Sue Garman – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

January 9, 2019

My 2019-2020 Project List

Greetings from South Texas where we are now enjoying some dry cooler air and I love it. My walk was so enjoyable compared to yesterday when the Humidity was so high! I am slowly catching up on the ‘mundane’ things like updating my Blog and doing this post! Maybe you will see something that sparks an interest for your quilt making projects.

I have been working on reviewing a stack of quilt patterns to work on in the next 2 years (yes I decided that if I chose them now and say 2 years I am ahead of the game) so that I do not feel I have to finish them all (which would be impossible). Here is what I started with and ended with:

Now for the 2019-2020 “List”. I have no time frame for finishing the list just hoping to finish all by the end of 2020. As I studied each pattern I labeled it from an Easy to Complex quilt. This allows me to easily pick out what I want to work on at the time – NO THINKING or INTENSE WORK!

1. Enduring Love by Carol Hopkins book Vintage Legacies. Easy. About a week (I want to remake the borders on this quilt)

2. Make 2 baby quilts – Use Jewel Box Quilt book by Eleanor Burns Easy 2 Weeks.

3. Stonefields – Complete Sections 6 through 10 Rest of the year Easy

4. Feather Star Quilt – Marsha McCloskey – Challenge Quilt: Blue and White Star of Chamble. Fabric is in the drawer by the design board. Plan on a month!

5. Bear Mountain Cabin – Intermediate – Log Cabins, Flying Geese and Bear Paw blocks.

6. Love Warm by Pam Buda – Easy Lots of 2″ squares Scrappy Quilt –

7. Infinity by Eileen Wright in Twist and Turn Bargello Quilts – Red and a Teal One! Maybe Nebula from the same book Intermediate – New Technique

8. Terracina Fabrics – a Panel Play quilt! Will take some up front time for placement and fillers. Use Panel Play by Barbara Becker for ideas on the setting – A fun project Easy

9. Ancient Stars – Sue Garman Requires Lots of Stars and HSTs – Need to decide if I am going to do it all at once, or space it out like a BOM. This quilt requires at least a month or more to make. Intermediate

10. Double Wedding Ring by Sharlene Jorgensen – Templates provided. Intermediate/Advance – At least a month.

11. Lynn Wilder Patterns – Lynns patterns are great and instructions excellent! I will pick one and maybe the wall hanging! Time consuming due to colorway selections.

The House on Edgewood Lane Intermediate/Advance
Country Sunshine Intermediate/Advance
Country Charmer Intermediate/Advance
Heritage Intermediate/Advance
Cute as a Button 31 x 31. Easy

12. Star Dance by Jilly Studio – some applique on the border. Easy

13. Eagle – Cheryl Phillips – Challenge Quilt – Circular quilt – New Technique

14. Liberty Homestead. 36 x 36 Wall Hanging – Easy and Fun pattern. About 2 weeks Purchased hand dyed fabrics from Liberty Homestead in March 2018 at the Dallas Show

15. With This Ring – Linda Ballard – 9” blocks! Easy Pattern – About a week or so. (Also known as Cog Wheels Block)

16. Boston Commons – Heritage Quilts – New Technique 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks

17. Karen Combs Illusions and 3-D Fun with Pandora’s Box – New Technique – 3 weeks

18. Jelly Roll Book – Both Sides of the Pond. Unique Block Easy Fun to make 2 weeks

Appliqué
A Bountiful Life UFO from 2015
Dresden Plate UFO from 2018

New Appliqué Projects: Sue Garman’s – Maybe in 2020

Mama Said – Advance Applique
Yuletide Joy – Intermediate/Easy

On-Line BOMs

Blue Delft – I will download this pattern for a future project.

Capital “T” BOM – 1 Block a Month! This is my only BOM to work on each month!

If I participate in So Scrappy RSC 2019 Challenge this year, I will be using their colors With This Ring pattern (See Number 15 on the list above)

My Goals for January are:

Capital “T” BOM – 1 Block a Month! I am behind 3 months and plan on getting caught up today!

Baby Quilts for my Cousin’s great grand babies Addison and Brooklyn!

Remake the borders for Enduring Love (a 2015 quilt that I had given up on the Star Borders)

Have a wonderful day and a great week!

Nanette

Linking To: My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Sew Can She; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Fiber Tuesday; Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHOW; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts; Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Show and Tell Monday with Bambi; Quilt Fabrication

January 15, 2017

Reaching My Goals for 2017

Greetings from South Texas where who knows what the weather will be – we are still in the warm Spring type weather! Lovely high humidity and in the mid-70’s. We are ‘expecting’ rain tonight, but then we have been expecting rain for 4 days!!! So guess we will just continue looking out the window to see what happens!

I now have my great back brace, and I am really enjoying it. It has made me realize that I have NOT been standing up straight as I have always done. I guess this comes with age and when we sit at the sewing machine, or standing at our cutting tables, we begin to slouch and ruin our posture. Try to keep this in mind so that you do not end up as I have.

I have had the best 15 days of a New Year since 2014!!! Still trying to increase my walking and step goals to be over 6000 per day and I have kept up with the pace, although this morning I really did not think I would be able to do the 35 minutes, but I did and was looking for my chair when I finished. But when you walk in 93% humidity sometimes it is just not fun! Oh where is our winter for 2017!

Today I finished sewing the binding on the 5 projects that I quilted this week. Somehow I did not get to work in my Studio on the binding the last 2 days – let’s say that it was “unforeseen” requirements that took over. My goal is to have them all completed by Wednesday, if not before!

circa-dear-jane-and-sewing-machine-bindings-not-finished-but-ready — Ready for the binding to be hand stitched!

placemats — Ready for the binding to be hand stitched!

I am also determined to finish those lovely grapes and the bird’s beak on Block 5 of A Bountiful Life project! There are a few areas where I am going embroidery a few short-short stems and one area where I am not interested in doing circles in bias twigs! I will embroidery that area and just make it mine! I wonder what I was thinking when I did the wings? Probably pulled the yellow from the orange, but I like it! My quilt will really be different from the others who have made this quilt in Reproduction fabrics. I love my batiks.

bountiful-life-omg-jan-15-block-5 — A Bountiful Life Block 5

I have a clothes rack where I hang quilts that need to be quilted. Now some of them have been begging to be quilted for a while, so as you can see, I must prioritize this effort. I was going to quilt Threads of Memory, but decided to do all the smaller projects and work up to the larger ones. I will send 2 of the quilts out for a professional job to enter in the SA Show this year. I know that the Judges would absolutely count me off if I do my free motion meandering and I do not want to take the time to spend to learn how to become more proficient. I am just hoping I can find an excellent quilter to do the job! I do not want a 2014 repeat, thank you very much!!! (OH there is that purple monstrosity that I started 2016 with and do not want to work on it at this time – I need to put something in the baskets. If I did not have so much time and money invested it would go away to the “never see again” basket called Trash Can)

For my next quilting project, I have decided to quilt a wall hanging from Lynette Jensen that I made during one of our trips to Arizona – which year….maybe 2012? I need to embroidery some stars on the blue part and then it will be loaded and quilted! YEA.

Now I must think of what I am going to do for RSC 2017. How about Sue Garman’s OMIGOSH! – it is a highly technical and challenging project. Do I want to make it a year-long project that will drive me nuts but would remind me of Sue who was such a wonderfully gifted Designer every step of the way? She passed away in the last week or so and she will be missed by the quilting world! I really am leaning toward this quilt as a project to work on during the day, but before I start I must study color placement and do a few test blocks to make sure that all will go well with the endeavor. When looking for the Flag pattern I found an old Lynette Jensen Bow Tie pattern that might really be easier and more in tune to use the RSC 2017 project . Of course I may also start Robin’s Nest for my piecing project. Heck why not start all three? I could really head for the nut house by May….

Well, have a great holiday if you are still working, if not, continue to enjoy retirement and quilting! It has been so peaceful here today and I have accomplished so much this week! I am hoping to sell my Husqvarna embroidery unit through one of my guilds this week. Cross my fingers. Someone out there might need it and I have only used it close to 40 hours since I purchased my Designer 1, only to find out I did not like it!

I am so excited about our 45th President and his Inauguration, I wish our country would come together and support him and his Amazing Cabinet selections. He is going to be America’s President and support the great citizens of this Nation.

August 3, 2015

Summer Doldrums and Back to Piecing!

Well! I just love summer. No rain, HOT HOT HOT. It is 2:49 CST and 100 degrees – low humidity – but hotter than heck! Does that tell you something about my frame of mind? I am already for winter and it is just 3 Aug! I do hope it snows in Arizona this winter. I will just go outside and sit in a chair and get freezing cold! This is going to be a brutal summer here in lovely South Texas! I had decided to not walk for a while, but without my daily dose of endorphins, life is just not the same! So on the road again to see if I can meet my 7 day a week walking goal! The miles and steps add up quicker that one would think. But one must endure pain to obtain gain – think the original saying was “no pain – no gain”. Well, I have had enough of all the “GAIN” I ever want – thank you! The word GAIN to me is more related to Clay’s Ham Radio vocabulary! I think they call that “antenna gain”….. ENOUGH. I think I sound like a bad Monday Blogger (LOL).

I have been working on 2 projects now – Brinton Hall and Stonefields – but now my hands and arms have now given out. What in the heck does an old lady with Carpel Tunnel, Dorsal Wrist, Ulner Nerve, and Fibro expect anyway – a body to work like a 30-year-old? Forget that one. I would have the surgery on my hands, but already been there done that one and do not want anymore of the “fixes” that do not work. I just love the braces – so pretty and confining. Should be fun to see if I can work on my EPP projects with these hummers!

Broken Hands — Lovely Braces for Non-Working Hands

So now I will find a piecing project to work on during the day and hand work at night – just as soon as the pain goes away. This morning I went through my patterns (ever want to wonder why we purchase so many) that I will be taking on the winter trek to snowsville (see I can be positive). I hate to open the drawers and see all those lovely patterns and most of them are hand work. I think I need to have a pattern sale someday.

I finally found OMIGOSH! Here, Afternoon Delight Here , and Twirly Balls and Pinwheels Here from Sue Garman. I think that I was on a roll when I ordered all three (3) in March 2014…..so now I am going to review the patterns, see if any of the 3 could absolutely drive me completely crazy and go for it. If not, then the fall back will be a quilt that I have been wanting to make for 4 years – I first saw the quilt in a Tucson Arizona quilt store. The name is Desert Nine-Patch from Timeless Treasures Here. The pattern was free but no longer on their website – let me know if anyone wants a copy – think I downloaded it. It is not a difficult pattern – lots of 9 patches. Hum, wonder if I can find that pattern (thought I had lost OMIGOSH! this morning when I found it in the package with my Blue Snowmen from Curtis Boehringer)…. see too many patterns – so little time! I have a method of making sure that when I purchase fabric for a specific quilt that I keep the pattern with the fabric – the only problem is that sometimes I forget that I do that! Enough of this too!

Back to Brinton Hall. I had started on the “beige” hexagons around the Medallion for Brinton Hall – This is what I started working on last night before the pain set in during the night with the hands. I will have to put this aside for a few days for the hands to settle down. I think that I tense up when I sew them together. (another thing to work on – relax when doing hand work). Does anyone have any tips on how to not tense up doing EPP?

First Row — Adding the Beige Hexagons to the Medallion

On to Stonefields. I do not know how other quilters are, but sometimes I just need to have 2 or 3 projects going – especially since I am aware of what happens if I work on hand work for 2 weeks straight! I prepared the first 13 blocks and have completed 7 of the 13. The are quick and easy so maybe I will be through with this group by Wednesday or Thursday (dream on teenage queen!).

Blocks 1-7 Stonefields — Blocks 1-7 of Stonefields Quilt

I had decided to use my Prairie Rose fabric for this quilt (I have enough to start a quilt store) but quickly realized that I will now have to include other fabrics. There are 121 blocks in this quilt so this is going to be a stash buster! (I can see an overload coming for the RV – hope the tires hold up.) It appears that this quilt will be made with a lot of different fabric lines of Reproduction fabrics. This will be a fun quilt to make – not difficult and really challenges one on fabric selection. When I purchased the fabric last year, I also purchased the pattern that was designed for this fabric line so I will make that quilt with the fabric (someday) – see nothing goes to waste with Quilters.

Well, I am sure if you have made it to the end of this Blog that hopefully you have had a chuckle or two from my lovely Monday. I can hardly wait until 4:30 PM – that is when I turn into a recliner person and veg there the rest of the day (after supper of course). Football starts next Sunday and I am happy about that – wonder if the Cowboys will be able to make it to the Super Bowl…..So glad that Brady got caught – hope he stays out the full 6 weeks. (Oops – there might be some Patriot fans out there – sorry) (LOL).

I hope that your Monday went well and that you accomplished at least one goal for the day. Mine was to get out of bed! SUCCESS.