August 2020 – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

August 30, 2020

HQAL! End of Another Month!

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.

August 26, 2020

One Down 2 to Go!

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.

August 23, 2020

Slow Sunday Stitching

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

August 16, 2020

Slow Sunday Stitching – 16 Aug 2019

Happy Slow Sunday Stitching! Weather is conducive to in-the-house stitching!

I have made a little progress on Sweet Stitches block for December! Maybe I will take time to do some more stitches later this evening as Santa will be here before we know it.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy quilting!

Nanette

August 15, 2020

I am a Quilter Again!!!

Greetings from our Happy Little 5 acres in burning up South Texas – Yesterday the thermometer hit 108 on the back porch! OUCH – Bet it hits 110 today! We might have a break in this horrible heat on Monday and Tuesday with changes of “rain”. We are hoping.

For the remainder of August – 16 days – I want to work on the following.

Remaining 2 blocks to finish the corner sections.
Complete the last 3 blocks of Sweet Stitches (embroidery)
Continue on with OMIGOSH!
Reproduction quilt designed on my EQ8 last August.
Easy Breezy

Easy Breezy – Gretchen got me started on this one and so happy that she did. I needed an easy project just to get back to my quilting life! I had some fabric that my friends Wanda gave me years ago when she visited her daughter in New Zealand and I had no idea how to use the fabric, but I loved it anyway!

Easy Breezy is a Bonnie Hunter project. I have never done the sewing technique that Bonnie uses, although I do have 2 of her books in case I decide to go there. I made one 4” block and one 6” block. I really enjoyed the 6” block more because I make working with small blocks with OMIGOSH and wanted to do something different.

I am making 2 quilts at the same time. One with black and one with red. I have 4 of the 6” blocks completed, all the 2” strips cut out, and 1 of the 4” block using the black with the bird fabric. Not sure how large the quilts will be at this time or the setting, it is just so great to be hurrying to the Studio after exercise each morning and sew!

Here is the 4” Block. The neutral fabric is a P&B Apple Cider fabric. After making this block, I realized that the fabric is not as tightly woven as the focus fabric and the Moda so I have changed it going forward.

Now for the 6” block. Here are the 4 blocks together.

I have a nice stack of 2” strips cut and ready for sub cutting and sewing today!

Clay is doing great and I am de-stressing and my eye surgery was a resounding success! Still healing, but it is great to be able to have my peripheral vision back! It REALLY feels great to be back to a life that Clay and I have both missed so much in the last 7 months. I am de-stressing through my quilting. YEA!

Have a wonderful week-end!

Hugs, Nanette

August 9, 2020

Happy New Year 2020 – HQAL and Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy New Year 2020! Today is 9 August 2020 and I am now beginning my New Year Quilting Life. Yes, if you have been following me at all this year you are aware it has been a disaster! So here is the bottom line!

Clay’s hand is doing extremely well for what happened on New Year’s Eve 2019, AND his Transcather Aorta Valve Replacement (TAVR) is a 100% success! He is back to being Clay, working on getting over the “sit in a chair for 6 months” and “do nothing or die”. AND thanks to our blessings I still have him with me – lucky guy – I can still drive him nuts!

I made it through my corrective eyelid surgery from the October 2019 Cataract surgery. What fun! I am glad that is over with. The icing on the cake was the fact that BAMC does not bill Medicare (or our other 2 insurances) for Part B charges. I got to do that one! I will NOT go into detail on how much time and stress it caused me – just know it was the icing on the cake. I mailed the package to Medicare on Friday – ALL 250 pages! I fixed it so there is NO WAY they can come back for more backup information! (It paid to work for the Government for 33 years). Hope this package drives someone to stress out processing it. LOL Hopefully by the time I submit all charges to the other 2 insurances we will have our money back by November! (Hope I am not dreaming). Life is getting back to our ‘normal’ quiet life – most people are calling it Quarantine Time, but we are calling it Happy Time and loving it. All the time others were complaining, we were either at the Doctors Offices, Hospitals, or having Surgeries. We took all precautions – even to the point of carrying around by Super cart with all the necessities required to prevent the possibility of a Virus looking to land on these two old souls!!! Did not happen on our watch during that time. THIS NOW ENDS THE DRAMA FOR THIS HOUSEHOLD!

Update on love South Texas Summer of 2020! We tried to continue doing our walk early in the morning, but it is just too hot. I ride the stationery bike while Clay is talking with his Ham Buddies, then he rides it while I enjoy my coffee in the Studio. We have ordered a Nordic Trak treadmill from Amazon and having issues getting them to get it in their system and shipped. I hope it comes this week. Having the bike and the treadmill will allow us to continue our exercise without wearing ourselves out from the horrible 100+ temps we continue to have each summer.

How about some quilting talk? Needless to say all I have to show today for HQAL and Slow Sunday Stitching is the beginning of Block 10 for Sweet Stitches – this one is for December – Santa Claus. I started my hand work again yesterday and this is as far as I have gotten.

Now that I am back on track with life and quilting, I have set a few goals for this month.

Finish the 3 blocks for Sweet Stitches
Finish the 2 remaining blocks for Mary Brown (this gives me a total of 16 blocks finished)
Work on OMIGOSH quilt – I am doing this in Reproduction fabrics
Work on a Blue and White quilt that I started to play with a year ago… (time passes quickly!)

I also will be doing hand work at night again, sewing during the day, and just enjoy doing nothing – depending on my mood. I want to do some knitting and working with my wooden lap weaving hoops. Sew much to do and sew little time! So many of my blogging buddies are so far ahead of me for the year I will never catch up, but at least I am now able to start on the many projects that I want to make.

Thank you all for supporting us in our time of crisis and I am praying that all stay safe and well, and take care when out and about!

Hugs to all,

Nanette