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 will welcome in October and hoping for a wet and cold winter here in South Texas. The mornings are becoming cooler and I am enjoying the morning walk, more and more. BUT I believe that when one is 31 days from turning 78 I had better put the pedal to the metal so that by the time I get to Halloween I am back to my 20 minute mile! I wonder what I will be able to do when I hit 80! Hum, I just want to continue with my daily walk and have fun quilting, knitting, embroidery, and cross stitching.
I have been working on My Surprise Quilt and In The Garden Bunny Rabbit blocks (there are 4 of them). To read the background story of My Surprise Quilt click here.
Here are the Rabbit Blocks completed this month. One more light brown bunny to applique!
I still have more borders to make for My Surprise Quilt, but I have made more progress on it this month. I will have some 1″ border strips and then 2 more block borders and one plain border to end the quilt. It will top out at 80″ x 80″ or 84″ x 84″. – It will be a surprise to all of us! LOL
For October my goals will be:
Finish My Surprise Quilt
Prepare the remaining 5 blocks for In My Garden
Start a hand quilting project (have a few tops that are waiting in line patiently)
Do more hand work, less piecing as it is time to catch up on those UFOs.
It has been awhile since I did a post! First may we all think of the people in Florida at this time. They choose to live in Florida on the waterfront, but Hurricane damage from this one will take them years to recover, and for that I feel for them. To lose everything would be a horrible experience, especially loss of life! I am praying that the loss of life is low. Governor DeSantis is a wonderful leader and his people will be assisted ASAP.
I am thrilled that our morning temperatures are in the mid-60’s now and I am walking every day. It will take me a month to get to my goal of doing my 20 minute mile, but close at a 22 minute mile and walking for 30 minutes! Keeps me sane in an insane world.
In case you are unaware, Bloglovin is belly up! I missed so may post in September and wanted to go back are read them all after I signed up with Feedly and Follow.It, but I was not willing to spend 8 hours on the computer to do so. In fact I have a new Computer rule, I will allow myself 1 hour (if needed) to go through my email each day! That is it. When the weather is cooler, I am going to add about 1 hour for reading on the Studio porch!
Here is what is going on with my quilting life. I have decided to send 10 quilts to Rebecca to quilt and send Stars in the Garden and My Surprise Quilt (when finished) later in October. I have been following her for years and she is a fantastic quilter. I know that when she quilts my quilts they will be perfect! Just look what she did with Janes Murmuration quilt! So now I will be doing a little clean up on my tops (making sure that I have stayed stitched around the entire tops on all quilts). I may have 5 that need that stay stitching, then I will document the sizes and provide pictures to Rebecca! I can hardly wait to get them boxed and mailed to her. She will be working on them in January 2023 which is fine with me, I am just elated that she will quilt them for me, as they are all my special quilts.
If you have been following me since I started designing a quilt I have called My Surprise Quilt (soon to have a final name) I only have a couple of borders left. I have never designed a quilt (I did design a table runner and wrote the instructions for a class I taught), even though I have all of the EQ Software of which I will use downsize block, or redraw a block in order to have the rotary cutting done for me! But in August I decided I would design a Medallion quilt. I did use EQ8 to do the Center Block for color placement, rotary cutting, and to print out the block for visual reminders for me!
I designed this quilt as I went along. There is no paper piecing in this quilt – all hand cut pieces – no Go machine! Math was critical when making this quilt, especially since I did not have a pattern, or a design in mind, I just knew it would be a Medallion quilt with different borders. I am enjoying the process of making a quilt without a pattern because I have not had ONE problem with my quilt. But it takes time, patience, and math when doing it the way I am making the quilt. I could call it Design a Quilt as You Go! LOL
This is what I started with in August. I had the Center and knew what I wanted for the last border. I started making the Double Hour Glass blocks and worked on the Medallion. I started on the last border first! I am sure that Quilt Designers no longer do it this way! LOL
So today – here is where I am on My Surprise Quilt, almost 2 months since I started this project. There will be more 1″ separating borders and then 2 full borders before adding a plain fabric (I think) at the end. The quilt will measure 80″ x 80″ or might grow to 84″ x 84″ by the time it is finished. It will depend on what the quilt requires.
My Surprise QuiltMy Surprise Quilt
Status on In The Garden Rabbit blocks. I now have 3 Rabbit blocks completed and will start on the last Rabbit block tonight. Clay wants me to hurry up and add the eyes.
In My Garden
After I have completed My Surprise Quilt, I am going to take a break from piecing and do some applique and cross stitch to unwind and relax. The greatest relaxation will come when Rebecca receives the quilts to quilt! Then I will have to get with the program and do some hand quilting and long arm quilting and maybe by 2023 I will have all done! What will I do? Of course, make more quilts. LOL
My Complaining Section: This is a new section of my Blog and I have some complaining to do because it took some time from my peaceful retirement life the last 2 weeks, so here goes! On 19 and 21 September 2022, the Biden Inflation World came to us (forget the fuel and food costs). First was the $300.00 a year increase in our vehicle insurance! How can a company justify slapping this type of increase on a customer with no claims for 30 years? They cannot and when the first words were INFLATION from our Agent, I went off on the Gentleman! Not acceptable! Then on the 21st I had 4 SMALL cavities filled, and when I ask Melody, ‘how much do I owe you today’? It was $1,200!!! Now my guy is great Prosthodontist, I was still in shock when I arrived home only to have other issues hit me (they were evidently forgettable)! The only good news that week of BIDEN INFLATION WORLD was the fact that I confirmed that our Dental Insurance will pay 60% of the $1,200. Of course we pay a lot of money for our Dental and our Full Secondary health insurance, (along with lovely Medicare) but it has kept us from going broke all these years.
Americans need a Gigantic Red Wave in November, Biden needs to retire as he was looking for a deceased Representative while speaking on National TV, and Harris will need to be impeached since she doesn’t know that the USA does not have a RELATIONSHIP with North Korea -IT IS SOUTH KOREA!!! OK, I have now vocalized what keeps people concerned as to where the Democrats are leading this Nation! I say it is into an Abyss. I apologize to no one for stating the truth!
My goals for the rest of the week will be to finish (if possible) to finish My Surprise Quilt, complete the Bunny Rabbit Block 4, and pack and ship my quilts to Rebecca! OOPS – forgot, I need to finish my 80 Churn Dash SAL – need to decide on a setting and get that one done! We shall see what happens.
Have a wonderful weekend, stay active, enjoy life, and enjoy stitching!
Evening all! It has been a great 3 days for me as I feel better than I did Monday through Thursday night! AND, I am walking each morning – hot or not. What caused my bad 4 days was 1 tsp of Ranch Dressing and 2 slices of special cheese that should not have made me sick, but it did. By Thursday I stayed in the Den in my Recliner all day and I never do thatI But I am back to normal and will continue to only eat my limited diet – no more cheating because the reactions are getting worse.
I have been working on Block 3=of In My Garden. This is the lighter Bunny and I have one more light Bunny after this one.
Mr Bunny
I finished another border on My Surprise quilt last week I will have another border finished tomorrow, just in time for To Do Tuesday!
I am a tired person tonight but is a good tired. Great morning walk, Sun time, and sewing until 5 pm. Bedtime is coming soon! The Cowboys won today and was glad. I love football and so happy it is football season.
Have a wonderful week and enjoy stitching something!
OK – this is the 3rd time I have started this post. Cabin Fever and Fibromylgia are visiting today. I had to retreat to the indoor bike again – too hot for me. I will try again when the mornings at 7AM are in the mid-60’s. I can tell, it is time for a weather change and a trip! OH WELL!
On to the status of two projects – In My Garden and My Surprise Quilt. So here we go.
In My Garden – I have finished 2 of the Bunny Blocks and now working on the other 2. I made 2 medium brown and 2 dark brown bunnies. Here are the 2 completed Bunnies.
I am working on Mr Light Bunny now.
Now for My Surprise Quilt! I am enjoying the process and will be adding 3 more borders and call it a finish! I added another blue 1” border and then made Friendship Stars for the next border. When I finish the next 1” border and the next “surprise” border you will see the vision I have for the quilt. I am pleased with my progress, but will take a day or two off before starting on the next border.
Well, this is all I have to report on. We watched the Dallas Cowgirls (oops Cowboys) and watched the mess all the way to the end. Typical Cowboy game! Stupid and they looked horrible! Tampa Bay ran all over them. I am concerned about Tom Brady because he looked horrible. He must be on his TB12 diet and it shows. He never ran the ball, just threw one touchdown and the other 12 points were Field Goals. At 45, I am thinking he is done and should not have come back this year. Hope he is not sick.
Nothing new here same ole’ same ole’ going on here. Back on the Bike just too hot to walk. I am very happy for Football to be in full swing now it will save me from the News! I had resorted to Humphrey Bogart Movies during the day and Gunsmoke at night.
I am sorry for William and Harry that they lost their beloved Grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. She was a wonderful Queen, the only one I knew during my life, and no one will ever replace her, but enough is enough as I have no desire to watch the 12 days of England’s Pomp and Circumstance when we have so many horrible things going on in our Country.
I have finished 2 Bunny Blocks for In My Garden. They are the Chocolate Bunnies. I have been using a larger applique needle and am pleased with my stitches. I use Thimble Lady needles for Applique, They are from Australia.
I have started on the other two bunnies which are of a Medium Light Brown.
Well it’s time to get back to the Dallas Cowboy game for now!
Greetings – Still summer weather – hot and humid now. More rain expected this week-end. We had a great rain event on Tuesday – Some heavy downpours and light rain for 6 hours – the most since October 2021!!! My walking is getting better – at least I go for 20 minutes and stop after I hit the mile mark. I will really have to push harder when the cooler weather gets here (someday) as it was a 23 minute mile! But today I walked the 20 minutes without stopping! YEA and at least I am not in the house riding a bike to nowhere!
The new chairs arrived Tuesday in the middle of the rain event! Then upon closer review of the chairs we discovered problems with the chairs. They are ordering new chairs that will be delivered IN THE BOX so they will not be damaged in shipment. Hopefully this will take place next week on Tuesday. We will be able to keep the damaged ones until the new chairs are delivered. We were very disappointed because the store we purchased them from is a high end Lazy Boy Store. But we had a great salesman and he is correcting the problem.
These are the things I worked on for August. I will be working on the next border this month.
My Surprise Quilt80 Churn Dash Blocks for Chookyblue’s SAL! Block 1 of In My Garden quiltWaiting to start on the border!
For September:
Work on My Surprise Quilt – Next Surprise Border.
Decisions on Settings for Churn Dash Blocks and if I make one large quilt or 2 smaller ones.
I have started on Block 2 of In My Garden and will continue on this month.
Work on the Border for Boo’s and Bat’s Cross Stitch.
NOTICE: I had subscribed to Bloglovin. I guess it is belly up because the link to it is BROKEN. So I went to Follow It and put in the Blogs that I love to follow and now I am getting emails when everyone posts. I had to be sure and go into the settings and select EMAILS and no news. I know I have lost a few that I followed, but eventually I will catch up.
Chopin - A Passionate Quilter From Texas 