a marathon "Save my Bleeding Quilt" session with this quilt. The customer had it stored in a barn (don't do that!!) and mice ate a hole through the quilt to get batting for their nests. They peed and pooed all over the quilt in the process and the customer washed it. The red backing bled all over the quilt, leaving it a dark shade of pink instead of the white background for the lovely Delectable Mountain pattern on the top. I did a three day soak in the bathtub, changing the water every 12 hours and agitating the quilt in the Dawn/hot water mixture. The top never went back to pure white, but it is now very light pink instead of the magenta color it was. I need to take a picture today before she comes to pick it up. I didn't tell her I was going to try to get the red out, so she should be surprised. We'll see.

I also finished two quilts for a customer coming from the Atlanta area to pick them up tomorrow. Her quilts are a joy to quilt because they are well made, squared and flat! These types of quilts move along quickly.

This is an interesting pattern. The bright pinwheels and small shoo-fly blocks keep the eye moving, and the 'plus' blocks ground the design. The small blocks are formed in the sashing, making them a secondary design...wonderful!!

I used a very modern straight line and squares panto, and I hope she likes it.

The back has a stripe of colorful blocks down the center.

The customer's second quilt is a traditional quilt of complex stars.

I used a lovely swirl and flower panto on this one.

Every bit of this quilt is perfect!

I am almost finished with the Kaffe quilt. I worked on the binding last night and will finish it up tonight. There will be pictures. 

Yesterday, I made a flannel baby quilt for my niece who is having a baby girl this month. I am almost done with the top and will get it quilted and bound soon. There will be more pictures.

This is a teaser of the quilt where I left it last night. Don't you love the bright yellow back?!

My youngest grandson turned eight yesterday. Totoro cake and bath towel make a cute picture. We did a face time to see the presents unwrapped. Lots of excitement over the big dragon and two Gundam figures.

Its hard to believe it has been eight year since he looked like this...

Awww, he was so cute!

Straightening up the studio

Last week, I tore up the studio, moving things out or around and moving new things in. I just had to get the piles of fabric and bags of shopping put away and organize the rest of the room. Mr Wazoo took me to Home Depot and I picked out a red rolling tool cabinet that was on sale. It was a challenge getting it out of the car when we got home, but we can do anything we put our minds to!

My new cabinet. It took most of the next day to move things around and get the drawers organized.

I moved the plastic drawers out of the space below the cutting table and moved the black cabinet there instead. I moved the fridge to the garage.

The little table my Grandpa made when I was a kid is now in the guest room and my Koala cabinet is back in the studio where it belongs! More shuffling and purging fabric and it is organized as well.

While we were at it, Mr W helped me re-cover the ironing surface. I got the canvas fabric in Maryville a couple of weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the machine ran in the background, helping me get busy on the queue of waiting quilts. I promised to show you the custom quilt, too. Here it is.

This was a large quilt, and it took a long time. I think I will get better at custom with practice. This quilt has NO fabric repeats! Yikes!

Every block has a design in it; one for the solid blocks, one for the pieced blocks and another for the setting triangles

There is a beautiful toile de Jouy on the back

I especially like the pattern on the pieced blocks.

Next up was another vintage quilt top from the double wedding ring customer. This one is more whimsical and casual than the first one.

Of course, Penny had to photobomb right when I took the picture

I used Flower Power panto for the quilting

Soft old cotton sheet for the back. I will get the binding sewn down tomorrow, and give it a wash.

This is a Gundam. My grandson wants to be this for Halloween. Of course, my artistic son made his costume for the event.

He said to me, "Mom, it's just cardboard. Nothing fancy..." When my Dad made my costumes when I was a kid, it usually involved his old clothes or a big cardboard box with holes for my arms to stick out. 

The light saber even lights up! I am so jealous!!

Far away from my son is daughter number one in Arizona. I felt a bit older to get a message from her showing how small her new hearing aids are. I guess being in a war zone is tough on the hearing. Mr W has the same hearing aids because of the deafness from his time on the aircraft carrier around the jets. I have tinnitus, but sharp hearing. You have to look really close to see the tiny clear tube going into her ear. Bluetooth, and background noise cancelling. Very swanky.

We had the kaleidoscope class last week (I wasn't a student, I am the program chair who shleps things around for the instructor) and my friend Gail was one of the students. She made some lovely blocks, but went home and used some of her class fabric to make these English Paper Pieced (EPP) blocks, too. I wish I had half her talent!

I had to show them to you. They are awesome!

I snapped this picture of penny in the sunlight, watching for squirrels and deer through the studio screen door. She's such a good companion.

Watch out for witches and vampires!!

 

And then came Autumn

 Oh my goodness! The leaves suddenly decided to change into their fall colors and dazzle us all. As soon as the temperatures dropped, the transformation began. Now, we are almost past peak, but still enjoying the display. So let's start with some lovely Fall photos around the house.

The first touch of color from this little maple

A bit of color looking toward town

Across the road, the yellow is peeking through

Yowza! Driveway show off

Penny on the porch with her pumpkin

The oaks don't turn a pretty color, but the leaves rustling down onto the lawn make a peaceful sound

Look closely and you'll see Mr Wazoo on his John Deere

A week later, and the little maple is getting some competition from its yellow neighbor.

One rose bush the deer didn't eat (yet) with the last blooms of the season.

Little maple and the yellow upstart made friends.

The big tree has gone bare

Morning coffee is wonderful out here.

The back yard trees finally joined in

Clear, cool Autumn days. 

I have been working on a very large, and absolutely lovely, custom quilt for three days now. A couple of days to go with it and then I will have something to show you. Meanwhile, I did a couple of customer projects and finished all the moose charity quilts and my colorful charity quilt. They were turned in at guild last Tuesday along with the four pairs of fleece mittens I made. So far, the guild has made 200 pairs! They need 1500 pairs for the area school children.

                                      

This quilt is a shop sample made by my customer. 

I love the soft Tilda fabrics that have an oriental feel. See the Geisha on the gold strip?

The quilting is called Oriental Clouds.

OooooOOo! I love it!

Another customer's quilt. Simply patriotic.

So I used Simply Stars for the quilting.

It has a soft homespun backing.

This month's charity quilts.

Tomorrow is the day guild and then some more quilting on the custom project. Mr Wazoo had a crown fall off (not the one he wears on his head, but the one he wears on his tooth...); at least he didn't swallow this one. Don't ask. He goes next Tuesday to have it glued back on. Funny how getting older seems to correlate to pieces falling off or being replaced. I hope I hold it all together until I have made all the quilts I have planned!