Paper Pieces – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

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.

July 25, 2015

Brinton Hall, Fabric, and Anna Brereton

Good Saturday morning from South Texas – where we love the 100+ degree weather and humidity….. OK – July Fool! They “say” we are sending the heat high to the Southwest next week – around 1 August! If that happens and we have rain in August we are in a new cycle of weather! Walking in this weather is great – allows me to take at least 2 showers a day! I will miss them when winter gets here (LOL).

Our lives have returned to normal (with a few sad moments) it is unbelievable what stress can do to the body and mind – it is a killer. I am so enjoying life again and my freedom from interruptions and other issues. Now the only interruptions are when Clay and I interrupt each other when we are working on our projects! Looking forward to the trek to Arizona more and more. So many things coming down the road that are exciting and so looking forward to the change in scenery. The word for August is “Concentration” because I am slowly getting it back!

Well, here is an update on the Brinton Hall quilt. When I received my Quiltmania, #108, and started reviewing Part 2 of the project, I decided to look further into this quilt. Evidently the quilt was inspired by an original piece made between 1803-05 by Anna Brereton who lived from 1756-1819! WOW! Can you imagine if the quilters of today will have their work copied, or new interpretations of them in the year 300? Wonder if anyone will still be on this old earth by then!

As I began to review Part 2, I wanted to learn more about the original quilt and quiltmaker. Here is a picture of the original quilt – it is absolutely beautiful – what a bed to die for! Janet Rae has a book that was published in 1987 on “The Quilts of the British Isles” where Leigh Latimore found this quilt and made her interpretation using Kaffe Fassett fabrics and Reproduction fabrics. (I found the book on Amazon and ordered it as it should be a good read). It is a pretty quilt, but of course we all are individuals in our color/fabric selections and that is what makes Quilters unique! They bring their own preferences in fabric and color when making a quilt. This is what makes our hobby unique! This quilt is an absolute work of art. If you wish to know more click on this link – Frayed Fabrics

There are 2 other Bloggers (USA) who are working on the Brinton Hall quilt project – LuAnn and Karen H. PS – Thank you Karen for the tip on the ‘hyperlink’ you saved me some time in learning that one!

So on to my progress. I am currently working on cutting out a million hexagons (not really) for this quilt. I have all of the tone on tone fabric hexies cut and working on them in the evening. Now I need to cut more for the remainder of the Medallion. I love pulling fabrics and cutting them up into pieces – weird huh? When I saw this pattern I immediately went to my Asian fabric stash, that has been sitting patiently waiting for at least 7 years, and of course my batiks (they have missed me since I went back 200 years to Reproductions) to select my favorite colors that will blend nicely with the Asian.

After reviewing Part 1 and 2 of Brinton Hall from Leigh Latimore I have decided that I will continue on with the Medallion, but after that I have a new interpretation of Anna’s quilt. I used EQ7 yesterday and designed the quilt – at least I think I know where I am going with this. I should have better control over the outcome than I did on my previous disaster – Enduring Legacy!

Here are some of the fabrics (first pull) that I will be using! I am really excited about working on this and it seems I am developing a love for EPP – need to with all the money I have invested in Paper Pieces and Stamps by Kate products!

Asian Fabric for Brinton Hall (Upside down bird) Notice the hexies on the top fabric background!

To shift gears…. I think it was during April that I went absolutely nuts on purchasing two (2) old Singer sewing machines – First I purchased this Singer 301 and then purchased the table that it sits on! Of course during the course of that purchase I heard about the Singer 401a and what a workhorse it was! So I purchased one of those. I will tell you that I have not taken the time to sew a lot on the 301, but I can attest to the soundness and what a workhorse the 401a is. I was blessed in purchasing to fantastic machines – both in perfect looks and perfection in performance.

Singer 301 sitting on a special made table made from a Singer Treadle Machine

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week-end of quilting while we are in the heat of Summer! Good time to work on UFO’s or new projects. Until next time – take care and have a blessed life. I do!

July 4, 2014July 4, 2014

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

I hope that all are enjoying your family and/or friends for a great celebration of the United States of America. Our wonderful Country is having some hard times now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!!

Darryl is doing well with the Chemo and we are enjoying spending time with him here, at his home, and a lot of phone conversations. We have decided that Darryl and I are two peas in a pod – we laughed about that last night on one of our 2 hour phone calls. He is an absolute Hoot! So funny and both of us are the Perfectionists and Big Worry Warts and absolutely hate taking medicine! We cherish all the minutes that we have with him!

Now back to my quilting progress. This last Monday I had the feeling that this was going to be a great week and it has been. I have kept my promise of doing my 1.5 miles each morning – yes here in South Texas we get to walk even in the 90+ degree weather with about the same for humidity. Hoping that this summer brings us tons of rain. I believe that this just may be the year that we get a Hurricane in the Gulf and that it will be South of us and we will get out of this horrible drought. Terrible to have to want that….

I have now caught up with Barbara Brackman’s Threads of Memory, Pat Sloan’s Globetrotting, and so excited about Rosemary Youngs Happy Scrappy BOM! Austen Family and I are still debating what to do. That debate and struggle will start in the morning, or may be Sunday as we have company coming tomorrow.

Of course all my favorite shops are having 4th of July sales – Sylvia Pippin, Hancock’s of Paducah, and Paper Pieces. They now have my money. (LOL).

My creative streak has finally returned. AND, I have finally figured how to make sure a block comes out to the EXACT unfinished size! Below is a picture of the center star of Block 6 of Threads of Memory. When I cut out the star points I added 1/16″ to the cutting measurements and GUESS WHAT —— A PERFECT 6 1/2″ SQUARE STAR………….. Now it is not easy to get that measurement if you do not like math, but being the one who loves math, I finally figured out how to make a 12 1/2″ block come out square also!

Block 6 Threads of Memory — Final Block 6 – This is one of my favorites – Heck – the are all my favorites!

Here is a “group picture” of my finished Blocks for Threads of Memory:

B 1-6 Threads of Memory — Threads of Memory – Blocks 1 through 6

Now on to Pat Sloan’s Globetrotting BOM. I am probably repeating myself, but Pat is one after my own quilting heart because she allows for that extra fabric when making Half Square Triangles ( HSTs!) By doing this in her directions, making her blocks are a sure thing when having the block come out to the 10 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ No time wasted here! Thx Pat!

Block 7 - Globetrotting BOM — Block 7 – Pat Sloan’s Globetrotting BOM for 2014

How about let’s go to Rosemary Young’s Happy Scrappy BOM. I am learning so much from Rosemary. She has really challenged me by taking on all of my projects and through working on her Happy Scrappy. My design and creativity potential is coming out with this project. I selected some fabrics that I had in my stash from 2009. It was a Moda fabric line called Ruby’s Flower Garden and Summer Flower Garden. Of course, as always, I had another project in mind when I purchased it. I was going to do an applique project with the fabric, so I only purchased 1/3 of a yard of the fabric line. I did purchase 2 yards of the focus fabric and that was a good thing. Here is how I started with my Center Medallion:

Happy Scrappy Fabric Selection – 26 June 2014

Next, I made the Medallion Center Block. When I started with the cutting, I decided I would do the 1/16″ extra bit….. but I think on Thursday the 26th it was not my best math day – I cut it 1/8″ bigger……Slight mistake and correctable, but not the perfection I wanted. But I knew that I was short on fabric and could not waste any. So I dealt with it! This is how I figured out that adding 1/8″ to cutting instructions would not work. Because the first border was plain, I got away with it. I could trim the extra 1/8″ and come out at 18 1/2″ x 18 1/2″… See, I am learning all the “secrets” that all the other quilters know about – THE HARD WAY! Now on to the Center Block:

Here is the First Border:

Now to Border 2. I changed my border – I turned the HSTs, in a different way that Rosemary had done hers. I am hoping this works. I have a great idea for Border 3, BUT I am waiting for my favorite shop – Martha’s Quilting Corner – to send me 3 scraps so I can compare (they are Crackle’s by Moda) with the fabric I am using. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I am now caught up on 3 projects (at least until fabric arrives next week for Happy Scrappy). Poor Di Ford is just “hanging around” and my center medallion is still begging to be appliqued. I need to finish up on my Baltimore Applique project and get it turned in for their Auction in October. I will post more about that soon. Then there is a Pam Buda project, but am thinking I might use those blocks in my Happy Scrappy quilt and kill “two birds with one stone” as they say. I am also doing some knitting and now I feel like I can start on playing with my Sashiko in the evenings. Ahhhhhhhh life is good…… Quilting is so relaxing and fulfilling. I hope that all are finding the time to enjoy your hobby. It feels good to be back in my Studio everyday – just playing. Remember – Life is Short! So much to do and so little time.

Until next posting. Have a Blessed Life.

Nanette