Monday Meanderings 1 - 31 - 2022

Well that month flew by!  And, I admit I've gotten a lot done or so it seems.  First up - my goal list for the past week. 

1/24/22

✅Quilt & Bind Sailboat top (January UFO) (click here to see it.) 

✅3rd 2nd round of SAHRR

✅Finish coffee top (click here to see it without the borders I put on this week.) 

✅Make more ombré blocks

✅Cut out baby quilt 

Surprisingly enough, I finished most of these early in the week.  The only one I really spent much time on Sunday was the 3rd 2nd round of SAHRR. Here's where the 3rd 2nd round has been left.  I will finish the side borders early this coming week and move on to the 3rd round. 

Because I had made so much progress on my goals I decided to pull out a UFO from last year.  I had made one Blazing Star block with an Accucut die I got as a gift last Christmas. It is easy to sew together but not so easy to cut out correctly.  After cutting various pieces in the wrong colors or wrong section of the die,  I finally got one block finished.  I cut out one more block before giving up for the day on Saturday. 

Fast forward to Sunday when I sat down to sew the block together. I was zipping through it until I realized the "C" piece didn't fit.  Well darn, it was actually a "B" piece.  Luckily I have plenty of the fabric and got it recut and put together before lunch. 

I hope to finish sewing the blocks together, quilt and bind it by the end of Monday.  (I need some more finishes for January!)  It's doable if I don't get side tracked on the Feathered Star project!

This first week of February has a lot planned for it too.  We'll see if I can get them all done. But I am highly motivated! 

1/31/2022

Work on SAHRR.  

Make more ombré blocks, spider web blocks and begin the new RSC color

Sew baby quilt together

Sew Blazing Star table runner together, quilt and bind

Sew backing together for group patriotic quilt

I actually lucked out on the next UFO for the challenge I'm participating in.  The Feathered Star I'm working on for the SAHRR was number 7 that was pulled for February. I didn't list actually finishing the whole wall hanging but I think I'll try to get it quilted and bound too. 

I've been adding more red spider web blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have 4 and a half done. I really like the red on white ones I've been making. Hum, should I just make a whole quilt of red and white blocks?  Maybe. Maybe not.  I did go through my red scrap basket to get all the red scraps I have that would fit on the die.  Sad news, I have mostly strips so I was only able to pull maybe 6 different fabrics.  On the other hand, I could always use some of my fat quarters to make more.  Time will tell what I choose to do. Maybe I'll do both...

Thursday we dodged a major snowstorm.  I'm sure you've seen the reports from the states further north that got totally inundated.  We got about 2" or so but nothing stuck on the streets or our driveway.  Because of the way the house is set, the back walkway and the basement steps are now ice. (It rained first and then snowed.) Most of the backyard doesn't get sun during the winter.  Temps will be "warm" this week (in the high 50s) so the snow and ice should melt. It was beautiful when we came back from working out Friday.  Just to give a little reality to that 50 degree temp, it was 10 degrees this morning! 

Please take some time to visit these linky parties.  

Oh Scrap

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

I'm calling it quits for today.  I spent most of the day sewing with breaks for lunch and dinner.  I'm worn out but very pleased with my progress. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

First UFO Challenge Finished!

I joined the American Patchwork and Quilting UFO Challenge this year.  The last quilt I wrote on my list was the first one chosen.   I listed it as a sail boat quilt.  I had some leftover sailboat material I had made into snowballs.  I also had a grouping of lighthouses, seashells, and seaweed fabrics left over from a friend's quilt.  From the tossed lighthouse fabric I made some more snowballs.  And then, I got involved with a different project and put all of the blocks and fabric away.  Which is the condition it was in when #12 was pulled at the beginning of the month. 

You can see how it looked when I pulled it out and blogged about it on the Jan. 3rd. And, I showed it again on Jan. 10th.  But at that point I hadn't decided where the lighthouses should be.  I often share pictures of my works in progress with my friend Sharon.  And when I sent her a picture similar to the one on the 10th, she suggested I place the lighthouses between row 2 and 3.  Brilliant! With that in mind I kept working.  It was easy to sew the sections of the lighthouse fabric together. A final border of the same yellow as the sashing was added and it was ready to quilt. (I used up all of that light yellow fabric which one reason the border is the same size as the sashing!

I decided I would actually finish it rather than just leave it as a top. Thanks to Marlyn who gave me a leftover piece of navy blue that I added to a leftover piece of brighter blue swirl fabric I could make the backing.

Ruthie the long arm worked well and I finished it in a day.  I used Fern Gully, one of my go to patterns.  Then it was on to binding.  There was enough of the navy blue to make a nice frame for the quilt.  I sew my binding to the back of the quilt by machine.  And then pull it forward to sew it again with machine.  It is much faster than hand stitching and holds up better.  

It was finished this afternoon.  Unfortunately, it's been so darn cold out I didn't want to take any outdoor shots.  Here's the finished quilt on my design wall.  The beige sashing on top and below the lighthouses is the seaweed fabric. 

I did a great job using up all of the sailboat fabric but there is a bit of the  lighthouses left and some other smaller pieces of the go with fabrics. I'm really pleased with the finished product.  

We won't know the next quilt to work on until Tuesday.  I may pull out one of the quilts that is more involved to finish and move it forward.  Then switch to whatever quilt comes next.  

We were at our local butcher's shop this week.  Look what Pat found.  I just had to take a photo to share. It's hard to read the label but it says Napa Valley Quilt.  It's a cabernet sauvignon.  And it was fairly pricy: $28.00 a bottle.  Nope, didn't bring one home. 

I'm hoping the big snow storm moving up the East Coast doesn't dump a bunch of snow on us.  But watch out everybody north of DC.  It's heading your way with a lot of snow.  

I'm linking up with the following blogs:

Midweek Makers    

Needle and Thread Thursday

Finished or Not Friday 

Beauties Pageant 

That's it for tonight.  I hope you can visit some of these blogs and see what folks are working on these days. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Meandering Monday 1 - 24 - 2022

I'm happy to report that the snow storm that could have been last week didn't really increase our snow -- we did get some flurries and a lot of rain overnight.  And, it was cold for us.  A couple of days barely got out of the 20s.  It was 13 one morning when we went to work out.  Brr. There's still snow on the ground but it should be melted by mid week. And, fingers crossed, no more snow storms. 

On the other hand, it was too cold to spend time outdoors so I definitely spent a lot of time in the studio. Which means I was able to work on all of my goals.  Here's last week's list.

1/17/22

✅Do 2nd round of SAHRR in progress

✅Quilt and bind my Happy Block quilt top

✅Finish Sailboat top (January UFO) 

✅Make more ombre blocks 

✅Keep making Happy Blocks, Twirl blocks and Spider blocks 

Here's as far as I've gotten on the curves for the first round of the Stay At Home Round Robin. I seriously considered some drunkard paths but decided it would have been too big of an addition.  So I found my bias bars and picked the 1/4" one to make some bias strips to curve around the small navy border.  I've got one side hand sewn down.  I'll be getting the other side stitched down hopefully early this week while I contemplate what to do for the next round.  

I had decided not to continue making the Twirl blocks from the half hexagons.  Remember how the half block looked? You can see them on this post. Scroll down until you see the half block of Twirl.  I had decided not to finish the block. But my friend Beth suggested I move the colors around a bit. And, what a difference that made.  Here's my first almost finished block.  I think this is when the parts were just laid out. I got the block sewn together and it looks better.  I plan to cut out another block and see how it goes.  I'm using a variety of fat quarters so each block will be different. 

I thought I'd share one of my "off list" projects. I cut out this fun coffee fabric and go with fabric a week ago.  Then I started the sewing at some point this weekend.  Here's one of the blocks. Do you need sun glasses?  It's really bright. 

I've already started sewing the borders on.  I'll get it to top stage some time this week.  Then I'll be on the hunt for a backing fabric.  I never seem to have the right fabric for the backing.  By the way, it comes from one of Ursula Reikes' Quilts for Baby as Easy as ABC books published by Martingales. I ended up taking both these pictures at night so the lighting isn't as good as I'd hoped it would be.  

Here's what I'll be working on this week. Hopefully I'll get a second top quilted and bound this week along with some other projects moved forward or finished.  

1/24/22

Quilt & Bind Sailboat top (January UFO)

3rd round of SAHRR

Finish coffee top

Make more ombré blocks

Cut out baby quilt 

I'm linking with the following parties: 

   Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

As usual, I'll come back and link up to the parties that aren't available yet.  Please spend some time surfing blogs you can find at these sites. 

OOPS!  My brain was away last evening when I wrote and posted this entry.  Did you notice my mistake?  Today's blog became Meandering Monday instead of Monday Meandering.  Hopefully I'll remember the Monday title correctly next week! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 1 - 17 - 2022

It was a great week when I look at my goals.  I thought I had put too much on the goals list last week but surprise, surprise I pretty much finished everything by Friday.  Here's a refresher on what was planned for last week.

1/10/2022

✅Start first round of SAHRR 

✅Work on Sail boat quilt (January UFO)

✅Make RSC blocks, mystery block You can see them here. 

✅Make backing for Happy Blocks It's already loaded on Ruthie

✅Make more ombre blocks

✅Add Go dies to online list 

And, with such a successful last week I'm going to push myself this week.  

1/17/22

Do 2nd round of SAHRR

Quilt and bind my Happy Block quilt top

Finish Sailboat top (January UFO) 

Make more ombre blocks 

Keep making Happy Blocks, Twirl blocks, and Spider blocks 

I decided I was going to try using two of my unused Accuquilt dies today.  First up is a half hexagon.  Unfortunately there aren't a lot of things you can do with that die without some other ones.  But I do like this Twirl quilt.

Picture from Accuquilt.com 

Here's what I've gotten done so far. It took me several tries before I got the triangles made correctly. If you look carefully there are three triangles in the picture below.  I grabbed a bunch of fat quarters of floral prints and the beige.  I have enough cut out to make one of the "blocks"  that makes a twirl. See the light twirls above? I may go ahead and try to finish a smaller quilt with these florals and beige. 

Side note -- you know how you can't remember what you had for breakfast but you can remember where you got a piece of fabric 30 years ago? The large floral print came from a quilt shop in Los Angeles that I "think" was owned by Mary Ellen Hopkins. I forget why I had gone to LA, probably to see my dad, but I spent a bit of time checking out a couple quilt stores while I was there. For some reason I remember this fabric and that store.  (No name for the store -- memory is a weird thing!) 

Next up is the beginning of a block using the Spider web die. You can see the design on the packaging here. Here's 1/4th of the block. I think this will be a great one to use smaller hunks of fabric.  Except I suppose I'll have to have enough to make all 4 quarters.  I've got more of the white fabric but I'm not sure about the red batik.  

Time will tell how I do on these new blocks. Now it's on to my December statistics. First up - I can tell you it was a very good year for me for fabric usage. 2021 ended with me using more fabric than bringing in. 

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Dec	16.75.00	126.0	13.250	146.625	20.625

 

 

Year	Fabric In	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
2010	65.000	70.250	13.000
2011	186.500	72.000	114.500
2012	113.545	108.970	4.575
2013	100.710	103.015	2.305
2014	108.250	79.750	28.500
2015	66.205	77.150	10.945
2016	83.375	55.375	28.000
2017	118.625	108.125	10.500
2018	85.375	94.250	8.875
2019	55.830	66.625	10.705
2020	95.750	95.625	0.125
2021	126.000	146.625	20.625

 

 

 

Because I had purchased 2 wide backs and was given a lot of fat quarters for Christmas I thought I might have bought more than I used.  Well, no, that didn't happen.  It was a great year for me for fabric usage. Unfortunately, Over the last 12 years I've brought in  119 yards more than I used. I'm going to need to get way more productive (or give away some large hunks of fabric) to ever use more fabric than I bring in since when I started keeping stats. 

True confession time though: On January 2nd I purchased 9 yards of solid fabrics from JoAnns. The fabric was on sale and I could take an additional 25% off if I ordered online and picked it up at the store. Well, yes I will take advantage of that great sale. I'm pretty sure I've already put some of it to use. But I only count fabric used after the item is finished. 

On to a sad occasion for me. No, not really drastic but I was trying so hard.  Do you use a Kindle or the Kindle app on your tablet or phone?  I love mine.  And on January 4th here's what my unbroken streak of reading on my Kindle looked like.

I was being so careful to read on my Kindle trying to get a full year of days in a row. Alas, it didn't happen. Wait, actually it did happen. I just didn't check it on the Jan 14th, the 365th day.  Yesterday (the 15th) I was trying to finish a "real" book for book club and make progress on a book that was only available on Overdrive.  Some how I didn't open up the Kindle app and read the book on it. Sniff!  Sniff!  So I did succeed!  Hum, I wonder if I can get to 2 years reading every day? That weeks-in-a-row is almost 3 and a half years.  Yep, I am a serious reader.  Almost every night I spend at least 30 minutes reading, sometimes a lot more.   

On that happy note it's time to list the linky parties that you can visit and see what quilters across the world are working on. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday

I'll be linking up the other two once they go live. Hope you enjoy some surfing. 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie

Starts and Finishes

Here are two starts and one finish for you to enjoy.  First up the starts. 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022 I chose Whirl pattern.  It's a 9" finished block.  I specifically chose a 9" block so that I could use my Accuquilt Go 9" Cube and Go Companion Set Angles.  I'm continuing to try to use my Go dies as often as possible this year.  Over the last 2 years I've gone a little crazy buying dies (mostly on sale) so I really need to use them.  I can't decide whether to make only this block or make several different pinwheel style blocks.  What do you think?  

If one is good how about 2 and a sew along block? 

I want to make 3 RSC blocks each month so I would have 30 blocks after 10 months of colors.  We'll see if I actually succeed. The top block is the first block in Sherri McConnell's Quilting Life Quilt Block of the Month. You can read all about it, find the fabric requirements and the first block here. My friend Sharon has been doing these yearly sew alongs for awhile.  I decided to join her this year. I hope she pushes me to keep up. 

Next up is one of my finishes from December.  

Hum, for some reason this didn't come out as great as I thought it did.  I fell in love with this fabric with little bunnies wearing hats and holding peppermints. Truth be told, I bought it from Thousands of Bolts, Just One Nut probably in 2018 or so.  It was on sale for maybe $5.00/yard.  I let it simmer in my stash for a while but finally chose a pattern from one of Ursula Reikes books and made it up. It sat for a while  until I decided it was time to buy backing fabric and get it finished.  I originally planned to give it away but I like it way too much to send it out into the world.  It will be donated eventually but I'm enjoying it now.  

Here's an up close of the backing.  I can't find any info on the quilting design.  I know it is fairly new to me but I haven't been able to find it at any of the regular places I purchase designs from.  Weird. I do know I used a white So Fine thread from Superior Threads for the top and bobbin.  Unfortunately, I have not been recording all that information in my quilting book so I'm not sure the exact color number or the name of the design. It's a small quilt, maybe 35" square. (When I next go down to the studio I'll check the design name and the company name.) Click on the pic of the backing to see the design better. In fact, all the pics should enlarge if you click on them.

Last picture -- Pat holding the quilt with snow in the foreground. (That snow is left over from Jan 3.) 

I hope you will spend some time with these linky parties: 

Midweek Makers

Needle and Thread Thursday

Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

Scrap Happy Saturday

That's it for this Friday evening.  Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and check out what people are making across the Internet. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

SAHRR

Have you heard of SAHRR?  In English it's Stay At Home Round Robin.  I've done several different Round Robins over the years.  Some of my very favorite quilts are the results of mailing round robins.  I participated in some through Prodigy in the late 80s and early 90s.  You can see one of them here. That one was international.  

When I decided to play along I found this block folded in a box.   

I'm pretty sure I made it in a class a good 20 years ago.  But I can't remember who taught it. I also found some of the original fabric saved with the block and hopefully I'll find other fabric in my stash that goes with it.  

If you want to participate Gail of Quilting Gail is sponsoring it. 

Starting next week, every week for 6 weeks we'll be given the style for the border to be added that week. I'm generally slow at getting a top finished but I'm hoping this will lead me to a fantastic finished quilt in a fairly short time.  My block is 15" or so -- I'll probably have a fairly big quilt.  I do know I'd like it to be vertical so no doubt I'll be adding some borders to only two sides.  

Are you ready to join in?  Read what Gail has to say about it and join us for a fun time.  Wouldn't it be great to make an orphan block into a finished top in six weeks?  

I'm linking up with Gail's linky party to show off my center block. Go take a look and join us! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

  

Monday Meanderings 1 - 10 - 2022

Are you staying safe these days?  We still mask up when we go out and are in the process of upgrading our mask type.  We have chosen not to go out as much but we still go a few places.  On the other hand I won't be attending quilt guild this month.  Our local hospitals are filling up and even though I'm fully vaccinated I sure don't want to add to their load. On the other hand staying home gives me a lot of time to quilt and read, two of my favorite things.   Now, on to my goals.

Last week:

1/3/2022

✅Work on January's UFO -- Here's what I've got so far. I need to finish 4 snowball blocks, seam the light houses, and trim some of the excess fabric off.  Then I'll decide where the lighthouses will be -- top or bottom. And what will go with them. 

✅Make more ombre blocks -- I made a few but have quite a few more to make. It's going to be a queen size quilt rather than the lap quilt I had originally planned. 

Start first round of SAHRR — oops doesn’t start until 1/10 but I have picked out my center block. 

✅Cut out Looking Glass quilt -- Done! And ready to sew 

✅Update Accuquilt Go Items online  Making progress, have the list need to add it online. 

This week:

1/10/2022

Start first round of SAHRR 

Work on Sail boat quilt (January UFO)

Make RSC blocks and mystery block 

Make backing for Happy Blocks

Make more ombre blocks

Add Go dies to online list 

It's a longer list than I usually come up with.  Hopefully I'll get all of them either done or move the projects ahead. 

Here are a couple of things I finished that weren't on my To Do List. 

These blocks were hanging around with some other sizes of Happy Blocks I have. All I did was sew them into rows and then sewed the rows together.  The most happy part of these blocks is I think I have a hunk of red fabric that I can use as a backing. Making the backing has been added to this week's list. Then I see some quilting in the coming weeks. 

These blocks go to Joan, a member of FCQ E-quilters.  She only asked for a few... I added a few more than she asked but I didn't go wild. 

Take a look at this picture -- it shows all the spools and cones I used up this year -- 21. The big purple cones are Mettler Silk Finish Cotton -- 2000 yard cones. I've done a lot of piecing in 2021! Which explains why there aren't as many smaller spools pictured. 

Here are the year's thread usage since I first started keeping track of my spools.  

   

Year	Spools Used Up
2021	21
2020	16
2019	21
2018	12
2017	30
2016	7
2015	27
2014	30
2013	17
2012	22

That's it for today. Take a look at these linky parties -- there are all sorts of blogs you can look at and get inspiration! 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie