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.
OK – I found my mind – at least for a few moments. It is HQAL Sunday! I have started doing Counted Cross Stitch and have found it to be so relaxing. It allows me to focus and think!!! (Darn just when I was going to just veg!). I started last year collecting the tools required to do cross stitching, and it is so much cheaper than quilting!
I changed the colors for this project and am very pleased with my progress. I have progressed where I can watch a movie or the News (as bad as it is) and still work on my project! Yea – maybe I am getting back to multi-tasking. Keeps the brain sharp along with walking! (Boy after having to lay off 4 days my walk was not a picnic today).
LOVE Project
We have Sunshine today! We have not seen the Sun since last Tuesday – I am heading out to sit and gather some much needed Vitamin D!
Have a wonderful week, and be sure to check out the other HQAL participants to see what they are up to.
Hugs, Nanette
This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piercers 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.
GOOD MORNING! The sun is finally going to make an appearance today after 5 days of cold, damp, misty weather! Even this hot natured lady, I am glad the Sun is coming out. The tree cutting is over with, but the front acreage will be cleared starting tomorrow. I did not walk for 4 days as it was just too cold and I did not want to get sick. So today that laziness ends. I had just achieved the 20 minute mile again last Tuesday. So today is a push day on walking. I would certainly like to get a walk in for 31 days in March. I did increase my walking for February from January, so things are looking up.
I have been very busy the last 2 weeks. First thing, the Long Arm Quilter and I never met on 14 February – long story short – it just would not work with her. I had a back up quilter and she will be letting me know when I can bring her all NINE of the quilts to quilt. I had to prepare the backs for all nine and it was really not a lot of fun. I need to stay caught up on my quilting of my tops as I finish them – no more excuses! It is wonderful to have someone quilt these quilts as they are large quilts and I do not do pantograms or edge to edge quilting with designs.
As I posted earlier, the 115” wide batik was returned due to a flaw in the fabric. Then I ordered some more batiks but only 45” wide. That meant that I had to piece the majority of the backs. Next, I used my stash for a few of the backs and they had to be pieced. I then ordered 2 pieces that were 108” wide for of the largest quilts. I was not going to wash the fabrics and have to press the fabric (it is difficult to iron 108” wide fabrics). Kerry at Web Fabrics advised me that the 108” would shrink, so that meant ”wash them”. I am glad I did as the width shrunk to 102” and so very happy that I ordered the 2 pierces at 3 1/2 Yards and not just 3 yards. It covered me for the shrinkage! Because I was sending the quilts to a professional long arm quilter, I wanted to make sure that all backs were prepared perfectly. That meant checking and double checking all measurements, selecting the best fabric for each quilt, then sewing and pressing them. All in all I have found that this is not my favorite thing! LOL
Before I started working on the backings, I checked with Nancy as to what she required for backings. She told me to leave the selvages on when cutting the side pieces. That was something that I had never thought about doing – so it was a great tip and it made a lot of sense. Always nice to learn something new.
During the evening for relaxation, I have been working on my Cross Stitch project called Love from the Fat Quarter Shop. It is a free pattern along with video for Beginners.
I changed the colors and background Aida cloth for my project. Here is where I am as of last night. I really relax when working on cross stitch. I may start another applique project, but later in the year.
Love!
I finished Rachael’s grandson’s quilt and just need to get it quilted.
Weldons Quilt
Made a matching pillow case.
Matching Pillow Case
I have now started on Georgia’s grandson’s quilt. I am using blue batiks from my stash (scraps and fat quarters). I am using the ”card” quilt pattern, but I reduced the size of the blocks to 4” finished. The 8” block was just too big for a baby quilt.
Double Hour Glass block
I have 55 blocks made and 14 more to sew together. It is a very easy block to make. I reduced the strips to 1 and 1/2”. Today I am going to work on the placement. I have a couple of choices, but there is one way to have a secondary ”circle” to the quilt if I go that way. We will see. I would love to have it sewn together by Tuesday!
I am very happy to be getting back to where I was in 2014 in my quilting. Life is peaceful and very dull and repetitive, but that is fine with me because there is no stress other than the idiot who is causing all the chaos in our country and in the world because of his weakness and incompetence due to his mental problems. I do not know if America can survive his incompetence and that includes his entire administration. The idiots who put him in office might be having voter’s remorse since Putin has now threatened a Nuclear escalation. I pray that our idiot opens up the Keystone pipeline, and as for the crazy man who has really started the invasion of Ukraine, this reminds me of 1939 when Hitler started his attack on the world which ended in WWII. I do hope and pray that God provides us with someone who can provide some sanity to the world. Some may not like my words, but Americans need to wake up before we become a Canada.
Have a blessed week and offer a prayer for our Country and Ukraine. Pray for Sanity!
One thing that a drought does to South Texas is the devastation to trees in our area. We have the 5 acres and maintain only 1 acre where the House, Studio, Garage, and Barn are located. The rest belongs to Mother Nature, but there are times when we have to have those acres cleared from the falling trees or limbs. This year we were prepared for an expensive tree cutting on the one acre that we maintain. In our area we have a lot of ’black jack oaks’ that tend to die/hollow out from the inside – then you find them crashing down! Clay has always keep trees away from the buildings to prevent damage.
70’ Pine Tree Before
With no end to the drought coming soon, we bit the bullet and hired our favorite guy to clear the trees that were really suffering, or dying. We are now at the total cutting to be close to 40 trees removed when they are finished. The count was originally 30, but as we studied the remaining trees we kept adding. They started on Wednesday the 16th and worked through the 19th of February. They came back on Tuesday the 22nd to very cold and damp weather and cut down the last tree in the yard and smoothed up the ruts made by the Bobcat as they moved the cuttings around to the Chipper and trailer where they chipped branches and loaded the cut up tree trunks. Juan and his crew are the hardest working guys, and so proficient in cutting down trees. Last year they cut down a 70 foot Pine. This week there was another 70’ foot pine in the back yard that they cut down.
It is something to watch the tree cutter climb this tree and start cutting it down. They have participated in Tree Cutting Competitions, so no wonder they do so well. It took them about 3 hours to cut this tree, and cut the trunk into manageable pieces. This is what it looks like now. We have left 4 pine trees in the yard. The trees in the background belong to the only neighbor close to us.
When I took this picture there was one tree left to be removed and they were able to do that on Wednesday before the cold really set in. The top looked OK, but as the got to the closer to the tree trunk it was obvious that it needed to come down. The trunk was completely hollow! Here are a few more pictures of how nice it looks without the trees with dead branches hanging down and possibly splitting and hitting the House or the Studio. You will notice there was no Sun. We have had 5 days of 30 degrees during the day and colder at night. Today (Sunday) we will have sun this afternoon and maybe be in the 50’s.
Notice I lost my shade trees – darn – but it is best. Clay will finish painting the barn when Spring arrives. The Tower is his Antenna for his Ham Radio. I want to put another North Folk Island Pine tree in my Pot on the Tree Stump! That would be if I can find one. We have one on the back porch, but even though we covered it, the tips and top were affected with the freezing weather this month. Drat!
Clay hopes to finish painting the barn this Spring
Monday, Juan and crew will be back to clear out the fallen trees, tree branches and basically clean that up. There are a few trees that are dead and will be taken down. You might ask about the cost of having this work done. Let me say this about that! I will be sitting on the street corner collecting quarters! (old joke).
We are praying that we can survive this drought and that we have some heavy April Showers. I cannot find the pictures of how pretty the yard looked before the drought started in 2005. The grass is called Buffalo Grass and when we do get rain (as we have had every few years) the grass perks up and looks so pretty. May not happen this year. The area where my trees were will be zero landscaped with rocks like the rocks around the buildings.
Well, this is where I have been the last 2 weeks. I will do a quilting post later.
Greetings. I am still here, just been busy getting back in shape! Today I figured out why I am tired….. I missed the days in the Sun for my Vitamin D! I have been walking since 5 February and today I was able to make the 30 minutes at 22 minutes per mile! I think if I had been a good girl and got my Vitamin D I could make the 21 minutes sooner. So tomorrow I will see if I can get closer to the 20 minute mile! At my age, and after the crud, I am happy, along with the fact that I am down 7 pounds since October! I quit eating those great Cape Cod potato chips about a week ago – they were not agreeing with tummy. I am now just eating real potatoes cooked in my Ninja air fryer and sleeping like a baby each night! So hopefully with my “back to walking” routine, I can drop the remaining 6 pounds I would like to lose. Then I will be where I was a year ago. Stress can do so much to our minds and bodies!
OK now for quilting. I have 2 baby quilts to make, and just finished the first one today. This quilt is for Weldon, my friend Rachael’s grandson. I have adopted him as my Great God child since I will never have any grandchildren. He is going to be a true Texan, so I made his quilt with some outdoor fabric that I have had probably over 12 years. The setting and border fabric is a Moda fabric that looks just like leather tooling. I am very happy with this little guy’s quilt.
Then this afternoon, I decided to make a matching pillow case – and those who know me know I do not do anything but quilts. I looked YouTube and found Jenny from Missouri Star Quilts on YouTube! I made the pillow case in 40 minutes! It is going to be a great surprise gift for Rachel’s little Weldon. I would put his picture on this post, but if I ask permission now it will ruin the surprise quilt.
Weldon’s QuiltMatching Pillow Case
As an update on the fabric for York Lodge I last posted about from SewBatiks. That did not go well. I did not receive it until Saturday and when I opened it I found the following on the fabric.
Ball Point Pen Mark
And this.
Yellow that ran through the fabric
It was returned on Monday. So on Saturday and Sunday I ordered batiks (not 115″ or 108″ wide) from Carly at WebFabrics. I started ordering from her in 2003 when I found her on line as she was just starting the business. I have never received any fabrics from her all these years with ANY flaws. I will now have to piece all the backings for the 9 quilts that my Long Arm quilter will be working. I have 3 days now to get 3 ready but my hope is that by Sunday evening I will have 9 backs ready to go when as she is ready for them. Monday is the day to take her the first 3. I hope she does not have an issue with the pieced backing. One quilt is 84″ x 99″. That one will be in the 2nd round of 3 as my fabrics from Carly will probably not make it until Monday. We shall see.
So this is my To Do Tuesday on Thursday again. With more Sun and increased Vitamin D, I think that I will be catching up quicker than I anticipated on my projects for the month. We shall see!
Have a wonderful week-end, enjoy the cold, warm, or hot weather! Happy Sewing.
Today is the first day of 2022 for me – for sure. I did my 30 minute walk today. Yup could feel the heaviness of the 99% humidity in the air and the stupid bronchitis cough is back every now and then, but I must keep up the walk to get my lungs working better. I lost too many days of walking in January! Not sure how many more I will get done after tomorrow, as we are headed to get the Canadian Cold front and I predict it will be a whopper! I am thinking the weather people keep telling everyone it won’t be as bad as last years Texas Snow, but I believe we could have ice! Hummmm time will tell!
Today I washed my blue fabrics that I MIGHT use in Alaska – debating on this one – it may end up as a batik quilt in blues. There were a lot of blue fat quarters in this group and if you want to see the how to ruin a quilt if a quilter does not pre-wash fabrics, check these pictures out. PS – I always pre-wash my fabrics because one time I did not in my early days of quilting and to see red dye bleed on a quilt was not nice!
I decided to wash the fat quarters by hand and what a shocker! Look at the sink full of blue dye!
Water from soaking the Mary Koval fabrics
Then I thought I would rinse them in the sink – No Thank You and off to the washing machine to run them through 2 more rinses!
I started to rinse them in the sink
Next was to dry them and remove strings and raw edges from the lovely washing machine and dryer. Look at the wasted fabric from this group of 24 fat quarters. I know better than to get these fat quarters unless I am willing to wash time by hand and hang them to dry! Oh Well.
Fat Quarters are nice, but wasteful
Here are my finishes that I am so happy about! I am not sure what I will try to accomplish by next Tuesday – 7 Feb 2022 – but I know that I will have my list ready to go and start quilting again. Of course I always need to get the long arm going, but not yet. I am excited to be taking 3 quilts to the Long Arm quilter on the 14th of February.
Here are my finished for January 2022!
Dresden Heaven Bountiful Life (maybe this was December)Block 1 of the Holiday SAL by ModaBlock 2 of the Holiday SAL by Moda
For Holiday SAL there are 14 blocks. I have one that I am working on and have 2 more traced. I am working towards having the remainder of them traced this week.
So now I am into 2022 projects having finished all UFOs. I need to establish priorities for Stars Around the Garden, the Primitive Quilt 2 color quilt, and many more and additionally for my Holiday SAL and my “Love” Cross Stitch project. But I need to really make some realistic goals. Here’s hoping that by next Tuesday I will be more organized.
Chopin - A Passionate Quilter From Texas 