Quilting, Covid and gardens

Our days have boiled down to three things...quilting, Covid-19 and gardening. I'm quilting, Mr Wazoo is gardening and we re both watching the news on the Covid pandemic. Our state has opened and the people went crazy. I suspect we will have a huge spike in cases in a couple of weeks. Our small county went from 29 to 44 cases in a week, and I am sure it has to do with people either returning from Florida, or weekend people from the Atlanta area renting cabins and mingling with the locals. We stay home for the most part, venturing out with a mask on to get prescriptions, grocery items and plants. That's it.
I'm happy to be quilting!

This beauty was a one and a half day project. Midway through, the computer on the machine acted up again and Mr W had to spend some time nursing it back to health. He taped up the cable end so it didn't have any stress from the weight of the cable on the jack, and I called APQS for another replacement. Its on the way.

Panto: Splat
The applique on this is perfect. No stitches are visible and the edges are all smooth and even. A real work of art.

Soft lavender on the back.

Just, WOW!

Another appliqué quilt to be used as a wall hanging. The customer wanted it done with a denser pattern.

Panto: Butterfly Swirl

A peek at the back.

This customer quilt is lively and scrappy!

Panto: Borneo
I'm a sucker for chevron patterns and I especially like this one.

Bright pink back.

Meanwhile, I worked along on the custom quilt and am making good progress.

The stitch in the ditch is done and I have begun the quilting in earnest.

The applique pieces are large, so there is a bit of stitching on them to keep them from bagging.

The borders are done on all four sides. I have a lot of background stitching to do, but then, I will be on to the blocks. So far, so good!

Of course, I have to show you some things from Mr Wazoo's garden. The peonies are huge this year! This one is about 7 inches across. The rain we've had has played havoc on the flowers as a whole, but these are so pretty, I just had to share.

Stella d'oro lilies are blooming, and this one with the rain drops still on the petals shows why I love them so much! That cheddar yellow is so cheerful and bright.

My friend in Texas made this bag for me after I had admired hers at the silent auction there. I tried to win it, but failed on that count. It was so nice of her to make another one for me. She did say that she won't be making any more. I guess they Are a pain to make...must be why I don't care to try making one. Thanks, Nancy!

Memorial Day in the USA

Today we remember the brave men and women who gave their lives for our freedom. These past three years, I felt like our freedoms have been  eroded away by partisan politics and angry verbal assaults. Take a few minutes to think what Memorial Day is about. They are not just numbers of dead or rows and rows of white graves in a military cemetery, they were sons, fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers and daughters. People who had family left to grieve and try to fill the hole left in their homes and hearts. Take some time to ponder peace and what it would mean to have peace both in our nation and in the world. My grandchildren are in their late teens and early twenties and have never known a time when America hasn't been at war. Remember the families of the fallen, and stop to honor the memory of the lives lost.

Because it is Sunday, I got to do my own thing in the studio. I did get a customer quilt done, but mostly, sewed and trimmed and sewed some more.

My blocks, all pressed and ready to trim

Squared up to 9 1/2 inches. Now, I have to cut and do a little magic trick to them again!!

After cutting the blocks and re-sewing them, I get this! New blocks with a secondary design of stars.

Rearranged a bit, and sewn together. I think I'll look at possible borders tomorrow. This could turn into a Quilt of Valor!

It may have been a pain to do, but I am so glad I took the time to fix this customer's quilt! It is beautiful.

Panto: Ruffled paisley

The back.

I quilted this pretty Spring quilt today

Panto: Alpine

A Peek at the back

That's all the quilting that got accomplished today. I quit early to make coleslaw and baked beans to go with the ribs Mr Wazoo has been preparing all day. It will be a nice indoor picnic!
The yard was especially lovely today (once I shooed the deer away from Mr W's gardens!) so I took a few pictures for posterity. I hope you have a fun family time today and tomorrow. I plan to be in my studio, doing what I love.

Memorial Day weekend, and I will be working, as usual

I am so discombobulated with the COVID-19 protocol...I never know what day it is anymore. I miss having certain events to keep me grounded and active, like the weekly grocery shop (we now go about every three weeks), my two quilting guilds (none for three months) and little things like getting a haircut or a dog groom. The calendar has blank spaces where all our appointments and events used to be. We're staying safe, and staying home.
The last couple of days have been a slog of removing borders, squaring up a customer quilt, and re-applying the borders. It took nearly the entire day to get the quilt straightened out and the quilting started. It's a pretty quilt, but the bias edges throughout the block construction threw the quilt maker off and there borders were like romaine lettuce leaves!! After removal, starching heavily, squaring up and re-applying, I have conquered the quilt.

Outer border off. I measured and the inner border also has to come off. Drat!

You can see the ruffle in the smaller white border. I took it off, too, and set to work fixing the problem. The customer didn't want to tackle it, so asked me if I would fix it.

Everything  sewn back on, the quilt now lies flat and the quilting is going along nicely. I removed almost six inches of excess border!! How does that happen?!

On the Gammill is a custom job. The quilt is a beautiful appliqué and pieced queen sized project. I am doing the stitch  in the ditch right now, and am excited to get quilting on it, as I have already made my plan and want to get started on the actual pretty quilting.

Blue seems to be this week's color choice here at Wazoo! This is a really pretty quilt. I hope I can do it justice with the quilting.

After work on Tuesday, I sewed a bunch of half square triangles for a class sample quilt. I used a Homespuns layer cake, and the little fleckies of fabric that came off the brushed cottons were like tiny confetti all over my shirt and black pants! I used the lint roller to get them off me and the cutting mat. I have a feeling there will be more to come while I sew and cut the project.

Before cutting apart and pressing

After! Nice HSTs ready for the next step.

While I was re-doing the big blue and white quilt, I quilted this lovely bird quilt. The customer has made several different bird themed quilts for family members and always selects the Little Bird panto. This one is especially nice.

The pattern looks deceptively simple, but I'm sure getting all those diamonds to behave was a challenge. Good job!

Here is a close up view of the fabrics.

The panto is called Little Bird. It is easier to see the birds on the solid backing.

See them?

I hope to finish the blue and white quilt today and make a lot of progress on the custom quilt. We have had more torrential rains here, and it makes me glad I live on the side of a mountain, even though it may not be a super tall one! I saw the flooding on Bonnie Hunter's site and hope we don't suffer the same fate.

I'm off to work! Have a nice weekend, and pause to remember the thousand of people who gave their lives for your freedom.

He tells me it's Thursday

Yesterday was Wednesday. If you were learning to speak English, that would be a good sentence for using the past tense. Unfortunately, that is what we talk about when sitting down at the end of the day and turn on there TV. Oh my gosh! Is it Wednesday? No, it's Thursday. Sigh...
Anyhoo, it has been a busy week and I thought we must have missed a day in there somewhere. But I digress. There is quilting to see and that is what I am here for!

This large, completely hand pieced log cabin was on the machine most of the day. When hand piecing, it is easy to get a block wonky or have accidental fullness. This quilt had both . I don't feel I did a good job on it, but I did spent over an hour spray starching and steam ironing it in an effort to get it to lay flat. No dice.

I used a big meander for the quilting, smoothing and corralling the fullness where I could.

The back is a soft, microfiber sheet.

By late afternoon, I was able to get my Irish chain loaded, and opted for a pretty pantograph instead of custom quilting. I really don't have time to do any fancy quilting for myself right now. There are other custom jobs waiting.

The panto is a new one called Keepsake Daisies. I thought it was the perfect choice for this project.

I sewed on the yellow floral binding, and finished the hand sewing during TV watching last night.

Here is the label.

I also finished putting together the newsletter for the evening guild and sent it  along to the members before going to bed at 12:45. A full day, for sure! This morning, Molly woke me up at 7:00 on the dot to go outside, so today will be another long one. Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight...(seriously loud laughing in the background)

See you tomorrow. Can you believe it is Memorial Day weekend?!! Hang out the flag and pay tribute to our war dead the best you can when sheltering at home.

Chez Wazoo