Sunday, Fun-day

 The vintage strip quilt is finished, the binding is on and it is ready for the washer. Three down and four to go!

When I arrived to open the studio, there was a visitor on the screen door! Yikes!! I carefully entered the studio without disturbing the beast, and Mr Wazoo captured it in a can and released it in the woods. Turns out, it is a garden spider and rarely bites. It sure startled me.

From the outside

From the safety of the studio.

I said I would take pictures of the studio changes, and here they are.

Molly's ashes are in this pretty box. She will be in the studio with me every day.

The box is on the shelf above my desk. I also changed out the wall stuff for this antique phone dial we have had in the garage for a while.I think I may add the retro 5 digit phone number 

9-2066. Can you guess why?

On the other side of the studio, the monkey fairy has a new home over the pending quilts board. I need to update that, for sure! I like monkeys. My brother carved the loon over the door.

I quilted my Jacob's ladder quilt, but ran out of time to get it trimmed and binding applied. I'll do that today.

Looking good!

I used my Baptist fan panto for this quilt.

The back is pieced with this fabric and a red gingham.

I got out my dwindling stack of cowboy fabrics, determined to whittle it down some more by making three different quilts. I collected these fabrics for years while visiting Texas to see my family. I have made five or six medium to large quilts with cowboy themes, and I would like to get the rest of the fabric used up and gone. I'll take some pictures when I get it all cut. 

Time to go to work!

Wondering what to do next...

 So much fabric...so little time. That's where I am right now. There are so many quilts swirling in my brain and I can't seem to decide what to do next. I'll ponder that today while making the binding for the vintage string quilt I quilted yesterday.

All quilted, soft and cuddly.

Panto: Jetty. I did the design larger than usual to keep the quilt soft and avoid tucks in the slightly baggy blocks.

The sheeting on the back is soft and colorful. The binding is the same as the pink border.

I finished the John Deere quilt for a stubborn customer who insisted on bright variegated thread for the quilting. We talked about how it would look, and I just couldn't persuade her it was a terrible choice for the green and yellow quilt. As a newbie quilter, it was also suffering from unevenly sewed seams and lots of wonkiness. I'm happy the customer wants to make quilts, but I hope she gets better at the measuring and sewing part.

I straightened it up as much as possible, but the little quilt is still a bit wonky looking.

The thread is actually one of my favorite variegated selections, but is all wrong for this quilt. I don't ever intentionally make a quilt look bd, but this is bad. Panto: Farm Tractors, by request.

The backing is very thin fabric, and the bright thread is visible everywhere. The customer picked a light lavender thread for the back. Not at all what I would have chosen, but it is her quilt, so I followed her instructions. 

It rained a lot yesterday, so Mr Wazoo did some bookkeeping fort me as well as putting up a couple of different things on the walls is the studio. I will take pictures today of what new-old changes were made. We got Molly's ashes back yesterday, and she will be in the studio with me from now until I quit my job. I know I took a picture of her box on the shelf in the studio above my desk, but I guess my dead phone didn't record it. I'll try again.

Mr W received a couple of fun tee shirts from our daughter in Portland for his birthday, and yesterday he wore one of them. We all have the same warped sense of humor, so it is a perfect sentiment for him.

In case you can't make it out, it says, "I just wet my plants"

Rain, rain, rain...again. Today should bring only scattered showers, so I suspect he will be back outside where he is happy. Now, it's time for French toast!

Working weekend ahead

I figure I will be working over the weekend, making headway on the line of customer quilts, and having a bit of fun with my own projects. When I looked at the blog to check for typos, I saw the glaring error in the vintage block quilt top. Oh my! how could I miss that!!? Well, I fixed it first thing this morning before getting embroiled in other things. The planets are realigned and all is well.

Oops...

Aaah...that's better.

I started the day with a Quilt of Valor for our local group.  I really enjoy doing these.

The interesting block design is the disappearing pinwheel. This is a pretty use of the technique.

Panto: Ribbon Stars

The backing is a patriotic swirly pattern.

This quilt is not a QOV, but is for the customer's brother who is a veteran.

If you click the photo, you'll see that the fabrics have tiny written patriotic passages as well as stars, stripes and eagles.

Panto: Patriot

Really appropriate backing, too.

The vintage quilt top is now back in one piece, borders and all, and ready for quilting tomorrow. I had a thrifted sheet for the backing that will save the customer a few bucks. I love the old sheets because they are 100% cotton and quite soft from wear. Perfect for this type of project. The customer plans to display these quilts on a stand or ladder in her home. Nobody will see the backs.

The blocks had a lot of pink in them, so I used a pink print for the border.

Striped sheet for the back, all pressed and ready to go.

I had a haircut this week, and my hairdresser's partner is a gardener like Mr Wazoo. He has some hydrangea that are so beautiful, I had to ask if I could have a few for the house. When my haircut was finished, the blooms were in the car! Thank you to Dennis for his generosity. I added them to my pink blooms (already dried) in the cloth basket my friend Nancy made for me! I certainly have wonderful friends!

Now, I need to cut some of the white ones to go with these!

On a side note...Mr W and I took a ride to our favorite nursery to get some mums for the porch pots. While there, I spotted something bright and colorful on one of the Japanese maples and asked the owner what it was. She gasped and told me it was a saddleback caterpillar, and she got terribly stung by one just the day before. All those fuzzy bits are stingers! She said she was going to get a can to capture it in and get it out of the garden!! Yikes! I hope we never have one in our little slice of Heaven. I do have to wonder what the butterfly looks like...

When I first noticed it. It has such unique coloring, don't you think?

Don't let the grandkids collect this one!

I Googled it and found the adult, this ugly brown moth.

Fixing a vintage quilt top

 Of the seven quilt tops from one customer, four need massive repair and straightening out. I started on one of the string quilts yesterday, by taking the quilt apart and fixing the blocks. What a mess! The blocks varied from 9 inches to 10 1/2 inches in size! I can't imagine how she sewed them together and didn't notice nothing fit. Oh well, it is a challenge, and I like a challenge.

I started by taking the entire top apart, down to a pile of 60 blocks. Some still had bits of the newspaper foundation in the seam allowances! To repair the ones with holes, I used strips from a vintage quilt top I have just for that purpose.  It has come in handy for several repair projects. Then, I found the smallest block, the 9 inch one, and squared up all the blocks to that size. 

Here are some photos of the process, and where I begin today.

Here is an example of what the blocks looked like. Yikes!

Here it is, all trimmed and ready for the new top

Wow, I really don't know how these were sewn together without noticing how wonky and lumpy the top was.

Fixed!

I realize I had quite a pile of trimmings, but the new top will lay flat and be able to be displayed.

All the blocks, new strips sewn on and ready for the design wall.

Here they are on the design wall. I worked out on EQ a design that will have the quilt back to it's original size with the application of two small borders. The customer and I went over what would be done, and she was fine with anything that would rescue Grandma's quilt so she could display it in her home.

Meanwhile, I quilted this quilt from the same era from another customer! She got the blocks from a relative ( mother or grandma...I don't remember) and finished the top. 

The customer added the pretty sherbet orange border. I think it is lovely!

The butterflies are appliqué down with black floss, done in a very close and large buttonhole stitch. The panto is Flower Spray

Muslin backing shows the quilting nicely.

I also sewed the border onto the Jacob's ladder top I made over the weekend. I sewed a pieced back and it is now on a hanger in the queue.

Ready for quilting.

The next quilt on the Millie was this pretty Irish chain and appliqué project. The customer requested Flower Power for the panto and chose the barley colored thread.It turned out very nice with this combination, don't you think?

King size beauty!

Panto: Flower Power

White on white backing showcases the quilting.

At the end of the day, this vista makes me happy. Mr Wazoo works tirelessly to have a beautiful yard and garden. Yesterday, he removed a stump in the yard. I don't know how he keeps going after labor like that! I'm so blessed to have someone who loves gardening. No more quilting for him...Little Gammill is going to her new home and he is free to dig all he wants!

Beautiful weather...slow work days

For the first time in weeks, the temperatures have been warm instead of hot, and the humidity was nonexistent. Going outside and enjoying the gardens and wildlife took me away from the studio and gave me some healing time. I miss Molly so much, but I know there will be a pup in our future. 

In the studio, I finished quilting the BQ2 and have it here by my chair waiting for the hand sewing on the binding to be done.

Here it is. What is astonishing is I have made two quilts from my shabby chic stash and still have a full shelf of the stuff! How does this happen?

Panto: Climbing roses

I found this beautiful backing at the sale I went to last week.

The reason the binding hasn't been sewn is I have customer quilts to bind, and they come first. I finished the first of seven vintage tops made by the customer's Grandma, and have them bound and ready for a wash. The other four need repair before I can quilt them.

Both are trip around the world quilts done with the most interesting 1950s fabrics. I also love the color combinations the maker chose.

Panto: Flower Power in turquoise thread

This is one of the flat fold fabrics I got for a song at the sale. I am impressed how pretty and soft it is.

The second quilt had stronger colors. Both were rather wonky, especially the centers. They were like circus tents! Lots of starch and a good press tamed them enough to quilt without getting tucks.

Panto: Texas fan in blue thread

Another of the flat folds. Great stuff!

Next was this stunning, completely hand appliqué circle quilt. The colors shine on the black background even though they are not the jewel tones usually seen on black. Choosing thread color for this took quite a while. I unspooled about a dozen colors before deciding on a rusty red. I surprised myself with it! All the other colors stuck out on the lighter fabrics and drew the eye away from the marvelous overall effect of the four color circles. I like it, and hope the customer does, too.

Isn't this a beauty?!

Panto: Funky Fans

Lovely paisley backing

Mr Wazoo sold Little Gammill and she will be going to her new home in the next couple of days. He's ready to devote himself to the yard and gardens exclusively and give up quilting. I'm planning a big makeover of the 'Man Cave' garage. We'll see how that goes...

Today, I'll be back in the studio quilting and repairing customer projects. Maybe I'll listen to some oldies and sing along. If you hear dogs howling, you'll know why!