Monday Meandering 6 - 1 - 2020

Are we really starting June today?  Here in Virginia it's a nice spring day.  But later this week we're heading for the heat of summer.  We haven't had any 90 degree days yet this year but there's a good chance we will on Wednesday.  Can you say "Hello air conditioning?" 

Blocks are from Anniversary Sampler Quilt by Donna Lynn Thomas. 

I've done pretty well on my goals from last week 

1. Pick a top of mine to quilt and get it done. ✔️ I'll take pictures of this quilt and show it later in the week, (maybe Friday.) 

2. Make some more blocks from Country Piecemakers 2019 BOM. ✔️ (I'll be continuing to make these each week until I get 25 done or get tired of them.) 

3. Make a bunch more braid and split  rail blocks.  All the blue braids & the split rails are done.✔️

4. Clean up front end of cutting table. 🙂 It’s started but not finished yet. 

Here's this week's block from  Jacquelynne Steves weekly Silver Lining Quilt Along.  I really like this one.  When I started this quilt along I gathered my fabrics and put them in a little basket.  Every week I decide which fabrics I am pulling to make the block.  I love this sweet little bunny.  I wonder what this week's block will be? FYI - this is a picture of the fabrics cut out but now sewn together.  The picture of the sewn block just didn't look as bright as this pic. 

  

Here's what I'm planning to do this week.

1.Start making blocks for FCQ Equilters. (I'm behind -- I need to make and send blocks for 3 of the gals.)

2. Finish the braid block and start putting the top together. 

3) I agreed to make 3 embroidered masks for Pat's barbershop chorus.  He's planned a game for next week's Zoom rehearsal and wants to give prizes out.   

4) Cut some red fabric for split rail blocks.

5) I might start a new quilt.... 

I made a trip to JoAnns this weekend after I spent hours trying to find fabric that I could order and pick up at my local store.  No such luck.  So off I went to the store wearing my mask as mandated in my state.  The shelves were really bare.  I was looking for about a half yard of a navy blue fabric for a binding.  Nothing struck my eye from the lowest price to the highest price until I happened across the wide back fabrics.  Success!  I bought 3+ yards of a nice blue and white that I used as the binding of the quilt I completed.  Yea, I know I didn't need to get that much fabric but I do have 2 finished tops that are red, white and blue.  I figure this navy and white fabric will be perfect backings for them and, if I'm lucky, one more top.  And, then, because I am crazy, I bought 3 yards of chartreuse Kona cotton.  (I was tickled when I got home because I found several pieces of fabric that will go great with it! It really may be time for a new quilt.) 

I'm linking up with my regular parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday. Have fun checking out other blogs to see what quilters are doing now. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Friday Finishes!

Actually, these were finished earlier this month but I kept forgetting to get pictures.  So I grabbed my favorite quilt holder and took a few pictures this week.  

This was a mystery table runner that was planned by my quilting buddy Sharon. I'm not even sure how long ago we did it because I loaned her my top fto share with another guild she was sharing the mystery with.  It was a fast, easy quilt to finish.  I quilted the two outside blocks with one pattern and the inner block with a different one.  I even hand stitched the binding down on this one.  The color combination makes me smile. 

My other finish is made with what I call granny blocks. These blocks remind me of crocheted granny squares. These blocks were sent to me by my FCQ Equilters.  For a fussy block they made a huge number of blocks.  I've already made one quilt you can see here.  And, I think I have enough blocks to make one more small quilt set 3 x 4.  The bigger question is whether I have enough brown to sash another quilt!  One of these days I'll find out. Plus, I'll have to find a border too. 


The border on this quilt was fabric left over from another quilt made years ago.  I said I was going to keep this one but who knows if I really will.  Check below to see the quilt close up. (Plus, all pictures should enlarge if you click on them.) 

I am still hoping to get one more top quilted before the end of May.  Truth be told I've purchased a couple of wide backs that I hope to be able to get 2 tops on each one.  It may take a while for the fabric to come in though. There is a chance that over the next month or two I will have several more finished quilts to share. 

Since I've been a lazy blogger for many of the previous months I'm excited to link up with some different linky parties.  Have fun checking out these linky parties: Midweek Makers, Needle and Thread Thursday, Beauties Pagent #83, and Finish or Not Friday (when they go live.) I hope you enjoy surfing the web for quilty goodness this weekend. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 25 - 2020

Have you woken up recently and not known what day of the week it was?  Yea, me too.  It is the oddest feeling to have no clue what day it is.  Although I did figure out what  day it was,  I'm guessing this will continue to happen for a while.  

I dgot quite a bit of reading done this week.  I put ebooks on reserve and it never fails that lots of them come in at the same time.  I finally had to postpone some of them.  I'm currently listening to Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan.  It's the story of Joy Davidman who becomes C.S. Lewis's wife. It's been interesting and very different then my normal read. I need to spend some more time with it because it's due in 3 days and I'm only a third of the way through.  You know what I'll be doing while I quilt over the next few days!

Pat made us a new bird feeder recently.  It's been very popular because bigger birds attempt to eat from it.  I was pretty surprised to see about 5 starlings trying to get on it the other day.   (Click on the picture to get a larger view.) We get beautiful yellow finches on a regular basis, along with mourning doves, blue birds and even a curious hawk every once in a while. But these starlings were just being piggy. And, great news, we had our first hummingbird of the year on Saturday. 

Surprisingly earlier today a bird got caught inside the house feeder.  The right-side roof raises so we can clean it out and refill it.  Some crazy bird got in there, we suspect through the tray, as we always keep the roof down.  Pat opened the roof for the bird but he had to tip the bird out to get him to fly off.  

I did get quite a bit of quilting and piecing done this week.  
Here's what was on my goal list last week. 

1) Finish binding the table runner. √ (pictures to come) 

2) Make 5 blocks from last year's BOM for Country Piecemakers. How about 3? 

3) Quilt charity quilt for a friend.√

4) Cut out a bunch of little rail fence pieces to do as leader enders.√

These are 3 1/2" square blocks.  I loved the rainbow version that Nann made.  You can see her's here. 

I also have been working on another UFO called Braid Shuffle by Karie Patch Designs. (Scroll down to see the pattern.)  You can see a couple more braids from February 2017 here. All the blocks with the white on the sides were left over from 2017 RSC.  I decided I would make some more blue ones and try to make a small baby quilt.  I've been hitting the blue scrap bag but it isn't going down at all!  I may have to do a pink one at some point since I have some of them left too. 

I felt pretty good about getting my goals moved forward this week.  I also made a couple more masks. But the biggest surprise is I actually redid my batting pieces inventory.  I wrote about it here a week ago when I was the guest blogger on Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I've had it on my to do list for months... or so it seems to me.  I finally took one morning and actually took all the pieces out of my big plastic bin, measured any pieces that weren't marked and then entered them on my Excel spreadsheet.  It was so great to be able to find a couple of pieces on the spreadsheet without having to plow through every piece.  I made sure I moved them to the "used" section too.  

Next up are my goals for this week. 

1. Pick a top of mine to quilt and get it done. 
2. Make some more BOM from Country Piecemakers.
3. Make a bunch more braid and split rail blocks. 
4. Clean up front end of cutting table 

   I'm linking up with my regular linky parties:   

   Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Design Wall Monday.  Have fun checking the various blogs out. 

I'll leave you with a beautiful dogwood I found in the neighborhood.  We've got a different type of dogwood in our yard but I do love these pink ones.


Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 5 - 18 - 2020

I actually left my neighborhood this week.  I had an appt and I went to the local Target this week.  Last Thursday my iron died. OMG!  This is not the time to have an iron go out. We did a quick check of Consumer Reports and then proceeded to find one of the recommended irons at Target which I ordered for pick up.  I had it home before lunch the next day and brought some burritos from Taco Bell too.  

So, this iron seemed really weird when I started to use it:  It didn't have heat selection, an off button or a clean button. I was thrilled to get it going so I could finish what I'd been working on but I was not enthused with it. I decided to read the directions.  Ok, should have done that first.  There is a light that shows when it heats up and another light that shows it's plugged in.  Once I figured that out I let it warm up correctly and it worked fine.  Phew, I was back in business. 

Have you been "Zoom"ing?  This past weekend was suppose to be my retreat with FCQ.    Anyway the gal who is in charge suggested we spend an hour or so chatting on Zoom while working on our projects the days we would have been retreating.  It was great fun.  We got caught up with everyone, offered suggestions on projects and moved our own projects forward.  We actually met three days for about 2 hours each day.  I've also gotten my 3 quilting buddies together on Zoom too.(picture below.)  We had to cancel the in house retreat but we enjoyed our chat so much that we are meeting every other week.

Clockwise from upper left: Nancy, me, MaryBeth and Sharon Zooming. We represent Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. 

Here's a look at a few of the things I've done this week. First, I quilted a table runner.  I've got the binding ready to apply. Hopefully I'll be done with that in the next few days. (The color is pretty bad on this.  I'll get a better picture when I finish it.) 

I'm piecing along with Jacquelynne Steves Silver Lining Sew Along.  It is one 6" (finished) block every Monday until early August.  I was tickled that the first one was super easy.  I'm not known for my stick-with-it-ness on quilt alongs or BOMs! We'll see if I succeed.  I've put all the chosen fabrics in a small basket and I hope to actually make each block on Mondays.  You can still sign up for notices by going to Silver Lining Sew Along Page. If you sign up for email notifications you will receive an embroidery design every Friday.  If you are looking for something to do each week, give it a try. 

This is the "new" project I started last week.  I got the dinosaur fabric a year or so ago.  It was great to pull all the fabric for this from my stash.  Unfortunately, I'm not having as much luck pulling backings.  I know someone will enjoy the dinosaurs.  I may check with my son to see if Theo might like a dinosaur quilt.  This has been relegated to the to-be-quilted closet.  The tops are piling up in there. 

Here's how I did on my goals: 

1) Finish the new top. All done! 

2) Quilt star table runner. All done, on to binding.
3) Put together stripe blocks into a top. All done! (It went to the closet too.)
4) Update the batting spread sheet. I used a bat piece but didn't redo the spread sheet. 

Now I need to figure out some new goals.  

1) Finish binding on table runner. 

2) Make 5 blocks from last year's BOM for Country Piecemakers.

3) Quilt charity quilt for a friend.

4) Cut out a bunch of little rail fence pieces to do as leader enders.

One thing I did spend a LOT of time on was searching Newspapers.Com for info about my relatives.  It allowed free access to Ancestry subscribers for the weekend. I've been trying to get a family tree together off and on for several years.  

I was focusing on my dad's father.  We don't know a whole lot about his early life. His mother died a few years after he was born. He had siblings who were 27 years and 18 years older than him.  So I've been trying to find out more about his early life and his parents.  I haven't been particularly successful.  So I spent every evening searching newspapers from Montana from the late 1800s on. I found a fun article written about him on the 50th anniversary of his graduation from the Montana State School of Mines.  (Now, Montana Tech if I remember correctly.)  It verified quite a few things about his life that my brother, cousins and I knew from his stories. They were delighted to receive screen shots of the article. I also saw that his dad had to apply to be his guardian and post a bond of $1000 every couple of years.  He had to turn in reports regularly too. I'm wondering why?  Anybody know anything about why?  In one article it said something about an inheritance.  I'm guessing that his mother might have left him some money.  He was a miner's son, how else could he have afforded college? He and my grandmother got married before he'd graduated college. She was 19.  I've actually got her diary from the time which has been very interesting to read.  Darn I wish I had asked him more questions years ago! If anyone has any insight please let me know!  

I'm linking up to Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Design Wall Monday. You know the drill -- I'll link up with the other two when posted and I remember!   I had a lot of fun visiting blogs last week.  I hope to take some time to do it again this week.  My only problem is I have had a lot of books that have been on reserve come in recently.  And, oddly enough, I am not reading as much as I usually do!  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 11 - 2020

What a week!  I got so much done.  I'll be sharing a few things today and must remember to share the rest later.  First up I made 8 log cabin blocks for Virginia Star's raffle quilt 2021. Here are my 8 blocks. It was fun to try two different settings before I mailed them off. I've made log cabin quilts before but these blocks surprised me.  For the most part the red and green blocks have the same value.  But wow, the two colors really showed a lot of contrast, something I didn't anticipate.  I'm looking forward to seeing the whole quilt. 

One of the things I finally got to was updating my UFO list.  To be honest I haven't gone through the whole list.  Somehow I have 56 projects on my list. (I have already moved 3 projects to completed tops and one to completed quilt.)  I've been going through them to see if I really want to complete the projects or whether I want to get rid of them. 

Here's my next project.  I've had these 16 striped blocks for years. This will be my next UFO project. I didn't like them lined up next to each other.  So I decided they would work better with sashing.  Here are the ones I tried.  Which do you prefer? Green, yellow or blue?  I'll be working on this project during the week so please let me know which you like better.  And, why.  I think the pink on top will be a border. Or would it work to sash them in groups of four and use all of these colors, including the pink?  Hum?  

 

 One of the reasons I was excited about last week was I made a lot of progress.  Here are the goals from last week and how I did. 
1) Sewing all the churwndash blocks into a top. √ Done
2) Loading and quilting my granny square blocks on Ruthie.√ I'm working on the binding. 
3) Starting a new quilt. √ I'll have the top done by next week.
4) Updating my spread sheet on UFOs. UFO list is started but I still need to work on the batting pieces. 

This weeks goals: 
1) Finish the new top. 
2) Quilt star table runner.
3) Put together stripe blocks into a top.
4) Update the batting spread sheet. 
I'm linking up with Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Design Wall Monday. I'm also going to spend some time surfing the web to see what people have been making this last week.  How about you?  

Our yard is looking amazing these days. Here is one of our azaleas blooming in two colors. The birds have been hitting the bird feeders like crazy which is fun to watch.  Pretty soon I'll put out the hummingbird feeder.  Finally this week we'll be getting some warmer days.  Or maybe hot days.  We had freeze warnings last night and by next Sunday the temps are predicted to be in the 80s.  Quite a change! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 5 - 4 - 2020

Welcome May!  The gardens are gorgeous as we take our walks.  And, the lawns have greened up and have needed mowing twice a week this week. Staying home worked for me this week.  I was successful on two of my goals.  Especially quilting the huge quilt.  Here's a peek at what I got done.  

First I finished making pinwheel blocks and got them sewn together in to a top.  Unfortunately the top has been put in the closet to be quilted after I get a backing for it.  Eventually it will be donated as a Quilt of Valor. 

 My biggest finish was the quilting on the king size quilt for the local guild. I won't be able to show the whole quilt until later.  But here's one of the blocks. 

Actually, that's the only two things I got completed on my list, but I was so happy to finish the quilting.  It wasn't on the list, but I once again started working on a hand quilting project.  Talk about a UFO!  I started this quilt on a mystery quilt weekend in 1995 (or so.) I've been hand quilting it for years. (Or maybe not quilting so much as letting it sit around a lot!) I am stitching 8 strands of quilting around the outside border.  I'm about half done but I only get a little bit done each time I work on it.  

And, since it's the beginning of new month, here are my statistics for April.

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
April	2.625	28.000	9.000	23.625	4.375

Even though I've been making masks like crazy and finished one small quilt, I still haven't made up for all that fabric I bought in Feb and March.  The yardage in is fabric I was given by someone getting rid of her fabric.  Most of it I have in a separate box and didn't count it as coming into my stash.  But I was in need of white on whites so I decided I would just add them to the stash. Maybe by the end of May I'll have made a dent in fabric! 

Here's my goals for this week: 

1) Sewing all the churwndash blocks into a top. Several rows were sewn together last week.  I'm hoping to get these into a top. 
2) Loading and quilting my granny square blocks on Ruthie. 
3) Starting a new quilt.  (To heck with all these UFO's for a week!) 
4) Updating my spread sheets on UFOs and batting pieces.  It's still my maybe goal. All the other ones I really want to keep up with. 

I'm linking with Oh Scrap, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  Spend some time seeing what people are working on during these extra days at home. 

Happy Quilting and Stay Safe!  Bonnie