There's a hurricane coming?

We live in the northeast corner of Georgia, and have been told to get prepared for hurricane Florence on the weekend. What?! The path has it making a curve over South Carolina and up toward where we live, dropping large amounts of rain and bringing high winds. Mr Wazoo is ever diligent, so he had four big trees removed from the yard. They were dead and hollow, and he feared they might fall on the house if they blew over. Okay...

Mr W "supervising"

After they cut the tree, a guy on a tractor scooped it up and took it to the grinder.

The tree guys had machines to grind and reduce a tree to sawdust!

Another one bites the dust!

Down it goes!

Once the trees were gone, Mr Wazoo blew the leaves and small branches off the driveway

Just stumps left

The view is better without the dead tree.

Meanwhile, I finished the bindings and labels on the last two Quilts of Valor.

QOV with pinwheels

Panto: Stars and Stripes

Here's what the QOV labels look like

This is my favorite of the three.

In the center, there was a star

Nice back, too!

I also had to get going on a repair. It needs to be finished by October 7th!

The biggest rip

Also, needs to have the binding off and new made.

I took out the torn block and basted in new batting

After adding iron on stabilizer to the back of the cross stitched part, I made a freezer paper template, ironed it to the top and carefully cut 1/4 inch away. Then, I turned under the edge and removed the paper. I glue sticked the "appliqué" to the new background and cut it to fit the hole.

I cut away the background from behind the cross stitched part after appliquéing the motif to the background, then stitched the new block into the space by hand. I am in the process of hand quilting this and other blocks where the stitching is gone. I made and applied the binding, and will hand stitch it down after I finish the quilting.

While I was doing all the hand stitching, I had the APQS quilting this Christmas tree skirt for a customer.

Log cabin tree skirt. The customer will cut the slit and bind it.

Panto: Holly Berries

Holly on the back!

Honestly, I am beat...it's time to go to bed. Tomorrow I have more PT for my foot, and more hand quilting. Good night!

Charity day

My sister left today, then I was off to the cardiologist, who pronounced me healthy. I won't have to go back for a year, unless something happens. Yea!! Home again, and more quilting.
I have a few quilts backed up for Quilts of Valor and the nursing home group, so I decided to work on those while preparing for a paper piecing tutorial I'm doing in October. It always feels good to get things accomplished!

One for the nursing home residents!

Panto: Flower Power

Backing and binding

A colorful sampler for a nursing home resident

Panto: Modern twist

Soft Oriental backing

Mr Wazoo has been quilting a rather large customer quilt, and still isn't finished!! He hasn't been working in the man cave all day, so it is no wonder he will be on day three tomorrow.

I have the second QOV on my machine, and will finish it tomorrow. The organization also sends me two quilts a month to do, and I just heard from them that the next two are coming! I really need to step it up and get the ones for my guild done. I also need to get a move on with the custom quilt. I know just what I want to do, and I am really wanting to get into the quilting.

That's all for today, I'm afraid. Errands took up some of the day; Mr W mailed my entries for the Asheville show, put gas in the car and quilted. I went to the doctor, washed the guest room linens, paid some bills and quilted. We are so boring...

Holy smokes, Batman!!

I had to sew the binding on the tee shirt quilt, so my sister and I decided to watch TV while I worked down in the studio. She brought a quilt to be done, too, so I loaded it on the APQS and began quilting. I finished the binding about halfway through quilting her quilt, so I settled in to watch Miss Marple solve another murder on TV. We were enjoying the show when my sister suddenly says "Hey Susan, there's smoke coming out of your machine!" Yikes!! I jumped up and stopped the quilting, but the machine kept humming angrily. I ran over and unplugged it, then looked at the machine to see what happened. The thread had broken and the end had been sucked into the take-up lever slot. Time for Mr Wazoo to work his magic.
He took the side panel off and the thread was wound all around the shaft, and had melted into a hard knot of red. It took him about half an hour to cut it off and carefully pick it off with a carpet knife and hemostats. I gave it a good blow out with canned air and oiled all the joints.

Oh no! This is not good...

Cotton wound poly thread melts!

Working with the cutter to get the thread free from the shaft

Mr W is not amused...

Halfway through the task. Geez, that's a lot of thread!

Finally clean, and well oiled before putting the plate back on.

Here is part of what he removed.

With the thread back where it belonged and the machine reassembled, I was able to finish the quilt for my sister.

My sister's quilt, all finished and ready to go.

Panto: Cherries, to compliment the cherry fabric

A peek at the back.

All's well that ends well. Miss Marple solved the murder mystery, I finished the quilt, and my machine seems fine. We'll be cooking out again tonight, and watching the Packers game. Life is good!

Two finishes!!

What a happy day! I was waiting for my sister to get here, and working on quilts to pass the time. I finished making the tee shirt quilt and quilting the first of three Quilts of Valor. After dinner (yes! they came and brought Wisconsin brats, cheese and sweet corn!!) I sat for a while and hand sewed the binding on the QOV.

Quilt of Valor

Panto: Simply Stars

A peek at the back

Tee shirt quilt, all done but the binding.

Panto: Dazzle

Chambray on the back

Tomorrow, I plan to visit with my sister and sew the binding on the tee shirt quilt. We'll be cooking out and eating al fresco again if the weather cooperates. So until we meet again, have a wonderful weekend!

S-l-o-w progress

I worked all day yesterday on the tee shirt and photo quilt. It is really slow going, as I have to do math (yuk) with every block to make it all fit together. I have the last row sewn and need to add to the length. It will be another slow stitching day today, because right in the middle the day, I have a meeting. We'll get everything done, but in fits and starts.

The first three columns are waiting their turn to be assembled. The last column is sewn.

Sashing between the columns and the border will complete the look.

In the late afternoon yesterday I picked up a friend visiting from Florida and we went into town for a coffee and a trip to the fabric shop. I'm happy to have people come see us here in the mountains, and we had a fun, but brief, time. Thanks, Linda! Come again any time!

Today I also have to do a quick pick up and clean before my sister comes. They will be here tomorrow, and I'm excited to chat, laugh and have a good time.

I had better get going!!

Change of direction

Besides quilting for people, I do restoration, repair and commission work. Today, I changed direction a bit and started in on the tee shirt quilt I had taken apart last week. Once I figured out how to do the printing on fabric, it was easy. There will be 8 photos on the quilt as well as the jerseys.

Printing in progress. Soaking and drying came later.

All the components on the design wall, ready for sorting.

The possible final position of the components.
I'll get the sashing started tomorrow after my podiatrist appointment.

Of course, we did some quilting, too. Mr Wazoo in the man cave, and me in the studio. We'd like to have all the quilts either in progress or finished by Friday. My sister and brother-in-law are coming and I want to relax and enjoy their visit.

Mr W started with this pretty stars quilt

Panto: Featherize

I finished the stitch in the ditch on the blue quilt

Mr Wazoo quilted this modern off-set star

Panto: Fantasia

I quilted this pink pinwheel quilt today.

Panto: Frolic

The final quilt for the day for the man was this deer panel.

Panto: Square Spiral

I took some time to sew the parts together on my animal quilt. It's finally a flimsy, but will have to wait to get some borders and be quilted. I'm happy with how it looks so far.

Yippee!