Sunday, June 29, 2025

Monday Meanderings 7 - 1 -2025. Um actually 6-30-2025

We are whipping through 2025 at sonic speed -- or so it seems to me! Welcome July!  (Oops I got ahead of myself!) We've had some relief from the really hot weather -- now we're having high 80's with some low 90's mixed in.  Sounds good to me?  Although we're suppose to have some rain this week too. Not to bad as it's been dry for a week. Of course, if they come with thunderstorms like forecasted I'm not going to be happy as I won't be sewing if it's lightening in our area. No doubt the weather forecasts will change a couple of times before the week is out! (At least we're not having snow!) 

It's been a busy week and I've been lucky to get all of my goals done. Here's my to do list from last week.  Wow! I'm surprised I got all of this done. 

6/23/25

✅Quilt another quilt --  finished and returned.

✅Add borders to Whirl -- done.

✅Make June's block for Cali-Co mystery -- done.

✅Attend Road to Virginia -- yep, totally enjoyed it! 

Begin quilting guild charity quilt -- started and finished it.


I quilted this darling quilt for a customer who is also a neighbor.  I don't look for business any more but I still quilt for a few people and charity quilts for the guild. I loved quilting this quilt. My customer has really been working on accuracy and she is nailing it! I love the grey and pink colors especially the corner stones -- she also used it as the border.  I was surprised when she said she got it at Hobby Lobby.  I may have to visit it if I'm desperate for fabric! The pattern is her favorite -- Ginger Heart by Apricot Moon. 


I appreciated everyone's comments about my Whirl dilemma last week. I decided to take a look in my 3 stacks of multicolored prints. Well, what do you know? I had an odd ball piece of irises with some leaves. And it looked great with the whirl blocks. I was highly uninterested in working on it until Saturday.  All of a sudden I was all in favor of getting it done. The irises were pink and blue.  It has fairly bright, clear green leaves with the flowers. I may see if I can find that green for the binding and/or backing. Most of these blocks were made several years ago and I've used up the fabrics. It now goes into the To-Be-Quilted Closet to wait its turn unless I run across a perfect backing for it. 


My friend Sharon and I got together on FaceTime on Tuesday and made our June Cali-Co mystery block. She'd been on vacation for 3 weeks so we really hadn't been talking and texting as much -- it was wonderful to catch up and hear about her trip. Unfortunately I haven't taken a picture of the block.   Maybe I should spread out the 6 that are done and get a picture of the first half of them. 

I did attend the new show, Road to California I mean Richmond (Oops again! Weird I wasn't writing this in the middle of the night either!) . . . but I'll wait to tell about it after I get through all my goals. I will say I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

The last thing on my list was to start quilting a big piece of fabric for my guild. Yes, it was just a pretty piece of fabric. It was big - something like 80 x 90".  We've begun giving quilts to people active in our community along with veterans.  These colors were exactly what this recipient said she liked. I loved the backing fabric. I picked a fairly simple pattern and got going on it. I expected it to take 2 days to actually stitch out. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went. I had only 2 rows left by dinner time and came down afterwards to finish it off. Here's a pic of it as I was starting it.  Nope, you can't really see the stitching on the front. 


I chose a royal purple for the thread and Ariana as the design.  A lavender thread might have shown up a bit better but maybe not.  Ariana is a simple, curvy design that works well and quilts out with no problems. Today 75% through the last row I ran out of bobbin. Lucky me, I had another bobbin with a bit more purple thread so it only took a few more minutes. Someone else is going to bind it. (Lucky me again, as I am not a fan of binding!) 

Let's look at what I hope to do this week.  Not as much is going on so I should have no problem doing everything on this list. Unless I feel more like reading! 

6/30/25

Quilt one of my quilts

Start trip around the world baby quilt(?)

Cut out popsicle quilt kit

Finish knitting a hat 

Start on July’s UFO 

Not a bad list. I've already got 3 quilt kits ready for the late July retreat I am going on.  It's 5 days so I plan to have at least 5 kits ready and maybe a group of blocks to put together.  I have two more fabric pulls waiting for me to decide on patterns so I can cut them out. 

Now more about the Road to Va.  Richmond is an hour drive from home and I left shortly after 9. It was beastly hot -- probably hit mid 90s during the day. Unfortunately I arrived right after 10 and the parking garage was filling up. Darn -- I had to park on the top level in the sun.  Bummer.  There were many different quilt exhibits but no quilts entered in a show.  I spent time looking at all of them but didn't take my time over them.  I did take some pictures. I've got one to share today and I'll try to get the other few shown in the next week or two. 

I was happy to see a large number of vendors many from far away.  My fairly large town no longer has a quilt store. The closest is in Richmond - an hour away. So I was happy to shop and look at everything. And, I did a bit of shopping.  Actually more than I normally do. Yea Me! I bought a layer cake of batiks. I bought a couple of wool balls that I'd like to use to make a pin cushion using some of my mom's salt cellars. Except, I can't find the salt cellars I thought I had. I'll keep looking and hopefully find one or two. 

My big purchase was a kit to make this really cute counted cross stitch zippered bag. I have a bunch of bags similar to this that I use to keep current projects in. I decided to get the "Sheep" pattern so I can keep my knitting in it.  We'll see how long it takes me to get the counted cross stitch done! The pattern and the DMC pearl cotton floss came in the kit. I purchased the bag separately. And yes, it is made of pliable plastic canvas.  I could also make the two other items shown although I probably won't. I'll keep you posted as to whether I can actually do this! It was suggested to start from the bottom. Makes sense to me. Did you notice the sheep face and little bird? Several very cute buttons came with the kit. 


I took several pictures of this sweet dog portrait done by Jenny Martin.



I was tickled to see the music fabric as part of the dog's face.  Hum, should I try to do a portrait of Sunny?  Here's Jenny's artist statement. 


As you might imagine I was able to get my 15 minutes of stitching done every day -- even on the day I went to Road to Va. I didn't stay more than 3 or 4 hours. I did not want to get caught up in evening traffic on the notorious I 95 freeway! Plus, I was tired of walking on the cement floor.   I was able to do a bit of knitting when I got home. 

W/ending 6/29/25. 180 days of 2025

  • 15 minute days/June = 29/30 
  • 15 minute days/2024 = 180/180 days
  • Success rate = 100%
Here are the links to the parties I'll be joining this week. I hope you can spend some time to see what others are working on. 

I'm looking forward to getting some more projects cut out, sewing on a new top, knitting and reading. Ooh, I might just start my counted cross stitch project. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Monday Meanderings -- 6 - 23 - 2025

 
That was the temperature of my car after sitting for 2 hours while I attended the Gathering of the Guilds on Sunday.  Yikes.  The evening news called for 100˚ several days this week.  And it isn't going under 70˚ at night.  Yikes.  Summer hit with a vengeance here.  Thank goodness the studio is in the basement! It's almost always cool down there. On to goals! 

6/16/25

Quilt another quilt

✅Make binding and ✅bind my quilt

Add borders to Whirl

✅Cut Cornerpost top 

Attend Gathering of the Guilds 


The most obvious thing about the goals is I didn't do all of my list.  I was listless last week. 😉  I did load the backing of the next quilt.  And I bound last week's quilt. What I am very happy about was all the great comments/suggestions for the Whirl top.  I was thinking it would be a baby quilt but now I'm not sure that's where it will go.  I took Nann's advice to look for a multicolor floral.  When I hadn't thought of that before. DUH!   Guess what I found in my multicolored fabrics?  Yep, a very nice iris print that I think will work well with the Whirls top.  Take a look: 

Since I wasn't very motivated last week I just hung it on the wall.  I think it is actually a directional print and it's upside down in the pic.  I'm pretty sure I have enough to cut 3 to 4" borders and have the design going the same way.  I cropped the excess that was hanging below the top out of the picture. I don't think I'm going to put a small border before the print border.  So, now all I have to do is cut the right size pieces and sew them on.  Yea. (Hopefully I'm motivated to do that this week!) 

I was able to cut out Cornerpost and put it in my stack of kits ready to go on the next retreat.  

Sunday was the Gathering of the Guilds in central Virginia. There were 5 guilds represented. We gathered at a new barn in Culpepper. Here's a link to their website. If you click on Gallery you'll see some pictures of various set ups -- ours was long tables.  It's often used for wedding and other events. The owners of Magnolia Way Farms generously let us use their space for free. Members of the guilds came with bingo blocks, buttons for markers, and food to share.  We had a great time answering some questions such as how many sewing machines do you have. The answer choices were 1 to 2, 3 to 5, and 6 or more.  We were pretty surprised that the most people stood for 6 or more machines! Yikes.  Then it was on to bingo.  I had made one block (forgot to take a picture of it, sorry) and decided not to make two. My seat mate had gone crazy making blocks so I played with two and my bag of buttons.  There were a slew of prizes for bingo and also for drawings as we each got to put two tickets in the basket for prize drawings.  Quite a few people won some great prizes. (As much as I like to win prizes I really don't need more fabric -- I wasn't disappointed that I didn't win anything!) 


Afterwards I took a walk to the goat pens.  Evidently approximately 25 goats live on the farm.  As I walked toward the pens it didn't look like there were any goats in them. But, as I got closer several got up and wandered to the front so I could give them a little scratch on their heads and say hello.  I'm sure they wished they could have been in a lovely air conditioned building like the quilters were! I took pictures of several different goats.  But I'm only sharing one of them.  I'm pretty sure this one was a young one. (And no, I wouldn't want it walking on me if I were doing yoga!) But it was really cute. 


So here is my plan for this week. 

6/23/25

Quilt another quilt

Add borders to Whirl

Make June's block for Cali-Co mystery

Attend Road to Virginia

Begin quilting guild's charity quilt


Considering how hot it is going to be I'll enjoy being in the cooler basement/studio. But will I be highly motivated? I really need to get both quilts listed on Ruthie and get them finished off. I'll keep you posted. 


Here's my 15 Minutes to Stitch statistics.


W/ending 6/22/25. 173 days of 2025

  • 15 minute days/June = 22/30 
  • 15 minute days/2024 = 173/173 days
  • Success rate = 100%
It's time to finish this post up.  Please take time to visit some of these Linky Parties and visit a few blogs to see what quilters are doing around the world. 


So fess up! How many sewing machines do you own?  I have 5 which you can see on my 6/13/25 post celebrating Sewing Machine Day. (I only show 4 of them.)  What I might not have mentioned is over the last year or so I got rid of one of my machines. I had what I called a Singer Heavy Weight. My mother had purchased it used in the mid 1950s. I can remember her making me dresses for school on it.  The problem was it weighed so much more than a Featherweight it was never going to work as a travel machine. I donated it to a group from my guild that are teaching others how to sew. Win-win from my point of view. 

Happy Quilting All!   Bonnie 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Monday Meanderings -- 6 - 16 - 2025

52

You might ask what 52 is all about... that's how long Pat and I have been married! Yep celebrating our 52nd anniversary 6/16.  Not sure we're doing anything special -- maybe going out to an early dinner.  Tuesday is a primary election and Pat works at the polls so he'll be leaving the house around 4:30 am or so.  No late night here! 

Now on to my regular blog post. Here's last week's goals list. WOW - look at all those green boxes. 

6/9/25

✅Make dignity bibs with Craft group

✅Finish current hat and start next one

✅Quilt one of my tops

✅Make more string blocks 

✅Sew Whirl blocks together

Plan another quilt for future retreat


Last week I brought a couple of flannel shirts home to finish on my Bernina. We learned that a lot of our travel sewing machines didn't have the motor power to sew through a lot of layers. The Bernina handle them well.  I've cut out a few more bibs from cotton like the one I showed last week.  They'll get finished in the next week or so.  


One hat was finished; two hats got pompoms made and applied; and another hat (pink yarn) was started.  I'l be working on the pink hat this week. 


Check out the top I was quilting last week on Friday's post. It's  Button Box a 3 yard quilt from Fabric Cafe.  It's trimmed and waiting for binding this week. 


I got the Whirl blocks sashed and sewn together. 



My next job is to figure out a border.  Do you want to help?  Here are two photos of possible borders for my Whirl top.  Both the pink/purple and light purple are leftover pieces.  I really want to use something from my stash.  If you have other color idea feel free to share them. I'll check the stash! The blocks are pinks, purples, and blues. 






What do you think. Let me know in the comments. I'm leaning towards the light purple... but it isn't fabulous. It isn't bad. Eh, undecided is the best I am right now. 


Yes, I did get everything on the list done this week. In fact I was pretty well finished by Saturday.  I decided I needed to figure out the next quilt I want to kit up. I have a retreat coming at the end of July and I'll need at least 4, probably 5 projects to work on.  I need to see if I have a batch of blocks I can sew together too. That's a great project to bring as I only need to lay them out and then sew. 


So this pattern was next to my sewing machine. It was from Quiltmaker March/April 2001. Yep, I had ripped out the pages, punched holes in them and stuck them in a notebook.  24 years later I'm ready to make it. Here's Cornerpost.   



Here are the major fabrics I'm using. If you note the directions above there are some large rectangles -- the space fabric. The navy, grey and orange will be the rails. I have some charm squares of some of the other fabrics in the line. I'll pick 8 for the center of the quilt and 4 more for the corner stones. The space fabric will also be the borders.  Should be a great quilt and use some fabric I've had for a while. Remember Craftsy? The space fabrics were a kit from there.



This week I've new goals and hopefully I'll be as successful as I've been the last couple of weeks. 


6/16/25

Quilt another quilt

Make binding and bind my quilt

Add borders to Whirl

Cut Cornerpost top 

Attend Gathering of the Guilds 


As you might guess I also did really well on my 15 minutes to sew. Here's the details. 


W/ending 6/15/25. 166 days of 2025

  • 15 minute days/June = 15/30 
  • 15 minute days/2024 = 166/166 days
  • Success rate = 100%
Several quilt guilds in central Virginia are gathering for a day of fun and friendship.  I'm looking forward to it next Sunday afternoon. 

Now, please check out these Linky Parties and see what quilters across the web are up to! 


Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 


Friday, June 13, 2025

National Sewing Machine Day & Some Finishes!

June 13th is National Sewing Machine Day.  I read that we should share our machines.  I have no idea where I saw it but I thought I'd give my machines a little love and attention. 

So here are my machines from oldest to newest. 


This is my trusty Singer Featherweight.  It is from the early 1950s.  It's a slow workhorse that I take to sewing days and retreats.  Unfortunately it doesn't sew fast at all.  Some day I may see if there is something that can be done to speed it up some but in the mean time it is slow, steady and reliable. 


Meet Ruthie the Nolting Long Arm and her computer.  I've had her for 9 or so years when we traded a smaller one in for her. She's quilting away on one of my 3 yard quilt tops. 


I bought this Viking Topaz in the last 8 or 9 years.  I use it mostly for embroidery. I found I perferred my older Bernina for piecing and some quilting. I keep this one set up for embroidery. 


This is my newest sewing machine, a Bernina B 570. I've only had this one for 8 months or so.  It has way more bells and whistles than I need.  It's been fun to learn what it can do for me.  I want to try making quilt labels with the built in alphabets.  Someday I might buy the embroidery module and then sell the Viking. 

I also have a very old Elna Carina which weighs under 20 pounds. It's also good for taking to sew ins and retreats.  I might start taking it along with the Featherweight and see how it does. 

Now on to the two finishes from earlier this year. First up is the framed 9 patch in blue. The FCQ Equilters made the blocks for me a couple of years ago.  I finished the top last year but didn't get it quilted until this year. (I have a couple of smaller tops waiting to be quilted.) This pic was taken this spring -- note the azaleas in bloom. 


And, a close up view. Below that is a picture of the front and back. 



Next up is Traffic Jam, quilt pattern is by Pat Sloan and a free version can be found on her web page here. She also has a pattern for sale which has 3 additional sizes. You can check out a couple of different colorations here as well as finding the link to purchase the pattern. 


I've made a couple tops/quilts using the pattern. One I decided to use 2" squares since I had a ton of them. But I don't remember if this was it or one of the others I've got hanging around.  I used Susie's magic binding on this one.  


I don't remember the exact measurements but both of these quilts are basic lap quilts.  I'lll have to check my pile of finished quilts to see whether these have been donated or not.  

Please take some time visiting the following Linky Parties.  I used to post often on Fridays and these were my go-to blogs. 


I'm leaving you with a picture of my friend Sharon's really old sewing machine. She doesn't use it but it is fun to see it and the booklet and supplies for it. 

This is a National Rotary sewing machine that was owned by Sharon's grandmother. Sharon has the Certificate of Warranty dated September 9, 1938. Notice the boxes (tied with string!) and the manual by it. Evidently it had a table it could be set into also.  

Do you have any antique sewing machines in your life? 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Monday Meanderings --- 6 - 9 - 2025

Earlier this week I added June Mysteries and Sew Alongs to my Mysteries and Quilt Alongs Page. If you didn't already see it, hopefully you will check out the offerings if you are looking for a new sew/quilt along or mystery.  I've been adding little tidbits of info about free patterns or special quilting info.  Check it out if you want to see what's on offer for the summer. 

I've had a very good results for my goals this past week.  I spent every day doing some sewing or knitting. When Sunday rolled around I had 2 or 3 goals unfinished. So I really got busy and got them at least started if not completely done.  There are a bunch of check marks with this goals list. Yeehaw! 

6/2/2

✅Bind my quilted top — done

✅✅Bind 2 placemats quilted after the UFO project — done

✅Cut out the project for upcoming retreat — done

✅Make additional blocks for June UFO project — 3 purple blocks made. 

✅Add borders to May UFO project — done! 

Make some more string blocks — 2.5 blocks finished


Here are some photos of my progress. 


Last week I added two placemats after I finished quilting one of my tops. I found a cool rectangular design that Ruthie quilted for me. The quilt and the placemats sat on the long arm most of the week. But finally I took them off, trimmed and figured how to pull the back to the front and have a couple of nice finished placemats. You can see the circular hatching Ruthie quilted on them below.  These will go to one of my guild's community charities. 



And here are the two finished placemats. Yep, the backing was more of my purple bolt of fabric. 



My June UFO project is to make some more Whirl blocks and then make them into a top. Here are the three new Whirl blocks. I've found on way too many occasions that darker colors -- especially purples and blues -- look black in pictures.  All of these are different colors of purple, really, they are! These were my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks from 2022.  I had 6 blocks left -- 3 pink and 3 blue.  I decided to make 3 more blocks in purple as red and blue make purple.  


\

Here's all 9 blocks together.  The blocks are 9" so, as shown it would 36" square.  I'm thinking of using a 1" (or so) finished sashing and adding corner stones in one or all of the colors.  It wouldn't add all that much to the size but it would add enough.  I'll probably make that decision in the next week or two.


Here's the finished top I've been showing for the last few weeks.  It still needs quilting which will happen eventually! I was trying to make the pieces of each border color different sizes but, rats, they look very close to the same sizes. Oh well. 


Sunday afternoon I decided to use the string blocks as a leader ender to the 3 Whirl blocks I wanted to make. I trimmed off the edges of all that I had already finished. The phone book pages were cut to the correct size so all I needed to do was grab my blue centers and then build out -- half lights and half darks.  Here's what I got done on this project.  Basically 3 are done and one more is started. These will end up as 7" blocks. I've got 22 done.  But I'm thinking I want to make the quilt 42" by 56" so I still need to make 26 more blocks.  Hum, I need to step up the pace on this project.  Heaven knows I have bags of scrap strings hanging around. 


So that's all I have to show from my goals last week. So here are my goals for this week. 

6/9/25

Make dignity bibs with craft group

Finish current hat and start next one

Quilt one of my tops

Sew Whirl blocks together

Plan and cut another quilt for future retreat

Keep working on string blocks 


I did make one more item this week that was not on my list.  The craft group in my neighborhood is making Dignity Bibs, now called Dignity Aprons, for people living in skilled nursing homes. These are generally made from button up, woven shirts.  Evidently in the past we've either had many donated or gals were able to buy a number of them from thrift stores. So far our collection isn't that big. So a friend recommended we make some out of our excess fabric.  I took the challenge and made one with a light blue plaid on the front and a royal blue with eidelweiss flowers on it for the opposite size. I had bought the eidelweiss fabric many years ago on vacation in Switzerland. I've been trying to use it up as it is a bit too heavy for quilts. But it's great for these "aprons." Here's what I made. It is approximately 18 x 27.  I still need to put the velcro on top.  I'll try to take some pictures of the shirts finished as aprons.  -- I may break down and make myself one as I am forever spilling food on my shirts! (And, that's just eating at home! Yikes.) 



 I've maintained my daily 15 minutes of stitching this week. I'm not sure whether I'll keep 100% for the whole year but there is a good possibility I might.  We aren't planning any vacation this year so no travel plans that would disrupt my stitching! 


W/ending 6/8/25. 159 days of 2025

  • 15 minute days/June = 8/30 
  • 15 minute days/2024 = 159/159 days
  • Success rate = 100%
I'm linking with my normal parties. (OOPS -- I just realized I didn't remember to link to Design Wall Monday nor Monday Musings last week.  Must have gotten engrossed in something last Monday as I usually link up then.) Hopefully this week I will link up with them on Monday morning.


I'm ready to call it a night.  All the quilting I did today wore me out -- but in a good way! 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie