Busy week at Wazoo

Another week in the books and some quilting to share. We took Monday off to make a trip to Gainesville to stock up on groceries from Sam's Club. We get most of our meat, poultry and fish there because it is so much better than the local grocery store. Frozen stuff, canned baked beans, peaches and cases of mushrooms fill the cart, too. We got our vitamins, toothpaste, body wash and shampoo as well as Mr Wazoo's favorite deluxe mixed nuts.It was a nice trip but my feet and legs don't like walking for hours on a concrete floor.

Tonight was the evening guild. What a great group! I really enjoyed the program of what to do with your 60 degree ruler. The two ladies who did the program had some lovely quilts to show us, as well as a brief demonstration of how kaleidoscope quilts are made. Show and tell was awesome, too. I'm happy to be home and am looking forward to hitting the hay and going to dreamland. I'm tired!

Here is the week's work from the studio.

My sister made another calm and sweet quilt. The Parisian fabrics are soft and pretty. 

Panto: Frolic

The backing is a nice floral shabby-chic fabric.

Studio in full swing. I took this on the way out the door to get some lunch. There is a beautiful custom quilt on Big Gammill getting it's ditches stitched. You'll see the quilt on the Handi Quilter in a bit. It is finished. The blocks on the design wall are also sewn, quilted, bound and given to the guild outreach group.

This flag quilt is a gift for a veteran who is a painter that did loads of work for the customer. It is to thank him for the great job he did painting at her house.

The panto is stars and swirls in gold thread.

A peek at the back.

This customer made this to be a decoration on her dining room table when not in use. The colors are exciting and bright.

Panto: Keepsake

Super backing, too!

I want to start a new project, so I finally sewed up the quilt blocks from the design wall and finished the quilt.

I freehand meandered over the quilt

Backing is from the sale room at the Hayesville shop.

The machine is behaving better but I still had some freezes and  motor errors. They really slow the momentum with the quilting. Is frustrating and slow.

That's it for now.I donated four quilts to the guild tonight that will go to needy. homes.I donate most of what I make because I can't justify having over 100 quilts in the house! I figure with the size of my stash, I could make another 100 quilts! I'm going to try!

 

Quilt show!

Last week I worked on the Sunbonnet Sue repair, and it is finished!!  Here is where I started and what the finished repair looks like.

I almost said "no!" to this project, but the customer was so adamant about having it restored, I gave in.

The Sues are made from double knit polyester from the 60s and 70s. One was AWOL!

Most had pieces missing or falling off, plus there were holes everywhere.

The edge was finished by folding the back to the front and was loose or torn in many places.

The backing also showed wear, with holes and tons of missing hand quilting.

Ta-Da! First, I repaired all the holes with patches. Next, I made the missing block and all the missing arms, feet and hats out of tee shirt scraps and then sewed down everything on the quilt with a small buttonhole stitch using twelve different colors of thread to match. I cut down the excess fabric that made the edge and made double fold binding from the trimmings. I attached it and hand sewed it to the back. Then, I sat for two evenings and one day hand quilting the whole shebang.

The backing was a bit baggy, but looks like it did before the quilting disintegrated. The original maker used an all purpose thread, which didn't  hold up to constant hard use. I used glazed quilting thread and I hope it will last 100 years! I gave the quilt a much needed wash, and it fluffed up nicely!

The big events of my week were a quilt show in Seneca, SC and my second class for my Handi Quilter in Franklin, NC. Lots of travel, but well worth it.

Here are my favorites from the show. 

I love the graphic, colorful look of this.

Cabin in the woods. Up close, the fabrics are all Liberty of London! That was an unexpected fabric choice.

This Suit and Tie quilt is made of wool and the tiny inserted lines are from men's ties!

The way she used the stripe on the tie in the tiny strings of color was exciting to me.

Oh, the color combination here. Be still my heart.

This doesn't look like much until you get closer and see the wonderful 'seed' big stitch quilting and numerous French knots. 

The quilting is confined to circular shapes. I think it would have benefitted from some straight line big stitch in the back ground to control the bagginess in the wide open spaces.

Wow!! Just , Wow! this Sue Spargo wool appliqué and embroidered piece is a work of art. All hand appliquéd with decorative stitches, and the wool background is expertly machine quilted.

The small black and white bits in the background added more whimsy to an already fun quilt.

The plethora of decorative stitch combinations is remarkable and beautiful. Plus, she has used rick-rack here and there...my absolute favorite embellishment.

The colors are bright and well distributed, and the whole effect makes the quilt a big winner.

I didn't cotton to this quilt up close, but from across the aisle, it is stunning.

This quilt has cleverly used fabric crumbs to construct the quarter circles in different color families. The end result moves the eye around and keeps the design from being boring. 

I love it!

This small art quilt has a design drawn and painted with Intense Water Color Pencils, then highlighted with black marker.

Oh my, this is so lovely. Bluebirds of Paradise. Machine appliquéd with a teensy buttonhole stitch and beautifully hand guided longarm quilted. 

Another big stitch triumph, this bandana themed quilt shows the maker's mastery of the big stitch technique. It won for best handwork.

I really like the quilted motifs in the open spaces.

My pick for Viewer's Choice was this chicken quilt. I have the pattern, but haven't made it yet.

Now it's time to go to the studio and get busy! I learned cropping and inserting blocks and different patterns into quilts at my class, and I am anxious to see if I can do it at home...Why is it we can master something in class and forget half of it when we get home?! You know it's  true, don't you? ha ha, let's go see what I can do.

Busy times, and I'm tired.

I have been working most days quilting and sewing. The other days I go to meetings or forays to fabric shops. It's a good life and I sleep well!

On the quilting front, the machine has had hiccups on and off, but I have managed to do at least one quilt a day. My backlog isn't daunting, so I'm okay with that. Let's take a look...

First, a repair. I replaced about 12 inches of the bias  binding on a small quilt. There was also a tiny hole (see it in the rose?) I patched that later.

I had to put a pin where the hole was so I could find it again!

This customer quilt is one of my favorite patterns; brick and block. I have made three of these in my quilting journey, and may have to make another since seeing this one!

I used a feather swirl pattern for the quilting.

The customer's friend should be well pleased with this beautiful quilt.

Wow!  I love the stripey pattern of this quilt. It will be. table cloth for the customer's daughter.

She requested a dense floral pattern for the quilting. 

The backing is wonderful. I think it's an Anna Maria Horner fabric.

I finished the custom quilt I have been working on for two weeks.

The customer hand embroidered the chickens.

I used the chicken wire in the background to guide my quilting. The red sashings have a simple double' L-E' free motion design. In the outer border I marked parallel lines with half circles next to them. 

Swirls in the center and feathers in the circles. I finished the border with one inch piano keys in black.

The cornerstones have a free hand design of crossed petals and linear fill.

The borders are black Grunge, that looks rather gray in this picture.

Here is a peek at the back.

Another customer quilt, this sweet sherbet colored plaid design.

This panto is called Alfresco and looks great here.

The back is a coordinating green floral.

This bright and happy Peanuts project is a charity quilt that the customer made with my all time favorite quick pattern, Warm Wishes. 

I quilted it with bright yellow thread in a design called Yodel.

The backing is from Connecting Threads and is really soft.

I've been working hard on the Sunbonnet Sue quilt and only have the hand quilting to do where it is missing. I will have pictures to show next time. It has been a challenging endeavor!

The days are getting warmer even though it gets really cool at night. Mr Wazoo is happily tractoring around the yard, trimming, digging and raking. It's wonderful to see him outside where he is most happy.

The Johnny Jump Ups are clinging to the rocks.

We have a bumper crop of lily of the valley. I hope there will be loads of fragrant flowers to come.

I breathed a sigh of relief to see Mr W's Japanese maple leafing out unscathed by the freezing weather we had last month.

The pansies that I thought were dead revived and are blooming. It is nice to see their cute faces.

If you're not from the South, this is a wild azalea. They grow in the woods and add a burst of color in the Spring. We planted one a couple of years ago and this is the most blooms it has ever had!

The dogwood tree didn't bloom as vigorously as last year, but at least it isn't dead!

Happy Spring to you all!