OMG Done √√

Yes, sir, I am tickled to be done with my March One Monthly Goal, to sash and put together this block set.  Here is my finished top, A Ticket, A Tasket:

These blocks were a free block of the month from Bunny Hill Designs in 2009. Each block represents a month. I chose to put them in order.  Looking back at the blocks I realize just how much work went into each one:  all hand appliquéd, embroidery added and buttons and bows attached as needed.  I'm pretty impressed with myself even if it has taken me quite a long time to finish.  I just barely eeked out the rose colored and pink borders from the fabric on hand.  Here's what is left from the light pink final border.

And now, some close up of a few blocks. 

March block with a wool bunny and shamrocks.

More wool for the April block.

The October and November blocks both done with cottons only. 

Time for me to quit goofing off and start planning the quilting.  I'll probably use a cream or white backing fabric since I have a couple of pieces that are just the right size.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the quilting.  Any suggestions especially for the white backgrounds? I will have to stitch in the ditch around each block.  Hopefully the stitching will be really close to the ditch and look good.  Then I'll need a plan for the borders.  

I'm linking up with March OMG Finish Linky party, Mid Week Makers and  Needle and Thread Thursday.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 3 - 27 - 2017

I started a new quilt yesterday.  Yep, I've been finishing or moving along UFOs quite a bit over the last three months.  But you see that button Hands 2 Help?  I volunteered to make a quilt to send to International Institute St. Louis whose mission is to help immigrants and their families become productive Americans and champion ethnic diversity as a cultural and economic strength.  I feel making a quilt for this organization will help to counter growing negativity towards immigrants in America. I realized they would prefer a twin size quilt.  Yikes, that's a lot of work to make one -- especially if it needs to be done by mid May.  

But, on rereading the info on Hands 2 Help I realize I have the date a bit earlier than the mailing date of June 2 or so.  Phew.  I had fallen in love with Sarah's first Stunning Stars quilt called Scrappy Stars.  Take a minute to go look at her quilt and some of the quilts that inspired her at her blog, Confessions of A Fabric Addict.   🎵♪🎵🎵♪  Ok, are you back? Isn't that a great quilt? So I did a little blog surfing to see some other examples of great star quilts with either 9 patches or a variety of patches.  Here's my version drawn in EQ but the coloring is very questionable although I hope to use those colors in the real version. 

My plan is to use navy blue solid for the stars, with the other blocks to be 9 patches except I was going to plop whatever color patch I have into the blocks. According to EQ this will be 68 x 92" I had a slightly smaller version that was going to use 425 4"  blocks for the 9 patches.  I'm sure I'll have to cut even more. I've got 100 4" blocks and all of the navy blue blocks and half square triangles done.  

Unfortunately, I've actually gone through at least half of the fabrics I've pulled for the quilt.  YIKES! On the other hand, I only pulled fabrics from my fat quarter collection so I still have yardage I can hit up.  Knowing I want these fabrics to be totally mixed up I don't plan on starting the project until every thing is all cut out.  Needless to say this is going to be great for my fabric usage when I'm done with this one. 

That's my plan for Hands 2 Help.  Do you want to make a quilt too?  It isn't too late to join in.  Click on the link above and see what is involved and, did I mention there are some prizes?  Nothing like prizes (and a good cause) to motivate me!  

Here's last week's goals.  Not bad but I must get that tangram block done!

March 20, 2017

Sash and border the Tisket a Tasket blocks√

Continue making zippered pouches (more zippers have been ordered)√

Work on a new hat for Natalie √

Make tangram block (What can I say I’m not motivated on this one!)

Figure out what to do next on the stripe challenge blocks√

And, now what I hope to accomplish this week. 

March 27, 2017

Make more pouches

Continue cutting fabric for Hands 2 Help Quilt

Continue knitting on Natalie’s hat

Make tangram block

Plan quilting for A Tisket, A Tasket quilt

Make a few more blocks for the stripe challenge blocks

That's it for me.  I'm linking up with Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward when it is posted.  Enjoy some tea and browse these great sites.  

Happy Quiting All! Bonnie  

Fun Mail

A few days ago I got this book in the mail: 

I had no idea why it came in the mail.  I didn't remember ordering it.  I didn't think I'd won any blog give aways.  I didn't think it came from either of my kids.  I had NO idea why this book arrived in my mailbox. I definitely liked the book after perusing it.  I even want to make a table runner shown in the book.  The quilts look intriguing too.  (The only issue for me is I don't buy precuts except fat quarters and a few charm packs on sale. I think I've bought 1 jelly roll and no layer cakes in the last 20 years.)  

Fast forward a day or two and I got an email from my friend MaryBeth who had been down for the in-home retreat.  She had seen me looking at it at a local quilt store and bought it as a thank you for hosting the retreat.  She was pretty surprised it had already arrived but thank goodness that mystery was solved. I was happy to add it to my collection. 

My next exciting package arrived a few days after I ordered the items.  I bought  25 zippers for the ongoing pouch project I'm working on. These aren't all 25 as I've already put some with the fabric they will be used with.  I've ordered zippers on line before but the last time I ordered they had color groupings.  This time I had to come up with my own colors.  It was easy to match my pulled fabric but when I had to add more to meet the number I had ordered, not so easy.  

These came from Zipit Zipper Supply. These came to 59¢ a zipper including shipping. Way better price than buying at JoAnns with or without a coupon.  Yes, I ended up with more than I actually need but I don't mind having extras on hand.  In fact, I'll probably make a few extras for me to use or give as gifts. Some of the zipper supply companies on Etsy ship from India which means it takes longer, Zipit ships from the Midwest.  I was tickled to get these within 3 or 4 days of ordering.  Unfortunately, I ordered on a weekend so that probably added to the time it took.  

That's all the fun mail I've received recently.  I do have a new pattern and some yardage coming from Craft Town fabrics.  I couldn't resist an opportunity to buy one of their flash sales.  But, it took almost a week to ship my items.  I wonder if it was because one of the items was sold out.  I guess I'll never know and I wasn't in a hurry.  

I'm going to link up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? and Show Off Saturday.  Do you know of other linky parties on Saturday?  I tend to always post on Mondays and hopefully, another day during the week although I'm not consistent with that.  I prefer less "commercial" linky parties as I hate popup ads. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Time for me to head to the studio to work on my zippered pouches and my OMG which is nearly done!  Yea! 

Happy quilting all!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings

A few weeks ago I finished the orphan blocks quilt that Sharon and I worked on when we were together in January.  Here's my part of the orphan block collection.  We decided to only work with white background fabric and save the tans and creams for another event.  Sharon didn't think she had much in the way of orphan blocks but she found quite a few r,w,b blocks from lotto blocks that she had won.  

We started by placing bigger blocks or smaller ones that when placed together became a bigger unit. We tried keep a balance between red blocks and blue blocks. 

We added in bigger blocks from Sharon and started to add spacers to fill in so that the odd size blocks would fit with each other. She had some blue pieces from a different quilt she made but didn't use. It was great that we didn't have to make those flying geese for this quilt!  

We were getting sections finished off and sewing the blocks together. Then we decided to put flying geese all around the quilt. 

Here's the quilt just about all finished.  Need a few more flying geese on the bottom right.  

Next up a close up of the quilting. This design is called Ginger Stars -- my go to quilting design for red, white and blue quilts. 

Here it is with its red binding put on.  Unfortunately I didn't do a great job on keeping the points on the flying geese, rats especially since Sharon worked so hard to keep the points while sewing them together 

This quilt will also be going to a TAPS -- Tragedy Assistance Program that will be held over Memorial Day weekend in DC.  Sharon and I really enjoyed making this quilt.  We'll have to decide if we have enough blocks to make another orphan block quilt next year.  Hum, maybe we should makes some blocks over the year with red, beige, and blue to use up the other blocks. 

So let's move forward to this week and see how I've done with my goals.

March 13, 2017

Continue repair of afghan√ All done!

Begin sashing the A Tisket A Tasket Blocks√ sashing cut

Make a block or two for the stripe challenge blocks √

Figure out something to do with the Tangram block ugh I'm not sure on this

Continue working on zippered pouches√ (5 more done)

And now what I hope to work on this week. 

March 20, 2017

Sash and border the Tisket a Tasket blocks

Continue making zippered pouches (more zippers have been ordered)

Work on a new hat for Natalie

Make tangram block

Figure out what to do next on the stripe challenge blocks

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Monday Making, Moving It Forward Monday, and Main Crush Monday. I hope you can visit a few of the links.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings

The In Home Retreat came to an end yesterday about noon.  We had a lot of fun got some things done, me - not so much.  And, we're looking forward to our next retreat in May with Faithful Circle Quilters. 

MaryBeth asked to bring her TAPS quilt down so she could quilt it on Ruthie.  Of course she could after I got mine done!  Unfortunately Ruthie was giving us a little grief -- the upper thread was shredding.  After several investigations I figured out I needed a new spindle/guide.  I need to remember to order one soon although I was able to use a lower guide successfully. 

Here's MB's finished quilt.  (Hum, I'm still playing with a new light to provide better lighted pictures -- it kind of looks like the left white stars aren't white.... believe me they are all bright white!) 

Here's my TAPS quilt, finished on Ruthie before MB's.  I didn't have too much in the way of thread shredding even though I used the same thread. I got the first side of the binding on and Sharon is going to sew the back side down at home. That's why the binding looks a little wonky. (Thanks Sharon!) 

I was able to pull out my OMG project to get some color choice assistance during the retreat.  I'll be beginning the sashing for it next.  I'm looking forward to having it a top so I can start to think about how I want to quilt it. I'll be showing photos of it as soon as I get the sashing done, hopefully this week! 

Goals were missed this last week -- not all but several.  But I did come down with another cold that wiped me out a bit. I did succeed on a few things. 

March 6, 2017

Quilt and bind boxed squares √

Continue repair of afghan didn’t work on it

Work on Tangram blocks √

Make red RSC blocks did get some red fabric out for these but nothing even cut!

Enjoy In House Retreat √√

And this week -- 

March 13, 2017

Continue repair of afghan

Begin sashing the "A Tisket, A Tasket" Blocks

Make a block or two for the stripe challenge blocks

Figure out something to do with the Tangram blocks

Continue working on zippered bags 

Yep, I'm taking it easy for the week.  Part of that is I don't know what I want to work on next.  And, if I actually do the first four things I will be really tickled to finish them! 

That's it for now.  I'm linking up with the regular linky parties: Monday Making,  Moving It Forward Monday and Main Crush Monday (although it isn't up yet so I may remember to try again later or not...sorry!)

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

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Monday Meanderings

Here it is Monday again and I've really done very little in the studio.  My biggest success is finishing the Big Sebago Tote by Aunties Two. I love the colors.  I'm a bit overwhelmed by the size.  And, darn it, it was not an easy tote to make. I wasn't thrilled with the directions.  I think the biggest issue on the directions was the color pictures used two fabrics that looked too much a like and I suspect a different but similar fabric was used in some of the photos.  This pattern was put together rather strangely and because of that it was difficult to work with the pieces.  I changed the handles.  The directions suggest sewing the handle casings together.  I plan to make a snap on or velcro on handle cover for it to make it easier to load the tote.  Nope, I won't be making one of these again.  Who needs 2 giant tote bags?

For the most part I did well on my goals but truth be told I petered out on my stitching early in the week.   Here's how I did this past week.

February 27, 2017

Work on tote bag√

Work on afghan repair √

Make border for 16 patch nope, didn’t happen

Bind orphan blocks quilt √

Quilt r,w,b boxed squares top oops! started loading it…

Figure out project for March OMG√

And here's this coming week: 

March 6, 2017

Quilt and bind boxed squares

Continue repair of afghan

Work on Tangram blocks

Make some red RSC blocks

Begin sashing the A Ticket, A Tasket blocks**

Enjoy In House Retreat

** Sashing and bordering my UFO A Ticket, A Tasket is my OMG for March.  I've got the fabric picked out.  I shouldn't even need to buy any new fabrics for this quilt.  (Well, until I look at backing it!) I'm hoping this goal is done by the end of the weekend.  

Wednesday evening my buddies Sharon, Marybeth and Nancy are showing up for our fourth annual In House retreat.  We sew up a storm and have a great time talking and enjoying ourselves.  We'll all be worn out when we finish but it's well worth it.  I am definitely looking forward to them coming down.  And, this year we really are only an hour and a half or so away from each other so the drive will be easy for them. 

I'm linking up with the regular parties: Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and OMG Goal link up. Enjoy checking out what's happening on the internet.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

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