York Lodge by Lisa and Louise – Chopin – A Passionate Quilter From Texas

April 16, 2023

Slow Sunday Stitching – 15 April 2023 – WOW

It has been exactly one month since Clay and I came down with the Chinese Balloon Virus! For two people who do not socialize, go among the crowds, and have not been on a trip for 16 months how in the heck can we get sick? Clay recovered quicker than I did. Today I can say I am 100%. It took me 8 days to work up to my 1.5 miles each morning without being worn out by noon. I have missed reading, commenting on other’s post, and posting, but whatever the Virus was it was brutal for me and I am glad it is over with. I finally took a Z-pack about 2 weeks ago and will never take one again. To me it did nothing but tear my stomach up. Enough said of the lost month for me, it is history now.

Now on to quilting things. I actually have finished Block 7 of Moda Holiday Stitch Along!

On the Binding of Quilts Project – Irish Mist, Globetrotting, and Stonefields are completed. Irish Mist and Stonefields are ready for Labels and Sleeves for the Hill Country Quilt Show in May. Summer Blues is next for hand binding starting today.

This is Pat Sloan’s Globetrotting BOM. I love the Blue and White quilts! Hope to make more.

Bindings have been sewn on for Cozy Christmas, OMIGOSH, Alexander’s Bean Pot, Star of Chamblie, Sentimental Scraps and My Summer Blues quilts.

Cozy Christmas is a special quilt for me because it was the very first pieced quilt I made in 2004. When I first started quilting my quilts were mostly hand appliqued, or fusible applique with buttonhole stitching. This is a Fons and Porter quilt pattern from one of their magazines. Rebecca did a beautiful job on it.

Summer Blues is a quilt that I designed. I started this project in August 2022 and finished it in October 2022. You can read about my journey here, here, and here including posts from from August through October 2022.

Today I will be trimming Stars Around the Garden and York Lodge and prepare the binding for them. I first thought that I would not tackle the most difficult until this summer but I knew I would feel a big weight off my shoulders if I did them now and be finished!

I am hoping to complete one of them today (could be wishful thinking). Both quilts are very large and will require at least 400 inches of binding for each quilt. I am going to set a goal of having them finished by Thursday due to Doctor appointments on Monday and Wednesday. Both of the quilts are entered into the San Antonio Quilt Show in September.

As soon as I get the binding on them I will have completed the trimming and sewing on the binding for all of the 11 quilts from Rebecca (2 more due by the end of April). Next step is to finish the binding by hand. This will be a big relief for me as I was overwhelmed with all the quilts I quilted (16) and finished the bindings, then began the work of trimming and sewing the bindings for hand work on the 13 from Rebecca.

Altogether in October 2022 there were a total of 29 quilts that needed to be completed (quilted and binding completed) plus 4 were quilts that were quilted in 2014 but I had not finished the bindings. I have completed binding 19 of the quilts, so that leaves me 14 remaining as of today to hand bind. Of course this does not include the 10 that require hand quilting as they are my embroidered and needle turn applique quilts. But there is no hurry on these quilts this year!

My overall goal was to be finished with all quilts by June. I am anxious to work on new projects and may start something when the quilts are finished for the May Show. There are a total of 7 show quilts that will require sleeves and labels before the May Show. When I can reach that goal, the rest of the year will be mine with absolutely NO deadlines for anything but to have fun.

I would be remiss if I did not send out a special shout out to Rebecca of Rebecca Grace Quilting at this time. Rebecca is a one of a kind Professional Longarm Quilter. I have learned so much from her to include different types of battings available on the market versus what was available when I started quilting in 2001, threads, and how to prepare different backings. This Lady is an excellent example of whom to hire for your special quilting needs. I would not be on top of my “to be quilted” backlog if not for her nor would I have the most beautifully quilted quilts to show in May and September. She will have more quilts to quilt for me in the future. AND I anticipate a few ribbons in our future! I highly recommend Rebecca for those “special” quilts! Thank you Rebecca for all you have done for me.

Well, I am hoping this week to get back on my schedule (especially after Monday and Wednesday). I miss reading your posts and providing a comment on your work. May you have a wonderful week and stay away from Chinese Balloons – LOL.

I am blessed to be up and working on my quilts and doing my daily 1.5 miles each day at the age of 78! It would have been so easy to just give up and sit in a chair the rest of my days but I refused to give in.

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

February 10, 2022

To Do Tuesday – Weldon’s Quilt and Pillow Case

Greetings. I am still here, just been busy getting back in shape! Today I figured out why I am tired….. I missed the days in the Sun for my Vitamin D! I have been walking since 5 February and today I was able to make the 30 minutes at 22 minutes per mile! I think if I had been a good girl and got my Vitamin D I could make the 21 minutes sooner. So tomorrow I will see if I can get closer to the 20 minute mile! At my age, and after the crud, I am happy, along with the fact that I am down 7 pounds since October! I quit eating those great Cape Cod potato chips about a week ago – they were not agreeing with tummy. I am now just eating real potatoes cooked in my Ninja air fryer and sleeping like a baby each night! So hopefully with my “back to walking” routine, I can drop the remaining 6 pounds I would like to lose. Then I will be where I was a year ago. Stress can do so much to our minds and bodies!

OK now for quilting. I have 2 baby quilts to make, and just finished the first one today. This quilt is for Weldon, my friend Rachael’s grandson. I have adopted him as my Great God child since I will never have any grandchildren. He is going to be a true Texan, so I made his quilt with some outdoor fabric that I have had probably over 12 years. The setting and border fabric is a Moda fabric that looks just like leather tooling. I am very happy with this little guy’s quilt.

Then this afternoon, I decided to make a matching pillow case – and those who know me know I do not do anything but quilts. I looked YouTube and found Jenny from Missouri Star Quilts on YouTube! I made the pillow case in 40 minutes! It is going to be a great surprise gift for Rachel’s little Weldon. I would put his picture on this post, but if I ask permission now it will ruin the surprise quilt.

As an update on the fabric for York Lodge I last posted about from SewBatiks. That did not go well. I did not receive it until Saturday and when I opened it I found the following on the fabric.

And this.

It was returned on Monday. So on Saturday and Sunday I ordered batiks (not 115″ or 108″ wide) from Carly at WebFabrics. I started ordering from her in 2003 when I found her on line as she was just starting the business. I have never received any fabrics from her all these years with ANY flaws. I will now have to piece all the backings for the 9 quilts that my Long Arm quilter will be working. I have 3 days now to get 3 ready but my hope is that by Sunday evening I will have 9 backs ready to go when as she is ready for them. Monday is the day to take her the first 3. I hope she does not have an issue with the pieced backing. One quilt is 84″ x 99″. That one will be in the 2nd round of 3 as my fabrics from Carly will probably not make it until Monday. We shall see.

So this is my To Do Tuesday on Thursday again. With more Sun and increased Vitamin D, I think that I will be catching up quicker than I anticipated on my projects for the month. We shall see!

Have a wonderful week-end, enjoy the cold, warm, or hot weather! Happy Sewing.

Hugs, Nanette

January 30, 2022

Dresden Heaven or Was it Hell?

Greetings, Greetings, and Happy New Year FOR REAL!!! I am almost finished with the Crud that we picked up in Rockport. I have been trying to get my walking routine started again and was successful for 3 days until the Cedar blew in again on Friday! I will try again tomorrow if it is not raining. Hopefully this coming week-end the front that is heading our way from Canada will freeze the hell out of the Cedar and I will be able to start walking each day. I have the “lingering cough” syndrome so I will baby myself for today. After all, there are 2 great football games to watch and I will be working on my embroidery or my cross stitch projects.

It is difficult to believe that I have FINALLY finished the last UFO quilt top. I started this project around 9 August 2016!!!!! At that time I was attempting to do a Dear Jane, but after sewing 9 blocks (no – not paper piecing thank you) I decided to move on – maybe at another time.

Today I sewed the last of 121 buttons for the center of the Dresdens rather than the circles. I learned a few lessons on this quilt and here they are if anyone is interested in doing this quilt by Susan Marth.

Lesson Number 1 – I used a background fabric that really was not strong enough for the weight of this quilt.

Lesson Number 2 – I did not pay attention when putting the plates together – that means make sure that the center is small enough to be covered by a circle or whatever.

Lesson Number 3 – I should have sewn each row together, THEN I should have sewn the buttons on. I sewed the quilt top together, tried to sew buttons on which failed.

Lesson Number 4 – It takes time to do buttons. During the finishing process I had to rip 4 seams apart in order to easily sew buttons on. BIGGER MISTAKE!

I am so happy that this quilt is finished. I had made a deadline of yesterday, but was unable to work on the quilt Friday. I have no idea when, or if, I will ever quilt this quilt. I am thinking about putting a back on it without batting and call it done. There was a lot of time and effort put into this quilt so it will be stored somewhere in the meantime. I could probably tie the quilt (never done that before), or sandwich it and do long stitching with pearl cotton. We shall see. Any ideas – Going to be a heavy quilt to quilt in a hoop and I cannot load it on the long arm or the Z44! Whoopee fun and games!!!

Dresden Heaven – Started in 2016 – Completed January 2022

Starting Tuesday for the month of February (my New Year will be starting) I will be working on Stars Around the Garden (just need to put the top together and applique some flowers on the border), Alaska with Kathy, and some other piecing projects. I may start an applique project, or continue with Mary Brown which has not been touched since last year. It will be fun to make a list of what I will be working on this year.

My Longarm Quilter and I will meet on the 14th of February. I will be taking 3 quilts to her to quilt and after those, there will be 7 more for her to do. I may just bite the bullet and start doing the long arm quilting on the 8 or 9 quilt tops that I will be doing. Also need to do some hand quilting. See why there is no schedule at this time??? LOL

York Lodge is 84″ x 99″ so I needed a 108″ x 108″ batik background. I was blessed to find Sew Batiks on line – she sells 115″ wide batik backing and I picked the perfect piece for my quilt! I will call and check on it tomorrow for delivery time. They manufacture their own batiks and the fabric is already washed – what more could I ask for? I ordered some extra fabric to take advantage of free shipping. It was expensive, but York Lodge took a long time to make and is a highly complex quilt and if Quilt Shows come back I might enter it.

For the games I will be working on my ‘Love’ Cross Stitch today while we are watching the games. Cross Stitch has become the ‘go to’ for real relaxation in the evenings.

Have a wonderful week, stay warm, and enjoy stitching!

Hugs, Nanette

October 18, 2018

Checking Out of York Lodge!

It is a finish – I finished the border this afternoon on York Lodge. This quilt was a monumental task and a great challenge for me. There were good days and bad days, but in the end it has been worth it. I hope everyone likes it as much as I do.