Monday Meanderings 12 - 23 - 2024

The year is winding down.  Library e books that I'm checking out now are due next year.  In fact, I've already read a couple and returned them before the year has turned.  Keeping up with book due dates really helps me get used to 2025.  I am getting more reading in now that singing activities have been finished.  

I had a great week working on goals.  In fact I added one mainly because I wanted to motivate myself to actually do it. Here's the revised list. 

12/16/24

✅1 Concert — done.

✅Make a table runner — finished and given to my friend.

✅✅✅✅Finish grands’ ornaments — finished and wrapped. Photos will be shared after Christmas.

✅Make a bunch of mini cupcakes for the Va Star Guild’s holiday party — done and eaten. 

✅Wrap presents — half done. I’ll be at it again Mon or Tue. 

✅Added — sew backings together — one sewn together. The other is ironed and waiting for me to sew it together. 

Here's the table runner I made for a friend. She's a china painter and has given me several lovely pieces over the years. I didn't start working on this early enough so I had a late night the day before I gave it to her.  It was hard to photograph the whole thing so this isn't the best overall pic. We sing in the neighborhood chorus together so I thought the note fabric was appropriate. 

And a close up of one of the Ohio stars.

I didn't take any pictures of the mini cupcakes -- mainly because they looked badly. I carefully measured the right amount of batter into the cupcake papers. They came out of the oven fine.  The next day I frosted them using Duncan Hines chocolate frosting. It tastes like my own homemade frosting so I was making life a little easier. I had gathered some candy canes to crush and sprinkle on the top. After I finished them I decided to stash them in the refrigerator to encourage them to set up. OOPS! The frosting got soggy and the crushed candy canes melted. No wonder there were a lot of them left over.  They tasted fine at home but they still looked a mess.  And to think I have another 24 of them in the freezer I'm planning on frosting for the kids to have on Christmas.  Anyone have experience solving the melting frosting issue?  I think I'll put some cocoa and/or powder sugar in the frosting to see if I can make it a little stiffer. Hopefully it will frost easily still. And it won't be going into the refrigerator. 

Here's the plans goals for this week....

12/23/24

Bind bow tie quilt

Finish wrapping the presents 

Enjoy the family together on Christmas

Put borders on fall quilt

Quilt and bind pinwheel quilt 

Pick 12 projects for the UFO Challenge

I actually worked on more projects than listed on my goals last week.  Here are some of them. 

First up I made a mug caddy as a gift for quilt guild gift exchange.  I made a cute mug caddy using a pattern I got along with the mug caddy.  I chose to alter it so it wasn't as thick as the one I had. It was a bit of a challenge but in the end it turned out well. Here's my photo of it. Being clever, I wrapped it in the fat quarter I used for this backdrop.  The recipient seemed to like it too.  I got a wonderful cross body purse. It is a size I use and will hold a more than what I can fit into mine. Win! 

I am trying to get a few more quilts finished this year so I loaded another one and got it quilted on Saturday.  Here's the photo early in the quilting process.  I call this one the old bowtie top as the beginning of it was a bunch of bowtie blocks I made years ago.  I picked a fun bright backing for it. I found a blue fabric to use as binding.  (It was leftover from a backing for another quilt I've done this fall. Bonus!) 

I'll be binding it this week. The quilting design is called Fast and Easy Swirls.  And, yes it is both. I've been using it a lot recently. 

15 Minutes of Stitching -- I was diligent this week and made sure I stitched every day.  Considering everything I got done I must have spent a lot more than 15 minutes a day! Here are the stats.

W/ending 12/22 — 357 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week Dec = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 346/357 days
• Success rate = 96.92%

I plan on continuing this during 2025.  I like that it motivates me to stitch nearly every day. I've only missed 11 days all year. Not bad!  I do tend to spend a lot more than 15 minutes but sometimes it really is only that short amount of time. 

I'm linking with my normal parties.  I hope you can spend some time surfing the web.  It's a lot of fun seeing what folks are working on. Maybe you'll find a perfect project for you to start in 2025! Here are the links: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

I leave you with this little saying that I've hung on my bulletin board right by the sewing machine. My friend gave it to me as a small Christmas present or reminder? 

She knows me well.  If only I won't buy fabric for a while.... 

Here's wishing all a wonderful holiday season.  I'm looking forward to new quilting projects and finishing up some old ones in 2025. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 16 - 2024

It's been a week! I was going to write my blog on Monday instead of Sunday but I decided I'd write it Sunday night as usual.

First up is concert week info. Our concerts actually started on Tuesday when a group of Spotsylvanians went into DC and visited the White House. I'm sure you're wondering why we visited the White House. We were honored to be selected to sing to visitors as they toured the White House to see the amazing decorations. We were set up in the State Dining Room between two huge Christmas Trees.  

We sang a cappella for about an hour and three quarters.  Visitors to the House were walking behind the table in the bottom of our picture.  I was amazed at how many people were going through seeing all the wonderful decorations.  And, how many people stopped to listen and to video us as we sang. (Hum, I now have a little experience with the paparazzi!) (Note: I'm on the left in the back row just about under the sconce. Pat's center front with the red tie.) 

After singing we were delighted to find out that we could leave by taking the tour of the House. (They could have taken us out the back way and we'd never see all the wonderful decorations and these historic rooms.) 

At this point we've been checked in, given WH visitors passes, and gone through metal detectors. (Um, I was pulled over for a handheld wand over my front and back.  Who knew bra hooks would set off the detector?) 

The sparkling chandelier was augmented with a reflective canopy to give the feeling of a peaceful snowfall.  It was stunning.  Heck, the chandeliers alone were amazing.  There were 3 in the room but only the center one was augmented.

The official White House Christmas Tree was in the Blue Room. The carousel was a surprise.  The pink pennants in the circle at the top of the tree feature the names of every state, territory, and the District of Columbia. The chandelier is removed every year to accommodate the official tree. This year's tree is 18 1/2 feet tall. 

A friend snapped us leaving the White House through the front door better known as the North Portico. It was an amazing day. There was a lot of standing and walking. But we wouldn't have missed it for anything. ⬇️ I took one last picture as we were walking to the gate to leave the WH grounds.

Just in case you thought I found out all the information about the rooms listening to a tour guide or reading a plaque -- nope. Each family is given a full color booklet. This year's theme was A Season of Peace & Light. The booklet gives a lot of information about the rooms that were decorated as well as the decorations in the rooms. No doubt I'll be keeping this one for a long time. 

We left our house at 6:30 am to meet the bus we took to DC and returned about 2:30 pm. We were pooped out. And, did mostly nothing the rest of the day. 

I'm going to squeeze in my goals from last week here. Surprisingly it was a pretty successful week on the quilting front. 

12/9/24

✅Finish quilting sloth quilt and trim it — all done and returned to Jenny.

✅Finish sewing stash busting blocks into top — finished, measured and stored in the quilt closet.

✅Keep at cutting up scraps into usable squares and rectangles — quite a few scraps were “processed” this week. 

Concert week✅✅✅3 rehearsals and ✅✅✅3 performances — all done!

✅Shop for Christmas presents 🎁 — surprisingly we got a little shopping done. 

Here's Jenny's Sloth quilt. I used a light grey So Fine thread. The quilting design is called Just Leaves. I trimmed it for her and gave it back to her after the concert Sunday afternoon.  

Here's what I'll be working on this week in between all the holiday related events.

12/16/24

1 Concert

Make a table runner

Finish grands’ ornaments

Make a bunch of mini cupcakes for the Va Star Guild’s holiday party and attend the party

Wrap presents

I'm really hoping I can get more piecing and/or quilting done this week but it may not happen. 

15 Minutes of Stitching. Oops! I forgot to stitch on the day we went to the White House. Here are the statistics. My percentage dropped a little. Oh well -- it's still a terrific number! Do you realize there are less than 2 weeks left in 2024? 

W/ending 12/15 — 350 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week Nov = 6/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 339/350 days
• Success rate = 96.85% 

I'll be linking up with my regular parties. Please take some time to check them out: Stitching Stuff at Life in Pieces, Oh Scrap at Quilting Is More Fun than Housework, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, and Monday Musings at Song Bird Designs.  Hopefully I'll be back with more quilty news next week.  With only 1 concert left to sing, life is calming back down. Oh, except Christmas prep. 

I leave you with my starring roll in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at the concerts this weekend. A friend from the neighborhood chorus gave me the nose and a bunch of us will be wearing them at that concert.  I snuck mine on at the Spotsy rehearsal and started singing Rudolph with the rest of them.  I was hamming it up. I checked with our director afterwards to make sure she was ok with it.  My first review -- it was great and I was very cool. Yes, do it for the shows. So of course I hammed it up a bit more for the two concerts. Another review came in -- "she was really having a good time with that song." Well of course I was! On the other hand none of the grand kids had much to say about it. One might have been in shock but she wasn't saying anything about it.  

PS -- I didn't think to take this picture while still dressed in concert black. So I decided it was fine if I took it in my bathrobe against my closet door! The things I'll do for a laugh! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 9 - 2024

It's concert week+ this week. We'll be singing 3 concerts with the Spotsylvanians.  We've got 3 rehearsals this week although one is with our neighborhood group -- The Heritage Singers.  Their concert will be on Monday 12/16th.  This coming weekend is overloaded.  So, if you don't hear anything from me this week don't be surprised! 

I didn't do very well on my goals this week.  Although I did succeed on a few things. 

12/2/24

Finish top made with stash busting block — about half sewn together.

Mail tree blocks to Washington state — ugh, no didn’t even package them up.

✅Bind quilted top — all done! 

✅Quilt a customer top — done! 

✅Sing at the Mall — done!

I was remiss taking photos this week so I don't have any from anything I've done this week. Sigh.

I will say I did make progress on the stash busting blocks. I've sewn all six rows of blocks together and three of the rows are sewn together.  Hopefully I'll find a little time this week to finish sewing the other three rows together.  

Here's my goals for this week. Not much but I'll try to do a little in the studio.

12/9/24

Finish quilting sloth quilt and trim it 

Finish sewing stash busting blocks into top

Keep at cutting up scraps into usable squares and rectangles

Concert week 3 rehearsals and 3 performances 

Shop for Christmas presents 🎁 

Here's the quilt I've got Ruthie working on while I write this blog. (Yea for a computerized long arm!) My daughter Jenny loves patterns by Elizabeth Hartman.  This one is called Sleepy Sloths. These are sloths 3 and 4 hanging off the edge of the long arm frame. 

And here is 1 

and 2. 

As I am typing this Sunday evening Ruthie is on the 2nd to last row.  It's worked really well for me to write my blog and supervise the quilting. (It's done!) 

Just in case you missed our sloth siting in Costa Rica in March here's another picture of him. (I've gotten more informed about drawing circles on my photos. 

I've somehow been able to stitch every day this week. Working on the last ornament counted for a couple of days.  I'm halfway done with the last ornament for the grands which counted for some of my stitching time. Another good week for stitching. 

W/ending 12/8 — 343days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7
• 15 minute days/Dec = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 333/343 days
• Success rate = 97.% 

I find it interesting that my success rate has been 97% for weeks, probably months. I can't see myself being more successful next year but I'm pretty sure I plan to try. 

Here are the links to the Linky parties this week: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 12 - 2 - 2024

 I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving this year.  We were happy to get together with our family and our daughter-in-law's family. We generally celebrate Christmas together. We'll be repeating the gathering again for Christmas.  Now we're on the slippery slope running up to Christmas.  EEEK -- I have no presents yet. (Or I don't think so!) 

As you might imagine, I didn't succeed with all of my goals this week.  But I'm happy with what I did finish. 

11/25/2024

✔️Make apple pie and a squash casserole for T-day dinner — done and eaten!

✔️Work on last ornament — not finished but definitely started.

Finish top made with stash busting block — a few more rows were sewn but not finished yet. 

✔️Quilt a top on Ruthie

✔️Make a couple of blocks — not too many but a at least 2. 

Mail tree blocks to Washington state — oops. Not yet.

One of the blocks I made was the opposite coloring of the Potato Chip block I made previously. Here they are together.  I'm thinking of using this block for my 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I wish I had an Accuquilt die for the pieces. Instead I'll be cutting a lot of 2.5" strips into 4.5" bricks.  

I finally loaded and quilted a top on Ruthie this weekend. I wasn't enthused to load the quilt because I didn't want to sew the backing together. Was I surprised when I checked the backing fabric.  I had already sewn it together when I first got it. All I had to do was load it and start Ruthie.  Here's the top after the first 2 rows of quilting.  I used Quick and Easy Swirls from My Creative Stitches.  I really like that quilting design as it truly is quick and easy.  

The quilt design is Picket Star. You can find the directions for it on Sew Preeti Quilts. When I get the binding done I'll post pics of the whole quilt. These blocks were made by my friends in the FCQ EQuilters. 

Here's my goals for this week.  I've cut back on the number of goals.  

12/1/24

Finish top made with stash busting block

Mail tree blocks to Washington state

Bind quilted top

Quilt a customer top

Sing at the Mall 

Speaking of singing -- a small group of the Spotsylvanians sang at the Mistletoe Mart on Saturday.  Gee Wilikers! It was cold.  I doubt it was above 35 degrees until after we got home. (I'm the one in the blue coat. Pat was next to me but not in the picture.) 

Life is getting busier with concert season.  This week we we'll be singing at the local Mall.  Next week will be almost all singing.  Or so it seems. 

I took a break from my 15 minutes of stitching on Thanksgiving.  I thought I'd do 15 minutes of hand stitching but no, it didn't happen. 

 

W/ending 11/30 — 336 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7
• 15 minute days/Nov = 29/30
• 15 minute days/Dec = 1/1
• 15 minute days/2024 = 326/336 days
• Success rate = 97.% 

One of the things I did on Black Friday was buy some new backing fabrics. I tend to wait until JoAnns has their Keepsake cottons on sale. Recently the fabric has been selling at $4.99 for big sales.  I found one of my notes that I paid $4.49 a yard.  But this Black Friday Keepsake was selling for $3.99 a yard. I always want to feel it before I buy so I don't end up with a stiff fabric that no amount of washing will make soft or one with a low thread count. I bought several backing fabrics and a big hunk of white on white.  Here's what I got.

So far, I've washed the black and purple fabrics. I've even sewn the black backing together too. I wonder if I could get it quilted this week?  Unfortunately, I ended up buying more fabric than I actually needed because I didn't figure the amounts correctly.  I'll put it all to use eventually but I'd rather I got the right amount.  This will make a small dent in my finished tops.  I'll be buying more fabrics once I use this batch up. And, it goes on sale again. 

I'll be linking up with Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musing.  Please check them out if you want to see what quilters are doing around the world. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie