Monday Meanderings 3 - 29 - 2021

I can't believe I totally messed up my last post!  It was Saturday (afternoon or evening?) I was writing about my Table Scraps Challenge finish.  But, oops!  I added my goals for this week and the results of last week.  (You'll need to scroll to the bottom to see last week's goals.) So, bear with me a minute as I repost this week's goals at the end. Nothing else got completed since Saturday, that's for sure.

But up now is progress on my doggy tumblers.  A couple of years ago I used my Accuquilt Go Tumbler 4.5" die to make a slew of tumblers using my doggy fabrics. I also used a bunch of paws, dots and checks to make it less busy.  Um, no.  It was a hot mess.  So I called on Jack to rip out the stitching.  I piled them all up and put them in a gift bag and stashed them a way for future use.  

Pause a moment for the years to go by . . . I knew I needed a background fabric to give the eye somewhere to rest.  When I was ready to take a project to the beach house and I didn't have much time to get it together -- the doggy tumblers came to mind.  I did a search in my whites and neutrals and found a great fabric from Free Spirit. Here's a photo taken to help decide which of two fabrics to use. 

The bottom is a Moda solid -- I'm not sure which color but it looked more yellow than beige in this picture. 

The top one is the Free Spirit one. I really liked the bit of texture it added but I only had a yard.  I quickly did a bit of math to see how many I could get from the yard.  It was big enough to make a 36" quilt or so.  Before I knew it I had the whole yard cut into tumblers and packaged for travel. 

I really like and use my Accuquilt Go, a lot. (Full disclosure I'm a Accuquilt user but I don't receive any thing for this opinion.)   More than once I've been able to quickly cut all the pieces I needed of a desired shape under a time deadline.  These 4.5" tumblers were so easy to sew together because there are slices cut off the "corners" to make it easier to match them up. I didn't even pin them, so add fast to the easy. I think I might like the larger 6.5" one too.  

You can see it looks odd when you match them up but it does give you a nice straight line when you sew them together. 

Below you can see the rows I was able to get done between working at the beach house this past week.  

I got 6 of 7 rows completed.  I need to find a couple more doggy fabrics to do the last row.  Mostly I have bones, paws and blenders left.  I'm hoping I have some dog pictures left I can cut

This will be a pretty small quilt but I think there are a couple of charities that take small quilts. I'll pick one of them to receive this one when finished.  

Just a reminder of my goals for next week:

3/28/2021

Quilt and bind another quilt

Make and apply binding for my quilt 

Cut out a couple more r, w, & b Ohio stars 

Figure out more dog fabric for tumbler quilt

That's it for me today.  Hopefully at the end of the week I'll have a couple of finishes to share. (Or at least 1!) 

Parties I'm linking to: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday and To Do Tuesday. You know the drill, I'll link up with To Do Tuesday after it posts. (Hopefully soon after it posts rather than days after!)  I'm looking forward to surfing time.  I've hardly had time to check out what's going on on the Internet for the last half week or so.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Green Table Scraps Is Done

Yes, I finished my table runner for the month.  I chose to do a St Patrick's day runner as I have nothing for that day. You can look at my sneak peak from Monday here. 

I used a pattern in the book Table Please, Part I by Nancy Halvorsen.  Of course, I didn't do it exactly like she designed it.  I changed the background to 3.5"cut squares.  I used a wider array of green fabrics.  Nor did I do the word Lucky that was on it. (Honestly folks, I wanted to make my life a little easier and use fabric I had in the stash.) 

Here's the finished project.  I used a lot of bits and pieces from fat quarters and scraps.  Some of the lighter greens were hand dyes I did years ago. 

On another front, we've been working on our beach house for the last several days so I decided to do some glamour pictures in the back yard. (They should enlarge if you click on any picture.) 

Isn't this a great tree?  Most of the backyard is sand with some sort of bushy clumps of grass growing.  And, let me tell you, you can not take a decent picture of a table runner on clumps of grass.  Every one looked like the runner was lumpy!  But a neat tree like this?  Perfect. (Hum, if the yard is dry tomorrow I think I'll get an overall picture of the tree.  It's a Live Oak. 

As I mentioned earlier all the fabric (and thread) was from my stash.  It was great to use of this ivy fabric -- I've had it for a while.  I still have a little left so it'll go in my fat quarter collection. 

We have been working like crazy on the beach house since Wednesday.  We haven't been here for over a year.  It was rented a lot over 2020 and we have a lot of reservations for 2021.  I doubt if we'll be able to get back in until October or later.  We bought a new bed, washer and dryer. Pat replaced window sashing. I washed all the bedspreads. I also cleaned and repaired a leather couch.  Unlike our usual style we cooked several nights and brought food in a couple of nites. This was definitely a working trip. 

Today, we spent a little time shopping at the local outlet mall. Mostly for me but we did get some glasses for the house.  Oh yes, I set up my little featherweight and worked on the one project I brought down -- the doggy tumbler project.  Sorry, no pictures of it. 

Now on to my goals list.  Because we left Wednesday I really didn't get all that much done.

3/22/2021

Finish green table runner ☑️

Prep doggy tumbler quilt ☑️ Sewed 6 of 7 rows.

Make and apply binding for my quilt — Didn’t start

Cut out a couple more r, w, & b Ohio stars — Nope! 

And this week I'm repeating two and adding a couple of new ones 

3/28/2021

Quilt and bind another quilt

Make and apply binding for my quilt 

Cut out a couple more r, w, & b Ohio stars 

Figure out more dog fabric for tumbler quilt. 

We did take an hour the other evening to see the ocean and beach. I call this Moonlight on the Atlantic Ocean.  My friend Sharon immediately asked me if I was going to make a quilt of it.  Um, no. But it would be a beautiful one if I could figure out how to do it. 

This post is a lot later than I usually like but I'm glad I could fit it in. I'll be linking it up with my usual linky parties: Can I Have a Whoop, Whoop?, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant, and Scrap Happy Saturday.  OMG -- How could I forget the monthly Table Scraps Runner/Topper Challenge link up?  Please go visit this linky party and shame on me for forgetting! Let's get on that internet and see what people are working on!  Tomorrow Today is driving day.  Hopefully we'll be home in 4.5 hours or less.  Then I can relax and check these linky parties out. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 22 - 2021

Guess what! On Wednesday I actually joined a couple of quilters from Virginia Star Guild to work on patriotic quilts!  There was a pretty big room. (We generally hold our meetings in it and we can easily seat 40 or 50 people.)  There were four other ladies sewing away.  They were in each of the corners. I showed up and set up a table near an electric outlet but some what near another gal.  Probably more than distant enough. 

I had pulled out a shoe  box where I had a bunch of r, w, blue four patches. Before leaving home, I scrounged around until I found the book with the pattern I was working from. And I cut a bunch of squares the same size as the four patches.  I checked my trusty Featherweight and off I went.  I was able to get quite a few of the blocks sewn together.  I don't have plans to work too much on them over the next few weeks but I might surprise myself. I'm currently squaring the blocks up. I mention all this because I couldn't figure out why I had such a hard time getting to everything on my goals list.  Well, duh, that took all day Wednesday between prepping, traveling and sewing.  

Did you notice how I snuck in that I just didn't get all of the goals done?  So here's the deets on the list. (According to Dictionary.com Deets means details. Am I hip or what?) 

3/15/2021

Finish Green table runner --  Progress made 

Quilt customer’s quilt ☑️

Quilt one of my quilts☑️

Put together the chunky churn dash quilt ☑️

Prep doggy tumbler quilt — what should go with the dog fabrics & cut it out Oops nothing done 

Here's a pic of the green table runner -- I was trying to decide if I liked the background with the shamrock. 

Yes, changes were made.  In the end I removed the white and green floral design and the bright mottled green squares.  I substituted some hand dyes that are a lot more mellow. Once I made up my mind about those colors I put the background together. I got the other two shamrocks cut out with Bosal's Splendid Web on the back.  Enter another slight problem.  The adhesive wasn't sticking to the fabric.  I suspect it is because my iron doesn't get hot enough but I solved the problem by bringing out my shovel iron and making sure the web transferred from paper to fabric back.  I've liked using it because it doesn't get as stiff as some of the more readily available webs.  

Now all I need do is layout the shamrocks according to the pattern and iron them on the background.  And then stitch them down. Thread choices have been made so hopefully this will get done early in the week. Oh yea, and then quilt it. And bind it.   

Here's another look at the chunky churn dash quilt that was sewn together. Sorry for the poor lighting.  If I had finished earlier in the day there would have been more natural light.  I've got a backing I can use although I'm not sure I won't pick a different one.  Hopefully I'll be able to quilt it in the next week or two. 

Some of these blocks were from a group exchange.  I have to share this one with you and ask .. What the heck is it? 

Here's my guess and heaven knows it is really a guess!  Assuming the right picture is the correct one, I think it might be a cow.  Enlarge it, take a good look. Let me know what you think?  I think the top circle has two little eyes, the lower oval might be two nose holes.  And, there might be an ear on the right and left, or not. It looks like it was carefully fussy cut but heaven knows what it really is. 

I also made a couple of Happy Blocks  just to have enders between parts of the churn dash top. Now what's up this week ---- 

3/22/2021

Finish green table runner 

Prep doggy tumbler quilt

Make and apply binding for my quilt 

Cut out a couple more r, w, & b Ohio stars 

It's nice to see the weather warming up a bit.  It was a pretty day today so I was able to walk outside and enjoy the sun.  Hopefully it will continue to stay sunny and warm. But wait a month or two and I'll be complaining about the heat!  

I'm linking up to my favorite Monday parties today: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday.  I'll sneak back in and add the last two as they become available. Have fun surfing the web this week! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

No Finish But . . .

I did get the yellow squares cut out to put with the Chunky Churn Dash blocks.  Nothing sewn together yet but there are still 2 more sewing days before I do my next goal post!  (Hope springs eternal!) 

Hum, I see a few blocks I want to move around to better balance color but this is the basic plan.  Maybe it'll get done this weekend.

I've been pretty involved with reading books over the last week or so (which also might explain why I haven't finished a quilt yet.)  For some reason every half the books I had on hold started showing up -- about one every other day.  I love reading on my Kindle but there was no way I could keep up. I was able to skip my turn and not really lose my place in line for a couple of the books.  No doubt in two weeks or so they will start showing up again.  Sigh.  

This is a short post today.  I'm linking up to the weekend parties so take a look at these blogs to see what is going on! Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Alycia Quilts, and From Bolt to Beauty.  You know the drill -- check out what folks are making across the internet.  You can always add it to your someday-I'm-going-to-make list! 

Have you checked out Hands 2 Help 2021?  It's a great opportunity to make some quilts and give them to good causes.  Sarah has been doing this yearly since 2011.  She says nearly 3000 comfort quilts have been made and shared.  Do you want to join in this year?  If you sign up before the end of Sat., March 20th you'll be eligible for some prizes.  Click on my link on the right to get directly to the H2H page with all sorts of information. Hope you join in. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 15 - 2021

Today I'm sharing the T shirt quilt I made over the fall and winter.  Truth be told I ignored the T shirts for almost a year before starting on them.  You can see them laid out in this post. I didn't share any other pictures from what I can tell.  So today, a few more pictures. The quilt has been received by the customer and she was happy with it. 

First up just the shirts with coping strips to make them all fit together.  The customer determined the placement of the shirts and I made them fit together. 

There were some really cool shirts including a shirt from a Pike's Peak Marathon and the 100th Anniversary of the Boston Marathon.  

I needed to figure out how to make it a twin size quilt as it was pretty close to being able to be used on a bed. The name of the runner was added. I picked friendship star  blocks to fill in the height needed to be bed size. 

Notice no feet under the quilt.  Pat had to stand on a step ladder for this one.  And, because it was a gorgeous day after a lot of snowy and sleety days here's one from a distance with a little bit of snow. 

Unfortunately, I didn't take any closeups nor any of the back.  It was quilted with an allover basic stipple.  The backing and binding was the same grey as the front.  I still have one more T shirt quilt in me -- my son handed me 2 big bags of shirts from his running and rowing days several years ago.  He'll probably be waiting for a while before I tackle his T shirts.

Next up goals  --  Last week's goals:

3/8/2021

Begin March table runner ☑️ Background pieces are ready to stitch together. 

Quilt customer’s quilt Started but ran into issues but now resolved.

Start a flannel quilt use some pink and purple flannel☑️ Done and ready to quilt.

Finish planning the Anniversary quilt Nope, didn’t even look at it.

This week: 

3/15/2021

Put March table runner together

Quilt customer’s quilt 

Quilt one of my quilts

Put together the chunky churn dash quilt 

Prep doggy tumbler quilt — what should go with the dog fabrics & cut it out 

That's it for me today.  Check out my regular linky parties.  Hopefully I'll get them linked as they become available.  Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday.  Woot! Woot!  It is Tuesday morning and I'm linking up to To Do Tuesday.  (some weeks  I forget all together, others I'm late to the party!) 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Decisions -- What Looks Best?

I've been working on a UFO for the last few days. (Well, not all that much work as I've read at least 3 books so far the week...) 

A little back story.  As many of you know I'm part of a group of quilters who used to belong to Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland.  As we moved away we became a block making group.  Every other month a member tells us which block she'd like us to use and what colors.  We then make blocks (and sometimes we go crazy!) and send them off to the member.  Several turns ago I asked for Chunky Churn Dashes from Bonnie Hunter's pattern. I've made at least one quilt ages ago and now I'll get two quilts out of the blocks I currently have.  I broke my blocks into two groups -- one with cutesy fabric and the other with more adult fabric. 

Over the last few days I've made a bunch of 9 patches thinking they would be a great way to bring the cutesy blocks up to a decent size.  What do you think? 

Unfortunately, I wasn't really happy with how this looked. I was really happy that I could use fabrics I already had for these 9 patches but I just think it is too busy. (Hum, this is getting to be a theme of mine...) 

So I found 4 different solids to see if anything was better. So here's what I came up with. Upper left is Kona Snow, upper right is Kona White, lower left is Kona Lake (I think) and bottom right is an unnamed yellow.  I wasn't excite by either Snow or White. I thought the blue and yellow were fine. Do you have a favorite?  I have enough of each fabric to cut 6.5" squares to put between the Chunky Churn Dashes. Let me know which you like best. 

Then I decided I would take a quick look at what I could do with 21 green and white 9 patches.  Oh yes, I did find a couple of fabrics I had enough to cut 6.5" squares to go with the 9 patches. Right now I'm leaning toward the bottom floral print but possibly using the hot pink as a border.  I don't have much of the elephant print but they would look cute with the 9 patches too.  I have a little bit of the green and the white left so I might be able to make more of  the 9 patches and cut the elephants to set a smaller quilt. (I might need to hunt up a border to get these up to 36" square or so.) 

By the way, this whole effort has been off my goal list. (OOPS!) Tomorrow and Sunday I need to get some progress made on that! 

I'm linking up with My Quilt Infatuation, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Alycia Quilts, and From Bolt To Beauty.  Join me in some blog surfing.   

Remember Daylight Savings Time starts Saturday, 3/13! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Small rant -- blogger... please make the print the size I request.  Don't make it bigger or smaller.  I always check the font size  1) when I preview the post and 2) when go back to the post after checking the preview.  I can't believe how often the font size goes up or down from what I marked.  

Monday Meanderings 3 - 8 - 2021

What do you think?  I've been working on a sampler quilt using some blocks from The Anniversary Sampler Quilt book by Donna Lynn Thomas.  A group with the Country Piecemakers guild decided to make a quilt together in 2019.  I joined the effort late.  I purchased the ebook and pulled up the directions on my iPad.  It worked pretty well for me actually.  

The quilt I was planning would have the 6" finished blocks with a 1.5" sashing around each block. I had a piece of fabric I bought over 20 years ago picked for the sashing and pulled and purchased batiks to go with it.  Fast forward to 2020 when I had quite a few blocks finished and sashed. Take a look...

Um, no I don't like it at all.  Too distracting. Too busy. Just too much. So I removed the sashing pieces and continued to make blocks.  Then a friend brought me a quilt to do that had a lovely light blue batik backing.  Hum, would a light blue work better with these blocks? 

My thought is it would be better but it isn't perfect. Too pale I think.  What do you think? Any suggestions I should look at?  So, one of these days I'll take a road trip to a quilt store and see if I can find the perfect fabric for the sashing. I will audition a bunch of different fabrics -- batiks and tone on tones and possible prints.  I'm sure the right one will be obvious.  

My plan now is to make one more block that will work in the right bottom corner.  I've put green blocks with more weight in the other corners so I'll try to find one equal to them. I'm thinking of not using the block on the bottom row, second from the left.  It just looks way too different from the rest. I also need to do the math to see if these blocks and sashing will come to the size I want.  We hang a quilt over the fireplace, that we never use, every month or so.  So I'm trying to get a few more quilts made for more variety.  

I will still use the floral fabric for the backing though. A back story about the fabric.  I was either picking up or dropping off a child at a church camp or a music camp in western North Carolina when we lived in Atlanta.  On the way I found a children's dress manufacturer having a fabric sale. I ended up stopping and buying a few pieces of fabric. It was relatively inexpensive and cotton. It seemed like a perfect buy. I was able to use the other piece(s) without too much difficulty. (Yep, I don't remember how many pieces I actually bought but I do know this is the last of the pieces.) I think I have 5 yards of this floral print. So, I'll have plenty for the backing of the batik quilt and possible enough for another quilt back. Time will tell. 

If you remember my goal list from last week you know I was going to work on the anniversary quilt. Here's last week's goals...

2/28/20221

Make a couple masks ☑️ 1 for each of us done

More Anniversary blocks  ☑️ 

Quilt a charity quilt for FCQ☑️ one done, 2 to go 

Make 3 or 4 more blocks for FCQ Equilters ☑️. Ready to sign and send them to Oregon 

Pull out the Chunky Churn Dash blocks to see if I need more blocks & make some as needed☑️ Several blocks made, deciding layout and fabric needs now

Now what I'll be working on this week. 

3/8/2021

Begin March table runner 

Quilt customer’s quilt 

Start a flannel quilt using some pink and purple flannel mostly from stash

Finish planning the Chunky Churn Dash blocks

I don't know if I'll stick just with these 4 goals but they're enough for now.  The flannel quilt is a new project I've added to use up several pieces of flannel I have hanging around.  I purchased 3/8th of a yard at JoAnns -- they are trying to get rid of flannels so the price was great! Did you notice that odd amount I bought?  I'm cutting 6.5" squares and sewing them into the quilt.... hopefully I won't have much left after I make this quilt!

We're a week into March and I haven't announced my fabric usage for February.  Let's just say I am continuing the trend of using more fabric than I am buying! YEA!

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Feb	1.00	9.00	6.75	12.25	5.75

** Side note -- I copy and paste this chart from Word.  Every other time I've done this I've been able to resize it.  But not this month. So, sorry that it's so large. Who knows whether it will be this size or smaller next month! 

On that note, I'm going to list the linky parties I'm joining and then post my blog! Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. I hope you'll spend some time checking out the blogs listed on these linky parties. (I must be ahead of the game as only Oh Scrap is available Sunday evening. You know I'll link up later with the rest.) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

A Finished RSC Quilt

 Here's the quilt I finished in January. The block is called Propeller. You can find directions at The Colorful Fabricholic blog. I made these blocks for the 2019 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. You can see a picture here.   

I decided it was time to take my quilt on the road to find some place different then our house and yard to take pictures.  I was getting my 2nd Covid vaccine yesterday afternoon so we would go by a park or two, the hospital grounds, and be near the new Frederick Nationals baseball stadium.  We chose the Fred Nat's stadium. The Nat's are the farm team for the Washington Nationals, the winners of the 2019 World Series. I am not a huge baseball fan but Pat is so I listen to games while I'm doing hand work sometimes. 

After receiving my shot (in less than 30 minutes), we drove over to see the new stadium.  Most of it wasn't available for us to go in. Here are the photos we were able to get. 

We drove down the side of the stadium and found a place we could photograph and get some of the actual field in the view. Did I mention it was windy too? 

Next we went back to the front to get a photo in front of crossed baseball bats. 

The quilt shows up well in these pictures because it is so bold and geometric.  The crossed bats is different... and it isn't totally finished yet. My guess is it will have a lot of beautiful flowers or shrubs below the bats when finished. 

Next up we went into the Nats Store.  I was still looking for a location for some fun photos.  

Pat was looking for a new hat which he found.  

I was wandering around trying to decide where else I'd photograph my quilt. Hum, a mannequin dressed in a Nat's Uniform, with a little stuffed dog with a Nat's leash and collar.  That might work well. 

I had to go outside to get a picture.  The quilt isn't shining. 

It's hard to see the backing but it is the same light blue with white polka dots used for the binding.  I have enough left for another quilt backing so you will see it again. 

Now, a close up of the quilt and quilting. 

Quilting Design: Fern Gully. (Yep, it's my current favorite design.) 

Thread: Omni Natural White.

True confession time.  I wasn't all that excited about these blocks.  They are a little fussy to make.  I was making two blocks a month based on the colors given each month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Once I finished the top last year I decided it was a little more likable.  After I quilted and bound it I started to realize it was a nice quilt. After seeing these pictures I realize it is a great quilt!  Eventually it will be given away but for the time being it will be living here at home. 

Do you find that you like a quilt better the further along in the process?  Seeing these pictures has certainly changed my mind about this quilt.

Next up -- Linky Parties this week: Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pagent, and Scrap Happy Saturday. (I'll link up as the parties get started.)   I'm going to be doing some surfing this weekend.  How about you? 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie