Another Finish!

Amazing ... another week, another finish.  I wish I could continue this mini trend.  This was a really easy, small quilt.   

It was a beautiful sunny day when I took this picture.  I decided it was nice to leave a little sky in the picture.  (Many thanks to hubby who was holding the quilt.) 

This is a free pattern from Elizabeth Hartman.  She offers a version using charm packs and a bigger version using layer cakes.  You can find the directions here.  You can also find other free projects by going to her website and looking under "Projects."  (Every time I show this quilt it takes me forever to find the web page as it isn't listed as a free pattern, although it is.) 

You can read the back story on the charm squares here. The squares that were cut in half were actually cut from stash.  I was able to introduce a little calm into the mix with them.  It's a very easy quilt even if you cut your own 5" squares.  Below you can see the backing.  I was really happy to use that older piece of flannel.  The only downside is it's hot in central Virginia in the summer -- who's going to want to use a part flannel quilt? It's going to a NICU in the Richmond area through Country Piecemakers in Powhatan, VA.

I'm trying to decide what fabrics should be cut next for one of these quilts.  Hum, maybe I should think about cutting 10" squares for a bigger quilt?

Here's Sharon's version that looks completely different from mine. 

And last, proof of finish of my table runner/wall hanging. 

Ok, honesty here, I haven't put the sleeve on it yet nor have I decided about eyes or bubbles.  But one of these days I will do that.  Maybe sooner than later. 

I'm ready to finish this off and get back to the studio.  I'm FaceTiming with Sharon this PM and I need to figure out what to do during that time.  New quilt? Pull out a UFO? Make blocks that I need to send off?  Decisions, decisions.  

I'm linking up to all of these fun parties: Midweek Makers, Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Finished or Not Friday, and Beauties Pageant. Wow!  That's a lot of blogs.  But jump right in and start surfing.  You know you will find all sorts of great inspiration. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie  

Monday Meanderings 4 - 26 - 2021

 Need I say more?

On the last load in the drier yesterday hubby smelled smoke or so it seemed.  And, the drier didn't start up again. He also found some water that had leaked from the washer.  YUCK and Double Yuck.  This morning we decided it might be time to buy a new washer & drier. He did the research to find the best brand for our needs. We have a countertop over our w/d that we wanted to keep. So off to a big box store to check out the washer.  Um, except it wasn't a really popular model so it wasn't available to check out. But it could be delivered next week. Except, we wanted the drier too -- but it wouldn't come in until mid June. Laundromats flashed in my head.  In the end we decided to have them delivered at the same time. Pat would try to make the fix he'd found on You Tube.  Wow!  My hero. He succeeded making the repair on the "board." (Think computer board.)  So the drier works but we don't know for how long. I'm looking forward to June.  My take on the whole thing:  Washers and driers have really gotten big.  I thought ours were huge. HA!  Not at all compared to the gargantuan ones being sold now. Maybe our laundry has just gotten smaller.  No kids in the house does make a difference. 

I thought I'd share some photos of the patriotic top I quilted a week or so ago. I don't know who made it but it was quilted for Virginia Star Quilters.  It's being given to a veteran soon.  

And how about an up close of the quilting?

You can click on all pictures in this blog and they should enlarge.  I was not too pleased with this quilting design. I probably won't use it again.  There was a lot of back stitching, ie the design goes back over lines that have been stitched before it can continue quilting.  And, in certain places the lines of the stars didn't meet.  Will anyone notice?  Probably not. I shouldn't be surprised because that is exactly how the pdf of the pattern looks. I doubt I'll use it again.  I've got a lot more star options and I'll just use one of them.

I'm happy to admit I got all my goals done last week! Whopee! It was a short list but I knew each item would take some time. 

4/19/2021

Make April table runner✅ See it on Friday's post.

Bind Space Charms✅ Finished except the label.

Finish making R, W, B blocks, start sewing together ✅ Blocks are in rows.

I went back to some previous goal lists and added some of my unfinished projects to this list. I'm hoping I can finish a couple to the top stage.  And, maybe a new basket too. 

4/26/2021 

Sew RWB rows together. Do I border? 

Quilt and bind one of my quilts 

Lay out and sew 1 Happy Blocks quilt 

Continue working on green basket 

It's later than normal and it's time to wrap this up and add the linky parties.  If you have time I hope you will visit a few of my favorites:  Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. (I'll be back to link up to the rest of the blogs as they come available. I've even been succeeding at that!)  Happy Surfing! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Blue Table Runner

I have worked most of this week on my blue table runner for the Table Scraps Challenge.  Those participating are making table runners, placemats, or even mug rugs using the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  I've added my own challenge to several of my projects.  This month I decided I would use one of the Accuquilt Appliqué dies I own.  (I own 5 or so but have really only used 1 of them.)  I started out this week getting the embroidery done on three squares of Kona white fabric.  I chose to use Go! Sea Life Medley die.  I also have the free embroidery files for this die. So I set up the embroidery module and got to work.  

I actually embroidered the crab first. Um, I guess it wasn't such a brilliant idea to use the variegated thread.  And, apparently it weighs differently than my usual embroidery thread as there was a lot of white bobbin thread showing on the top.  It took about an hour to do so I wasn't that interested in redoing it. The other two designs I used a thread that went with the fabric used and were done in way less than an hour. 

I added rectangles to the designs to make a square in a square block. I used RK Quilting Calc app on my iPad.  It's an older program but it works just fine.  I needed the dimensions to cut the inner squares and the outer triangles so that I would have 9" finished blocks.  It worked like a charm.  And, I could email the end results to my phone so I would have the measurements when I started to cut the fabric. 

Next up was deciding on some sort of border.  I was looking at my Go 9" Cube and realized there was a nice rectangle in it: 2.75" by 4.5."  That would do great.  I grabbed a bunch of different blues (excluding any that looked greyed.)  I didn't check to see if the die would work with the blocks but I figured they should since they were part of the 9" cube.  I was surprised that I couldn't cut a different fabric for each rectangle but apparently I have a LOT of greyed blues.  No matter two or three of each color worked just fine. 

Yep, it is difficult to get a picture of a long skinny runner. I definitely liked how it was coming together.  After the border was sewn together and on it was time to make the sandwich. Since I was going to quilt this on my domestic machine I used a red Frixion to mark the center of the design before I embroidered it.  Except, I also used a spray adhesive to hold the pieces of the sandwich together. Oops!  The cold adhesive caused the Friction ink to reappear.  A shot with the hot iron took care of it. 

On to quilting the runner. I stitched in the ditch around the white squares and also around the dark blue squares.  I carefully stitched around each appliqué.  Then I whipped out my blue tape and marked some straight line quilting on the borders and the rectangles between the designs.  I carefully marked a 1/4" from the outside edge so the quilting lines didn't get lost in the binding.  Several times I counted the rectangles to see if I had the right number so my design would come out evenly.  I was quilting diagonally from block to block going up and down.  Think of it as points \/\/\/\/ but stretched out for the length of the rectangle. Luckily it did come out just right. 

I had carefully planned out how much I would need to get done each day this week so I could post this blog on Friday evening.  This morning I was still finishing the quilting.  I sewed the binding on while FaceTiming with my friend Sharon.  I only got half of the binding hand sewn before my hands gave out.  Sorry, yes, there are some Wonder Clips on this "finished" picture.  I'll get the rest done tomorrow.  

You might have noticed that I've placed all of the fish going in one direction. Although this could actually be used as a table runner, I'm going to use it as a wall hanging either in our home or in our beach house in Nags Head.  Look at the cute holder I have to put it on. 

I still have more work to do on this table runner, wall hanging. I'll be sewing a hanging sleeve on it so I can easily put it on this hanger.  I'm also thinking of putting some buttons or beads for eyes for the crab, fish, and sea horse. 

It's time to link up with several great linky parties.  Join the fun and do a little Internet surfing this weekend. I'm linking to Midweek Makers, Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant, Scrap Happy Saturday, and Table Scraps Runner/Topper Challenge Linky Party. Phew, that is a long list this week.  I know I'm going to love seeing what folks are working on. (Don't we all need new ideas?) 

That's it for me today.  I hope to see you on Monday for Monday Meanderings. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 4 - 19 - 2021

Monday is a good day to evaluate what got done last week and to decide what to do during this coming week.  Unfortunately my evaluation for last week would be, at best, a C if we were talking grades.  

Let's look at what I said I wanted to do. (I really did want to do them but even amid great plans sometimes things happen that mess up the plan.)

4/12/2021

 1) Sew Happy Blocks together Looked at them, laid one out but no sewing...

 2) Border Doggy Tumbler Didn't even look at this one! 

 3) Make new easy quilt✅ Made a new one (photo to come ) and

 4) Quilt and bind one of my quilts✅ Quilted it, binding to come

 5) Work on April table runner Planned a little of it! I know what I want to do I just need to do it.  

So, yea, not a whole lot got done on the list. Hold on, there is a reason not as much got done from the list. I was asked to quilt a patriotic quilt for a veteran.  (I'm saying it that way because the Virginia Star Quilters give quilts to veterans through various organizations. I'm not sure which group is getting this one.)  I was told to pick a design that was easy and loose.  I picked a nice pattern with stars and some flourishes.  Except it wasn't nice and easy.  It took forever to stitch across the quilt. Ruthie didn't like working on it and gave me fits.  It took a couple of days but it is done. I need to take some pictures to share and give it back to the guild.  I made a note not to use that pattern again.  I own several really nice, easy patterns to use on quilts for vets. 

Here's my plan for this coming week. 

4/19/2021

 1) Make April table runner

 2) Bind Space Charms quilt

 3) Finish making R, W, B blocks, start sewing together 

That's a shorter list than normal but making the table runner may take up all the time. I would like to get it done before Sat. 4/24 but my guess is it will be the following week. Time will tell. 

See number 3 above?  Here's what I've done on that one so far...

I made the four patches ages ago. Back then I did pick out a pattern to try to make but I was making changes. (The block is a 4.5" square and a 4 patch with a 4 patch and a 4.5" square underneath.)  First my 4 patches used 2.5" squares instead of 3.5" squares. I used multiple prints for the reds, blues and white 4 patches. I was "supposedly" making all the blocks the same.  Except, when I picked up working on this project after a couple of weeks off I was messing up sewing the initial blocks together.  After ripping and sewing and a little more ripping, I made a color copy of the quilt pattern to lay out the blocks. It is not an easy job. I may cut the picture of the rows apart and put one next to each row. I've still got 4 rows left. The pattern called for 3 differing blocks but I think I can do a nice quilt with the one block.  I'll keep you posted. 

I had a lovely day in Richmond today attending the Virginians Drive In Rehearsal.  The Virginians are a barbershop chorus to which Pat belongs.  Every other week a group of members meet at a church parking lot and sing from their cars using microphones and a radio set up that gives them the sound of the group singing in real time.  It was pretty cool.  It was such a nice day many of the folks stood outside to sing. I chose to sit in the car and truth be told I was singing along for most of the time.  I didn't get very far on the book I'd planned to read. We took the slow way home and stopped at a favorite barbecue place on the way back. 

It's time to link up to the terrific parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. Take some time to go "surfing."  It gets me into trouble all the time.  (i.e. I'll be buying a cool pattern I saw on a blog last week.) 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

A Finished Top

Does it count as a finish if it is just a top that's done?  Yep, I think it does. Here are the two three best things about this top.  First, it's a free pattern from Elizabeth Hartman. Second, it was really fast! And finally, my friend Sharon and I decided to each make this quilt and also chat via FaceTime.  Here's my version. (I'll get a picture of hers to share later.) 

I actually hadn't sewn it together yet in this picture so you'll have to use your imagination. I trimmed the grey pieces to fit and made sure I lined everything up carefully. Part of the reason this is such a fast quilt is it uses charm squares. I added some blender fabrics cut to the required size.   

Every once and a while things really come together. Yep, it did with this little quilt.  I have had a piece of flannel with a little monkey dressed as an astronaught on a light turquoise background. It's perfect for these space themed charms.  Hopefully it's going on Ruthie, the long arm, this week--probably Saturday. 

To say that I had a LOT of these charm squares is an understatement.  I still have some left. (And, frankly, I am good and tired of them.) The leftovers are being put away for a later project.  Here are some links to see some of these charms in the Mendota quilt (before quilting,) and in three finished happy block quilts --  yellow,  light turquoise, and teal versions. The happy blocks were made for triplets whose family lost their home in the horrible fires in Washington state last year. (Happy block pattern can be found on MaryQuilts.com.) I've probably made more Happy Blocks for Charms quilts more any other quilt.

The other fun event was receiving this cute backing fabric for a quilt my daughter asked me to quilt a few weeks ago.  She purchased this wide back from Connecting Threads and had it sent to me.  The quilt is a lot of kitty blocks.  It's going to be given to her daughter's teacher at the end of the year. I'll share pictures in a couple of weeks after I get it quilted. 

Sorry I don't have a picture of Sharon's charm block quilt to share.  Hers used a completely different style charm pack. I'll ask for one and show it later.  I'm now wondering if I could use the same concept and make 4" blocks in place of the charm squares?  Hum, do I even want to think of making a lot of 4" blocks? Yes, I would have to change it up just a little but . . . I just made this garlic knot using 1.5" squares.  It would be nice to make a dent in my 1.5" squares or even the 2" ones... just saying. 

On to the linky parties: Midweek Makers, Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Finished or Not Friday, and Beauties Parade.  Wow, lots of places to link up.  I hope you have some fun surfing through all these linky parties.  There's always something wonderful to see!  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 4 -12 - 2021

 It's been a wild week here.  We went shopping for groceries and spring plants.  I spent the rest of one day trying to dig holes for my small plants.  Yuck. Heavy clay soil and quite a few rocks.  But eventually all the plants got in the ground and are now looking happy.  Some sewing got accomplished.  But the big event was a road trip on Saturday.

One of my friends in Maryland is moving to New Mexico.  She was having a sale of quilting supplies she wasn't planning on taking with her.  She also was giving me an Accuquilt die.  And, I wanted to check out what she had for sale and free.  We drove through Washington, DC and almost up to Baltimore to visit and shop.  Here's the Jefferson Memorial.  Unfortunately, the cherry trees were past peak. I'm not sure these are  cherry trees but I think they are. We are crossing the Potomac River when I snapped this picture. It was a grey misty day.  

I failed to take any pictures with my friend.  We had a great visit and another friend was checking out the sale so I was able to visit with her too.  Since it took us over 2 hours to get up there we decided to visit the grands on the way back home.  

So we made two more stops -- one in Maryland to see Jenny and Brian, Sophie and Natalie.  We weren't there long as we had just seen them the week before.  We also drove a storage unit from my friends to Jenny for her sewing nook.  (It amazing when texting works so well!) 

Next stop was Kevin and Aimee and Ellie and Theo. And, Walter, the wild puppy.  We hadn't seen any of them since Christmas.  Walter is now a 10 month old wild puppy. And, once again, I didn't think to get pictures. Again, a fairly short visit but there was some hugging going on.  We left our house about 9:15 in the morning and got home just before 6 pm.  We were tired but I had a great time. 

On Thursday an order from Marshall Dry Goods came in.  Have you looked at their fabric?  Someone recommended it to me so I thought I would check them out.  Here's what I bought. You may have to click on the picture so it enlarges.  I bought 2 yards of two different white on whites and 4 yards of Weaver Wine.  Most of this fabric was $4.99 a yard.  One piece of the WOW was $4.49. Shipping was $7.00. I was highly skeptical about the fabric quality.  But, I was pleasantly surprised.  It will certainly work in my quilts.  The one issue is trying to match something you have with the online fabric. It doesn't work too well. 

The white was fine; the Weaver Wine is going to be fine but it's a big off from what I was trying to match it with.  But, it's going to be the back so I don't think it is a big issue.  (No, I am not compensated for my opinion.  I was just looking for a fairly decent fabric at a reasonable cost.)  I hope to buy more of the WOW in the next month or two.  I also think I can get basic go withs to have on hand rather than try to match fabric.  Oh yes, they also sell wholesale/bulk to anyone who wants to buy a 15 yard bolt.  At $2.45/yard or $36.75 for the bolt. Can you see where my brain is going here?  They have a limited number of brand name fabrics at around $7.00 a yard.  I don't keep up with the newest fabric too much but my guess is the brand name fabrics are probably older fabrics. 

That's all the excitement with me for the week so let's see how I did on my goals. GREAT, I got almost everyone totally finished. AMAZING! 

4/4/2021 

Cut and sew flowers & 9 patches ☑️ done

Make last R,W, & B Ohio Star blocks ☑️done, looking at borders

Put together 1 Happy Block Quilt from FCQ Equilter’s blocks picked and laid out blocks☑️

Quilt Customer’s Table Runner☑️ 

Work on doggy tumbler quilt ☑️thinking of borders. 

And this week.

4/12/2021

Sew Happy Blocks together -- they were number 3 above.  These are from my last round receiving blocks from FCQ Equilters.  Altogether I think I have 73 blocks.  I'm going to be making all sorts of quilts from these.  One group of blocks were patriotic so hopefully I'll get at least one adult size quilt from them.  I was surprised how many orange blocks arrived.  But they help brighten the top up nicely. These are 10" blocks (maybe they'll be trimmed to 9.75" so this quilt will be close to 40 x 40".  I may make it bigger after I check the quilt size criteria for where I'll probably be giving them..) 

Border Doggy Tumbler quilt

Make new easy quilt

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Work on April table runner 

Oh yes, one other issue with out road trip.  As many know I am still a member of the Maryland guild, Faithful Circle Quilters.  They do an amazing job with charity work.  I usually bring quilts to donate to retreats or when I come to classes.  Unfortunately since Covid I haven't been up nor seen any friends who could take these up since well forever or so it seems.  So I took 2 quilts up to donate.  But one was the quilt I hadn't even taken pictures of yet!  So off it went without a photograph.  So here are locations you can see it in process. Nov, 2019 here and here.  And the finished top here. 

I'm looking forward to doing some surfing this week.  I'm hoping I can get all my goals done and possibly more.  Here are the links for the parties this week: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday.  (I forgot to come back on Tuesday to link up with To Do Tuesday last week...so hopefully I'll remember it this week.)  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

PS We saw lots of beautiful redbuds and a few forsythias blooming on our drive north.  Trees here are starting to leaf out.  The cherry tree has lost all the flowers and is turning green.  Spring is definitely here! Hopefully it won't rush into summer too fast. 

 

Monday Meandering 4 - 5 - 2021

 

Last Saturday in Nags Head we saw our daughter Jenny and her family.  She gave me this bag that she said held my fabrics.  Neither of us has any recollection of why I'd given her the fabrics.  But when I opened the bag I was tickled to have them back. 

The pile on the left is mostly 1/2 yard pieces of grey  The pile on the right are mostly fat quarters.  And the piece in the middle is 1.5 yards of a luscious light blue that this photo doesn't do justice to.  Welcome back fabrics!  (I've already used one of the blues working on my RSC block.)

Have you seen Preeti's Picket Star block and quilts at SewPreetiQuilts.blogspot.com?  She has made three quilts with the blocks. Here's a link to her block tutorial and one to two quilts.   If you scroll down to the comments you'll see my comment asking her about how she chose her colors and her answer.  (Just in case you want to make your own version!) 

You might be wondering why I am sharing all this info about this block.  Let me tell you!  It's my turn to ask my fellow FCQ EQuilters to make blocks for me and send them here.  OOOH it's always fun to get mail from them.  I'm asking them to make this block.  I also shared pictures of colors I'd like them in and Preeti's rational about how she chose her colors. I'll share some of my fabric pulls one of these days and when I start getting my blocks in. It's a big ask but I'm betting these gals are up to the challenge. 

Now to share my goal successes! 

3/28/2021

Quilt and bind another quilt☑️ Hopefully I'll share it Friday.

Make and apply binding for my quilt ☑️ You can see it here. 

Cut out a couple more r, w, & b Ohio Stars ☑️ Finished 2 blocks, 1 more left. 

Figure out more dog fabric for tumbler quilt. ☑️ Finished!

I did finish the last row for the dog tumbler quilt. I asked a friend if she had some dog fabric and she came through with 3. One I had. One I used and one I really think had mice on it. I'm ready to start ironing the rows and sewing them together. 

And now for this week I've picked 5 goals.  Hopefully I'll get them all done. 

4/4/2021 

Cut and sew flowers & 9 patches (You might remember the 9 patches from here). 

Make last R,W, & B Ohio Star block.

Put together 1 Happy Block Quilt from FCQ Equilter’s blocks from my last turn.

Quilt Customer’s Table Runner.

Work on doggy tumbler.

That's it for today.  I'm linking up with my favorite parties as they become available: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday.  Take some time to do some surfing -- the weather is going to be great here so I'll be surfing too.

;-). (Just one is up Sunday night, I'll add them tomorrow.) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

Friday Finish!

Before we left town last week I got this pink flannel quilt quilted.  I didn't do anything else on it until Tuesday evening after we got home. (I generally don't like sewing at night but I wanted to get this finished.) I have several more pieces of flannel that I would like to make into small quilts to donate to good causes and get it out of my stash. I'll probably wait until fall to start up on them again. 

First up -- the front. The purple mottled and the solid pink I bought at JoAnns at deep discounts.  One piece I know I only bought 1/4 yard -- I didn't want to have leftovers to deal with.  The other two were in stash including the backing. 

Pattern: Random Clams by Jessica Schick

Thread: So Fine! 495 Gerber Daisy

Size: 36" x 43" (approximately); blocks are cut 6.5" and set 6 x 7.

I decided to set this up on the long arm with the length going across the long arm and the width running perpendicular to the rollers. Doing it that way makes it faster to run. I have never used the Random Clams design before so this was a trial.  Unfortunately, I should have added a few more patterns across.  These are a little flatter than they should be.  I'll try it again sometime and see if it looks better.  Nothing really wrong this way it just didn't look much like the pdf. 

I took this picture on the morning of a day where we were going to have a ton of rain.  I was happy to get the photo shoot finished before the rain started although I just used a railing on the deck.  No nifty location. 

I was tickled to have done such a great job on the binding.  I apply the binding to the back of the quilt by machine, pull it to the front, and then sew it down by machine.  I was amazed that I had quite a few spots that looked like this. (You might need to click the picture to enlarge it.) 

This may look like two corners of the back but it actually shows a front and a back.  Have you started sewing your bindings on by machine on both sides?  Part of my rationale is I donate most of my quilts to various causes and I don't want them to fall apart.  One of the quilts made for my first granddaughter the hand sewn binding fell apart. Generally, it's much faster too.

April is slipping away really fast, or so it seems.  I'm much more on top of my statistics as I have them finished today rather half way through the next month.  And they look great to me.  

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Mar	4.375	13.375	13.875	35.125	21.750

Wowzer!  21.75 more yards out in 3 months than brought in. I haven't shown that type of fabric usage in years ever.  I am keeping my scraps that would normally be hitting the trash and weighing them periodically something I didn't do last year.  There was about 5 yards of fabrics in the scraps I had gathered over the last two months. 

Warning!  I just put in an order for 8 yards of fabric so unless I get going and get some projects finished I will not have such great numbers for April.  Nothing like a little motivation to keep my nose to the grindstone!  

Here are the parties I'm linking up with: Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Finished or Not Fridays, and Beauties Pageant. I'll be checking out these blogs to see what others are working on. Won't you join me?

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie