Paducah!!

We are getting ready to go back to Georgia, but had a wonderful time here at the show in Paducah. The weather didn't cooperate fully, but we managed to see everything...and some things twice!
 I'll be back to work as soon as I get home. Mr Wazoo had quilted a hurry-up project for a customer, and I have to make and apply the binding. No worries. I have to make some do-re-mi to pay for my vendor purchases.
I'll post again when I get home, and let you see what I got. Until then, enjoy this little slideshow.

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Slow progress...restful day

Sometimes we just need to do something calming. I needed a day of calm creativity to unwind before the Paducah adventure, and yesterday was the day for it. It may not look like much, but this is a full day's work, choosing fabric, preparing applique bits and sewing . Now, I'm ready to pack and get on the road!

I started by exercising my sewing brain. I made another pile of HSTs for Mr Wazoo's flannel quilt.
He keeps asking about it, and I feel I need to get it made.

So much for the tidy cutting table! Don't worry, I will have all this put away before I leave.
The creative process takes a lot of fabric and a lot of thinking.

Four to go. I have two more prepped, but quit at 7 pm to make supper!
I changed the color of the birds with the nest in row three. They didn't show up as purple birds. This is much better. Lots of tiny pieces to sew around...
Quite the challenge!

Busy Easter weekend

On Saturday, I worked in the studio, and Mr Wazoo quilted in the man cave. He finished a pretty string quilt that will be a gift for the quilt maker's pastor.

The quilt is a wonderful, scrappy one.

People from the congregation signed the blocks.

Panto: Square Spiral. Here is the back.

I quilted this lovely Kaffe Fassett themed quilt. I love the BQ patterns!

The colors are taken directly from the focus fabric

Panto: Stacked Snailz

A look at the back.

I also made a few more blocks for the folk art style quilt. It's fun to pick out the colors and various fabrics for each one. It may be a bit fussy, but I am enjoying the journey.

I've used wool, flannel, homespuns and cotton quilt fabrics.

I have a fabric with typewriter keys on it, and I thought the 'B' key would make a clever door for the bee skep. (Along with the bee fabric, too)

Here is where I decide how the blocks will look, and do the fusing and glueing.

Eight ready for the stitching part, and ten to go.

Mr Wazoo finished my dresser and moved it to the bedroom, too! I have moved my clothes in and have thinned out the closet congestion by putting some of the shirts in the old dresser. I use that small dresser for a nightstand.

Before

After. He fixed the veneer, sanded the entire piece, painted it and did the detailing, polished all the hardware, and added drawer liners. Wonderful!!

We spent the afternoon on Easter with friends, chatting and having shrimp etoufe, salad and a nice dessert of home made cookies with vanilla ice cream. Yummy! Miss Molly had a fun afternoon with the dog and cats, and had to snooze with her toys in the evening. 

She's the big white fluffy one...

Tomorrow, I plan to do a bit of work and get my stuff ready to be packed for Paducah. It has been a nice weekend.

Hand stitching and more rain

I spent yesterday quilting the retreat raffle quilt, the Wisconsin quilt, and making binding for them. The big white embroidered quilt also needed binding, and I got that done, too. The day ended with pizza, ice cream and plans to go for a ride to Clayton to look at the azaleas and buy some annuals for the gardens in the morning.

The retreat quilt is ready for binding here.

Panto: Chantilly

Nifty graphic B&W backing.

My Wisconsin quilt. The pattern is from a class I teach. It's free on line and called  Garden Delight.
I have made four of these now.

Panto: Rounded square lattice

Soft flannel backing

There was to be no road trip today...
Poor old Molly was up and panting at 4:30 this morning when the big thunderstorm rolled through. This lasted for two hours or so, and Mr Wazoo took over the 'calm the pup' duty at 6 AM. I went back to bed and got the last hour and a half of sleep before starting my day.
Except for a half hour for lunch and another for supper, I did hand sewing all day in order to finish all three bindings, and the sleeve on the raffle quilt.
Now, I'm pooped and ready for a bit of reading and then sleep. It was a fruitful, but very soggy, day. We will sleep with the window open tonight! The temperature dropped twenty degrees after the storms went through.Maybe we'll get to Clayton tomorrow...

This one was biggest, so I tackled it first. I finished it at  noon.

I finished this binding and sleeve sewing at 7:30PM

Finally, I put the last stitches in my Wisconsin quilt at 11:15PM.

I blocked my daughter's last name for privacy, but thought I'd show how I do labels. It's sewn into the binding, then stitched down across the top.

switching it up with some sewing

Quilting has taken a back seat this week while I try to get some of my sewing projects a bit farther along. Yesterday, I cut the old edges off the trip around the world repair quilt and removed the lumps of shifted batting along the edges. I need to cut new batting for this 2 inch area and secure it before applying a wide binding like the one I removed.

What a chore! The batting was full of fine dirt particles that got all over the table. Just ewwww.

When I cleaned up after the binding removal, I noticed again how messy and cluttered my cutting table was. Piles of fabric from projects needed to be sorted and put away, patterns, bits of paper with quilt dimensions on them, scissors, pencils, rulers...you name it, it was there! So I stopped what I was doing and spent three hours (really! Three hours...) clearing the space, putting stuff away and cleaning the surface. It made me feel so good, I am going to make an effort to clean one area a day until the room is back to its tidy state.

Clean and ready for some work!

Next, I loaded the retreat quilt and started the quilting on it. The pattern is a real thread eater, but looks pretty, so I'm glad I chose it. I have one row to go. It will be finished today, and I'll get the binding made and put on. Yippee!

The final row. It was too late to do it, as each row takes about 20 minutes and it was already after 6:00 when I quit for the day.

I also made the binding for the big white embroidered quilt. The customer wanted it like the pattern picture, so I picked a blue solid for the job. Tonight, I'll do the hand sewing.

Ready to go!

And last, but not least, I made the borders for the Wisconsin quilt I put together at the retreat last month. Hopefully, I will get it quilted today and ready for binding. Go Badgers!!

Looking snappy! In the background is the trip around the world repair. I'm auditioning binding fabrics and also cut another 25 replacement squares for the repair. I swear, the entire quilt will be new fabrics at the rate it's going! I have been sewing on this on and off for almost a year and still have a long way to go. Yikes!
I better get moving and get into the studio for another fun day at work!

A sad day for the world

 Notre Dame Cathedral. An icon for the world, 850 years old and the heart of Paris. I went there in 2010 and attended mass with my friends. Nobody who experiences Notre Dame will ever forget the power and the beauty of the architecture and the soaring ceilings and spires. My heart is broken for the people of Paris, and the world tonight.

I took this from the boat that takes people around Paris by way of the Seine.

We posed, and got off to attend Sunday morning mass at the cathedral.

So beautiful.

The rose window is gone now. This is what it looked like from the inside.

The sanctuary before mass started.

We walked around the Ile de la Cite and I snapped this picture.

The copper statues were taken down before the recent renovation began. I am so thankful for that, because they were the most fascinating thing about the place. The steeple burned and fell into the sanctuary today.

On the homefront, I worked in the studio yesterday and today, quilting and sewing. I finished the blue and yellow raffle quilt for a customer, and loaded the big embroidered quilt for later. I decided to start an applique and pieced quilt from a pattern I picked up in Pigeon Forge, and made some progress on it. That felt good!

This quilt is so lovely, I'm first in line to buy some tickets to win it.

Panto: Paradise Feather

A peek at the back.

The embroidered quilt, ready for the binding. I'll do that tomorrow.

I have already forgotten the name of this panto, but I have used it before.

White backing, too.

My applique project started yesterday with the background cutting and making the bits. I got the parts for four blocks cut out last night, and assembled them today. I will be doing machine buttonhole stitch around all the elements and embellishing them after the quilt is made and quilted. I know it doesn't look like much now, but it will be fun when it's done.

Blocks in progress

Mr Bunny

Pretty flowers

Bumbly bee. His black head will show up better with yellow stitching around it

Beautiful bluebird

We got the brunt of the storm yesterday afternoon, but after all the wind and rain came the rainbow! If you look hard, you'll see the second rainbow faintly above the bright one.

Today, the sun was out and it was still breezy and cool. The gardens made it through, and I took some pictures to end my day.

Everything in the side yard is coming along well. I can't wait until the peonies open! There are loads of buds.

My chicken pot is blooming happy. She is right outside the studio door.

Flame azalea beginning to open.

The vinca exploded into bloom today, too. The dogwood took a beating in the storm, and many blooms came off.

The lily of the valley came up this year! We thought it might not make it.

In he back, everything purple blooms first.

Mr W knows what this is, but I don't.

Lobelia

A form of sedum

Creeping Jenny. I love the color!

I don't know what this shrub is, either, but it has small white plumes of flowers now.

Lamb's Ear and other ground cover coming on.