Monday Meanderings 6 - 8 - 2026

Recently beginnings of my post have been weather related, especially through winter and a semi-wet spring.  Summer has finally hit (with a vengeance) and we are in the hot, humid and repeat stage. Which will probably be the case for the whole summer. I'm lucky because my studio is in the basement which is naturally cooler.  In fact after a few hours down there I usually need to put on a light sweater or come up stairs to warm up.  I see a lot of sewing going on this summer. 

I did pretty well on my goals this week. Most progress came at the end of the week rather than the beginning. Here's what I did. 

6/2/2026

✅✅Quilt two of my quilts — One baby top and one throw top quilted! 

✔️Make some hollow 9 patches - just one finished but a couple more cut out. 

✅Knit more kid-size beanies — one done, one more started.

✅Stitch on Snowman #2 — a little stitching done. 

Cut one quilt kit - not even planned! 

So the big finish was quilting two tops.  The first one I did was scrap blocks made by my FCQ E Quilter's group.  I don't remember when I got these blocks but I made the top last year.  I purchased the backing at a local store probably last month. 

The block is the Ultimate Scrap Busting Quilt Block by Create with Claudia.  You can find the block here: https://www.createwithclaudia.com/2019/08/scrap-busting-quilt-block-tutorial/.  I really like how vibrant the colors are and the way it looks like it has been sashed. Nope, that is part of the block. 

I chose Feather Late Than Never, by My Creative Stitches,  for the quilting design. It stitched out beautifully.  I chose a beige thread -- it doesn't stand out very much so  maybe I should have picked a different color. 

Here's some of the back and a close up of the front. The backing is little flowers in fall colors on a beige background. I will probably use that leftover fabric in a small quilt with other autumn colors. This picture definitely doesn't show it off well.   

I also quilted a baby top. I've decided to call this Bubbles and Checks. (That blue fabric has little checks in it.) All the fabric came from my stash.  So I think of it as a free quilt! For the back I used the last larger piece of the purple from the bolt I got from Marshall Dry Goods a year or so ago.  I still have odd ball scraps from it so I'll be using it for years to come!  (You can just see it in the upper left of the picture.) 

I used Hills and Valleys #1, again from My Creative Stitches.  I check the web site to see what they recommend for nesting, whether it had overstitching and the size it was designed at.  Yes on nesting, no on overstitching. It was pretty close to a square design.  I thought that made a lot of sense for a square quilt. (36" x 36" basically.) 

I also tend to read the reviews to see if there is any more information shared there.  Yes, many folks said it stitched out quickly.  Yep. It really did. I think it took about 3 minutes to stitch each row.  It dawned on me closer to the end of my 7 rows why it stitched out so fast.  Each row was like a half a row.  It needed to be tightly nested to make it look like a full row.  And this was done really quickly with no problems. See the close up 👇. It creates lots of nice texture. 

And this week I'll be trying to get these items done, or at least moved forward. 

6/7/26

Bind 2 quilts

Knit more kid-size beanies 

Stitch on Snowman #2

Cut one quilt kit

Make more blocks for Veronica, Hollow 9 patch, & E Quilter blocks 

Attend Country Piecemaker's meeting and class 

I did a little off list sewing this week. Pat W chose blocks for the EQuilters to make her during May and June. She wants them child oriented with bright colors. She chose Jenny Doan's Two Step Quilt. Here's the link to the directions if you want to make it yourself. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r7eObCvo9H4.  I've decided that each of my blocks is good individually but they are pretty busy together. Or, I haven't arranged them correctly.  

I was successful sewing every day. Most days were much more than 15 minutes. 

Week ending 6/7/26:  158 days of 2026.

  158 stitching days out of 158 days. 100%

Sharon should be coming to visit at the end of the week. And we'll be going back to Country Piecemakers (west of Richmond) as she is teaching a mystery class.  And, no, I don't know what it is! I'll be sewing along with the other guild members. 

Don't forget to check these Linky parties. 

Stitching Stuff 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Oh yes, there is one more item to share. 

The Spotsylvanians sang the National Anthem at the Fredericksburg Nationals, a farm team for the Washington Nationals.  This is the fourth year we've sung and we had a large turnout of singers.  These are mostly the sopranos. This was the only picture I could find that you can actually see me!  After singing we had a great dinner and could watch the game from seats on the first base line.  (And, yes, we had to pay for all the tickets and dinner. But some how we got free parking.)  The Fred Nats won and we actually lasted through the whole game. 

As much as I am enjoying my Monday nights off, I miss these ladies, gentlemen, and singing.  We'll start up again in mid August. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 2 - 2026

We enjoyed some beautiful weather over the last week or so.  Temps in the low 70s and low humidity.  It's been lovely. Unfortunately the first week of June shows temps going up to the 90s with humidity. Bummer.  I tend not to bake (cookies, brownies) when the temp hits 80+.  We have a kitchen that opens into the living room.  Heating the oven heats the main part of the house. It doesn't make for comfortable tv watching or reading in the evening. 

So, my goal list doesn't have a bunch of ✅ this week. I didn't realize how long it would take me to make the 2 pillow shams I finished.  Here's what got finished and what was left out!

5/25/26

✅Stitch on Snowman #2 — made some progress. 

✅✅Make pillow shams for Ombré Log Cabin quilt — 2 done but they need a little more work to look better. 

✅Knit 2 kids size beanies — finished one and started and finished #2. 

Make some hollow 9 patches — nothing done. 

Trim Bargello quilt — Didn’t trim; need to buy binding first. 

Quilt one of my quilts — didn’t happen! 

We've had the Ombre Log Cabin quilt on our bed for about a month. It looked funny with pillow "shams" that were just white pillowcases.  So I decided it was time to make shams.  Unfortunately, I need to stitch about an 1 inch inside the edges of the sham so it stands up (hopefully).  Right now, this works but the shams are a bit floppy.    

I finished 2 beanies and found another one finished in my knitting bag.  We were asked to use bright colors and make kid friendly hats.  I generally give them to a friend of mine who turns them in every couple of weeks.  Hopefully I'll see her tomorrow at our weekly stitching meeting and she'll be able to turn them in. 

I use a pattern that allows me to knit the hat flat and then seam up the back. I find it easy to knit and doesn't take long to do the finishing work.  I've been making these stripe hats with two rows of color followed by 2 rows of the white. It sure helps to use up the little bits of yarn left from making other hats.  I decided to skip the pompoms on top as I worry about them falling apart too soon. I'll see how many more I can get done before the summer program passing out school clothes. 

Here's what I will be working on this week.  

6/2/2026

Quilt two of my quilts

Make some hollow 9 patches

Knit more kid-size beanies 

Stitch on Snowman #2

Cut one quilt kit

My June UFO project is a fall top. All I wrote was Fall Blocks Top.  Hum, I sure hope it will be obvious when I check for it in my quilt closet! 

I had another successful week stitching. 

Week ending 5/31/26:  151 days of 2026.

  151 stitching days out of 151 days. 100%

I did not attend the estate sale again this week.  For the most part I forgot all about it.  So no new things to share.  

We went out to dinner and a concert this weekend.  We left way too early so after dinner we went to a deli/bakery to have a piece of carrot cake. It's our favorite cake.  Here's the cake: 

Here's the review: not as good as my home made carrot cake or the one we get from our local Publix! The sad part is it cost nearly $8.00! And, yes, we shared our dessert! The concert was by another community chorus.  It was interesting music choices.  And, that's all I'll say. 

As usual I'm linking up with these parties. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Not much else is going on this week until Saturday.  The Spotsylvanians will be singing the national anthem at the Fred Nats minor league baseball game. This is the fourth year we've done it. It's always a fun event. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 25 - 2026

Yea!  We got a bunch of rain this week. We have been in a severe drought recently. I'm hoping the last few days of rain has helped.  There is some rain forecasted over the next 10 days but probably not enough to lift us out of the drought.  Hopefully it will really happen.  Needless to say I spent a lot of time in my studio this week. Let's look at the goals report. 

5/18/26

✅Quilt top for quilt guild — baby top quilted. 

✅Quilt one of my baby quilts — Koala top quilted. 

✅Continue working on UFO Challenge for May — the Bargello is sewn together. Needs binding which I need to get. 

✅Stitch on Snowman #2 — progress made but lots more is needed. 

✅Finish sewing dash blocks together — Top finished. Need backing fabric. 

✅Look at making pillow cases to go with Ombre Log Cabin — plan made, 8 blocks available to make 2 pillow shams. 

This is a guild baby quilt that I quilted.  I used Baby Blue Eyes edge-to-edge from My Creative Stitches.  I've used this designs several times recently. Although it doesn't look like it here the squares that look grey are actually green.  Weirdly, I used to have this same fabric. 

I also got one of my baby quilts done.  I really like this koala quilt. The design is from one of Quilts for Babies books by Ursula Reikes.  The quilting design was New Zealand Koru also by My Creative Stitches. I thought koalas might live in New Zealand also, but nope. They are not native to New Zealand and the country doesn't want them brought in because they don't have the resources for them. 

I like quilting baby quilts because they go quickly, unless I pick a dense pattern. Or, if I play bobbin roulette. You know, when you're betting that there is enough bobbin to finish the quilt. 

HA! It got me on the last row of the quilt above.  I ran out of bobbin with only 8% of it to finish.  Bummer.  However, it was a good loss. I could actually take out a few extra stitches and then start the row again outside of the actual quilt. No matching where the thread stopped with the starting thread. It also meant I didn't have a lot of leftover thread on a bobbin. I'll be using the small amount left as basting thread on the next quilt I do.

I've got a plan to continue quilting tops for this coming week.

5/25/26

Stitch on Snowman #2 

Make pillow shams for Ombré Log Cabin quilt

Knit 2 kids size beanies 

Make some hollow 9 patches

Trim Bargello quilt

Quilt one of my quilts  

I've had another successful week stitching every day.  Most days were well over 15 minutes. 

Week ending 5/24/26:  144 days of 2026.

  144 stitching days out of 144 days. 100%

I donate kids' hats through From the Heart, a local charity that provides lots of different items that are knit, sewn, or crocheted.  Currently I'm making children's hats to be given away in mid July during a special dressing event. I'm about done with a white and pink stripe one. My next one is going to be white and orange. You can see some of my previous hats here. The cool part about doing this is it's helping me reduce my yarn stash.  Although, I can also get yarn from the group.  I need to knit a little faster to use up what I've gotten and my own stash! 

I went to an estate sale of a quilter and crafter this weekend.  Luckily for me, most of her fabric was gone before I got to her house.  There was a lot of other items left though. I hit up a lovely collection of felted wool and wool felt.  Here's what I got. 

Wool fabric, some hand dyed. I'll be rinsing these in very hot water to felt them if they haven't already been felted. I will be choosing some pretty colors for my next snowmen. 

These are all wool felt. At least they feel wonderful and probably are wool -- except maybe the black. I'll have a better feel for these when my order for some wool felt arrives. 

I also bought a kit with lemon yellow, white and a light and medium lime green fabric. I won't be using the pattern, I just really like the fabrics. 

The sale is continuing this coming weekend which I plan on attending as there should be some Accu Quilt dies for sale. Hopefully I won't add to my fabric or yarn stash again! 

It's time to remind everyone to visit these Linky parties: Stitching Time, Oh Scrap, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musing.

I'm looking forward to not having any weekly commitments until the end of August. It's nice to sleep in a little and not have so many things to do.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 -- 18 -- 2026

The last concerts for the two singing groups I'm in are over. That gives me more time to quilt! Or maybe read more or ??? Has summer started with a vengeance where you live?  We had 90º today and it'll be even hotter the next 3 days. One day will be only 59º over the next 10 days. And a lot of rain is predicted. We need it so I'm hoping the forecast is accurate.   Of course the 10 day weather forecast can and does change a lot before the day actually arrives. Time will tell. I will be enjoying a lot of time in my studio in the basement. 

Here's last week's goal list.  Everything marked off! 

5/11/26

✅Quilt customer’s quilt — done and returned.

✅Add border to rainbow rail top — done.

✅Work on UFO Challenge for May — continuous process is being made.

✅Start sewing dash blocks together — 3 rows of blocks sewn together.

✅✅2 concerts and ✔️1 rehearsal— all finished. 

Check out this sweet quilt my customer made for her friend. She did a great job choosing the quilting design, Ginger Flower, and the thread color.  She chose an Omni thread, Vanilla Wafer, 3042.  It looks gold to me! But I notice there are a lot of Omni threads that look gold! The hexagons are machine appliquéd onto the blocks. 

Here's a close up of the front and the nice backing fabric. 

Last week I showed my daughter's quilt and her backing fabric as a suggested border for my rail fence quilt.  This week I returned her quilt and had lunch with her. We both drove about an hour to meet, eat, and exchange the quilt.  It was great to get together which we don't do too often. And, I was able to put some of her backing on my quilt as a border. OOOH did it turn out well! I chose to use a smaller border on the top/bottom and wider on the sides.  It definitely works well with these little 3" finished rail fence blocks. I'll be looking for a backing fabric for this one, eventually.  

This week's goal list is a bit longer as I have more time to sew. 

5/18/26

Quilt top for quilt guild

Quilt one of my baby quilts

Continue working on UFO Challenge for May 

Stitch on Snowman #2

Finish sewing dash blocks together

Look at making pillow shams to go with Ombre Log Cabin

I haven't been working on the second snowman because I needed to buy a different  floss color.  Now that I have it I can work on Mr. Snowman. Here's what he looks like after I added his scarf, hat and facial features, ready to sew.  It will take me a while to get all these items stitched down. Hum, the blue scarf is not royal blue! Once I get more done I'll take some more photos and see if I can get the color closer to reality that is a dark turquoise.  .  

Despite having all sorts of things going on I was able to stitch every day this week.  Most of it was actually sewing machine work although one day I was knitting on hats. 

15 Minutes to Stitch 

Week ending 5/17/26:  137 days of 2026.

  137 stitching days out of 137 days. 100%

Are you facing a big stash, multiple sewing machines, way too many books and patterns?  I'm trying to make some inroads on all of those things in my studio.  Except buying fabric for specific projects, mostly backing and one border, I haven't really been buying fabric. I need to really look at my books and move out the ones I don't use.  Same with patterns.  Let's see if I have any luck with that in the next couple of months.  I'll try to give little reports on successes.  For instance, I gave a dozen mason jars I used for dying fabrics 20 or so years ago to a craft group in our neighborhood who needed some more.  So a small step was taken.  It'll take a lot of small steps before I'll actually see the difference but I hope to continue and report  these small steps. 

I link up with these blogs every Monday. Check them out: Stitching Time, Oh Scrap,

Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie