Monday Meanderings 10 - 29 - 2018

One king-sized quilt quilted!  I finished my customer's Redskins quilt this week. It has about 189,000+ stitches in it and nearly 7 hours of quilting (by the computer) not including the time it took to load it, roll the quilt up and basting it.  I'm happy to have this quilt finished.  I'm going to throw on one of the charity quilts I'm doing for Country Piecemakers next.  Then I have another king size quilt to do.  Once that is finished I can quilt my Jamestown Landing!  That is great motivation to getting these big quilts finished.  

I also was able to make a block for a clubhouse quilter who is moving out of the area.  My block is at 12 o'clock. I didn't get a picture of my block... silly me!  I used some new dies I have for my Go.  I used the drunkard's path along with some triangle dies.  There was a nice assortment of blocks to send off with our neighbor. 

One of the things on my to do list was begin working on the heron picture. It was a kit I purchased the summer of 2015. It was the row by row pattern for Lib's Place in Rice, Virginia. Check out the other designs to go with this lovely heron. (Scroll down to see the quilts.)  It looks like these patterns are still available and kits too.  I'm just making the one heron.  He will be bordered to make the finished pieced a bit bigger.  I have a small wall between a door and a window where I hang wall hangings.  


I notice I also have a problem with my background.  I may peel off the heron and unstitch where the first and second background pieces meet.  I think that one is causing the whole thing to list slightly to the left at the top.  Fun times figuring this out!

I also had some visitors today.  Well, Theo got his picture made but Kevin didn't.  They had a burst water pipe at home and had to move to a hotel for a couple of days until the place dries out and repairs are made -- hopefully they can return by Monday.  Kevin was happy to drive down and I got to play with Theo. Boy howdy, that boy is tiring.  He never stops going.  We played with our Brio train, we threw a soft pumpkin around, he ate raisins and more raisins, and we took a walk.  Pat missed out because he had a barbershop concert. Hopefully Kevin enjoyed some time with his mom! 

I did great on my goals this past week.  I didn't have many listed because I knew it would take a couple of days to get the customer's quilt loaded and quilted. And we had a full day rehearsal on Saturday.  I'm tickled every item on the list got checked off! 

October 22, 2018

Continue working on customer quilt — 11 more rows to do! √

Pick out designs and embroider Ellie’s and Theo’s Halloween shirts √

Try again — Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces√

Knit on Theo’s sweater √

October 29, 2018

Load and quilt charity quilt

Bind the monkey quilt

Knit on Theo’s sweater…. it’ll be on here until it’s finished! 

Order backing for Jamestown Landing

Buy fabric to border the heron piece

Here's a couple of pictures I snapped in Charlottetown, PEI.  I was taken by this big mural on the side of a building. (Sorry, I have no idea whether it was a private home or a business.  We had walked downtown after our bus tour around the island.)  

I thought it was just an interesting mural and maybe there was a quilt shop with it.  But no.  We found this sign that went with it... 

It was part of a story walk.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to walk to any other locations.  But it seemed like a fun way to interact with children.  Try clicking on the pictures to enlarge them.  Do you know what a skulk is? I didn't really read the sign -- just photographed it.  I was charmed by the story unfolding on this sign once I read it at home.  I would have liked to see some of the other locations. 

I've got a few more photos from Charlottetown and PEI.  Keep checking back as I will continue to post photos from our Canadian travels along with my quilting info. 

Today I'm linking up with my favorite early week linky parties.  Honestly, I'll try to remember to link up when they go live.  Last week it didn't even cross my mind until Thursday when most of them were closed.  I'm going to link up with Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. Ok, 2 out of 4 isn't too bad. (Writing note to self to remind me to link with the other two blogs!) 

Happy quilting all! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 10 - 22 - 2018 and PEI

Busy week -- I've been trying to get two posts up each week.  Sure didn't happen this week.  So here's what I've been working on recently.  I spent one day wrestling a big king size backing -- I needed to add a few more inches to the backing.  The next day I loaded it (with Pat's help) on Ruthie.  Then I got the design figured out and started quilting it.  I got 3 of the 14 rows done.  It takes Ruthie about 30 minutes to quilt out a row.  I must say, I love the electronics on her! 

I spent a lot of time on embroidering the Halloween shirts for Natalie and Sophie this week. I probably should have picked a different design for Sophie.  Her's had 34 different stops; half had thread color changes.  If you aren't familiar with appliqué style embroidery the first stitching line is designed to give you a base line so you can then put a piece of fabric on it.  The second stitching line stitches the fabric down.  Then you remove the hoop and trim the fabric close to the line.  This design had 8 different fabrics added.  Hind sight -- I would have picked a different design to save some time!  But Sophie liked it.

And here's Natalie's. It only had 6 fabric placements and 21 total stops. She too likes her shirt.  I figure someday they will both grow out of these cute shirts but until they tell me that I'm still going to make them. 

I also gave up on the pattern for Theo's v neck cardigan I showed last week.  I finally realized I had no idea what the directions wanted me to do.  So I reviewed the old pattern and decided to go with the pullover sweater.  Much easier.  All the stitches got ripped out and the new sweater is started.  Hopefully this new design will go much faster without any more pulling out all my stitches! 

I did fairly well with my goals this week. 

October 15, 2018

Work on customer’s king size quilt - fix backing, load and begin quilting√

Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces Nope, nothing

Knit on Theo’s sweater√ started a new sweater — pullover! 

Pick out and embroider Sophie and Natalie’s Halloween shirts √

Put out Halloween decorations… √

And this week --- much the same hopefully with more forward progress. 

October 22, 2018

Continue working on customer quilt — 11 more rows to do! 

Pick out designs and embroider Ellie’s and Theo’s Halloween shirts 

Try again — Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces

Knit on Theo’s sweater 

Here's the next grouping of photos from our time on Prince Edwards Island.  Lucy Maud Montgomery lived in PEI as a child and young adult.  As an adult she wrote Anne of Green Gables. The Green Gable Homestead is the house and some of the surrounding land that was the setting for the Anne stories.  It was fun to see the short video of her life and see her aunt and uncle's home that was the bases for Green Gable home in her novels.  

Here I am standing at the back of the house.  I realized there is a ladder on the roof.  I didn't hear anything about why there would be a ladder on the roof.  Anybody know?  

I had to take a picture of this quilt.  We didn't have a guided tour so I have no idea if it is original to the house or perhaps a quilt from the time. It was a beautiful sunny day so many of my pictures were washed out.  

On the way back to the harbor we made a quick stop at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company.  I bought some blueberry preserves and some tea.  It was fun to see this statue of a Scottish piper.  He represents one of the many Scotts who moved to the Maritime Provinces. Most of the areas we visited were settled by English, French or Scotch.  In some places we visited, such as Quebec, the French were predominant.  Everywhere we toured there was discussions about where folks from the different countries settled. 

Also, at the Preserve Company was a neat gourd display at .  Hum, I wonder if I could use some of this in an appliqué project....?

I have more to share from PEI so my next post will continue our time there. 

I'm linking up with my regular, wonderful linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward. It's time to see what others are working on.  (Yep, I'll need to link these up tomorrow morning!)  Thursday afternoon --  Well CARP!  I meant to come back and link up these places and I forgot all about it. I just linked up to Moving It Forward.  All the other linky parties are closed.  So much for getting this written Sunday night.... Sigh. See you next week. B

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 15 - 2018

We are home to stay for a while.  Yes, we were gone much of last week.  We were down in Nags Head checking on the beach house after Florence and the summer rental season. When we go in early fall Pat spends most of his time doing small repairs -- replacing window screens, moving outdoor furniture in to the storage area. And, he loves doing that.  I usually bring my Featherweight and sew on projects.  This time I decided not to bring the FW.  I did bring projects that needed to be cut out (appliqué stuff) and a sweater I'm making for Theo. 

Yea, it doesn't look much like a sweater does it.  It's being knit from the top down. It's a v neck cardigan.  So the two things sticking up end up being the border at the neck.  I've gotten about 5 inches done and I realized I may not have followed the pattern correctly.  ARGH.  I'm suppose to have 205 stitches on the needle and I only have 164. I guess I'll spend some time this afternoon figuring out why I am 40 stitches short.  I may give up on this one if I have to rip it all out again.  Sigh.

I did do some sewing -- I threw a quilt on Ruthie and quilted it.  I haven't used her in 2 months or so and it was almost like I had to relearn how to use her.  Bummer.  But once I got her set up she quilted like a dream.  She's got a king size quilt to do next.... not mine, for a customer. 

I did alright on my goals, however, I knew I was going to be gone most of the week so I was careful choosing my goals.

October 8, 2018

Theo’s sweater — finish taking off rows & then start knitting using the correct info!√argh

Continue cutting out pieces from Wacky Family Portrait, lay out pieces and fuse in place √ still need to resolve some issues… but progress was made

Load small quilt on Ruthie and quilt it! √

Put everything away from retreat - mostly put away! 

Figure out additional fabric for friendship stars - nope, didn’t get to it

And this week: 

October 15, 2018

Work on customer’s king size quilt - fix backing, load and begin quilting

Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces

Knit on Theo’s sweater

Pick out and embroider Sophie and Natalie’s Halloween shirts 

Put out Halloween decorations… 

Here are some more pictures from the Canada trip.  We left Quebec City and two days later stopped at Prince Edward Island. Scroll down here for a map of the area.  It is in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.   We took an Island Drive tour that included the Green Gables Heritage Place.  But first a bit of sites on the way.  

One lobster trap with a fake lobster.  Lobstering is a major industry in the Maritime Provinces.  We learned how a lobster is caught and how ingenious the traps are to keep them caught.  Here's a bunch of traps on a dock.  Lobstering has different time restraints in the various areas.  Mostly, you can get fresh lobster all year round.  Rules and fishing limits are in place to protect this natural resource.

I was particularly interested because I lived in Newport, Rhode Island when I was 5.  We used to go down to the docks and get live lobsters that my mom would cook for us.  Needless to say my grandparents were pretty shocked the next year when they took the family out for a fancy dinner in Miami.  I ordered a full lobster dinner.  And, you bet, I ate that whole dinner! 

We made one more stop on the shore before heading to the Green Gables Heritage Place.  First the sign...

In English and French

And next the wondrous scenery... to the left.

And to the right... 

I'll be sharing more of Prince Edwards Island on my next post. 

I'm linking up with my regular, wonderful linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. I plan to spend some time this week checking out quilters on the internet.  I haven't had a whole lot of time recently to do that.  Hope you can join me. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Retreat Photos and More of Canada

Here are some results from retreat last weekend.  None of these projects are mine.  

Up first is a quick project Sharon did from a jelly roll.  The instructions came from a Missouri Star video tutorial.  Um, I just don't remember what it is called.  If you know the name let me know and I'll add it to this post.  Sharon said it was super easy though. 

Nancy bought a kit that she worked on pretty much the whole weekend.  But she had the top done by Sunday morning.  I "think" it was a Moda kit and pattern.  You can't tell but the trees are 3 dimensional.  Really cool.  (I think this photo makes the colors seem a bit brighter than they are in person.)  

We had a demo on a bargello quilt using ombre fabric.  Here's Bea's quilt.  Yes, it is that easy that she started and finished it during the retreat.  (We saw the technique at 10:30 on Friday morning. I think Bea was done by Saturday afternoon.) 

And here's another one but I didn't get who was working on it. 

If you look closely you'll notice the strips have just two seams running across the fabric.   A focus fabric is inserted into the ombre fabric. The fabric is tubed and then cut into various widths.  All you do is lay the fabric tube out next to the area you are adding to and cut it. Much easier than sewing strata forever!  Timeless Treasures has a lot of nice ombre fabric out now. 

I didn't take too many photos at retreat so I thought I would throw in a few more pictures from Quebec.  The longer it takes me to post these pictures the more likely I am to get the locations wrong.  I apologize if I either don't have info on the locations or name the wrong place. (After saying that I will admit to going on line and verifying the park and the river!) 

This is looking out from Battlefields Park over the Saint Lawrence River.  It was a cool, cloudy day but there were still a few sailboats out.  On the other hand, I was glad to be in a bus!  The gardens all around the city were beautiful.  This was also at Battlefield Park where we had a short stop. 

This one struck my fancy as I think they were ornamental cabbage along with some petunias(?). 

On the drive back to catch a bus back to our ship our guide pointed out this tree.  Evidently after one battle a lot of cannon balls were left in the city.  This tree made the best of it by growing around one.  

That's it from me today.  I'm going to link up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.  

I'm hoping I'll have more quilting pictures of mine by Monday!  But I know I'll have more pictures from our trip then! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 8 - 2018

What a great week last week was! There were a few glitches -- our road was being top sealed so I couldn't drive down the street -- all cars had to be parked on other streets. (YUCK!)  I loaded up my car with everything except my sewing machine and parked it at a friend's house down the street.  Luckily she wasn't that far away.  In the morning I rolled my sewing machine down and packed it in and left.  But coming home wasn't as nice.  The street is still undrivable so I had to schlep suitcase, projects box, cooler, etc farther up the street.  I waited til Pat made it home before I got some of the stuff.  He was happy he had a weekend away starting Friday morning.  But it is foggy and humid this am so I doubt we'll be allowed to drive on it for awhile longer. Ick. 

Retreat was wonderful, as usual.  I have such a good time with these gals.  It dawned on me yesterday that a retreat is like a giant slumber party except you get to quilt as much as you want and you can go to bed (in a bed) whenever you want.  The only downside of this particular location is the food is very much institutional and it seems to me it is getting worse.  I figure if I don't like the dinner next year I can always go out and get dinner at a nearby restaurant. 

So here are the results from retreat: 

If you look at this picture I show my plan for the blocks with the twist pieces.  It seemed to take me forever to sew the pieces on the blocks.  Finally I decided to do all the blocks twisting the same way at the same time.  That helped speed it up until I went to lay them out.  

I had a lot of duplicates of the upper left block and the various colored monkey blocks.  So I was trying to make sure duplicate blocks weren't next to each other as well as the twist fabrics not being next to the same fabric.  I'm pretty sure I drove myself crazy trying to do that because half the blocks leaned right while the other half leaned left and I had to think about that too.  

In the end I made some decisions and just sewed it together.  The embroidery wasn't very flat (just look at that cute parrot).  I needed to use a heavier stabilizer or an additional piece.  But I'm fairly confident it will not look so "gathered" once it is quilted. 

I didn't get any pictures of the friendship star blocks I was working on.  I ran out of the background fabrics when I was cutting so I could only sew 15 or so blocks. 

Retreat had a monkey theme this year so someone had gathered a bunch of sock monkey fabric and offered us kits to make monkey wrench blocks.  They were gathered up to be made into a baby quilt for the NICU we support. Plus there were prizes for two of the finishers. 

I also did a little retail therapy.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of what I added to my stash.  My third project wasn't very big but I did get some of it done.  I was using the book Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Mary Hertel to make two blocks for a Christmas wallhanging.  Except, I hadn't thought about what background fabric I wanted to use so the blocks aren't finished yet. 

The block below is the block of the month lottery block for Faithful Circle Quilters.  Sharon and I both made one so MaryBeth could take them back up to Maryland for the drawing. (Yes, this retreat was actually for the Powhatan group but in the past they haven't been able to fill all the spots so when the call went out for more people I let my buddies in Maryland know and they were thrilled to come.) It is called Electrify.  Scroll to page 4 of this link for directions. (FCQ has a totally open web site.  If you noticed the info below the block directions -- there is a mystery quilt going on.  I think it started in September so you can go check that out if you like mystery quilts.) 

My goals were met somewhat.  I only really finished the one top but several others are well on the way to being finished. 

October 1, 2018

Finish cutting 2 projects - pirates and friendship star√

Embroider 4 pirate blocks√

Figure out a 3rd project√ kind of 

Knit on Theo’s sweater (maybe start the body over….) √ I’m unknitting but did make progress on that

Finish sock um, nope, didn’t do that

Attend retreat!!! YEA√√

Finish pirate top√, friendship star√ (as much as I had parts for)  and one more project! √ does the block I made count?

And this week I'm not planning on sewing as much.  

October 8, 2018

Theo’s sweater — finish taking off rows & then start knitting using the correct info!

Continue cutting out pieces from Wacky Family Portrait, lay out pieces and fuse in place 

Load small quilt on Ruthie and quilt it! 

Put everything away from retreat

Figure out additional fabric for friendship stars

On to some more pictures from our Canadian trip.  These are all from the same area as the umbrella's I showed here.  In fact the gates were behind me as I took pictures of the murals.  This mural depicts some of the history and culture of Quebec City.  And, yes, it is quite the tourist destination.  I didn't have much time so I just took the pictures with tourists. 

Left and center mural sections.

Right mural section.  It almost looks like someone is standing on the street talking to the men on the balcony. (Wait, when I enlarge this page the "someone" on the street looks more like a giant crow???!)

Left mural section. The bottom section looks very modern.

Because I was shooting over the heads of tourists I  missed the steps which depicting the stairs between upper and lower town.

Here's an overall view of the mural with tourists in front. If I'd had the time I could have spent much more time looking at the murals. To read more about them with much better photos visit Amusing Planet. 

I'll continue to add pictures from our Canadian trip each posting until I've shown all the major spots we enjoyed.  I'm linking up with my regular Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. 

I'm looking forward to a calmer week.  I may not get as much quilting done but I will be relaxing after two pretty busy weeks! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Stashbusting Stats and OMG

Up first is my September Stashbusting report.  I got so little done in September but I also didn't go too wild buying fabric.  And, I realized I hadn't deducted the lotto blocks for retreat in August so I added in mine AND the ones Sharon made using my fabrics while she was here. 

2018	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Sept	6.000	54.625	4.125	73.750	19.125

I am definitely ok with this report as I didn't go wild buying fabric. The biggest amount of fabric was a purse kit I bought 5 or so years ago and never made. I don't think I had added the fabric to the in column at the time so I added it now. 

Next up is establishing my One Monthly Goal with Elm Street Quilts.  I knew I was going to be really busy with non quilty things in September so I didn't even state a goal.  This month there will be some more traveling but I'm hoping I can make some progress on this goal.  

Make the center top of my Pirate quilt. 

 

Here's my planning so far: 

I showed the block up close here.  I decided I didn't like two colors for the twisted look and made it only one color.  The pirate fabric is from an odd bunch of little pieces I bought at a quilt store years ago.  They were about 9 x 12" or at least close to it. There were a lot of duplicates so there will be lots of duplicates in the quilt.  I also wanted more blocks.  I searched out "pirate" embroidery and found "A Pirate's Life" by Designs by Juju. Here's the parrot stitching out. 

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have this top DONE!  It's my annual fall retreat weekend.  I've packed the car except for the sewing machine.  I still need to grab one thing I thought would be helpful and then I'm heading out the door.  (Well, I need to get dressed and have breakfast...)

My last share today is a couple of more pictures from our trip.  These are all in Quebec.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you where in Quebec but I bet it wouldn't be hard to find these streets.  (They were close together too.) 

Pat took this one -- that's me standing by the window on the left. 

Then I took these gates.  I was surprised by the depth or faux 3 dimensions I saw on the curved gate on the right.  I thought it a good example of how you can create depth in a quilt.  

The design two sections to the left is the same yet having a light background makes it difficult to see the dimension you see in the first one.  And, no, these aren't really gates but that seems the easiest description. Next post I'll show what was near this and what all the tourists were taking pictures of. (That won't happen until after Sunday....) 

I'm going to link up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Midweek Makers.  Take some time to see what folks have been showing on the Internet.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie -- ready to get going to retreat.  

Monday Meandering 10 - 1 - 2018

Welcome October 

When last I wrote, the normal Monday blog was actually written on Thursday evening and set to post very early Monday morning.  YES!  I succeeded on doing that correctly!  Let's hear it for succeeding with a new skill.  What I didn't share was Friday afternoon we were leaving for a week of vacation.  Pat and I and our friends left for a cruise on the St. Lawrence River and the North Atlantic.  I've been wanting to do this cruise for years but it generally conflicted with my October retreat or Pat's barbershop competition.  So when everything aligned beautifully we talked our friends into going with us and off we went.  

Eventually I'll add more pictures but I sure don't want to over do it.  Today I'll share a few pics from the first day and a half.  (I promise, I won't be putting 20 pictures on a post but maybe 10 every once and a while!) We flew to Montreal to take the Veendam of Holland American line. Here we are ready for our adventure. 

Our evening was spent cruising up (down?) the St Lawrence River enjoying the views. Here is a lovely church.  The church's roof was gleaming silver in the late afternoon sun.  My guess is it has a metal roof. This picture doesn't do it justice.  We were hoping that the leaves would be giving us a beautiful show but that wasn't the case. Lots of green trees although the green is definitely looking like the end of summer.  

The journey continued overnight.  In the morning we were in Quebec City harbor. We had arranged tours in several of the ports.  Today's was a city tour which would start after an early lunch. Because these tours weren't offered by the cruise line, we had to walk to get to our meeting place.  We passed this part of the harbor with lots of small and large boats.  One of the hallmarks of all the locations we sailed to was harbors filled with sail boats and sometimes motor boats.  

The sky was cloudy and rain was threatening.  It mostly was misting during our tour -- no heavy downpours.  This was the first indication I may not have packed correctly for the trip.  My raincoat was water "resistant" not water "proof" and pretty old. Before we left the dock area we had to go over the water --- oops! It was actually a lock that we had to cross and the way forward was blocked because it was filling! When we looked around we realized there was a bridge over it -- fun to see and feel the power of the water as it filled the lock. 

We were able to catch our bus very close to the harbor. What we didn't know is we were taken up to a different area to pick up the tour bus.  (Hum, hindsight is 20-20!  That's where the cruise line's bus was dropping off folks!)  We had an excellent tour guide/driver.  He had worked for the national park system for years and was working as a guide/driver in retirement.  

I'll close with one more picture that I took specifically because it reminded me of a quilting pattern.  Loved the doors painted in various colors and the cool knocker -- along with the transom window with leaded glass.  This was taken in Old Quebec city.  I can sure see this design on a quilt. (Don't expect to see it on any of my quilts anytime in the near or distant future!) 

We got home early Saturday evening totally exhausted.  That said, both Pat and I would love to go to any of the communities we visited for a longer stay.  Needless to say neither of us did anything more than unpack that night.  The next morning wasn't much better except I did all the laundry.  

Late afternoon I started perking up and eventually headed down to the studio.  I

had checked my goals list and realized I hadn't done much of any of them.  (On the other hand, I knew I wasn't going to either.)  I pulled out the pillowcase pieces that I'd cut earlier and made up one case.  After dinner I cut out another and made a second case.  Unfortunately, that was almost the only finishes I had for the month of September.  I'll be adding up my usage and purchases fairly soon so I know where I stand.  Here's the two pillowcases -- Christmas with some super heroes. (And, I have no idea who they are except Spiderman.) 

 Here's my goals from last week... yea, not many and not many successes.

September 24, 2018

Cut a quilt for retreat Oops, didn’t happen  

Finish up sock Um, nope

Knit on Theo’s sweater √

Make a pillowcase (well, it could happen, maybe)√√ 

And this week I plan to get a LOT done! 

October 1, 2018

Finish cutting 2 projects - pirates and friendship star

Embroider 4 pirate blocks 

Figure out a 3rd project

Knit on Theo’s sweater (maybe start the body over….) 

Finish sock 

Attend retreat!!! YEA

Finish pirate top, friendship star and maybe one more project! 

I'm linking up with my regular Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  I'm hoping I can get back to writing my Monday blog on Sunday evening... it sure makes Monday easier if I can! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie