On the road again

I finished the quilting on the scrap quilt and got the binding done last night. Yesterday, I taught a class for making and applying binding, then hurried home to pack and get the car loaded for our trip to Texas.
Of course it was pouring rain this morning and we got off to a slow start, leaving the house around 7:30. Mr Wazoo said he would drive as far as Atlanta and then I would take over. He never gave up the reins and drove all the way to Baton Rouge! I can tell he is really tired, but he did a great job!
Molly was a good girl the whole day and we rewarded her with a plain hamburger patty from Wendy's where we always get our pecan-chicken salads. Yum!

By the end of the day on Sunday, the sun had come out and the snow began to melt away. It was nice while it lasted.

Ta-Da! Scrappy quilt done and ready to bind. I made some green binding and had it on before going to bed.

Panto: Woven Wind

I love this fabric from my stash. I got it while on a retreat last year. We all took a trip to the local quilt shop and I found it in the sale room for $5 a yard. Great find!

Here's the green binding next to the border. I like it.

My next custom project is this odd looking piece of fabric.  It is a digitally printed  image by Kay Donges, on a shiny silk. She had it printed by Spoonflower, a company that will print whatever you want on fabric.  It was a booger to load, as it is very slippery, slinky and shiny. She is using two layers of Warm and Natural batting to give it stability and definition. I am quilting it to look like under water. There will be a swimmer appliqué onto this background and then quilted again! Wow!

I am finished with the lightest color, and the rest of the colors will have to wait until I get home from Texas.

This is Kay's artist rendering of the quilt  before she started cutting and appliquéing together the hundreds of bits of fabric to make the swimmer. You get an idea where she will be on the watery background.

Monday morning the yard looked like this. Drenching rains and warmer temperatures swept away the snow. It was foggy when I left for my class, and kept raining throughout the day.

Today, we started in our journey in the pouring rain that lasted well into Alabama.

Once in the car, Molly got comfy and snoozed for most of the trip.

Somewhere in Mississippi the rain stopped and we had overcast skies until we arrived at the hotel in Baton Rouge. The temperature change from home to Louisiana was mind boggling. When we left it was 42 and I had on a light sweater. At a rest stop in Mississippi, I changed to a tee shirt. It was 81! Texas should be warm, too. I packed a swimsuit just in case the sun comes out and I can enjoy the pool at my Dad's place!

Molly ate her burger, but was hopeful Mr W would drop something from his salad.No luck tonight, Molly!

We leave bright and early for Texas in the morning. The gas here is only $1.95! We filled up at the station next to the hotel so we'll be ready to roll in the morning.

No sewing for a few days, but there will be a quilt show on Padre Island to attend, and vendors to support. My sister and the lady we stay with in Texas are both members of the guild who is putting on the show. It should be fun!! Stay tuned...

Lots of quilting...big snowfall!

It is snowing like crazy this morning, and Mr Wazoo and I are hunkered down for the duration. It has been a good week, and I have been in high gear getting quilts done and out the door.

Quilts of Valor came from Florida and locally, so I hurried and quilted them so they can be awarded. This one is from Florida.

Panto: Banner Stars

Another Florida QOV.

Panto: Log cabin star

My Grandson wished me Happy Birthday via Face time.

My daughter sent me these beautiful flowers for my birthday!
They make the cold, snowy weather outside a bit more bearable.

This soft flannel baby quilt was a hurry up project for another local customer.

Panto: Popcorn.

They are welcoming their first grandchild, and are going to Florida next week for the gender reveal.
I also made and applied the binding.

On Wednesday, I took a bit of time to get out some more orphan blocks and goof around with a layout. These were rejects from a Blooming 9-patch I was commissioned to do a few years ago.

The black patterned fabric has chickadees on it. I think I'lcall it the chickadee quilt.
The rows are now sewn, but not joined yet.

This quilt is from a local customer. Her quilts are always well made and a joy to quilt.

Panto: Bubbly

This happy outer space quilt is from the same customer with the perfect aqua quilt.

Mr W quilted it with the Panto: Blast Off.

The fabrics are colorful and cute.

I had two local QOVs as well, and set in to get them quilted quickly.

Panto: Banner Star

I really like the HST border that looks sort of like a barber pole!
Panels make a stunning, but simple design for these quilts.

Panto: Simply Stars

Wild camoflage backing.

Yesterday, I used another pile of 2-3-2 orphan blocks to sew this lap quilt.  I'll get it quilted and binding on today while I admire the snowy landscape.

Earlier this morning, this is what it looked like.
There is much more piled up now.

Mr pileated woodpecker was busy looking for bugs.  The snow makes it really quiet outside, so his knock-knock-knock sounds really loud.

Yup, it's snowing in the back yard, too!

I hope you all are where it isn't snowing and are having a wonderful day. I'll be back later with the latest on 'Snowmageddon'. ha ha

That !&%@##* Machine!!

My Sunday fun-day started out well, messing around with some orphan blocks and making a fun top from them, but then it took a dark turn. Millie was quilting a vintage top I have, and she decided to rear her ugly head and eat the thread again. This is the third time she has done this, and I consider it a major design flaw in the APQS longarm system. My Gammills (I have two of them) have never done this, and I have been quilting with them for 14 years. Mr Wazoo had gone off to Home Depot and I needed to handle the repair myself. I got the machine opened up and it took forty five minutes to get the wad of tangled and stuck thread off the needle bar shaft. I cleaned up the mess inside the machine, re-assembled and oiled everything and was back in business. What a dirty and tedious job!

Here is part of the quilt so you can see how well constructed it is.

All hand pieced with tiny, perfectly spaced stitches. I  marveled at the maker's skill in that the top is perfectly flat!

Meanwhile, here is the trouble...From the outside, it just looks like the thread entered the slot and is probably stuck on something inside the machine.

With the side of the machine removed, I found the problem.

This tangled and oily wad only took a few seconds to form, as the machine moves at remarkable speed.

After thirty minutes of careful cutting and pulling the threads away, I finally got to the shaft. Lighted tweezers really help with this tedious work.

All better. I cleaned inside the machine and re-oiled everything.

This is what I had to remove!!

The side back in place. Six screws and a hex nut on the black clamp part.
What an ordeal!

Good thing we have a box full of tools and parts!

After the delay, I finished quilting the top, and was pleased with the result. I decided to cut off the small green border because it had tiny holes on all four sides where it had been safety pinned for 60 or 70 years. They were big enough to have to patch, and I hadn't noticed them before the quilting.

The panto: Simple Chevrons

The backing is a thrift shop sheet.

I did the hand sewing while watching the super bowl game.

Blue binding frames it nicely

The finished quilt. A nice large queen size. I love the pattern and the colors she used. So cheerful!

I worked on the smaller orphan block quilt while doing the quilting on the vintage one. Here it is stage by stage. I need to put on the binding, but I think it came out very pretty!

I started with eighteen 6" blocks. I made two more  to be able to have a 4 x 5 grid to work with. I couldn't put it on point to make it bigger because some of the blocks were directional.

Adding the drop shadow effect made the blocks 7 1/2",
 and using 3 1/2 " sashing made it almost lap size.

I pulled this batik from my stash and  with the 5" borders brought the quilt up to 60 x 70"

All quilted and ready for the binding. I'm using the sashing fabric for the binding.

Panto: Woven Wind

The squiggly batik for the backing was also a stash pick.
The sashing fabric was left over from the back of another quilt project. I'm using from my stash to finish these UFOs!

Molly was in attendance as usual. Here she is, resting up after barking furiously at the four deer who dared to walk across the yard. All in all, the day wasn't too bad. I still have the love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with the Millie, but got the work done despite her fickle performance.

Zzzzzzzzz...

Another day in the mountains ends perfectly.