First the good things. I finished one of the blocks for the Merry Christmas SAL.

Now for the fun and games. Refrigerator Number THREE (3) will be delivered tomorrow afternoon. Can you believe Lowes cannot find someone to replace gaskets on Number Two Refrigerator in our area????

No wonder I am craving doughnuts!

Moral of this story – pray your old appliances last another 20 years!

Have a great day!

Nanette -at least I think 🤔 this is who I am in La La Land.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for quilter’s who enjoy hand stitching work to share and motivate one another in their projects. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  For once I have something to share!  YEA!

I have finally finished Block 7 of A Bountiful Life!  Now to add the circles on each flower.

I have also joined in on the A Merry Christmas To You SAL  I started working on the 4 embroidery blocks last night.  I want to improve my embroidery work and found a great little video on YouTube from Mary Corbet on the Stem Stitch.  There is a little trick in the video that is great.  I always had issues with corners and curves!  Not anymore!

You may remember last year that I have been working on Susan’s Dresden Heaven   I finished all the Dresden plates last May and now need to applique them to a background.  I made my Dresden’s in some 1930 fabric that I had purchased for Farmer’s Daughter but did not  make that quilt.

All those lovely Tiny Dresden’s

Larger Dresdens

Nanette

Check out the other quilter’s who participate in the HQAL every 3 weeks to see what projects they are working on.

Kathy, Lori, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Deborah,  Susan, Jessisca, Sherry, Nanette, Sassy, Edith, Sharon Grethenand Karrin

I am sad to hear that Bella is ending her Capital T SAL and her Blog due to health issues. I will miss her Blog a lot. Talented Lady. I am going to finish my Capital later this month or in March!

Life here in Ruralsville has improved in one sense and gone down in another sense! The new refrigerator from last Monday had a gasket leak and it was replaced Thursday with another Refrigerator. NOW the 2nd one has a worse gasket problem. But at least it works! They will come out next week to replace all the gaskets! GRRR

Internet service has been the upside of our lives! We have new equipment and speeds up to 25 Mbps but no less than 15 Mbps! How blessed we are!!!!!!

In place of the Capital T SAL, I have joined a SAL with Susan Marth. I did her Dresden Plates quilt last year ( more hand work to come on it) and I also purchased her pattern A Merry Christmas to You at the same time.

I have prepped the 4 blocks in the pattern for Embroidery.

SHOCK SHOCK. I finished Block 7 of A Bountiful Life! Looking like I will have to add circles on the flower center soon! What do you think! Plain or a circle needed?

For my Enduring Love Border I have 12 of 40 Stars made and hoping to finish 8 today. Then I will be half way through!

I am getting pretty good with doing my Post on the iPhone. Need to sell one of my iPads!!!

Have a great weekend. There is a sign on our gate now that says NO PROBLEMS WANTED! LOL 😂

NANETTE

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Sew Can She; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Fiber Tuesday;    Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHOW; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Show and Tell Monday with Bambi; Quilt Fabrication

I am trying to stay focused on my projects BUT somehow things keep happening to break my ability to focus! Fun events as our Refrigerator dying on Saturday. They delivered the new one Monday only to have to replace it because of the freezer frosting over! I am happy I did not place the order for groceries to replace all that defrosted. We also purchased a new washer and dryer. All appliances were purchased in 1998 before we retired. They lasted a long time and can never be replaced as technology has changed so drastically.

The next irritation is the crummy Internet provider. I have been wanting to do a Post for 3 days only to try this morning and no service.

So I am doing one on my phone. Here goes

I have finished the two baby quilts for Kay’s Great Great Grand-babies just in time for the next cold front! YEA The quilts are 50″ x 50″

This is Brooklyn’s quilt.

This is Addison’s quilt.

Next quilting project is to load my Heart quilt I finished last May.

My sweet Engineer hubby ( who puts up with me more than he should when I feel bad) has improved the lighting on my Handi Quilter.

This is what the new lights looked like before he installed them. He made the part to place the lights on! So talented!

Today my new Pattern Grid arrived. I may make an attempt later in the year to learn how to do pantograph’s!!!!

Now I am working on the final border for Enduring Love. I need 40 each 6 1/2″ Stars. I am making 10 Stars from 4 different fabrics using Eleanor Burns technique and ruler.

I have 10 made and halfway finished with 10 more.

Tomorrow we will receive another Refrigerator and the Internet Tech is coming in the morning. Houseful of people!

If the 2nd Refrigerator and Internet is working tomorrow I will place my grocery order for pick up on Friday.

Maybe by Saturday things will calm down.

Happy sewing.

I am participating in a Saw Along with Isabella. She has done a exceptional job in researching the Capital “T” quilt and the block. The block this month is called the Imperial “T” block.

If you are interested in making a Capital “T” quilt this is a great way to do it by making one block a month!

This is my block for January and tomorrow we will receive the block for February. I use Eleanor Burns ruler for my flying geese.

I am making my Capital “T” in Red and White. I may start one in blue and white so by the end of the year I will have two new quilts.

I encourage all to take the time to read Bella’s Blog about this project and join in!

Be sure to check out Sharon’s Block for January she has really used some great fabrics.

I have also finished quilting the baby quilts! I am finishing up the binding on the second one. I will post them when they are both completed.

I received my fabrics for Enduring Love Star Border today. I hope to start on it by Saturday! But before I do I will complete the baby quilts.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Nanette

I will reply to all on my last post as soon as Rise Broadband gets their act together. To difficult to answer like I want to on phone!

Have a great day!

After my Thoughts On Quilt Shows I realized something!  Where has my reasoning gone?  What have I been thinking?  I have been there and already done that! In addition, after talking with my Quilting Angels, Jaydee, Jan, Gretchen and Gretchen’s Post  about having someone quilt your quilts, I have made a decision that I think is the best for me!

I am basing my decision on looking back to 2013 when I did send quilts out to a quilter and was marked down on her quilting, but my scores were perfect.  I do believe after that experience I had decided that I would do my own quilting and not pay just to please a Judge who probably never quilted a quilt in her life!  I thank Laura  for her comment on my post from yesterday.   She forced me to remember how I felt when I realized that I had spent good money just for someone to not care enough to provide me her best work!

At the beginning of this month I had really begun to reduce any issues that would cause me to become stressed.  One week ago someone was able to trigger a stressful event which cost me some restless sleep and concern.  I had made an appointment with a quilter only for her to call me 3 weeks later and give me an unbelievable reason for not being able to do my quilts.   I spent 2 days trying to find another quilter and let my mind go racing and get back on the stress train!  This also cost me time in meeting my quilting goals.  I was in a dither about spending so much money just to be competitive with others!  WHAT WAS I THINKING?

But it was through this stress process that now, a week later, that I am waking up to the fact that the world and the quilting world has changed.  If I wanted to be like others who are spending a ton of money to find the perfect quilter to quilt a pretty quilt and hope to gain that illusive Best of Show and Blue Ribbons, please count me out!

There is a process that has to take place before the show happens.  This involves paperwork, cost to enter the show, and the cost to have the quilt quilted to meet a personal judgmental decision on one’s work by Judges or just quilt it myself and let the public enjoy my work!  Then there is the time to take the quilt before the Show and return to pick it up.  I have never entered a show where I would have to mail it.  Do not trust the mail!

Looking back at a week-ago, I was happy, sleeping great, Diabetes was really doing good, and up jumped the devil and things started going South!  I wonder if I will ever learn that stress is the thing that has caused most of my autoimmune problems?  It certainly caused Diabetes to come knocking.  They can play havoc with my days when I am stressed and it is no longer fun feeling so bad when I can prevent this from happening.  I must realize that I can control stress in my life now – not someone else!

So to my quilting Angels (and I guess I need to thank the quilter who cancelled – she was extremely expensive) Jan, Jaydee, Gretchen, Laura, and my buddy of 39 years Wanda were trying to gently help me realize that I was happier last year when I was making quilts just to enjoy the process!   Jaydee and Gretchen encourage me every day to enjoy the process and fire up that Handi Quilter and get my quilts completed.  At the end of the day I can say that “I made this quilt” and it would be true!

What I have learned since I became involved in Guilds and Quilt Shows, politics play a much bigger role in a Quilt Guild than I EVER realized!  I felt that women were there to share and help other quilters.  But that is not the real world – heck I put up with that for 38 years.  Maybe I need to be thankful that I do not fit in with a group of women who are ‘groupies’ and are envious of those who are better quilters!  Who needs that in their lives?

I believe that with the years I have left in life I want to enjoy each day as it comes and make those quilts that I have always wanted to make without wanting to compete.  Maybe I need to join Instagram to show my work – it is free!

I wish to thank all quilters to take the time to follow me on my journey and provide comments.  I learn from each and everyone of you.  I am beginning to think about all the quilts I have made and what to do with them after I am gone.  I wonder if a Museum would want them, after all, Traditional quilters are soon to become a thing of the past if it has already not happened!  LOL!

Have a wonderful week — ME?  I will not enter anymore into Quilt Shows, but I will have a couple quilted with my new quilter Tammy!  But no custom work – I would rather take the money and head to the Casino and have fun!  After all, as Denzel Washington has said, “I never saw a U-Haul Trailer behind a Hearse” !

Nanette