Rosemary Youngs Happy Scrappy – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

First of all, Clay and I are so happy that the Denver Bronco’s will play the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 – kudos to Payton Manning and Cam Newton. I am afraid that this will be the last game for Payton, but boy does Cam Newton ever have a wonderful football career ahead for him. Great Coaches too! This will be a very Memorial 50th Super Bowl. I have watched every Super Bowl from the beginning and what a joy to be alive to watch the 50th! A sad goodbye to Payton and a resounding hello to a young and upcoming young Quarterback. Cam Newton loves the game and you can tell he is having a time of his life. Payton is on the other side of the spectrum – looking forward to a career change. We are hoping that Denver can win – wouldn’t that be a great send off to a wonderful representative of the NFL?

OK – what would make me lump the Super Bowl, a Black Cat, Lady Bugs, Stonefield blocks, and Hexagons together? Yesterday and memories of the 1970’s.

Each morning Clay and I head out the back door about 6:30 AM and go to the Studio for morning coffee, morning news and then he visits with his Ham Buddies on the Radio. Yesterday morning I was running a little late getting to the Studio and as I stepped out the back door I noticed the neighbor’s black cat coming from the front yard to the back yard. It politely walked right across my path and my first inclination was to go back and get to the Studio another way. Especially when I looked up and saw a full moon! Well, I knew then I should have turned around and gone the other way but just too lazy to do that. My day went to heck in a hand basket! Being born on Halloween 2 minutes to midnight, I tend to be a little superstitious – especially when it comes to a black cat! Clay just laughs and laughs at me, but I am a true believer! If I leave the house and a black cat crosses the road ahead, I turn around and go another way! REALLY!! I also believe in premonitions and we should always listen to our instincts!

Here is another reason I do not like black cats! When I was young and dumb and trying to get ahead in the Government (maybe this was the problem – working for the Federal Government) there were 3 times that I had been interviewed for different promotions! For some reason, the announcements always came on Tuesdays and the first time I really thought ‘Ah I have a chance at this promotion’ it did not happen. As I was leaving my apartment a black cat crossed my path! My parking slot did not allow me to turn around and go another way….. OK – you guessed it! Three different times this happened over the course of a year. I was never selected, so I transferred to another agency and my career took off! (Hum – maybe that cat knew more than I did) I do believe in the black cat theory just like “do not walk under a ladder”! I cannot say that yesterday turned out well, because it did not. But I digress on black cats.

Now to the lady bugs. Upon arriving home from Arizona in late December I found a lot of Lady Bugs in the house. I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and figured that would take care of the problem. Well guess again – have you ever smashed a lady bug, or had one in your house – it smells horrible when you smash or vacuum them! My house cleaner thought that I needed to change the vacuum cleaner bag – it was the dead Lady Bugs! So when we arrived home from shopping in SA yesterday, one of those nice ladies landed on my neck and I swatted it away (I thought) I kept smelling that darn lady bug and about 5 minutes later I found the darn thing in my bra!!!!! Talk about doing a dance – I HATE BUGS! Especially one that gets on me. Again I was very amusing to hubby – he was laughing so hard he had to take a break from eating that delicious Whataburger (of which I cannot eat). He makes fun of me because we live in the country with deer, snakes, squirrels, bugs, birds, etc.! I tell him that is OK – I have always hated bugs!

OK – enough of that tidbit of information that is so far from the quilting world, but it is fun to share isn’t it?

I have really been pushing to finish basting all of the Hexagons that I have cut out for Brinton Hall. I am putting a huge dent in that job.

I still have a lot to baste, but more than half of them are basted. When I complete the basting I will start surrounding the Center Flowers and sewing the Medallion together. I still have to select the background color. I am doing the entire quilt in batiks and Asian fabrics.

OK – now for Stonefields. I have finished preparing Segment 3 and here they are ready for hand applique. While doing the post and labeling each block I realized that I was short a block – hummm cannot blame that one on the darn cat!

Imogen's Sunburst 1 — Imogen’s Sunburst 1

Imogen's Sunburst 2 — Imogen’s Sunburst 2

Semi Circles 1 and 2 (I made 2 of the same fabric)

Paper Flower 2 — Paper Flower 1 Stems will be Green

Bordered Four Patch 2 — Bordered Four Patch (the forgotten one not sewn yet)

Cara's Surprise 2 — Cara’s Surprise 2 and 3 (same colorway)

The pattern for “Date Night” just did not work well for me. I tried 3 different fabrics to make the block as the Designer provided but I just did not like the design of the flower. I just “happened” to pick up some paperwork on my cutting table and there were some small hexagon flowers that I had made for my Happy Scrappy quilt by Rosemary Youngs. So here is my Date Night block.

I did complete the sewing cover for my 301 Singer Sewing Machine I purchased last year – I decided to put a red border on it and I love it. It makes the entire “quilt” pop!

Well, this has been my progress, along with the fact that I am working on the Candle Table Runner and 2 more placemats! – Yup – all ready for applique also. I am hoping to have a lot more completed by next week. I am keeping my goal of not diverting from my commitment to my 2016 goals.

I do hope that those who were “lucky” enough (?) to experience the Blizzard of 2016 are safe and sound. Today in LV, Texas we have Winter – 48 degrees and rain with wind. Yesterday it was about 75 degrees! I love this type of day – best for quilting. One thing about South Texas weather is that within a week we have Summer, Winter, Fall and Spring – doesn’t it sound great? I hate it! I want the 4 seasons back – and not all in one week, but in 3 month increments! Oh well another pipe dream.

Have a great day sewing!

Welcome to South Texas where we only have tropical weather – YUP – back to the 90’s with high humidity – YEA –

Well, this should have set the mood for this Blog Posting. Saturday I started to work on my Di Ford Mountmellick 2014 Mystery Quilt project. This began 3 days of total frustration and here I am on Wednesday a little on the cynical side of life.

In 2004 I made my first pieced quilt called Cozy Christmas, a pattern from Fons and Porter Magazine. It took me 1 month to complete it and I learned from that project that I knew nothing about quilting. But when I finished that quilt it was perfectly square and all points were perfect.

It was a hard lesson to learn that when a pattern is provided free in a magazine that the magazine ‘assumes’ that the quilter knows everything there is to know about quilting. After the 3rd call to Fons and Porter, I so advised! Lesson learned on that one? No more quilts made from a magazine UNLESS it was a utility quilt, quick and easy for a give away!

OK – 10 years later! I was so excited about the Di Ford Mystery Quilt in the Quiltmania Magazine, I worked very hard trying to find the same fabric that she was using, but by the time I found out about the Di Ford, her 2014 quilt, Quiltmania, and Australian Quilters, I was out of luck for the first border fabric. I told myself – ‘that’s OK’ we will just do another colorway. Remember, this is the year that I am into Reproductions – so am a babe in the woods on selections of fabrics. I worked with a reproduction quilt shop and I chose to use the “Amelia” fabric line for this quilt. It was top dollar price – and I did not mind at the time because I was so excited to start on this quilt.

I selected a background fabric and started on the Medallion. Then in April Darryl got sick and all was put on hold. The only applique I had accomplished on this quilt included the stems, with the other pieces ready to applique but I never seemed to get in the mood, or have the time for to work on it. Since I have now caught up on other projects, I thought this would be the time to “get with it” and start my Di Ford Mystery quilt.

Well, it did not take long to realize that I was going to learn a very very very costly lesson………….Number 1. The background I had chosen did not match the cream in the Amelia line. I told myself, “well, not to worry Nanette – you have plenty of creams”! NEXT….I then sat down and began studying the first border fabric that I was planning on using versus what Di Ford had picked out…………YIKES! Must have been in LA LA Land when I first reviewed Part One! Judie Rothermel’s 25th Anniversary border fabric is ONLY 3 INCHES and my beautiful Amelia border fabric is 4 1/2″……….WOW am I ever having some fun here! It did not take a Rocket Scientist to realize that I had a SERIOUS problem here to correct (if at all possible).

I hit the panic button and started calling my quilting Buddies (like they really needed my problem) I was determined somehow I would make it work. I put in calls to Jaydee and Jan – two of my long distance quilting buddies. Jaydee was the lucky one (?) as she called me back first and calmed me down long enough to realize I needed to make a decision – I could move forward or put it away! Being the Type A Scorpio idiot, I decided I would forge ahead, use this as a challenge and make it work. She spent time with me discussing medallion quilts with borders and how they work. (Jaydee is a little smarter than me – she was going to wait until the entire quilt was published – REAL SMART LADY!)

By Tuesday morning I had decided to re-size the pattern and cut out a small piece of my Amelia border fabric. Tuesday afternoon I spoke with Jan who had already ordered the kit in January and had all the suggested fabric line to make the entire quilt – especially that first border! I told her I realized that this quilt had to have a 3″ border fabric and mine was NOT 3″, but 4 1/2″. We discussed different ways to make it work, but when I tried one of the ways it BOMBED! End of that story.

Jaydee, Jan and I have all agreed that in order to make this quilt come out like it should, the quilt had to have the exact border fabric or forget it!.

OK – so here I am on Wednesday at 2:22 – Nothing more to report – the fabric is back in the drawer for another project and Di Ford’s 2014 Mystery Quilt is gone forever!

To top it off – I was looking at my Happy Scrappy Medallion with the 3 borders completed and getting ready to sew the hexie flowers on when I realized that the last border was sewn on wrong…………………..

I have a date with Mr Ripper ……. Fun Fun Fun

I think I may go get my knitting, sit in my rocking chair and wait for winter! One thing I will not do the rest of the day is to Quilt! Maybe there will be a good segment of Gunsmoke to watch!

Have a Blessed Day and hope you received a chuckle today!