Robyn Pandolph – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

I am ending out the month of February 2023 by catching up on my posts (check it out) and what has been going on in our lives.

Now back to quilting, I have only had sporadic times to finish up cutting up the scarps of fabric left over from quilts made in the last few years! I was able to finish them up during last week (Do not ask what day as that is gone from my memory bank!).

Ahhh Finished!

And back to storage under my cutting table – great place to store things that won’t be used immediately!

Now for my plans for the month of March and beyond. Rebecca sent me 4 more of my quilts that she has finished – only 3 more to go! I received( 1) Brinton Hall, (2)Cozy Christmas (I made this quilt in 2004 with Robyn Pandolph’s Christmas Folk Art III and IV and a few pieces of Folk Art II. This is the first pieced quilt I had made), (3) Alexander Bean Pot, and finally(4) Stars Around the Garden! More beautiful finishes from a quilter who really cares about your quilts when quilt them!

Brinton Hall, Nanette’s Version!

Cozy Christmas – a Fons and Porter pattern in a November/December 2002 Fons and Porter Love of Quilting magazine.

Alexander Bean Pot – by Carol Hopkins

Stars Around the Garden by Bits and Pieces

I now have a total of 10 quilts that I need to square and trim and put the binding on, and then they will be ready for the hand work. I have worked out a plan that I believe I can achieve hopefully in the next 3 weeks. (giving myself some time). I have already trimmed and squared Irish Mist. She just needs the binding sewn together and then sewn onto the quilt. I hope to have this one done by Tuesday. If I can I will select a quilt a day to trim. square, select the binding and sew it onto the quilt. If my life were perfect I could be finished by the 14 of March (is that the Ides of March? EKK) which would be great. But not expected here. I am hoping to do a post each day that I complete a quilt and getting it back in the binding pile!

After I get the 10 ready for hand work, there will ONLY be 14 LARGE quilts to bind. Maybe I can finish them by the end of April. That would be wonderful as I am ready to make more quilts for Rebecca!

I am also entering 3 of my 13 quilts that Rebecca quilted in the San Antonio Quilt Show in September – more on that later!

Hey the good news for the day – I had been paying $6.23 a dozen for my Organic eggs – today they are now $4.83 a dozen – When the prices goes to $3.98 a dozen, that will save me about $40.00 a month on the food bill. For some frustrating news – our HEB has really upset La Vernia residents and myself. They decided to enlarge the SMALL store rather than building a new one across the street from the existing store. But NO they added a new parking lot away from the store, went out 50′ from the current store front and put customers in a mess for 14 MONTHS, and it is a MESS!

I have decided to drive to Floresville (about a 45 mile round trip) to get my groceries, and I already have made contact with them to order my monthly case of eggs and chips! They seem to be more organized than the LV store and a much larger store. The drive is through country roads which are very relaxing now that all the idiot drivers are in La Vernia and San Antonio. I may never use the LV store again! Their loss and I am sure I am not the only one going to do this to get away from their disaster!

Additionally, I have found a fresh meat market that is closer to us and we are trying a few cuts of meat, and if the meat is better, or just as good as Whole Foods, that means I will not have to do a 100 round trip drive monthly for our meat! See, I can find positive things in our lives! And remember EVERYTHING good or bad happens for a reason!

Hugs and have a wonderful week stitching. I am hoping to be able to enjoy reading everyone’s post, and doing more posting about my work on the binding binge! LOL

Hugs, Nanette

© Nanette Chopin Cook at Doitrightquilter.com 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nanette Chopin Cook and Doitrightquilter.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Linking To: My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts; Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday, Scrap Happy Days, Quilting Patch Linky Party, To Do Tuesdays

I remember when I started quilting in 2002. I knew that needle turn applique would be my first love in the quilt world. My goal was to be able to applique like the Applique Queens on Simply Quilts. In fact, that is where I really learned a lot about being a “wanna be” quilter. Recuperating from 3 back surgeries in 3 years gave me a lot of time to learn and dabble in starting my quilting journey.

I remember seeing the small blocks, the feathered star, the beautiful patterns from Sue Garman, Mimi Dietrich, Lynette Jensen, Pat Campbell, Robyn Pandolph, Eleanor Burns, Curtis Boehringer, Elly Sienkiewicz, and so many many others who inspired me to become a very serious quilter. As do most quilters, I constantly purchased books, patterns, and more books and patterns. Then it was the realization that fabric from Walmart was nothing compared to the beautiful fabric from a Quilt Store. In 2004 my “piecing journey” began. I knew absolutely NOTHING about making a quilt, but when I was a teenager I had made all of my school clothes and later all of my work clothes – until the age of 30. Since then I have never made one outfit and know for sure I never will again.

In my quilting journey, I strove for perfection and always wanted to make a Dear Jane, Dear Hannah, Feathered Star, Baltimore Albums, and many more. I wanted to learn more about color, movement of color in a quilt, become a Master Appliquer and Quilter, even learning how to paper piece. So much to learn and so many quilters that I met along the way that have helped me.

I always shied away for tiny blocks (Miniature Quilts) and of course those pesky 3, 4, and 5 inch blocks – WHAT – who would be nuts enough to take that on? How about those tiny tiny pieces to applique on a Baltimore Album quilt? I learned that most quilters used paper piecing to obtain accuracy in their quilts. I have tried and tried, but have finally decided that the paper piecing technique is just not my bag. and I am a total PPF (Paper Piecer Failure)! So I have continued to push myself to attain perfection in studying a pattern, cutting and measuring accurately and when I made a block and it did not turn out correctly I ripped that baby apart to see exactly what I was doing wrong. This has taken some years to achieve this. I do not mean to “brag” I am just thrilled that I have taken the difficult road to achieve the results that I want when I make a quilt. This applies to quilts that I enter into Quilt Shows for judging, a Utility quilt for a gift, or a wall hanging or quilt for a donation for a raffle or auction.

When had the opportunity arose for me to join the Austin Quilt Guild Dear Jane Bee, I jumped at the offer. The Bee Keeper designates 4 blocks a month from the Dear Jane book for us to work on. The first 2 weeks I just keep looking at those 4 1/2″ blocks and the tiny tiny pieces and saying to myself, “am I nuts”? I decided that since I had signed up for the project I needed to stick with it and would start on the easiest of the 4 blocks this month! Then I would progress to the most difficult. I even tried to do G-4 Shutter Bug that starts with a 1/2″ square in the middle using paper piecing, but since “I AM A FAILURE AT PAPER PIECING”. So I bit the bullet and I sewed the puppy by machine. (I was going to hand quilt this entire quilt, but my hands have different ideas for me – so I am saving them for appliqueing). I was so excited Sunday when I actually finished the block and it came out perfect!!! Whew! Over that intimidating challenge!

I took pictures of each step in making the Shutter Bug block. This is the fabric that I used for the background. Neat because it provided the different shades of beiges for the block.

Fabric for G-4 Shutter Bug — Background Fabric for Shutter Bug

Here are the steps taken to make Shutter Bug by machine piecing.

I studied Coyote Chase and decided that I wanted to “cheat” and make this one the easiest way possible.

Justin’s Comet took me awhile. I decided at first to hand piece the block but did not like where it was going. So I tried 2 other times to machine piece it before I got it right!

G-8 Justin's Comet — Justin’s Comet Block

Now Springbrook Park was a “small” challenge. I printed the pattern on pre-cut freezer paper, cut out the pieces, and prayed, closed my eyes and here is the result:

K-8 Springbrook Park — Springbrook Park Block

In December (I think) I started a quilt for my friend Wanda. She wanted a lap quilt with the Ladies with the Umbrella’s. I finally finished them and now need to decide on the setting for the quilt. Not sure where I will go with it, but maybe it will come to me soon.

As a quilter, it is such a wonderful feeling to finish a “segment” of a project. I seemed to be in a “funk” with my quilting with my back problems, so I am thrilled that I have accomplished the Dear Jane blocks and ready to work on the Ladies quilt setting.

Thursday I will have the RF treatment in my back and hoping and praying that when they carterize the nerves in my back that my pain will subside. After all, how can I possibly work on all the wonderful projects I have ready to go. I received my Stonefields pattern about a week ago but when one is not feeling up to par, it is not time to select fabric for a project!

From now on, one thing that Dear Jane has taught me is to not let a small little block like Shutter Bug intimidate me! LOL

So until next time, I hope that all stay healthy, quilt all the time, and enjoy winter time because we are fast approaching Spring. I am hoping that we do have a cool Spring and maybe just 3 months of the 100+ with 100 % humidity………..Now if we have a lot of rain, that would not bother me either.