June 2023 – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

The 2 pictures of my weather App tells a 1,000 words regarding our lovely weather here in South Texas for the last 10 days.

And there is no break in sight. I am glad I have the indoor exercise bike to replace my morning walk. This heat prevents me from my ability to walk, or even sit outside, but this morning I was able to sit outside for 25 minutes as the sun came up behind the trees. Felt so good. Of course I had the big fan going on me the whole time. Think we will end June 2023 with record heat. I am glad that this heat wave did not start until mid-June rather than April or May! Count those blessings!

I have removed all the buttons on Dresden Heaven quilt and made 116 circles for each Dresden Plate block. I had to take the quilt apart in 3 sections to make it easier to sew them on. I have 8 more circles to tack down and I will have finished Section 1.

I have added more blocks to the Double Hour Glass blocks. Today I will be working on more blocks – this is what I call “fun quilting” and color placement when doing the setting on this quilt will be fun!

On the knitting scene….. I started on my hat at least 5 times just casting on before I was happy with the start of the project. BUT after 20 rows I realized that I was using a larger needle that I should be, PLUS, I had added a stitch and it was going to cause a problem. So you know where the ended up – YUP – trash can! I was using a heather green and decided that I did not like the color, so I will start working on another color after I finish sewing on circles on Dresden Plates.

I also started thinking about a crochet afghan that I had started years ago and have decided to play with that along the way. I have so many things that I love to do, knitting, crochet, cross stitch, quilting, applique, and yes – hand quilting. So I need to buckle down and do one project at a time. Here is the list – NO GOAL NO TIMEFRAME NO STRESS LIST for evening work!

Finish Dresden Heaven Circles
Finish the Bunny Rabbit block (lots of big leaves) applique
Start knitting a hat
Work on the “ancient” afghan
Oh Yes – 9 more quilts that need the binding hand sewn

For my daytime fun I will be quilting. As I was enjoying my “bike ride” the other morning, I realized that there are at least 3 quilts that I can quilt on the long arm rather than hand quilt. So now long arm quilting is on back burner for daytime projects (more on this later). I really would like to get them quilted after I finish making the Double Hourglass blocks. After I quilt the 3 quilts, I will finish sewing the Churn Dash blocks and Double Hour Glass blocks into 2 quilt tops.

Lori sent me a picture of this coffee cup that she saw on Facebook. It predicts how I feel now in keeping stress out of my life! I am settling in and really enjoying doing whatever, whenever, rather than spending my life worrying about things out of my control or when I have to deal with idiots! I love this cup because I do not like black cats either – they are bad luck for me. This is the cynical Scorpio side of my humor!

Have a wonderful week-end an enjoy your favorite hobby!

Hugs

Nanette

© Nanette Chopin Cook at Doitrightquilter.com 2023. 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

I cannot tell you where this month has gone! I have been doing my walking, but it seemed like each day that I had planned to start working on something other unforeseen requirements popped up. Either I am slowing down, or maybe the crazy weather pattern caused me to be tired.. We had 4 days of Storms, now we are having 100+ with 90-95% humidity. For the next week or the rest of the summer, walking may be something in the past. I was thinking about getting an indoor treadmill, but changed my mind and am using the bike that we already have (indoor). So far I have worked out on the bike 2 days and it will be fine. So much better than jeopardizing my health with the heat wave that will probably be here the remainder of the summer!!! I can get a very good work out on this baby! In fact, I think I over did it this morning, so will not try to keep my heart rate up at 130 for 30 minutes! (DUH!)

On to what I have been doing. I am like Linda, I am suffering extreme burnout and an abundance of tension headaches from quilting, the vacation from hell (hospital), and a horrible quilt show! After pushing myself for over 6 months to get all UFO quilts quilted (between Rebecca and I) and bound, I am in the process of de-stressing and trying to enjoy each day as it comes. It will take me some time.

On the very positive side of life, I was recently advised of a knitting group here in LV on Thursdays and attended last Thursday. I must say that I have never joined in with a group of ladies (either quilting or knitting) that are wonderful women who have the love of knitting AND such sweet and caring individuals. I have not be doing a lot of knitting in the past 10 years, but would really like to learn more and become a better knitter. But am very happy to have a group of ladies to just visit with! Lucky ME!

On the quilting side of life, I must admit that I am still working on Dresden Plates to remove all buttons (rather than circles) that I sewed on last year in order to finish the quilt. I have about 116 circles to make and have now finished 26 circles. Here is where I am on this project Border and all buttons removed.

Here is what I have done so far (a little slow going). The buttons represent the colors that I need to make. I made a count of each color to give me a guide line. The stack of things on the long arm is a group of patterns and magazines I want to go through when deciding on which new project I will start. One of the quilts I would like to make is a Yo-Yo quilt that I started years ago and never finished! So many things to make, so little time!

I am struggling with getting started on my knitted cap that I want to make. I am not used to using the circular needles, PLUS it has been 20 years since I made my first cap so a lot has been forgotten. But it is nice to just do whatever one wants to do each day – no timelines, no schedules, etc.

Back to quilting! When we went to Rockport in late 2021 I purchased some fabric to make a Double Spool quilt. I made one for Georgia’s grandson but have never taken the time to play with the “different” fabric I purchased for the project. To get the effect of a scrappy quilt, I cut the strips lengthwise.

I have made 17 blocks so far, but taking a break to knit (LOL) if I ever get started!

Well, this has been what I have been up to since the end of May and beginning of June. I will be posting as I progress producing something! No goals being set here!

Have a blessed week and enjoy stitching. PS! We started watching Joe Pickett on Paramount. It was a 2021 series and is very interesting. It took 2 episodes for things to really start getting interested and we are glad we did. The series reminds us of Longmire, of which we loved!

Hugs

Nanette