July 2014 – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

July 18, 2014

Sentimental Scraps – Drowning in 5″ Strips

Happy Friday – We were blessed with almost 2 inches of rain and hoping for more later today.

I have been working on cutting 5″ strips, sewing 3 together, then making some 3″ 9 patches for my Sentimental Scraps. This is a fun quilt to make. Grabbing the different pieces and putting them together, cutting them into 1 1/2″ segments and putting them in a nice pile! The next step is to start making more of the 9 patches. It is so interesting when making a scrappy quilt, just grabbing strips and putting them together in a random fashion and the making the 9 patches that come out so pretty! I am enjoying the process and the outcome. I am glad that I decided to work on this quilt at this time. It is really mindless sewing, and mistakes cannot be made – not when it is scrappy.

Funny how time can stand still. I was working on my strips when Darryl’s Doctor called. It was not good news. Evidently I was in the middle of winding my bobbin thread when the call came through and we had to leave quickly. He will now enter Hospice System. We will continue to have some valuable time with him.

Here are my 5 inch strips. I am using Reproduction Fabrics with a few Batik fabric thrown in. I tried mixing the Reproduction fabrics with Batik fabric strips and for me it did not work – it did not yield a 3 1/2″ square 9 patch – the length was off 1/8″… HUMMMM. So I will make some 9 patches with Batik fabric to spark things up!

Sentimental Scraps - 5" Strips — Sentimental Scraps – 5″ Strips

I have been busy sewing some strips together, pressing, trimming, and then cutting into the 1 1/2″ segments. This keeps me from completely getting bored with one facet of the process. Tomorrow I will begin putting some 9 patches together.

And here is what the “strip sets” will look like. Need to make a design decision on the darker color Moda Aged Muslin 3.5″ squares.

On Monday I made a decision to enter 3 quilts into the Austin, Texas Quilt Show in September (lucked out as it was the last day to enter quilts). I entered my Lone Star Over The Rainbow (received a Blue Ribbon at San Antonio Show last year), Floating Stars, and my Jacobean in Batiks. I used Debbie Maddy’s HST pattern for the Star, added an additional border to make it float and designed the border using the Floating Stars in Red). During the Show last year, a lady was admiring my quilt and assumed I had paper pieced my floating star border. I told her I did paper piece. The star has 350 HSTs and 208 star points – all rotary cut and pieced. I used all the colors in the Rainbow when making this quilt and entered it in the Show’s Theme Category. This is the best picture I have – hoping I can get a better one while it is hanging in the Austin Show in September.

Lone Star Over The Rainbow — Lone Star Over the Rainbow – 90 x 90

I started Jacobean Batiks in 2009/2010 while we wintered in Arizona. I just could not let it be an easy project, no I just had to do 4 more Medallions and put it on Point!!!! It took me until last summer to finish it. I had other projects that I chose to work on before finishing one. Before I could get it quilted, our “ex-cat” bit me in late June and I spent 8 wonderful days vacationing in the Hospital with Cat Scratch Fever – I was very lucky to survive that one. Then I came home pumped full of mediation and sat down and hand quilted this puppy in 5 weeks. I did not make it easy – the quilting is Vertical and 1/4″ apart – talk about STUPID! Believe you me – never again will I wait until the last-minute to finish a quilt for a Show. For some reason (wonder why) this is really NOT my favorite quilt! If it wins a ribbon – any place – I MIGHT begin to like it! (LOL)

Now let’s talk about Floating Stars………..Nothing is easy in the quilting world……… The pattern had a cutting direction issue and it took me about 2 weeks of working with a practice block to get the star to float. Believe me, I have perfected this one! Thanks to Perseverance and Math! Again if it wins a ribbon – any place – I will be so very Happy. I really worked hard on color selection and placement. I am not happy with the professional quilter who quilted it – she must have had a bad week – so again – I think that 2013 was not my best year – hoping 2015 gets better. I will probably go back to quilting my own quilts or find someone who really cares about providing show quality quilting. I had worked so hard to perfect star, I could have cried when I saw the mistakes on the quilting.

Well, I hope that everyone North of Dallas, Texas is enjoying the nice cool weather. We here in South Texas are keeping the home fires burning – and now I understand that we have 100 degree weather coming everyday next week……….YEA Until next Post, stay safe and have a Blessed Life!

July 8, 2014

Where Does the Time Go?

Anyone who is still in the active workforce knows that time passes so s-l-o-w… Well, let me tell you – Retirement times passes so FAST that even when one wakes up at 4:30 thinking that they will be in their Studio quilting by 9:30 AM has another thought coming! How can a quick run to the store, bank, and pick up tacos at a drive in window take over an hour and a half? Especially when one lives about 5 miles from a small town! Well believe me it does and it threw my schedule off about 3 hours. So my dream of being in the Studio cutting out a new quilt today has not really gone as planned. I guess I knew that it was not a “good brain day” after I had pressed my block for Baltimore Applique Society (BAS) donation, cut the batting and backing, then realized – OH do I have to add a BORDER???? Well, needless to say, back to the cutting table….. At least I did not mess up the block! Whew!

I did finish the border on my for the Baltimore Applique Society donation quilt without anymore stupid things happening and it is now ready for quilting. This particular block is from the Elizabeth MacCullough Hervey Quilt Pattern, Block D3. BAS is such a great group to be a part of. They are located in an area where they go to the Museums and actually copy the Baltimore quilt pattern from the original quilt. I really regret that when I lived in the Northern Virginia area that I was not a quilter. I had always wanted to learn how to quilt since the 1970’s, but there was not time with a full-time career. So I jumped into the quilting world two years after I retired. The first technique I tried was needleturn applique and I feel in love with the it! This was before glue! (I am a Traditional needle turn appliquer.)

BAS will be hosting a “Bits of Baltimore Online Auction” to be held October 1st through the 15th and October 20th – November 3rd. I will post more information on the Auction in another post. Now on to the hand quilting. I am pleased with the outcome. At first I had some issues with the fabric I had selected, but things began to take hold and now it is finished (oops except the quilting!)

I have decided that I will continue to save the Austen Family Quilt BOW, but will not be working on it this year. I am going to complete the Globetrotting, Threads of Memory, and Happy Scrappy Quilt. I have received my fabrics that I was lucky enough to find to add to my stash for Happy Scrappy. The fabric line is Ruby’s Flower Garden and Summers Basket of Flowers! So it is now time for me to get serious on getting things done. I have also decided to do Sentimental Scraps by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts. The pattern is in the Quiltmania magazine Number 99, page 81. My friend Jaydee has already completed her quilt and she did a wonderful job. I hope mine comes out as pretty. I purchased the border fabric along with some other pieces from the Hope Chest Collection. Here is a picture of Jaydee’s beautiful Sentimental Scraps quilt.

Jaydee Quilt Mania Scrappy Quilt — Jaydee’s Sentimental Scraps

I will be posting my progress as I go along with Happy Scrappy and Sentimental Scraps. SS has 130 3″ nine patches and I will have to make more as this will go on a California King Bed…… Oh boy – more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Have a blessed day – Enjoy!

July 4, 2014July 4, 2014

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

I hope that all are enjoying your family and/or friends for a great celebration of the United States of America. Our wonderful Country is having some hard times now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!!

Darryl is doing well with the Chemo and we are enjoying spending time with him here, at his home, and a lot of phone conversations. We have decided that Darryl and I are two peas in a pod – we laughed about that last night on one of our 2 hour phone calls. He is an absolute Hoot! So funny and both of us are the Perfectionists and Big Worry Warts and absolutely hate taking medicine! We cherish all the minutes that we have with him!

Now back to my quilting progress. This last Monday I had the feeling that this was going to be a great week and it has been. I have kept my promise of doing my 1.5 miles each morning – yes here in South Texas we get to walk even in the 90+ degree weather with about the same for humidity. Hoping that this summer brings us tons of rain. I believe that this just may be the year that we get a Hurricane in the Gulf and that it will be South of us and we will get out of this horrible drought. Terrible to have to want that….

I have now caught up with Barbara Brackman’s Threads of Memory, Pat Sloan’s Globetrotting, and so excited about Rosemary Youngs Happy Scrappy BOM! Austen Family and I are still debating what to do. That debate and struggle will start in the morning, or may be Sunday as we have company coming tomorrow.

Of course all my favorite shops are having 4th of July sales – Sylvia Pippin, Hancock’s of Paducah, and Paper Pieces. They now have my money. (LOL).

My creative streak has finally returned. AND, I have finally figured how to make sure a block comes out to the EXACT unfinished size! Below is a picture of the center star of Block 6 of Threads of Memory. When I cut out the star points I added 1/16″ to the cutting measurements and GUESS WHAT —— A PERFECT 6 1/2″ SQUARE STAR………….. Now it is not easy to get that measurement if you do not like math, but being the one who loves math, I finally figured out how to make a 12 1/2″ block come out square also!

Block 6 Threads of Memory — Final Block 6 – This is one of my favorites – Heck – the are all my favorites!

Here is a “group picture” of my finished Blocks for Threads of Memory:

B 1-6 Threads of Memory — Threads of Memory – Blocks 1 through 6

Now on to Pat Sloan’s Globetrotting BOM. I am probably repeating myself, but Pat is one after my own quilting heart because she allows for that extra fabric when making Half Square Triangles ( HSTs!) By doing this in her directions, making her blocks are a sure thing when having the block come out to the 10 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ No time wasted here! Thx Pat!

Block 7 - Globetrotting BOM — Block 7 – Pat Sloan’s Globetrotting BOM for 2014

How about let’s go to Rosemary Young’s Happy Scrappy BOM. I am learning so much from Rosemary. She has really challenged me by taking on all of my projects and through working on her Happy Scrappy. My design and creativity potential is coming out with this project. I selected some fabrics that I had in my stash from 2009. It was a Moda fabric line called Ruby’s Flower Garden and Summer Flower Garden. Of course, as always, I had another project in mind when I purchased it. I was going to do an applique project with the fabric, so I only purchased 1/3 of a yard of the fabric line. I did purchase 2 yards of the focus fabric and that was a good thing. Here is how I started with my Center Medallion:

Happy Scrappy Fabric Selection – 26 June 2014

Next, I made the Medallion Center Block. When I started with the cutting, I decided I would do the 1/16″ extra bit….. but I think on Thursday the 26th it was not my best math day – I cut it 1/8″ bigger……Slight mistake and correctable, but not the perfection I wanted. But I knew that I was short on fabric and could not waste any. So I dealt with it! This is how I figured out that adding 1/8″ to cutting instructions would not work. Because the first border was plain, I got away with it. I could trim the extra 1/8″ and come out at 18 1/2″ x 18 1/2″… See, I am learning all the “secrets” that all the other quilters know about – THE HARD WAY! Now on to the Center Block:

Here is the First Border:

Now to Border 2. I changed my border – I turned the HSTs, in a different way that Rosemary had done hers. I am hoping this works. I have a great idea for Border 3, BUT I am waiting for my favorite shop – Martha’s Quilting Corner – to send me 3 scraps so I can compare (they are Crackle’s by Moda) with the fabric I am using. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I am now caught up on 3 projects (at least until fabric arrives next week for Happy Scrappy). Poor Di Ford is just “hanging around” and my center medallion is still begging to be appliqued. I need to finish up on my Baltimore Applique project and get it turned in for their Auction in October. I will post more about that soon. Then there is a Pam Buda project, but am thinking I might use those blocks in my Happy Scrappy quilt and kill “two birds with one stone” as they say. I am also doing some knitting and now I feel like I can start on playing with my Sashiko in the evenings. Ahhhhhhhh life is good…… Quilting is so relaxing and fulfilling. I hope that all are finding the time to enjoy your hobby. It feels good to be back in my Studio everyday – just playing. Remember – Life is Short! So much to do and so little time.

Until next posting. Have a Blessed Life.

Nanette