Monday Meanderings 12 - 26 - 2022

The last set of goals for 2022.  I'm trying to get ready mentally for 2023 but I'm not there quite yet. Let's do a quick goals check for last week. 

12/19/22

✅Finish last ornaments — See them here

✅Wrap presents — done early Sat evening

✅Make some more flying geese and string blocks for Talking Turkey — Change of plan to just one row of flying geese. See below

✅Make the last block from Sherri’s 2022 BOM — Done! 

✅Make a cake for Christmas dinner — Finished Sat morning

✅Enjoy family Christmas celebration  — It was a blast! 

And for the last goals list this year -- doesn't look like too much until quilt and bind two quilts hits me. The backing is on for the first one. 

12/26/22

Quilt and bind two of my quilts

Pick a new hand project to work on

Decide on 12 UFOs to work on for the 2023 UFO Challenge

Start sewing border on Talking Turkey 

And, because I forgot to do this earlier here's my November stash busting statistics.  Um, yea, I am still busting some stash but it was less than last month. OOPS.  

2022	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Nov	14	106	8	122.25	16

Not bad though but I do need to get at least 2 tops quilted and bound as I have added 3 wide backs to my stash this month. The first backing is already loaded.  

Here's the new plan for Talking Turkey.  I might have enough blocks made but if not I only need a few more. (Or so I hope.) You can see the previous plan here.  I'm leaving out the string quilting and the extra border of flying geese.  Once I get the first flying geese border on I will "consider" more but I'm inclined to get this finished and move on to something else. 

When we arrived at our son's house Christmas Day I was tickled to see Rose dressed up in her wedding dress I made a previous Christmas.  And, I was happy to see the dress was in good condition.  I was pretty hard on all the doll clothes my grandma made me.  Good job Ellie. 

I'm linking up with my regular Linky Parties: 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday  

Oh Scrap on hiatus to next week

I'm looking forward to doing some blog surfing.  I haven't been very good about it for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully this week I'll get to view a lot of blogs. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

I want to share the ornaments I have been working on (and off) nearly the whole year.  Every year I give my grands an ornament I've made. 

If you'd like to make some like these you can buy the patterns and kits from The Rusty Crow in Nags Head. They are scattered through the Patterns section.

I thought all my readers might enjoy this very cool decoration that my neighbor DeDe made for our book club party earlier in the week. It was fabulous but I know she took it down the day after because it was right in front of her sink.  I wanted to grab a book or two to borrow... 

 Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 12 - 19 - 2022

Christmas is almost upon us! HELP!  I know I haven't organized present acquisition very well this year.  It was hard to get ideas from the kids and the grands.  Someone gave me nothing so I'm thinking of giving him coal! (Nah, just joking. And, I don't think any family members read the blog except hubby so I'm safe.) 

On to the lists.  Last week I checked off everything on my goals list. Whoop!

12/12/22

✅Work on the last 2 ornaments all week - I did but not enough. #3 of 4 has about 15 minutes more to finish it.  And #4 has been moved along. 

✅Load and quilt Sophie’s quilt - Phew.  I finished the last row 30 minutes before we had to leave for the concert Sunday. 

✅Make some more flying geese and string blocks for Talking Turkey -- a few were made and several were trimmed although more need trimming.

✅Sing 2 rehearsals and 2 concerts! - Both went extremely well. 

✅Do some Christmas stuff! -  I did some organizing and hubby did some wrapping. But much still needs doing.

On to this week. It's time to get all the Christmas stuff done before Sunday. (It wouldn't suprise me if I'm wrapping gifts Sunday morning! But hopefully not!) 

12/19/22

Finish last ornaments

Wrap presents

Make some more flying geese and string blocks for Talking Turkey

Make the last block from Sherri’s 2022 BOM

Make a cake for Christmas dinner

Enjoy family Christmas celebration 

Hum, I forgot to include two evening events -- book club and guild meeting.  Must remember to wrap gifts for those events. 

On to a few pictures.  Since I'm not playing in the studio all that much these days I have limited photos to share. The first one is the unicorn quilt our daughter Jenny made for her youngest.  You might recognize Lisa the Unicorn as an Elizabeth Hartman pattern.  Here's the link to her website. 

 

Lisa the Unicorn -- Made by Jenny Stapleton. 

Pattern -- Random Clams 

Thread -- So Fine 504

Next is a sneak peek of the Bjorn Bear quilt Jenny made for her oldest. 

I forgot to take a picture of the full quilt.  I suspect I won't get a picture until Jenny get's it bound.  The quilting pattern is Malachite -- a design I've had for many years but only remember using once or twice in years since I've had my computer driven option.  I realized it looks terrific to provide texture.  I'm glad my granddaughter chose it. 

Here's a block I finished this week or was it last week? Anyway, I made it as a sample to see if I wanted to make it for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year. 

This block came from Bonnie Hunter's book Adventurers with Leaders & Enders. I like the block but it is pretty time intensive. It uses mostly 2" squares which I thought made a lot of sense since I have so many of them. But the drawback is the block is only 7.5" finished.  It would take a ton of blocks to get a decent (as in lap size) quilt.  On the other hand I will need to do something with this block. I'm leaning to a larger block -- 12" would be great. 

I'm hoping things calm down after Christmas and I can make some progress on cleaning up the studio, quilting two of my quilts, and working on my UFO challenge quilts for Dec and earlier. (I don't expect too much do I?) 

Here are the Linky parties I'm joining.  I hope we all can take a few quiet moments to surf the web.  Don't you need another inspiring quilt to make next year?   

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 12 - 2022

Do you have weeks when you wish you could crawl into bed and forget the outside world?  Yep, me too.  Last week was busy with sad and fun things to do.  The sad was singing at the funeral of a neighbor who was part of our chorus.  

The fun was the Spotsylvanians singing at the Fredericksburg Christmas Market.  Except that one was really cold.  I doubt if it reached 44 degrees. (Ok, those of you where it gets really cold just remember being outside and singing in that temperature was cold to us.) I was very smart and put on a pair of snow boots and a really good pair of wool socks.  My feet never got cold.  I can't say the same for my hands trying to turn music pages.  Sigh.  But we had an appreciative audience.  After our performance Pat and I went directly to the car, grabbed lunch, and went home to warm up! It took most of the afternoon. 

So, how did I do on the goals.  Not too bad. 

12/5/22

✅Keep Working on Ornaments -- forward progress is being made on #3.

✅Quilt Natalie’s quilt -- done.

✅Make border for Dec APQ UFO Challenge piece Talking Turkey — progress being made but it’s going to take some time. 

Make some single blocks -- a couple of blocks done but not the one I had planned on. 

✅Prep wide backs for 3 quilts -- I washed all three wide backs but they need to be ironed before I can quilt them.

Not too bad but not fabulous.  Here's a picture of what the Talking Turkey border is going to look like. I know it isn't the best picture but it is what I had that I could photograph.  I now have quite a few flying geese ready to trim to the correct size. I won't sew them together until I have a whole side ready. 

Here's a sneak peek of Natalie's quilt.  I'll try to take a full on picture once I take it off the long arm.  This was at the beginning of the quilting. My daughter did a great job on it.

Here's what I hope to get done this week.  

12/12/22

Work on the last 2 ornaments all week

Load and quilt Sophie’s quilt

Make some more flying geese and string blocks for Talking Turkey 

Sing 2 rehearsals and 2 concerts with the Spotsylvians! 

Do some Christmas stuff! 

Some sewing is going to get done but not a whole lot.  On the other hand some singing will be going on too.  The Spotsylvanians' concerts are Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.  Our kids generally come to the Sunday afternoon one and then we all have dinner together.  In lieu of the usual pizza we're heading to the local Red Robin. Pizza always took a long time to get home.  Should be a fun time.  

I'm going to get the next step ready for the whale ornament I'm currently working on.  So I'm keeping this kind of short. You know what's next. Please take some time to visit a couple of these Linky parties to see what quilters are doing across the globe.  

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

I'll leave you with a "shocking" photo from last night's dinner prep. 

Have you figured it out?  Let's just say we didn't have as much baked potato as we thought we were going to have with dinner.  Some time while cooking it blew up.  We didn't hear anything.  I had stuck a fork into it several times before but this happened anyway. We've done a little more cleaning up since this but more is going to be needed.  I think we'll soak the racks to get them clean and then turn to the self cleaning mode.  Sigh.  Have you ever exploded a potato or anything else in your oven?  I haven't. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 12 - 5 - 2022

Wait, December?  OMG it's only a few weeks to, gasp! 2023!  That means it's time to drop my gazing at new quilt ideas and focus on what I want to finish this year. And, as typical in this household, we have rehearsals and a concert and additional singing opportunities bombarding us up until Dec. 18th.  With that said, I'm jumping right to last week's Goals list. 

11/28/22

✅Bind Economy quilt  — done.

✅Finish Clue 5 of Melodic Mystery — done and also December’s Clue 6.

✅Keep working on ornaments — I’m down to just 1.5 ornaments to finish.

✅Work on Halloween Quilt if time permits — Whoop! Whoop! The blocks are put together but…. 

✅Pull out Dec. APQ UFO Challenge piece  — It’s on the design wall and ready for me to proceed. 

Let me admit right now I am totally surprised how much I got done this past week. I had a couple of days where I was booked for other activities and did no sewing at all.  So, yeah me! for what I got done. 

Here's a few photos of what was worked on. 

November clue for Melodic Mystery -- 72 flying geese blocks. 

I actually got the Halloween quilt put together.  I'm not sure I'm done with this because I'd like to make it longer.  Still mulling over that idea but plan to let it rest for the rest of this year. Any ideas on what to add to the top and bottom to make it longer?  I'm thinking something in black. Share any ideas you might have. And, I really don't have much of the grey inner border left. I'm thinking of using it for a binding. 

There's a long history with some of these blocks.  In the '80s and early 90s I was active on Prodigy, one of the first commercial ventures offering Internet connections including graphics. I belonged to a quilting chat group where I participated in several swaps.  Most of the small blocks in the outside border were blocks I got in the swap. The eyes, legs, and the single ghost also came from that swap.  Why I liked the idea of small blocks is unknown to me now. The blocks were 4" finished blocks that I added a border to bring to the 6" finished size of the other blocks. I don't know the exact year of this swap but it was probably the first year or two of the 1990s.  They have really aged quite well. I'm quite happy that all of these blocks were able to work together to make this top.  But, should I make it bigger?  I can't see this as a baby quilt.  Can you? 

Last up is to look at the December UFO from the APQ UFO Challenge.  It is a smaller (less blocks) version of a Bonnie Hunter design, Talking Turkey.  (You can find the pattern in her book String Fling.) After reviewing the pattern I've decided I'm going to "try" to make the border as she shows it.  We'll see if it will actually work. (I'm hoping I have some dies I can use for the flying geese --- or just make the 4 at a time version that uses my Deb Tucker Wing Clipper. 

Thank goodness this is a scrappy quilt so I can use whatever scraps I currently have to finish it up. 

Let's get on to the goal list for this week.  Again, several days I'm already committed to other activities.  The only thing I really need to do is continue working on the grand's ornaments.  I can't wait to show you them around Christmas time. 

12/5/22

Keep Working on Ornaments

Quilt Natalie’s quilt

Make border for Dec APQ UFO Challenge piece. 

Make some single blocks

Prep wide backs for 3 quilts 

At Thanksgiving my daughter brought 2 quilts down for me to quilt, one for each of her daughters.  I'm really hoping I can get both done by Dec. 18th when we'll see them again.  I guess I'll be postponing quilting my quilts until after these are done. I sure hope I can use at least 1 of those wide backs this month! Prepping them is just washing and ironing if needed. 

I'm at the end of this post with the exception to the parties I'll be linking with. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday

Usually I try to write and post this blog Sunday night. Didn't happen... so rather than get any later, I'm ending this here.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 28 - 2022

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family.  We missed our son and his family as they were visiting his in-laws.  (He might have wanted to stay home when it took over 9 hours to make a 6 hour drive!) I'm glad we stayed home and hosted. 

I did pretty well on my goals this past week.  Although I did have to make some changes. Here's the list: 

11/21/22

✅Border r,w,b quilt - done

✅Quilt and bind r,w,b quilt - backing too small, switched to different quilt. Quilting done on Economy top instead. 

✅Keep working on next ornament — changing my mind on the turtle.  May do 2 sharks if I can find enough wool for the second one. 

✅Enjoy Thanksgiving — great time and good food.

Finish trimming clue 4✅ and sewing and trimming the rest of Clue 5 — Clue 4 is done, Clue 5 has about 30 of 72 done… sigh.

✅Work on Halloween quilt as time permits — a very little bit was done but not much. 

Here's what's up this week. 

11/28/22

Bind Economy quilt

Finish Clue 5 of Melodic Mystery 

Keep working on ornaments

Work on Halloween Quilt if time permits

Pull out Dec. APQ UFO Challenge piece and decide what to do 

Now for some pictures -- first up is Ruthie quilting away on the Economy top.  I'm happy to report I finished it yesterday afternoon.  Now on to binding it before the end of the month.

Here's the r,w,b quilt I had to put aside because the backing wasn't big enough. (Funny, I measured carefully but I guess I forgot I added the borders.) I haven't decided what I'll do for backing for it.  But it will be done one of these days.  It was a great way to use 2.5" squares.  

Do you get Connecting Threads' emails about their Stash and Save special everyday?   I do and boy howdy, in a way I wish I didn't.  I tend to stop what I'm doing and check it when the notice comes in. I really don't need more fabric but, um, er... I fell in love with this fabric grouping at a ridiculously good price.  This is Faux Linen Tonals Gilded Age fat quarters. I love it. I even have a plan for it. I recently purchased the Maple Leaf die from Accuquilt. You can see where I'm heading, right? Yep, there is a maple leaf quilt in my future. (Probably after Christmas depending on what else I decide to do in December.) I'm thinking I'll pick a beige or light tan for the background, hopefully one that is already in my stash. (No, I do not get compensated for my mentioning these two retailers. I just like them....) 

I think I've shared enough wonderfulness for today.  I'm linking up with these parties today. Please take a few minutes to visit them and follow the links to be inspired by quilters across the globe. 

Oh Scrap! 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

I caught the sun hitting these trees as we left to work out.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Finally -- Pictures Were Taken!

I finally got pictures of the quilt I finished in October.  I used Kelly Young's book Stash Statement for the pattern. I tried to sew the panels in the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I'm so happy with it! Thank you Kelly for such an inspiring book. 

I used Random Clams quilting design by Jessica Schick. 

Thread - Superior 504, a light grey.

Finished size is 54 x 65". 

The solid grey is Kona. 

The backing fabric is a wideback from Connecting Threads, called Sprinkles.  (I keep my eyes peeled for sales on wide backs at CT.) 

I have to admit that all of these colorful bits and pieces used in this quilt did not make a dent in my scraps.  Hum, I wonder if I should make another quilt from the book?  Maybe, maybe not.  Time will tell.  Heaven knows I have a lot of unfinished tops and a slew of unquilted tops.

We had to go to Meadows Farms in Spotsylvania today so I grabbed the quilt in case I could find some photo ops.  Most of the plants have been moved out, replaced with a lot of Christmas trees. It looked like a good setting but you can't really tell the trees are firs.  I was hoping they might have some daffodil bulbs still but nope.  I keep talking about planting some bulbs in the planting area I can see from my sewing machine.  Evidently not this year.  I am not a gardener but I do like cut flowers and seeing flowers from the walkout basement where my studio is. 

I'm linking up with the following parties. I hope you have some time this weekend to do a little Internet surfing. 

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? 

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

SOS Scrappy 

I'm done for tonight. Tomorrow I hope to finish quilting a top and get the binding on.  I just might be able to get another smaller top quilted and bound before the end of the month. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings -- November 21, 2022

Did you have a great week last week?  I felt like I made some very good progress.  Today I'll share my goals for last week and this coming week along with my fabric use statistics for October. (I didn't realize I hadn't figured them or share them until I was talking with my daughter today.)

It was a pretty good week for making forward progress on my projects. I love seeing all those check marks.  I didn't get everything on each item done but I definitely made progress. I'm particularly happy with the ornament progress.  I was almost done with one 1. Now 2 are done, one has had good progress, and the last one is ready to be cut out. Not a bad week for sure. 

11/14/22

✅Finish trimming Melodic Mystery HST and work on November clue - made progress on both but have more to finish on both clues. 

✅Make Nov BOM from Quilting Life, and blocks for FCQ Equilters — done! You can see the FCQ Equilter block here. 

✅Work on grands’ ornaments — 2 of 4 are completely done

✅Halloween quilt as time permits — center section done; started sewing  border together.

✅Rehearsal and ✅concert for Heritage Singers -- one concert done, 2 more for Spotsylvanians to go.

This week with Thanksgiving Day will mean I have less quilting time.  But that's ok.  I'll focus on the Christmas ornaments and getting a top finished  and the rest will be done as time permits. Here's the list. 

11/21/22

Border r,w,b quilt

Quilt and bind r,w,b quilt 

Keep working on next ornament

Enjoy Thanksgiving 

Finish trimming clue 4 and sewing and trimming the rest of Clue 5

Work on Halloween quilt as time permits

The only picture I took was of the November block from A Quilting Life Block of the Month 2022. I was tickled that I could use a lot of my precut 2.5" squares.  I'm looking forward to the last block although I probably won't put it together until next year some time. I'm pretty sure I'll do it next year if Sherri plans to do it again. 

Here's my stats for October. Whoop, Whoop! It was a very good month. I only bought one fat quarter and won several at retreat. On the other hand I used a lot of fabric (for me.) Hopefully I'll get at least one quilt done in November. 

2022	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Oct	1.25	92.25	10.5	114.25	22

I've been helping a friend get rid of her quilting supplies as she isn't able to quilt anymore.  I am keeping some of her notions but I'm also going to make some available to members of my guild.  After seeing all of her supplies I realize I have way too much also but I'm not ready to go wild moving things out.  I will be looking at my stuff to see what I could move out so someone else can use those notions.  Below was a real surprise to me.  Not that I had the snaps (I have enough for years since I don't use them often) but the cost of the them from years ago. 

See that price tag? It says 59¢. If I remember correctly Longs was a drug store but I don't remember if it was in Virginia or California. I must have something like 5 to 10 cards like this (mostly full.)  Do you have old sewing notions hanging around?  I even have a darning egg.  I like having it but I doubt I'll ever use it. How about you? Do you use any of your "antique" supplies?  I still use a pair of black scissors that I was told was used by medics in World War II. I can't think of any others but I'm sure I do have other treasures from either my mother or my grandmother -- they both sewed. 

I'm linking up with my normal Linky parties.  I hope you have some time this week to surf the web and see what people are making.  

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

Midweek Makers 

Wednesday Wait Loss  

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Finished or Not Friday - NOT It Is!

My hope was I'd have another quilt to share with you this week.  Well that fell apart as we've been way too busy to get some photos.  Soon I'll have another quilt to show... all I need is photos. 

So, this is going to be a super short post as I only have 1 project to share. The following leaf blocks are going to Pat a member of the FCQ Equilters. She asked for Turning Leaves.  Here are my Leaf Blocks.  Hopefully, the fabrics aren't too wild. Each of us has a two month period where we pick a block and colors. Then the other members make the blocks and send them to the leader.  With 9 members it takes a year and a half to go through all the members.  It has been fun to try a bunch of different blocks. And to make a dent in my fat quarter collection. (Yep, I generally use fat quarters to make what ever blocks are requested.) 

 

These blocks are 12" when finished.  Here's the link to Turning Leaves quilt with the block directions.  The quilt shown at the website has sashing between the blocks that I think looks much better than putting them right next to each other.  

Hopefully, I'll get pictures of the finished quilt one of these days.  I'm linking up with 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? 

  Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant

I have the second to the last block Block of the Month 2022 from Sherri McConnell at A Quilting Life almost done.  Instead of finishing I needed to get ready for the concert this afternoon. This year the neighborhood group decided to have a concert before the normal Christmas season. Now that it's over, hopefully I will have a bit more sewing time.  

I hope you have a fun weekend and get lots of projects moved forward. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 14 - 2022

How can it be Monday again?  It was a busy week with some stitching getting done but not as much as I would have liked.  Friday we sang in a Veteran's Day program put on by our community.  Following the program lunch was provided.  

Afterwards, Pat and I made a beeline straight to the door as we needed to get down to our beach house to do some work/evaluation of the place.  But remember reading about Nicole?  Her remnants greeted us all the way down to the Outer Banks.  Some rain was light and much was extremely heavy. (Thankfully no hail though.). However, we did get tornado warnings that buzzed loudly through both of our cell phones.  Thirty miles later I figured out we were exactly where the warning as we were getting names of small towns, we just didn't realize we were going through the first small town.  YIKES.  Luckily we never saw a tornado and I figured out it was going north east and we were going south east.  Do you know how hard it is to see possible tornado clouds when the road is lined with tall trees?  Obviously we weren't specifically in the path.  As we got closer to the Outer Banks we saw -

It was a huge double rainbow.  We could actually see to the opposite side of it too.  I snapped this through the front windshield so it isn't as good as it looked in person. By the time we got to our house the rain had gone.  

One of the things we did was hit up the Rusty Crow where we had purchased the ornament kits for the grands.  I asked a few questions about the finishing and, um, er, did a little shopping. The two Moda Grunge fabrics called my name.  Unfortunately the one on the left is a beautiful celery green not the color shown in the picture. 

All of the above is to explain why I didn't finish my goals list last week. So here's what I did get done. But I definitely made forward progress. 

11/7/22

Make Nov BOM from Quilting Life - nope! 

✅Finish quilting customer quilt - finished and returned 

✅Remove papers from string blocks - started but lots still to do

✅Work on Halloween blocks - forward progress made

✅Trim melodic Mystery HSTs - some done but a lot more to do

And, here's this week's list.  I need to start focusing more on the grands' ornaments. Christmas is only 5 weeks away.  I'm trying to decide if I want to finish a top to give to granddaughter #3 for Christmas.  I'll decide soon. 

11/14/22

Finish trimming Melodic Mystery HST and work on November clue 

Make Nov BOM from Quilting Life, and blocks for FCQ Equilter

Work on grands’ ornaments

Halloween quilt as time permits 

Rehearsal and concert for Heritage Singers

Yep concert season is starting a bit early this year.  Mid December we have another concert with the bigger county group. Luckily we don't have an additional rehearsal for it. 

Here's where I left the Halloween blocks last week. My friend Beth and I figured out how I could use most of the blocks.  I may want to make it larger as it is right at 36" square when finished.  Time will tell.  It is the November APQ UFO.  Who knows whether I'll actually get it done or not. 

I'll end with this visitor who was hanging around when I came down to the studio today. 

Yea, eeew.  He's not leaving so I'll have to remove him probably tomorrow. I'm off to stitching group today. 

I'm linking up with the following parties: 

    Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

MidWeek Makers

Wednesday Wait Loss

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie