To Do Tuesday 27 July 2021 – Quilting is Back in My Life

It has been an interesting time since 6 July 2021! I have transitioned out of the Computer World (which definitely eats up time) back into my quilting world. I have accomplished a lot in spite of last week’s Unforeseen Requirements (remember them?). I have quilted 4 quilts since my last post and that was with a week full of appointments and interruptions! I am pleased with my new routine of less computer time and more productive time with quilting.

Autumn Jubilee – Completed in June

Patriotic Log Cabins – Completed in June

Autumn Leaves was one of my first quilts that I made when I started quilting in 2000. It was fused leaves with buttonhole hand stitching. I quilted it this month (July 2021).

The fabrics I used in this quilt, Indian Summer were the first I had purchased from a quilt store in San Antonio around 2000-2001 which were specifically for this quilt. I am not sure of the year I finished it, but it was applique and I worked on it while we were traveling to Sierra Vista Arizona each winter. The center was hand quilted and the borders were done on my domestic Sapphire. Of course I new the risk (borders not quilted as tight as the middle which causes flaring) by not hand quilting the borders, but I felt that it was a quilt that needed to just be finished!

Aspen Gold was a quilt that I made after helping some quilting buddies figure out the pattern. This quilt was made in the 2007 timeframe and patiently waited for me to quilt. I was so sure I was going to hand quilt it, but after so many years, it also just needed to be done!

The 4th quilt I did this month is a pattern by Piece O’Cake Designers called Thru Grandmother’s Window. I am very pleased with the way the Sawtooth Border turned out since nothing else went very well with the quilting. All points look good.

There is, of course, a good background story on why it took so long to finish this quilt. First off, it was the first hand applique quilt I made that would be placed in a Quilt Show in 2006. In mid-2005 I purchased my HQ Sixteen thinking that I would quilt my own quilts. I quilted it about 2 months before the show. The quilting did not cross over the applique in each block. I did free motion quilting consisting of small circles on the entire quilt!!! I was so excited to have it completed BUT alas, when I started to take it off the frame there was nothing but globs of thread on the back! This is what happens to a novice long arm quilter who thinks they are proficient in 2 months of quilting! It was obvious I was not familiar enough with the machine and did not check the tension! What a squirrel’s nest of thread. I had to take the quilt out of the Quilt Show at the last minute and that really upset me.

Clay helped me and we ripped all of the quilting out. It took 3 1/2 days to accomplish that feat and this is how I learned to rip seams using a rotary cutter! So sad. So the quilt was put back to someday be hand quilted. When I purchased my Grace Z44 hand quilting frame in 2017 (now discontinued) this quilt was removed from the waiting list and would be the first one to be quilted on the frame. That never happened – life just did not go as planned!

Now that life is back to normal, I have moved the frame back where I will have great lighting and have a new Horn quilting chair arriving today. You can see the Chair Mat I ordered from Amazon, which is just waiting to have the new chair sitting there!

On the quilting backlog, I now have scheduled 8 quilts to be quilted by a professional long arm quilter. I do believe I have found a jewel and a blessing in finding Sarabeth. It will be a few months before she will start on my quilts, which is fine with me. I have moved the 8 quilts to the back of the rack! I started with 34 quilts to quilt and now the remaining 28 will be done as follows:

• 8 quilts to the Professional Quilter
• 10 quilts that are either hand appliqued, hand embroidered, or just require hand quilting
• 2 quilts that will be done by hand with the Long Stitch
• 8 quilts for me to quilt on my HQ Sixteen

Bottom line I have 20 quilts to complete! Finding Sarabeth has really relieved the pressure off me to have to quilt all of the quilts. The 8 that she will quilt are my ‘special’ quilts. Those that were complex quilts and meandering would absolutely ruin them. So another Happy 🕺 Dance going on here.

I will be loading A Quilters Dream quilt by Linda Ballard in the next few days. I am not sure what year I made it but it had to be after 2005 or 2006. I was still a beginner quilter as I had pieced my first quilt in 2004. I could not remember the name of the quilt, but did remember that Linda Ballard had designed the quilt. I have gone through all of my patterns and it is not where it should be with Linda’s other patterns. I just found a copy on Etsy and purchased it. It is a beautiful quilt and I wanted to make another one. Now that I have ordered a copy watch and see if mine doesn’t turn up! That is always the case! LOL

Things have really calmed down for Clay and I and my Gastritis is controlled now that I know what triggers it. Today has been a day to just do whatever. I am still participating in PHD2021 and HQAL, but no other projects will be started until more quilting is done.

Dresden Plates are coming along – 54 completed out of the 105! As soon as I have A Quilter’s Dream in the frame I will start hand quilting, along with the Dresden Plates quilt. I will continue to quilt the 8 quilts and by then I will be ready to start some new projects. There are 9 more Dresden Plates but do not have a picture of them. Next time!

We had a week’s vacation scheduled for Rockport Texas but that was cancelled due to the 18 inches of rain they received after the 4th of July and the Alligators that decided to come and visit! We rescheduled for a later time in the year.

I hope that everyone is well and enjoying stitching. I really need to get some more hand work done so I can post for HQAL this Sunday!

Hugs, 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, Scrap Happy Days, Quilting Patch Linky Party To-Do-Tuesdays;PHD in 2021;