May 2019 – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

May 26, 2019

Another Potpourri Post and HQAL

After all the downsizing and cleaning out drawers I finally made it back to the Studio ONLY to realize that I really did not know I wanted to work on next! I did not want to start on a new quilt yet as I thought the carpet would be laid on the 7th of June. I thought that I had better check on the Sashiko Class at Las Colchas Quilt Store in SA and glad I did. The class would be on the 31st of May and the 7th of June, I quickly called O’Krent and advised Monica we did not want the job started until the 14th of May! A quilting class that I have been waiting for is more important – RIGHT? I am excited to be around other quilters learning and working on Sashiko – something I was ready to tackle in 2014 (did not happen)

I have made a ‘little’ progress on French General.

I have the Mittens and Stockings ready to applique for A Merry Christmas To You QAL. The next will probably the 75 or so HSTs for the Sawtooth border. I will be ready to start them soon.

For Section 6 of Stonefields there was one block that I thought would be a nightmare to applique – was I happy to see it is Embroidery work! YEA! The remaining blocks for this section are very easy!

I use a pencil for marking my applique background but not sure if it would work well for embroidery work. I had been using pencil for marking patterns, but asked Gretchen what she uses for embroidery. She uses the erasable pen so I ordered some from Amazon and they arrived Thursday. I really do like them for marking embroidery patterns and will probably use some for applique.

Next I made the decision to go forward with Aunt Bea’s Parlor and had already traced 6 blocks with pencil before the erasable pens arrived and am now in the process of re-doing them! I am hoping to finish the tracing today! Last year I thought I would want to enlarge the pattern and was prepared to do that but am going with the 6 1/2″ blocks so I do not have to redo the math when completing the quilt. This will be a good starter for me using different colored threads.

I will also be tracing blocks for Glorious Flower Baskets a pattern I purchased about 10 years ago from Creations which quickly became lost in the “I want to do this” drawer!!! So now is the time to prepare the blocks and it will be ‘in the cue’ section of UFO’s.

Yesterday I decided to check out my “what to do with this” drawer and found a few UFO’s that need attention. One of the UFOs that I discovered from 2010 was Pat Campbell’s Jacobean Holiday quilt that I had started around 2010. I had purchased the pattern at one of the quilt show Boutique’s. The quilt is almost finished with the exceptions of 5 blocks. I used back basting for this one because the pieces are very easy to applique. At first I thought about sending it off for someone else to finish, but decided that it will be my applique project for the summer! It is easy and hopefully it will turn out OK. If I were going to make it now I certainly would not use the backround fabric I used. (Note: Patricia Campbell passed away in 2013 and the quilting world lost a wonderful Designer who was loved by all)

Here is a picture of my Sleigh Block. I still have a few more pieces to applique. This is a very large block!

While cleaning out the drawer… I found this baby quilt. It was the first of my quilting projects that included applique. The poor baby just needed a binding and I happened to still have the fabrics in my stash so yesterday I added the binding! It was my first hand quilted project! I would never have used the same type of fabrics if I were making this quilt now! This is a 2002 or 2003 quilt.

A trip to pick up my new braces last Thursday turned into a l-o-n-g extended morning, of which I had not planned on. So Thursday was a ‘nothing’ accomplished day! I wore the new braces a short period of time Thursday and on Friday when I put them on and was headed out the door for my walk I realized that they have a problem! They are hitting on the inside bone of my ankles – OUCH! I will see them again Tuesday – hope they get it right this time. And to top it off I sat in the most uncomfortable chair waiting for them to finish the braces, so when I go back Tuesday I am prepared!

I found this block from Thimbleberries Safe Haven that I had made a LONG time ago. I found this one block kit in Oklahoma and made it before I had the entire pattern. It was one of the first pieced blocks I had made in 2001 or 2002. By 2008 I had a wonderful stash built up of Thimbleberries fabric (and still do). I made the quilt in 2008 and had it quilted in 2013. I just need to bind the quilt and it will be finished!

Yesterday I made a nice pillow with the original block I had made to take along when I have to sit in uncomfortable chairs waiting! We never know what will show up in a “what am I going to do with this” drawer! LOL. I have now cleaned out all the UFO’s that needed attention and hoping to move on to another pieced quilt or maybe even get to quilt another top!

I do hope that all are enjoying a great Memorial Day weekend.

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. There are some very talented quilters who are participating – check them out!

Kathy, Lori, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Deborah, Slow Stitching Sunday Susan, Jessisca, Sherry, Nanette, Sassy, Edith, Sharon Grethen Karrin

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; Slow Stitching Sunday Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party

May 19, 2019May 19, 2019

Dresden Plates is a Finish!

Darn – summer is back and boy will it ever be a hot and humid 6 months here in Sweatsville, South Texas! After all the fun of de-cluttering (better word for downsizing, and cleaning out things) and quilting a quilt yesterday, this old lady is T-I-R-E-D! I treated myself and did not partake of walking this morning. I am trying to walk at 6:30 and be done with it! It seems to give me more time to enjoy the Studio again.

I made this quilt in the 2005-2006 time frame but never quilted it. I loaded it 2 months ago and it has patiently waited. I need to learn to spend a couple of hours each day when quilting because 5 hours standing on one’s feet is just a little too much for someone over 39! LOL. Anyway I became brave and tried my hand at free hand quilting around the plates. I think I achieved the goal on ONE Dresden Plate. For my next quilt, I am going to FINALLY get the quilting rulers out and teach myself to do something other than meandering (free motion). Good project for the summer.

I did meandering on the borders and in the white blocks. I stitched around the applique and in the green border I did meandering with circles.

The back is Moda (green) and In The Beginning (middle) fabrics that I have had over 10 years! Still good as new!

I intended to put the binding on the back first, then machine sew it down to save time. Of course I did the usual, put the binding on the top first (hard to break old habits)! I figured that I now had no choice to but hand bind it! BUT, it worked by sewing the folded over binding on top of the 1/4″ seam allowance when I sewed the binding onto the quilt.

The top of the quilt after sewing the binding down by machine. Works great!

This quilt will be used to cover my Longarm! I was going to make another top for that, but after finishing this quilt I changed my mind. It really adds color to the room! I love it!

And not to leave out French General progress which is slow so here he is!

I will be tracing the embroidery pattern for Aunt Bea’s Parlor blocks and Stonefields this week.

Have a great week!

Nanette

May 17, 2019

Back to Quilting!!!

Greetings from summer in South Texas with the usual humidity, but not yet 100 degrees, but getting close next week. Clay and I have been married 23 years this August, and on 3 June it will be 23 years that he contacted me to be a ‘Pen Pal’! That did not last long. So after 23 years of collecting and keeping paperwork that was required to keep (now we just keep it on a zip drive) it was time to purge unwanted things and prepare for the new carpet laying in June!

I have just completed going through all file cabinets going through all “old” paperwork and then disposing of everything that is not necessary to keep! That took me 2 full FULL days to go through 8 file cabinet drawers and then setting up file systems that were colored coded! How about that for fun. That filled 5 bags of TRASH and that is difficult to burn, and too long to shred, so it has been buried and we anticipate a tree will now sprout! LOL.

Wednesday afternoon (hearing appt during the morning) I started on the library. Oh this one took 3 hours on Wednesday and 9 hours yesterday. Yesterday was the time to start looking at pictures, letters, and documents. What a time. I reviewed pictures from my life in 1980 through current time. There are a lot of pictures and cards that Clay and I have amassed since 3 June 1996, the day he found me in Sterling, Virginia! What memories. Those memories were wonderful to look through. I filled up 2 more bags, but I shredded most of the things. Being from the old school where we had to keep paperwork to prove issues, etc., it is time now to just let the computer storage devices save all statements. There are still a lot that I saved from our past and current lives, but not near as much as I had been keeping. I do not know whether to call this ‘downsizing’ or just ‘elimination of unimportant things’.

We also have removed a computer desk, file cabinet from the computer room, and a hutch from the Den that was no longer being used and we are passing our Trundle Bed and a Glider to my cousin Kay’s daughter Kathleen, to use in her recently vacated bedroom when her older son moved to an apartment. Kay now has 2 great grandchildren that are just beautiful babies. I know that the glider will be used to sooth the baby at nap time along with the new baby blanket I made her.

Because there will be a 4 day interruption in early June for the carpet laying, I will not be starting a new quilt project. Instead, I will do the 4 applique blocks for Suzn Quilts QAL, work on Stonefields (hoping to finish it), and transfer Aunt Bea’s Parlor embroidery blocks to fabric, and continue working on my French General embroidery project.

I feel so great about this ‘cleaning out project I feel as if a burden has been lifted. Sometimes it helps to just leave the past in the past and bury some memories. I have had the best 5 nights of sleep since I started this project, so whatever I sent to Shredderville, trash, burn pile, or buried, I am very HAPPY!

A couple of years ago I took over the Music Room where we used to play our guitars together. Now Clay plays his guitar here in the Studio and I enjoy listening to the music when sewing. I still have my piano and sometimes I have been known to sit and play awhile, but not a lot. I now store fabric and yarn in this room and I want to re-arrange some things and see if I need to “downsize” anything. It will not take long to accomplish this project, it entails moving some things from the Den and rearranging things that I have let accumulate where they do not need to be.

So hopefully in a few days I will have something to show about quilting. I do hope that this has inspired you to think about how technology has taken over the old fashioned way of record keeping!

Have a wonderful week-end!

Nanette

May 11, 2019

A Bit of Star of Chamblie

I have finished my Feathered Star Quilt! I should have been through in April, but a little vacation, paperwork, and ordering new carpet for the house tended to get in my way!

When making a highly technical quilt it is not smart to take a break in the middle of the process thinking it would be easy pick up where it is put away for a couple of weeks! I have thoroughly enjoyed making this challenging quilt, but another lesson learned is to make sure that I purchase extra fabric required to finish the quilt. I had purchased fat quarters in 2014 thinking that It would be enough to make A Star of Chamblie.

BUT, alas it wasn’t and it would not have worked out if I had not found 4 more fat quarters on Ebay and 3 yards of the sashings and border fabric from Snowy River Quilts. I was certainly blessed to find all the fabrics I needed. Of course this was after I had purchased other yardage from Marsha McCloskey.

It is difficult to believe that it began with this around the 1st of March 2019:

And ended up with this on 11 May 2019!

The border will be finished at 5″. I like to add an inch for the long arm quilter.

I completed all the pieced blocks for A Merry Christmas To You SAL and ironed all the fabric stash – which was a LOT of ironing!

My next project will be to finish Stonefields! That UFO really needs to be completed before I start working on another new quilt. Stonefields is not a difficult quilt – just lots of small blocks. I will be starting with Section 6 out of 10 Sections. So more than 1/2 way finished. Besides, it will be a cake walk compared to Feathered Stars!

I now have my Studio cleaned up and in neat orderly. (I cannot work in a messy environment)

Clean Design Board and Cutting Table!

There is a quilt loaded and waiting to be quilted called Dresden Plates. It is a quilt I did about 10 years ago. But it will wait a little longer.

I have so much fabric and know that I will never use all up!

Then there are more tops to be quilted and more fabric stash behind that! Like I really need more fabric!

In June we will have new carpeting laid in the house. I had thought about moving forward with more quilting until a week or so before that happens, but now I have decided to do the “downsizing”, throwing away paperwork that is not needed, cleaning out my old books and give them to the local Library, and taking clothes that I no longer need or want to Goodwill!

This really does not sound like fun, but it will be a nice break from sewing highly technical quilts and when finished, the moving of the furniture, etc will be easier on us!

Have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Nanette

May 5, 2019May 5, 2019

HQAL and the mess!

We have had rain! In the last two weeks we have received close to 5″.

Green grass looking good!

I am slowly making progress on my French General wall hanging.

Star of Chamblie had a “little” issue last week. The last Star had problems that I did not catch until I put the sashings on!

Notice the upper left blank spot!

So I changed out the corner squares and the triangles. Kiss that afternoon goodbye. Then there was the issue of needing more sashing fabric. I was blessed again as I found it on line!

Now the poor baby is resting and I am taking a break working on 9 – 3″ Stars and 17 – 3″ 9″ Nine Patches for the SAL A Merry Christmas To You.

I am beginning to place the blocks on the Design Board.

Then there is a nice stack of fabric to iron. Remember all the Moda Marble Star fabric and some batiks for my Borgello quilt? Well…..

Now I have 3 things going at once. Not fun!

In addition we are having new carpet laid in the house! More time away from sewing and some negotiating and tomorrow we will order the carpet. We will have it done in June! That will take me away from sewing because…RIGHT…it is called ‘moving things’! But the new carpet will be so nice!

Have a great week!!!

Nanette

Check out all the participants in this segment of HQAL!

Kathy, Lori, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Deborah, Slow Stitching Sunday Susan, Jessisca, Sherry, Nanette, Sassy, Edith, Sharon Grethen Karrin