January 2022 – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

January 30, 2022

Dresden Heaven or Was it Hell?

Greetings, Greetings, and Happy New Year FOR REAL!!! I am almost finished with the Crud that we picked up in Rockport. I have been trying to get my walking routine started again and was successful for 3 days until the Cedar blew in again on Friday! I will try again tomorrow if it is not raining. Hopefully this coming week-end the front that is heading our way from Canada will freeze the hell out of the Cedar and I will be able to start walking each day. I have the “lingering cough” syndrome so I will baby myself for today. After all, there are 2 great football games to watch and I will be working on my embroidery or my cross stitch projects.

It is difficult to believe that I have FINALLY finished the last UFO quilt top. I started this project around 9 August 2016!!!!! At that time I was attempting to do a Dear Jane, but after sewing 9 blocks (no – not paper piecing thank you) I decided to move on – maybe at another time.

Today I sewed the last of 121 buttons for the center of the Dresdens rather than the circles. I learned a few lessons on this quilt and here they are if anyone is interested in doing this quilt by Susan Marth.

Lesson Number 1 – I used a background fabric that really was not strong enough for the weight of this quilt.

Lesson Number 2 – I did not pay attention when putting the plates together – that means make sure that the center is small enough to be covered by a circle or whatever.

Lesson Number 3 – I should have sewn each row together, THEN I should have sewn the buttons on. I sewed the quilt top together, tried to sew buttons on which failed.

Lesson Number 4 – It takes time to do buttons. During the finishing process I had to rip 4 seams apart in order to easily sew buttons on. BIGGER MISTAKE!

I am so happy that this quilt is finished. I had made a deadline of yesterday, but was unable to work on the quilt Friday. I have no idea when, or if, I will ever quilt this quilt. I am thinking about putting a back on it without batting and call it done. There was a lot of time and effort put into this quilt so it will be stored somewhere in the meantime. I could probably tie the quilt (never done that before), or sandwich it and do long stitching with pearl cotton. We shall see. Any ideas – Going to be a heavy quilt to quilt in a hoop and I cannot load it on the long arm or the Z44! Whoopee fun and games!!!

Dresden Heaven – Started in 2016 – Completed January 2022

Starting Tuesday for the month of February (my New Year will be starting) I will be working on Stars Around the Garden (just need to put the top together and applique some flowers on the border), Alaska with Kathy, and some other piecing projects. I may start an applique project, or continue with Mary Brown which has not been touched since last year. It will be fun to make a list of what I will be working on this year.

My Longarm Quilter and I will meet on the 14th of February. I will be taking 3 quilts to her to quilt and after those, there will be 7 more for her to do. I may just bite the bullet and start doing the long arm quilting on the 8 or 9 quilt tops that I will be doing. Also need to do some hand quilting. See why there is no schedule at this time??? LOL

York Lodge is 84″ x 99″ so I needed a 108″ x 108″ batik background. I was blessed to find Sew Batiks on line – she sells 115″ wide batik backing and I picked the perfect piece for my quilt! I will call and check on it tomorrow for delivery time. They manufacture their own batiks and the fabric is already washed – what more could I ask for? I ordered some extra fabric to take advantage of free shipping. It was expensive, but York Lodge took a long time to make and is a highly complex quilt and if Quilt Shows come back I might enter it.

For the games I will be working on my ‘Love’ Cross Stitch today while we are watching the games. Cross Stitch has become the ‘go to’ for real relaxation in the evenings.

Have a wonderful week, stay warm, and enjoy stitching!

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;

January 25, 2022January 25, 2022

To Do Tuesday – 25 January 2022

Today started out with an IRS issue. Yesterday we received a letter from IRS telling us we had a credit of $626.00 and that they had not received our Tax Return and to send another copy. I pulled my files and confirmed that I had submitted our taxes on 1 May 2020 and as always I send in a priority folder for tracking.

IDIOTS!!!!@@@@ took me two hours to talk to someone who immediately apologized and told me to tear it up!!! She said that this is a system problem and we were not the only ones. We always have to pay and in 2020 we got the Stimulus credit which lowered our tax liability. I always submit a paper submission to IRS. THE CREDIT was their money for our taxes owed. The Lady advised me that because they are so far behind and short staffed that they have not processed our return. So if you receive a weird letter like I did trash it or it will take you 2 to 3 hours to be told what they told me. Now that is if you punch the right Option to get to speak with a person.

Now on to where I am in 2022! Nowhere with quilting that is for sure.

But I have completed the outline for Love

I am really enjoying the Cross Stitch project.

I spent time on Dresden Heaven and am about 1/3rd of the way through sewing on buttons. I had to take 2 rows apart when I finish them I will sew them back together and rip another row. Oh Joy! i have 9 more buttons to sew on to finish the 2 rows.

I had to stop the walking the last 4 days because my cough was still bothering me. Tomorrow I will try again as the Cedar count has peaked so I will see if I can do it. I have to get with the healthy program because my new quilter is waiting for my quilts. I need to get the backs prepared. She uses her own batting which makes me happy. One less thing to do. I think I am just trying to get my productivity back. Yesterday I did some house work and today ran errands. Maybe the rest of January I will get to walk each day and change my attitude!

Have a wonderful week.

Hugs, Nanette

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

HAPPY NEW YEAR – 21 January 2022!

Greetings, I am now starting 2022, this is hanks to the nice wintery mix in the Hill Country, where the lovely Cedar Trees reside. They had some sleet and maybe ice on those love trees. and today the Cedar Count is down, and I am going to assume that it will now be less of a problem for me going forward. I woke up today normal, no coughing, etc. I also did my 30 minute walk – not as fast as I normally do – but it was 33 degrees and I had missed the last 20 days. So I am happy with doing 1 and 1/4th of a mile in 30 minutes! Even with a few stops just to let the body know I was not planning on killing it today.

Today is my 2022 New Years Day as I am well and starting to clear up a few things that I want finished by 1 February!

Last night I started my Fat Quarter Shop Cross Stitch project, of which I call ’Love’. It is a free download and Kimberly has YouTube videos to walk beginners through the process. They call it Cross Stitch University!

I am changing the thread colors. I wanted a black outline where they used grey and a red outline where they used blue. This will make my house more of a Barn! I have tons of floss that were purchased around 2008 and when they quit making the thread in France. How lucky I was to be able to have nothing but floss made in France!

I started working on ‘Love’ last night. Kathy gave me some great tips the other day on figuring where to start on this project. Instead of using the painter’s tape around the edges, I am trying to see how cutting the Aida cloth with my pinking rotary cutter. So far so good!

For today I am going to try to sew buttons on my Dresden Heaven using a quilting hoop. We shall see how that goes. I want to also work on ’Love’! Then there are 12 blocks to trace for my Holiday Sew Along quilt! Sounds like a busy afternoon doesn’t it! Feels good to me!

Have a great week-end and it feels so good to be ME AGAIN!

Hug’s Nanette

January 20, 2022

To Do Tuesday – 20 January 2022?

Just a short note to say Hi and that we have survived the ”whatever”. Not sure what we picked up in Rockport but after 2 years of being very careful, I did not pay attention to the fast spread of the Flu, Omicron, Viral Bronchitis, OR that the fact that Cedar was alive and well in Rockport. Which ever it was we started with a ”cold” which turned into Bronchitis for Clay and I. Clay suffered from the cough and slept in his recliner for 7 or 8 nights to keep from coughing. FINALLY after a Z-pack and a round of steroid pill pack we called and they gave him a prescription for cough syrup with Codine. That stopped his coughing and he is sleeping like a baby. He is over it! Mine has hung on from mixing the ”cold” with a nice Cedar attack.

I am still suffering from the Cedar which has now caused me Eustachian tube problems. I am taking a 2nd round of my antibiotic to make sure that the tubes will clear up. With my weak immune system, I think I have made it through the ’cold’ and a sinus infection very well. I am hoping that the weather mix in the Hill Country today will freeze the Cedar trees and kill them! LOL

I finally found some plain cough syrup Tuesday in hopes of stopping my coughing, but when I got home I found out it had high fructose corn syrup and red dyes. The person helping me at the Drug Store gave me the wrong bottles. I did try a very small amount of it that afternoon and on Tuesday evening after taking another small sip, I became sick with stomach and my ears were killing me because of the HFCS and sugars in the syrup. I am just so sensitive to any medication and the horrible inactive ingredients that they put in our medication and and all the chemicals they put in our foods that it is difficult to treat me. I can take the food problem, but the Cedar just puts me down. But, alas, it seems that my 2nd round of Antibotics are kicking in and my ears are calming down. Thank you Lord!

I have not felt like doing anything and it kills me that I cannot get outside and walk. This is day 20 that I have not walked – I will catch up as soon as the Cedar settles down in a week or so! The weather is so dry this winter and those damn Cedar trees are over blooming. The count has ranged from 900 to 28,800. I wear 3 masks when I come out to the Studio and the other day I went to HEB with my 3 masks and gloves as I do not want to pick up any other germs. I see people walking around without a mask and wish them luck. As we all know the Vaccine does not protect anyone from Omicron! We opted to decline testing since our blood oxygen was great and no fever. Just a cold and if it was the Omicron, it was no worse than a cold, no fever, no aches, etc.

On the hobby front, thanks to Jocelyn who posted about her blocks from the 2020 Moda Holiday Sew Along, I printed out the patterns and cut out 14 blocks before leaving for Rockport. I finished Block 1 while there and now have finished Block 2. Block Number 3 is ready for embroidery and the remaining 12 background fabrics are ready for tracing the pattern. I purchased Linen fabric in 1989 when I thought I would start making my clothes again – WRONG – I have kept this fabric for all these years and have the fabric in pink, turquoise, and white. I am using an inexpensive, thin muslin as the backing. This is a fun and very easy project to work on anytime. Thank you Jocelyn for providing the link in your post which provided a reminder to me that I had already downloaded the patterns in July!

I have also finished another Dishcloth! I love this one, especially the pattern and the yarn color! The pattern is called ‘Chain’. I love the look of the chain side and the reverse side. Clay asked me if I was going to make a sweater – what a joke! That might be next year when I take that one on!

This morning, I dusted my two rooms in the Studio with Murphy’s Oil and do believe it has helped. I am planning on working on tracing some more blocks for the Holiday Blocks and determined to work on my cross stitch project. I am trying to move around more and just deal with the allergies. I do not mean to complain, as we are so blessed, but it is frustrating when it takes me away from my routine of my exercise and the desire to quilt.

It is hard to believe that we are heading into February already. I am going to plan to start on quilting projects around 1 February! That is when the Cedar will almost be gone, and I know I will feel better. In the meantime, I just may get those buttons sewn on the Dresden Heaven quilt – SHOCK SHOCK!!

My goal for the next week is to get better and back on track and work on hand projects.

Have a great week!

Hugs, Nanette

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022

Waiting to Start 2022!

Good morning! Just a quick post to let you know that I have not started anything in 2022!

When we got home from Rockport I came down with a Sinus infection from Cedar and Bronchitis in which I politely passed it to Clay. It could have been the new and popular Con version of whatever, but we did not get tested. WHY? Clay is beginning to get better and I am dealing with Cedar allergies. No fever and we took antibiotics, etc and the normal things when you get a bad head cold. Lingering cough which should pass soon. we both had the best night’s sleep last night. things are getting better

Until I am 100% i will not be posting or quilting.

Have a great week see all soon

Hugs! Nanette