The Lost Boy Quilt – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

The weather is lovely here in South Texas – we are now in Spring, birds singing, trees blooming, deer hiding out waiting for some February winter weather (none here) and no rain. So I cannot imagine what summer will bring if I am already in shorts for the last 3 weeks! Where is that crystal ball? LOL

Here I am a week later thinking I would be caught up on all of my applique. I have made some progress, but not as much as I wanted to. I have completed 9 of the basket blocks (with appliqued handles) and 11 more to go. As I placed the baskets on the design wall, I noticed that there is a space that really tends to stand out and I will have to figure out what to add that will make it look better. It is almost a diamond, but then the top of the block below the first row stops that. I am leaning toward adding stems and leaves in all of the baskets and especially something that will lap over into these spaces. The baskets are not situation where they will end up in the quilt as they are randomly placed on the design wall as I finish each one.

I have selected a beautiful dark purple batik that was originally purchased for another quilt, but it will add so much to this quilt. When the blocks are complete they will be put away for a week and I will come back to the quilt to make a design decision on what to do with the basket background.

Monday and Tuesday are definitely off the calendar for quilting – we must make sure the doctors stay in business – so Wednesday is my drop dead day to start preparing my Civil War Blocks. I will have about 6 days to prepare 5 blocks. I am going to go with batiks! As I look at my reproduction fabrics versus the batiks I will have so much more of a choice in vibrant colors for the leaves, flowers, birds and even the CWB Bride. I will be changing some of the blocks as I prefer that the birds and animals are not as crudely drawn as the original. So this will be a great learning experience.

I will be using The Lost Boy quilt pattern for the majority of the quilt, Bountiful Life, and Patricia Cox’s pattern for some of the animals or blocks. Patricia draws some wonderful birds and leaves. This will be a fun project as 4 other ladies will be joining in with me. We are planning to start on 1 March and will do 2 blocks per month so we will be through by March of 2017. This will certainly take some dedication to the project. We will start with Row A Blocks 1-5 (going down). I am hoping to have all 5 blocks prepared and ready to go by the 1st. BUT, you all know how life goes, I will be happy to have 2 block ready!

Have a great Sunday and keep on stitching!

Greetings again from La Vernia, Texas. The weather is exactly what I have been waiting for – cold, damp, and Winter is definitely here. Now having said that, I hope that this is not a trick from Mother Nature and that we go back to summer hot and humid days before the end of the year. I have so much more energy with the cooler weather. Although it would have been nice to have a Fall Season, but here we are in the 40’s during the day and high 30’s at night, green grass and green leaves on the trees. Well, as long as I wake up in the mornings, I am a happy camper. Here is what I see when look at out my Bay Windows in my Studio while sewing.

Window View 1 — View of our Back Porch of the House

Window View 2 — View from the other Window – Notice the Deer Corn, Water, and Bird Feeder

OK – Now to what I have accomplished since I finished Darryl’s quilt. Yesterday I washed all of the fat quarters that I had purchased last month….Over 150… So much fun. I was looking for that Recliner by 5PM. Today I finished ironing them and putting them away. Next I pulled all the fabric I had thrown in the drawers the last 2 months and rearranged them in the 2 new Elfa drawers. I bet I am the most 2014 Organized Quilter in Texas, have not met all of my 2015 goals, but hey does being organized count? LOL.

New Elfa's — New Elfa Drawers – The first one is for my Long Arm supplies

On Tuesday I found out that the Dutch Chintz I had purchased (the border fabric) was for the Tree of Life Panel…..Oops…..So in order to use that expensive purchase, I ordered the Tree of Life panel along with 2 other pieces of Dutch Chintz to complete the Tree of Life and for the Mountmellick quilt (see how positive I am – I just know I can do this).

Here are the other pieces of fabric that I will use with both of the quilts.

I have not abandoned my Happy Scrappy quilt – Here is the 3rd border. The circles are little flowers from the line of fabrics I will be using. Not sure what is going to be next – a surprise to you and probably me too.

Besides Happy Scrappy, Threads of Memory, Mountmellick projects, I want to start on the Civil War Bride Quilt…….There are four (4) different versions of this pattern. Each has a different name. Quite interesting. I purchased the first one in 2004 from Pat Cox at the Houston Show and had no idea what I was buying – just like the picture and dreamed of making the quilt. Here they are – let me know your favorite. I am thinking I will be mixing and matching.

And now to the kitchen to play Suzy Homemaker and make some 2 Alarm Chili and beans for Clay and Spaghetti Sauce for tomorrow for Dan and Clay…..Hopefully tomorrow I will make a decision and get with the quilting program and quit increasing my “Stash” and make some serious quilts. Have a wonderful week-end – Cannot believe it is the 15th of November 2014! Enjoy.