Month: November 2017

On my last post I had a picture of 3 blocks from Section 5 of Stonefields. Here they are again.

Well those blocks are history.  Here are the replacements.

I am working on a Dresden Plate quilt from 1930’s fabric that consists of Mini Dresden’s and Larger Dresden Plates. I decided that I could make 4 of the Mini’s from my Fusions contrasting fabrics and applique them on my background fabric. I really love making the 4 1/2” Dresden’s.

I have all of Section 5’s pieced blocks completed and the remaining ready for applique.  Tomorrow I will start on Section 6

We had a very nice Thanksgiving.  I made Chili, Beans, Spanish Rice, Enchilada’s and a Cherry Cobbler.  Melissa brought two of their most wonderful Bundt Cakes from “Nothing Bundt Cakes”. They are the most mouth-watering Cakes I have ever tasted!  They are a national chain so if you have a store in your area recommend you try them. They are wonderful!  I forgot how much time is involved in cooking  Tex-Mex food!   But oh so good!

Have a great sewing week!

Greetings from a pleasant South Texas!  I would like to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your family!  I am thankful for Clay, Melissa, and Alexa and our good health!  So many things to be thankful for.

Galveston – We planned to take a week and go to Galveston, Texas to enjoy the beach and listening and watching the surf since Rockport was blown away with Harvey!  We left on the 12th and planned to stay until the 20th, but we quickly found out that Galveston is now just a big town on an island and the main highway is parallel to the shoreline.  Almost no beach.  Galveston is now mostly a stop off for those who are going on a Cruise, Moody Gardens, and a Historical District of which we were not impressed!  There was one pier to walk down to the T-head and it cost $10.00 per person.  To sit on their deck was $2.00 a person.  We could not believe how Galveston is no longer a ‘beach’ island.  So we came home on the 16th.  The Hampton was great – could not have found better service or room.  We stayed in a Suite that had a great view of the ocean and balcony to sit and enjoy the breeze.  All in all it was a nice getaway, but we did not leave anything there!

There was a plus in coming home early on Thursday – we  stopped to wash the Navigator, picked up the mail, we unloaded and I unpacked and vacuumed and then I sat in my chair until bedtime!  I did my grocery shopping early Friday morning for our Mexican Thanksgiving Lunch.  I happened to find some gluten-free flour by Bob’s Red Mill.  Here is what I made and they were so good, until….. 5 minutes after I ate 1/2 of a muffin I started not feeling well.  That lasted 4 days!  It appears that when they make gluten-free things like flour they are now using Sweet White Sorghum!  WELL, it is boatload with fiber and I cannot do fiber – I was sick for 4 days with my upset tummy!  Another goodie off my limited food list.  In my research to find out why went wrong, I discovered that to get “flour” without any additives one must buy Wheat Flour!  Who knew, I did not.  Also, I realized that “Barley” is a no-no for me!  Hum.  Anyway, I am back to normal and will never purchase ‘gluten’ free anything – I will stick with my 6 things to eat.

Now for some project updates!  Before we left for Galveston, I had finished making all of my circles for Mount Mellick border.  I have the circles pinned and work on them in the evening.

I have one row appliquéd and hopefully will finish them by the week-end.

Then I decided that it is time to finish Stonefields or at least prepare the remainder of the sections for piecing and appliqué.  I have started working on Section 5 and plan on preparing the next 5 Sections this week-end.  I will be able to do some sewing during the day and hand appliqué blocks in the evening.  Maybe I will finish this by the end of December (LOL).  I have finished 7 of the blocks in Section 5 and have 5 blocks left to prepare for appliqué.

I will  appliqué the mitered corners!  If I would have had some Toille fabric that would have blended I would have used that instead of what I did, but I think they will get lost within the 121 blocks that are in this quilt.  Here is a picture of the blocks that I have completed so far.  I probably would have chosen different fabrics for the 3 blocks if I had felt better.

I am using  2 different beige colors of the Moda Apple Cider fabric with tiny hexagons for my background fabric.  Section 5, 6, and 7 will be the lighter color so I will be able to offset them when putting the quilt together.

There is a quilt named Life is Beautiful that caught my eye about 6 months ago and after spending 3 months ‘thinking’ about it I ordered it from Australia.  I received it last week and all I will say is that it is not worth the $$$$ I spent for it!!!!!  Rip Off!

Well, that is all for now, have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the food and family!

We live  6 miles from Sutherland Springs, Texas and on a hot Sunday morning in November, a mentally deranged individual decided it was time to kill people and walked into God’s House and slaughtered 26 Christians and wounded 20.   This is the epitome of  pure hate!

I have always thought that if any mass murder, terror attacks, etc came to South Texas it would be in San Antonio where the military bases are.  I never felt that living in the country between two very small towns we would have to worry about mass anything.  Clay is a retired SA Fire Fighter and I am retired Federal worker.  I remember before we retired in 1999 that he told me they were beginning to train for mass incidents.  We just never believed it would come so close to our little rural Wilson County.  So peaceful and quiet, although much busier than 21 years ago when I moved here.  The little Community of Sutherland Springs, Texas did not do anything to deserve this horrible man made disaster.  So sad and shocking to me.

Now there are countless people who have lost family, loved ones, friends, children to this madman.  Our hearts and prayers go out to all the individuals impacted by this brutal attack and we ask that God help the survivors heal and that those who lost loved ones, family or friends.

I find myself constantly asking myself where has my America gone?  What has caused this country to go so bad?  What has caused all the anger?  What can be done to stop the craziness?  I can answer those questions, can you?

I was born during WWII, experienced Korean War, Cuba, lived through the riots of the late 1960’s and the Civil Rights era, Vietnam War, Iran and terrorism beginning in 1979, the Lockerbie bombing in the 1980’s, hijacking of airlines, Bush 41 Iraq War, all the killing of our Military in the 1990’s, 911, and the Iraq war.  But even through all of this the country stayed together until  2000.

Now this country has gang problems, drug problems, social problems, and individuals who have mental issues that are not treated.   Rather than discuss political issues in a peaceful way the way it was before 2000,  it appears that the choice is to destroy business, be hateful to people who do not agree with our beliefs, disrespect our American Flag and way of life, call White people Racists or White Supremacists (which is NOT true), or remove our great American History from the record books.  History will repeat itself if we do not remember how we got here in the first place.

But whatever is causing the killings of innocent people it must stop and Americans must take control of their own environment by becoming more observant, and not be politically correct, nor ignore family members who are exhibiting strange behavior.

There are two Heroes who have emerged from this disaster, the young man who drove the truck with the gentleman who shot the madman.  May God Bless them also.  We need more individuals like this in our Country.

This is not meant to be a political statement, it is a statement of fact.  I do not have the answer, the genie is out of the box and now it is up to God to help this country return back to some type of normalcy!

May God Bless those Souls who are now with him and the family, friends, loved ones left behind to pick up the pieces.  My heart goes out to you!

Well, here I am another year older – really do not feel any different –  if the weather would either stay warm or just get cold I would feel younger!  LOL.  I am a Halloween baby born 2 minutes to midnight!  I have had the best birthday of all this year.  Sunday my adopted daughter (Clay’s daughter) came over for a pre-birthday celebration.  She brought me the most beautiful flower arrangement, a wonderful Italian Creme Cake (yummy), and a bracelet that has 5 charms on it.  The most meaningful charm says, “Marriage Made you Family, Love Made You Our Mom”.  What a wonderful gift from a beautiful daughter.  Clay gave me a beautiful gold Tree of Life to add to my collection of gold necklaces that I wear – each having a special meaning.  I will say one thing after eating potato salad, beans, and boneless ribs and the cake  – IT IS SERIOUS DIET TIME FOR ME!  15 less for Xmas, well OK,  this may be difficult with a trip to Galveston and Thanksgiving will be a Mexican Food menu!  Maybe by January 2018?

I received a great quilting book from Jaydee entitled Red & White Quilting , numerous cards, a visit from Cousin Kay who bought me a great Quilter’s sign from a Pennsylvania Quilt Store when she was on her “genealogy” trip in September to Pennsylvania.   So turning 73 has been fun!  Additionally, I have had about 31 days of sewing that has been quiet and absolutely no “unforeseen requirements” to resolve!  Back to a normal life – a good routine – and lots of sewing.

Now to the important things – Progress on my quilting projects!  Mountmellick has a border made with a 1 3/8″ squares with a circle appliquéd on each of the 48 squares.  Here are the instructions and the diagram on how she made these little puppies:

I had mulled over this part of the pattern ever since I started looking at it in 2014 and keep thinking  – hair pulling for sure.  I am hoping the measurements are accurate!!!  I took a 13″ x 13″ piece of background fabric and drew my grid and then trimmed the excess with my pinking rotary cutter! (keeps the raveling down).  Then I thought about how to center each little circle accurate!  I knew not to draw an “X” in each square because the marking would give me an issue.  I found my plastic mylar with a grid and cut a perfect 2″ x 2″ square and punched a hole in the center with my stiletto.  AH  so nice to have had the brain engaged for once and of course suggestions for the hole from Hubby!  It has been awhile since my creativity has been with me – glad to have that buddy back in the brain!  I will use Perfect Circles for these circles even if it takes me a little more preparation time!

Taking a break from MM I pulled out my 3 1/2″ Stars and Churn Dash blocks.  I am not sure if these will be part of MM or if I design my own Medallion Center and use them in that quilt!  I love making these blocks.  I quickly realized that I need the stars to have plain backgrounds so I would be able to mix and match!  I started on some maroon stars to match the Churn Dash blocks (30 of them) that are already finished.  I really love the gold and blue together!

My next project to prep will be Aunt Baa’s.  I have been following Laura’s Blog during my “recoup” time and I have been itching to make this quilt for over 6 months!  I will at least get the freezer paper patterns printed off and as I have a little time I will trace the patterns on the background fabric.  I have a boatload of the 1930’s fabric that I did not use for the 1930’s Farmer’s Wife project (too many issues with that one).

Ever have one of those days when you really feel that you will be in that sewing room sewing up a storm early but only to find out that it takes longer than you think to walk, have breakfast, do a post, balance the checkbook (1 Nov) and clean up other paperwork?  Is it because I aged over night?  NO – it is the fact that I had a lot of “little” things to accomplish so now at 3:45 CST I will attempt to go play!  Tonight will be hand work and tomorrow will be an early start on my projects!  Yea!

Have a great week of sewing!