A tribute to perseverance

One of my favorite customers has died suddenly. I met Louise when she came to the studio and asked if I could quilt and bind a king sized quilt for her brother. Of course I said yes and we began her odyssey to complete a quilt for each of her siblings.  In the time I quilted for her, she had completed 4 huge quilts and given them to her siblings. Today, her husband came with a quilt in progress and a sad story. My friend, his wife, had died suddenly two nights ago. He doesn't yet know what happened exactly, but she was discovered in the bathroom during the night and died soon after. He was still shocked and sad today when he and his son came to see me with a request. Louise had nearly finished the next quilt, and he wanted me to finish it for him. This was a no brainer, and after some conversation and reminiscence, I took the project and wished him well. The funeral is tomorrow.
Be kind to each other. Say 'I love you' every chance you get. Treat every day like your last day with the ones you care about.
I was reminded of my immortality today, and about my duty to the people who care about me and are my friends and family. I love you all.

One of Louise's quilts

She always asked for patterns with hearts, to show her love to the recipient.

Another giant quilt for a sibling

And more hearts

Another of Louise's quilts. I can't find a photo of the fourth one, but I know its here somewhere.

Her love for her family is in the quilts.

A fine day in the studio

Today was one of those days where I just got in the zone. The sewing zone. The nine little day care quilts are all pieced, and eight of them are quilted. I need to have a binding marathon day, but not until the weekend. Unfortunately, I still have a business to run with sewing and quilting for my customers. I did enjoy the little sewing side trip though.

All the strippy quilts are very similar, so I laid them out with their backs showing

The HST quilts are all different, so I'll show you one at a time.

This is the one I forgot to take a picture of yesterday.

My favorite. Its lime green and has monkeys on the back!

The best part of this one is the wild sock backing.

The last one is pieced and ready for quilting.

The stack is so pretty! I'll be so happy to send them to the day care kids.

Sunday sewing

After quitting for the day, I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the last two half square triangle day care quilts. Oh well, I'll take them after the bindings are all on. I did get all four finished and quilted, as well as cutting out pieces for five more little quilts. One is sewn and four are waiting their turn under the needle. Its fun looking through the stash and finding backings that are fun for kids. I'm making a dent in my kid fabric stash, for sure. I'm going to allow myself one more sewing day before getting back to my customer quilts. There are only three custom quilts waiting in the queue right now, and I should be able to get them finished in a couple of weeks of work. Sometimes we need to slow down a bit and catch our breath. Mr Wazoo has quilted the last of the pantographs and is free to do some yard work now that the temperature is decent. I guess all is well at Wazoo.
Now, if I could just get over this flu... still queasy and nose blowing. This too shall pass. Enjoy some colorful pictures.

One of our customers made this pretty tumbler quilt for her granddaughter

The fabrics are under the sea prints. Perfect for the Ebb and Flow panto.

The backing has mermaids and octopi! Cool.

Mr Wazoo quilted this customer tee shirt quilt. Its soft and nice thanks to the flannel borders and backing.

The old stand-by panto for tee shirt quilts; Square Spiral

Here is the back.

This is the first of five strip quilts for the day care kids.

The next one is staged and ready.

The four HST quilts are ready for binding.

Don't you love these crazy prints for the backs? I do!

I did a simple stipple for the quilting. All of them are done with lime green thread. My favorite color!

More sewing

I finished the pastel quilt, and just need to apply the binding.

Not my cup of tea in the end, but still very pretty. Made primarily with the collection, Laundry Day.

Digital panto: Twinkling swirl

Cute little birds on the back.

After finishing the pastel quilt, I set out to get the 9 small quilts started for Dechen's day care . There are more boys than girls, so I started with dinosaurs. One Moda layer cake will make four of these half- square- triangle quilts. I had some fun rearranging the blocks to make them different. Number one is ready to quilt, and number 2 needs to be sewn together.

All ready for quilting

Blocks done, I'll sew this together later today

Today, I am off to Dahlonega on a planned trip with a friend to go to a big fabric sale at The Common Thread shop. I did buy a good portion of backing for the 9 quilts at the local fabric shop, Quilts Galore, from their sale room, but need some tone on tone, border and girly fabric for some of the quilts. I have a giant stash, but it seems I have used much of my "kid" fabrics making charity quilts in 2017. Time to replenish!

On the repair front, I finally made it all the way around the biggest row of the polyester quilt. 46 more squares, and it will be ready for the wash!! Yippee!! More on this later.

Snow days are sewing days

I finished the big Hawaiian quilt and sent it off to Florida today.

It is a lovely quilt, but any quilting on black is a challenge.

Hard to see the quilting

Each motif is quilted, and the background echoed

Nice batik on back

Mr Wazoo braved the icy roads to get the quilt to the post office, and also get a well needed haircut! I stayed snug and warm, taking a couple of days to sew for myself. Actually, for a young friend who is expecting twins! She is like family to us, having grown up with my kids. I sent a quilt for her first child, and now, there will be two more added, a boy and a girl. I'm making the girl quilt first. I bought the pattern and fabrics at a shop in Tennessee when I went to pick up my new Bernina last June.

I assembled the fabrics I wanted to use and commenced cutting...

I took a picture of the quilt in the shop as inspiration

I finished one block before quitting for the day, yesterday.

The directions at hand, and the pile of block bits at the ready. 

The quilt top is almost done. I just need the final border. Something to do tomorrow.

Icicles on the car

Long, late afternoon shadows in on the snow.

We're hoping for a warm up in the next couple of days. Until then, the fireplace will be burning and we'll be enjoying some down time.

Sewing, quilting and blowing my nose

I'm finally feeling a bit better with this flu thing. Still keeping the Puffs tissue company in business and still coughing, but I am so much better, I am able to work almost a full day!
Yesterday, I made a small nursing home lap quilt for a demo I'll be doing at my evening guild next week. I'm going to show the invisible binding technique I learned at the Bernina booth during our show. I have used this method for charity and utility quilts, and love it. I can get the binding on and sewn down on a twin sized quilt in about 25 minutes. Yup...25 minutes. I timed it on the last one I finished.  Maybe I'll make a little tutorial here. Stay tuned!

My go to pattern, Warm wishes. It is a free download from Quiltmaker magazine's website. It goes together in an hour or so start to finish!

Panto: Flower Power, another favorite.

I had this feather fabric for the back. Sideways, but nice.

Mr Wazoo quilted this little table runner for a customer before doing a bit of yard duty. He does love to go outside to play. Too cold for Molly and me!

A pretty runner ready for next Christmas!!

Panto: Poinsettia

These are pictures from yesterday, working on the Hawaiian quilt and finishing all the borders. Today, I did the quilting in the block motifs and tomorrow, it will be taken off the machine, trimmed and sent back to Florida! I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

The motifs in the borders are this beautiful batik. 

I changed up the background fill only slightly, adding hook-swirls I picked up watching Jamie Wallen on Youtube. If you're ever too sick to quilt, go to Youtube and watch other people quilt!

Tomorrow is the guild board meeting, and then I'm off to see my friend's new house! I'm so happy she will be a bit closer to town, and that she and her husband will have a huge new studio to work in. 

Home made chicken soup for supper, some TV and early bed. Getting over the flu one day at a time.

Its official

I saw this on Sisterschoice Quilts blog today and had to share. I couldn't stand it anymore and made an appointment for the doctor. I have the flu. Another 7 days to go before she thinks it will be better. Oh joy.
I quilted the last row of the Hawaiian quilt, then gave up for the day. At least I'm getting there...
I did get the big quilt from yesterday trimmed and ready to go home. Its a beauty!!

It is so big, I couldn't get it all in from the front view

That's better!

Panto: Come Dance With Me...hard to see here

Maybe a bit easier from the back. It is a nice curvy leaf pattern.

A good night's sleep and I'll be back for a few hours work tomorrow. As for now, some TV, hot tea and bed.