Monday Meanderings 1 - 23 - 2023

We lived through the week with the grands! And, boy were we worn out afterwards.  We came home Friday afternoon. The travelers got home late that afternoon and picked the grands up at a friend's home.  We were glad we didn't wait to see them as our daughter-in-law came home with Covid.  Between a 24 hour bug that hit the two kids and DIL before they left, and son feeling horrible the first day or two in Key West it wasn't a very relaxing vacation for them. 

I was able to spend part of two days piecing. We also were able to visit with some old friends in the Northern Virginia area. Barb and I went to high school together; in fact we met the first day our freshmen year. For many years Pat and I lived in the greater Los Angeles area. Eventually we moved to the east and finally settled in Virginia closer to Barb and Jay. We're thinking of planning a trip together at some point. 

The above was a bit of information about why I didn't get all my goals done this past week even though I spent most of Sat and Sunday in my studio. Here's what I wanted to accomplish last week. I'm happy with what I did get done plus I worked off list a bit too. 

1/16/23

✅Finish a few RSC blue blocks - three done.

✅Do the January Melodic Mystery clue —  all done. Ready to put it together with the last clue. 

Make a few blocks for Flower Song — didn’t get to this.

Finish Traffic Jam top with 2” blocks — center part is done, working on border.

✅Enjoy the Grands — it was fun but boy we were tired when we got home! 

Here's how I left Traffic Jam Sunday night. I've got several seams to do to get the rows together and I need to make another sashing row.  Then it's just making 9 patches for the border which I'll do as a leader ender.  The end is in sight. 

I also got 3 of the 4 rows together of the Moose quilt.  I'm not sure why I worked on it so diligently because it wasn't even on the goals list last week.  There is only one more row to figure out and sew on.  I'll evaluate whether it needs a border later. (I was thinking a navy blue border would work but of course I don't have any navy blue fabric.)  The fourth row will echo the top row with the dark brown across the two smaller photos and the dark brown running parallel to the bigger picture in the center. At least that is the plan. We'll see how it actually comes out. (Hopefully it'll be a top by the end of the week with a border to be determined.) 

Now let's see what I hope to do this coming week. 

1/23/23

Work on red spider web blocks

Make blocks for Sharon, Cindy

Finish moose top

Finish Traffic jam with 2” squares

Quilt on hearts top

I need to really focus on the spider web blocks as the guild has a red quilt challenge I'd like to enter it in.  It needs to be done by mid February.  

I think I have enough blocks made it's just a matter of sewing them together, quilting and binding it.  (Just a little bit to do...) Here's a grouping of them from February. 

Hum, I should probably find some backing fabric for this now rather than waiting until it is done and ready to quilt. 

The last picture I want to share is a small quilt I'm pin basting in preparation to hand big stitch quilt it.  I made the appliqué heart blocks in about 1994.  We had moved to the Baltimore area and the first year there I worked at a wonderful quilt store.  I took a class to learn how to appliqué a bunch of different ways.  Fast forward many years and I finally made it into a top.  Now I'm ready to get it finished. It's a little less than 23" square so I'm hoping it goes quickly. Any suggestions on where I should quilt it? I have to see what color pearl cotton I have although my guess is I only have larger sizes in colors and only black in the right size thread. Maybe. I need to look. 

I actually figured out my December fabric usage today  but I think I'll wait to share as this is already pretty long.  So, with no further ado, I'm linking with the following parties.  Please spend some time surfing the web using these parties as a starting point. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Sew & Tell 

To Do Tuesday

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie