Di Ford’s Mountmellick – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

May 27, 2018May 27, 2018

Happy Memorial Day – Chasing Hearts and Mountmellick

Hoping all are enjoying celebrating Memorial Day, a day to honor the fallen and brave heroes of our great Military! Thank you also to all the military families who support their families who currently serve and have served our Country in the past. Thank you for your service!

I thought I had a weird week 2 weeks ago…. This week did not go as I planned either, so now I am 4 days behind in my May goals! If things go quietly the next 5 days maybe I can catch up!

Here are my hearts for 24, 25, 26, and 27 May. There are 4 more hearts left to complete and now I need to work on the alternating blocks! The easy way would be to incorporate a 5″ block of the remaining and matching fabrics, or to do a 9 patch block like Deb has done.

Here is a sample on how I will make the alternating 9 patches. Each heart will have a matching fabric 9 patch. I thnk this will really make my quilt pop! No telling what borders will look like! This is a ‘go as you go along’ quilt!

Now on to progress on Mountmellick. I still have a lot of EPP to do to finish the flowers and have now changed the border fabric and vine fabric. I am going to add more of the EPP flowers that are in the Medallion using the same fabric. Then I will add red and blue flowers and no leaves! Here is a picture of the border. There is only one completed flower, the rest are ready to be sewn together. The vine will be about 1/4” wide! I applique one side down and then trim and applique the other side down. No glue, etc!

To give you an idea of what I am working with on the size of the hexagon papers, here is a picture of a completed flower next to a Hershey Kiss!

Nesting is still not complete – darn! I may be able to do a big push this evening and finish it, but there is some embroidery for both Blocks 3 and 4, so it may be Tuesday…. It depends if I feel like working on Nesting or driving myself nuts with covering 1/2” paper hexagons!

The other day I was thinking about Brinton Hall quilt. I could not remember where I had put the remaining hexagons to sew to the Medallion – found then yesterday. This may become a June Goal!

We are in the process of getting bids on a new roof so that will mean stay home – no traveling for about 4 months – I do believe I can catch up with some of my projects that have been ignored, as long as there are no more ‘life’s little interruptions’ for me!

Have a great week. I love weekends and long holiday weekends – the phone does not ring and give me issues to handle!!!

Nanette

Linking To: My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Sew Can She; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Fiber Tuesday; Esther’s Wednesday WOW; Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHOW; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts; Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Show and Tell Monday with Bambi;

November 2, 2017

One Monthly Goal – November

Greetings from summer again in South Texas! Where is that Fall weather anyway we are now 59 days away from January 2018 – Time passes so quickly now. DST is this Saturday so we do get an hour back – maybe I can do more with that hour each day!

I have a feeling that my productivity will not be as good as October, but that is OK. A trip to Galveston for a week, and of course Thanksgiving means a few days that will not be sewing days. Hopefully I can meet some of my goals for November.

Mountmellick – I am working on preparing the EPP flowers for the Medallion and will then sew them on in the corners of the Medallion. Next will be the first border that is a mitred border from border fabric. The next border consists of the small circles and hopefully those will be finished and the 2nd border completed. I have already appliqued the circles and ready for the flowers.

The background is 12 1/2″ x 16 1/2″ and the circles will be small. Then each block will be cut and sewn together with HST’s to make a border!

Continue on with Sweet Stitches. Currently I am working on Block 5 and should be able to complete it and Block 6. – Then I would be halfway through.
Aunt Bea’s Parlor – Start preparing the blocks for embroidery

3. Stonefields – Start preparing Section 5 for applique. I really need to do a push on this quilt as I would love to have it completed by early 2018! If I can finish Section 5 I will be half way through! There are 121 blocks for this quilt!

4. Stars and Churn Dashes – I want to continue making these nice little blocks – no set number – I am just making a lot!

There are other projects to work on, but if I can achieve the November Goals I will be happy!

Linking up with One Monthly Goal

November 12, 2014

The Bean Pot is Finished and Winter has Arrived!

Winter has arrived in South Texas – Very interesting weather pattern. We had a late HOT summer that extended in to late October, then a few cool snaps, and now a real cold wave! Because we bypassed Fall, our leaves are still green. It will be interesting to see if the freeze will provide a delayed changing of the colors or if they will just fly off the tree and we will be up to our ears in leaves. We are hoping that we receive some more rain so that Clay can burn the leaves rather than continue to mulch them as he has had to do the last 4 years. Either way, I love sitting at my sewing machine looking out my bay windows at the birds, squirrels and deer. Peaceful times.

I finished Darryl’s quilt last night (Tuesday) just as I had planned! This is the first time this year I have been able to meet a set goal for a project! Making a quilt is such a fun thing, yet there are times when we are in the middle of the project that we just want to hurry up and finish it. Then when the top has been completed there is a feeling of accomplishment. Of course a quilt top is not really a “finished” quilt, so we move on to the final phases of quilting and binding. At the end of each of the 3 phases of quilting a pieced quilt always provides me that sense of accomplishment and when I have completely finished the quilt I really feel relief! Now on to the next project.

This quilt is so special to me. I wanted to make Darryl a quilt for him to enjoy during this difficult time of his life. I am so glad that I put everything else on hold and was able to complete his Bean Pot quilt just as ole’ man winter rolled into town. He will enjoy the warmth of this quilt that his Momette (that is his nickname for me as his Step-Mother) AND I will always have the memory of making it and knowing that I was able to give him a gift of love through my passion of quilting. I want to thank JayDee for giving me her extra book with the Sylvester’s Bean Pot pattern. I really love this pattern and plan on making more in the future.

Darryl's Bean Pot Quilt — Darryl’s Bean Pot Quilt – 11/11/2014

Lesson learned on this one – when quilting a top with a lot of seams, lengthen the stitch to 10 stitches per inch – there is a slight flare on the binding area, but nothing earth shattering. I love learning by error……….One never forgets that little error….. or at least until the next time I do that. LOL.

I received a wonderful gift from Happy Appliquer LuAnn in the mail Tuesday! She had extra border fabric from the Judi Rothermel 25th Anniversary fabric for the Di Ford Mystery Quilt – Monuntmellick! This is a very special gift because I was unable to find the fabric in March. (see previous posts). THANK YOU LuAnn! I follow her blog Happy Appliquer and love her projects. Now I will be able to go back to the project and actually have the fabric to make the quilt. What a wonderful gift!

Di Ford Mystery Border Fabric — Judi Rothermel’s 25th Anniversary Border Fabric

When I decided to make the Mountmellick Quilt and realized I was out of luck in finding any of the border fabric, I purchased the Amelia line for a border, only to realize that it was too large and wide to use in the quilt. I was a ‘babe in the woods’ for this one and very new to Quiltmania, Reproduction fabrics, and the beautiful Australian quilts. I also decided to purchase some Dutch Chintz fabric as suggested in the pattern, but that was also sold out. I selected a border print thinking it would blend with my fabric selection and that the flowers would be able to be used in the center medallion. I was so wrong. Yesterday I called Happiness is Quilting in McKinney, Texas (they carry the Dutch Chintz) and asked them if they had any of the chintz that would go with the Di Ford project. They recommended 5/8″ of a Dutch fabric that would provide plenty of flowers and leaves. I also ask them to assist me with the Dutch piece I had previously purchased. Well, I found out that I had purchased the border fabric for the “Tree of Life” panel. Penny was such a great help, she is sending me some red fabric and an additional fabric with matching flowers that I can use in making a nice size quilt using the panel. This will be a “Dutch Chintz” quilt and a lot of fun to design another border quilt. So now I will have 2 quilts to make!

Dutch Chintz Border Fabric for the Tree of Life Panel

Life in my quilting world has really been blessed by LuAnn, Jaydee, and now Penny. How blessed I am and Thx to all.

I am now going to put the binding on my Civil War quilt that I finally quilted early in the year. It will be nice to have this one completed and put in the stack of “let’s have a binding party” stack!

Have a blessed day and enjoy Winter – I know I will. This is the best time for quilting and knitting!