Greetings – again!  Still H&H here!  Still walking!

I did not meet all of my goals this week, but what else could be new.  I do have good excuses though!  (don’t we all) Here were my goals for this week and any hold overs!

Goals for 8 thru 15 September  were:

• Continue to work on Mary Brown blocks and Sweet Stitches – Still working on them-Progress made on Sweet Stitches
• Begin working on my 3030 quilt – Pulled fabrics, but had to order Bella Solids Ivory for background – Delay!
• I am contemplating working on other UFOs or BOMs but am not sure, so I will just list the 2 goals. I selected 4 that I would like to participate in but unable to start on any. 
• Previous week was to clean the Studio.  I have completed this Goal. Studio and House Clean – Sewing Time

When I  pulled fabrics for my 3030 quilt I realized that the Bella Solids I had (Snow and Beige) would not blend well with the fabrics so I ordered some Ivory from Fat Quarter Shop.  Still have not received that order.  I also ordered some Rothermel 3030 fat quarter fabrics. They are so soft and beautiful!

I ordered then from Pat’s Fat Quarters and Pat’s Fat Quarters.  She ships fast and the fabrics are great!  They beat the delivery for my Bella Solids.  I am happy that I ordered them, as most of the Rothermel fabrics I have were not going to be used in this quilt.

I made some progress on Sweet Stitches block for November.

Goals for the next week – 15-22 September are:

• Begin work on 3030 quilt
• Begin Stars Around the Garden (SAG)
• Continue with Mary Brown blocks and Sweet Stitches

Here are the fabrics I have chosen for SAG:

And a few more fat quarters to blend in.  The light background will be for the Center Medallion.  I believe I will be able to trace the applique pattern OK – time will tell!

I believe I will be able to do better this next week!  Have a great week!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days

Happy Sunday! Can you believe that we are half way through September? We hit 101 degrees again today! It was hot and humid at 6:00 AM for my morning walk. Looks like we are back in H & H again! Today was a ‘produce nothing’ day.

I have not finished my handwork like I had hoped to but I am making progress. This is the November Block.

Have a great Week. I am waiting for my fabrics to get here for my 3030 quilt!

Nanette

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Connie, Bella, Gretchen, Daisey ,Connie, Monica, Sherrie.

Greetings!  Back to summer here in South Texas, cool was nice as it lasted!  Back to the walk in a sweat box at 6AM!  I am sure all will be happy to see Fall coming and I am wondering which Almanac prediction will be correct – the old or the new one that says it will be a hard winter!  Time will tell!

Now that I have covered the weather – let’s talk quilting things!  The other day as I was taking pictures of Pukeko and Tuis quilts I wished I had a place to take them outside or another way other than laying them on the floor.  I have also draped them over the long arm, but doing either way does not do the quilt justice!  Putting them on the design wall is a hassle because I clean the threads off of it as soon as the quilt top is complete!

Enter Clay – my sweet engineer – he told me he had an idea that would allow me to hang the quilts for photographs!  This man can fix anything, remakes most things that we have purchase to make them better, and now he has solved my picture taking issue.

I grabbed a quilt top (from 2006) and look how great the picture came out!

Aspen

There are so many neat free BOMs, SALs, QALs to participate in and I try to hold it down on the number I want to do, but Deb at Happy to be Scrappy has found a Hexagon quilt-as- you-go project that I found to be quite interesting.  She is going to start a SAL in November and invited anyone to join in the fun.   I checked out the YouTube video from Missouri Quilt Company and decided I would tag along with her in November.  I checked out my “ruler drawers” for hexagon ruler/template that I could use without having to buy anymore and found the one from Quilt Sense and Marti Michell.  So I am all set to do this one – just need to find the right fabric in my stash!  Should be a great hand project and by November I will be caught up on other hand projects!

I am in the holding mode as I wait for my Bella Solids and more Judy Rothermel 1930 fat quarters for my 3030 quilt with Gay.  I went through all of my Rothermel Aunt Gracie fabrics and realized that she had done an entire year (2003) of Aunt Gracie fabrics for each month of the year – A BOM fabric collection.  I have the entire collection and want to make a Sun Bonnet Sue quilt rather than using them in the 3030 quilt.  So this is why I am now waiting on more Rothermel 1930 fabrics and will be delayed in meeting my weekly goals for 3030.

In the meantime I did a review the patterns and started selecting fabrics for each block with the remaining fabrics.  There are a lot of flying geese in this quilt and made a practice block following Gay’s instructions. I have the entire collection of Eleanor Burns Flying Geese Rulers  and will use them for more consistent and accurate blocks rather than using Gay’s method.

Most quilters will use paper piecing, but I personally do not care for that technique – probably because I have never spent anytime on becoming proficient with the technique, OR maybe I just like to do things the hard way as a challenge to get my blocks perfect by sewing so many pieces together!  Probably the latter.

Have a great week-end and enjoy quilting and your CVV!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days

It is raining – off and on, but at least it is rain and I love the cloudy rainy days – if only it were 50 degrees!   It is 77 degrees BUT 87% humidity.  Mr Fibro and Meniere’s are here with me today and will be until the front passes! Talk about unwanted guests!!!!  I detest days like this because it slows me down and I was doing so well with multi tasking my way through my projects.  Ah, but cooler days are coming soon!  Then I will have an abundance of energy!  I would love to be in Colorado where the snow is!

BACK TO QUILTING!  I signed up for the 3030 quilt from Sentimental Stitches.   Since I had uninvited guests today I decided that this morning would be the day to pull fabrics and start cutting out blocks – something that would not tax my non-multi-tasking brain!  As usual,  I am behind in making any blocks for this quilt (like 14 blocks) and Friday Block 15 comes!  I had decided on the fabrics I had purchased previously (about 4 years ago) for Farmers Wife (which had too many pattern problems) so I ended up using some of them for my Dresden Plate quilt that is still a UFO (more hand work)!

CHANGE IN PLANS:  As I started pulling the fabrics I quickly realized that the original fabric selection were definitely not going to be used on this beautiful quilt!  I wen into the other staff room of my Studio where most of my stash is (most, well maybe part of it) and there they were – the Judy Rothermel fabrics that I had collected since 2001 when I started to “become” a quilter (which was delayed until 2004 after 3 back surgeries). They are going to be perfect for this quilt!  I also have 8 yards of Sun Bonnet Sue fabric for the backing of a quilt that I was going to make with this collection – Yup a Sun Bonnet Sue!  THAT Never happened!

I pulled the entire collection from the shelf and decided I would cut either one half or one fourth of a yard of each piece for my 3030 project.  (Now am rethinking this – maybe just 10″ of each).

For the background fabric I have a lot of Bella Solids and Kona Bay that I use for applique or embroidery projects (snow and beige), but neither of the colors blended well with the Rothermel fabrics so I checked my sample book of Bella Solids and called Fat Quarter Shop and ordered 15 yards of Bella Solids (9900-60).  They offer a 20% off for bulk quantities which ended up being a great buy at $5.59 a yard!  YEA!

So here are the fabrics I will be using for my 3030 quilt!  I am quite sure that I will have plenty!  You can easily tell I was a Newbie Quilter thinking that I would need yards and yards of each fabric in order to make one quilt!  LOL

Now I cannot start making blocks until I receive the Bella Solids, but I can certainly start cutting smaller pieces of each fabric for the quilt.  I may even prepare the center medallion applique pieces!  At least I can select fabrics for each block and cut the background fabric pieces later this week.  Who knows what progress I can make on the preparations, but I would really prefer to just crawl in the bed for the rest of the day, but cannot give in to the uninvited guests!

NEW PROJECTS: There are a couple of free BOMs that I also would like to do if I could catch up with their postings. (What a dreamer I am!). (This is what happens you follow other Bloggers – you get hooked!)

• Jen’s 2020 Monthly Color Challenge.  Colors Inspired by Birds
•  Melva Loves Scraps   Pieces From the Past
• Jenny of Elefantz The 23rd Psalm
• For the Love of Geese. The Tree of Life

OK, I know that all of the above are impossible, but heck, since we are now on the China Virus Vacation (CVV) I may as well make the best use of my time at home on the 5 acres where we are safe and secure!  As soon as the CVV dies we are headed to the nearest Casino for 2 weeks where I will be able to drain the brain (probably the pocket book as well)!

Hugs, Nanette AND KEEP ON STITCHING EVEN WITH UNINVITED GUESTS!  MAKES US TOUGH!

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days

Welcome to To Do Tuesday!  This is the first time this year I set goals and finished 2 and worked on 2!  It is always so nice to start a brand new year even if I am 8 months late!

A week ago I joined up for the To-Do Tuesday Linky Party!  Here were my goals:

1. Finish my  Easy Breezy.      DONE!  Both quilt tops are complete (Inspire of Medicare, Amazon, and Doctor Billing Office)
2.  Finish Mary Brown’s 2 blocks to complete all four corners of the quilt.     Well, I worked on 2 of the blocks will that count?
3.  Begin work on 3030 quilt by Gay at Sentimental Stitches.
4.  Dust the Studio –     Halfway done!  At least I am more organized and my cutting is cleared off and the Design Wall Clean.

I now have 2 new quilts that are going to the “to be quilted” rack!   Introducing Pukeko Swamp and Tuis and Pohutakawa.  The link provides you the background on the names of the quilts.

                                                                Pukeko Swamp Quilt

           Tuis and Pohutakawa

A little progress on Mary Brown remaining blocks for the quilt corners.

And here is Goal Number 4.

I am so happy with my 2 quilts for 2020!  They were easy but still time consuming.  If you notice, I have figured out how to put my name on my quilts now that I put on my Blog!  I called Apple this morning and it was the quickest call I have ever made to them and the guy was great!  All in about 6 minutes!

For Next week – 8 thru 15 September my goals are:

1. Continue to work on Mary Brown blocks
2. Begin working on my 3030 quilt
3. I am contemplating working on other UFOs or BOMs but am not sure, so I will just list the 2 goals.

Have a great week and see you next week on the To-Do Linky Party.

Nanette

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!!  

It appears that I will be working on the 3030 quilt, but only after the Fat Quarter Shop ships my bolt of Bella Solids (9900-60) for my the background fabric.  And I am certain that I will not be getting 14 blocks done by next week (of course the applique will take longer).

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days

Greetings from South Texas where it is beginning to cool off and we are back to walking at 6AM!  Still a little warm and very humid, but only 3 more days of that and a cool front comes into town!  Supposed to be in the high 50’s and low 60’d Thursday and Friday morning – looks like we will now get into the 80’s during the day by the end of the week.  Think I will still walk in my night shirt with that cool front while hubby will have a coat on!  What can I say?

I had set my weekly goals and was determined to have 2 quilts finished by Friday, then Saturday, and here it is Sunday! But alas, Amazon treadmill return issue and Doctor Billing issues kept that goal from being reached!  Again,  What can I say?

Saturday was a banner sewing day and if I had not had to stop and eat at 4:30, I would have finished both quilts!  I have completed Pukeko Swamp Quilt and Tuis and Pohutakawa with T&P on the design wall ready to be sewn together tomorrow.  I am very surprised at how they have turned out and especially and enjoying the new names!  I used the block pattern from Bonnie Hunters Easy Breezy pattern for her leaders and enders project for the year.  Gretchen told me about the block,  so I decided this would be a great little project to get my quilting life back in order.  I only have 3 months now to produce some of my 2020 goals.  These quilts were  just the right ones for me to do to start my quilting year!  They were fun, easy, and has made me a quilter again!  What more could I want from life in 2020 (besides having Clay healthy and here with me)!

I did have to laugh at myself as I put the first border on because 8 months away from quilting tends to make a Quilter rusty in the quilting brain!  When I put the border on Pukeko, rather than start with the sides, I started with the top and bottom.  I do believe my brain was thinking “binding” when I started putting the strips together and realized – WHOA Nellie – these are BORDERS!

I am very happy with my first quilt for 2020 so with that, I give you Pukeko Swamp.  It will go to the “to be quilted” rack and hopefully I will start working on them in November.  But for now, I am happy!

And here is Tuis and Pohutakawa on the Design Wall! I am so excited to get the quilt to this point and can hardly wait to see how the border that I have selected for this quilt will make it really pop.

I will complete this puppy tomorrow because all business that cause me problems will be closed!  LOL!  I love 3 day week-ends – even in retirement!

Have a great Labor Day and a great week!

Nanette Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days

Cooler today – in the lower 90’s and that is due to cloud cover.  I seem to be moving along with my goals quicker than I thought I would. Yesterday I was able to put my Blue and Black Pukeko Swamp Quilt setting on the Design Wall! I love it! I have now give the quilt a new name! Pukeko Swamp. This is the name that is on the selvage of the fabric.

Linda in UK provided me the following information about the New Zealand fabric that I had chosen to use Easy Breezy  The birds with red beaks are pukeko, a marsh duck, and the red flowers are on the pohutukawa tree (known in NZ as the Christmas tree as they flower at Christmas and look like a tree dressed with red fairy lights). The birds on the pohutukawa are tuis. The tui is also called the Parson Bird because the white feather tab at his neck is like a Vicar’s white tabs.

This was great information so as soon as I had the setting on my design wall I knew that the name would be changed!  So here is Pukeko Swamp Quilt!

I still have to cut the corner blocks and side setting blocks before I will begin to sew the rows together.

I am now working on the last of the red fabric blocks so they will be ready to be put on the design board by Friday!

This will be the first quilt for 2020!  Stay tuned for the finish!

Hugs, Nanette 

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days

Happy Anniversary to Clay and I – we have been married 24 years.  We celebrate 3 days of Anniversaries – 3 June when he called me while I lived in Sterling Virginia, 2 August when we were married in our home, and 1 September (which seems now to be the most important one) when we were married in the Church! I am so blessed that God intervened in our lives with a lot of blessings and saved my Clay!

We celebrated with going to the UPS store to return an item, stop by HEB to return and replace eye drops, and then pick up taco’s for breakfast!  Fun Day so far and it is cloudy!

I am beginning to rejoin the quilting world, so here are my week’s goal that I hope to meet!

1.  Finish my  Easy Breezy. (Hard to keep goals when Agencies like Medicare screw up your 250 page Part B submission)
2.  Finish Mary Brown’s 2 blocks to complete all four corners of the quilt.
3.  Begin work on 3030 quilt by Gay at Sentimental Stitches
4.  Dust the Studio

I only finish one thing last month, but I do believe that I can reach these goals and maybe one or two more, but only time will tell and if it remains quiet on the home front.  I want to make the most out of this month as I am in the catchup mode!

Hugs

Nanette

Linking up with To Do Tuesday

Greetings – only 103 yesterday and today will probably be higher.  Might cool off next week – maybe some rain on Tuesday or Wednesday – will believe it when I see it!

I am ready for 1 September.  I thought that August would be a month were I would be setting some goals.  But it is what it is!  House is clean and I am back on track with my monthly cleaning (thank you Clay for helping!)  Now to dust the Studio and I will be ready to go starting tomorrow!

My quilting goals for the entire month are:

1.  Easy Breezy quilt – Not sure how many blocks I will make or the setting it is very easy quilt and goes fast.
2. Complete the last 2 blocks of Sweet Stitches
3. Complete the last 2 blocks for Mary Brown that have been waiting patiently to be hand appliquer.
4. Start 3030 with Gretchen.  There is an appliqued Center Medallion to prepare for applique
5. Start Stars Around the Garden (SAG) SAG also has a Center Medallion to prepare for applique
6. Sew the 4 corners of Mary Brown together and add the Vines!
7. If I complete Number 6 above, then I will attempt to do another block to get me back on track!
8. Attempt to join in with some of the BOMs being offered!
9. Most of all – HAVE FUN DOING ALL OF THIS!

It has been awhile since I set goals, so I am hoping that the month goes quietly by and I will be sewing up a storm.  Of course, I may not meet all of them, but I am sure going to give it a good try!

More to come as I progress.  Have a great week and enjoy setting your goals for September 2020!

Hugs,

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days, One Monthly Goal

Lovely weather here in South Texas!  See?

AND another banner yesterday of 110 and probably today!   Do not need the Virus to keep us at home – Weather Virus for sure!

I did finish Santa this week!  YEA!  I have now am working on Mary Brown applique blocks – only 2 left and all corners will be completed – and Easy Breezy pieced quilt. (I need to do satin stitch for the eyes but will have to practice on that stitch).  Also will have to do some stitching around the holly and berries on Santa and other blocks.  Kathy Schmitz provides the finishing touches on each block with items that really make the blocks.

Here is a picture of completed blocks that I had finished previously and the 2 that will be done soon (I hope)

Clay set up the bird bath and started wondering why the dish would empty so fast – here is why – cuties!

Well, this is all I have for HQAL this round.  Have a great week – house cleaning has to be done today – Then I can start September off with a clean house.  The Studio doesn’t take long to clean the dust, but it has been June since I did a deep clean and that is longer than I have ever gone.

Hugs, Nanett

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Connie, Bella, Gretchen, Daisey ,

Connie, Monica, Sherrie.

Shall I say greetings AGAIN?  I am trying so hard to get over the “hump” of life and back into my quilting.  I think that I am getting there, but it is slow.  I have finished Santa and only 2 more blocks to go and this project will be ready for a setting.  I thought that everyone would like to see what the other blocks look like since it has been sooooo long when I started this project. The neat thing about Kathy Schmitz for this project is that she provides the little things like the leaves and berries on Santa’s hat that you press on and then button hole stitch around each one.  I will need to do the satin stitches for Santa’s eyes, but that will come later when I do the button hole stitches on the leaves and cherries.

Here are the last two blocks that I need to do, they are for October and November.

I am not sure how the setting will end up.  This was my first (and probably my last) BOM with fabrics that I had purchased.  Each block has fabric included to frame them as they can be done separately instead of a quilt.  I am opting for a quilt!

Next week Gretchen and I are going to start on the 3030 quilt project.  Today is the first day of peace and quiet and now I have so many projects that are in different stages, I have no idea what to do next.  I really need to take some sit down time and make some sewing decisions.  I looked at my “list to do and quilts I want to make” fro 22 December 2019.   Somehow I was overwhelmed – wonder why.  I will take stock of my projects and get busy and try to put a dent in them in the next week.  They are:

1.  OMIGOSH Blocks – This will not be a fast quilt to make so it will be a “what am I in the mood for today” type of sewing.

2.  Easy Breezy – This one is exactly what the names indicates EASY and fast!  I just need to settle into it.

3.  2 blocks for Mary Brown – Night work (Applique)

4.  2 blocks for Sweet Stitches – Night work (Embroidery)

5.  Blue and White Reproduction Quilt – (Started a year ago)

OK, I am already worn out just looking at the above.  Think for this week it is going to be Easy Breezy.  I believe the best thing is to try to finish something!  It has been too long since I made a quilt.

Have a great week, and shout out to East Texas and Western Louisiana.  We were hoping to get some rain from the storm or at least a cool down from the 100’s.  Time will tell.

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days.  

Greetings from South Texas or in other words the “New Desert”.  I had a week from Hell but finished lovely paperwork yesterday and forwarding my problems to the Doctors Billing Office, my Senator my Representative, and Amazon.  Sounds like fun doesn’t it!!!!

Let’s get to fun and quilting projects   I only have some Snowflakes to finish.

Have a wonderful week!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, For the Love of Geese,Scrap Happy Days