Monday Meanderings 8 - 29 - 2022

I was trying to decide what I could type to spell the sound the wind makes as it blows by you. I couldn't decide but I sure feel August has blown by at a rapid speed. Luckily I may have time to squeeze one more small quilt in before the month ends if I really focus on what I'm doing. (I'll let you know next week if I succeed.)  I'm sorry to report the temps are hovering back in the 90s again. At 6:30 tonight it was 91. Good Grief. We're looking for relief after Wed. Back to Quilty stuff: 

Here's the goal's list from last week. 

8/22/22

✅Bind August UFO Challenge Quilt -  Done! 

Continue working on challenge piece inspired by a card - really no actual progress but I've thought about it a bit more.

✅Quilt top from quilt guild - Finished after several days of trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

✅Make a few Picket Star Quilt blocks - ok, honesty here: I sewed pieces of one together and cut out another half block so not a whole lot of progress. 

Forgot to add ✅make composition book covers. - I need to make 12 composition book covers over the next month.  1 is done, 1 is started...

Here's the finished August UFO Challenge Quilt.  I showed it two weeks ago with the backing fabric I picked. (Nann - thanks bunches it worked really well.) 

This was a paper pieced project with not enough blocks at the beginning of August.  I made a couple more and then auditioned the layout.  Went to sew it together and realized I had NOT removed all the paper. Pulled the centers of each block and left the edges to make it easier to sew together.  Spent more time pulling paper and then quilted it.  The quilting design is called Ariana. It has a lot of curvy motion that I like.   Below is the quilt with the backing showing. 

This quilt is less than 40" wide by about 54" long. (That may be off a bit I was typing from memory and that is always questionable!) It will be donated through my quilt guild to someone. 

Here's my plan for this upcoming week.  

8/29/22

Make some composition book covers 

Continue working on challenge piece inspired by a card

Finish sewing Ombre log cabin blocks together in columns

Sew one Picket Star top together (I have enough for 2.) 

Start on Sept UFO challenge piece. 

Another off list item I started working on last week was sewing the Ombre Log Cabin blocks into columns. I'm setting them on point so think of those columns as leaning.  Here's what they looked like before I started sewing them together. 

I laid these out on the guest room bed in hopes I could see more than what I could have gotten on my design wall. So I wouldn't have to run up and down the stairs a lot I set up my Featherweight on the dining room table. I've been having a hard time figuring out what layout will make the quilt the size I want.  I decided to go with what the pattern said for the columns. Then I will lay it out on the biggest open floor area I can find and add as needed.  The pattern calls for 59 blocks.  I suspect I have way more. First I need to get this the right size for our bed.  I guess that means an extra column somewhere. I'll keep you posted on this one. 

The squirrel came back to visit again this week but he didn't sploot.  Nancy who blogs at Wyoming Breezes sent me a link to her local paper that talked about splooting squirrels. Fun to see the word is spreading.  (If you don't know splooting you can read last week's Monday post for the meaning and see "our" squirrel doing it.) 

I'm done for the night but first Linky parties. Enjoy some surfing time this week. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 22 - 2022

Recently we've had a reprieve from the super hot weather -- ie temperatures over 90 and high humidity day after day. Now the days have been in the low 80s during the day and high 60s at night.  The reprieve feels great. I'd like to say I've been busy working in the studio but I have to admit to reading quite a bit along with going out into the world some.  But I did have some quality time in the studio. 

Here's what I got done on my goals last week. 

8/15/22

✅Quilt charity top for guild — turned in Wednesday 

✅Make August BOM from A Quilting Life — done

✅Quilt one of my quilts — done

✅Make a list of all finished tops and figure out backing sizes for them — list done but not the backing sizes needed

Continue to clean off front of cutting table — didn’t do much on this one ✅Begin challenge piece inspired by a card — pulled supplies   

This quilt was made by Linda a member of Virginia Star Quilters.  She used a panel and the "leftovers" from a quilt class with Debbie Kratovil.  It was a cool class that showed us how to make one top (see mine here.) And used the leftovers to make another little quilt.  Take a look at Debby's class info here. (Scroll down to Pyramids and Jewels.)  Linda used the 2nd pieces in the corners and some of the pyramid shapes in the  border. I thought it was brilliant.  I quilted a basic stipple over it so as not to detract from the piecing. It will be donated to a veteran 

And here is my August block from Sherri McConnel's Quilt Block of the Month. 

What's up for this week? 

8/22/22

Bind August UFO Challenge Quilt

Continue working on challenge piece inspired by a card

Quilt top from quilt guild

Make a few Picket Star Quilt blocks (Here are the directions for the block.) 

I received these blocks from the FCQ Equilter last year.  I decided it was time to get some of these blocks together as I will be receiving new blocks between now and the end of September. I haven't decided if I'm going to add another row to make this rectangle or not.  The blocks are 17" finished.  I'm also thinking of taking the 3 pink blocks out and replacing them with some turquoise to make it gender neutral.  I'll be donating the two quilts (or at least one of them...)  

Here are my Monday Linky parties.  Please enjoy some surfing to see what quilters are doing across the Internet. 

Oh Scrap! 

Monday Making

Design Wall Money 

To Do Tuesday

 

Have you read about splooting?  It's a thing according to the Washington Post and Twitter.  Follow the right ear of the pig up and you'll see a squirrel splooting on a rock in our garden.  He comes from the forest across the street and eats the sunflower seeds that the birds drop from the feeder.  He stuffed himself in the sun and then he splooted.  He stayed there for 15 to 20 minutes.  He's been back eating the sunflower seed that spills out but we haven't seen him splooting again.  It turns out a lot of animals sploot. Our cocker spaniel used to lay out flat with his legs behind him too.  Apparently, laying out flat with legs behind helps animals cool down. According to a lexiographer from the Oxford English Dictionary splooting hasn't been added to the dictionary yet but they are keeping track of it. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 16 - 2022

Quilting seems to have taken a backseat to reading recently. At the end of this post I've listed a few books I've really liked recently.  But now, let's see how I did on my goals. 

8/8/22

✅Finish new charity quilt to top stage -- done, need backing 

✅Sew August UFO challenge together, add borders, figure out backing -- all done backing is ready to load

Make August BOM from A Quilting Life & ✅RSC blocks -- RSC done but need to do A Quilting Life block

Quilt one of my quilts -- nope, nada, didn't do it

✅Work on grand’s Christmas ornaments -- one is almost all done, second one is in progress

Not too bad.  We also had an overnight visit from our daughter's family on their way to the beach house.  It was a win, win.  They got closer to NC and out of the horrendous DC traffic the day before they had planned to drive and Saturday's drive was much shorter. We enjoyed seeing and catching up with everyone. 

Here's the final top.  The borders were leftover from a wide back. 

And here is the quilt top with the backing I found that will go with it. Thank you Nann, who blogs at With Strings Attached, for the fabric. A surprise box of fabric arrived a year or so ago.  I've pulled fabric from it off and on. I saw this one and knew it would work well with this challenge quilt. 

And next up my goals this week. 

8/15/22

Quilt charity top for guild

Make August BOM from A Quilting Life

Quilt one of my quilts

Make a list of all finished tops and figure out backing sizes for them

Continue to clean off front of cutting table

Begin challenge piece inspired by a card

I'll also continue to work on the Christmas ornaments for the grands but I'm not listing them every week. 

Notice that clean off front end of cutting table.  I spent several hours working on cutting up bits and pieces of fabric as well as putting fabric back on the shelves. I can see the difference but I'm not sure anyone else would notice it!  But I'll try to get through more of the mess on that end of the table. I can almost see the cutting mat under the fabric. 

One of the projects I am working on was making a sample cover for a composition book. Sharon and I usually go in together to make a little gift for fellow retreaters.  We'll be going the first week of October so it's time to figure something out.  She suggested the cover and sent me a link for the directions. Here's my first attempt. 

It looks nice but it took quite a long time and that didn't include the flying geese.  The directions called for binding the edges which just added a lot of time. (You can find the free directions here.) I made this one without having a composition book around.  After I bought one (not on any school special) I realized the inside fold over that went on the covers didn't work because the covers were heavy cardboard.  We'll be changing the width of that piece so it is easier to get it on the book.  And we'll probably be buying composition books on back-to-school specials and they won't have stiff covers. We hope to use up leftover blocks to make these covers.  I think it will be a terrific way to move out some fabric. And, I'll be checking the box from Nann for some fabric too.  I have another one started but haven't been motivated to finish it yet.  We've made some changes to make it go much faster. We'll split the 25 we need between the two of us so it won't be that much work. 

Back to books.  I generally have two to three books going at a time -- generally one audio book and 2 books on Kindle or, gasp, an actual book.  Because I read so many books, I tend to keep a list of books read by year.  It helps me when I try to figure out whether I've read a book or not.  Case in point is Nine Women, One Dress by Jane Rosen. I wanted to read it before offering it up as a book club choice for Sept. I started it and then realized I'd probably read it and sure enough, in 2019 I had. (But I'm reading it again because I don't remember all of it!)   I'm also offering up Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.  They are miles apart in style and story but both are good.  I'm guessing we'll choose Nine Dresses. It's entertaining, a fast read, and our public library has multiple copies of it. Another great book I recently finished is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.  It was set in the 1950s and '60s and shines a light on how women were treated as "mere" housewives rather than serious scientists. Both libraries I use had long waiting lists for the Kindle books and audio books. (one was over 70 people for 5 Kindle books.) If it sounds interesting to you prepare to wait but it was really worth it.  What are you reading these days? 

Hopefully you are reading some blogs along with interesting books. Here's the Linky parties to check out. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

That's it for me.  I have a book I want to read now. (Ok, only after I do some blog surfing!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

  

Monday Meanderings 8 - 8 - 2022

I got a lot done this week, mostly on Sunday. The rest of the week I did little bits of sewing and a very small bit of cleaning up my cutting table.  But, I spent more time reading and/or listening to books.  Overall it was a good week.  First up, how did I do on my goals last week? 

8/1/22

✅Start center block for Halloween quilt - traced design, need to buy a background. 

✅Make more blocks for August UFO - blocks sewn in rows. Border fabric a possibility.

✅Start Melodic Mystery -  All cut out 

✅Bind Picnic Time - finished and hanging in the living room

✅Work on grand’s Christmas ornaments - second one started while I figure out how to finish first one. 

I was very happy with all that I accomplished last week.  Here's what's up for this week.

8/8/22

Finish new charity quilt to top stage

Sew August UFO together, add borders, figure out backing

Make August BOM from A Quilting Life & RSC blocks

Quilt one of my quilts 

Work on grand’s Christmas ornaments

Here's my version of a small wall hanging called Picnic Time. I added the border on the left and the bottom to make it a little bigger than just pinwheels and watermelon. I haven't added the seeds in the watermelon nor the antennae for the lady bug.  (Truth -- I may never add them.  I used a fusible adhesive and I think it would be difficult to add the hand embroidered seeds. I might try a black Pigma for the antennae.)  It's hanging on a small holder between a window and a French door in the great room.  

I spent a bit of time trying to decide how I wanted to put the August UFO Challenge blocks together.  My ideas were: 

Layout 1 -- I made an additional block after I realized I was one short.

Layout 2 -- basic furrows. 

And finally the layout I decided on.  It's furrows but 5 across and 7 down. 

The blocks are already sewn in rows.  The "borders" are actually the same fabrics but the light was better on the left side. There's pinky purple in some of the blocks too. 

This quilt is planned for donation to my local guild.  I believe they donate quilts to seniors and look for about 35 x 44". This will come close to that size.  And, if I can keep the width under 40 inches or so one width of fabric will work for the back. 

After I got this UFO Challenge quilt to rows stage, I gave myself permission to start a new quilt.  I have had these fabrics pulled for several months but was so busy trying to keep up with my monthly UFO challenge that I didn't try to figure this out.

I came up with a variation of Happy Blocks. (You can find the basic pattern at Mary Quilts.) Ha! I didn't come up with this at all.  It's exactly like Mary's directions.  I just made it smaller. By the end of the day I had made 4 blocks. Yes, it is really that easy. 

I also finished my fabric usage stats - stash busting July month. Not a bad month.  I did go a little bit wild buying fabrics but I also finished a large quilt, a small quilt and gave a bunch of blocks to Virginia Star Quilters. So, I'm still using more fabric than acquiring this year.  We'll see how it goes for August. I want to buy a couple of wide backs.... 

2022	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
July	12.000	71.25	13.00	82.75	11.50

Time to link up to some great Linky parties. Take some time to check out what quilters are working on these days through these links.  

Oh Scrap!

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

That's it for me tonight.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

A July Finish

Yes this was finished in July -- it was the my July UFO for the challenge I'm in this year.  I joined the American Patchwork and Quilting UFO Challenge on Facebook in January.  Every month I've either finished a top or a quilt  that I considered a UFO.  This one I started last last year and then put it in the closet to be finished later.  Later turned out to be July. 

I made all of the columns before it went to the closet.  I auditioned different colors for the sashing.  Grey, some browns, and navy blue. I decided on the navy although I can't tell you which one of the above was the navy.  At some point I ordered some navy wide back from Connecting Threads. At the beginning of July I pulled it out to finish it. I carefully cut it so I had a backing and the sashing. 

When I made the geese columns my goal was to make a dent in my homespun fabrics.  Unfortunately, it only made a small dent so there will be some more homespun quilts coming in the future. 

Finished top ready for quilting. 

Finished but not bound.  I chose a design called Woodland Edge to Edge from My Creative Stitches.  (It is currently on sale for $5. At some point it will go up to $12 for the digital version. I'm a happy customer and get nothing from My Creative Stitches.) The thread is So Fine 452, a beige so it would show up on the backing well. 

We put it up in the hallway.  Pat made the hanger, I make the quilts!  And here are a few pictures of the backing that shows off the quilting. 

When I was organizing the pictures for this post I realized the last quilt I made hasn't been photographed and blogged about. I'll have to check and see if I have other quilts I haven't shared. 

I'm linking up with these Linky parties: 

   Mid Week Makers 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant

I hope you can spend a little time surfing the Internet to see what people have been doing this week. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie