Monday Meanderings 11 - 18 - 2024

Did you realize we are halfway through November?  Any minute now it will 2025. Kate who blogs at Life in Pieces is already talking about 2025 goals.  I mentioned I had one goal I wanted to do but haven't even considered starting it.  I may save the last 2 weeks of the year to try to do it. I think I'll start thinking about fabric/colors now.  Maybe I'll actually give it a try once I have fabrics picked. 

I did fairly well on my goals list this week. I actually thought it was a really full list and I wouldn't finish it all.  But you will see I did almost all of the goals. 

11/11/24

✅Bind Malted Mystery quilt -- finished! 

✅Attend 2nd machine mastery class -- done! 

✅Buy binding and bind Lone Star -- done and photos have been taken. 

✅Put border on Frolicking Frogs -- done! And now in line to be quilted.

✅Put  first section of Fall Appliqué together -- done, ready for the border. 

Quilt a quilt on Ruthie -- sigh! Didn't get to it. But I've got the top picked out and I have the backing for it. 

Here's Frolicking Frogs. By the way that is the pattern name.  I think I'll be calling it Soccer Frolick from now on.  I put the border on and now need to buy (or find) backing for it.  Notice the bottom left corner? I meant to have the player right side up but decided I'd leave him upside down when I sewed the row on the wrong side. Maybe before I quilt it I'll switch the row around.   

I was happy to get the fabric I needed to make the main section of my fall appliqué. It's ready for me to find a border now. I'm taking this with me to the machine lesson to find a border. And, I'll need a backing too, someday. 

Here's what I'm working on next week.

11/18/2024

Quilt a top on Ruthie

Attend 3rd (last) machine mastery class

Finish another ornament

Pick a block set and make into a top

Finish Fall Applique top 

Pick another UFO from this year’s list and work on it

I've kept up my 15 minutes of stitching all week.  I'm hoping I can continue stitching every day for the rest of the year.  

W/ending 11/17  — 322 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7
• 15 minute days/Nov = 17/17
• 15 minute days/2024 = 313/322 days
• Success rate = 97.%

I've been trying to decide on a block to request from the FCQ Equilters. My 2 months starts December 1.  I decided to try a potato chip block. Hum, this one doesn't do much for me.  The concept was to have the darks in the center and outside, lights in the middle. But, I'm not very happy with this block. I may make a whole quilt with this idea but I'm not asking the Equilters to make them for me. 

I see making some more trial blocks in my future.  I've got a couple more to try. Hopefully I'll make a decision soon!  

Thursday afternoon I attended another craft group at the clubhouse. We had several different ornaments we could make.  I tried a fabric star and a couple of snowmen from corks. (see the circle? Those are mine.)  Here's a picture of the originals -- on the tree, and all the ones we made that afternoon.  I still need to figure out the ribbons on the snowmen and the hangers for all three.  On the other hand, I don't need to make ornaments for myself.  But I like the cork snowmen enough to add them to whatever tree we put up this year. 

I'll try to remember to add photos of the finished ornaments.  

Here are the parties I'm linking up with this week.  Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musing and To Do Tuesday.  I probably won't be linking up the Monday parties until late afternoon.  I'm off to the last machine class early Monday morning and then on to my stitching group. Then I'll do the link ups. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 
 

Monday Meanderings 11 -- 11 -- 2024

It's been a week! Just as I wrote the first paragraph of my blog the power went off.  We gave up and went to bed to read on our Kindles.  And, almost fell asleep but the power went back on -- maybe 10?  I got up to turn off all the lights and tv and then crashed.  Monday I was busy most of the day so, nope, no blog writing until Tuesday. 

We've had a lot going on.  I've decided I'm cutting back on my news reading.  I am happier and less stressed if I read or listen to audio books.  In fact, 4 ebooks and 1 audio book were read in the last week.  I was actually reading several books at the same time so three of them were finished the same day! Weird -- I know.  But all that reading did not stop me from getting a lot of green check marks. Yea! Here are the details. 

11/4/24

✅Attend machine mastery class — done. Boy there is a lot to learn!

✅Work on Christmas ornaments -- 3rd one is started.

✅Buy border fab for Frolicking Frogs — done.

✅Quilt a quilt on Ruthie — Malted Mystery is now waiting for binding.

✅Work on one of the unfinished UFOs from this year’s list — Fall Appliqué blocks. Mostly figured out what fabric I'd use, and what I needed to buy to finish it.

✅Finish some more Christmas tree blocks — 5 done, 1 waiting and I think I’ll make two more for a total of 8. I have lots of green scraps. 

Here's a peak at Malted Mystery at the beginning of the quilting process. 

I did spend some time finding binding for this quilt.  I would have liked the green or the orange fabric but I didn't have enough. However, I had a bunch of the dark purple. (Yes, it is purple but it often looks black in pictures.) You can see the whole top here. Doesn't the dark purple look black? 

The UFO pick was 12 which I listed as "Pick something to work on in Dec." Except I should have said something like pick something to work on -- cause, yep, Dec wasn't pulled in December.  Not to worry. I decided to revisit 6" Fall Appliquéd blocks.  I listed them twice over the year. The 1st time I turned the blocks on point and added fabric to make them 8.5" blocks. When they came up in September . . .  nope, didn't do anything with them.  Fast forward to November and I'm planning to put this top together.  

I know, this pic looks weird.  I was trying to figure out which color would be the best background.  The orange won out over the light mauve mainly because you can't really see that color in the black that surrounds the blocks. Plus none of the blocks have that mauve in them.  Good reason.  Sharon asked me if I really wanted the sunflower's leaves pointing up and down. Um, no -- but I did want the directional black fabric to be going the same way as all the others. Yep, I took off the triangles and turned it so the leaves would be going right to left rather than top to bottom. 

While at the quilt shop yesterday I purchased an orange gold fabric to do a small inner border. I'd tried every thing close to orange or gold to use but nothing struck my fancy. So I picked up something that should work well.  I hope to have this a top without the final border by next week so I can buy the final border for it when I go for my last mastery class. I'm ready to finish this one off. 

Here are goals for this week. 

11/11/24

Bind Malted Mystery quilt

Attend 3rd machine mastery class

✅Buy binding and bind Lone Star -- weird that I've already done half of this goal! 

Put border on Frolicking Frogs

Put Fall Appliqué together including inner border 

Quilt a quilt on Ruthie 

I've been really good about getting my time in the studio.  Here's my current info: 

W/ending 11/10  — 315 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7
• 15 minute days/Nov = 10/10
• 15 minute days/2024 = 306/315 days
• Success rate = 97.%

I'm happy with my continued success. I've actually done a little of cleaning up of the sewing space some days. (Note - very little but I can tell I've put stuff away!) 

Have you bought any Color Catchers lately?  I used up one box and started another a couple of weeks ago.  Um, here are the two (from different boxes). I used these in the load with the blue wide back fabric I bought on quilt retreat.  

Can you guess which one was the old box and which was the new box?  Yep, the smaller one is the new.  But what has me wondering is how different the two sheets are regarding color.  As I have no other of the old ones left I'm concerned the new one aren't working as well as the old ones do. Here's what the 10/22 looked like along with two brand new ones I used today.  There wasn't a lot of fabric in the washer: 1.5 yards of a very dark navy blue, less than a yard of a green, and a fat quarter of dark blue with different colored words on it.  Um -- so why did the two new Color Catchers not attract any colors -- maybe a muddy blue? The 10/22 was the lighter colored one from above.  Very weird! Let me know if you're using the new version of Color Catchers and whether you've seen a difference.

And, FYI, I do wash all fabric that comes into my house.  I didn't at one time but after piecing and hand quilting a Christmas quilt that bled like crazy I always wash new fabric unless it's strips, charm squares, or layer cakes. How about you?  Are you a fabric washer before sewing? 

I'm linking with these parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap!, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings,  and To-Do Tuesday Linky Party.

It's time for a Sunny update.  Since the last time I wrote about her she has been having lots of scratching issues.  She seemed peppy and happy. Although she had scratched off a lot of her fur on her muzzle and above her eyes. She'd been chewing and scratching at her legs.  Last Monday we took her back to the vet and her yeast infection was back. So she got a couple of new medicines. They are Apoquel for itch, Ketoconazole for fungal infection, and Simplecef, an antibiotic to treat strains of bacteria. Yikes! She is still getting baths 3x a week. And a monthly Cytopoint shot.  We've changed her to a food specifically for better skin and cut out other food. (She likes Salmon and every once in a while we'd give her some of that.) 

Fast forward a week and we have a new dog.  She's been playful, doing zoomies, and she's started to play with a squeak toy. She has a new pep to her step.  Here's a pic I just took of her.  You can see she's just beginning to grow her muzzle hair. But her tail and back hair has grown in thickly.  We're hoping she'll actually look like a West Highland Terrier by Christmas.  

 It's time I get on with the day.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings -- 11 - 4 -- 2024

Hello November! As of Monday 11-4-2024 we are at 309 days through 2024. Which means we are now on the fast slide through the holidays -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanza. (Or any others we might celebrate.)  Here's how I did on last week's goals.  (Not bad!) 

10/28/24

✅Quilt a baby quilt on Ruthie — done and bound!

✅Finish Quilting lonestar on domestic machine — ready for binding (that I need to get.)

✅Finish a Christmas ornament — two are done except hanger and ribbon.

✅Put borders on 3 yard quilt — done! 

Finish Frolicking Frogs top started at retreat — need to buy new border.

Here's the photo of Buttons and Bows, the 3 yard quilt I just finished...or not finished. 

I shared this photo with my friend, Sharon.  And then she asked me if I had turned that one block the wrong way on purpose.  ARGH.  No, I hadn't planned to finish the whole quilt top with that one block wrong!  So I will be taking it out and finishing it correctly soon. (Hopefully it won't take all that long!) 

No other pics of goals I've been working on.  But here is a picture of the Christmas tree blocks that Irma requested from the FCQ Equilters during October and November.  (Heads up -- my turn comes in December and I'm trying to decide what blocks I want to request. I'll probably make a sample block or two soon.) 

And, now here's what I want to do this week.  Or at least do some of it. 

11/4/24

Attend machine mastery class

Work on Christmas ornaments - 2 left to do

Fix block in Button Box

Buy border fab for Frolicking Frogs and binding for Lone Star

Quilt a quilt on Ruthie

Work on one of the unfinished UFOs from this year’s list

Finish some more Christmas tree blocks 

Another week of sewing/stitching every day! 

W/ending 11/3  — 301 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/Oct = 4/4
• 15 minute days/Nov = 3/3
• 15 minute days/2024 = 299/308 days
• Success rate = 97.%

Yea! For stitching every day. Hopefully I'll continue this every day this month too!

I'm cutting this short as we sang a concert to raise funds for hurricane help this afternoon so I started writing my blog later than normal.  Hopefully we helped raise money to help those who need help. 

Please take some time to visit these Linky parties. Isn't it fun to see what others are working on these days? Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musing.  I might not get to add the last two links until tomorrow afternoon as I have  the first mastery class for my new sewing machine in the morning.  It's going to be a long day! 

Have you voted yet?  Both hubby and I voted early.  Hubby has taken voting a few steps further.  He is a precinct chief on Tuesday.  He's also been working at the early voting site once a week since mid September. I voted for my daughters' and granddaughters' rights. I voted for a leader who brings youth and energy to the presidency. I voted to keep America a democracy. I voted for our future.  Don't forget to vote. It may be the most important vote in our lifetimes. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 10 - 28 - 2024

Did this week go by fast for you?  I think it zoomed by way too fast for me. I didn't do well on getting my goals done. But that's ok . . .  there's always another week! Here's what I did get done.

10/21/24

Finish Frolicking Frogs top started at retreat — need the borders still, may have to buy more of what I was planning on using. 

✅Wash new fabrics — three new fabs were washed.  One was even used on the 3 yard quilt below!

Put two borders on 3 yd quilt started at retreat — half of one border done. 

✅Bake some items for the annual craft show — finished, delivered and sold! 

Clean up some of the stuff on the cutting table — a few items cut but not very many 

I didn't even remember to take photographs of any goal items.  

And here is what I hope to get done this week. We'll see how much I actually get done. 

10/28/24

Quilt a baby quilt on Ruthie

Finish Quilting lonestar on domestic machine

Finish a Christmas ornament 

Put borders on 3 yard quilt

Finish Frolicking Frogs top started at retreat

Oh did you notice I'm quilting on my domestic machine? I finished a lone star top in 2022.  It sat for a while until I got a backing for it.  And it sat some more until I decided it was time to quilt it.  I didn't want to put it on Ruthie the long arm and do an overall pattern.  So yesterday I pinned it so I could start quilting it on the Bernina.  I consulted with my friend Sharon who does almost all her quilting on her Bernina.  She sent me several good ideas.  The only thing I knew was I was going to stitch in the ditch on all the sections of the lone star.  Here is what it looked like after pin basting. 

Today, I stitched all the sections of the lone star.  I figured out how to do each quarter at one time. Then I did some echo quilting in the triangle sections.  I started one of the squares.  But it was dinner time so nothing else got done.  The plan is to do two rows of stitching on the little red border.  I'm going to try to do freehand stars in the flag border.  I'll need to do a lot of practice to make sure I can make decent freehand stars.  Hopefully this will get done this week, maybe even before the end of October. 

Here are some goodies from the retreat. The pinkish fabric and 30 degree ruler I purchased at a local quilt store.  The rotating cutting mat I won in a drawing along with a new rotary handle (not pictured.) The gold stripe fabric was on a give away table.  I'm running low on yellows and oranges so I snagged this yellow.  I'm not sure when I'll use it but I'm sure I will.  I didn't photograph a wide back I purchased. It's navy blue and I hope to use it as backing for several smaller tops. 

I've continued to successfully spend at least 15 minutes of stitching every day this past week.  

W/ending 10/27  — 301 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/Oct = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 291/301 days
• Success rate = 96.6%

Our community craft group decorated lids for Christmas cookie containers last week. A local gal is a Stamping Up demonstrator and did a wonderful job coming up with the lids. It's hard to tell but these are put on metal containers like you might get with a take out meal.  

Now I have to decide who will be getting cookies from me this year.  (The one on the left is mine.) 

I'm linking up with Life in Pieces' Stitching Stuff, Quilting is More Fun than Housework's Oh Scrap, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts' Design Wall Monday, and Songbird Designs' Monday Musing.  Hope you have some time to see what folks are working on these days. 

I hope every one has a great week.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

                                                                          

                                         

Monday Meandering 10 - 21 - 2024

 It was a great retreat weekend!  The weather turned a little colder than normal.  The lows were in the 30s! Yikes. Highs ranged from the low 70s to the 50s.  That was ok -- another reason to stay in a quilt.  I didn't take any walks except to the cafeteria, around the sewing room, and walking to our bedroom a couple of times each day. Most days my step counter was over 10,000 stitches.  

I didn't have a huge goal list last week. Here's what it looked like. 

10/14/24 

✅Have a great time at retreat — I had a wonderful time.

✅Make at least 4 tops from kits — finished 5 tops and got 2 others started! WOW

Quilt one of my quilts after retreat — nope.  

I brought 8 projects to work on.  One wasn't even looked at.  Two need to be finished. See below for the specific projects I worked on.

Here's what I hope to do this week. 

10/21/24

Finish Frolicking Frogs top started at retreat

Wash new fabrics 

Put two borders on 3 yd quilt started at retreat

Bake some items for the annual community craft show

Clean up some of the stuff on the cutting table

Quilt one top 

Sharon and I set up our tables and got to work right away.  She had to leave Thursday morning as her son was getting married Saturday night.  This picture shows some of our finishes before she left.

Her items are on the left: 2 3 yard quilts and a baby quilt using 2" squares. (She had sewn most of the squares together before retreat started.) My items on the right included 2 framed 9 patch quilts, a 36" baby quilt, the unfinished 3 yard quilt and a doll quilt top.  (The framed 9 patches came from the FCQ Equilters group so all I did was sew the two tops together.) The doll quilt only needed two borders sewn on. 

One of the reasons I had such successes at retreat is I precut my projects. Last year I made a big cutting booboo at the beginning of my major project and it was downhill from there. Lesson learned. So I made sure I picked easier projects and all were ready to just sew away. 

Here are pictures of some of the projects: 

I have so many of these blocks from the EQuilters.  I sewed this 4 x 4 top and a 3 x 3 top. And, there are a lot more blocks to make into more tops. 

This is a 36 x 36" baby quilt using the leftover fabric from Boxes and Bows quilt. It was a free pattern shared on this blog: https://www.sameliasmum.com/2014/11/one-block-baby-quilt-tutorial.html#google_vignette. 

Here's a closeup of the center buggies. People either see the buggies or, surprisingly, see peacocks.  More than 1 saw peacocks.  Strange, huh? 

This is another 3 yard quilt.  I was expecting it would sew up really quickly.  Um, no.  It wasn't all that fast. 

The yellow was suppose to be the next border but I didn't have enough of it left. Bummer.  So on our shopping trip to Fork Mountain Quilting I was able to find a pinky/red to use as the next border.  It ends with a bigger border of the turquoise fabric.  I need to wash the pinky fabric before I can sew it into the quilt. 

My last finished top to share is a Jelly Bean top. It takes me quite a bit of time to cut out all the pieces for this block.  But it's a snap to sew up this log cabin style quilt. For this one I used a kid's print for the center block. You can find instructions for this very easy block designed by Pat Sloan. If you want to make one check out the directions here.  

I've worked hard this week to make sure I got my 15 minutes of stitching each day.  Friday after driving home (4 hour trip!) I whipped out my knitting and spent 20 minutes working on a little hat.  I was surprised I wanted to spend more time in my studio on Saturday. Sunday afternoon we were going to watch a granddaughter's soccer game.  I spent the morning stitching and then later afternoon we went up to watch the game.  So, yes I stitched on something every day this week. 

W/ending 10/20  — 294 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/Oct = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 284/294 days
• Success rate = 96.6%

Not bad.  I've only missed 10 days this year.  I make a point to sit down and stitch on days I'm on the go a lot. Normal at home days I spend several hours sewing.  I've got a LOT of quilt tops that need quilting. So I'll be trying to get more tops quilted over the next few weeks. I have several quilts I want to stitch on my domestic machine.  I hope to pin one and get it quilted soon! 

The retreat was held at Smith Mountain Lake in south west Virginia.  I snapped this picture on my way out on Friday.  The little blue on the right of the tree is a bit of the lake. At the 4 H Center the lake view is even better.  I'm already looking forward to next year's retreat. It's a fun group of quilters. 

Please take some time to visit the following Linky parties. Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. Have fun seeing what people are working on this month. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie