Gretchen’s Little Corner – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

January 5, 2018January 5, 2018

OMG – Mini Dresdens, Aunt Bea’s Parlor, and Regatta Quilt

Happy New Year and hope all is going well for everyone. I plan on starting my New Year tomorrow (Saturday 6 Jan 2018). After losing another 3 weeks to the Flu (still coughing) now 2 days of R&R from the RF treatment yesterday (they cauterised the nerves in my back). Everything went well and I am hoping that I will begin to have more energy soon. I am getting so sick of R&R that I am surprised that my Recliner really lets me get out of it anymore. This is going to really be a big push tomorrow to start my walking again, but I am bound and determined to get back to where I was before the Flu got me! So my main goal for this month is to get healthy, lose some weight (10 pounds would be nice), and walk my 1.5 mile each morning!!!!! Hopefully by the end of the month I will be doing a lot better!

I worked on my Mini-Dresden’s earlier in the week and have 47 finished. I rechecked the pattern and I will be making 105 of the little mini’s and 16 of the larger Dresden’s. So this is now a January OMG project. I hope to complete the 105 in the next week and then there will be 105 Mini’s to hand appliqué to the background fabrics! I think I can make this goal of having the Mini’s sewn, but not appliquéd (that would be a miracle). I now have a process going when sewing them and can usually roll out about 5 to 6 a day! Doesn’t sound like much, but when you add in the stitching, trimming, and then pressing before one can be put together, I will be happy to have them completed by the 13th. This is what I accomplished this week on them. They are 3 1/2″.

I also am working on preparing Aunt Bea’s Parlor blocks – I cut out 20 each 10″ squares of muslin for the backing and 2 are ready for embroidery work. (Along with the other hand projects that are yelling at me to get with the program). For some reason (couldn’t be the 2 hand surgeries and the Flu) I just am worn out and do not feel like doing any hand work in the evening! This just has to change or I will just need to give up!

Sometimes we need to have a “mindless sewing project” and I have found one that Gretchen and Peggy are working on called Regatta designed by Block M Quilts. Very very simple quilt and Gretchen made hers in 2 days and Peggy has selected the fabrics. Since this one is made for a jelly roll, etc, I checked my stash and found some batik Bali Pops that did not have a home – so this is the fabric for my Regatta Quilt.

I plan to start working on this Saturday! If I can get these 3 things completed I will be a happy camper. I must get myself back on a stricter routine or I will never achieve any goal that I set. So tomorrow my 2018 will start – and my main resolution is to set goals and achieve them and totally ignore any UFR (Unforeseen Requirements) that will try to cause me to stray!

Have a great week-end.

Linking up with OMG

December 4, 2017December 4, 2017

Mountmellick Medallion

I have had so many issues with a couple of Australian patterns that I was beginning to become gun-shy in starting another project. Di Ford is a well-respected Designer and I had hoped to have no issues with Mountmellick. This time in making a complex quilt I am keeping the past lessons I have learned from past ‘mistakes’ from the Designer, and that I need to go slow, read and re-check the pattern each step of the way. So far so good and even though it is slow, I do believe that this will be a very successful project.

This morning I am ready to put the first border on the center medallion. I always make the background fabric 2 inches larger than the pattern requires, mainly to ensure that I will be able to square the block, or medallion without issues! If the medallion is not perfectly squared the remainder of the quilt will be a total disaster!

Before I did anything, I placed a padding of muslin on the ironing board and placed the appliquéd medallion face down, sprayed it with Sizing and PRESSED not iron! I did this step to make sure the fabric would not flare (had this problem before!)

I started with a 20 1/2″ square did the math to ensure that when reducing the medallion to 18 1/2″ it would be perfect! I started by bringing my medallion down to a 19″ square. I have a 20 1/2″ Creative Grid ruler that really helps in accomplishing this step. Before I cut, I marked the background as to where I would cut and checking all sides to ensure equality on each side! Then I measured an additional 1/4″ on each side of the medallion inside the 19″ marking. BUT I did this by marking the medallion 1/8″ all around, checking to make sure it would be square, cutting it to 18 3/4″ and THEN measuring another 1/8″ to bring it to 18 1/2″ square. During this process I kept measuring from corner to corner to make sure all things were remaining square!

After all of this I took the 18 1/2″ square and did a stay stitch on my newly cleaned Designer I to ensure that when sewing the first border there will not be an issue with flaring. (been there done that one before without a stay stitch). Here is a picture of the finished perfectly squared 18 1/2″ Center Medallion!

So now to adding the first border. I want to thank Lu Ann Krug for sending me the border fabric for this quilt. It was a piece that she had left over from when she made the quilt. I met up with Lu Ann through her Blog in 2014 just as I was beginning to start on this quilt when my step son was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Here it is 3 years later and I am FINALLY back to a “sameness of routine” as my friend Gretchen stated in her morning post! This last year I discovered Gretchen and what a surprise to find out that Lu Ann and Gretchen are friends and live in what I call “Quilter’s Heaven” because of their love of quilting! How I would love to live closer and attend the Retreats with them! Both ladies are great and dedicated quilters.

Well, off to put the first border on….. more to follow!

July 1, 2017

Back To Quilting!

Six months from today will be January 1, 2018!!! Doesn’t it make you want to start working on a Christmas projects? I have a couple of those perpetual calendars and it amazes me how fast the months and years fly by! We are really in for some warm weather, especially when it is 80 degrees and 90% humidity in the morning. It is definitely not a walking day! This week we were blessed with over 7 inches of rain! What a blessing! Saved our Pines and the grass loved it. Hopefully we will get more this month!

Speaking of blessings, the housekeeper I have hired this time (and I have been through many who say they know how to clean but cannot) is an absolute jewel! She will come twice a month and I am no longer going to have to clean one day and tired the next! Saving my back and hands for sewing and walking. What a life! And to top it off, I have a great Hair Stylist that is also doing a great job on my hair cuts! I have decided that I am going to be like the younger generation and say, ‘I deserve it’! LOL

I am recovering from the hand surgery and have been back to my sewing, albeit slowly, but steadily progressing. I have been making 3″ Churn Dash Blocks and plan on making some more of my 3″ Star Blocks. Not sure what the quilt will look like, but it will be a reproduction quilt. I would like to have a Medallion in the center and go from there. The blocks are so much fun to make. Even wearing the CTS splints on both hands I can sew – no hand work yet – but it feels good to feel good! One more to go and wish it could be tomorrow but I know I have to wait until August! Having any type of surgery after the age of 70 is not recommended!!!!! Takes longer to get back to normal – Darn!

I am making 10 CD blocks of each color that I select. I have completed 30 blocks and have 10 Stars left over from Robin’s Nest that went away a couple of months ago. I have the Churn Dash and Star blocks down to perfection. No bias edges and they all come out at 3 1/2″ unfinished! I believe that is what makes me enjoy them so much.

I was working on a Dresden Plate quilt pattern earlier this year using 1930 reproduction fabrics. I did get one made the other day. They are also 3″ and so much fun to make! I have more of the same color way ready to sew. I really need to revisit the pattern, or else it will be a Mini-Dresden quilt!

I am bound and determined to come up with a quilt for RSC 2017! I am down to 4 patches and Circle of Squares that Gretchen is making. This is going to be one of my July goals!

I have been keeping up with the Blogs that I follow and it really keeps me inspired and yet anxious to get back to my passion of quilting! Have a great day and maybe today I will be able to be even more productive.

Have a great 4th of July and stay safe!

Linking up to the following:

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;

April 5, 2017

The Eagle Has Landed!

It appears that April will be a very quiet and productive month for Clay and I – and it is about time!

I have been working on a lap quilt and a wall hanging for gifts and so happy to report that they are both waiting to be quilted on the long arm! The Eagle quilt is a pattern from Eleanor Burns and this is the 4th one I have made for my Veteran friends. The most difficult piece in this wall hanging is the stupid beak!!!! Each time I have made it I tend to go ‘what?’ and after a few minutes the light bulb clicks in. Guess if I made one a month I could make it with my mind and eyes closed! I had a big laugh on me when I was working on the star points. I love Eleanor’s rulers for Peaky and Spike and especially for Flying Geese, the problem is that I have one of each size and yesterday the brain was getting close to “stupid” and when I started trimming the flying geese I realized something just was not correct! So I threw those pieces away and started over again only to have the same experience. BUT, alas, when one has too many rulers one had better REALLY check which ruler you are supposed to be working with. I just could not believe I was having an issue – so I pulled out the Eleanor Burns bag of rulers and guess what – YUP I had picked up the wrong size.

Now here is my excuse for being stupid! The weather was changing and the pressure was dropping like a rock – little did I realize that a cold front was blowing in. I was determined to get the stars finished and I did, but after supper the Vertigo set in and that is when I confirmed to myself it was the weather change. For my Fibro and Meniere’s friends – you know what that means. YUP – go sit in a chair and veg until things settle down. Life is so much fun when you never know what the weather will bring you! Guess it is like the box of chocolates!

This morning I finished the borders on the Eagle and that is the end of me for the day. It appears that this will be the weather pattern for the next 2 weeks – so maybe a lot of appliquéing will be accomplished as now we have high winds today!

I will appliqué the tail feathers down this afternoon. I used a blue Hoffman 1895 batik and some Hoffman for the gold stars and found a beautiful piece of Moda fabric with the black and gold. I love the metallic look for this wall hanging. (Oh yes – the Eagle will get an eye!)

This is the lap quilt that I made last week – so happy to have peace and tranquility and problem free time for quilting!

Gretchen is working on a Tulip Quilt. When she first posted the quilt I thought it looked familiar, so I went through my patterns and found it. It is called Tulip Dance by Annette Ornelas. She was a guest speaker in 2008 at a local guild and I purchased her book and some patterns. I only did one project, a Heart Block, and made a large pillow cover with it. She has some neat 3 dimensional patterns which are based on a cathedral window type block. I did the appliqué by machine, if I made a quilt I would do the appliqué by hand.

Today is done so tomorrow I will get the 2 projects ready for quilting. Have a great day!

March 21, 2017

Dallas Quilt Show – Traditional Versus Artisan Quilts

One of my goals this year was to attend the Dallas Quilt show. We arrived in Dallas on Thursday and the show was Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I was so excited because I have always heard excellent comments regarding their show. I joined the Guild (from afar – about 300 miles away from home) for the last 3 years. I had considered entering the 2018 Show and wanted to have the experience of attending before I did that.

Today I am going to share pictures of a few of the quilts that were awarded ribbons at the show. As a traditional quilter, it is apparent to me that the quilting world has gone nuts and about as far left as one could go! Quilters who read my posts know that the last 3 years have not been the best as far as my quilting goes and it has put me out of the mainstream as far as shows. What a shock I was in for at this show. What a change!

First of all, I am a traditional and purist quilt maker. I do not use glue, thangles, kits, jelly rolls, precut, laser cut, and the things where the math is not required to make a quilt. I love to make quilts the old-fashioned way. I love to work on quilts that are challenging and keep my brain sharp (LOL). NOW, this is MY choice and preference and I am not trying to be negative to anyone who prefers using all the tools available for all quilters. I also love the autumn colors, batiks and reproduction fabrics but not Kaffe Fassett fabrics as they are just too busy. I have made one quilt using his fabric when they first came out and it is still waiting in line to be quilted! Think I would go blind quilting that one. But 3 months ago I decided if I was going to do scrappy and fussy cutting I probably needed some of his fabrics to include as a ‘zinger’ in my quilts.

I am trying to learn how to work with scrappy quilts, but for some reason it is really a challenge for me because my eyes focus on the pattern and not the colors. This is why I label myself as a Traditional Quilter. It takes time to make my quilts because of the complexity and especially when appliquéing and because I am so the perfectionist.

During the last 3 years, the Modern Quilt movement started just as the “Contemporary” quilts became popular in 2004 where fabric designers like Kaffe crept into our quilt world, adding different fabrics to traditional ones. For awhile, the traditional remained popular. But now the Modern Quilt movement has appeared to take over at the quilt shows. These quilts consist of very loud colors (very bright) and patterns that have no reason or rhyme to me. They can be made in less than a week as color is the most important point in these quilts. So now we have Artisans taking over the quilt world.

I am not being critical of those who love these quilts, it is just not my idea of a quilt. The Art quilt does not have a main focus color, thereby not drawing the eye to the theme of the quilt. It is understand this would not apply to animals and/or people in quilts.

To conclude, I also understand that to stay in business (fabric and quilt shops) they must continue to bring new and innovative ideas in order to stay in business. But I feel that they have forgotten the Traditionalists. Missouri Quilt Company does seem to mix both and mostly with the “louder” fabrics. Hats off to them.

So here we go – I will let you be the Judge of some of the quilts that won ribbons and the Best of Show. What are your thoughts? Are you a Traditional (purist), Modern Art, or Contemporary quilter? Please no nasty comments – I respect individual preferences. I am just wanted to share my experience with others.

I will start with the Modern/Artisan quilts that won ribbons.

This quilt could give me a headache! What is it all about anyway? Color?

AND NOW THE BEST OF SHOW! LOVELY

Nanette being Nanette I stopped and spoke with one of the Judges that was “traditional” and asked him what were the Judges thinking when they awarded this quilt Best of Show! Mostly no response he just kept smiling, but did say that the appliqué quilts were not good this year! You can be the judge of his statement as you look at some pictures of the appliqués quilts. I forgot to mention that the Judges in this show were 100% bias in awarding ribbons. Two of the Judges were Fiber Artist and the one gentleman was a Traditional quilter! Easy to see who was in control of the Best of Show decision!

The quilt above was made by a woman who discovered her heritage through a DNA test and it took 2 years to make this quilt that represents her Heritage. Here are a few close up of a few blocks. There is some broidery purse within the quilt, but these flowers are done with individual petals – great gradation of color! So beautiful! I am not certain, but it appeared to be needle turn appliqués.

This is a quilt called Nearly Insane and received a Blue Ribbon and a ribbon for hand quilting (if my memory serves me correctly). Gretchen is making this quilt in blue and yellow and is doing a fantastic job. It is a very difficult quilt and takes a lot of time to make a block with all the pieces in each block!

Nice quilt.

This is a pretty red/green baltimore style quilt and it won the Past Show Chair’s ribbon. If you look closely on Row 2, the vase block is not straight. I spoke with the quilter and she indicated that she did not catch it in time to correct the problem, but has won a 2nd place ribbon at another show. She also has a quilt entered in the Paducah Quilt Show. Good for her!

This is a pretty quilt, but the scrappy distracts from the block centers. Too busy for my pea brain to handle.

This quilt took some time to study the color and make those points on the stars come out perfect – no ribbon. It could have been the colors.

The last quilt (below) is a Di Ford pattern called ‘Phoebe’. The lady had some problems with the quilt, but still received a blue ribbon. This is a very difficult quilt to make and she did well! She indicated on her card that she had a lot of problems with it and it easy to see how. Every piece has to be squared in order for the quilt to work well. If you study the picture carefully you can see she had problems on the right side along with the sashing between the stars.

Well, I have had just too much fun today. TV problem resolved, and Lincoln is going to inspect the Navigator and hopefully they will realize it is a defect! Fingers crossed. Now I am ready to go sit in my chair and finish the binding on my Oh Glory.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy some stitching!

January 12, 2016

A Short Note on Sweet Surrender Pattern

I received my Sweet Surrender pattern from Australia yesterday. The pattern is by Susanne Cody and I purchased it from Material Obsession Quilt Shop. I received it in less than 3 weeks and it is an excellent and professional applique pattern. The triangles should be fun since I am going to EPP them (oh what a dreamer). Of course I left some money with Paper Pieces. The pattern calls for 5/8″ hexagons rosette flowers; 2 1/2″ diamonds (6 point stars); and 2 1/2″ triangles (half diamonds). I ordered the following paper piece packages for this project:

6DIA250L – 2 1/2″ 6 Point Diamonds

HEXDEN058L – 5/8: Hexden for the Rosette Flower petals

HEX058 – 5/8″ Hexagons (Flower center)

TRI250L – 2 1/2″ Triangle

I ordered the paper pieces before the pattern arrived thanks to a fellow Blogger Gretchen who gave me the exact list of pieces to order. She is working on the quilt with a quilting group.

I will read the instructions and study the pattern before I dive in, but so far I am very pleased. Very professional pattern, and company. Now we will see if it lays around for a while in my “to do” basket, or I really get with the program!

Have a great day.