Almost done!

 I have a couple of quilts to do, and then I will only have the ones that require sewing and fixing before I can quilt them. I'm making progress. I quilted the day away on Thursday, finishing both customer quilts and my own.

This quilt is one of a series by the customer, all very similar, but quilted differently. 

I think they are for family members.

I chose a panto that echoed the leaves and vines in the fabrics, and quilted it with light gold thread.

The muslin backing shows the quilting well.

The next quilt was a flannel project, but I had one row to go at 6:00!

I stitched the label and binding down on my recent quilt, and retired it to the shelf until I have someone to gift it to.

Friday was a good day, sunny and cool outside and comfortably warm in the studio. People came and picked up quilts, and I have caught up with the batch in the line. The flannel quilt is finished and went home immediately. Hot off the press, you could say.

This quilt is beautiful! I have the pattern, but have yet to make mine.

The customer requested Splat for the panto, but it is hard to see. Also, the dusty plum color thread was sucked down into the nap of the flannel and was nearly invisible.

The quilting shows on the flannel back, but the thread still disappeared.

The next quilt is a king size one, and I have a few more rows to do to finish it. The quilting pattern takes 25 minutes per row, so it is slow going. 

I also worked on preparing this strawberry quilt for repair, stabilizing the strawberries I had removed and getting them back in position for the hand embroidery. I may be mailing this one to Texas to work on there.

My customer's daughter has had this quilt since she was a little girl. The strawberries are falling off and some were frayed badly at the edges.

I removed the worst ones and applied lightweight stabilizer. I trimmed the edges very close to the original size and pinned them back in place for the hand sewing. The rest of the repair is slow and relaxing hand embroidery.

This cheerful quilt will be finished today.

I hope to get the last two customer quilts ready for quilting, and then I should be able to finish them next week. Mr Wazoo is bugging me to get the taxes done before we leave, so I had better get the nose to the grindstone with that project. I hate doing them, but Turbo-Tax makes it tolerable. 

Tomorrow is Easter, but I will be working. I'm determined to get the quilts done and have a few days to organize and stage whatever we are taking on the trip.

Yo-yo weather and another finish!

Rain...sun...cold...warm...What the heck is going on with the weather?! We have had everything but snow in a week's time. I'm ready for Spring, but I guess she's not ready for us!

It seemed like the right thing to do to just stay in the studio and quilt. So, that's what I did. I snuck my quilt in between two customer quilts so I could get it ready for binding. I am really happy with it, and am still amazed that one jelly roll made a twin sized quilt.

I like the colors, the pattern and the quilting! It's a winner.

Panto: Flower Power, one of my favorites.

I had to piece the backing, but it looks fine.

I finished the pinwheel quilt, and like how it turned out. It is an eye popper, for sure.

The colors are much brighter than how they appear here. Maybe it is my fluorescent lighting that changes them. The blue small inner border really pops against the orange.

It is a big quilt, I'd say a long queen.

I knew any floral panto would get lost in the busy fabrics, so I went for texture with the quilting. 

Panto: Fork in the road in orange thread

The backing is this wild feather pattern. 

The next customer had two quilts, both bed size. I started with the Irish chain.

The use of different background fabrics makes the quilt more interesting.

Panto: Beauty, in off white thread

The quilting looks nice on the tone on tone backing.

The second quilt is this log cabin in the streak of lightning setting.

Panto: Climbing Ivy. I liked how it 'climbed' up the blocks. I used a light brown thread.

As you can see, I had to add to the too small backing. I just happened to have the same fabric as one of the ones in the quilt blocks, so I used that to increase the back's size to an appropriate length.

A few days ago I got out a little quilt I started but never finished. I don't know what my plan was, but it failed. I took it apart, cut it up some more, added bright strips to increase the size and added horizontal borders and a pickle strip (it just needed some pickles!) to make it longer. It was a wonky top, but quilted up okay and is ready for binding and donating to a kid in need. The perfect end to my day!

Bizarre, but colorful.

Panto: Modern Twist in lime green thread

I used up two Peanuts fabrics for the backing and had enough for the binding, too!

Well, that's it. I wonder what the weather will bring tomorrow. Locusts? Frogs? We'll see.

Having a bit of fun after a frustrating day

 As you know, I am not enamored with my APQS machine. On Friday, she decided to thwart me yet again by messing up an entire row of stitching . The pattern I was doing is a very dense vine and leaf, so the quilting of each row took about a half hour to put in. It took five hours to pick out! Three hours on Friday, and two hours yesterday. The culprit was in the bobbin case. I had a similar problem a while ago without being able to pinpoint the cause. This time, I zeroed in on the spring inside the case being too worn to function properly. After picking out the row, I switched bobbin cases with Big Gammill, and everything went well. I need to get a new spring.

After picking out the row, I spritzed it with Best Press and let it work its magic. The holes closed and all was well.

The quilt is finished and it is gorgeous! It wouldn't have taken so long to fix had it not been a 96 inch long 12 inch high row! The work was worth it in the end.

My customer told me she used a ridiculously high number of different Kaffe Fassett fabrics to make the quilt. All the blues in his many fabric lines. The panto is called Stitcheree in light teal thread.

I love this backing! I think it is one of those new digitally printed fabrics. The colors are wonderful.

Remember this customer quilt? I really liked the pattern and measured all the block components and made a plan...

The customer quilt that started my creative juices flowing.

Using a jelly roll I had on hand, I made strip sets and got busy cutting and sewing blocks. My jelly roll made 120 blocks! 

After making the blocks, I auditioned some of them on the design wall before quitting for the day.

The fabric line is American Jane. As most jelly rolls, there were many repeats, especially these polka dot  ones.

Once laid out, the sameness of the fabrics didn't matter. It was just scrappy goodness.

Somehow, I lost a block in the studio...I searched everywhere and couldn't find it. I dug through my stash and made one oddball block. Can you locate it? Today I will sew the four quadrants together and finish the top. I like mine even better than the customer original. (sorry, Ruth...)

I loaded up the next quilt and got a few rows into it before quitting yesterday. It is a really colorful one!

Outside, Spring has sprung! We have had big rainstorms the last couple of days, and will have more rain today, but with the rain came warmer temperatures and a burst of growth. 

Our new pussy willow bush is blooming with delicate yellow flowers!

Aren't they pretty!?

The redbud tree is also in full glory along the driveway. 

Stay tuned for more awakenings in the garden!

The last thing I saw yesterday before quitting was this 'ghost in the machine' on Millie's computer. I think she knows I don't like her, and taunts me at every turn. I shut everything down, checked all the connections and booted up again. Everything was back to normal. Who knows what awaits me today?... We'll see.

It was a dark and stormy night...

 Remember when Snoopy would sit on his dog house and type the first line to his mystery story? It was a dark and stormy night... best describes last night! After a rain soaked day, we had the fireworks of the thunderstorms that moved through in the wee hours, keeping us awake and sending a siren warning on my phone about flash flooding. No tornado here. A huge swath of Alabama and Georgia did get the brunt of the storm, and I'm concerned for the people and places I know south of us. I hope everyone is okay.

In the studio, I quilted pantographs while finishing the binding on a large customer quilt. I have aggravated a foot injury by too much standing over the last week, so I took a day to rest it. Here is the quilt I bound yesterday.

Penny decided to help with the picture taking again, sitting in front of this lovely medallion and star block sampler.

The customer's daughter told me this was a block of the month kit her mother made. The sad thing is that the quilt maker can no longer see well, and this will be her last quilt.

The pantograph is a loose feather design that gave the quilt another layer of texture. All the fabrics are lush and coordinate beautifully.

The entire quilt is lovely. I finished the binding and it is now ready to go home.

The next project was this pretty melon and teal star quilt.

The customer requested a soft, curvy panto so I chose Flower Child in cream colored thread.

Here is the coordinating backing.

I was surprised to read the selvedge and see it was made from Liberty of London fabrics! They had a nice feel to them, but weren't the usual tightly woven lawn I am familiar with. 

Merry Christmas! Another wall hanging or table topper for next year.

Panto: Twinkling Stars in white Glide thread.

Cheerful backing.

I finished the binding and loaded the next quilt, thinking to myself what a nice pattern it was. I measured a block and made a sketch of it. While Millie did the heavy lifting, I dug out a jelly roll and got to work making strip sets for my version of the quilt. Stay tuned to see what I came up with. It is going to be a pretty quilt!

Here is the customer quilt that inspired me to get busy and sew my own quilt from the design seen here.

Her fabrics are a delightful array of oaks, acorns and squirrels. The customer requested Oaks and Acorns for the panto , and I used camel colored thread for a bit of contrast on the creamy zig zags in the quilt.

The theme continues on the backing.

I am really pleased with the rapid healing of my rotary cutter injury! My finger has gone from a bloody mess to a scab free, thin skinned area, still sensitive, but healing well. The human body is a marvelous machine!

No more band aids. I trimmed the sharp edges of the remaining nail, and am encouraged to see that it may grow back fairly normal.

I encourage all of you to use caution with your tools and avoid injuries like this one. My momentary lapse of attention has taught me to slow down and be aware of where my fingers are when cutting.

I took an afternoon break and enjoyed a bag of popcorn. Obviously, nothing happens in the studio without supervision...