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.
Good evening from South Texas where we have not seen the sun since Sunday!! We are now in a rainy spell, or just overcast skies! This type of weather does not bother me, especially if it stays in the 50’s and 60’s during the day! So much better than the 100’s. Life is good! The first part of the week I was wearing sweats. Today I wore my shorts and walked in the rain!
Today I have completed RSC 2018 Sampler quilt! I would like to also thank Mari for providing block suggestions each month – that was a lot of work on her part! I must say that I really enjoyed making this quilt making 3 blocks a month and catching up last week with August, September and October. Gretchen suggested to me to set the blocks on point and I am so glad I took her advice. It really made this quilt pop! I love the white background fabric I used in making the blocks and thought about using the dark blue/violet 1” border with a white border, but I am not a favorite of a lot of white in my quilts. So I used the light complementary blue! I am a happy Quilter!
Next, I finished Block 7 of A Bountiful Life! I am on a Roll. This week 2 flimsy’s and one more BL block – I am closer to my goal of finishing prior UFO’s from the last couple of years! I can now start on Block 8 tonight or tomorrow night!
For my day projects now I am going to finish making the 1/2” hexagon flowers for the border on Mountmellick and then the remainder of the quilt will be pieced blocks! I also want to work on sewing the corner hexagons on the Center Medallion for Brinton Hall. Once that is complete I will applique it to a background fabric and I believe I may have to make some more hexagons to complete the Medallion. But the bottom line is that I will be doing hand work on both of the quilts concurrently in order to get to the point where I will be piecing blocks! I am hoping to finish them by the end of the year or sooner!
The next border has a vine and hexagon flowers with leaves! I just need to finish the flowers.
Brinton Hall Medallion – Corners need to be sewn together
I am also behind in quilting some of my quilts, so in between I will try to load a quilt and attempt to quilt all my finished flimsy’s. I counted 4 tops that will be hand quilted and about 10 that need to be quilted on a long arm. I have 3 that will be custom quilted and entered in local Quilt Shows.
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.
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!
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!
Greetings from a cool 47 degrees in South Texas! Finally! Life is still calm and good. I have hade a most productive 9 days with my quilting projects. Friday I quilted my Heart quilt and it felt good to finish, but I do believe I pushed the envelope quilting it in 6 hours. When I originally loaded the quilt in May I had decided to do a meandering with circles. I do free motion quilting on my long arm as it is not computerized. During the last 30 minutes of the marathon quilting spree I noticed that the brain, hands and eyes just decided that they did not want to do that pattern anymore! But I quickly ripped that error and finished! This quilt was made in 2003 and was my first attempt at needle turn appliqué. I really had to laugh at my stitches – they were 1/4″ apart!!!! Now I appliqué at 1/8″ stitch! Practice does help – LOL (Still have the binding to do but maybe tomorrow)
My Heart QuiltQuilt BackQuilting Stitches
Saturday I did a marathon appliqué recoup day on my broderie perse MM Medallion. Yesterday I finished the center, but still have small flowers (paper pieced hexagons) to do but that should not take too long. I am going to enjoy making this quilt. Each border will be a mystery as far as fabric selection goes as I will select them as I go! I decided that I would only do circles where the swag pieces meet and not the diamonds that Di Ford did on her quilt. So now I will sew them and move on to the hexagon flowers which should be fun as the hexagon are 1/2″. I am very pleased with my color selection. I took a chance that I may find another piece of the Dutch Chintz that I am using but figured that was a pipe dream. But, alas, I found a fat quarter and a 1/2 yard piece on Easy. The fabric is coming from Australia. YEA!
Mountmellick Medallion Progress
I am also working on Block 5 of Sweet Stitches. This block is a group of flowers in a vase with a couple of bees buzzing around!
On to the handwork and having a good sewing day! Hoping your day goes well!
Here I am on 19 October and life is really getting back to normal! A daily routine that I love, coffee, walking, breakfast, and the rest of the day quilting!!! Pure Heaven! We have AGAIN changed travel plans and will be going to Galveston Beach for a week in November! YEA! After 17 years of wintering in Arizona to me this is going to be so much fun! Next year a trip to Michigan to visit with Doug and Jean! In the meantime though, I am quilting and have made progress with my projects although I did lose 3 days last week when we upgraded our iPhones with Verizon. Now that was not fun but we persevered and I got over it!
I have started working on Mountmellick, a Di Ford Mystery Quilt in Quiltmania magazine in 2014. It took me 2 days to prepare the medallion for appliqué, but I now ready to start the appliqué work.
Mountmellick Medallion Pattern
The process involves Broderie Perse a technique that I wanted to work with for a long while. I purchased a lot of Dutch Chintz fabric for use in making the Australian reproduction quilts, but had to put this on hold for a few years. Now I am ready to embark on my goals of 2014 and beyond!
I first began by auditioning different fabrics to use in the Medallion and came up with this selection.
Auditioning of Fabrics – The light-colored fabric with small flowers did not make it in the final cut!
Next step was to prepare the back ground for placement. Then preparing the separate appliqué pieces. For the broderie press flowers I played “let’s play cut out flowers” and here is what happens to beautiful expensive fabrics to achieve the goal required in this quilt for the medallion.
Dutch Chintz Fabric Cut Up
Alas – the final result of 2 days of work. The stems took longer to appliqué and one can barely see them but after needle turning the flowers I believe more of the stems will show. The leaves in the upper right hand corner are possible “changes” to a couple of the leaves in the middle right side where the two leaves are the same.
Ready for Applique – Stems finished – Flowers Ready for Applique
I have made progress (faster than I thought) on Sweet Stitches. I have completed Block 4 and will prep Block 5 tomorrow.
Mr Easter Bunny – April BlockSweet Stitches – January thru April Blocks
The embroidery goes faster than my needle turn appliqué. My hands are working but, but it does make them “act up” a bit when I overdo the hand work, so today I am going to go back to the month of May when I loaded a quilt in the longarm and try to get it finished in the next day or so. This quilt was my first appliqué quilt called Hearts which was made in 2003. Hum a lifetime ago! Since I am not a real scrappy person, I was surprised at the outcome for my first try with colors. I retired in 1999 and learned how to quilt by watching Alex Anderson on PBS – really miss her from those years. Elly Sienkiewicz’s books and Anita Shackleford were my main teachers.
Hearts – First Applique Quilt from 2003
An update on my CutterPillar Glow. This tool is so neat and so worth the $110.00. It functions as a cutting mat (the grid just lies on the glow mat) AND is so great to trace patterns for appliqué or embroidery patterns!!! BUT BEWARE – The mat below is a regular cutting self-healing mat and works great. They also sell a glass self-healing mat that I ordered and received last week, but decided to call Cutter Pillar and ask about using the glass mat with my rotary cutter. They said it would, of course, dull the blade on the rotary cutter (obvious) BUT that to be careful because it could slippery to work with. Well with the recent surgeries I did not want to have an accident. I was going to send it back to the Quilt Store – but the mat cost $22.00 and I had already paid $9.00 for shipping to me and then it would cost $10.50 to mail it back, I quickly decided to keep it and purchased a book of stamps! I will try it and then post my opinion as to whether or not it is smart to purchase the glass mat! Hope this information is useful for all. I still strongly recommend this cutting mat – especially if you only have a small space for cutting. I have a full size cutting table so that is not an issue for me, but when cutting small pieces this is great to have the backlight!
CutterPillar Glow Mat
I DO NOT RECEIVE ANY COMPENSATION FOR RECOMMENDING THE ABOVE PRODUCT. I am just sharing information about a tool that is great!
Well, that is what I have been up to and hoping to be even more productive as time progresses. Hoping that you have a great week-end and enjoy sewing today!
Greetings again from La Vernia, Texas. The weather is exactly what I have been waiting for – cold, damp, and Winter is definitely here. Now having said that, I hope that this is not a trick from Mother Nature and that we go back to summer hot and humid days before the end of the year. I have so much more energy with the cooler weather. Although it would have been nice to have a Fall Season, but here we are in the 40’s during the day and high 30’s at night, green grass and green leaves on the trees. Well, as long as I wake up in the mornings, I am a happy camper. Here is what I see when look at out my Bay Windows in my Studio while sewing.
View of our Back Porch of the House
View from the other Window – Notice the Deer Corn, Water, and Bird Feeder
OK – Now to what I have accomplished since I finished Darryl’s quilt. Yesterday I washed all of the fat quarters that I had purchased last month….Over 150… So much fun. I was looking for that Recliner by 5PM. Today I finished ironing them and putting them away. Next I pulled all the fabric I had thrown in the drawers the last 2 months and rearranged them in the 2 new Elfa drawers. I bet I am the most 2014 Organized Quilter in Texas, have not met all of my 2015 goals, but hey does being organized count? LOL.
New Elfa Drawers – The first one is for my Long Arm supplies
On Tuesday I found out that the Dutch Chintz I had purchased (the border fabric) was for the Tree of Life Panel…..Oops…..So in order to use that expensive purchase, I ordered the Tree of Life panel along with 2 other pieces of Dutch Chintz to complete the Tree of Life and for the Mountmellick quilt (see how positive I am – I just know I can do this).
Tree of Life Panel
Here are the other pieces of fabric that I will use with both of the quilts.
Dutch Chintz for MountmellickDutch Chintz for Tree of Life
I have not abandoned my Happy Scrappy quilt – Here is the 3rd border. The circles are little flowers from the line of fabrics I will be using. Not sure what is going to be next – a surprise to you and probably me too.
Happy Scrappy Border 3
Besides Happy Scrappy, Threads of Memory, Mountmellick projects, I want to start on the Civil War Bride Quilt…….There are four (4) different versions of this pattern. Each has a different name. Quite interesting. I purchased the first one in 2004 from Pat Cox at the Houston Show and had no idea what I was buying – just like the picture and dreamed of making the quilt. Here they are – let me know your favorite. I am thinking I will be mixing and matching.
Folk Art in New York for JeanCivil War BrideThe Lost Boy Quilt
A Bountiful Life
And now to the kitchen to play Suzy Homemaker and make some 2 Alarm Chili and beans for Clay and Spaghetti Sauce for tomorrow for Dan and Clay…..Hopefully tomorrow I will make a decision and get with the quilting program and quit increasing my “Stash” and make some serious quilts. Have a wonderful week-end – Cannot believe it is the 15th of November 2014! Enjoy.
Chopin - A Passionate Quilter From Texas 