Monday Meandering

We're almost done with February and I'm probably not getting my OMG (One Monthly Goal) completed. I only have today and tomorrow to put the inner border on my 16 patch quilt and make a piano key border.  I'm guessing the border might not be doable in the time allotted.  I did really well with my monthly goals last year but I may have chosen a bit more than I could handle this month. I won't admit defeat until Tuesday!  I might figure out the piano key border, or not. 

Today I'm sharing my RSC blocks.  I'm making a variation of a braid from "Braid Shuffle" by Karie Patch Designs.  So far I've done 4 blocks in purple and 4 blocks in teal, except mine is more like turquoise. 

  I haven't decided what my background fabric will be yet so I'm showing these on the white of the design wall.  These blocks will get trimmed down quite a bit. Here's the pattern I'm using. I'm tickled to be making this quilt now -- I bought it a year ago.  I do tend to buy a lot of patterns and then a lot don't get used.  Do you buy patterns and then let them sit around? 

Here's how I did on my goals this past week. Not too bad although I worked on most everything listed, some I just didn't get a LOT done! Oh well 

February 20, 2017

Trim 16 patch blocks & add the horizontal sashing√

Make border for 16 patch

Bind pinwheel quilt√

Knit on sweater I can’t remember if I actually worked on this during the week… oops!

Start on repairing crocheted afghan√

Put more crafting/quilting items away in closet√

And this week: 

February 27, 2017

Work on tote bag

Work on afghan repair

Make border for 16 patch

Bind orphan blocks quilt

Quilt r,w,b boxed squares top

Figure out project for March OMG

That's it for now. I'm linking up with Monday Makings, Main Crush Mondays and Scrap Happy Saturday.  Take some time to check them out. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

A FINISH!

I finished this little baby quilt just in time to pass it off to Dorothy at the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival.  It will be going to St. Francis Hospital's NICU to be given to a baby when released to go home.  Ok, that sounds a bit odd -- Mom and Dad get the quilt for baby! 

I made this quilt to try one of the dies in my Accuquilt Go 9" Qube. It was easy and fast to do.  I would like to try some of the more complicated blocks available but I'm trying to not start too many projects.  (I will admit a Plus quilt is coming sometime soon though.) I used red thread top and bottom (So Fine, don't have the number with me right now) and Yarn Tangle design (from Apricot Moon.)

I wanted to use up some of the left over fabrics on the back but the truth of the matter is I had a hunk of the red print fabric and then dribs and dabs of the rest.  I purchased some orange fabric that was the same color as one of the cars.  So I made the back... Hum, as I look at the picture I realize I probably could have done a little better job at centering the quilt on the fabric.  You should be able to enlarge the picture to see that there are little dinosaurs driving "egg" cars.  I tend to make either gender neutral or little boy quilts for the NICU.  Our contact mentioned there are usually more boys in the NICU than girls.  So I focus more on the boy quilts.  Although I know plenty of little girls who would love this quilt with the dinos! 

That's it for today.  I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop, and Finished or Not Friday.  Take a look at what's happening all over the internet, well at least some of the quilter's version of what's happening all over the internet. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 2 - 20 - 2017

Not the best week in terms of my quilting.  Monday we drove up from the beach house.  Thursday we met friends from Michigan and Maryland in Williamsburg.  It was wonderful to see them. But that was two full days out of my studio time. (And, I do enjoy looking at things on the internet, reading books and, and....) 

Needless to say I didn't spend as much time on my quilting this week.  And, when I was sewing I wasn't necessarily working on my goals.  Hum, but Sunday afternoon and well into the night I did get my pinwheel top quilted after I made the backing.  (Thanks to Pat who suggested I quilt it horizontally, especially since the backing I had pieced worked that way!)  Here's what I got done last night ... all the way to 11:00 pm. What can I say, I'm a third generation night owl. 

The blue painters tape mark where I need to move the sewing head to after I've rolled the quilt forward.  I did this design at about 6" and I was able to run it twice before rolling forward some times.  Except, once or twice I didn't pay attention and I moved the head to the wrong place.  Which, darn it,  caused this overlap.  See it, above the left tape in the picture below?  It was like that all across the row.  And, I didn't notice it until Ruthie was done with the whole row.  It left me with a dilemma. Do I pull out the stitches or leave it.  I decided to leave it.  It didn't bother me all that much. 

I also did two seams on the giant tote bag that I started with my Powhatan gang a week or so ago. There were four of us sewing that day -- all of them have finished theirs. I'm still plugging away on my OMG and other quilts.  But I would really like to have this done this month.... so it'll be on my goal list again.  I must say I would make several changes to the directions if I were to make this again.  But honestly, who needs two giant totes?  It should be big enough to carry a queen size quilt in it.  





On to goals.  Not the best week but definitely not terrible. 

February 13, 2017

Trim 16 patch blocks & add the horizontal sashing √ started still need to trim some & get horizontal sashing done

Knit on sweater – finish that last sleeve and start to put together √ but haven’t finished the sleeve yet

Work on tote bag√

Quilt pinwheel quilt√

Put more crafting/quilting items away in the closet√*

And this week's goals....

February 20, 2017

Trim 16 patch blocks & add the horizontal sashing

Make border for 16 patch

Bind pinwheel and orphan block quilt

Knit on sweater

Start on repairing crocheted afghan

Put more crafting/quilting items away in closet*

* Full disclosure here -- over the last few weeks I've put a couple of things away, sometimes emptying a box but don't think I'm really working all that hard on this one. One of these days I will focus on it but not during February.  I want some finishes! 

I'm linking up with my favorite Monday links: Monday Making and Main Crush Monday.  Take some time to see what folks are doing this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Two Really OLD UFOs Finished!

Yes,yesterday I put the last stitches in two very OLD UFOs.  I think some the fabric dates to the 1940s but most is probably from the 1950s up to the 1970s.  And, no, these are not my UFOs.  The blocks were made by my friend Patrick's grandmother.  When he and his wife started helping his mom and dad clear out their house they brought the boxes of fabric and partially made quilts and blocks to me to see what I could do with them.  Here's what I have done with the little 9 patch blocks. 

I used the long arm to make little designs in the white snowballs on the red bordered one.  And I used my trusty Bernina to do straight line quilting on the green bordered one.  I prefer the feel of the green one as it seems to be "sturdier"?  I probably used a different batting as I was using leftover batting. 

I've used this layout for 9 patches before and I love it.  It was fun working with these little blocks -- the prints are interesting.  Here they are bagged and ready to give to Patrick and Stacey.  I am so proud of them for actually arranging to have quilts made from these leftover blocks.  I may be stitching on their collection for years but as a quilter with my own collection of UFOs I'm happy to see someone finishing these projects.  I think next up is a wedding ring quilt.  The rings are made.  I hope to appliqué them to a backing fabric and then quilt it. I may not be providing the fastest service but I am steadily working on them. 

Have you thought about what will be happening to your UFOs and fabric stash when you aren't around to sew any more?  I've made a plan that should work.  But I am also trying really hard to finish some of my UFOs.  I haven't gotten to the point of actually getting rid of ones I don't really like but I am working on finishing the oldest ones.  Who knows how I'll do this year! 


I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?  I'm hoping to spend some time this evening perusing these links to see what strikes my fancy.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering - 2 - 13 - 2017

Happy Day Before Valentine's Day

Last week I finally realized that Valentine's Day was almost upon us.  And, I hadn't really made sure I had shirts to embroider for the girls. And, Theo.  I nearly left him out this year but I did find some more nice onesies so he's rocking Valentine's day too.  I took care of that and then had to figure out the designs. Here's what I did last week: 

All designs came from Designs by Juju. And a close up of all the designs.

I had all of these shirts done by Wednesday morning so Pat could mail them for me.  I then started cutting pieces for a big tote bag I was making with my friends in Powhatan.  I was at Dorothy's house at 9:30am even after an hour, fifteen minute drive.  Believe me, I never arrived that early when I lived 25 minutes away!  We spent the day with Kay and Janet trying to get this huge tote bag made.  A little before 4, I gave up on mine and came on home.  I'll be working on it again this week hopefully.  

Pat and I came down to the beach house as we (really Pat) had some work to do.  Good thing we did because we found out the garbage disposal wasn't working so Pat was able to replace it.  I did a little sewing on my OMG project but I didn't get that far along on it.  

Here's a sunset picture over the sound.  We are across the street from this.  It was cold on Friday but was better on Saturday and warm on Sunday.  Nice weekend.  

So here's how I did on my goals last week: 

February 6, 2017

Knit on sweater√

Cut out bag pieces and begin to make√

Cut sashing pieces for 16 patch/OMG√

Embroider Valentine’s Day shirts for the grands√

Quilt and bind pinwheel quilt I didn’t even touch this one.  Bummer as I wanted to give it to Janet on Thursday. 

And this week: 

February 13, 2017

Trim 16 patch blocks and add the horizontal sashing

Knit on sweater – finish that last sleeve and start to put together

Work on tote bag

Quilt pinwheel quilt

Put more crafting/quilting items away in the closet

That's it for today.  I'm linking to the regular linky parties: Monday Makers and Main Crush Monday.  I hope to spend some time with them later this week as today is really busy. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 2 - 6 - 2017

Not much of what I did this past week made it to a photograph.  Some I'm saving until the project is quilted and bound to show off.  But here's what the little pinwheel quilt looks like. I opted for the small green border.  Unfortunately it is now at 40" and the red print is only about 41" wide.  UGH.  I have another blue and white pinwheel which I'm going to try to put on the back but I haven't decided how I'll do that yet and make it a little wider. 


Here's what the fabrics for the backing looks like so far.  Yea, I haven't really gotten very far.  I always need about 10" more length  to attach the quilt to the long arm. 

I'd really like to get this one completed before Thursday so I can take it to Janet then.  I'm going to a sewing day with my friends in Powhatan.  We are making a big tote bag. (Think big enough to hold a queen-sized quit.)  If it isn't done before then I'm not sure when I'll be back down and be able to give it to her.  

I did fairly well on my goals this week.  Even though I could check off nearly all of them, sometimes it was for a small amount of work.  But I did clean off the cutting table that was a goal way too many times in January.  So I feel good about that! 

January 30, 2017

Knit on sweater√

Put more crafting/quilting items away in the closet√

Finish the R,W,B Orphan Block quilt top√

Finish the pinwheel quilt top√

Work on next OMG quilt nothing done really…

Finish Stacy's small 9 patch quilt I moved it from one place to another... that's it. 

February 6, 2017

Knit on sweater (I'm on the last sleeve before starting to put it together!) 

Cut out bag pieces and begin to make it

Cut sashing pieces for 16 patch/OMG and sew some of it together 

Embroider Valentine’s Day shirts for the grands

Quilt and bind pinwheel quilt

Not a long list but most of it needs to be done before Wednesday or Thursday.  I'm hoping to get the grands' shirts in the mail Wednesday morning.  Time will tell. 

I'm linking up with the regular Monday linky parties, Monday Making and Main Crush Monday.  It's a lot of fun to check out what other folks are doing in their studios.  What are you up to this week? 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

January Stash Busting Statistics

I'm trying to stay on track with my stash busting statistics this year.  I guess posting these on the 4 of a new month is a lot better than posting them 4+ months late!  That little internet shopping experience at the beginning of the month really put a dent in how successful I was using up some fabric.  On the other hand, I used several pieces of it in a baby quilt that is almost done. 

Not a bad month, all considered.  Although, I am going to the local quilt store today to buy some fabric to make a bag on Thursday with my Powhatan buddies.  Hopefully, the bag will be finished this month.  The good news is I found two fabrics from stash I can use so I only need to buy a yard and a half. Whoop! Whoop!. 

2017	Fabric In Month	Fabric in Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
January	10.875	10.875	13.00	13.00	2.125

Let's review my method of fabric accountability.  When new fabric comes in it is recorded that month.  I'm pretty consistent in that fabric that is new to me whether given to me or purchased gets listed.  I only count fabric as out once the quilt or bag or whatever is finished.  If I'm sending blocks off to someone I count that as a finish once the blocks are given over or mailed out.  I'm pretty hard on myself this way but it does help to motivate me to finish things.

Here's a hint of what I worked on last weekend. (Hey, I like to include photos...plus it helps to have a photo on the linky parties!) 

I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. You know the drill -- take some time to see what every one is working on this weekend.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie