Afternoon Delight – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

Merry Christmas (belated) and a Happy New Year – 2018 is 4 days away and I could not be happier to see this year over with! 14 days sitting in the chair, not wanting to do anything of value is on a downhill slide – Still have to continue taking it easy so my immune system can get over the shock and awe of the wonderful 2017 Type A Flu! I do not recommend this trip for anyone – In fact, carry a container of wipes and hand sanitizer around your neck along with a mask. Run from anyone coughing! If you see a nut job in public with all these goodies hanging around their neck it is ME! Thank goodness for HEB Curbside! Go on-line, order groceries, drive up and they load you up! I will be doing that until the Flu Season is GONE!

We had a quiet Christmas (all cancelled due to illness). But Santa was good to us. I upgraded to an iPad Pro 12.9″ with 512GB and purchased a Space Black Milanese Loop watch band for my Apple Watch! Then as a bonus for being sick, I ordered a Dooney and Burke handbag! Santa brought Clay some things that he had on his list and a 1950 Kenmore Heavy Duty sewing machine (coming today or tomorrow) for his leather work! Talk about 2 spoiled kids! We will share our Christmas with Melissa this coming week-end! Santa has left some gifts for her also!

OK – now back to the world of quilting, and hopefully I will have a very productive year!

I am going to attempt to do the 2018 Challenge – 6 in 6 in 2018. This will fit right in with my very low productive 2017 year of quilting.

So here goes:

6 UFO Projects from 2017

A Bountiful Life (version of Civil War Bride) I have 6 blocks completed, 4 ready for applique and a remaining 10 to finish the quilt.
Nesting – 2 blocks completed – remaining 2 blocks waiting for applique
Stonefields – About 6 blocks waiting for applique (they are small blocks) and Section 5 will be complete – AH half way through the 10 Sections
Sweet Stitches – trying to convince myself that I love the black embroidery thread (although getting bored with it) 6 more blocks to embroider
Brinton Hall – I really need to get with the program on this one – just more hexies for the side panels and then I will be piecing the remainder of the quilt. I would like to have it completed by May – not sure if this is doable!
Mountmellick – Will be starting Border Number 3 in January – This one is a must finish if I am going to enter it in a quilt show this summer.

6 New Projects for 2018

Aunt Bea’s Parlor – Embroidery – I am looking forward to working on this one as it will be multi-colored thread – not just black!
Star Dance by Jill Finley – Piecing
Plantation Stars by Heartspun Quilts – Piecing (hum could be the blue and white quilt)
Afternoon Delight by Sue Garmen A mixture of applique and piecing
Work on my Stars and Churn Dash Reproduction quilt – it will need a design setting also.

There could be some changes for the new projects and will update as I make the final decisions. But as you can see I am really behind on my hand work. Could it be those pesky surgeries? I have more projects that I am thinking of working on, but will wait until I am at 100%. I would also like to participate in OMG and 12 in 2018. Maybe I can do without that 8 hours of sleep……

Have a wonderful day – it is nice and cold here in South Texas – 38 degrees for the day and no sun. It will be this way for a week. I am enjoying winter so far – much better than the 100 degrees each day this past summer! Now for more rain!

Well! I just love summer. No rain, HOT HOT HOT. It is 2:49 CST and 100 degrees – low humidity – but hotter than heck! Does that tell you something about my frame of mind? I am already for winter and it is just 3 Aug! I do hope it snows in Arizona this winter. I will just go outside and sit in a chair and get freezing cold! This is going to be a brutal summer here in lovely South Texas! I had decided to not walk for a while, but without my daily dose of endorphins, life is just not the same! So on the road again to see if I can meet my 7 day a week walking goal! The miles and steps add up quicker that one would think. But one must endure pain to obtain gain – think the original saying was “no pain – no gain”. Well, I have had enough of all the “GAIN” I ever want – thank you! The word GAIN to me is more related to Clay’s Ham Radio vocabulary! I think they call that “antenna gain”….. ENOUGH. I think I sound like a bad Monday Blogger (LOL).

I have been working on 2 projects now – Brinton Hall and Stonefields – but now my hands and arms have now given out. What in the heck does an old lady with Carpel Tunnel, Dorsal Wrist, Ulner Nerve, and Fibro expect anyway – a body to work like a 30-year-old? Forget that one. I would have the surgery on my hands, but already been there done that one and do not want anymore of the “fixes” that do not work. I just love the braces – so pretty and confining. Should be fun to see if I can work on my EPP projects with these hummers!

Broken Hands — Lovely Braces for Non-Working Hands

So now I will find a piecing project to work on during the day and hand work at night – just as soon as the pain goes away. This morning I went through my patterns (ever want to wonder why we purchase so many) that I will be taking on the winter trek to snowsville (see I can be positive). I hate to open the drawers and see all those lovely patterns and most of them are hand work. I think I need to have a pattern sale someday.

I finally found OMIGOSH! Here, Afternoon Delight Here , and Twirly Balls and Pinwheels Here from Sue Garman. I think that I was on a roll when I ordered all three (3) in March 2014…..so now I am going to review the patterns, see if any of the 3 could absolutely drive me completely crazy and go for it. If not, then the fall back will be a quilt that I have been wanting to make for 4 years – I first saw the quilt in a Tucson Arizona quilt store. The name is Desert Nine-Patch from Timeless Treasures Here. The pattern was free but no longer on their website – let me know if anyone wants a copy – think I downloaded it. It is not a difficult pattern – lots of 9 patches. Hum, wonder if I can find that pattern (thought I had lost OMIGOSH! this morning when I found it in the package with my Blue Snowmen from Curtis Boehringer)…. see too many patterns – so little time! I have a method of making sure that when I purchase fabric for a specific quilt that I keep the pattern with the fabric – the only problem is that sometimes I forget that I do that! Enough of this too!

Back to Brinton Hall. I had started on the “beige” hexagons around the Medallion for Brinton Hall – This is what I started working on last night before the pain set in during the night with the hands. I will have to put this aside for a few days for the hands to settle down. I think that I tense up when I sew them together. (another thing to work on – relax when doing hand work). Does anyone have any tips on how to not tense up doing EPP?

First Row — Adding the Beige Hexagons to the Medallion

On to Stonefields. I do not know how other quilters are, but sometimes I just need to have 2 or 3 projects going – especially since I am aware of what happens if I work on hand work for 2 weeks straight! I prepared the first 13 blocks and have completed 7 of the 13. The are quick and easy so maybe I will be through with this group by Wednesday or Thursday (dream on teenage queen!).

Blocks 1-7 Stonefields — Blocks 1-7 of Stonefields Quilt

I had decided to use my Prairie Rose fabric for this quilt (I have enough to start a quilt store) but quickly realized that I will now have to include other fabrics. There are 121 blocks in this quilt so this is going to be a stash buster! (I can see an overload coming for the RV – hope the tires hold up.) It appears that this quilt will be made with a lot of different fabric lines of Reproduction fabrics. This will be a fun quilt to make – not difficult and really challenges one on fabric selection. When I purchased the fabric last year, I also purchased the pattern that was designed for this fabric line so I will make that quilt with the fabric (someday) – see nothing goes to waste with Quilters.

Well, I am sure if you have made it to the end of this Blog that hopefully you have had a chuckle or two from my lovely Monday. I can hardly wait until 4:30 PM – that is when I turn into a recliner person and veg there the rest of the day (after supper of course). Football starts next Sunday and I am happy about that – wonder if the Cowboys will be able to make it to the Super Bowl…..So glad that Brady got caught – hope he stays out the full 6 weeks. (Oops – there might be some Patriot fans out there – sorry) (LOL).

I hope that your Monday went well and that you accomplished at least one goal for the day. Mine was to get out of bed! SUCCESS.