Update...still no quilting

 No word from my Handi Quilter dealer about the part for the machine. Oh well, when I can't quilt, I can sew!

I finished the top with the Jacob's ladder blocks. It has turned out to be a good sized queen and will make a splash on a bed that size. Despite the mistakes, I really like it. It is so cheerful!

The border fabric livened up the quilt even more!

It was fun to make and even better to finish!

The small inner border was just right for stopping the eye at the edge of the piecing.

Meanwhile, I made the next block in our evening guild's mystery project. I know the fabrics are starting to look like a circus, but you never know what you're going to get when pulling fabrics for a mystery. Hopefully, the finished product will be pretty.

As usual, one of the star points doesn't match up with the center of the star. The method for making the points was not what I am used to and didn't come out with the side triangles equal. I wasn't sure I had enough focus fabric to finish the quilt since we don't know what's next in the mystery, so I left it.

My brother and his wife went to the shops in the Wisconsin shop-hop last week, and he sent me this year's Wisconsin panel and fabrics. I was so excited to get them, I set to work designing and making a quilt.

Sigh...another quilt with a million half square triangles to trim.

Well worth the trimming marathon, the center of the quilt came together nicely.

I bought this fabric to use for the background and didn't get quite enough. I wanted a 3" border to enclose the patchwork, but only had one strip of the fabric left. I got the fabric in NC and sure didn't want to make that drive for 1/2 yard of goods, so I went back to the drawing board and came up with the alternative border.

All finished, with a piano keys border of the quilt's fabric scraps, as well as the end of the blue fabric. I like it! Now, if I had my machine fixed...

On the homefront, Penny finally got her Summer buzz-cut. She ran and jumped all over the yard, happy to be cooler and lighter! With this hot weather, it has to feel good.

One happy pup.

Penny lost her hair, and Grandson is losing his teeth! The tooth fairy has been busy at my son's house, and one little boy is cashing in! He can enjoy his new straw hole until the permanent tooth comes in!

 

Well, RATS!! The Handi Quilter won't go...

 I thought I would be in the clear with the Handi Quilter after getting the APQS out of the studio. Yesterday I quilted a QOV just fine, then loaded another one. I cleaned the bobbin area and changed the needle and started to baste the top. The needle went down, then lights flashed, the machine beeped wildly and a message appeared on top of a bunch of Windows screens. Yikes! The dealer isn't open on Monday, so today I called them. "You have to call Handi Quilter with this one," she said, after we tried all sorts of re-booting, unplugging and replugging and clicking buttons. Handi Quilter tech did all the same things again, and he decided he would send me a new computer part (sound familiar? Its deja vu!). My dealer will come out and fix things when the part comes. Sigh...no quilting for a few days.

First this...

then this exploded onto the screen accompanied by several beeps...

The final message.

Here is the QOV that flew under the radar and was quilted before the breakdown.

Panto: Star Streamers

Cool helicopter fabric for the back.

I finished the last three blocks for the Jacob's ladder quilt and sewed the top together today. Moral of the story? Don't use two machines to sew blocks for one quilt. Some corners don't match together like they should, but I am over it and left them alone. My new Janome does not make a 1/4 inch seam and despite my adjustments to the needle position, the blocks were just a hair too small. Tomorrow I'll add the blue inner border and the beautiful floral outer border. It won't be perfect, but not will be pretty!

Wonky but nice. I like it.

This is my border fabric. Gorgeous!

I need to put away the two giant duffles full of quilts from my talk and trunk show. The ladies loved the quilts and asked lots of questions. Then I need to clear off the Gammill table and rev up the machine for a couple of small projects for a lady who is in assisted living and can't get out enough to take them to a quilter. I'm happy to help her out. After all, it will keep my mind off the Handi Quilter elephant in the room!

Summer is in full swing, so I stay in the studio!

Wow! Everywhere in the country it has been beastly hot. Fortunately, here in the mountains it is a bit cooler, if you think 96 is cool... I don't enjoy hot weather, so I have been in the studio where it stays comfortable all year round! There is something to be said for having the studio underground. 

The highlight of my week was finishing the quilting on this beautiful customer quilt. It's the Tula Pink butterfly pattern. She said the directions were not the best, and she had to keep stopping to cut more pieces. There wasn't the usual list of what to cut at the beginning of the instructions, and she had to squeeze to get some of the bits from her yardage. Great job, though!

Judy says she needed a brighter quilt on her bed for the summer months. This should satisfy that wish!

The panto is Flight of Fancy

Swirly patterned backing.

Yesterday, I quilted a couple of Quilts of Valor, trying to get caught up with the stack of them in the studio. I also made some more blocks for the Jacob's ladder project. At the Pigeon Forge show, I bought a new Janome 6700 at a bargain price. I took the big Bernina to Chattanooga for cleaning and service, and picked up the new machine to put to work while the Bernina is gone. First thing I did was sew a sample with the 1/4 inch foot. The machine makes a 3/8" seam, so I moved the needle to the right to accommodate this discrepancy. I also tried the 1/4 inch foot with the guide on the side. Same problem! Why would they make feet for quilting that aren't the correct size? The set of blocks I made are a teensy bit off, but I will continue to tweak the needle position to get it right.

The new machine has its own table, but I have it in the Koala for convenience.

QOV #1

Starry panto

Starry backing!

QOV #2.  I didn't see the pattern the blocks made until I saw it completed. A big starburst!

Panto: Simply Stars

Soft blue fabric for the backing.

All my blocks so far, in no kind of order. I just put them up so I can admire my work. ha ha

We had our evening guild on Thursday night and the show and tell was a real treat. Here are a few of my favorites from the members.

Lauren brought this darling Lego sewing machine she got from an online purchase.The foot pedal is dangling from the side.

Here is the Lego quilter, complete with her scissors!

Remember these blocks from the retreat? Robyn finished the quilt.

Rise made this Bonnie Hunter pattern over two retreats. Too many little pieces for me, but it really is amazing.

This Nascar tee shirt quilt is very cool with its checkered flag bits scattered around it.

Bonnie made this lovely sampler. All paper pieced! Wow. Each block has the name of a place she has been embroidered below it.

I was surprised with a package in the mail from my grandson. He painted a picture of the sunflower field we visited on my last trip to Wisconsin. It now has a place of honor below our ceramic frog in the great room.

He's getting to be such a big boy...I wish I could see him in person.

Sunflowers and frog.

A nice addition to our eclectic decor.

I'll leave you with Mr Wazoo's latest garden accomplishments. He scattered wildflower seeds in a bare spot in the back garden, and they have started to come up and bloom. More to come, I'm sure. He also replanted the pot outside the back door where the pansies gave up the ghost in the hot weather.

I'm off to Dahlonega with the girls today to see what's happening at the Common Thread shop. They are having their 'Stuff the Bag' promotion, and my small purple bag is ready! I really don't  plan to get anything, but it is a nice sale and the size of the bag limits how crazy you can get. We'll see what happens...

All of this area has the wildflower seeds. Some dainty white flowers have opened as well as a few orange ones.

This plant is about to burst with dark red blooms. Sweet potato vines will cascade over the edge in time.

 

Another quilt show and a Funday-Sunday!

 What a busy week I've had! Two quilt shows, four quilt shops and a Funday-Sunday to cap it all off. On the way home from Pigeon Forge we stopped at Mountain Creek quilt shop in Maryville, TN. It is a great shop with all the latest fabrics. I didn't need anything, and only bought a wallhanging kit of a bear on a birch tree, and a couple of fat quarters.

On Friday we traveled to Marietta, GA for the East Cobb quilt show. It was worth there trip. Lots of quilts in a well organized venue. The vendors are in a balcony that overlooks the show floor. We did the tour of the vendors, then dove right in and took in the hundreds of quilts. Put your seatbelt on, there are loads of quilts to see...

I took a photo in each direction so you could see how big the show is. 

Across there room, you can see some of the vendor booths. They encircle the entire balcony.

People down below are enjoying the quilts up close.

It's a perfect venue.

This is the Best of Show quilt. It is pretty and has some fabulous quilting, but it is not my pick.

Some of the quilting

More of the quilting.

These next quilts are my personal favorites, and they have three things in common...precise workmanship, interesting use of color and imaginative fabric placement within the pattern. I hope you agree.

Yikes! I don't think I would stick with it long enough to finish!

This quilt is awesome! Many of the 9 patches in the centers are fussy cut!

Here's one with happy dogs. I could look at this quilt for hours, marveling at the plethora of fabrics.

Our friend Kathy made this Ocean Waves quilt.

I love this! Made from a huge assortment of African fabrics.

I'm. sucker for birds in quilts, and these are spectacular. 

All Australian Aboriginal fabrics.

This one is hand pieced and hand quilted with big stitch. The color combinations are wonderful.

Wow! Thousands of tiny strips to make the moon and night sky.

This looks so Egyptian!

A simple pattern elevated by the interesting color combinations and the arcs of big stitch.

African fabric again.

The maker sewed this quilt for a teacher. Each letter is made from a fabric that represents it. What a clever idea! I bet the kids loved it.

A nice portrait of Obama

The original quilt was called Whiz-Bang and was made by an Aussie lady. This quilter did a good job making her own interpretation of that quilt.

This is so fun! Remembering the pandemic and all those pesky Zoom meetings. 

In the borders she quilted the outlines of the 'Zoomers".

What a brilliant use of yo-yos. Pink Ones on white and black fabric, and black and white ones on pink. Pluss, the quilting is all yo-yo shaped motifs. A grand use of pebbles in the quilting.

Here is the entire quilt. Every once in a while she snuck in a turquoise yo-yo or a white yo-yo. And that scalloped edge is terrific!

This was a challenge quilt where they had to pick three cards from the game Clue and interpret them in the quilt. This quilter chose her cards and made a winner!

The wrench...

Agatha's books

This is another of my favorites. I am so impressed with the imaginative use of an otherwise boring fabric panel.

Steam punk crow! I'm loving the embellishments on this one. The zipper tail is perfect!

All sorts of found objects and the gears in the quilting complete the picture.

Okay...I just thought it was fun.

I need to make this! Lord knows, I have enough Black and white fabrics to do it. The colors are no problem, either. I love this pattern.

What looked simple from a distance was intricate up close.

Buttons are one of my go-to embellishments. They are used well in this quilt.

More birds...with beads for eyes.

This colorful entry warms my heart. What could be better than gobs of half square triangles and bright appliquéd flowers?!

There were hundreds of quilts; a good number were English paper pieced and hand quilted. Anyone who had a quilt in this show should be proud of themselves for the excellence of work they did. I bought some 5 inch square packets of French fabrics to make a quilt where I can use my table cloth I got in Provence on the back. We don't have a big table anymore and it is languishing in the linen cabinet. It will be a nice memory quilt for me.

On the way home, we stopped at Pickens Mercantile quilt shop and Cabin Fever quilt shop. I had been to Fabrics Galore earlier to get the fabrics for the tee shirt quilt, so that made four shops in one week!

The tee shirt quilt is finished and ready to go home along with three of the four repairs from the same customer.  I put backing on a small homespun patchwork quilt and put on new binding, leaving just the double wedding ring quilt to repair. This lot was a big job and I am glad to be nearing the finish line.

Ta-Da! It turned out great!

I used my favorite tee shirt quilt panto, rounded squares. 

For the back, a blue Fossil Fern print.

Today was Funday-Sunday and I had some fun after binding the small homespun quilt. Remember the Jacob's ladder quilt I started at the retreat? I finally got a chance to work on it and made 15 of the 63 blocks. They take some time to do because of all the trimming and pressing, but it was relaxing and I enjoyed making them. I put them up on the design wall, and now I can't wait to make more. I love them!! So far so good. We'll see how it goes in the next week or so. I may be able to get a lot more sewn.

                                         

After trimming all 135 block components... Just think, only 432 more components to make, trim and assemble! ha ha

Mr Wazoo observed that some of the yellows don't match. Duh! That's the point!! It is a scrap quilt. Nothing matches. There will be no fabrics used twice. 126 different fabrics, all from my stash. Yowza!