I love to share my Quilting projects with other Quilters. My goal is to share my progress on projects that I am working on. I would love for you to follow along with me during my endeavors. I hope you enjoy watching me tackle new techniques and projects. Hopefully you can learn from my "hiccups" and mistakes and make your journey easier.
I am always late for my To Do Tuesday post, but that is OK. Celiacs who eat 1/3 of a Bear Claw should suffer!!!!
OK, so time is speeding towards Christmas and 2022 and it is interesting that the first 8 months of each year tend to be a little slower in passing than October through December, so watch out for 30 September! I am making great progress on UFOs (finishing up the last 2) and will be starting new things in October. I am excited!
But for the time being, Here are my small goals completed in the last week.
Completed with the border on Dresden Heaven!
Waiting for Buttons!
The last UFO is Beautiful Life quilt border! I have the vines appliqued on the side borders! but I have a problem with the vine on the right one. Looks like Jack the Ripper will be here today to correct that! I have never done a border like this before so Lesson learned – FOLLOW THE LINES STUPID that is why you drew them the same and marked the top and bottom of each side! LOL
A Bountiful Life
Goals for 5 October 2021:
Have buttons sew on Dresden centers
Complete vines on top and bottom borders for ABL (above) and all flowers and leaves prepared for applique
It has been a long 9 months, but I finally have arrived at a point where I will be able to start a new project and I am looking forward to retiring these quilts to the “To Be Quilted Que”!
Have a great rest of the week and the week-end and hoping we receive about 5″ of rain. Then cold weather can come anytime.
Well, I worked on my idea for this quilt most of the day. My idea was to cut a border out of the background fabric and applique pink scallops on the same background fabric of the blocks, but it looked horrible. Then I tried numerous ways to come up with a second design for the border for Dresden Heaven (which is turning into Dresden Hell)….. and that did not work.
The background fabrics for this quilt are from the P&B Apple Cider line and the border is from the same line and the color ties in with the background fabric.
I am happy that I am to this point. Now to sew the buttons on and it will be in the “quilting” que. This one has to be hand quilted, but it will be long stitch quilting as there is not enough to really do heavy quilting. Machine and long arm are out since I chose to go with buttons.
Like I said, it is not what I had envisioned for the border but at least it is done and now I am down to 2 quilts! Yea. The border fabric has a very small swirling pattern and it really compliments the background fabric, but it does not appear that way in the picture. Thanks to Clay, it is a good picture. One good thing about the border I used now can be replaced if I change my mind! But NOT NOW! I am DONE! LOL
Have a wonderful week, happy stitching and hopefully some Fall weather!
Good Sunday morning! Weather was great for my morning walk, but starting tomorrow and the rest of the week the humidity comes back and I certainly hope it brings us some rain!
Today I will be working on the border for my Dresden Heaven quilt. I finished it yesterday and now it needs a border – a special one.
I am also working on the borders for A Bountiful Life which will be vines and leaves with a few flowers mixed in. Today I hope to start on ironing the freezer paper leaves on the fabric and then cutting them out this week. It should go fast because the quilt is only 9 blocks. Maybe I will have it completed in October.
Other than that, it will be another wonderful peaceful and productive quilting day for me.
Good afternoon! We have had very nice weather in the morning for the last 3 days. Great for walking. We will be getting the humidity back starting tomorrow and through next week and hoping for rain. BAMC has finally reimbursed us for the surgery charge and we have now recouped all the monies we paid out last year. It is so hard to believe that it has been 21 months (almost 2 years) since that New Year’s Eve in 2019. But it was such the blessing from God in the end! He has recovered from the hand injury and has a new Heart Valve that provides us more time together! What a blessing!
I have finished sewing Dresden Heaven together this afternoon. I have a special idea for the border that I believe will really make this quilt unique! But for today – here she is without the border.
Dresden Heaven without the Border
I am very excited now about finishing this quilt. It has been a long time in the making and the idea I have for the border is going to be fun to make! It will delay me finishing it by tomorrow, but this quilt requires that I spend more time with the Border. After all the work that went into it a plain border will not do it justice.
As soon as I finish the border I will only have A Bountiful Life (border in the making) and Stars Around the Garden to finish sewing the quilt blocks together! Then it will be time to start a 2021 project! I certainly have a lot of quilts that I want to make to chose from. LOL
On a personal note, on 12 August 2021 Clay lost his only Daughter Melissa who was such a beautiful Lady. She was only 54 years old. She was a carbon copy of her Father in her facial looks with that beautiful Indian Hair (Clay and his children are Choctaws on his Mother Clara June Cook’s side of the family and related to the original Choctaw Chief MoShuLaTubbe). I always wanted my hair to be as thick as hers as I grew older but mine thinned and she always wanted my skin type that I inherited from my French side. We had many good and bad times together with Melissa during the last 25 years. Just as other families experience the ups and downs with their children. She is now at peace with life and with her brother Darryl and her Mother Linda in Heaven. Please remember Clay in your prayers as he was devastated when we got the call. We are doing better now, but the loss is very much on both of our minds as we go on with our lives.
Melissa Dawn Cook Lane – 22 February 1967 – 12 August 2021
Good evening! It was a cool 104 today here at in our town. We are so blessed to have our home and Studio while the world is going absolutely nuts with the lovely uptick of the CV! Tuesday evening we are going to have a cool front arrive – the first of the season! This will certainly make my morning walk a lot easier (it will be in the ’60s rather than the mid-to high 70’s. Hopefully the humidity will also drop!
Today I finished sewing the larger Dresden Plates to the background fabric! YIPEE!
Large Dresden Heaven PlatesSmall Dresden Heaven Plates
I was going to sew the buttons on before I put the quilt top together, BUT, alas, my brain kicked in and realized that I needed to sew the top together WITHOUT BUTTONS or I would have had a BIG mess! So tomorrow will be a day to move the cutting table out and put all the blocks on the design board. It will be fun to see how it turns out. I used 1930 fabrics for this quilt.
I also have the borders for A Bountiful Life cut out and the side borders are marked where the vines will go, so I will be working on that in the evening. Once I get all the vines, leaves, and flowers appliqued on the side borders, I will then mark the top and bottom borders. I am hoping to complete this quilt top by the end of October.
I am really feeling good about getting very close to completing all of my UFOs left over from previous years. After I finish sewing Dresden Heaven together, it will be more night work, but only to sew on 110 buttons.
Hopefully by Wednesday (or sooner) I can start on putting Stars Around the Garden together! All blocks are ready to be sewn together but I have to cut out the sashing strips and after I have the top together, I will have some applique for the top left and bottom right corners. It is easy applique, so I do believe that by the the first of October I will be making a new quilt! I am really getting excited now.
I am not concerned about the quilt tops that I need to complete. On 20 October I get another Radio Frequency treatment that will cauterize the nerves again. After that I will begin to focus on getting those quilts quilted! In November or December, the professional long arm quilter is supposed to call about quilting 10 quilts for me. I have my fingers crossed that this will happen.
Good afternoon! What a weather change today from yesterday! The last 3 days were rather cool with lower humidity, but today it is heading to a 100! UGH! I am back to walking and each day I am getting closer to my 1.5 miles each morning. I have done 1.25 for the last 2 days, takes me a little longer, but in time I will be back to my normal 20 minute mile. I can certainly tell the difference in how my days are better! I also believe that I will start losing the 10 pounds that need to go away.
Today I finished Stonefields quilt top! Anyone wishing to purchase the pattern can have it for $125.00 with postage. I never mark on my originals so it is just as it was when I purchased it at $200.00 (2015) and Sentimental Stitches now sells it for $190. If no one wants it I will keep it as a memory pattern. I purchased this pattern in July 2015! Amazing when life goes South and we end up with long awaited UFOs to be completed! So finish date is September 2021! I would have never thought it would have taken me this long to make the quilt.
Original Stonefields Quilt
I changed the border as I did not want to put anymore time into this project. This is the fabric I used – it is a Robert Kaufman border fabric that came from Japan called La Scala. It is a rich gold and I fussy cut the fabric and it went together beautifully.
So here is Stonefields Redesigned by Nanette! I am very happy how it has turned out and it will go on the rack for hand quilting.
The background is not quite this dark! A Bountiful LIfe – shortened – ready for the border!
Then I plan on getting A Quilter’s Dream marked for hand quilting and loaded on the Z44 – any bets going on out there that maybe by October this will be accomplished? LOL
A Quilter’s Dream by Linda Ballard
I am still working on Dresden Heaven. I have 6 of the 16 large Dresdens sewn to the background grid. I am hoping to be in the mood to complete them this week. I hope that I could have this quilt completed by next Tuesday as it would be a large relief. I started this quilt in August 2016!!! You can see where I am in this UFO here.
The very last UFO will be the completion of the top for Stars Around the Garden! I have the Medallion Center completed and all the star blocks finished also. This LAST UFO was started in the March 2020 timeframe and the Medallion was finished in early 2021. After sewing the top together, the border will require more applique, but not difficult. My goal for completion for these 3 projects will be mid-October and hopefully sooner. It has been a long 9 months trying to finish all of my UFOs, but the end is near and I can start making something new. Heck, I may even pick up with Mary Brown quilt! We shall see as I no longer set short time goals because life always provides Unforeseen Requirements for me as I get a smidgen older! But take heart! I will be back to 100% soon!
Stars Around the Garden Medallion Stars Around the Garden Blocks!
Am I glad that I stopped making new quilts this year so far and deal with all the UFOs? You bet! I still have quilts to quilt, but that will also come in time.
So I leave you with a wish for a Happy Stitching week! I am so looking forward for Fall weather and am sure most all!
Greetings! It was 68 this morning with lower humidity and a nice breeze. I am back to my walking, albeit a little out of shape (lung wise). That will be easily fixed by doing some breathing lessons and walking every day. It has been about 2 months or more since I had to ride the indoor bike which does not require near the energy that my walking does. But I digress from the subject matter!
Last week I made a decision to finish the last 3 UFOs. Dresden Heaven is “close” to being ready to hit the design board, but I have taken a break from it at this time. I then decided that it was time to just ‘FINISH’ the other two. So the second one is Stonefields, one of the most expensive patterns that I have ever purchased and will not do that again! This is a pattern that is not for a beginner, it is a pattern for a Master Quilter who loves math and enjoys a challenge! There are 121 blocks (6 1/2″) in this pattern. I made it to 81! First of all, I became frustrated and tired of the pattern when I quit it for awhile a couple of years ago. I had forgotten why it remained a UFO, but when I picked it up and started making more blocks, I remembered why it had become a UFO! There are absolutely no directions, no measurements, only copies of graph paper with the design hand drawn with this $200 pattern. Colored pictures of the blocks were sent through the internet and Susan Smith is definitely not a proficient hand Appliquer. The quilt is unique and very popular, but as I previously stated, it is not for a beginner quilter. Here is my version of the 81 blocks on my design wall. You will note the Center with 5 Eight Pointed Stars, Cameo pictures, and the cutest Bunny Rabbit. This was my design choice.
Stonefields
I changed many of the blocks in this quilt. Some of the blocks were not my favorites, so I made the quilt for me to enjoy! I will not be doing the border that is on the original quilt as I want to get this one done and out of the way. It will be hand quilted with long stitches.
The next and last UFO will be A Bountiful Life (ABL). I am also sticking to my latest decision to not make any more blocks as 9 blocks will be great as this quilt just needs to be FINISHED! I have selected the pattern for the border which will be vines with leaves and some flowers. As soon as I finish Stonefields ABL will be next.
I have a lot of choice words for the idiot who is turning our country into a Marxism country but will keep them to myself. BUT I will say that this country just may not survive him, Susan Rice, Pelosi, Schumer, Obama and all the idiot Democrats who voted this idiot into office! I just keep on praying that God will intervene and help this Nation return to a Democracy. Yesterday was the most threatening speech to the American public given by a President of the United States that I have ever witnessed. I am only glad that I am retired now and they have no control over me other than to tax us to the poor house.
Happy Labor Day and can anyone tell me where August has gone? I guess it went by just as fast like the other 7 months of 2021. I am concerned that our September will be the old August – HOT HUMID AND MUGGY! I would be happy to see 65 in the mornings with lower humidity rather than 78-80 and 90-95% humidity, but then I am dreaming again. I have increased my daily exercise to 10 minutes walking outside and 30 minutes on the bike. Personally I think I am nuts, but the exercise keeps me healthy, wealthy and wise! LOL
I have finished the Mini-Dresden plates and they are waiting for me to add the buttons. I had a couple of burn out days from working on them everyday for 2 weeks and did not accomplish a lot with the buttons. A quick preview of how the blocks will look with the buttons and a picture of 105 – 5″ blocks waiting for buttons!
105 Mini Dresdens waiting for Buttons Mini Dresdens with Buttons for the Center
I have 16 Large 9″ Dresden Plates to sew to the background fabrics and have 4 finished. I will be working on them in the evening!
After finishing the Dresden Mini’s I knew I was at the point where I had to have a SERIOUS talk with myself about making final decisions on my remaining 2 UFOs. I have been vacillating too long on decisions on what to do with them and it was time to stop that! We have had 2 wonderful weeks of peace and quiet and this has allowed me to make the best decisions on A Bountiful Life and Stonefields. They are now on the road to completion.
A Bountiful Life will only be 9 blocks and I have already selected the border and will be cutting the fabric, marking it for stems and leaves, along a few flowers thrown in! I think she will finish at close to 60″ x 60″. I am pleased with the decision to proceed to completion.
A Bountiful Life
Now Stonefields is another issue. I have 70 blocks completed, but have now weeded out 5 blocks that I did not like (you can see the small stack on the left hand side of the cutting table). I selected the 35 remaining blocks that I will need to make to complete the quilt. I am going to make a total of 100 blocks (original calls for 121!).
Yesterday I started the process of setting the blocks on the design wall. Jaydee reminded me how to do that when you are working with a quilt like this. Thank you Jaydee – you always guide me to where I need to go with a quilt when I need a Mentor.
Stonefields
I do have one issue and am hoping to clear it up. I had the brilliant idea to use the same background fabric for this quilt but one is a little lighter than the other. I now will have to make sure that I make the remaining block with the lighter fabric in order to be able to alternate light/dark setting. Otherwise, I am in trouble. My nice clean and neat room has now turned into chaos! But not for long. I will get organized and things will smooth out.
Today will be to prepare the border for A Bountiful Life and work on Stonefields. I am taking the day off from exercise – feels good and will give me more time to work on my UFOs. I can see more hand work in my future.
The long arm is calling for me to finish Raggity Ann and Andy, but quilting tops will wait until I have finished all the prepping work on the ABL and Stonefields before continue on quilting tops that have hung around a long time.
For the first time in my life, I am taking each day as it comes – no deadlines – no stress! I am realizing that setting a lot of “self imposed” deadlines on finishing my UFOs only causes me more stress and I have had enough stress for awhile. I will enjoy the process as I go along and when I finish something, I will feel productive. We shall see how long this mind set lasts! LOL
Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend and enjoy Sunday and Monday (holiday) slow stitching!
Chopin - A Passionate Quilter From Texas 