Monday Meandering 4 - 1 - 2019

Did March seem really long to you or was it just me?  I am definitely ready to move on to the next color on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge although I admit I still need to make 2 more of my propeller blocks in green.  Here's the one I made Sunday night.

I only did one because I find if I'm making mistakes when I sew at night it is better to just quit and give it a rest. 

The bottom two hearts will be going to Angels in Gumboots.  Their goal is to make 50 quilts for survivors of the shooting in New Zealand.  Check out the directions and other information on The Joyful Quilter Blog.  The blocks finish at 6.5".  If you read through all the information you will see that some colors and fabric designs would not be appropriate.  Also at the bottom you see you can mail your blocks to Joy with a dollar or two to help defray the postage costs and she'll mail them on.  Thank you Joy for  making it so easy for us to help with this project. 

I started making these blocks tonight and yes, I did make a mistake or two but I decided I wanted to finish the two I started. But here's the brilliant thing I did.  
At the Mid-Atlantic Quilt show I purchased a Corner Pop ruler by Deb Tucker or Studio 180.  As I was making these I realized the ruler would help with the lower triangles.  Brilliant. 

Earlier in the week I watched a video about using the ruler.  It seemed straight forward when I watched the demo at the show.  I re-read the directions (more skimmed for the info I needed.)  Here's the main process -- cut off the correct amount on the base fabric, cut an enlarged triangle to put on the cut edge and then trim it to the correct size.  Sounds easy peasy.  And guess what!  It definitely is. 


First I trimmed the excess from where the triangle is going to be placed. This will be the bottom of the heart.  The directions were to cut a 2.5" square and mark the center line, sew and then flip.  The top of the heart used 1" squares which are too small for the ruler. 

The directions said to cut a 3.5" square and cut apart on the diagonal.  Nothing too hard doing that.  Then came the sewing.  I actually found the middle of the triangle and the base fabric to make sure it was right.  My guess is I didn't need to do that because the triangle was definitely oversized. 

Check this out carefully.  On the upper right is the oversized triangle lined up to cut off the excess.  Notice the bottom left triangle that was too small to use the tool. UGH yes it is not making a beautiful 90 degree corner.  Sigh.  

Go back to the top to check out the finished blocks.  They really did come out nicely.  I think I will plan a new quilt using the Corner Pop ruler.  Now, what should that new quilt be?  Something for the Hands 2 Help project at Confessions of a Fabric Addict? Oh wow! I was just reading about some of her wonderful sponsors.  Sarah does such a great job gathering prizes.  She's got a lot of new corporate sponsors -- I'm going to make a few quilts!  Go sign up if you haven't yet. 

The center block was in a collection of fabric and projects I got earlier from the estate of a quilter. I'm hoping to send it to Jack's Basket by making it big enough with some borders.  I like the the grey and blue but I'll need to bring the center block from 15" to about 36" for Jack's Basket.  I have one other blue I'm going to use.  Any suggestions on the border? 

Moving right along, I was pretty successful on my one monthly goal this month.  I won't be showing the finish because it is going to be a gift.  I'm happy to say I did finish the t shirt top and I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out.  Here's last week's goals list.

March 25, 2019

Finish sashing T shirt √

Hand quilt on Old Christmas Quilt√

Spend some time reading√ 

Make blocks for Rainbow Scrap Challenge√

Work on next granny block quilt Didn’t happen

And here's what I hope to work on this week.

April 1, 2019

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt

Finish hearts for Hearts for Gumboat

Begin work on the snowflake quilt

Pick a UFO to work on 

Work on next granny block quilt

That seems like enough to get done.  Who knows I may pick a quilt in the closet and quilt it.  I find it is easier to store quilt tops rather than finished quilts.  So I have quite a collection of quilts ready to be finished.  

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. Since I'm posting this on Sunday and not all the blogs are posted, I'll come back and link up as they are available.  I'm looking forward to some quiet time doing some blog surfing.

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Saturday

Ok, so it isn't Saturday as I post this but I wanted to share what's on the design wall for the RSC.  I've had another quilt taking up most of the room so I couldn't get a picture until it was done. (And, I gave it a "roll" to get rid of some of the threads that were all over it.)

I'm also making 3 propeller blocks for each color.  I plan to do those as soon as I finish this post.  

I've been busy reading and working on a quilt I won't be sharing for a while.  I've finished the top but won't be quilting it any time soon. 

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Oh Scrap linky parties. I'll be surfing blogs using these two linky parties to get me started.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 25 - 2019

What a great week!  We had a houseful of quilters (and embroiderers) last week.  It was fun to spend time with quilting buddies.  Sharon came up to have a quilting weekend.  Then Dorothy, Kay and Joyce came up to attend embroidery classes.  The Richmond gals would leave early each morning and arrive back at dinner time.  We would spend an hour or so chatting and seeing what new embroidery things they learned about. The we would eat and get back to gabbing, sewing or whatever struck our fancy.  A great weekend.  But also tiring!  

Sharon brought a quilt to throw on Ruthie.  Here's the finished top. 

Sharon's quilt 

Quilting close up.

I really like the quilting design she picked, Matrix by Patricia Ritter.  We chose to run it fairly large. Ruthy quilted it like a champ.  Below shows the backing Sharon put together. 

Backing 

Hum, I might have moved my camera while taking it as it doesn't seem sharply focused.  I like that she used the big strip of the border fabric on the back.  

I'm not to the point of taking pictures of anything I'm currently working on.  But Sharon helped me with some photos of quilts I've finished over the last month or so.  I needed to get pictures done because I was sending two off with Dorothy to take to the Powhatan guild. Today I'm showing Granny Quilt 1.  The blocks came from my FCQ Equilters group. This one will go to a nursing home. 

I have enough blocks to make at least one more quilt this size and another one will be a 4 x 6 set that I plan on keeping.  You'll see that brown sashing on all of the quilts as I bought way too much of it! I was tickled to use up a very nice piece of fabric I won from a blog giveaway.  

I did well on my goals list this week considering all the weekend excitement. 

March 18, 2019

Start sashing T shirt quilt√

Quilt 2 charity quilts√

Hand quilt on Old Christmas quilt√

Pick Granny blocks for lap quilt oops didn’t happen

Enjoy visit with quilting friends √

Here's what I'll be working on this week. I have about half of the t shirt quilt put together so finishing that will be a priority.  I'd like to get other things done but it will just depend on my motivation after my intense quilting time over the weekend. 

March 25, 2019

Finish sashing T shirt quilt

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt

Spend some time reading 

Finish green blocks for Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Work on next granny block quilt

I've been neglecting my blog reading and even responding to the comments I've gotten on my own blog.  OOPS.  I hope comments on my blog will show up in my email inbox as I've hopefully reset it correctly.  Leave me a comment so I can check it out.  

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. I'm looking forward to some quiet time doing some blog surfing.  I hope you have a chance to also. For now, I'm going to finish posting this and then read some blogs. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 18 - 2019

I had a fun week last week -- we went down to the beach house to put it back together.  Over the winter we had our kitchen updated, replaced the flooring in the dining room, the kitchen and laundry room, and put in new carpet in the master bedroom.  We weren't sure what would greet us when we got down there -- would the kitchen be back together or would we need to put all the dishes, glasses and utensils away.  Yep, that's what we had to do.  It didn't take all that long once we decided where to put things. Here's the kitchen with new cabinets, new sink, new oven, new dishwasher, new counters and new ceiling cams.  It looks really beachy now.  (If you are planning to come to Nags Head, NC and are looking for a small rental house here's the link to our house. Although we don't advertise it, there is a sewing table, cutting mat, iron and board available if you want to bring a machine and sew away!) 

And the dining room with new floors, light fixture and whitewashed paneling...

So you might realized that is why I had a light plan for my to do list.  We never indicate when we are out of town. But even taking my Featherweight with me I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to use it. The cool part of being in Nags Head last week was the Outer Bank Community Quilt Show was being held on Roanoke Island. It runs until March 23rd so if you are in the area you should go see it. 

It was in a beautiful community center and had a variety of quilts to look at.  Here are a few of the ones I really liked. This was a very small beach scene made by Chris Cooper.  She said it was inspired by Karen Eckmeier.  Hum, I took a class by Eckmeier but we sure didn't do cool beach scenes.  

The guild was raffling this log cabin quilt.  It really struck me -- I'm sure I have a bed I could display this beauty on. 

I laughed at Pat for taking a picture of me taking a picture of a wall hanging.  I think I have this same pattern and was thinking I should probably pull it out and make it! Barbara Isler made it.  I related to her comment "Made from 2009 to 2018".  

I took a picture of these quilts because I realized they all used the same fabrics. I didn't get a close up of the quilts because I wanted to feature how the maker had used the same fabrics for 4 different quilts which belong to her 4 granddaughters.  

As we were walking to the venders' space we wandered into a museum that had a traveling exhibit on Blackbeard.  We didn't take as long as we should have to see and read the exhibits but I enjoyed the time we spent there too. 

I'm sure the big question on your minds is did I get any quilting done last week?  Well, yes; yes I did.  Here's the goal list from last week and notice I checked off all the boxes. 

March 11, 2019

Sew binding on Heron quilt√

Hand quilt on Old Christmas quilt√

Stitch on Carousel√

work on T shirt quilt√

And this coming week I've got a few things planned plus Sharon and some other friends are visiting at the end of the week so I have a full week planned. (Must clean house better than normal!) 

March 18, 2019

Start sashing T shirt quilt

Quilt 2 charity quilts

Hand quilt on Old Christmas quilt

Pick Granny blocks for lap quilt

Enjoy visit with quilting friends 

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. 

I'm done!  I am way behind my preferred timing  for posting my Monday blog report.  I keep trying to blog at least one more day each week but I'm not consistent at all.  Sigh.  I'll keep trying.  But now I need to get ready to go to my stitching group.  It is the one place I actually quilt on my old Christmas quilt. (Old is a subjective term -- I've probably had the top done for 20 years and have been quilting on it off and on for that long.  I'd like to get it finished this year -- I only have borders to do but I picked a rather complicated interwoven design. What was I thinking??) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 11 - 2019

My mind was totally off Sunday evening.  I usually write my Monday blog post then.  But, no, I never even thought about it.  And, what kept me from doing that?  I was finishing a book.  Not particularly a great answer but it totally distracted me.  That said, I hadn't even taken any pictures for today's post. Fast forward 12 hours or so and I still didn't have any ideas or pictures. 

How to solve writer's block?  I started going through old pictures.  I ran across the pics of the beginnings of a fused glass pendant.  Voila!  Something to write about.  We have had a glass artist come to our community clubhouse to show us how to make glass jewelry.  I didn't make the first couple of sessions but after I saw the results I signed up for one.  She brought all the supplies and did the firing afterwards.  It was really fun. We weren't cutting any glass just putting glass pieces together.  Here's my before pictures for one of my pieces. 

Here it is after it was fired. I've been wearing this one a lot because it goes with everything. 

For $40 we were allowed to make two pendants.  Here's my second one that I put together in just a few minutes as I had pondered over the first one so long. 

It was a lot of fun to do but I doubt I will do more as I seldom remember to put jewelry on.  But it is a lot of fun when I get nice comments when I wear either of these. 

You may notice I don't have any quilting pictures today.  Right.  I've been piecing and cutting and etc. but just no pictures yet.  I successfully worked on each of my projects as listed on my goals list so overall things are moving forward. 

March 4, 2019

Sew quarter square triangle rows together√

Plan T shirt quilt and start to add stabilizer to shirts√ all cutting and stabilizing done

Hand Quilt on Old Christmas Quilt√

Quilt Heron top & bind√ quilted not bound, lots of thread needs to be tied off 

Plan backing for quarter square triangle quilt√

So this week I've got less on my list but hopefully will be just as successful.

March 11, 2019

Sew binding on Heron quilt

Hand quilt on Old Christmas quilt

Stitch on Carousel

work on T shirt quilt

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. Enjoy some relaxing time by visiting a few web sites to see what folks are up to.  I do this at least weekly, some times more and all of a sudden I have way too many pictures in my inspiration file.  Sigh.  Recently I've gone back through the file and named some of the pics and thrown away ones I'll never make.  

HELP Once again Blogger is not forwarding my comments to my email address.  I've tried what Nann suggested last time this happened but it doesn't seem to be working.  Any one else have brilliant ideas about this?  Thanks. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

March One Monthly Goal

In the nick of time I've figured out my one monthly goal.  

This pile of tee shirts are is going to become a quilt top.  I've had these shirts for over a year, maybe two.  Now is the time to figure out how to put these shirts together with that multicolored dot fabric into a quit top. Part of the reason I've been putting this off is the shirts start at about a size 5 and go up to adult size. 

Hopefully having admitting this as my goal it will motivate me to move it from a pile of shirts to a top. 

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilt's March OMG link up, Midweek Makers, and Needle and Thread Thursday.  Enjoy some surfing, I'm planning to.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

Monday Meandering and February Stashbusting Statistics

Didn't February zoom by?  It sure seemed so to me.  I was working really hard to finish some projects during those 28 days.  As long time readers know, I keep track of fabric going in and out of my stash.  I had gone a little wild buying fabrics in February although just over 5 yards doesn't qualify as really wild but I do try to contain myself!  I was pleasantly surprised that I used more than 7+ yards in my finishes.  Here's the nitty gritty: 

2019	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Feb	5.330	6.830	7.625	12.75	5.920

Yea me!  We've had so much rain I haven't been able to get pictures of the last two finishes. Maybe we'll have some sunny weather soon and I'll be able to get some pictures.  

Here's what I've been working on the last few days.

I had several quarter square triangles left over from Gridlock that I finished July of 2017. It was time to put them to use in something new. Of course, I didn't have enough so I made lots more and I suspect I have as many quarter square triangles left as I had when I started this project!  

I chose the green fabric as it seemed to fit the plan and it made the quilt seem lighter.  Except, I ran out before I got the quilt near the size I wanted it.  Back to the stash to see what else I could put to use.  Hum, the navy blue with little white designs  might work.  What was truly serendipitous was I was able to come up with a layout where I could use all 17 of the green squares.  I may have enough of the blue to bind it once it gets quilted. I still need to sew the rows together.  Then I hope to find some backing from stash.  It will be donated to a nursing home via my Powhatan guild. 


Check out that quarter square triangle block on the top left.  See that apple fabric?  I bought about 5 yards of it a good 25 years ago.  I used it on the front of quilts and back of quilts since I first got it.  Sharon and I made at least 1 if not 2 quilts together and used some of it.  I was surprised that I had any left but here it is, again.  I'm not even sure if this is the end of it or not!  It might be in a scrap bag somewhere.  Talk about the fabric that just keeps on coming. 

I had a good week goal-wise but several of my goals were things I really wanted to do.

February 25, 2019

Quilt Granny Blocks Quilt√ quilted and bound

Work on dog tumbler quilt√

Sew the quarter square triangles quilts together √ need to sew the rows together

Go to QOV sew-in√

Attend genealogy gathering√ 

Attend Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show √

And this is what I hope to work on this week:

March 4, 2019

Sew quarter square triangle rows together

Plan T shirt quilt and start to add stabilizer to shirts

Hand Quilt on Old Christmas Quilt

Quilt Heron top & bind 

Plan backing for quarter square triangle quilt

Pat and I went to a couple of Potluck dinners last week.  I thought this little rice crispy dessert was so cute I had to take a picture to share. I have no idea how the maker got the rice crispys so red but I loved the face.  Smile is half of an Oreo, nose is a peanut M&M, whites of the eyes are upside down white candy melts.  No idea what the blacks of the eyes were.  Only sad part of this whole cute dessert was -- yuck I didn't like the taste of the red rice crispy.  Are there strawberry flavored marshmallows?  Or maybe just the food coloring didn't taste great.  It was probably better that I didn't eat it.  But I thought my grands would have loved it.

That's it for now.  Here are my regular linky party link ups.  Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Moving It Forward, and Main Crush Monday.  I hope you will spend some time to see what people are working on these days. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie