The Bean Pot is Finished and Winter has Arrived!

Winter has arrived in South Texas – Very interesting weather pattern.  We had a late HOT summer that extended in to late October, then a few cool snaps, and now a real cold wave!  Because we bypassed Fall, our leaves are still green.  It will be interesting to see if the freeze will provide a delayed changing of the colors or if they will just fly off the tree and we will be up to our ears in leaves.  We are hoping that we receive some more rain so that Clay can burn the leaves rather than continue to mulch them as he has had to do the last 4 years.   Either way, I love sitting at my sewing machine looking out my bay windows at the birds, squirrels and deer.  Peaceful times.

I finished Darryl’s quilt last night (Tuesday)  just as I had planned!   This is the first time this year I have been able to meet a set goal  for a project!  Making a quilt is such a fun thing, yet there are times when we are in the middle of the project that we just want to hurry up and finish it.  Then when the top has been completed there is a feeling of accomplishment.  Of course a quilt top is not really a “finished” quilt, so we move on to the final phases of quilting and binding.  At the end of each of the 3 phases of quilting a pieced quilt always provides me that sense of accomplishment and when I have completely finished the quilt I really feel relief!  Now on to the next project.

This quilt is so special to me.  I wanted to make Darryl a quilt for him to enjoy during this difficult time of his life.  I am so glad that I put everything else on hold and was able to complete his Bean Pot quilt just as ole’ man winter rolled into town.  He will enjoy the warmth of this quilt that his Momette (that is his nickname for me as his Step-Mother) AND I will always have the memory of making it and knowing that I was able to give him a gift of love through my passion of quilting.  I want to thank JayDee for giving me her extra book with the Sylvester’s Bean Pot pattern.  I really love this pattern and plan on making more in the future.

Lesson learned on this one – when quilting a top with a lot of seams, lengthen the stitch to 10 stitches per inch – there is a slight flare on the binding area, but nothing earth shattering.  I love learning by error……….One never forgets that little error….. or at least until the next time I do that.  LOL.

I received a wonderful gift from Happy Appliquer LuAnn in the mail Tuesday!  She had  extra border fabric from the Judi Rothermel 25th Anniversary fabric for the Di Ford Mystery Quilt – Monuntmellick!  This is a very special gift because I was unable to find the fabric in March. (see previous posts).  THANK YOU LuAnn!   I follow her blog Happy Appliquer and love her projects.  Now I will be able to go back to the project and actually have the fabric to make the quilt.   What a wonderful gift!

When I decided to make the Mountmellick Quilt and realized I was out of luck in finding any of the border fabric,  I purchased the Amelia line for a border, only to realize that it was too large and wide to use in the quilt.  I was a ‘babe in the woods’ for this one and very new to Quiltmania, Reproduction fabrics, and the beautiful Australian quilts.  I also decided to purchase some Dutch Chintz fabric as suggested in the pattern, but that was also sold out.   I selected a border print thinking it would blend with my fabric selection and that the flowers would be able to be used in the center medallion.  I was so wrong.  Yesterday I called Happiness is Quilting in McKinney, Texas (they carry the Dutch Chintz) and asked them if they had any of the chintz that would go with the Di Ford project.  They recommended 5/8″ of a Dutch fabric that would provide plenty of flowers and leaves.  I also ask them to assist me with the Dutch piece I had previously purchased.  Well, I found out that I had purchased the border fabric for the “Tree of Life” panel.    Penny was such a great help, she is sending me some red fabric and an additional fabric with matching flowers that I can use in making a nice size quilt using the panel.   This will be a “Dutch Chintz” quilt and a lot of fun to design another border quilt.  So now I will  have 2 quilts to make!

Life in my quilting world has really been blessed by LuAnn, Jaydee, and now Penny.  How blessed I am and Thx to all.

I am now going to put the binding on my Civil War quilt that I finally quilted early in the year.  It will be nice to have this one completed and put in the stack of “let’s have a binding party” stack!

Have a blessed day and enjoy Winter – I know I will.  This is the best time for quilting and knitting!