Monday Meanderings 2 - 17 - 2025

It seems like last week I was talking about a snow storm coming our way.  We got 4" of wet snow.  Guess what? There's another one coming in this week.  Late last week the European Model suggested we could get 16 - 20" of snow. EEK!  Luckily, the forecasters are now predicting the storm will move further south and are suggesting 2" or less.  I'll let you know what we actually get.  We've already had more snow this year than in the last decade. On the other hand I have been staying in and playing in the studio.  But you won't believe that when you see my goals list. 

2/10/25

Bind baby Quilt — chose binding, still need to cut and sew it on. 

Quilt another top — loaded but not stitched.

Finish '22 McConnell mystery top — still needs the border. 

✅Make 2 napkins and a placemat — all 3 done. 

✅Make more Potato Chip blocks — only need two more to make top.  

Find a backing or two for some tops I have ready to quilt — didn’t  look. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the napkins I made.  After our youngest graduated high school we took a family trip to Switzerland and Austria.  It was a great trip and I was able to buy a nice hunk of fabric in Austria. Because this HS graduate is now much older (um, he's 42!) you have a good idea how old the fabric is. But here's the first finished napkin and the backing fabric. (No, I didn't quilt these napkins.) 

        

I also used another orphan block to make a placemat. No, these items do not go together. We're keeping the napkins to use every day. The placemat will be given to the charity committee at my local quilt guild. 

Hum, I thought the binding (which I pulled around from the backing) looked better in person. This was put on my white flannel design wall for the pic. The flannel looks pink to me... weird coloring might explain my questioning the binding. 

Here's a pic of the red, white, and blue quilt that has been loaded on Ruthie, the long arm. I was going to do a few rows after I loaded it but something wasn't working correctly so I just turned everything off for the night. It should start up just fine the next time I start it. 

I didn't take any pictures of the finished potato chip blocks.  So, let's get to the goals list for this week. 

2/17/25

Make blocks for FCQ EQuilter of the month

Quilt rwb top

Bind flannel quilt

Sew border on ’22 McConnell mystery top

Quilt another top? 

I also had a FaceTime sewing session with my friend Sharon so that we could make the next block for the Cali-Co BOM Mystery.  Sorry no picture to share. I've been really happy with my fabric choices so far. Although I will admit to using a whole lot of premade HSTs.  I'm looking forward to the next block.

For a couple of weeks I've been trying to figure out what color backing fabrics I need for a couple more tops.  I finally decided to update my Tops to Be Quilted list. Here's what the first page looks like. I laughed at myself when I read my title: Updated 2/9/245. Say what? I need to go on the computer and fix that. 

FYI, this is only page one. I have 10 more listed on the back side. So, do the math, I have 27 quilts waiting to be quilted.  No wonder I am trying to quilt at least one every week these days. Some of these are fairly small and I plan to quilt them on my domestic machine. I've put several on my UFO challenge list and I need to make sure I have backings for all of the ones on that list. 

And, in non-quilting activities I made a cherry pie for Valentine's Day.  I use a recipe from an old Betty Crocker Cook Book.  But when I tried to buy canned cherries in water I was unable to find them at two of our local stores. I finally bought a bag of frozen pitted cherries. Here is a picture before it was baked.  It's been really tasty. Darn, we only have one piece left. 

I got distracted Sunday night when I usually write my blog so it didn't get done. On  Monday I don't have much time until late afternoon. Long way to say I'm really late posting this blog.  Don't forget to take a look at some of these Linky parties so you can see what quilters are doing across the globe. 

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Hope you are staying warm and doing a lot of stitching this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 2 - 10 - 2025

All of our snow from the first week of January has finally melted. Guess what! We have another big storm coming in Tuesday through Wednesday! Right now 4 to 6" of snow is predicted but it may change between now and then.  And, there will be rain the rest of the week.  It's a great reason to stay in the studio and play!  That's what I did most of this past week.  I got quite a bit done this week. Here's a look at my goals last week. 

2/3/25

✅Sew ‘22 McConnell mystery blocks together with sashing — well started.

✔️Make more Potato Chip blocks — just 1 finished 

✅Quilt flannel baby quilt — top is now quilted.

✅Cut out and sew together a new quilt using only stash fabrics — Bears and Pinwheels now a top! 

Find a backing or two for some tops I have ready to quilt — nothing done.

Again this year Sharon and I are working on UFOs.  My February project was making a top from the 2022 Mystery blocks designed by Sherri McConnell.  I made all the blocks but never put it together. So I decided to start the month getting these blocks into a quilt top.  Here's what's been done so far. Whoops -- This is my entire design wall... blocks all over the place. The bottom left red, white and blue blocks are from Sherri's mystery. (Notice the 4th row pinned to the right....I ran out of design wall!)  

I was originally thinking I'd use a white for the sashing. But rifling through my stash I found a blue that has cream stars on it.  I realized it would look much better than the white.  Except I'd already made the cornerstones based on the white sashing.  So I made two more red and white 4 patches. The row below where the red and white are there are two cornerstones made with red and a blue from the blocks.  The red and white definitely looks better than those. So I'll be making 4 more of them this week and sewing the rows together and hopefully the two borders also.

A quick trip around my design board --  top left are my potato chip blocks using the rectangle die from my 9" Accuquilt Cube. The right hand top are the Rainbow Scrap Challenge potato chip blocks cut 2.5" x 4.5".  This month's color is blue. So, I went ahead and got my 2 blocks done right away. 

Underneath is the block the FCQ Equilters are making. (That's the one I made to check the instructions.) The bowtie block is a random leftover block. The light, bright star is the first block in Cali - Co block of the month. Hum, I do keep a lot of miscellaneous stuff on the board.  I need to look at all the stuff on the right to see if I can clear it off so I have more room for blocks. 

I figured this streak of lightening quilt out quite a few years ago but didn't cut it out and put it together until last month. Today, I put it on Ruthie and used a basic stippling on it. I was happy that it didn't take all that long. On the other hand, it is under 40" square. 

And the last item checked off on my goals list last week was to cut out and make a new top.  I did a bit of snooping in my fabric stash and found an old but cute bear print on white with red hearts.  Looked like a perfect baby quilt fabric. I paired it with red and blue -- both left overs from backing fabric. It's hard to see but there is a narrow inner border that is beige/brown check. I didn't realize how directional the bear fabric was until I was cutting the borders.  Luckily there was enough fabric so I could seam the last border. Now I need to find a backing for it. 

Hopefully this week I get as much done. Here are my goals for this coming week. (Hey, remember the snow storm...I bet I can get a lot of these goals accomplished during it all the rain were suppose to get.)

2/10/25

Bind baby Quilt 

Quilt another top 

Finish '22 McConnell mystery top 

Make 2 napkins and a placemat

Make more Potato Chip blocks

Find a backing or two for some tops I have ready to quilt

I have kept up with my 15 Minutes to Stitch record. Here are the details.

W/ending 2/9/25. 40 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Feb = 9/9
• 15 minute days/2024 = 40/40 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm linking up with these Linky Parties.

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Thanks for all the answers regarding binding on flannel quilts. It seemed that both ways were popular.  At this point I'll probably use whatever I can find that will go with the quilt's colors. 

I've had the Super Bowl on in the background while I was writing this post. I wasn't impressed with the ads this year although I did miss some of them.  Was there one you particularly liked?  One I did like was the Jeep ad with Harrison Ford. I laughed out loud when he mentioned he liked his Jeep even though his name was Ford. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie   

Monday Meanderings 2 - 3 - 2025

Welcome to February. It's still pretty cold but rumor has it  it will be nearly 65 on Thursday.  But the local weather report showed the worse case weather for later in the week and it included snow. OH GOOD GRIEF.  My weather report on my iPhone is all about rain but no snow. (Do I admit that it is frequently wrong?) 

I had a great week of getting things done.  Here's the list.

1/27/25

✔️✔️✔️✔️Make more potato chip blocks — Yep 4 more done although 1 is  for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

✅Bind black, green, and white quilt — finished. 

✅Make a placemat from orphan block — done. Looking for more orphan blocks. 

✅Make backing for flannel quilt — done. 

✅Spend 15 minutes/day cleaning up studio — actually did about 2 hours of cleaning and cutting up scraps rather than 15 mins every day. 

✅Start a knit headband — finished it. I like the idea but need to refine the knitting. 

I failed to take many pictures this week.  Here's the placemat I made. I had made the center block a few years ago when I was practicing with Studio 180's Lemoyne Star ruler. I couldn't find any of the green or magenta fabric but was able to use the royal blue. The backing and binding was left over from the T Shirt quilt I made my son a while ago. 

I have already found my next block to use. (Evidently I had piled some on the corner of my long arm which I unearthed while I was straightening up the pile!) I'll probably continue to use orphan blocks over the next several weeks. 

Here's the ear warmer headband. It called for bulky weight yarn or 2 strands of worsted weight. I used the worsted weight with one purple and one turquoise yarn. (I'm trying to use up odd ball yarn.) 

I've been wearing it walking the dog and I like the fit of it better than any of the hats I have.  I will see if I have any bulky weight yarn to see if it works better. I need to figure out whether my tension is off on the cast on or perhaps the cast off.  I'm happy it keeps my ears nice and toasty warm. We only have random patches of snow left thank goodness. Just know that 6 months from now I will be bitterly complaining about the heat! 

Here's what I hope to get done this week. 

2/3/25

Sew ‘22 Sherri McConnell mystery blocks together with sashing

Make more Potato Chip blocks

Quilt flannel baby quilt

Cut out and sew together a new quilt using only stash fabrics

Find a backing or two for some tops I have ready to quilt

15 Minutes to Stitch -- another good week.

W/ending 2/2/25. 33 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Jan = 5/5 days
• 15 minute days/Feb = 2/2
• 15 minute days/2024 = 33/33 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm linking up with the following parties:

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

One last question -- what fabric do you use when binding a flannel quilt?  Flannel or regular quilting cotton.  I hope to get the little, flannel baby top quilted and then bound -- but was wondering what most people prefer. Thanks! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 1 - 27 - 2025

Did you know we are 6.85% through with 2025? That doesn't sound like a lot of time but we are almost done with January. February is creeping up on us.  I'm hoping to get a quilt bound before the month is over. 

I had a terrific week finishing my goals this week.  Look at all those check marks!

1/20/25

✅Bind grape quilt — Done!

✅Finish 3.5 rail blocks to top — Main section done, need to buy more border fabric. 

✅Make a couple of potato chip blocks — Done!

✅Quilt another top — Done! 

✅Keep cutting up scraps and putting fabric away — Some done but more to do. 

✅Start new mystery quilt with Sharon, choose and prep fabric for it — Fabric picked and first block finished. 

Here's the top I got quilted this past week.  I was happy to move it from top to quilt. I only need to bind by Friday to have a second finish this month. 

I used So Fine white (401) on this quilt.  And, yes, sadly the greens don't really match.  They are both bright and happy colors though. The design is Quick and Easy Edge to Edge Swirls by My Creative Stitches. The backing fabric will be used for the binding too. 

You know sometimes you win the bobbin challenge and sometimes you lose. I really loss when finishing this quilt. This is the computer read out. Yep, I ran out of bobbin with only 2% left to finish.  The good news is I had another bobbin with a small amount on it that I could quickly load up and finish the top. And, no, I didn't finish the bobbin. But I did finish my first spool of thread (actually a big cone) for 2025.

Sharon and I try to do a mystery quilt or quilt along together every year. We FaceTime and talk while we follow the directions for the month. We decided to do Cali-Co by Coriander Quilts. (It's not too late to start this year-long block of the month.) Read through all the info to find Block 1, Fabric Requirements, Calendar, and the You Tube information.  

I decided I was going to use my stash. I had a nice hunk of turquoise fabric with dabs of pink, yellow, and green. I also had a very bright green, pink, yellow and blue fabric.  I started pulling small bits of fabrics that went with the bright green, pink, yellow and blue.  Then it became apparent to me that the bright fabric was way too bright and there wasn't enough to use as the border. So it served the purpose of finding fabric to use but got sent back to the shelf.  Here's my original fabric pull:

When I started cutting up fabric for block 1 I decided I probably had enough precut half square triangles to make the blocks I needed. Ditto for the 2.5" blocks I needed. And ditto again for most of the white. I did grab a 1.75 yard piece of white on white that I'll continue to use for the borders and some of the HSTs.  Here's my block 1 all finished. 

I am tickled with the finished block.  I chose colors that wouldn't be so dark as to look black. (Um, except that one bottom left square.) My only issue is my seams must have been slightly bigger than 1/4". The block turned out to be 12.25 rather that 12.5".  Hopefully it won't make a difference and the rest of the blocks will come out the right size. 

Since, I didn't take photos of my other projects let's move on to this week's goals. 

1/27/25

Make more potato chip blocks

Bind black, green, and white quilt

Make a placemat from orphan block

Make backing for flannel quilt 

Spend 15 minutes/day cleaning up studio

Start a knit headband 

I wrote another list of things I wanted to do on Friday because I pretty much finished with my list. Several of the items went on my goal list for this week. One of the off list items I did was alter the bottom of a fairly old sweatshirt. I chose my Zermat sweatshirt to remove the bottom ribbing and put on a woven cotton binding. 

This looks weird because it is a dark grey shirt with a lighter grey binding. (And the photo was taken early evening in only artificial light.) See below for a close up of the binding. I did make bias binding so it does have a little stretch. 

Many years ago I made a sweatshirt with a machine appliquéd pig flying and words that said When Pigs Fly or something like that. (You can see it here.) I wear it a lot and the bound bottom edge is so much easier to take on and off and more comfortable to wear. Thus my new attack on my old sweatshirt. I'll let you know how it works.  If I like it I have another one I want to do. It's been so cold this winter that I like having either a sweater or sweatshirt on -- but I hate dragging things over my head for some reason. 

I've maintained my 100% of stitching this week. Here are the details. 

W/ending 1/26/25. 26 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Jan = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 26/26 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm linking up with my regular parties. Come take a look. I'll try to link up the other two when they are available. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musings

That's it for me now.  I'm hoping to get some reading done before I head to sleep. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie