November 2022 – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

November 27, 2022

HQAL and Slow Sunday Stitching – 27 November 2022

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had either cloudy sky’s or rain for the last 12 days and yesterday the sun came out. Great mood lifter. Today it will be a little warmer and the Sun is beaming down. Time for a 30 minute sitting for some natural Vitamin D!

I have been working on some finishes! I finished Boo’s and Bat’s and it is now in a nice frame sitting on my desk in the house!

Another project that really took some time was putting the binding on 4 King Size quilts. The hand stitching will start soon so I will have more hand stitching to show off soon. The largest was close to 108″ x 108″. Such fun! If you wish to go down memory land on this project click here and here!

I am working another block for Moda Christmas Stitch A Long – getting there! Can you find the place where I left off something! LOL

I also found some more UFO’s to play with – working on color ways! To see the background on this click here! Here is the one I selected to work on first before I start my Longarm quilting practice quilt! The block is 25 1/2″ unfinished. My idea is to make 3 more of these blocks, put it together as a lap quilt and get it quilted!

I made one block identical to the above block. BUT now I have to “reverse engineer” the next 2 blocks to make the design I want! Talk about brain draining! I have the pattern that I used to make the above block but not in reverse. Happy Happy Day! But it is all fun for a quilter to have a challenge! I have all the squares and HST’s cut and ready to be sewn together. I would have finished today, BUT my favorite neighbor need some assistance with some paperwork. I need to go into business! LOL

For now this is all I have to show. I want to finish the Moda SAL by New Year’s Eve. That way I can say it took me a year and a month to finish the blocks – fast stitcher I am! LOL

Well, have a great week. Grocery shopping on the calendar for Tuesday – probably be lucky to find all I want to purchase and will probably drop $500! Stocking up before there is nothing left since the Railroad will be on extended Striking leave! How sweet it is to be able to stop a country in it’s tracks and give us a real good Recession! Have not had one in a long time – time all the youngsters feel how it is to be in one!

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

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

November 22, 2022

To Do Tuesday – 22 November 2022

Fifty-nine years ago Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kenned in Dallas, Texas. I wonder how many people really remember this President who said, “Ask not what your Country can do for you, Ask what can you do for your Country”! I was 19 years old and remember exactly where I was when this happened. I worked at Texas Gold Stamp Redemption Center. (Younger generations are scratching their heads on this job) living in Corpus Christi, Texas. At the time I had bias against the President because he was a Catholic and my bias came from my Father who did not want a Catholic President. How life has changed. My Father was born in 1908, so he knew all about the Kennedy background. Anyway, I wanted to just post a little remembrance for him as the only one left in his family is his daughter Caroline.

Today I did my walk with a goal of not worrying how long it takes, but can I make the 1.5 mile. Mind over matter always helps so I made it and will now work on doing the 1.5 each day without laying off a day and then in a couple of weeks maybe I can work on the speed! Either way, I need to get off this lazy streak which is attributed to no sunny days, which equates to less Vitamin D for me!

The trip to Rockport is off due to the Flu Season hitting hard. I attribute this bad Flu season to all the 5 million who are illegally visiting our country! Remember they come from places where there are no vaccines of any type! Thank you Brandon. (oops broke my rule).

I finished 2 projects this last week! Boo’s and Bat’s and binding on 4 quilts (VERY LARGE QUILTS) check the details out here! I have the sweetest hubby – he ordered a frame for my B&B’s and framed it for me! Yea! Now to get the matching quilt quilted!

Boo’s and Bat’s November 2022 Cross Stitch

Now to a learning lesson from 2010. I entered a Storm At Sea Quilt in a quilt show. I had used 3 colors in the quilt, white, purple, and a light purple.

I received an Honorable Mention but alas, another Storm At Sea won the Blue Ribbon even though my quilt was well made it, was lacking in color and texture. Ah, the pitfalls in being a Traditional Quilter! This experience made me want to learn more about using color for movement and texture in my quilts. (Pre-2010, 2 or 3 color quilts were still very popular.) This was before the “real scrappy” look arrived along with the “Modern” (2013) quilts! If I wanted to stay competitive in quilt shows I had to take the time to work with the color wheel. In the meantime, machine applique and long arm quilting began to take hold in the quilting world, making it difficult for the Traditional Quilter to compete. Now it is all about technique, color, texture, and its affect on movement in the quilt, but mostly quilts are judged by long arm quilting. Hand quilting is now an ancient technique. When I started quilting, Traditional Quilting was being challenged by the Artisans who were moving into our little world, i.e., Kaffe Fassett! I think they have won!

In 2011, I signed up for an on-line class using color and texture in quilts. We were challenged to make 7 blocks using the Ives Color Wheel to practice using color placement for movement and texture. I never did anything with the blocks all these years other than to take them off the hanger and look at them trying to decide what to do with them.

This morning I set my goals for the rest of the year and to challenge myself on adding something different other than catching up on my long arm quilting. After my walk as I came into the Studio I noticed my 7 Color blocks hanging on the “to be quilted” rack. Again I took them to the design wall. Yes, this would be my challenges for the rest of the year – to make some 50″ x 50″ Lap Quilts out of them. Not all at once (tempting) but maybe one a week or every other week. It will challenge my skills in color and design. Here are the 7 Medallion Centers made in 2011 that will hopefully end up as comfortable lap quilts. They will be fun to play with and but not as intense as My Summertime Blues ended up being.

I have an idea of what to do with the above block – it will be another Surprise quilt! I am thinking that I will tackle this one first!

Goals for this coming week.

Work on my new Surprise quilt
Load a practice quilt on the long arm.
Work on Moda Xmas Stitch-A-Long Block 7 (I think)
MAYBE start working on binding one of the 4 quilts in waiting!

Menu for Thanksgiving will be Meatloaf with Potato Salad for Clay and I will have scalloped potatoes. Dessert? Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and be thankful for God’s Gift of Life!

© Nanette Chopin Cook at Doitrightquilter.com 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nanette Chopin Cook and Doitrightquilter.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.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

, Nanette

November 20, 2022

The Binding Story on a Slow Stitching Sunday 11/20/22

Pre winter has arrived in South Texas. 40’s the last couple of days with nice heavy sprinkles and more on the way. It would not bother me is the weather stayed this way for 6 months. I am enjoying walking in cooler weather also. I took today off just because I wanted to – how about that for just doing what I wanted to do! LOL!

This has been a very quiet week for both of us. We had made reservations for Rockport, Texas, but then we found out that the lovely Flu season is flaring up in the area, along with San Antonio area towns. So that trip has been cancelled, since last December we came home from Rockport with a horrible case of Bronchitis or the Flu – whichever it was not COVID. It took me over a month to get back on my feet and Clay had to sleep in the recliner for 2 weeks until they gave him some great cough medication to help. We decided it would not be worth the trip to get sick again.

I have finished my 2nd cross stitch project – Boo’s and Bat’s. I changed the border on the pattern and am very pleased with the outcome. I now have a quilt that matches my cross stitch project! Clay ordered a 10” frame for me today!

Now to move on to the Binding Story! In 2014 I sent 7 quilts to a Longarm Quilter that I had known for a few years. All I will say is that it did not work well for me. End of that part of the story. I made a stupid decision to let her sew the binding on my quilts using her long arm!!! I did not do any research on this technique and I have really paid for being so dumb thinking that it would work.

A few years back I started doing the handwork on one of the quilts only to find out that because I cut a 2” strip for my bindings and the fact that she sewed a 1/4” when attaching the binding, I had a serious problem. Bottom line – I left 4 of the quilts in the closet for 8 years!

So this was the week for me to correct the problem on all 4 quilts. The quilts were all King Size quilts and very hard to manage. and very heavy! The first step was to rip the existing binding off 3 of the quilts. I had not let her sew the binding on it the 4th one! Whew! As I was sewing the new binding onto the first one, I realized that the quilt was not squared after it was quilted. So each quilt had to be checked and trimmed before continuing on with making new binding for all 4 quilts. In total, I made close to 1800 inches of binding for all four quilts.

This afternoon I finished the last quilt and now I have plenty of hand work to do, which should keep me from becoming bored for at least a month! I have learned another lesson – the hard way.

Tomorrow I will designate it as a day to just enjoy my quilting room and prepare a practice quilt (muslin top and bottom) and load it on my long arm. It feels so good to have achieved my goal. I hope to have them all completed by the end of December, or sooner, as Rebecca will be sending me more either in late December of first of January. Believe you me, I am in no hurry for anymore quilts to make binding for! BREAK TIME!

Have a great week and enjoy quilting, or whatever you love to do.

Hugs, Nanette

November 16, 2022

To Do Tuesday – 16 November 2022!

It is a great day today – Temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s! Yea. It is nice to walk in cold weather rather than 78 degrees at 6:30 in the morning. Life is good, the Country sucks, but we are alive and well, and life goes on! That is all I have to say as I am now just going to get off the roller coaster and watch all the Swamp Creatures to continue to ruin our Country! Signing off Politics for awhile. Football, Gunsmoke, quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and embroidery is much better for getting a good night’s sleep.

OK, here is where I was Sunday as far as my projects are moving along. Today I am happy to report I am more than 1/2 way finished with Boo’s and Bats “frame” and have 1/2 of the binding sewn on one of the 4 quilts that I have to complete the binding on.

Yesterday I found left over fabric for Safe Haven that I can use if I need to recut binding for this quilt. The person who quilted the quilt did the binding and it was a disaster, so it needs to be ripped off and replaced. I am happy that I save all scraps from my quilts. Pays off!

This quilt was the first of 3 quilts done by that Quilter that I realized I had a problem with her sewing on the binding (I still had to hand sew the binding down). I cannot remember the pattern (too many years gone by). It is approximately 108″ x 108″ and I ripped the binding off about 3 months ago and now I have made over 420 inches of new binding (same brown color as in the quilt). Kathy mentioned to me about making Continuous Binding. I began to remember when that technique came around in the early 2000’s. After reviewing the YouTube and the technique I remember why I never pursued that! I cut 12 strips @ 2 and 1/4 inches, sewed them together diagonally, and pressed the strips in half. The entire process took about 1 and 1/2 hours. I was not interested in cutting strips with scissors. But I thank Kathy for the information to review from the past!

Folk Art Christmas (think this is the name) is another quilt binding to be corrected. I have to be extremely careful because there is no more fabric like it. The fabric line was from Robyn Pandolph from 2002 timeframe. This is another large quilt – probably about 400″ also.

This quilt is an Atkinson Design called Fire Escape. I used batiks for this quilt, and I was smart by not giving the quilter the binding for the quilt. I kept it so it won’t take long to complete this quilt.

My goals for the rest of the week will be to have all bindings on my 4 quilts and Boo’s and Bat’s completed. I would like to have the 4 remaining blocks prepared for In My Garden applique also.

Life around here has come back to sanity (neighbor’s problems solved in a very depressing way). I took down the sign that said, “If you have a problem, call Nanette”. I have learned the lesson to let everyone stand on their own two feet without my assistance!!!!!. Also I had spent the entire time since 4 November 2022 dealing with Apple and Verizon. That was what you call a Massive Stressor, but I have had 3 days to just relax and now I am on the happy road again!

Now for some fun news! We are heading for Rockport, Texas in a few weeks and will stay a week. I am looking forward to being at the Lighthouse on the 3rd floor balcony overlooking the Bay, watching the shrimp boats leaving in early morning and coming in at dusk! We have not been anywhere for a year now and we both are ready to go! I wish we had an acre of land with a small house on it in Rockport – we could go anytime we wanted! But too old for that one, so The Lighthouse it is! Isn’t this enticing?

Rockport at night from the Balcony!

The view of The Lighthouse from their private pier.

This is the new pier (about a mile long) at Fulton Beach. It is a great place for me to get my walking done and not for the faint of heart.

I hope that everyone has a great week and a productive time with your projects. Until next Tuesday.

Hugs, Nanette

November 13, 2022

Slow Sunday Stitching! 13 November 2022

Happy Sunday! The weather is my kind of weather! 38 this morning with 50% humidity and an entire week of the same – YIPPEE! I can say that I love it! I have been dealing with Verizon everyday this week after we upgraded our phones and my Apple Watch. My neighbor’s problem was resolved Wednesday evening. That was 2 weeks of drama. Life goes on.

Now to what I was able to work on the last 2 weeks (not much). I am almost finished with the border for Boo’s and Bat’s cross stitch! I will complete another orange row and finish with a black one and call it a day on this project!

Rebecca has all 12 quilts to quilt, I have 4 LARGE quilts to bind, and about 15 more for me to quilt. I am sticking with my decision to not make any new quilts the remainder of the year until I finish with all of the above! Kathy reminded me of how to make Continuous Bias Binding. I plan on looking up a video on YouTube today since I will have over 400 inches of binding for each of the King Size quilts that need binding. (Fun in my future). These are quilts that I made in my early days of quilting and they have been very patient waiting for their completion! Each of the quilts have a story, but that will come when I complete them!

This is Safe Haven by Lynette Jennings.

Folk Art Christmas

Fire Escape by Atkinson Designs

This is the no name quilt – as I cannot remember the pattern

I will continue to work on my Moda SAL Xmas embroidery project along with preparing 5 blocks remaining for In My Garden. If only my life would be free from drama and interruptions. I am realizing that I can control some things, but others I cannot not. Life is just like a roller coaster sometimes. I pray for peace and quiet all the time and only get drama. HUM. I remember when I prayed for patience and then God decided to test me on that one. Maybe I won’t pray for peace and quiet! LOL.

I am now going to head out for my morning walk. It is nice and cold so it will be enjoyable, and I can wait until 8:00 AM to do my walk.

Of course I cannot leave without my Election Response: I wish I had the money that was spent to just come away with the status quo at the end. I will accept and go on, but again those who think the Republicans do not stand for Democracy need to look up the meaning of the word in the dictionary. Abortion, I guess that was more important than Freedom, Inflation, oil, diesel, food, interest rates, being able to purchase a home and vehicle, etc. But it is what it is and I know that God has a plan for this Country and I firmly believe that we who love Democracy and the Free Will that God gave us will have to sit back and see how the Voters enjoy living in a 3rd World Country for the next 2 years. The youth of this country will reap the benefits as they grow up and realize that there is a big cruel world out there that they have voted for. They are Happy Campers now but that will change one day when their freedoms are gone. So for the next 2 years we will continue to have one of the most incompetent presidents EVER and the most incompetent group of cabinet members EVER.

Clay and I have had enough personal drama and man made drama in our day to day lives the past 2 years. We are secure in our lives and I thank God that we had parents who had great work ethics that was passed down to both of us. The next 2 years will be very difficult for many, so as the Bible says, You reap what you Sow!

Hugs, and have a wonderful week having fun!

Nanette

November 8, 2022

TO DO TUESDAY – 8 NOVEMBER 2022! RED DAY

I will not be posting, or taking the time to read or to comment on all the posts I am receive for a week. I have fixed Feedly and Follow.it fixed, but, as I knew would happen, and Verizon and Apple did not let me down I now have no phone service and my new watch is not working. So I have 2 days to clean up the mess. I am the one who seems to always have issues and it has happened again. Clay’s is working fine!

Today is the day we have been waiting for! So between trying to get my phone back on line, I will be watching the news and expect being up a late night!

I have tons of emails that I need to read (posts) and will do that later in the week.

But for this week and maybe next week, I will not have anything to show, so no posts. Now if a miracle happens for me I will have something to show, but I doubt it.

Have a wonderful week or so and will be in touch. We are fine, just working with neighbor on her legal issues, Verizon and Apple problems, and Nanette is worn out! I am also taking off walking until it really cools off down here in crappy South Texas hot weather – a cold front is due Friday!

Hugs,

Nanette

November 1, 2022

OMG – 31 October 2022

October 2022 is gone and now November is upon us! The following are my projects that are either in progress or completed in October. Life got in the way of me having more completed this month, but I have high hopes that I will do better this month!

I finished all the bunny blocks for In My Garden. For November I will prepare the remaining 5 blocks for applique.

I am working on Moda Christmas Stitch A Long and finished Block 6.

I prepared a practice small wall hanging before I start on my selected quilt. I have not hand quilted in a year or two. I selected Radiant Feather Star Block!

This the quilt I will be hand quilting. The goal is to get the Feathered Star completed and prepare A Quilter’s Dream by Linda Ballard.

I want to finish the border for my Boo’s and Bat’s cross stitch project (I changed the border from the original pattern) this month and should be finished shortly! This will match the quilt I made this year.

This is the Boo’s and Bat’s quilt completed earlier in the year. (I keep getting the name reversed). (old age). LOL

Next on the OMG is to decide on a setting for the Churn Dash SAL. I finished all the blocks in August and of course you can see I was side tracked by My Summertime Blues! I have 80 6″ blocks completed. I am thinking that I will make 2 quilts from them. (This was due in October – missed making the Flimsy!)

I did meet 2 goals for October. I finished My Surprise Quilt – now named My Summertime Blues. (I designed and pieced this top.) I shipped 12 quilts to Rebecca for her to quilt! It took extra time to prepare 4 more backs (what a job) that I either had not prepared, or that I changed the original backing fabric I had originally selected. Total weight of the 12 quilt tops and backs was 43 pounds.

Well, that is it for October 2022! Have a wonderful week! I am hoping for 100% peace and quiet after the Elections on 8 November 2022.

Hugs, Nanette

November 1, 2022

To Do Tuesday – 1 November 2022

Greetings from a still drought stricken LV! We have rain to the North and Southeast, but none here – Darn! It is cooler and that is nice though.

Yesterday was my Birthday and we decided that it would be better to cook my special day breakfast (which meant to go off the rails on the strict diet) at home so I would not overdo on the sodium and eat MSG. So off to HEB get the ingredients to make chalupas for brunch/lunch. They turned out so good, refried beans, REAL cheese, and avocado on a corn tortilla! If I would have stopped there I would probably have been better off, but on the way to the store we stopped for some Apple Fritters at the Donut Place. I ate half of one, well, OK almost all of it, and boy did I go on a sugar high! Supper was non-existent and today I will be back on the ‘No food diet’!

Clay and I always give one another cards on our birthdays and anniversaries, but lovely Chinese mess got us off track for awhile. But we are back on schedule and he gave me a great card! My present was sending 12 quilts to Rebecca for quilting! Tomorrow she and I will go over patterns that she will use to quilt them. Yippee!

I have not produced very much in the last week. I thought that starting last Wednesday life would be quiet. BUT NO, a phone call came in from my neighbor and I had the funniest feeling when I saw who was calling and boy was I correct on that one. Bottom line, sometimes is pays to know so much about Contract, Lawyers, the way Government works, and how to use technology to assist in resolving a problem. Sometimes it is better to be stupid! I feel for her, at age 72 her husband of 48 years decided to file for a divorce and marry my her sister! I thought that the one thing she asked me to do would be the end of it! Not my luck. For the last week a call every day. She hired an Attorney and paid a lot of money. She needs to call him! Thank you for letting me vent and today if a call comes through, Clay will run interference!

During this time I started losing emails, and emails going straight to the Trash bin, Follow.it was not coming through either. It took me 2 days to figure out what had happened. Somehow Follow.it along with some WordPress emails were blocked. Yesterday I finally figured that out I needed to clear the blocked section out and add Follow,it to safe emails. That stopped it and this morning things are working. Another issue was all the junk mail from political emails wanting more money! In Outlook.live I went to settings in “Subscriptions” and deleted about 100 that were listed! This morning there were only 3 Junk emails. So happiness is peace and quiet today!

The other day Jaydee sent me a picture of a quilt that she just finished. She will be hand quilting it. I really like it and thought you might enjoy seeing it also.

I started working on the border or Boo’s and Bat’s cross stitch which will match my Boo’s and Bat’s quilt. I finished (after tearing out one outside border that was on the wrong line) the black and working on the orange line. I believe today I will have a lot more done. I am going to add black and orange rows ending in either black or grey!

For the next week, I HOPE to start quilting on my Feathered Star and also work on 3 quilts that need to have the binding sewn down. These were quilts that were sent out to be quilted in 2013 but still waiting on me! I will take pictures of the quilts for next week. But mostly my goal is to unwind, relax, watch President Trump’ 4 rallies, football, and watch the election returns in 7 days! I will probably embroidery some, and finally I really want to get those 5 blocks for In My Garden.

Oops forgot – 2 new iPhones and a new Apple Watch are on the way by 4 November – so that means a day or so to get the phones changed out. Finger’s crossed that all goes quickly and with no problems.

Have a wonderful week stitching!

Hugs, Nanette