Ms Potts – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

August 21, 2017

Moving Right Along to Insanity and Back Again!

Greetings from lovely HOT HOT HOT South Texas, and I mean HOT! Quilting here since May has been SLOW SLOW SLOW with not one quilt finished since May! It has been like hanging from a tree waiting for the bear to quit biting at my feet so I can climb down and start my life again! Enough of this! I THINK that by the middle of September I may be able to get back to my quilting and OH am I ever wanting BOREDOM in my life again. I am sure that Clay does too as we both just hate those UFR health issues that seem to come more and more as we get older!

Here is an update on what little quilting has been going on in my Studio in the last month! I have been working on RSC 2017 Challenge – a 4 patch quilt. I wanted some mindless sewing but yet work on a quilt project. I have completed the following for my RSC 2017 project – 28 blocks of purple and white; 28 blocks of blue and white; and now working towards the teal and white blocks, but only 5 blocks finished. I am not going to do black or neutrals. So maybe I will have all completed by October (what a dreamer I am)! I am going to put this project away as I am tired of mindless work and want to do something different. I have no idea how I am going to set all of the blocks – guess that will be done when I am completely finished driving myself nuts with mindless work!

RSC 2017 Challenge Only 61 Blocks – Seems like it should be 100

I did complete one block for Ms Potts and have two ready to appliqué. There are 2 other blocks that I have not worked on and will probably change the blocks as I do not like the pattern so those are definitely on the back burner, in fact they may just go into the fire!

Ms Potts Block – No I did not mess up the Vase – that is the way the pattern is!

Today I am going to start prepping some embroidery work (if I get off the computer). I have a BOM that I purchased from Kathy Schmitz in 2013??? I completed the January Block and had started working on the February Block, but never finished it. I am in the mood for embroidery so today I am going to prep another block just to have it ready to work on in the evenings and hopefully it would be nice to have both completed by next Wednesday before surgery.

February Snowman – Whoops – Needs his hand!

I want to prep Section 5 of Stonefields but that may take me a day or so to do that as it means selecting fabric and cutting out the freezer paper. I also want to try Sashiko but of course I have been wanting to do that since 2014 so I am hoping that I will find the time to work on that technique before the end of 2017! Where has the time gone? I have found out that being a one-handed quilter just doesn’t cut it! LOL

As you can see I am like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter time by preparing my projects to work on in the evening time during the winter evenings IF we have a winter (for South Texas that may be NEVER!). We have had nothing but 100+ and high humidity along with horrible heat indexes. I have had to give up my early morning walking and now I am doing a Stationary Bike inside – which is fine with me until we have “cooler” weather!

In 2018 there are two quilt shows that I hope to be ready to enter, New Braunfels and Austin Shows. I was unable to enter the San Antonio Show this year due to those lovely UFRs, darn! At least I will be able to attend the show and see what South Texas quilters are working on.

My Carpel Tunnel Surgery on left hand has been delayed until 31 August, so now I have about 7 days to really relax and quilt, as long as no one finds out! Phones off the hook and the gate lock!!! LOL We went through a tough month again but it turned out fine Clay missed the bullet. I wish I had his immune system! So healthy!

Were you aware that there are ONLY 132 days until we have an opportunity to start a new year – 1 January 2018! I remember in 1992 how much I wanted that year to be over with and was so happy to bring in 1993 – it ended up being one of the best years of my life!

Vacations to the Gulf Coast are scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas! We have rented a Cottage with 2 bedrooms and a full kitchen and living room at Fulton Beach and are looking forward to the Holiday Getaways! I am sure there will be a short get away in October to ABH (anywhere but home) to celebrate being through with Doctors for 2017!

If I am lucky enough to complete some of my little short goals between now and 31 August, I will do one more update, if not, it will probably be in mid-September or a little later when I will do another post. Until then, happy stitching, keep cool or warm (if you live in Iceland) and see you in September! (I think my Scorpio humor is showing today!!!!)

June 27, 2016

Threads of Memory and Ms Potts

Doesn’t it feel great when we finish (or at least finish the quilt top) a project? I first started working on reproduction quilts with some great reproduction fabrics in early 2014 with Barbara Brackman’s BOM, Threads of Memory. The blocks were completed sometime last year (early 2015) but were put in the UFO stack and I moved on to other projects. The original pattern had flying geese surrounding each block, I was “too lazy” do to all that work, so the project just sat there a little longer gathering dust in the UFO bin!

It felt so rewarding to complete the Belle of the Ball Ladies quilt last week that I had decided to continue on with “catching up” with UFO’s. I really liked the effect that the sashings had on that quilt and decided to continue on with the same type of sashings for Threads of Memory!

Although I am not completely finished, I wanted to post a picture of the blocks sewn together. The next border will be the dark crackle brown and a light crackle border. I am pleased with this quilt.

Threads of Memory 2014 BOM by Barbara Brackman

I have also been SLOWLY working on the May block for Ms Potts BAS project. I changed the block to some EPP flowers and used batiks. I am hoping that this block will allow me to mix and match some fabrics and incorporate more colors into the quilt. Of course, you can see that the next step is to Applique the flowers to the background and then I will be through with the block. I just love the colors.

I can barely hear my CWB project, block 4 calling in the distant background and hope to start on it soon. I also have one more quilt top to put together, but need to decide if I am really going to like the quilt. The blocks are 16″ house blocks. I had a lot of issues with the pattern and the colors are not really my favorite, so I f I decide that I do not want to put anymore effort in the project, I have the perfect Quilter’s home to send it to for completion.

Have a great week and keep on stitching – it pays to work the UFO Bin every now and then for that great feeling of accomplishment!

May 12, 2016

Good News – Ms Potts – Churn Dash – and What Was I Thinking?

Greetings again! Good news on the Town Car – New Battery fixed all the problems from yesterday! YEA things are looking up! We were told that the newer cars are so power-hungry that if the battery voltage is low things like alarms, door locks, etc will not work! Worth every penny to have such an easy fix!

Now I can get back to the mess in the Studio and try to figure out where I was a week or two ago. Calendar is cleared out for fun and more fun.

Tuesday we did a one day getaway from the “remodeling game” and with a friend in Schulenburg, Texas for a “ham radio equipment” pick up. Clay will fix the equipment for John. After a visit and a cup of coffee with John we took a side trip to two quilt stores in New Braunfels, Texas. I called my friend Jan to see if she was interested in doing some fabric looking and shopping. We met at Oak Leaf first and I found some batiks and a couple of reproduction fabrics that I know I will be using. I had such a great time visiting with Jan and other quilters that I had known when I was involved in a Guild.

Here are the fabrics I just had to have (really?) Jan told me that if I find any black reproduction fabrics to scoop them up as they are difficult to find. I also found some batiks, border fabric that will be great for Hexagons, and some green with leaves reproduction fabric. What fun it was to be able to take the time to feel the fabric and look through the “sales” table! We visited Oak Leaf Quilts and The Quilt Haus in New Braunfels.

I have also worked on my Churn Dash blocks that I started in late August before packing for the Arizona trip. I finally had some time to finish the ones that I had cut out while in Arizona. When I started making them I decided to make 4 of each color so I am not sure what the finished quilt will look like. The smaller blocks are so much fun to make I remember when I started quilting it was BIG BIG BIG. Nice to work with a more challenging block.

Group of Churn Dash Blocks — Group of Churn Dash Block

As all quilters, we try to save scraps and I always keep fabric scraps together that I use in each project. When I cut four of the pink and shirting fabric, I realized I was short some of the fabric last week. I searched high and low for the remaining fat quarter so I could finish the last 2 blocks the same. I finally gave up and used a mixture. I like the outcome, but wouldn’t you know the other day I was pulling some fabric and hidden (I know the little fairy’s did it at night) between some other fat quarters was the piece of fabric I needed. I decided to keep two one way and 2 with the same fabrics! No ripping on this project as they are to be fun blocks – not work!

And of course, cannot forget Ms Potts project. Here are our (Jaydee and I) blocks for May – at least I am on time with this one.

Nanette's Ms Potts Block 12 — Nanette’s Ms Potts Block 12

Jaydee's Ms Potts Block 12 — Jaydee’s Ms Potts Block 12

Our CWB group is “progressing” slowly but surely! Cathy has finished Block 3 and I am about half way through. So hopefully next we will be posting that group of Blocks. I will be doing a feature article in the Baltimore Applique Society (BAS) newsletter for June inviting all who would like to join us. We tend to complete at least 1 or 2 blocks a month and hoping that June will provide us an avenue to do some catching up. But if we don’t – the sky will not cave in!

Have a wonderful quilting day and I am praying my life gets back to normal by Monday!