OMG! Whoppee!!

I had three goals I wanted to complete for the May One Monthly Goal.  Guess what!  I got all three of the items done.  Yea me!

First up was finishing the top using more of the granny squares I received from the FCQ Equilters.  I posted about it on May 6 so you can pop over  to see the finished top.  I looked for backing today but decided I wouldn't buy it yet -- I've gone a little wild with backings this month.  Plus, that quilt is going to be for us so I don't really needed it finished yet.

Next I wanted to quilt and bind the two friendship star quilts that I used a charm pack of airport activities as the centers of the stars.  Yep.  Both of those got done a while ago.  You can see them still on the long arm here. And here's from the photo shoot today. 

Hum, that's Kona photobombing my shoot. It is a beautiful day out now.  We've been having a lot of nasty weather in the evenings recently. Look carefully at the quilting patterns -- they're really cute chubby airplanes in the design. It's called Dave's Airplanes by David Hudson. It stitches out really nicely.  This is the second and third quilts I've used it on.  Does that mean I like airplane fabric?  Maybe. (By the way if you click on any photo it should enlarge.) 

My last goal was to use my parrot fabric for a quilt. I bought it in Lancaster several years ago; it was time to use it.  I was hoping to get it to top stage and I did.  And because I had so much fabric I made a pillowcase too.  Someone is going to love these bright little parrots. 

So, here it is the last day of the month and I've been really successful.  No wonder I'm whopping it up! Stay tuned as I figure out what I want to do for my June OMG. (OMGosh -- it's almost June!)

I won't be getting much stitching done this weekend.  It's concert weekend.  In a few hours I have to leave for rehearsal.  Then Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we are performing.  It's an amazing selection of music and we are definitely ready to give it our all. I hope you enjoy your weekend and get a little stitching in too. 

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I'm planning to do some blog surfing Saturday.  Things should be less busy tomorrow.  I'm still trying to get some things done before the rehearsal today.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 27 -2019

I'm back!  I was really worn out from retreat and what turned into a raging cough/cold.  Ugh.  By Saturday of retreat I was feeling pretty bad.  But after taking a little nap in the morning I was feeling fairly peppy and went back to sewing.  And, boy, was I successful during retreat.  Go take a look at my 6 project bags ready to go on retreat here.  

And now a quick photo tour of some of the projects I finished (or nearly finished).  First lady bugs and stars.  The star blocks were leftover from an old project.  I was tickled to find all the other fabrics in my stash.  Simple concept and easy to sew.

Next up Foxie Quilt.  The long strip of fox fabric was left over from my grandson's baby quilt -- it was the backing.  Everything else was in my stash, some fat quarters and some yardage. I'm planning on using a different quilting pattern in each color.  Haven't figured out what I'm doing on the foxes yet.

And, last is my parrot quilt. Once again, all the fabric is from my stash!  Whoop! Whoop.  It didn't get finished at retreat. I wanted to add some parrot fabric borders.  Which I started on today.  Still need to get the top and bottom border on. 

I nearly completed one other top but I need borders to finish it off.  I'm hoping a friend has the perfect fabric for borders, I've already found backing in my stash.  It'll look better when finished so I'll share it when I get the border on. 

I did work a little bit on the 5th project which is putting these blocks together. I got a start on putting the four blocks together with the sashing.  I haven't decided if I really like the peachy color I picked for the sashing.  On the other hand, the blocks I put together already were mostly mustard color and orange.  I'm going to try to get the rest done soon and see if I like them or not.  

The 6th project got moved from the bag to the table and back to bag.  I didn't work on it at all.  I think I'll take it to sewing days to see if I can move it along.  

I was very run down and exhausted when I got back from retreat.  My cold was just nasty although for the most part it was more a cough than a cold.  I spent most of last week lazing around and reading a whole bunch of books that needed to be returned to the library. (Why is it 3 or 4 books on reserve show up at the same time?)  The other thing that I "got" at retreat was some nasty bug bites.  I was originally thinking they might have been bed bug bites but I've changed my mind -- probably spider bites.  And ugh, they itch like crazy and have red puffy skin around all of them.  Maybe 10 or so bites. YUCK.  And, still a week later they itch and are ugly.  Hopefully they'll start to fade soon.  My doctor was more interested in the chest cold than the bites. Oh well. 

By Saturday I was feeling better and motivated so I was able to start and finish sewing on the binding on one of the airplane quilts. The second one was finished Sunday.  Yea! 

Although I didn't list my goals for last week online -- I did write some.  Here's goals from 5/13 and 5/20.

May 20, 2019

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt didn’t happen

Bind 2 airport quilts √√ both done

Quilt Parrot quilt nope, didn’t do that 

Put away all the extras from retreat -about 1/2 put away

May 13, 2019

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt√

Finish Prepping Winter Paper Pieced blocks√

Make Parrot top at retreat (just needs border) 

Have a GREAT time at retreat√ (except for that nasty cough!)  

And here's what I plan to do this week. 

May 27, 2019

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt (you'll keep seeing this one until the quilting is done!) 

Finish borders on Parrot Quilt 

Load and quilt ladybugs and stars quilt

Embroider two beach cover ups

Mail quilt to Hands 2 Help charity: Carolina Hurricane Project 

So that's my plan for this week.  Now I'm going to link up to my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. I'm looking forward to doing a little blog hopping this week. I hope you can too.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Hands 2 Help and Goals

Yep, I'm not getting my normal Monday morning blog done this week.  And, as you can tell it didn't come out Tuesday or Wednesday.  My retreat was awesome but I had a heck of a cold and that wasn't so much fun. I've spent the last three days lazing around.  I'm somewhat better so it's time to post my quilts heading out to the Sarah's selected charities. I showed both of these quilts earlier but wanted to get something out and I needed to link with Sarah's Hands 2 Help. 

First is the quilt going to Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project.  It's a queen size.  I've had it in my to be quilted closet for a while so I am thrilled it is done and going somewhere it can be used and enjoyed.  

Next up is a little quilt for Jack's Basket.  The inner "snowflake" block was made by a quilter who died before she could finish it.  What better way to remember her than by using her block as the beginning of a quilt.  It took me a long time to get the right combination of borders to make the quilt look wonderful but I'm so glad I persisted.  And, I found the perfect flannel backing fabric but I have no idea of when or where I acquired it.  Oh well.  Hopefully some little one will love to snuggle up with this quilt. 

I had hoped to make a few more quilts for Jack's Basket but this cold has drained all of my energy.  One hint is I didn't even blog this week.  I'm hoping I'll be energized soon and can share all my work I did at retreat.  My plan of bringing easy kits really worked well.  

I'm linking up with Sarah's Hands 2 Help final link up and Needle and Thread Thursday. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 5 - 13 - 2019

It's retreat week!  Whoop! Whoop! 

I've got just a few days before I'm heading to Lancaster County, PA for a retreat with my friends from Maryland. We always have a lot of fun.  I haven't decided if I'm going to head out shopping with friends or spend the whole time sewing. I know I'll have a great time and I'll be exhausted when I get home.  

I've been getting ready by cutting out projects.  These kits are ready to become quilts.  Do you think 6 is too many for a retreat from Thursday to Sunday?  Most of them are small, easy quilt tops.  Only one is lap quilt size, the others are smaller.  

Here's one of the two friendship star quilts I quilted this weekend.  At the top of the picture you can just see a point of a star on the first quilt I did.  I loaded a wide back and quilted one after another.  It went well. 

This was on my goal list last week so you can see I got it done!  Yea. In fact, I was so focused I only had one item that wasn't totally completed.  Prepping the paper piecing designs I might work on at retreat was time consuming.  It's mostly finished but I wanted to reverse some of the designs so that was taking time.  I'll finish them all before I leave Thursday. Here's how I did with last weeks goals.

May 6, 2019

Load and start quilting airplane quilts√

Bind Snowflake quilt√

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt√

Prep Winter Paper Pieced blocks for retreat√

Finish cutting Parrot top and Butterfly top√

I'm not really listing much for this week because I'm mostly working on the projects I kitted up for retreat.  My hope is to hopefully finish 4 of the tops and move 2 others along.  

May 13, 2019

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt

Finish Prepping Winter Paper Pieced blocks

Make Parrot top at retreat 

Have a GREAT time at retreat 

I'm linking with my normal Monday linky pages: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving It Forward and What I Made Monday.  I've been doing a poor job of remembering to come back to link up to all of the places I've listed.  Hopefully, I'll remember tomorrow! Enjoy surfing the net using these linky parties. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Finishes -- YEA!

I've been working on finishing several quilts to send them off for Hands 2 Help.  Here are the quilts done so far. 

First up is a mystery quilt I started several years ago.  It's been sitting in my quilt closet waiting to be quilted.  My thought is a quilt top takes up less room than a quilted quilt. And, I didn't need another queen size quilt. Heck, I've even had the wide back for this quilt for several years.  This one will be going to Carolina Hurricane Project.  I'm sure someone will be able to use this queen-size quilt. You can click on it to see an enlarged version that shows off the lovely quilting texture.

The quilting pattern is Ariana by Donna Kleinke. You can find it at One Song Needle Arts.  This particular pattern is a great design to give some soft curves to a quilt. My thread is So Fine #402, a light beige.  The quilt finished approximately 81" x 105".  It was so big I actually took off the original outside and inside borders and just used a 3 1/2" finished border. It just barely fit on the wide back I had bought for it.  The only place I could get a picture of the whole thing was having Pat hold it over the side of the deck.  

Here it is nestled between two of our gorgeous azaleas.  (I love including some of out garden in these quilt pictures.) 

My next quilt will be going to Jack's Basket. The inside block was part of a stash of fabric from a former member of the local quilt guild.  I like to use these UFOs when it is possible and I thought her snowflake block would be great to make up into a 36" square.  Little did I know it would take me forever to decide what to do to make it look great.  I spent way too many hours on it but I love the finished quilt.  

I auditioned all sorts of fabric and designs to go with the center.  Although it isn't obvious in the picture the first round is a light grey followed by some penguins on a blue background.  Then a black and white houndstooth followed by a solid royal blue Kona.  I'm hoping some family loves this quilt.  If I had any little babies coming in my family I would definitely keep it!  

Check out this great backing.  I don't have a lot of large hunks of fabric.  I'd scanned all of my fabric shelves trying to find something to use as the back.  Nothing seemed to work.  *Light bulb moment!* I remembered a box of flannel fabrics in my quilt closet.  I was totally surprised when I found this lovely blue flannel in the box.  I have no idea when, where or why I added it to my collection.  But, I was just so tickled with it for this quilt.  

I'm hoping to get one or two more quilts done for Jack's Basket.  I've gone through some of my blocks that are looking for homes.  I found 2 sets of blocks that I can definitely make into 36" quilts. Each block set has been kitted up with additional fabric and a design so that I can work on them at retreat. I'll look for backings before I go so I can throw them on Ruthie right after I get back.  

Since Mother's Day is almost upon us I thought I would share this lovely hydrangea my son and his family sent me.  I'm just tickled with it.  It will be lovely in the house for a while and then I will plant it in the backyard.  We've got several hydrangea plants in one section.  This will be close to them but more visible from the back.  

Today I'm connecting with Sarah's Hands2Help link up. Scroll down to the end of the blog to find the linky party.  I'm also linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish or Not Friday.  I'm going to spend a little time checking out these linky parties to see what folks are up to these days. Won't you join me?  

Odd ball question:  Have you noticed more people are using the Captcha that makes you try to identify similar pictures?  I hate those things!  You'd think I'd be able to tell which pictures have stop lights in them... but unfortunately sometimes I don't get it right.  Talk about frustrating!  

Instead of using Captchas I set my blog to accept any comments for 5 days.  After that comments are moderated, ie, I have to approve them before they show up. I am pretty diligent on removing comments that are questionable such as advertisements and links to other pages that I don't trust.  I'm also careful of comments that are not in English.  Sorry, I just don't trust something I can't read and know that it is legitimate.  

I'm looking forward to a quilty weekend.  I have a quilt on Ruthie waiting to be quilted.  Hopefully I'll get it done Saturday and still have time to work on another quilt for H2H.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 6 - 2019

Another successful week of working on my goals.  And, the weather has turned beautiful although we are still getting rain off and on. 

On Sunday this was the last unfinished item on my goal list.  It only took an hour or two of concentrated work to get these two borders on.  The blocks came from my FCQ Equilters -- gals who were members of the guild in Maryland who have moved away.  They sent me a multitude of these blocks.  You can see the smaller quilt I've finished and donated here and all the blocks I got here. 


Here's a close up of the side with the final fabric choice for the inner and outer border. I'm hoping I have enough of the brown sashing fabric to do at least one more quilt and if I'm lucky I can do two more.  The outside border was leftover from a backing on one of my quilts ages ago. (I can't even remember which one!) But I had a long section x 18" or so.  Perfect for making these borders.  The cool part is I still have a fairly large piece that I can use for a backing on one of the smaller tops.  

I've still got enough to make 2 more of the smaller quilts that I give to a nursing home.  I may put the other blocks away for a while.  I'm getting tired of working on these blocks!  Although I may cut the sashing and bring the next quilt to retreat.  It would be a great leader/ender project. 


As I said I was really successful on my goals this week. Whoop! 

April 29, 2019

Finish last pillow sham√

Quilt snowflake quilt√

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt√

Border granny top√ 

Prep another project for retreat√ actually two are almost completely prepped

This week I'll be working on these goals. Several are getting projects ready for the upcoming retreat.  I tend to cut kits which makes it much easier for me to do.  And, I've learned to plan easy projects so I can carry on conversations and sew at the same time! 

May 6, 2019

Load and start quilting airplane quilts

Bind Snowflake quilt

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt

Prep Winter Paper Pieced blocks for retreat

Finish cutting Parrot top and Butterfly top

Spring is definitely here although last week it was more like summer.  I snapped this pic of one of our backyard garden areas.  The pink bush is an azalea and the tree is a Korean dogwood.  The flower is similar to the native Virginia dogwoods.  We had two planted in the back.  This one is thriving in the shade.  The other one isn't doing well although we aren't sure if the problem is too much sun or an over abundance of water due to all the rain we've had over the last year or so.  I suspect it won't make it but we won't be removing it until it actually dies. 

The steps down and the door lead to my basement quilt studio.  I don't use the steps except when I refill the bird feeder but the french doors offer quite a bit of natural light and a view of another planting area and the bird feeder.  

Here's where I'll be linking up this week: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Moving It Forward, Main Crush Monday (yea it's back!) and What I Made Monday.  Hopefully, I'll do a better job of linking up with these parties -- I forgot to link up several places on my post last Tuesday.  Sigh!  I enjoy popping around the internet to see what folks are working on.  Hope you'll join me.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie