May 2022 – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

May 24, 2022

To Do Tuesday – 24 May 2022

Greetings from a cooler South Texas! Cloudy, North wind, and only 66 degrees with Humidity at 69! Great for power walking. This week will be cooler and maybe we will be out of the 107 degrees for at least a week or two. Today is voting today in Texas Run Off! Hoping all Republicans and Independents headed to the Polls today!

I have met my 2 goals for this week! I finished my Southwest Texas Style Quilt on Saturday (beat the Tuesday goal!). This quilt is based on a picture of an Antique quilt that I saw on line about 4 years ago. It was easy to replicate it in EQ8. I searched for this block in all the block books and could not find it so not sure what the actual name of the block is. This is the 2nd quilt that I did not have an issue with and it was a great. When I use EQ8 to print out instructions, if rotary cutting I add a 1/8” on all measurements for cutting and have no problems with making the quilt. Stars in the Garden was one of the best designed and pattern directions that I have worked on in a long time. Hats off to the Designer.

My other project to finish was to remove the existing border on Bats and Boos* quilt and remake a pretty border. Done! The longer I looked at the BIG WHITE BORDER, I just knew I had to redo it. (*Note I had the names reversed)

Sunday and Monday I worked on the design of the new borders. I started by cutting white lightening border down to 2” inches finished, then decided on doing HSTs for the next border. I tried using all black HSTs and thought about another border with Orange HSTs, but that went out the window and decided to alternate between black and orange! Notice the corners, I added a cornerstone of the white lightening fabric for each corner which allowed the opposite corners matched! Clay liked the black fabric to finish it off, so I used a 4” border of the black lightening fabric. I am absolutely thrilled with the outcome! Thx Clay – you always are there to be the 2nd pair of eyes on my work!

Here is a picture of the quilt pattern by Fat Quarter Shop

I am now caught up on projects again. It is time now to turn my attention to my applique projects. I am going to prepare Lilly Rosenberry, Lori Smith’s quilt, and In the Garden.

Lori Smiths Pattern 7616 and 7613, and

In The Garden by Dawn Heese

My next pieced quilt will be a Wedding Ring Quilt either using Shar Jorgenson’s templates, or Marti Michell’s. I am ’thinking’ about using some French General fabrics called Papillon. I

I will not start on the Wedding Ring quilt until I have prepared the applique work. My goal is to have that finished by this week-end. I will be prepping one block for LIlly, 4 blocks for In the Garden, and 6 blocks for Lori Smith’s project with Jaydee. For me it takes time to select fabric, copy the patterns, and trace the pattern on the backgrounds. It is a fun process!

I just head about the 14 students and 1 teacher were killed in Uvalde, Texas this afternoon.. Uvalde is about 90 miles west of San Antonio, Texas. We are located East of San Antonio. This country has absolutely gone NUTS! What would cause a man go to this school and kill the children – elementary children. I wonder if he is an Illegal……. I wonder if the President feels that it would worth his time to come down here to comfort the parents….. I just wonder who the President of the United States really is? Obama behind the scenes? Susan Rice who is in charge of Domestic Policy? It sure is not Joseph Biden – he doesn’t even know where he is! Maybe it is the Evil Hillary Clinton who put this Country in absolute chaos since she and Bubba moved to Washington DC in 1993! Think about it – The original Evil Drama Queen and I mean Evil!

May God welcome the precious children and their teacher into his arms in Heaven!

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

May 22, 2022

Slow Sunday Stitching – 22 May 2022

Greetings from a slightly cooler South Texas. It has been in the 90’s to 107’s since the first of May. This morning a nice Canadian cool front provided me with a 66 and nice North wind to do my power walk. Thank you Canada!

Life has been very quiet for Clay and I and I am LOVING IT! Problems are becoming less and less and I am feeling like used to. My projects are getting done and I have set some goals! I have begun to miss my needle turn applique so I will be preparing 3 applique projects this week. Lilly Rosenberry, In the Garden, and Lori Smith’s small block quilt with Jaydee. Check my Applique Project Plan here. I think I am the only person (other than Jaydee) that does the traditional Needle-turn applique without glue. I hope it is not going to be a lost art!

On to some hand work! I made the Bats and Boos quilt from the Fat Quarter Shop pattern and decided to do the Cross Stitch version. Being a newbie to Cross Stitch I was hoping there would be a video tutorial for it but I am not that lucky. It was a SAL and I started late (of course).

I had purchased some white Aida cloth when I first started Cross Stitch that had threads running through every 10 stitches and it was great for not losing one’s place. I had discussed the problem I was having with starting the project with my go to Gal Jaydee and she advised me to run a stitch on the cloth to make a grid. Thank you Jaydee!

I used a light light blue thread and a yellow stitch to mark the center.

Aida Cloth with thread marking every 10 holes.

This is how the pattern looks when starting. Part 1 was to start with the Bats but I was totally lost! The white circles on the top right hand side show where to start with the white thread but one can barely see them, so last night I marked the circles with a pencil and now I can see where I will start and where to cross stitch before I screw this up!

Now if I am blessed this is what I should end up with!

I leave you with this lovely memory of last Wednesday at the Gas Pump! We have 2 vehicles that require the higher grade! What used to cost about $20 is now $60. No wonder I have absolutely no desire to leave the 5 acres!

I am really looking forward to the Red Wave Coming in November!

Have a great Slow Stitching Sunday!

Hugs, Nanette

May 22, 2022May 22, 2022

HQAL – 22 May 2022

Greetings hand quilters! Just to let all know, I do not have any hand quilting projects going on at this time, but things can change down the road.

I am working on a new Cross Stitch pattern, applique, and just finished piecing a quilt top, but that does not count for HQAL.

So have a great week, enjoy your hand quilting and at least the weather is cooler this morning during my power walk. Please take the time to check out the others in our group to enjoy seeing their progress in HQAL projects.

Hugs, Nanette

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, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy and Tracy

May 17, 2022

To Do Tuesday

Greetings Greetings Greetings! I am so happy to be where I am now! First of all the 1 mile only (at a 20 minute pace), losing weight, and quilting most of the day! Hearing Aids are great and I got an exception on my GERD medication which saves a lot of $$$! What else could I want after the years of life not going well! It was like the old superstition of breaking a mirror and having 7 years of bad luck. I can at last say I am HAPPY and glad to be back with a bundle of energy (mostly attributed to sitting in the sun each day for good Vitamin D) Now I just need to get excited about firing up that long arm quilter and get some quilts quilted (maybe in June). Tammy (my long arm lady) and I have decided that August will be the month to get together and now I have 10 quilts ready for her. Stars Around the Garden will probably be custom quilted. I would love to enter it in a Quilt Show in 2023.

This last week I have been a busy bee and loving it. I have completed the 16 blocks for my new quilt and only have 7 blocks that will be 4 1/2” easy blocks to do. I have finished 2 and the remaining 7 will fill in the blanks on the Design Wall. Then doing the setting blocks and borders. Here is where I finished this evening. I plan on having this quilt top completed by next Tuesday!

The No Name Quilt – Maybe ”My Life’s Crossing in Texas”

I will be adding the smaller blocks, a blue 2 inch sashing to frame the blocks, and then a surprise final border. I am very pleased with my first EQ8 quilt! The blocks are 8” finished and the block really doesn’t look that difficult, but looks can be deceiving. Getting them correctly was tricky!

With all of my UFOs completed, I have decided to work on the following applique projects again. I miss having some applique to work on. There are 3 projects that I am going to start at the same time. Lilly Rosenberry Quilt will be the most difficult one and hopefully I can finish it within a year (providing I remain dedicated to doing so). Tazzie has been working on this quilt for the last year and has finished 10 blocks. I fell in love with the pattern and now I want to see if I love it enough to make 16 blocks with tons of circles! I have to really think on which colors to use. This quilt really speaks to Red and Greens – scrappy will not cut it. I am going to lean toward Batiks. No hurry in this decision though. I am going to work along with Tazzie. The blocks measure 18” so I will probably start off with just one block to start with.

The next applique project will be a Lori Smith quilt. I will be doing a mini-applique along with Jaydee Price from Sequim WA. Jaydee is a prolific quilter whom I met through The Applique Society over 12 years ago. We are working with Fit to Frame Quilts numbers 1713 and 1716. Jaydee and I are combining both patterns to make a quilt of 24 – 6” blocks. I have selected the fabrics for this one. It is a Reproduction fat quarter bundle called Rose. Jaydee and I have decided to do 3 blocks at a time. This project will start within the next 2 weeks.

Next in the list of new applique projects is In the Garden. I am going to start by preparing the 4 bunny blocks.

I am really leaning toward using one of my Le Beau Papillon fat quarter bundles for In the Garden. I THINK the orange for the carrots can blend in. Fabric selection is so much fun when starting a new project.

On the Cross Stitch project. I made the Bats and Boos Quilt, (notice I had the name reversed) but will be changing the border to one like Laura’s. At the time I did the border I did not have anymore background fabric, but was very lucky to find 3 more yards. So I will be removing the current border and may add either 1 or 2 more borders. I think it will look so much better!

I am now starting on Bats and Boos Cross Stitch project that will match my quilt. I ran into problems with starting the project (I am a beginner). When I first started with the counted Cross Stitch I purchased Aida cloth that had thread running through the cloth every 10 stitches, but for this project I purchased a Wichelt-Permin Aida Icelandic Grey Cloth. I quickly realized it was great when working on Aida Cloth that had the thread already in place every 10 stitches. I asked Jaydee about this and she said to just take regular thread, find the middle of the cloth and just do a running stitch every 10 stitches! I started with the light blue but will now try some yellow to see if it is better.

Aid Cloth for Bats and Boos Cross Stitch Pattern

Of course I want to start a new pieced quilt for daytime quilting. I made a Double Wedding Ring years ago and gave it away to a dear friend. This time it will remain with me. I have not selected fabrics for this quilt, but I have plenty of fabric selections in my stash. It may be a 2 color quilt, or a scrappy reproduction quilt. Batiks are my favorite go to, but it depends on what hits my fancy when I start audition the fabrics. Sharlene Jorgenson’s pattern and her templates are great to make this quilt. I may have Marti Michell’s templates also, will have to check my ruler stash from Marti. This one probably won’t be started until the first of June.

Yesterday morning I found this little darling baby deer by our back fence line. Clay found it this morning in the same place. We are worried about where the mother is. When I started my walk, I noticed 2 Doe’s and hopefully one of them is the baby’s Mother! Of course the baby ran back toward the high grass area and then I saw one of the Doe’s running over there. Fingers crossed!

Thank you for visiting and looking at goals for new projects. I am praying that I can enjoy the next 6 months working on them without any Unforeseen Requirements.

Have a great week and we in South Texas need to start praying and doing some rain dances!!

Hugs, Nanette

May 10, 2022

To Do Tuesdays 10 May 2022

Flash News! I have decided to come out of retirement and open a business that will take on any problems that you might have with Insurance Companies, Doctor Invoices, the US Postal Service in your town, Medicare, and any other business that takes up your day and away from quilting! APRIL FOOL’s. But believe you me, I should do that because I could make a lot of money running interference with idiots who are supposed to know their jobs!

WHEW! Do I ever feel better now that I have VENTED!!!!! I am certain that I am the only one with all the dumb UNFORESEEN REQUIREMENTS!! (not really – everyone has them!)

On a VERY positive note. Hearing Aids. I gave up on Tru Hearing and found my own hearing aid specialist who is absolutely wonderful. He switched me to Oticon hearing aids (a bit more expensive) but what a difference. They work on providing hearing aids for brain hearing and more sound intelligence which means they focus on Clarity – not Volume! My hearing is normal but the high pitches have a problem along with the Tinnitus. I am so happy about finding them. I am using a Demo set now and tomorrow I pick up mine. So that problem resolved.

OK now to the post for Tuesday – South Texas is so much fun to do a 7 AM walk! It was 76 degrees with Humidity of 91% and I did a mile in 19.54 minutes~. Whoopee Ding! I have had to cut down to the mile due to the cold weather (another April fools joke). But at 77 I am so very happy that I do have some good genes from the Chopin line! I am not the typical 77!

I was on a roll making a new quilt Saturday, but somehow Sunday, Monday, and Today were filled with “there will be no quilting today Nanette”. But I am starting to handle the interruptions in a very different way. I just handle the crap and go forward! Much easier on the stress level!

I have now finished 3 of the Moda Holiday Sew Along that Jocelyn got me started on! I just might finish this by Fall- hopefully sooner.

I ditched this Cross Stitch pattern – too many beginner errors in counting!

Ready to Start on Bats and Boos Cross Stitch to match my quilt (of which I will be changing the border). See the Bats and Boos Quilt post here. I like Laura’s border and think I will see if it will be OK if I copy one of her borders and then add more. I am not happy with the fabric I used for my border as to me it adds nothing to my quilt.

The new project is not going to be a very difficult one but when making about 500 HSTs at 1.5″ it can be. Marsh McCloskey uses the Bias HST method when making Feathered Stars and I used this method when making my Star of Chamblee (which is hanging in the “waiting for Tammy” to be quilted)! I believe that I changed my mind on my original idea of borders – click here to see the original post when I finally finished the quilt – Click here.

Here are the blocks that I will be working on to make my new unnamed quilt.

I started this project a couple of years ago when playing with my EQ8 software. There are so many HSTs that I decided to use the Bias HST method. The setting may look like this with different borders. I will decide after the blocks are completed. Then I will have to decide on a name for my project. I am using the chart that Marsha included in her Feathered Star book series to make the HSTs.

I cut a 12″ square from the blue and beige, pressed them right sides together and it yielded 44 HSTs. I made 2 or 3 bad cuts so rather than getting 50… should I say anymore? LOL After you have made the first cut, you will go back and cut the ones that you skipped – hope this makes sense! The rest of the squares will be 15″ as I should be able to yield 80 HSTs with a larger square!

15″ Square (Blue and Beige right sides together)

Cut Diagonally in the middle, the cut 2″ strips

Sew the blue and beige strip pieces together, then sew all together

Press seams open – Cut starting with the 2nd set

Let me know if it is clear as mud…. and maybe I can provide more information.

For now that is all I will be working on and hopefully it won’t take too long to make this quilt. My last post showed my Stars Around the Garden finished top and I forgot give a shout out to the Designer Judy Hale! I highly recommend her patterns. She is great!

We are enjoying all of Clay’s hard work around the place – the bird feeders are up and the Cardinals are back along with the Doves! For some reason all of the problem squirrels have disappeared – Hum!!! Our birds are fun to watch if only we can get through tomorrow and then for the rest of the month is all of ours to play with only 1 more eye check up next week and it is done for May!

Have a great week and enjoy stitching!

Hugs, Nanette

May 4, 2022

To-Do Tuesdays 3 May 2022

April is gone and here we are in May 2022 and before we know it 2023 will be here.
I have now finished the last UFO that I had started in 2020. I purposely left this quilt last because I wanted to make sure I could concentrate 100% on the quilt without interruptions, and to work on it at a slow pace to prevent issues. My hat is off to the Designer as the pattern directions and visuals were perfect! it took a lot of time in fabric selection, cutting 3 1/2” strips and squares for the borders.

The quilt measures 86” x 96”and no I will not quilt it. I am hoping my quilter will be able to add it to the other 9 that are waiting in the que for her.

The quilt is too large to hang it for the picture. This picture shows how large it is.

This picture is reduced by my iPhone and shows the entire quilt!

My iPhone allows me to take smaller pictures

For me scrappy is difficult, but I am very pleased with the effect that the middle row shows with my color placements in the border. If I were still entering Quilt Shows I know this one could be a winner!

I am not sure what I will start on next. I have so many quilts that I really would like to make, I just need to sit down and review all the patterns that I really might want to start on.

On the home front weather is hot and Humid so looking like it will be much of the same all summer. Clay has finished all the zero land scapping, which was very hard work. I miss working with Clay on our home projects, but not ready to go have back surgery #5! At 78 and with that new heart valve in 2020, he has really been working a lot and doing it the right way – early in the morning and stopping by noon. We decided to zero scape because of the extreme drought that we have here in South Texas.

I will be going to an Audiologist Thursday for ordering the 3rd pair of hearing aids Maybe this will be a charm! Last week I developed an eye issue. Clogged oil glands and was lucky to just send them pictures and they gave me an antibiotic to use for 2 weeks. It is getting better! Walking update! It is just so hot and humid with no breeze that I am giving in and will only do 20 minutes or until I get my mile in. This morning I did it in 21 minutes. I now wear shorts and halter top along with my blue wet towel to keep cool. Then I run and sit in front of our big fan on the Studio porch until I cool off. I would rather reduce the time and distance and still be able to do the walk as the 1.5 mile walk in 30 minutes in this horrible summer heat is just not an option at 77! I must be smart like Clay and remember I am not 50! DARN!

I have a dental appointment in June – called to get an estimate on the dental work – How about $8,000 to $9,000 for something that used to cost $4,500 to $5,000. I want to personally thank the Democrats and especially the Idiot in the WH! Inflation is so much fun and I really love it when I go fill up the vehicle’s with fuel! I am praying for the SCOTUS and that the person who leaked the document is caught and dis-barred from ever being an Attorney. The only place where we all felt that would never experience leaks on Opinions. I feel that R vs W should be overturned and turn it over to the States! OK – off my political box!!!!

Have a wonderful rest of the week and enjoy stitching!

Hugs, Nanette