Monday Meanderings and Statistics 9 - 26 - 2022

Hum, the fourth Monday of September and I am just now sharing my stashbusting statistics for August. Pitiful, isn't it? I think the main issue is I didn't want to figure out fabric usage for my spring sampler quilt.  So I came up with the amount for a 6.5" square and added 25% for seams or appliqué.  It's probably correct for some of the blocks and too little or too much for a few.  But at least I'm moving forward!  It was a decent month when I realized I only brought in a half yard. Whoop! Whoop! Here are the numbers: 

2022	Fabric  In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Aug	0.5	71.75	6.5	89.25	17.5

Fan-tas-tic! I had that big addition of fabric this month and it's nice to have a 17.5 yard cushion.  Plus I did finish quilting a top today. So there will be some fabric used this month, even if it isn't going to be a lot. 

Not the best week for goals but I did succeed on some. Here's what I was aiming for this past week. 

9/19/22

✅Quilt and bind turquoise quilt — it is quilted but binding will be this week

✅Finish card challenge — and on display at Virginia Star’s booth at Virginia State Fair

Make 3 or more composition book covers √ Just 1 finished.

Make Sept BOM from A Quilting Life — oops again - maybe this week it’ll get done

Here's the turquoise quilt on Ruthie, the long arm... 

And for this week I'll be trying to do: 

9/26/22

Trim and bind turquoise quilt

Finish last 3 composition book covers

Make Sept BOM from A Quilting Life

Get projects ready for next week’s retreat

Go to Virginia State fair; man VaStar booth

Several of this week's goals are must do activities.  I've already started some work preparing projects for the retreat.  I'm trying to decide how many I want to take for 4 nights and about 4+ days. It's longer than usual and I'm guessing my stamina isn't what it used to be but I also don't want to run out of projects to work on. Decisions, decisions.

I'm ready to finish my current book. I don't know why all sorts of ebooks I've put on hold at the library are coming in at the same time.  Good grief. I've had to postpone several and they keep coming in even though many were listed to come at many weeks later than I actually was notified they were ready.  I haven't spent as much time reading in the last two weeks so hopefully I'll actually get all of them read before the due dates.  

Here's my favorite Monday Linky parties.  You know the drill -- spend the time visiting some and go forth into the Internet to read lots of blogs. You never know when you'll see a particularly fabulous quilt that inspires you to make one similar! I'll be back to link up the rest once they are available. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

Thanks for all the get well wishes for Pat. He's feeling much better but still has drippy sinus.  I plan to test soon before I go to my chorus rehearsal.  Hopefully I'll continue to test negative for Covid. 

Here's a visitor to the backyard this morning.  This is a juvenile mourning dove from what I can tell. He sat at the top of the steps from the studio to the backyard for 5 or 10 minutes all puffed up.  I wonder if he is friends with the squirrel who visited a few weeks ago.

Happy Quilting all! Bonnie 

 

What? Another Friday Finish?

Yes, I did have a finish this week.  It was small -- about 20 x 20" and it was mostly done by hand.  I finished Ellie's Flowers in time to turn it in to Virginia Star Quilt Guild.  It will be displayed with other "Card Challenges" at the Virginia State Fair that runs until Oct. 3, 2022. 

Here's a picture of the finished project.  I'm sorry but I didn't take a picture of the card that was my inspiration.  I will admit it was mostly the concept of flowers in a vase rather than my making it just like the card. 

I hand stitched all of the flowers, leaves and vase to the antique napkin. The napkin came from one of my grandmothers but I don't remember which one.  I made a couple of the flowers 3 dimensional.  Most were sewn with buttonhole stitches with a few whipstitched down. 

After the embroidery was done I hand sewed the lace to the black backing fabric.  Oh my goodness.  I stitched over every square of the first set of holes. Argh... it took forever.  But I felt it was important to get it stitched down evenly so no section would take the brunt of the weight. 

Next was sewing all the edges of the lace down. Those stitches were a bit farther apart. 

Once all that was done it was time to quilt and bind. I tried hand quilting using the big stitch concept.  Um, no, that would have taken me a lot longer than the time I actually had.  And, it didn't look all that good.  So I ripped out the hand stitches and did some machine stitching as seen above. I didn't stitch in the border. I bound it with the same black (that is more of a very dark grey and black mottled fabric.)  And, unlike what I normally do, I hand stitched the binding on the back.  

I added a little pocket on the back to hold the card from Ellie and a little card with the artist statement.  Both will be displayed with the quilt.  I was very pleased with the finished product.  Hopefully Ellie will be attending the Fair with us Saturday afternoon and will be able to see "her" flowers. 

I also have finished all three RSC light blue blocks over the last week or two.  I've also finished three lottery blocks for my retreat the first week of October.  I hope to make two or three more to enter in the drawing. 

Linda asked about the directions for the colorful star blocks.  I checked the info that was sent with our retreat information.  It is called Criss Cross Stars and you can find a You Tube video by Lori Holt here. I was tickled that I had two dies so I could cut these with my Accuquilt Go.  Whoop! Whoop! 

I'm linking up with the following parties: 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

Soscrappy 

I'll link up to the RSC on Saturday when it is posted.  Take some time to visit these great parties.  You never know what you might see that will get your creativity revved up!  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 9 - 19 - 2022

Busy week here -- lots of progress on my goals list. Here's last week's list. 

9/12/22

✅✅Make 3 more composition book covers — 2 done and one turned up too small 

✅Plan and cut one quilt  — finished ready for retreat

✅Make borders for Sept. UFO Challenge — done 

✅Make 1 RSC block & Sept BOM from A Quilting Life — RSC block done but not the BOM

✅Start sewing down the pieces of the card challenge — most flowers are sewn down 

This week I'm focusing on the book covers and the Card Challenge. So not much on my list. 

9/19/22

Finish card challenge 

Make 3 or more composition book covers 

Quilt and bind turquoise quilt 

Make Sept BOM from A Quilting Life

The first set of blocks from the FCQ Equilters came in this past week.  I am so tickled with them.  Here's a picture of Pam's blocks and a few of my own.  

In this picture you can tell what makes up the block.  But as the piece grows it will look more cohesive.  Go check out The Ultimate Scrap Busting Quilt Block. (You can even view a video of the process.)  Maybe I should cut some of these out to make while I'm at retreat.  

I also made a couple of lotto blocks for the retreat.  I really like this block so I suspect I'll make some more -- I may only enter 5 blocks for the drawing and keep the others for a quilt in the future. It would make a great RSC block too.  This is made with 3.5" squares and 2.5" squares to make the colored triangles.  I've found that I can use triangles made with the Small Value Die instead of a square. I've been cutting scraps into squares and triangles for a while so this is a good way to use some.  (I love when I can use my Go dies. I've also used a die on the 3.5" squares.)

On the home front, Pat has come down with Covid.  Bummer.  Luckily the day or two before he realized he might have it rather than a cold, I was spending a lot of time in the basement (where my studio is...) I've got my fingers crossed that I don't get it.  On the other hand a LOT of things I was going to do I've canceled.  

I'll need to get my finished Card Challenge block to the quilt guild by Wednesday. I may ask a gal who lives fairly close to me to take it rather than take it to the meeting myself. And, that is assuming I get it done. I have 2 small flowers to sew down and back it, stitch down the lace edge, quilt and bind it. It should get done although the quilting might be light.  

So on that note, I'm ready to sign off and get ready for bed.  As usual I'm linking up with the following parties. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Progress Being Made

I've had my nose to the grindstone so far this week.  Here's what I've gotten done or made further progress.

After finding this top I was able to get borders on all sides.  The side borders are the same size as the center sashing.  The top and bottom borders are the same size as the strings in the Roman Stripes blocks. I'd love to get this quilted in the next two weeks but I don't think I have backing fabric. And none of my new backings would work. 

I decided to add a small border on the top and bottom of Picket Stars. You can read about my thoughts and how it looked before the little borders here. I tried something bigger but it took away from the stars.  So this one is also ready to go to the quilt closet.  Yep, no backing for this one either. (Although I could use the turquoise one I showed last week but that means the top I planned to use it for won't get done. Sigh.)

Here's what I've gotten done on the Card Challenge. Doesn't it look weird? 

Every evening I get some of the hand stitching done.  It needs to be finished and turned in Wed, 9/21. Hopefully I'll get all the flowers on, stitch the old linen on to a fabric piece and then quilt and bind the quilt. (Probably by hand. ARGH. Do I really have enough time?) 

This is what it might look like.  Maybe I'll put a few more little yellow flowers in the mix.  After I turn it in I'll post about the finish. It will be hanging in the Virginia Star Quilter's booth at the Virginia State Fair from Sept 23 until Oct 2. (Pat and I will be working the both the evening of Oct 1.) 

Here are the parties I'm linking up to.  Enjoy spending some time surfing lots of quilting blogs and getting all sorts of new ideas. 

Midweek Makers 

Needle and Thread Thursday 

Finished or Not Friday 

Beauties Pageant

Have a great weekend. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 9 - 12 - 2022

Ah September -- thank you for the respite from the heat and humidity.  We were suppose to get a lot of rain over several days this last week but it didn't pour -- just heavy mist for the most part. It did help lower the temperature here in northern Virginia. I'm sure we'll get a few more heat waves over the next several weeks. 

Goals for this past week -- some done, some missed.

9/5/22

✅Make 4 composition book covers -- done, more needed

✅Cut out pieces for card challenge -- done, on to sewing

Start on Sept UFO challenge piece -- nothing done, at least I found it! 

✅Complete clue for Melodic Mystery --  done! 

✅Sew Sept RSC blocks & Sept BOM from A Quilting Life -- Still need to make 1 RSC and the BOM block

Sunday I decided I would get out this month's UFO Challenge project to see what needed to be done.  Except after looking all over the studio I couldn't find it.  It wasn't in the tub of UFOs or in any project boxes or any project pouches. Or anywhere.  Weird.  

Fast forward to the afternoon. Sharon and I FaceTimed so we could do Clue 3 of Melodic Mystery together. As we were talking about the UFO Challenge I looked over my page listing all the UFOs. Low and behold, I listed where I could find this particular UFO.  I immediately checked for it and Eureka!  You can see it early on here. It was just a bunch of blocks then.  I took it to last year's Oct retreat and was able to get it together except for borders.  I hope to get the borders on, quilted and bound by the end of September.  Stay tuned! 

The Composition Book covers are coming along great.  Here's some of the ones I've already finished.  I need to have 12 done by the end of the month. So I'll be working on more over the next few weeks. 

Sharon and I both got the first clue of the mystery done.  Here's mine and the small amount I trimmed off them. Waiting for October for the next clue.

Now on to this week's goals. 

9/12/22

Make 3 more composition book covers

Pick pattern and cut one quilt 

Make borders for Sept. UFO Challenge

Make 1 RSC block & Sept BOM from A Quilting Life

Start sewing down the pieces of the card challenge

OK, that will keep me pretty busy between all the normal things going on. Hopefully I'll be checking off all those goals next week.

I'm adding more fabric to my stash -- a lot of fabric.  I enjoy shopping for fabrics from Connecting Threads, especially their wide backs.  Aren't these fabrics gorgeous?  The bottom two are 2 yard wide backs.  I'd forgotten what fabrics I had purchased while I waited for the fabrics to show up.  Um, sorry to admit, but I have no idea where I was planning to use the center fabric (Sprinkles). Hopefully I'll use the turquoise one before the end of the month. The blue one was bought to use for piecing -- unless I find a smaller top that will fit. I like how all three of these fabrics go together.  Maybe I'll plan a quilt with any fabrics leftover after quilting. 

I also bought one of their Stash and Save specials.  So along with the above fabrics I got 5 yards of white on white fabrics (at a great price.) Don't think I'm trying to sell you on things -- I just like their fabrics. I sure hope they don't wreck my stash statistics.  (Hum, a very good reason to get at least 1 top quilted this month!) 

Do you want to get a lot of inspiration?  Check out these Linky parties:

Oh Scrap

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

Hope you have a great week!  I'll be sewing a lot (hopefully!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 9 - 5 - 2022

Do you have weeks where your planned activities don't actually get done, or at least not all of them? That's what I've faced this week. Here's what I wanted to get done this week ---

8/29/22

✅Make some composition book covers - 2 are done and I rewrote the directions to get a nice tight cover.

Continue working on challenge piece inspired by a card - HA! Didn’t touch it — again. (I might make progress after I finish this post....)

✅Finish sewing Ombre log cabin blocks together in columns - still need to get a couple of columns done.

✅Sew 1 Picket Star top together - Done! 

Start on Sept UFO challenge piece. - Didn’t even get it out.  Sigh.

So no, I didn't get all of the goals done but I did make some forward progress. I decided to revise the composition book cover directions I had after Sue Daurio shared she'd just gone to a class on making covers.  She was kind enough to send me a picture of hers.  It looked so different from what I made I decided to try to figure out how to make it.  After many trials and errors I succeeded.  Here's the piece before sewing it all together.

And below is the front of the finish one. I used interfacing instead of using lightweight batting.  Sharon and I are doing these together for an event coming up.  I'll be trying the batting on my next cover.

 

The Picket Star blocks were made by the FCQ Equilters for me about two years ago.  I have enough for another bigger quilt.  I was able to get these 9 blocks together this afternoon but not until making 2 more and taking 2 apart to the four squares in the block. One block needed each quadrant  trimmed to the right size. The other one had too big of seams. I am happy with the end results. I added two of the gold blocks although looking at it I realized all three of the gold blocks are mine.  Should I add a border to this or let it stand as is?  It is currently 52 by 52". I'm thinking I might want to do borders only on the top and bottom to make it rectangular. What do you think? 

Before the end of August I finished another smaller quilt.  This was a block of the month from the Country Piecemakers guild several years ago. Each participant bought the book The Anniversary Sampler Quilt by Donna Lynn Thomas.  We made a block or two each month.  I decided that I wanted a 5 by 5 setting and needed 25 6" blocks.  As I finished all the blocks I liked from the book I chose blocks from other sources to make up the 25.  I made this quilt specifically to use some of the 5 yards of cotton fabric I purchased at a children's dress manufacturer many years ago. (As in at least 25 years ago!) I tried using it as the sashing but it looked awful. (You can see the "attempt" here.) The purple looks much better.

The quilting design is Random Clams by Jessica Schick.  I used a soft pink So Fine thread. The bat was a Quilter's Dream polyester.  It really shows the quilting well.  The quilt is appx 40" x 40" which fits perfectly above the fireplace. 

Thanks to my favorite quilt holder for once again holding my quilt. It's easier when it is small like this one. After he held it, he hung it above the fireplace.  It's a little bright and "springy" for September.  But I was tired of the quilt that was there. 

Here's the ancient fabric backing!  The fabric is 60" wide.  Um, I have to admit I have about 3 yards left.  I'm going to reassess the tops I have ready to quilt to see if any of them would look good with this as backing fabric. 

I'm linking to my favorite parties for the beginning of the week. You know the drill.  Take some time to visit some of the bloggers who link up with these parties.  I find so much inspiration when I surf these sites.

 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday

I finally remembered what else took up some of my time this past week.  I entered two quilts in Virginia's State Fair.  I've never entered either a state or county fair before.  My local guild, Virginia Star Quilters, has a booth at the fair and wanted members to enter some of their quilts.  I spent part of the week sewing sleeves on, making labels and driving it over to a member who was willing to deliver the quilts.  Pat and I will be manning  the booth at the beginning of October.  It would be fun to win a ribbon but I'm not counting on that happening. But I'll let you know in a few weeks. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie