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.
Happy Sunday – loving our weather! 50-60 in the morning (great weather to walk in at 7:00AM) and in the upper 70’s and low 80’s during the day! But I would still love cooler weather! (Notice the good mood before 11:30am).
(1:50 PM). Well, the crap keeps on going on! Now I am not getting my posts that I signed up for feedly and follow.it! This morning all the posts went to Trash and then said they did not download from the server. I absolutely give up! I will try to figure this out but now it has ruined my attitude.
Here is what I am working on today and the rest of the week. It is the cross stitch for Boo’s and Bat’s that match my quilt, same name. I did not like the border, so I will be doing black, orange rows and repeat it either 2 or 3 times, ending in black or grey. I started the border a few days ago only to realize that I had not skipped 20 lines on the top (black), so yesterday I ripped it out and re did it! Glad I caught it early. Typical. Maybe I should quit blogging. Maybe on 9 November I will be happier!
Since I have wasted 2 hours on technology, I am going to give up and work on my project and think of something else.
If I do not comment on the blogs that I follow it is because something has gone wrong with the IOS16 update and I have to go looking for the problem. Not today though!
My report for Tuesday was done Wednesday, but a neighbor needed some book work assistance and that stopped my progress of everything!
We are now 4 days away from November and 12 days away from RELIEF from the Idiots! October has brought us cooler weather, yet no rain! Walking has increased to 1.5 miles – yea, but still not at my 20 minute mile. Humm! Halloween is 5 days away and I will be celebrating being on this earth 78 years! I am wondering when I turn 80 if I will still be walking the 1.5 miles! I certainly hope so!
Last week I had set some goals.
Prepare the backing for My Summertime Blues. Done!
Pack and send 12 quilts to be mailed to Rebecca for quilting. Done
Prepare “A Quilter’s Dream” top for hand quilting. Open
Prepare the remaining 5 blocks (applique) for In My Garden. Open
Make a design decision for my Churn Dash SAL project (I will not meet the October deadline). Open
HAVE FUN! I will be working on Embroidery, Cross Stitch, Hand Quilting, knitting, long arm quilting and mostly just have some fun as the stress of designing and making the quilt began to be stressful! (Especially with Life getting in the way of my fun)! LOL. In Process!
OK back to yesterday (Tuesday). Monday Clay and packaged up the quilts going to Rebecca!
Moda Holiday Stitch-A-Long – I have finished 6 blocks and working on Block 7:
I am also working on the border for Boo’s and Bats cross stitch. I did not want to do the same border that they had on the pattern. I will be using black, grey, beige, and orange as a border. I will do either 2 rows of each color, or 3 rows of each color. I am not sure, but this won’t be done quickly!
I will be preparing 5 more blocks for In My Garden for applique. Once I start on the blocks, they are easy and should be finished in November also. But for next week I want to have the blocks prepared.
Next and last, I will be thinking of how I am going to do the setting for my Churn Dash blocks. I will target November as a completion date for this project. My blocks are 6” finished and made with 1930’s fabrics. I would love to have the project done by the 31st, but do not think it will be doable. LIFE!
Well, maybe I will have more accomplished next week, but right now I am just in my relaxed zone!
Have a wonderful week-end, and a fun Halloween – Everyone celebrates my Birthday – so lucky!
Happy Sunday! I finally finished My Summertime Blues! It was a great challenge but well worth it. I am now going to (try) to just catch up on hand work and long arm quilting now through New Years! Rebecca will be quilting 12 quilts for me I have 7 more to quilt and 7 more to hand quilt. Lots of work to finish and no more new tops until 2023!
I am now going to focus on hand quilting, needle turn applique, and embroidery projects I have not hand quilted in the last 2 years, so I will need to start with a practice piece. I decided to quilt the first Feathered Star block I made about 10 years ago. There will be 4 other stars in the corners and diagonal lines in the half blocks. The remaining will be done with Stitch in the Ditch.
Radiant Feathered StarRadiant Feathered Star
I have also been working on Moda Holiday Stitch Along ( very slowly) . I have finished 6 Blocks. I finished Block 6 this morning.
Moda Holiday Stitch A Long
The weather has been much better (cooler) so I am walking my 1.5 miles each morning. It really feels good and I have lost the 5 pounds the Indoor Bike caused during the heatwave this summer. So I am Happy as Life is peaceful and calm!
We are so happy that the Mid Term elections will be over in 16 days. I pray for a tidal wave of Red to stop the craziness. Today we found out that there is only 25 days of Diesel reserve. So look to see the food and fuel supply to be in short supply. And Brandon keeps draining our oil reserves to keep gas prices down for two more weeks! Check it out!
Good afternoon! Of course I am 2 days late in doing this post, as usual, but it is a good day – I have completed My Surprise Quilt, now to be known as My Summertime Blues! I started designing this quilt in early August, and now it is finished on 20 October 2022!!! I did not have a roadmap as to how this quilt would turn out, I just started with the Center Medallion and went from there making sure that things were going to be divisible equally throughout the quilt. I am thrilled with the outcome, but I will end with saying, I will probably never do this again, well maybe in 2023.
When I started this project, this is where I thought the quilt would end, but as I kept adding borders and got to the last border, I realized that the Double Hour Glass blocks were not going to work! So I will leave the Double Hour Glass blocks (and more fabric already cut out and more available) for another project – maybe in 2023!
The last pieced border was made up of 248 Flying Geese. I was so glad that years ago I purchased Eleanor Burns Flying Geese Rulers! Yes it took me about 24 hours of quilting time to make them, but it would have taken me a many more hours to make the any other way! Quilt Designer’s now design their quilts/patterns using Electric Quilt or other Quilting software. I just used pencil and paper and drew it as I went along – making sure that the Mathematics would work out with each new border. After Rebecca has all my quilts done, I will have about 6 or more quilts that I will be able to enter into some Quilt Shows. It has been 8 years since I have shown any of my quilts.
I present My Summertime Blues Quilt designed and sewn by Nanette Chopin Cook:
My Summertime Blues
My goals for the rest of the week (and beyond) consist of the following:
Prepare the backing for My Summertime Blues.
Pack and send 12 quilts to be mailed to Rebecca for quilting.
Prepare “A Quilter’s Dream” top for hand quilting.
Prepare the remaining 5 blocks (applique) for In My Garden
Make a design decision for my Churn Dash SAL project (I will not meet the October deadline)
HAVE FUN! I will be working on Embroidery, Cross Stitch, Hand Quilting, and mostly just have some fun as the stress of designing and making the quilt can be stressful! (Especially with Life getting in the way of my fun)! LOL
Have a wonder rest of the week and week-end. Enjoy Stitching
Great Sunday morning. Things on the 5 acres have been so nice a quiet. I am working on the next border for My Surprise Quilt. I am hoping to be able to finish it before Tuesday. Our weather was warm and humid, but I walked a mile doing it in 21 minutes. Tonight we get a cool front, heck it may even be in the high 40’s in the morning one day this week. I will still wear my shorts! (OK will let you know if I do!).
I still have not started working on my quilt that I want to hand quilt. Maybe later this week. Life got in my way for the last week!
I have not had time to do a lot of hand work like I thought I would, but I have finished the leaves on this block for Moda Holiday Sew Along (I get the stupid name mixed up all the time so I gave it a new name for today! LOL
Well, I must run now as I am trying to finish up 268 blocks for my next border on My Surprise quilt – of course the next border will be a surprise!
Have a great week! I am consolidating the Hearing Aid place, HEB, and Walmart on Tuesday, that way I will not have to give up 2 days! May as well do it all in one day and really wear myself out!
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
I have NO idea where my week has gone other than just disappearing. I have absolutely nothing accomplished other than this block I worked on in the evenings (not the last 2 nights) on my MODA Christmas SAL embroidery. How depressing!
Just for SnG’s I will let you in on the fun things of the week! We know that last week-end was a non quilting week-end, but I never expected Monday and Tuesday happenings that took me away from fun! I knew Wednesday would be a questionable day and it was. After spending 1 and 1/2 hours at the Hearing Aid place for an adjustment for the new hearing loss, I was blessed (cursed) to be given a Hearing Instrument Specialist (HIS) IN TRAINING and my Audiologist would pop in and out (she was training the young lady). I should – SHOULD have questioned this, but I did not. Long story short, I kept telling them I could not hear the white noise that covers up the Tinnitus noise. Finally we left, but on the way home I clicked on a Podcast and the volume was so low I could barely hear it. Then about 2 PM when Wanda calls, I definitely knew I had a problem. I could not hear her very well. (Keep in mind on Wednesday I did a 100 mile round trip to the same are for the Mamo and Ear checkup). Thursday was another 100 mile round trip, only to find out that the lovely idiot trainee and the Audiologist screwed me by not doing the setting for the volume in the hearing aid software to match the iPhone!
I cannot describe my reaction when I was told that I would have to go back to clean up their mess. DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO DO THEIR JOB ANYMORE. The only good thing is that I will now go back to the Hearing Life office that is a 50 mile round trip! BUT I have to wait until Tuesday! Yes I am just thrilled to be able to get in the car and waste another day of my life due to idiots!
Now to provide information to all. We have used PayPal since 2009. When they put out the new policy last week stating that users would be fined $2,500.00 if they stated misinformation, etc. I decided to just wait a few days to see the fall out. Late Thursday afternoon (after the hearing aid “c”, I took that problem on. I called PayPal and had an interesting conversation with a Customer Representative and told them that a large company like PayPal would not have ‘MADE A MISTAKE’. I asked who the new CEO was and politely told them what I thought about their “mistake”. I then took the time to look the CEO up on the Internet – if interested check him out here. HE IS A WOKE LIBERAL and trying to control Americans from speaking their Opinions. Reading his bio was all I needed to realize that his “policy change” was not a “mistake”. We realized that we could have control over SOMETHING in our lives and decided to cancel our accounts with PayPal. I had to go in and delete cards, delete all monthly payments, download data, and then delete the account. Clay’s account to delete was easier. One would think that it would only take a few minutes – no it was 11:00 PM when I completed that chore. Friday I had to go on-line to each business that draws a payment from PayPal and provide a payment method change. WHOOPEE fun and games.
Then we discussed upgrading our iPhones and discovered that Verizon was offering $800.00 off 14 Pro Max iPhones. WOW knocking off $800 of an iPhone upgrade was a great deal. So we spent 2 hours working on that – checking out Verizon and Apple for the best deal. Verizon won because they will eventake damaged phones as a trade in. The catch is that you sign a contract for 3 years with the $800 credit ($22.00 a month for each phone) is spread out over the 3 years. We prefer to pay cash, but they would not offer the $800 unless you did the 3 year payout. The light bulb went off and I realized 2 things. One – this helps individuals who cannot afford to pay cash, much less being able to afford to do an upgrade, locks in business for Verizon for 3 years, and keeps the sticker shock down. Now as a side note, it did not bother us because we have been with Verizon 21 years and the only cell service we can get in our area.
We asked the Verizon Representative to call us back about 3PM to close the deal. By 4:30 no phone call (what did I expect anyway). I placed another call to Verizon and by 6:00PM we headed into the house for late supper, but happy with our deal. For my birthday I upgraded my watch (they offered $180 off, but I have some knicks on the watch face so did not qualify). My watch is covered under the extended warranty so I will take it to the Verizon Store and was advised I would be given a new watch within 2 weeks. Clay will get my Series 6 as an upgrade for him. He does not use the watch as much as I do. So all in all we did well with this acquisition.
It is looking like life will settle down, but I am totally exhausted mentally and physically from the fun and games of this week. Today I am determined to continue on with the 3 remaining sides of the next border for MSQ! Let’s hope the phone doesn’t ring and not issues arise unexpectedly!
Happiness will be in 24 days! Looking forward to a Red Wave Plus Plus to hit the Liberal Democrats. At least it could stop the craziness going on in our Country!
Have a wonderful week-end. I am planning on watching nothing but Gunsmoke, Dateline, and Football tomorrow! Thx for listening if you made it this far!
Positive – Walking doing great! Negative – HOT today with a cool off coming next week! More Negative – Monday and Tuesday were not very productive – too many problems with “things”. Today was a double duty to Mamogram Day and had to go for my 6th month ear check up for Menieres. Received a little bad news on that front. The right ear is not doing real well in the low pitches – that is caused by the Meniere’s. High pitch loss is not attributable to Menieres. BLESSING. I have an appointment with my hearing aid Audiologist at 10:00 AM tomorrow (could not believe I was able to get the appointment this soon) for hearing aid adjustments for changes in my hearing. But the last 4 days took a lot out of my quilting time and now another trip to SA tomorrow. I think that I will be able to get some work accomplished on the border tomorrow. After you see the finished border, you will think I am a quilting masochist! You are right!
OK Here were my goals for the last week! (What a joke)
Finish My Surprise Quilt. Only have 2 each 1” borders put on and 1 side of the next border done.
Prepare the remaining 5 blocks for In My Garden. What – Did I think I would have 5 days of peace and quiet? Not done
Start a hand quilting project (have a few tops that are waiting in line patiently) – April Fools
Do more hand work, less piecing as it is time to catch up on those UFOs. Ha!
Send 12 quilts to Rebecca for quilting. Waiting on Number 1 goal to be finished
FINALLY get back to my long arm and finish up the remainder of quilt tops. Maybe in a week or so – No progress
Complete my Churn Dash SAL project – I need to put the blocks together in a setting! No progress.
So I am going to carry the above “wishes” over to next Tuesday. I have finished all 4 bunnies so here they are!
Monday and Tuesday evening I was in the mood to embroidery. So I am working on another block for my Moda Xmas SAL!
Well, that is all I have to report! I am hoping now that the rest of the year is free from unforeseen requirements so I can meet some or all of the goals I have set for myself!
Happy Sunday. 30 Days to go! Life has been good and peaceful here on our 5 Acres! It is only when we have to go out in the BIG BAD world that reality hits. So we are healthy and wise at this time. Big Blessings!
I am excited because I have finished the 4 Bunny Rabbit blocks for Dawn Heese’s In My Garden and down to 2 block borders on My Surprise Quilt.
Here are my Bunny Rabbits.
Corner Blocks for In My Garden
Here is the latest picture of My Surprise Quilt
My Surprise Quilt. 2 more Block Borders to go!
I hope everyone is having an enjoyable Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy today. Have a wonderful week is Stitching.
Happy Wednesday (5 October 2022), OK I am a day late, but I have a good excuse I have been busy getting things finished for quilting, The weather is very very pleasant. Low 60’s in the mornings for my morning walk, and in the low 90’s but mostly in the 80’s. We have been besieged with the little butterflies that drive us nuts. They mess up your car and for some reason they are heavy here on the place! Now after complaining about that, what is great is that we have not had them for the last 3 years. I believe that this heavy migration will mean a cold, wet and damp winter. OH JOY for me! If the predictions are correct some will be happy, some will be sad, just like the change back to regular time! Only 30 more days and we will get our hour back!
I was hoping to have My Surprise Quilt finished by now, but that did not happen as I needed to stop working on it and finish the backs for the quilts that will be going to Rebecca in the next week. I will be sending 12 of my quilts.
Ready to be quilted!
This will leave me 7 Applique quilts to hand quilt, 1 pieced quilt to hand quilt (see below) and 13 quilts to quilt on my long arm! They are my smaller quilts.
More Work!
I would like to get my feathered star hand quilted and the RW&B will be done on the Domestic or on the long arm.
A couple more to do!A Linda Ballard Quilt – to be hand quilted
I spent 3 days getting backs (VERY LARGE) ready for Rebecca. I changed the back for York Lodge to some Grunge fabric that was 108” x 108”. I am not sure which I dislike more, dealing with ironing the 108” backing which took be 2 hours to press and square, or the 3 1/2 hours spent on the last 2 backings which were pieced!
The backing for Stars In the Garden had to be pieced as I was just not going to purchase anymore fabric! I believe it will be just fine as I used 112” of a blue turquoise fabric on the sides with 1 strip down the middle and a lighter batik that blended well. It too me over 3 1/2 hours to do that one – lots and lots of measuring, squaring, sewing and pressing!
Then I changed the backing for Globetrotting to the same fabric on the border.
When it came to Sentimental Stitches backing, that one took about 4 hours to get together. First I had to decide on which fabric to use for the backing. Here were the 2 choices. (Fabric from Laundry Basket Quilts called Hope Chest).
The Loser!The Winner
When I purchased the fabric I bought a large amount of “The Loser” that I thought would look good for the back. Of course when I received it I realized that I would have issues with Migraines due to the busy pattern, but I was going to be open to using it. The “Winner” fabric really blended in with the flower strips in the quilt top.
In order to provide Rebecca 10 extra inches all around the quilt backing I had to use Michael Millers Crystal (Reproduction fabric used in the quilt top) as the middle piece and the “Winner” fabric on the sides, BUT since I always chose to do things the hard way, I had to add about 25 inches on each outside panel. Talk about fun, but I am so very pleased with myself I just had to show off my hard work.
Matched the pattern – Can you see the seam?
This is how it looked on the wrong side.
Seam line on back side
An up close picture of the seamline.
Was I ever happy with this! Perfect match on both pieces!
It is a relief to have all backings completed. This next week I will be finishing up on My Surprise Quilt, and get the backing prepared for Rebecca. When this is complete the quilts will be mailed and I will have a big burden off my shoulders and transferred to Rebecca!
I have made one resolution for the remainder of the year! I am now going to stop making quilt tops this year. The only one that needs to be put in a setting are the Churn Dash blocks that I made with Chookyblue’s SAL. That needs to be done before the end of October! THEN, I am going to be working on hand quilting, applique, embroidery, cross stitch and quilt the 13 remaining quilt tops on my long arm. I figure that I can get up each hour and walk around and still get my steps in, but yet enjoy catching up on all hand work and quilting by New Year’s Eve. Anyone taking a bet on this goal? It is really easy, just need to get with the program.
These are the goals I have set for myself for October. We shall see what happens.
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.
FINALLY get back to my long arm and finish up the remainder of quilt tops.
Complete my Churn Dash SAL project – I need to put the blocks together in a setting
COMPLAINT SECTION: It has been very quiet here on the place, a few idiots to deal with when placing an order through Amazon. Inflation complaints, my health insurance is going up $52.00 a month, BUT MEDICARE is going DOWN to $165.00 – WOW a $5.00 reduction. Only 33 days to find out if our Country will survive the idiots running the country and 26 days until I become a year older, but who is counting. Pray for the Hurricane victims and that Harris is put in a closet for 2 years – after making the statement that relief funds should be based on EQUITY,….. OK no more of her. OH yes – NEWS FLASH! OPEC is going to reduce their oil sells by 2 million barrels a day… Anyone for a bicycle? How about that new electric car for $75K – But there won’t be enough electricity to run it, so the Bicycle is sounding great! Sorry, but guess I did have some complaints, but the good news for all retirees is that the COLA will be close to 9%, but if the Government has any money left from the 31 TRILLION Debt we now have. I am off to play for the day!
Have a wonderful week and enjoy stitching and hopefully cooler weather for all.
Chopin - A Passionate Quilter From Texas 