OMG! September Woot! Woot!

I have completed my September OMG and with a few days to spare.  My goal was to make two more blocks from Christmas Favorites.  I took my Featherweight and my project box with me up to Ellie's house and was able to make one while Ellie was at preschool.  The next day I cut out the second block that I finished when I got home. 

Since I cut some of these pieces out and then moved them I knew I had to keep organized.  So, for the presents all of the colors pieces were clipped together with Wonder Clips. (Boy do I use these a lot.) 

The background fabrics got little stickers on them indicating what letter they were on the pattern diagram. Some got sizes, some got the number of the pieces. There was no rhyme or reason to my stickers except they all had their correct letter on them.  And, because I try hard to use things up the stickers were what was left after I used up addresses labels run through my printer.  It's the Californian in me to reduce, reuse and recycle!

It's a no brainer for me to choose my next One Monthly Goal.  I'm going to try to get the last three blocks done in October.  True confession time now.  The last three blocks will be machine appliquéd.  Two of the blocks are all ready to sew down.  The third one is traced ready to be ironed on once the background block is made.  These three are going with me to retreat in hopes of being finished there.  I'm guessing that will get done because I'm not planning on bringing a lot of other projects. 

I was so surprised to find this plant in bloom within a few weeks of moving into our new house.  The window gets afternoon sun.  I've owned the plant for a long time (probably 20+ years.)  It used to bloom but really hadn't in 10 years or so.  Needless to say I was surprised and delighted it decided to bloom again.  I'm guessing the Christmas cactus will be in beautiful bloom sometime in the next few months.  

I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts, Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, and Thursday morning I'll link up with Needle and Thread Thursday. It's a lot of fun to look around to see what other quilters are working on.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 9 - 26 - 2016

Wow, busy week last week but I did get some sewing done.   It wasn't on my goals for the past week but I did finish this small sashiko piece.  Eventually I'll make it into a pillow.  Too busy with other things to do it now.

I'm almost done with the snowman too.  Hopefully I'll get the stitching done and will be able to do the piecing that goes with it this week. *Only if I can find where I stashed the ziplock bag of fabric I picked for it! 

Retreat starts Thursday -- that means I'm working like crazy to figure out what I plan to take with me.  I'm hoping to get several things prepped to work on and a lot of single blocks for various people/collections.  Hopefully I will NOT take too much with me like I usually do. Time will tell.  

I didn't do too badly on the weekly goals -- but on the other hand I didn't put too many items on the list since I knew I wouldn't be home all that much. 

Sept 19, 2016

Have fun with Ellie and meet baby Theo!√ What a cutie! 

Work on the secret quilt – hopefully finish it!√ no time, will try two weeks from now

Do some more hand embroidery on snowman√

Get several Christmas Favorites blocks prepped√

Prep a few projects for the Fall Retreat next week oops, need to get on this one…

Sept 26, 2016

Prep a few projects for the Fall Retreat next week (again)

Finish Snowman hand embroidery

Work on more Christmas Favorites blocks

Border Snowman embroidery

Have a great time at retreat

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Main Crush Monday. (Yikes, it's week 40... wow has this year flown by!) Take some time for yourself and use these links to start an inspiring journey through bogland. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Slow Stitching

Slow stitching -- i.e. stitching by hand -- has had its own linky party over at Kathy's Quilts' weekly Slow Sunday Stitching post for several years. Although I won't be hand stitching until this evening I decided to participate. Since we moved 3 months ago I've been finishing some hand embroidery projects I found while everything was in chaos. (As in trying to find some place to put all of my quilting and paper craft supplies.)  I'm almost finished with this cute snowman from This and That. There's not much left to do so I may finish the handwork after tomorrow's group at the clubhouse.  He only needs a couple of polka dots, eyes, buttons and a star added.  

I'll still have to finish this as a little quilt.  It'll be ready to go by snow season.  Now to look for a cute holder as shown on the pattern.  

Once this is done I'll get to decide on what to work on next.  I have 2 quilts I'm hand quilting, a pillow that I'm doing sashimi stitching on, socks on the needles along with a UFO sweater, and winter is coming so I could knit the grands some hats.  Decisions, decisions.  I'll probably work on the sashiko because it'll only take me an hour or so to finish the handwork and then on to making a pillow cover.  

Take a look at Kathy's Quilts post today to see what type of handwork is being done today. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

Monday Meandering -- BIG News

I interrupt this quilt blog to bring the BIG news for the family.  Theodore Everet was born this morning to Aimee and Kevin.  He's a big boy - 9.7 lbs, 21" long.  Mom and Theo are doing fine.  We picked up Ellie yesterday and brought her home with us.  She's a sweetie but she has worn us out!  
Big Sister with her Little Brother -- 

Here's everyone in their first family picture. 

Hum, I need to work on my lighting skills. I took 20 or so pictures but I thought this one showed a bit more of Theo.  We'll be staying with Ellie until Mommy and Daddy come home.  And, boy this was really easy now that we live so much closer to both of our kids' families.  

In addition to all this activity yesterday and today, my quilt buddy Sharon was down this weekend for the first time since we moved.  She was tickled it only took an hour and a half to drive down. (It took me a lot longer to drive up when I went up in June!)   She pulled out these blocks that she had won at a retreat in 2013.  I had pulled out my 6 a week or so ago and decided it would take too long to get enough blocks for a decent quilt so I put them back.  I was more than willing to give her my six.  We're making a Project Linus quilt.  She took it home to decide about bordering it.  I'll quilt it and one of us will bind it.  Both of us have been able to take a UFO off of our lists.  YEA! (Well, almost completely off!) 

I haven't been doing such a great job on my goals this week, heck for the last several weeks.  Most goals had a little bit done on them, maybe not as much as I wished though.  Once we get back home I'll have to really get busy on several things. I'm down to a week and a half before fall retreat.  I'm hoping to be very organized with my projects.  We'll see if I have time to cut out a new project and organize the rest of the blocks for Christmas Traditions.  I'll be doing one of those blocks tomorrow while Ellie is at preschool. 

Sept 12, 2016

Help out with Ellie when the call comes√

Hand embroider snowman√

Make 2 purse blocks for FCQ Equilter√ started

Work on Christmas Favorites√ new fabrics bought to finish the last blocks 

Quilt and finish the secret quilt√ the quilting is started but more to do to finish

Sept 19, 2016

Have fun with Ellie and visit baby Theo!

Work on the secret quilt – hopefully finish it!

Do some more hand embroidery on snowman

Get several Christmas Favorites blocks prepped

Prep a few projects for the Fall Retreat next week

I'm linking up with Monday Makings and Main Crush Monday.  Take a look at what's happening around the internet this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings

We're on baby watch!  Ellie is going to be a big sister -- hopefully soon.  So I spent part of yesterday afternoon pulling out the embroidery module and embroidering.  I can't remember when I last used this and it took me forever to find everything -- well except the stabilizer and the thread.  I knew I had seen the box with the unit but I had forgotten I'd taken it out and stored it on a shelf in the ironing station.  Voila -- a good look around and I found it.  And, really, it is a great place to store it as it is out of the way but easily assessable. Eventually everything was located and I was successful getting the Big Sister shirt done.  

The good part of doing the embroidery is I had time to do some straightening up and putting things away.  Sharon hopes to come down this weekend (see first paragraph!) if we are home.  Now she has a spot to put up her sewing machine.  Although, I may be working on the long arm and she could use mine.   

This is the new project I started on Saturday.  CP guild had a class on Magic Stack and Whack, an oldie but goodie. This is just pieces laid out on the fabric but what a difference that poison green made instead of the white background I had originally planned to use. (Sorry, didn't think to take a photo of it!) When I have time to work on this it shouldn't take much time.  Most of it is cut out.  No doubt you'll be seeing progress on this over the next few weeks? Months? 

I continue to take a few things out of the boxes in the unfinished basement and find places to put them.  And here's what I found this week! 

I have a collection of those little ducks given to me by a student and there are the elusive Gingher scissors!  Yea!  

Boy was this a horrible week for getting things done on my goals list.  It's pitiful! 

Sept 5, 2016

Make 2 purse blocks for FCQ Equilter Didn’t happen

Work on Christmas Favorites nope, nothing

Prep for and attend Stack N Whack class√

Finish RWB to flimsy stage nada, either

Embroider snowman block nothing, nope, nah!

So, I'm repeating most of the items except adding the finishing the secret project. 

Sept 12, 2016

Help out with Ellie when the call comes

Hand embroider snowman

Make 2 purse blocks for FCQ Equilter

Work on Christmas Favorites

Quilt and finish the secret quilt

That's it from me.  We are awaiting the phone call to take care of Ellie but no word as of this writing Monday, late afternoon.  I'll keep you posted.

Stop by Monday Making and Main Crush Monday.  Both sites are up and running -- well why not I'm particularly late getting my act together!  Some time this week I'll sit down and enjoy seeing all the great inspiration.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering AND Shadow Box Mini Quilt Along

It's time to share my entry in the Shadow Box Mini Quilt Along.  Here's my version of the Shadow Box:

Um, Mr. Bunny you were suppose to show the whole quilt not just the back!  Let's see if I can get a better quilt holder!

Sophie does a much better job showing off a quilt.  She was happy to hold it and put a smile on her face while doing it!  

We had a change of plans for Sunday when it turned out Jenny, Brian and the girls could come down for a visit. So Saturday night I stayed up working on my Halloween inspired Shadow Box Mini for the Quilt Along.  

Here's one of the layouts I tried.  I'm not sure why I didn't use this one but I did make changes to it.  One reason this was easy for me to do is I used an old Charm Pack I had. Some of the fussy cut blocks wiped out the entire square but most of the squares I was able to also cut some smaller blocks out of for the stash. 

Once I picked out my charm pack (and a couple of other fabrics that happened to go with the charm pack) it was on to cutting and sewing.  It went surprisingly fast.  Then I sashed the blocks and added matching borders and on to batting it up.  I found an orange backing fabric and a small, fairly flat piece of batting which I used.  Because it was getting later and later, I decided to just quilt lines down and across the quilt.  I even got the first side of the binding on before I gave up and went to bed!  But, I was up early and was able to finish the binding. 

With the kids and grands here right after we got back from church and leaving after dinner, I forgot to take pictures.  The sun was sinking in the west when I took these pictures.  Hum, does that light tan fabric look yellowish to you?  Well, it shouldn't!  

If you want to make your own Shadow Box Mini quilt go to Studio Dragonfly for the directions. And, you can spend a bit of time checking out the other Shadow Box minis made for this event.  Here's a list of participating quilters.  I'm looking forward to seeing what folks did with their minis. 

Jen Rosin at A Dream and a Stitch 

Janice Holton at Color, Creating and Quilting

Debora Exum at Studio Dragonfly

Amanda Everest at Quiltologie

Susan Arnold at Quilt Fabrication

Bonnie Stapleton at Institches with Bonnie (You are here!) 

Jennifer Fulton at Inquiring Quilter

Jennifer Strauser at Dizzy Quilter

Joanne Harris at Quilts by Joanne

Anja Clyke at Anja Quilts

Mary Schuberg at Needled Mom

Now for my regular Monday blog info -- my goals!  Eee, not such a great job getting these things done. 

August 29, 2016

Continue sewing rows of RWB together√

Put books away on shelves√ some done, more to do

Begin sewing another block for Christmas Favorites NADA—hoping this week will see some more action

Work on Mini Quilt Along√ done

Work on Alaska Blocks nothing done on this one either

Sept 5, 2016

Make 2 purse blocks for FCQ Equilter

Work on Christmas Favorites

Prep for and attend Stack N Whack class

Finish RWB to flimsy stage

Embroider snowman block

I am so close to finishing the RWB.  I think I have 2 very short rows to finish.  I've sewn the top half together and the bottom half until the missing rows.  So this should be very doable.  I had to take it off the design wall today because something else was put up.  I'll be sharing it with you in a couple of weeks. 

That's it for me now.  If you still want to spend some quality time being inspired by other quilters check out these linky parties! Monday Making should be back this week and Main Crush Monday always has a lot of great inspiration.  (Neither of these are posted because I am, gasp!, a head of schedule.  I'll come back in the morning and create links to these two linky party. Linked up and ready to party!) 

Have a fun day off...at least I hope those of you who are still working get the day off to enjoy more quilting or family and friends time. Heck, maybe you can squeeze in both activities!  We're headed to a block party in the evening. I still need to figure out what I want to bring to the pot luck.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie