Monday Meanderings -- 9 - 28 - 2026

Boy, it's been a week.  I was off doing way more things away from home than I usually do. I made it through the week but I'm still exhausted.  Let's start with my goals. 

9/21/26

✅Bind Popsicle Quilt — Done! 

✅Quilt 1 or 2 small quilts and bind — One quilted. 

✔️Finish bright Honey Bouquet top — One more row to sew on.

Layout RSC blocks from 2025, sew together — nothing done! Oops. 

Attend ✅Sewing Expo and ✅State Fair — both done. 

I feel like I did a great job on the goals considering I was out and about so much.  Let's see what I have to show for my ✅s. 

Oops -- no pictures of the Popsicle quilt.  But I took at least one picture of the baby top I quilted late this afternoon! I'm pretty sure the bricks are 2.5" x 5" and the beige squares are 2.5".  I had hoped to quilt two but .. nope, didn't happen. 

This is only 36" x 39" give or take an inch. I finished the top in March of this year. That's a fast turn around for the quilting part.  But I did buy a navy blue backing when I was in NC this summer so this one fit well with it.  I still have nearly 2 yards of backing left! Another quilt top should get done fairly soon. The quilting design is Feather Late Than Never by My Creative Stitches.  It is a great design to add some motion to a top. I like this quilt pattern so well I'm thinking of picking another color and duplicate it. Maybe red or green. I should have lots of scraps in either color. 

Here's how far I got on the Honey Bouquet quilt.  I went wild cutting big bricks but I'm keeping this one at about 36" wide, as it is here.  I am going to add a row on the top using 4 horizontal bricks to bring it up to a size for a lap quilt.  It will go to one of the community organizations that Va. Star Quilt Guild supports. It may be a while as I need to figure out a backing. (Note to self -- Check to see if enough navy blue from the quilt above is left.....) 

Thursday I went to the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo in Fredericksburg. I spent some time checking out the vendors and the quilts.  But most of the time I was an Ambassador with the assignment to help out a teacher in one of the classrooms.  I was very impressed with both of them I helped.  The first class was about using rulers with your domestic machine. Cris Roach did a wonderful job showing how to use rulers. I particularly liked how she recommended rulers to buy - one straight and one curved. (Or better yet one that had both.) Her class was full. My job was to take tickets and keep a count of the number of people who attended.  I also helped as needed with samples.  

After 2 full hours learning about ruler work the next teacher came into the room. Eric Drexler was giving a talk on threads. I've never actually gone to a threads discussion by a professional.  He is a Sulky Educator and makes beautiful pieces.  It turns out Eric is also the son of the man who started Sulky many years ago.  He spoke about needles and lots of different Sulky threads.  Below is a Zentangle style piece he shared with the class.

I enjoyed listening and viewing the information both teachers presented.  It was a bonus that I got free admission to the Expo and basically was able to attend 2 classes for free! And, by doing so it helped my guild get free booth space. 

By the end of the day I was exhausted!  But, I was up and out to workout early on Friday. A friend had died and we attended his funeral later that morning.  One of the disadvantages of living in a 55 and older community is our friends are old. It was a nice service and a lovely luncheon held afterwards.  Hubby's small barbershop group was asked to sing at the luncheon.  

Friday afternoon and Saturday morning I spent time doing a bit of sewing and more time actually prepping hand stitching projects.  One was my on-going snowman project that I've been ignoring recently.  And the other was organizing the grand's Christmas ornaments.  I prepped 4 ornaments and one snowman for sewing while I manned Va Star Guild's booth at the State Fair on Saturday afternoon. 

HA! I got one branch added to the snowman and nothing else done of my own. Susan was sitting with me working on this fabulous witch's hat she made. You can see all the clips she used to hold the binding in place.  In the 4 or so hours we were there she was almost finished with her binding.  We also were selling raffle tickets and teaching any interested kids how to sew a button on a little fabric star they could take home.  It was a busy and fun event. I was really tired by the time I got to the car for the 40 minute drive home! 

Several of my guild friends had quilts in the fair and had won ribbons. I was particularly pleased to see a friend from my neighborhood had won a red ribbon for her quilt. Actually she entered two and they both won a ribbon! Here's Sue's sunflower quilt. I'm pretty sure she did most of the sunflowers by hand using English paper piecing method.  (I did not enter anything but I really need to think about it next year.) 

Here's what I hope to work on this week. I've got a lot planned.  And, happily not very much else happening! 

9/28/26

Finish Honey Bouquet top 

Bind small blue quilt 

Quilt another small top 

Layout top and sew 2025 RSC blocks together

Finish cutting kit for retreat 

Anything that strikes my fancy 

I somehow got 15 minutes of sewing done every day this week! Yeehaw! 

Week ending 9/27/26: 270 days of 2026.

 262 stitching days out of 270 days 99.7%

I started cutting out a 40" wall hanging to sew at October's retreat.  I finished the whites and still need to cut the floral that goes with it.  I'm hoping I can use it eventually on the quilt hanger in our bedroom.  Time will tell! 

Please spend some time checking out these blogs and the Linky parties shared on them: Stitching Time, Oh Scrap, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings. I didn't get to visit many this week -- just too busy! 

Have you encouraged your friends and neighbors to vote?  I make a point of reminding people that early voting is going on now.  From what hubby reports people are getting out early to vote in Virginia.  He will work one day a week for all of early voting.  And then he is a voting chief at a polling location on Election Day. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

 

Monday Meanderings -- 9 - 21 - 2026

It's amazing how much sewing I did this week.  Most of it was done Saturday and Sunday.  The funny thing is I only had 4 goals for the week.  Needless to say, all of them got done and then some!

First up -- last week's goals. 

9/14/26

✅Quilt Popsicle quilt — quilting done, binding made.

✅Cut another quilt kit for retreat — done, but already sewing it together. 

✅Sew July UFO together. Add something to top and bottom to make it rectangular — top sewn together but no additional top and bottom. 

✅Cut out Marigold Mystery blocks for Sept — blocks are finished.

Here's a look, um, er not...  Yep, I finished the Popsicle quilt but I didn't taken any pictures.  In fact I left it on the frame until late Sunday night.  I'll try to remember to take pictures this week after it is bound. 

I did cut another quilt for retreat, or at least supposedly for retreat... but I went ahead and started making it.  Here are several blocks from Honey Bouquet, a Villa Rosa Design. Notice the bright multicolored print?  I have 2 fat quarters of it and decided one would be great for Honey Bouquet. What I didn't have is enough fat quarters to make HB at the stated size.  So I grabbed pieces of fabrics that went with the colors in the print. I'm not sure what size I'll actually make this. I may leave off a column and then add a border to make it the size requested by the guild for donations. 

Cutting takes a bit of time when you don't have the number of untouched fat quarters needed per the instructions.  I may be able to work on it this week.  If so I'll try to get pictures of it as a top. 

The July UFO is together but not the top and bottom additions.  I have lost interest in it and put it away.  I can take it out again later -- once I am more interested in actually finishing it. 

The two block sets for Marigold Mystery were cut out and I went ahead and finished them too.  In fact I made an extra one of the Ohio Star block.  What? I'm not sure how that happened but I will keep both for now and decide which one will work the best in the quilt. It'll be interesting to see how these blocks will be used.  These weren't hard just time consuming. 

And now this week's goals.  I shouldn't have so many things on it as I will be volunteering at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo in Fredericksburg one day and working our guild booth at the State Fair one evening.  Hopefully I will remember to take photos at the two events. 

9/21/26

Bind Popsicle Quilt 

Quilt 1 or 2 small quilts and bind 

Finish bright Honey Bouquet top

Layout RSC blocks from 2025, sew together

Attend Orginal Sewing & Quilting Expo and State Fair 

I did get started sewing my current leader ender together.  Here's what's on the design wall now. The missing row is red and it was at the sewing machine when I quit for the night. I figured I could sew the blocks into rows even if this isn't how I want them to be put together. I haven't a clue what order I want the colors to be in. I'll probably need more rows also.  I have another stack of block so I should be fine.  I will be moving some of the blocks around a bit to spread out the darker ones. BTW, the last row is black and gray.  

I sewed every day this week again. Here's my current stats. 

Week ending 9/20/26: 263 days of 2026.

 262 stitching days out of 263 days 99.6%

I pulled a book off my shelf and boy was I surprised by the insides.  I've had it for many, many years but evidently I didn't look at it all that much.  

It was published early 2000's.  The authors are Judy Turner and Margaret Rolfe. The reason I was amazed by it is it basically gives a slew of block colorings for Potato Chip blocks. Most of the actual patterns use a smaller rectangle but the ratio appears to be the same.  It does a good job discussing light/dark colors, textile patterns, and the like. But I was surprised that the main block they used was what we now call the Potato Chip block. I did a quick Internet search and there are books available through various used book sites -- if you are interested in one check several sources as there are a variety of prices too.  I guess I'll be considering one of the block layouts to make a quilt -- preferably a baby size quilt! I might even use one of the smaller brick sizes. Although I do have quite a few pieces of the standard Potato Chip brick cut.  

I'm linking with the following parties.  Stitching Time, Oh Scrap, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings.

The state of Virginia began early voting on the 9/18. It will run until 10/31.  They are trying to make it easy for all registered voters to vote whether during early voting or Election Day.  If your state allows early voting check out their website to get the locations, days and times.  Kudos for Virginia offering some late nights, two Saturdays and two Sundays.  I have a feeling the actual Election Day may be very crowded this year.  If your state only uses mailed ballots make sure to mail it early or drop it off at your county election office or kiosk.  And then, get back to quilting. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 9 - 14 - 2026

Just like several of us thought, the comfortable lower temps didn't last.  I just walked Sunny and the humidity was awful.  The heat was ok for evening.  Needless to say I spent most of time in my basement studio working on Ms. Frog.  As much as I like her I am ready to do work on some other projects.  Here's last week's goals. 

9/7/26

✅Keep sewing on Idiom — Quilt Done except hand sewing the binding and adding 4 beads. 

✅Finish quilting customer top — done. Forgot to ask owner if it is ok to share. 

√ Sew July UFO together — blocks are sewn together ready to stitch to center. 

✅Cut one kit for October retreat — finished. Ready to sew at retreat.  

Here's a few process pictures of Ms. Frog. The color is wrong on the first two pics. The background fabric is a slate grey. The clouds have a grey background and some navy netting.  

Here are the changes on the pictures.  Picture 1: clouds added, eyes. Picture 2: nose and mouth, frog body zigzagged down, calf muscle highlighted, whirlpool.  Picture 3: another circle added to whirlpool, additional rain added to the bottom right and left, two plants added, silver raindrops added from two umbrella points.  Picture 4: plant veins highlighted. 

Next week I'll added a picture of the finished quilt.  I'll just say there are a few beads being added! 

I loaded one of my quilts but didn't get time to quilt it.  Maybe I'll have it done next week! 

Here is part of a kit I cut out this week. (Okay, Sunday afternoon!) 

The ABC fabric is definitely retro. Or maybe just old.  I am using a smaller version of Honey Bouquet -- mine will end up 36 x 36".  I've added a couple of soft yellows and greens. 

The good news is I've found another pattern and fabric I want to cut out for the next project for retreat..  Hopefully I'll share it next week. 

Here's what I hope to do this coming week. 

9/14/26

Quilt Popsicle quilt 

Cut another quilt kit for retreat

Sew July UFO together. Add something to top and bottom to make it rectangular

Cut out Marigold Mystery blocks for Sept

Look at Sept UFO

I've continued stitching every day -- definitely longer than 15 minutes. 

Week ending 9/13/26: 256 days of 2026.

 255 stitching days out of 256 days 99.6%

I'm linking up with Stitching Time, Oh Scrap, Quilting Patchwork Applique,  Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.

Have you checked your voter registration this year?  You might want to make sure you are still registered.  I Googled Virginia State Voter Registration and was taken to Virginia Voter Information. From there I could check my voter registration with a little additional information .  It also was neat to see all the elections I've voted in since I moved to Virginia. That's 16 years of voting! If you can't find yourself please check it out.  You may need to re-register. If you haven't registered or you've moved, state deadlines are anywhere from30 days before the election to the shortest: the day of. Different states have different requirements.  Remember to vote this November. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

September 2026 Mysteries and Sew Alongs

I'm late posting this one!  But these are still available although some with fees to pick up the first designs. 

Suzy’s Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom has a plethora of sew alongs/mysteries going on now.  First up is A Little Bird Told Me that started August 7.  Suzy has 2 ways to get her sew along/mystery patterns: Remember to pick up the new free pattern once a month. Or for a modest fee become a Little Bird Prime Member. You won’t miss a single pattern as you will get a monthly email reminder and have your own page with all of the blocks released to date. And, there is also a table runner pattern. Also check out Bedtime Critters, Bearadise and Pennsylvania Dutch Heritage sew alongs or mysteries. Check out all of these at https://suzyssitcom.com/ $ or free if each month is picked up in time. 

How about an eerie quilt? Visit The Forgotten Rooms quilt along which started Aug 10 and runs until Oct 31. Check out the house at https://www.ajourneysewreal.com/forgottenroomsqal . $42. 

America Patchwork & Quilting started Harvest Sampler Quilt Along on August 1. You can purchase the current magazine locally, purchase a PDF download or buy a digital issue of the magazine. Find more info at All People Quilt, https://www.allpeoplequilt.com/harvest-sampler-quilt-along-fall-2026-12012847#toc-material-requirements .

Monday Meanderings 9 - 7 - 2026

We have relief!  Our temps hit 82º! And tonight it's supposed to drop to 62º. It's a miracle. Of course it was awful earlier this week. Temps were in the 90s and humidity was even worse.  Luckily I stayed inside most days except taking Sunny for walks. I spent most of the days in basement studio.  Unfortunately, when I wasn't working on Frog Choker, I was reading. 

I didn't do all that well on my goals this week -- not at all! That's ok. It's amazing how much time it took to stitch a bunch of rain plus tie off all the threads! 

8/31/26

✅Start sewing background of idiom quilt — background almost done. Need to tie off threads.

Cut one kit for Oct retreat — nothing done. 

Lay out potato chip blocks — nope. Need to clear off design wall 

✅Finish binding on sea life — done! 

Get one of my tops loaded and quilted — Not done because of customer quilt. 

Most of my quilting time was taken up by sewing silver thread in straight lines making it look like heavy rain.  What do you think? Remind you of rain? My idiom is Frog Choker which means so much rain that even the frogs are choking on it. 

Ms. Frog and her umbrella have only been laid on the background. She won't be put on permanently until I finish all the rain and tying off the threads.  Update -- All the rain threads have been stitched. I still have quite a few threads to tie off and bury.  But that should get done on Monday at some point. The dark grey at the top will be made to look like clouds -- hopefully.  Then I can iron on the appliqués and stitch Ms. Frog down.  I'm going to make some sort of swirl of water around the frog's hand between her legs. (Or so I hope!)  After that I'll only have binding, label and hanging sleeve to do.  I sure hope I can get it all done by 9/16! 

Here's a close up. Since this pic was taken I got all the close "rain" stitching done on this side of the frog.  Hopefully I'll be able to use a wooden skewer to hold up her umbrella.  Next week she should be almost finished before I write my blog. 

Here's next week's goals. (But you all know I'll be spending a lot of time on Frog Choker.) 

9/7/26

Keep sewing on Idiom Quilt

Finish quilting customer top

Sew July UFO together 

Cut one kit for October retreat

Fifteen Minutes of Sewing -- I sewed every day for at least 15 minutes this week. 

Week ending 8/30/26: 249 days of 2026.

 248 stitching days out of 249 days 99.6%

I'm looking forward to getting Frog Choker done so I can get back to sewing other projects and getting projects ready for my next retreat. Hopefully I'll have more things to share! 

I'm linking up with Stitching Time, Oh Scrap, Quilting Patchwork Applique,  Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

A couple of weeks ago I finished this UFO.  I started the appliqués in a class at a Maryland quilt store near where I lived.  They were finished but I put them away for a long while.  Nearly 20 years passed before I decided it was time to finish it.  Once I decided what to do it didn't take all that long to finish it. I stitched in the ditch around some of the areas and stitched parallel lines in the orange sections. I hand stitched around each motif.  It took a long time to finish it but I really like it. 

We are now 8 weeks away from the midterm elections. If you generally vote by mail consider trying early voting this year.  Who knows what will happen with voting by mail this year.  So plan ahead and don't forget to vote! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie