October OMG Success!

Remember my October OMG? (No of course you don't)  Here is what I published: 

My Goal for October, 2020 is to finish 4 quilts.  

Three tops are already made and one needs to be started. 

All four need to be quilted. 

I'm happy to report I finished all of them and in record time! These were part of the group of quilts I was sending to Washington fire victims.  All went to students at the local school district. 

No glamor photos for these quilts.  I was trying to get them shipped asap. The first three were going to triplet boys in kindergarten!

Marilyn, my cousin, sent me pictures of what she did to help with the distribution of the quilts.  She tied them into rolls and put a little stamped note on each one.  

All 14 laid out.  The orange and lime green one was made by my friend Sharon. 

Here's Donna's quilt ready to be rolled up.  It's so great to have quilty friends who frequently make quilts to give away. 

The rolling, tying, and adding a sweet message is done.  Thank you Marilyn for adding such a great message, "Anything is possible."  Plus driving the 90 minutes each way to deliver them. 

Ready to go! 

It was a busy time to get my 4 quilts done but all was done by mid-October.  It's satisfying to know we all may have added a moment of joy for these students.  

Here is the linky parties I am joining today: Elm Street Quilts' OMG Finish, Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts, and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  It's fun for me to link up with different parties.  I need some surfing time this week! I hope you can take the time to see what's going on in Blogland too. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie

To Do Tuesday and September Stashbusting

Just ask my hubby -- I have a terrible sense of time.  I probably shocked him yesterday when I was ready a few minutes early when we went shopping. I'm trying to explain why I'm late posting my weekly goals.  And, really late on my September stashbusting report!  Sigh.  

On to my goals from last week: 

10/19/2020

Update long arm computer and attend Zoom class ✔️

Start stitching Cheese and Crackers together✔️

Buy baby quilt fabric & start sewing ✔️ Purchased but not started.

Make 8 to 10 snowball blocks and decide on sashing and cornerstones✔️ blocks done but still deciding the cornerstones.

Embroider grandkids’ Halloween shirts — only 2 as the older girls aren’t interested✔️ and I didn’t remember to take pictures. Boo!  

Here's how the snowball blocks are going to be laid out.  I've got white sashing laid out horizontally.  Shoot, I want to put setting squares in but I jut realized that means I have to put everything together as short strips  -no long sashing strip anywhere.  Bummer.

Hum, it seems to me that I might need to move a couple of blocks.  The 2 dark blocks in the 4th row need to be separated. Anything else strike you that might need to be move around?  What color setting squares would suggest?  I'm guessing dark but don't know what yet.  

Here's what's up for this week:

10/27/2020

Continue to work on Cheese and Crackers

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Plan and begin cutting baby quilt 

Make more trees for landscape quilt 

Start another basket in purple (it's going to be a different style.) 

I've been forgetting to announce my stashbusting for September.  I actually figured it all out a while ago.  Needless to say I was happy with it! 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Sept	4.500	58.875	6.125	69.750	10.875

I'm not doing as well this month though! Sigh. I'm hoping I still use more fabric than I bring in but it's going to be close. 

Time to get back to working on these goals!  Take some time to visit To Do Tuesday and Midweek Makers this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 10 - 26 - 2020

Around September 20th I decided I wanted to donate some quilts to either Oregon or Washington to go to people who had lost their houses in the fires.  My cousin Marilyn lives in Washington so I asked her if she knew anyone who was organizing quilt collections.

Within a few days she came up with a school district in Bridgeport, Wa. You can read more about the devastating fire there here. The article said 17 structures were destroyed.  Marilyn is friends with a sister of one of the principals in the Bridgeport School District.  The principal was happy to be able to receive quilts for the students whose families lost their homes.  We emailed back and forth and finally found out there were 14 students in the school district who lost their homes.  They were in grades kindergarten (triplet boys) up to 11th grade. My task was set.   

I always have extra quilts hanging around in my quilt closet or on quilt racks around the house so I knew I could probably come up with enough quilts. I was also in contact with two of my quilting friends around that time. They each donated a quilt to the effort.  I only needed 12 more. I was able to find 8 quilts that were completely done and ready to go.  My plan was to quilt one top and make 3 similar but slightly different Happy Quilts for the triplets.  If you've been reading my blog over the last few weeks you probably have seen my pictures of the 3 Happy Quilts.  The centers of these Happy Blocks were from charm packs from a kit from Craftsy (or maybe Blueprint after the name changed.) Having been an elementary media specialist I knew it was best to have similar quilts for the triplets. Here are the three. The major difference was the color of the alternating blocks. 

And here are some of the other quilts that went to Washington.

Evidently I didn't have pictures of all the quilts. I did get some pictures of quilts in the process of getting organized.  This was a group of quilts that "made the cut" so to speak.  I found out I had a lot more quilts available with pinks and purples than quilts without pink and purple.  

Below is a bird's eye view of the first group of quilts.  I was surprised that I couldn't find pictures of several of these quilts full on.  The R,W, & B quilt was going to go to TAPS this year but it was canceled.  This seemed a good cause to send it to rather than hold it for next year.  The green and purple one is a flannel quilt my friend Marlyn and I made together.  

And here is one of the boxes ready for the quilts to be "squished" to fit in.  I sent 12 quilts in 2 boxes weighing a little over 22 pounds.   

I was relieved when Marilyn let me know she received them.  She delivered them to the principal over the weekend.  Today, the students should be getting their quilts. I'm looking forward to hearing back from the school district when the kids all get their quilts.  It's been a lot of work but it feels great to have done something to help, even though it is such a small thing. 

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday. Join me for a little surfing! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

To Do Tuesday -- Wednesday Morning Version

Amazing.  By Saturday I was pretty much done with my goal list from last week. So I vegged a lot over the week. I finished 2 books. I put away some of the fabric that was strewn across my cutting table. Here's how I did on my goals... 

10/13/2020

Finish labeling quilts and mail✔️

Add more details to landscape quilt✔️

Quilt customer’s quilt✔️

Read a book✔️

Start looking for fabrics for baby quilt✔️

And this week's goals...

10/19/2020

Update long arm computer and attend Zoom class 

Start stitching Cheese and Cracker together

Buy baby quilt fabric and cut out pattern 

Make 8 to 10 snowball blocks and decide on sashing and cornerstones

Embroider grandkids’ Halloween shirts — only 2 as the older girls aren’t interested this year.

The computer program that runs Ruthie had an update released several weeks ago. I had way too many quilts that needed to be finished under a time constraint for me to start the process. I'll be downloading and installing the program tomorrow so I'll know what the instructor is talking about when describing how pantographs work with the new program when I take a class Wednesday night. 

Here's the picture of my newest quilt project. 

I was inspired by several bloggers who were using their 30s fabric to make quilts.  I actually have had this pattern and the background fabric stored with my 30's fabrics for years.  In fact, I think I pulled the background fabric and pattern out last year.  But seeing others use their 30's recently I decided to give it a try. 

Fast forward to when I was ready to start a new project, ie, today. I was happily cutting away and on the last 3 strips of 26, when I realized I had cut the strips 5" instead of 5.5".  Can you say, smaller quilt?  I don't think it will make a huge difference to tell the truth.  But I do need to measure some things out to make sure every thing will fit together.  Thank goodness for rectangles! As I was figuring away I realized I could make it smaller but then I would have to refigure the border.  Um, no thank you! I've already checked to see I have enough fabric and cut all the strips. Now I need to look for patterns for 5" strips.  Sounds like a charm pack in the making. (And lucky me, I bought my pattern when it was only $7.00.) 

I'm also hoping to make some more Snowball blocks so I can begin putting the quilt together. Here's what I've got so far.  (Or at least what I want to put into this particular quilt.) I just slapped the blocks on the design wall.  But I see I need to move around the last 3 blocks of row 3.  They look too much alike. I'll cut some more and then fuss with the arrangement when they are all done. I'm so happy I have the Accuquilt die for this pattern.  It is SO easy to cut out multiple blocks at the same time.  It may be harder to decide what fabric I want to use than to cut the blocks. 

I'm done for tonight.  I've got a lot on my plate for this week.  Hopefully I'll move everything forward!  I'm linking up with To Do Tuesday, and Midweek Makers.  Enjoy surfing the blogs posted to these linky parties. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 19 - 2020

How can another week have wizzed by so fast?  I was really busy at the beginning of the week but things calmed down for a while toward the end. 

I'm pretty sure I finished this quilt the week before this last week.  You can see it before quilting here.  Here's what the finished version looks like. This is another quilt that has been sent to Washington. There were several older girls who were getting quilts. I was trying not to send just pink quilts especially to the older girls so I chose this wild green print to go on the back of this quilt.  I figure if pink isn't her favorite maybe the green would be! 

Quilting design:  Fern Gully

Thread So Fine: 474 - 50 wt. 

And, yes, I did use the stripe fabric for the binding.  I generally don't wash quilts before giving them away.  But it seemed the right thing to do for these quilts.  

One last shot...

That's it for me today.  I'm linking to my normal Monday parties. Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  I'm looking forward to having the time to do a bit of surfing this week! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

To Do Tuesday!

I kept my nose to the grindstone to finish all my goals. I'm tired but they are all done!  Yes, every single one!  Want to see?

10/6/2020

Make 1 more quilt✔️ I made, quilted and bound the last of the Happy Quilts. 

Finish quilting 3 quilts✔️

Bind 4 quilts✔️

Add pieces (steps, windows and roofs) to the landscape quilt.  Added some steps, a tree, and a roof.  Needs more.  

Pick next main project ✔️I'll be working on a new quilt

I did 3 bindings in a row -- all 3 of the happy block quilts.  I used the leftover backing for the binding.  It was a surprising stiff fabric even after initial washing.  I shouldn't be surprised that might needle bent.  I had some pretty thick sections to go over while I was binding. 

As I was stitching down the second side of the binding on the third quilt, I started to worry I would run out of thread.  I have no more and the Mettler Silk Finish I like isn't available locally.  Never fear, I didn't run out. 

It looks like it was a close thing but in reality it wasn't.  I had a half-full bobbin I could have used some from it if I ran out. Oh, BTW -- it was a brand new spool when I started the first of the 3 happy block quilts. 

So what's up for this week?  I'm planning on a little down time.  Read a book, maybe make a batch of cookies.  There are a few things I'd like to make progress on though. 

10/13/2020

Finish labeling quilts and mail

Add some more details to landscape quilt

Quilt customer’s quilt

Read a book

Start looking for fabrics for a baby quilt 

You might have noticed I don't plan on going wild sewing this coming week.  I'm going to take it easier.  I also need to do some cleaning in the studio.  I might even finish a book or two.  

I'm linking up with To Do Tuesday, and MidWeek Makers. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

Monday Meanderings 10 - 12 - 2020

 Yea for the start of another week!  I'm just about done with my OMG and I'm really ready to hang out and not be so focused on my quilting goals for a couple of days. 

It's hard to believe but my design wall is mostly empty.  Well, except for the "important" stuff I hang on the edges because I don't want to lose it. 

Today I thought I would share one of my Halloween quilts.  I have a series of quilts that get hung around my house for Halloween.  This one is called Trick or Treat.  It was started in October of 1999 as a row robin with a group of people who had met on Prodigy. It traveled back and forth across the United States and even visited Spain before it was returned to me.  We each made a row but did not attach the rows.  I did that when I finished it a few years after it came home. 

My row was the pumpkins. These were paper pieced from a free pattern from one of my local quilt stores. (How is it I can remember that detail from over 20 years ago and I can't tell you what I did yesterday?) (All pictures should enlarge if you click on them.)

The next row is "Wanted" with witches, ghosts and pumpkins. 

And, of course, we have to have some black cats and bats. Candy Cane Sue is looking for treats.  

Along with some of her friends. 

Some nice geometric blocks card "tricks" and rails finish it off.   

But wait! There's more! 

I started a label before I sent off my pumpkins and asked everyone to sign it and identify their row. 

Do you know any of these quilters?  I'd love to hear what they are doing these days.  

I've entered this quilt in guild Halloween quilts activities.  It was voted best halloween quilt in one of them.  It always gets a lot of oohs and ahs when I share it.  No doubt I've actually shared it on my blog before but this seemed a good time to share it again.  It's one of my favorite quilts.  

The other great thing about the quilt is that label.  I wanted folks to identify their row and for that to be a permanent part of the quilt.  Thus I made a big label.  I spent time to "fancy" it up.  I'm guessing I traced the tree, title, and bat.  Maybe all the rest were free hand drawing. (I'm not known for my drawing ability!) I've used this label as an example of what you can do to your labels to add some fun to your quilt.  

I'm linking with my favorite Monday Linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  Please take some time to check them out and visit various blogs.  You never know when you'll see something that you just have to make. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

To Do Tuesday!

Did you succeed with your to do list this past week?  I'm calling mine successful.  But you'll see below I really missed it.  Here's last week's list:

9/29/2020

Quilt one lap quilt Almost done, 2 rows more…

Continue working on 3 kid’s quilts✔️2 are tops the 3rd one is begun

Change water fabric on landscape quilt ✔️ done and it looks better

Keep making Snowball blocks. ✔️ I think I did 6 or 7 of them

And this coming week doesn't look a whole lot different but I'm hoping to finish all the quilts. 

10/6/2020

Make 1 more quilt

Finish quilting 3 quilts

Bind 4 quilts

Add pieces (steps, windows and roofs) to the landscape quilt 

Pick next main project (I'm hoping I'm done with the 4 quilts I've been working so hard on.) 

Do you use and AccuQuilt cutter?  While I was starting to make the Happy Blocks for my 3 similar quilts, I read Mary Johnson's directions for the block.  

The strips for the frames are cut the larger size and then cut into 2.5" pieces.  It was a lightbulb moment for me when I realized I could use my 2.5" strip die to cut the pieces. 

First I cut the strips 9" wide. (Heck, I only had to cut 2.) Because it was a 24" ruler I used both of my 5 pound weights to hold the fabric as I cut 9" stripes. 

Then I carefully aligned the strip on the 2.5" die.  

And in just a few moments I had this collection of 9 x 2.5" pieces for my Happy Blocks. I was able to get 16 pieces from each strip. It was amazingly fast to cut 2 strips at 9" and then roll them through the cutter. 

The small pieces at the front was the only waste from the strips. Fast and frugal at the same time.  I also use this die to cut my bindings.  

I hope you can use this idea if you have an AccuQuilt cutter. I never thought to do this before but it's now in my bag of tricks and will save a lot of time. 

This post will be linked with To Do Tuesday and Midweek Makers. (I'll come back tomorrow to link up with these two blogs.)  Go check them out to see what people are working on.  I get way too many ideas from looking at blogs but there are so many wonderful ideas. I hope you do too!

Happy Quilting.  Bonnie 

  

Monday Meanderings/ October OMG 10 - 4 - 2020

 It's time to announce my next One Monthly Goal. 

My Goal for October, 2020 is to finish 4 quilts.  

Three tops are already made and one needs to be started. 

All four need to be quilted. 

Since last week I have finished one more of the tops that need to be quilted.  I'm hoping to make good progress on the last one this week. I've already made  the backing for one of them and I have a wide backing for the other three quilts. So hopefully I can get these 4 tops quilted soon. 

Here's the next Happy Blocks Quilt I've finished. 

This top is the I pulled from the to-be-quilted-closet. It should be a wild quilt when done as I picked a bright green backing fabric that has some of the bright green from the stripes in it. 

Although I'm giving myself the whole month to finish all of these quilts I really would like to have them done in the next week or two.  

I'm linking with my regular Monday blogs: Oh Scrap, Monday Making,  Design Wall Monday and Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal October. I'm looking forward to see what quilters are working on these days.  I find the most interesting projects. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie