Work and fun

The last couple of days have been filled with mundane duty as well as quilting fun. At my usual doctor visit for a check up, I mentioned the pain in my knee. Snip-snap! I have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor in Gainesville at the end of the month. At last, I will get something done about this blasted knee!
Meanwhile, we have been working in the studio and getting quilts done and out the door. Tim did this lovely disappearing four patch for my friend Maria. He is working on her first tee shirt quilt right now, and should have it done tomorrow.

Maria's quilt

Panto: Alfresco

I finished the binding on my class sample and cut out another one. Don't you love the chickens? I think it will be a fun quilt.

Binding on, all finished!

Newly started class sample

These are the cutest chickens, aren't they?

Today, I quilted this custom job. I think the colors and fabrics are very effective and beautiful.

Tomorrow's work holds a sewing project. I need to get going on a customer tee shirt quilt.
Stay tuned!!

Class sample and more wildlife

I worked up a new class sample for the class I will be teaching in two places in the coming months. It actually took longer to decide on what fabrics to use than it did to cut the whole thing out! I may have to make another one to use the fabrics I decided against in the end. I like them all...

The deer family was out for dinner in the apple orchard  when
I came home from a concert on Saturday

The pie bald babies and their mamas were enjoying the nice weather

One doe was really curious and came really close to the car to check me out

Then, they all crossed the road in front of me and went into the woods.
No bucks around.

Tonight, I was sitting in the house doing some paperwork when I heard some suspicious noises outside. Whump!...scrape...scrape...whumpity...scrape
I ran into the bedroom and got Tim up so he could check it out. A bear had overturned the trash can and dragged it about fifteen feet out into the driveway toward the woods.The lid stayed on, thanks to Tim's new locking system! The stupid motion light never came on. And I just put the trail cam in the front yard...facing the wrong direction to get a picture of the bear. We got the camera from the back today and there were no pictures. The batteries were dead. We figured it was a good time to see if we could catch something in the front yard. ha ha, we just can't get it right with this camera. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Finished!! (almost)

Yippee!! I finished the quilting, made the sleeve, binding and label, and attached them all to the quilt. Now, I just have the handwork to finish. I can do that with my feet up, watching a flick on TV.

Tim quilted a Christmas quilt to be sold in the boutique at our guild's upcoming show.

Nice bear paw pattern

panto: Holly berry

It was a long day for us here at Wazoo, so we treated ourselves to supper out at the local barbecue joint. On the way home, we counted 9 deer in the pastures and near the woods by our house. Two bucks, four does and three fawn, including the white ones I saw the other night. I sure hope they evade the hunter's guns, but I fear that isn't how it will turn out.

The new live version of Cinderella awaits! Time to do some hand sewing.

Nightmare quilting...

I haven't blogged in a few days because I have been working on the same quilt the entire time!!! My own quilt... What a nightmare it has become. I guess what I envision for the quilting doesn't always turn out the same when stitched out. There have  been a few hours of picking out and re-grouping as well as remarking the quilting. I'll be sooooo happy when this one is finished! No prizes expected, but a good lesson in patience and determination.

Border and sashing treatment

Each block is a letter of the alphabet. The quilting is a corresponding block staring with that letter.
C is for Churn Dash...

I started with block lettering under the blocks, but hated how it looked. Pick, pick, pick...
Many hours later, I settled for freehand cursive writing in a contrasting color thread. At that point, I had already decided I was getting tired of this quilt.

I finished the white parts in another marathon session and hope to have the colored parts
done today.

I honestly can't wait to get this off my machine!!
Maybe I'll like it after  a few days ...

Mr Wazoo has quilted every-other day, and finished these quilts for customers.

A quilt for a granddaughter who loved the winter olympics

So we used a snowflake panto!

Customer quilt using the new grunge fabrics

It looks good with this modern panto.

Yardwork also continues with the fire pit coming along nicely. Tim had to take one day off this project to re-do part of the walkway that sank a bit after all the rain we had. I think his plan to quilt a day, then do yard work a day is a good one.

Rain, shop-hop, rain, quilting, RAIN!

The weatherman said it was going to rain, but we sure didn't expect this! I feel so bad that we get deluged when there is a horrible drought in the western states. Too bad we can't will the rain westward...
I had made plans to go on a shop hop with my friend, Stephanie, and certainly a torrential rainstorm couldn't  stand between a quilter and discounted fabric! So over Blood mountain we went to the city of Dahlonega, and then back over the mountain to the other two stores. The rain never abated, but we didn't care...there were 25% off bolts to fondle and prizes to be signed up for.

I have great plans for this Christmas jelly roll and these wonderful co-ordinates

(L to R) Backing for the Christmas quilt project, fun yellow cherries, dogs hanging out car windows, alphabetical foodstuffs, and a soft brushed plaid in jewel tones.

Soft, cuddly flannels from the Lumberjack collection. I am going to make some bumper pads and a quilt for my soon-to-be-born Grandson's bed.

Little cherries, plump red apples, candy stripes (they will make wonderful bindings) ,pine sprigs and chickadees...oh yes, a bag of old fashioned lemon drops. What can I say, I got hungry!

More flannel. Pups in space for charity quilts, bacon and eggs, sweet cars, and woolen mittens; the last three will be used on burp cloths for the baby.

Future backings!

I now it is out of focus, but I had to share this cute Farm market fabric, too.

There was so much rain, this dragon surfaced in the shop's garden! ha ha

After the shop hop, Stephanie and I met her husband at the local eatery for supper. One of the waitresses is a friend of theirs and brought a young lady and an elderly gentleman over to the table. It seems the man was the victim of a terrible crime and has lost everything. The woman was a social worker who had found him a place to live and is now trying to outfit his new home. The waitress knew Stephanie was a 'quilt lady' and asked her if she might have a quilt for the man. Steph said yes and after they left, we decided to come up with bedding for the man. She will be making him pillowcases, and I went through my stash of unfinished quilt tops and found a suitable one for his needs. I just needed to add another border to make it bed sized. Mr Wazoo quilted it for me and I finished it this afternoon. We'll get it to the man tomorrow. The warm feeling of helping keeps us making  quilts for people in need. (And sort of justifies those shop-hopping sprees)

I added the red border to make the quilt twin size.

I got the blocks and extra fabric at a guild yard sale years ago. I'm glad they will finally be somebody's favorite blanket!

Panto: Square Spiral, Mr Wazoo's favorite!

Meanwhile, I worked on my second show quilt and listened to the rain. Molly doesn't like to go out in the wet weather, but loves the toweling off and frolicking afterward. 

The festival we planned to attend tomorrow has been cancelled, so we will be in the studio again. More rain forecast for tomorrow.

Get out the snorkels and mud boots!!

Three days work.

I soldiered through knee pain that practically made my hair stand on end to finish a quilt that has been haunting me for months! Every time I took it off the rack and studied it, I went blank with what to do. Back on the rack it would go and languish another week. I finally had an idea and once I got going, it practically quilted itself! I hope the customer likes it...there was an awful lot of black background to fill, and I am not a black fan.The photos don't do the quilting justice (it's the darn black...) but it is covered with all sizes of circles with random patterns of bubbles stitched in the colors from the appliqué. All the filler is done in a really dark charcoal thread so it would show a bit against the black.

Did I mention, this quilt is really big, too!?

The rest of the quilt, hanging over the back of the table

Border treatments

Bubble quilting in the circles

More quilting

Gorgeous pieced back

Mr Wazoo dutifully quilted, too, doing these lovely Autumn flannel quilts.

I custom quilted the owl and Tim did the panto

Panto: Autumn Oaks

Soft quilter's flannel quilt

panto: Come Dance With Me

Second verse, same as the first

                                        

Tim also quilted this refreshing gulf stream-like quilt.

Panto: Ebb and Flow

Remember color wash quilts? This one is really nice and has oodles of fabrics in it.

Panto: Quirky

Tomorrow is my sewing group, so I had better hustle off to bed!