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.
Greetings! July 2023 is now in the rear view mirror (effective tomorrow). The days are getting shorter, which I love, but August is looking like a repeat of June and July. I have adjusted but still do not like this type of heat day after day!
I have finished quilting Dresden Heaven and will sew the binding on today. I will be using the same dark purple as the 1” border. I will hand bind the binding, but not sure if it will go with the stack from earlier in the year or work on it this week. I am happy that I am keeping the goal of when I finish making a quilt top that I immediately quilt and bind it! Then I can say it is FINISHED!
I will be working on ‘In the Garden’ bunny top this afternoon while watching some movies, or maybe Perry Mason. Either way, I will be taking it slow and easy!
Next project will be to work on my Churn Dash and Hourglass blocks. I stopped working on the Hourglass blocks because I could not decide on how to set them although this may work. I want to do the setting where I can have a secondary pattern. This is not it because I see some blocks that are not set correctly! OOPS!
Same with the Churn Dash blocks! I used 1930 fabrics and I prefer to put them on point! I made 80 blocks so maybe I will get 2 tops from all the blocks if I put them on point! Something to ponder on.
Starting in September I will be looking for new challenges to work on. Maybe the weather will be cooler and I will find more creativity.
The weather is fine here in the new Desert Southwest! We are running a competitive “who can get the highest temperatures” game with the rest of the lower West States and maybe we are winning or at least in 2nd place. I am really enjoying walking 10 minutes each morning and 20 on the indoor bike, the my Vitamin D Sunlamp for 15 minutes and after that – the day is mine.
After 38 years of non-stop working this is really the first time that I can recall that once my exercise routine is one that I have the remainder of the day to do whatever I want to do, and that has been happening for the last week or so. It is wonderful to not have anything planned – just do whatever. So I have been doing just that.
I think that the weather has been a factor in my desire to achieve great excitement in wanting to starting a new project, along with the promise to myself to not start another quilt top until Dresden is quilted. Being stuck indoors all the time is really getting to be old. Somedays I feel so bored and closed in – but then I always have hobbies to work on and that feeling goes away quickly!
I had a pinched nerve in my neck (mostly on the left side where the CTS is the worse) after I did the last quilt and then basted 2 more quilts for hand quilting and loaded Dresden Heaven on the long arm. I will be quilting on it this afternoon, but will not push myself to finish it within a day or two unless I want to! How about that for “a no-stress life”! LOL
Changing from a 100% stressed life to a nice de-stressed life is something everyone should think about. It is a freeing feeling. WARNING: Do not go grocery shopping though as it is a VERY STRESSFUL ADVENTURE.
As for new projects, I am certain when the weather cools off and I can spend more time outdoors with my exercise and just enjoying getting some sun, I will be more excited about quilting again. For the time being doing whatever is so much fun.
I have finished A Merry Christmas to You quilt! I love this quilt.
To relax even more, I have been working on In My Garden (Dawn Heese pattern)(Bunny) quilt blocks. I have been hand appliquéing 3 of the 5 remaining blocks with leaves and stems and as soon as the other do have been completed, I will add the flowers on the 5 blocks and then it will be sewn together. I have completed the 4 bunny blocks. The border is a scalloped border. Maybe by the end of August she will become a flimsy!
Last month I went on-line shopping at Hancocks of Paducah and pre-ordered seven yards (price break at $9.98 a yard) of Pam Buda’s latest fabric line “Lilly’s Locket”. I will be making a quilt with this fabric and looking forward to it because I love the reproduction fabrics. My order has been backordered for the last 2 months and now not due in until October. I wanted to make sure that I would really like the fabric so I ordered 2 yards from the Fat Quarter Shop. It arrived Wednesday and it is beautiful fabric. Soft and not overly dyed and will be great to work with.
At the time I ordered the seven yards, I found some pieces of Asian fabric along with 2 panels that were on sale! One just cannot pass up $5.99 a yard or the panels. I have a great stash of Asian fabrics to help this future project along.
ON THE POLITICAL SCENE – I was so overjoyed on Wednesday when BHB plea deal fell through. This morning I read some of the Court Transcript from the hearing and it was great! Finally a Judge who is intelligent and made a great decision to stop this plea that would have given BHB 100% immunity for any other charges EVER! He even admitted taking money from China to the Judge! I see another charge coming down in his future for dealing with foreign countries and not reporting it to the US State Department. It is the first of many miracles that I have been hoping for. There have been some great hearings going on in Washington and we have been watching them also. Of course you have to be a Conservative Republican to enjoy seeing and hearing the truth finally come out and I love those two IRS Whistleblowers! Great Patriots. It is very difficult to do what they did. Been there done that one too in my career – no fun! So I hope for the best for both of them and the FBI agents who are participating in letting the American public see and hear what is really going on with our failed Government at this time. I just had to put a political note in today especially since it is really educating the public on the hateful things going on in DC!
I leave you with blessings until the next time I feel the need to reach out to all and let you know what I have been up to!
No weather update as the forecast behind and future is 105++++. BUT, I have relented and now we head for the bed at 9:30 and set the alarm for 6:00 AM! This allows me to walk before 7 AM for 10 minutes (half a mile). The I head in to the nice air conditioning to finish up with 20 minutes on the lovely indoor bike (which I am really loving now). I have become accustomed to the heat now (of course the air is set for 73 so who is warm. AND I have come back 100% from the marathon “clear up all UFO’s” the last year or so.
I am being true to my promise to quilt tops as soon as I finish them. I have been busy quilting a my A Merry Christmas to You Dresden quilt completed in 2019 and set aside to be hand quilted. But changed my mind.
A Merry Christmas To You 2019 Flimsy
I was going to quilt it on my D1, and baste it on the longarm. Well, that was a mess because I mis-calculated the sides. So on Friday I started looking for fabric and found this great fabric in my stash with Santa saying “Have a Merry Christmas”! The green matched the green in the backing perfectly. Changed plans again and quilted it on the long arm! Will be working on the binding in the evenings.
Next up was to prepare the Sierra Vista BOM that for hand quilting. I marked the quilt on Sunday, prepared the backing on Monday and loaded the quilt for basting on the longarm. Yesterday I basted the quilt. This is the first time I have basted a quilt on the longarm and of course there is a learning curve, but it worked at an acceptable level. This is the before picture. She is ready for hand quilting!
I had just enough fabric that was used for the background blocks to use for the backing, adding the last of a piece of fabric with butterflies from 2005! I loved this fabric that I used in a quilt for my second Mom in 2006. She took it to heaven with her as I finished the quilt on the day she passed. It was hand quilted.
Isn’t this the most beautiful fabric? It was called “Flights of Fancy by Martha Young for P&B Textiles 100% Cotton @ 2004”. This was how our fabric was made before the changes in where our fabric is now made not so heavily dyed and rough!
Today I will be marking a Linda Ballard quilt, A Quilter’s Dream for hand quilting. I will be using the stencils below in the larger areas (4) and on the corners. Not sure what I will use with the HST’s and QST’s but it will be more of a mild background quilting.
I finished Dresden Heaven and prepared the back on Monday. After I baste one more quilt for hand quilting I will load DH and get that one quilted. I do not plan on doing it in one day but hopefully it will be quilted by next week. The longarm plays hell with my back, and I am under no pressure to finish it quickly, besides I have other things I can play with while relaxing between quilting it.
Here is the backing that I will use. It is fabric that I have had since 2005 and blends so well with he front of the quilt. The blue is Moda Marble from 1997 by Patrick Lose who did all Moda Marbles until they changed to the horrible fabric they now sell. I am so happy that I stocked up on all MM’s made by Patrick. The quilt is 70” x 70” but the back is 80”x80” UGH!
Last week I listed my Grace Z-44 hand quilting frame for sale along with a 24” Grace hoop. Hope they go because I have ordered a better option for me as I am having issues with left hand carpal tunnel and on the right hand my thumb joint is developing arthritis – FUN! This is what ordered. It will be delivered next week~ YEA! Here is a link to the web site and you can purchase it on Amazon with a discount.
Well, this has been a long post and thank you if you made it to here! LOL. If you are wondering about the Hourglass quilt blocks, they are neatly stacked in the “waiting” drawer. The setting idea I had would not work and I wanted to move on to quilting for awhile. More later on Hourglass quilt top and Churndash quilt top in the future.
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, Connie, and Cathie.
The weather is still lovely here in the new Desert South – we had a minor break (upper 90’s) and now back to the 100++ temperatures. I gave up walking in the sauna bath that we are experiencing and am loving the indoor bike! I am getting used to the heat and now I spend 15 minutes with my Vitamin D lamp each morning after my 30 minute bike ride to nowhere along with my upper torso stretches. Great life!
Life was getting back to normal until Refuel Convenience Store (where we USED to purchase our fuel) Skimmers bit me on the 25th of June 2023. It was such fun cleaning up the mess that they caused me 8 days of hell. But I am on top of the problem now and will never trade with Refuel again! AND Lucky us – we have a brand new Convenience Store that just opened in LV called The Texan Store. It is very similar to a Buc-ees. We will be visiting them for our next fill up. Georgia told me that she loves it and we both hope they put Refuel out of business! This would make me happy to serve as pay back for them not watching their pumps and they will also give HEB Grocery Store some competition. Big win for our little town of 1200 (which does not include the 12,000 or more of the rural population of LV!
One other issues – for some reason I am not receiving emails (for new posts) from the blogs I am signed up with and I cannot figure it out. Of course on a Friday I cannot get any support from WordPress, so I will work on that next week. I wish the blog sites would just leave things alone when things are going smoothly. Sigh!
On to what I have been doing besides cleaning up messes caused by others. Well, I do not believe I will be going to the knitting group – no further comment on this one. But I am working on a knitted hat, so I will just watch some videos that I have and knitting video’s on YouTube for guidance on my projects.
How about some positive news!!! Well, here goes. I have finished removing the 116 buttons that I had sewn on the Dresden Heaven quilt instead of circles and have now replaced them with 116 circles – was that fun – you bet you bottom dollar it was! Sitting all day long is always fun (not really). And today I finished her up with a new border which I like very much. It really made a difference in this quilt and I am very pleased with me not just letting it sit there in the Library with all those buttons and no way to get it quilted!
This is how the quilt top looked before the remake. Can you tell I was in the mood to just finish it in January 2022? I should have called it the Button Quilt!
And here how she looks today!
I had to remove the first border, then take the quilt apart into 3 sections in order to sew those little lovely circles on. Lesson learned on this one is “do not take shortcuts” to finish a quilt top.
I am planning on to firing up the long arm next week (or maybe Sunday) and start quilting Dresden Heaven and have decided that 3 of the 10 quilts earmarked for hand quilting will be quilted on the long arm but the remaining 7 will require hand quilting. I would love all 4 of them quilted by the end of next week. We shall see, no stress dates here.
Additionally, I have been working my Double Hourglass blocks. They are so easy and a lot of fun to make. Maybe I will call it the No Brainer Hourglass quilt! This is the fabric I am using. I cut the strips length of fabric rather than width of the fabric to get the movement of color that I wanted.
I have made 55 blocks so far with more to come.
I am going to make “blocks” when I put the top together (if it works out like I think it will). Here is an example
Now that Dresdens Heaven is ready for quilting, I am back to my needle turn applique in the evening. I am working on In My Garden bunny quilt by Dawn Heese. I have the bunny blocks completed and now working on the middle block and the 4 other blocks. I like the quilt on the right hand side also….. maybe….someday! I have about 58 more leaves to applique and very glad they are large leaves!
This is what I had been doing in June. I do hope that I am more productive and can post more fun things in July! I am glad we are on the count down for summer as I am ready for Fall (if we have one).
Have a great week-end and a blessed week upcoming. You will find me in the house or Studio as we are going back to 100++++++ so there won’t be any fun and games outside.
Chopin - A Passionate Quilter From Texas 