Mysteries and Quilt Alongs April

Yea! I've finally gotten the Mysteries and Quilt Along header corrected.  You can click on the header and see all the M & QAL posts  I've written. (Yes, I never did one for March.) I hope I'll get one written early each month.

Here's what's new in April: 

The first three quilt alongs are sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop.  

Home Again Quilt Along is beginning April 4, running until May 2.  You will need to purchase the pattern (available as a PDF download.) Check out the pattern and info here: https://blog.fatquartershop.com/announcing-the-home-again-quilt-along/ $ 

Triangles on a Roll Quilt Along by the Fat Quarter Shop.  This quilt along features 2”, 3”, and 4” finished half square triangles which can be made using Triangles on a Roll. (Anybody else have lots of these rolls hanging around in their stash?)  The quilt will finish at 74.5” square.  This is a fat quarter friendly quilt. The pattern will release on March 30 and the QAL will run for seven weeks. $ if you need to buy Triangles on a Roll although you can choose a different method to making the triangles. https://blog.fatquartershop.com/triangles-on-a-roll-quilt-along-for-worldwide-quilting-day/

Vintage Kite quilt along will have a kick off event and and full pattern release starting 4/11. The quilt along will start 4/12. Read more about it https://blog.fatquartershop.com/join-us-for-the-vintage-kite-quilt-along/. $ if you buy the foundation  papers.

Jacqueline Steves new BOM called Sew Happy. https://jacquelynnesteves.com/sew-happy-free-block-of-the-month/ Will run from May to September with patterns being emailed on the 2nd Monday of the month. 

Did you know the National Quilt Museum has artists in their collection develop  a block of the month? Neither did I. See and download  Round 4 blocks here: https://quiltmuseum.org/blockofthemonth/. If you continue down the page other rounds are still available.  You can also join their Facebook group. I’ll add Round 5 info for the May newsletter. 

Bomquilts.com released info about a free block of the month in February. Currently there are links to an introduction, tutorial, and fabric requirements. It appears block instructions begin April 20 and continues through December 20. Log Cabin Love. 

If you are sponsoring a Mystery Quilt or Quilt Along please feel free to send me the information.  I'll add it the month before it begins.  If you know of new listings that are starting soon -- let me know so I can include it here.  

I've been toying with the idea of doing the Triangles on a Roll sew along that is sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop.  I have two of the three sizes needed and I'd really like to use some of them up.  For the sizes I don't have I'm sure I can figure out a different way to make them. 

What event strikes your fancy? 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Mysteries and Quilt Alongs (Repeat of Jan. 3, 2023)

I have been trying to get a listing of Mystery and Quilt Along posts in the Heading Mysteries and Quilt Alongs below my header. I believe I set it up wrong the first time I did it and I couldn't figure out what went wrong. So I've removed it from Jan. 3 and reposted it today, Mar 30.  I doubt anyone will be starting any of these but I thought I would see if I could fix this listing. 

For over a year I've been searching out sew alongs and mysteries to share in my guild's newsletter.  I can't attend too many meetings of Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland. Gathering info on Sew Alongs and Mysteries is one thing I can do for the guild. It dawned on me recently that I could also share the information with my readers.  So at the beginning of each month I will  post (um, try to post) a listing of sew alongs and mysteries.  I will add a tab at the top so you can easily access the posts. Please feel free to share any info you have on mystery quilts and sew alongs that are coming up.  Here's what I found for January, 2023. 

Riley Blake Designs is offering a block challenge again this year.  It will run from January 3 to May 23 with new blocks coming out every Tuesday except the last Tuesday of the month.  Find out more about it. https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/2023-rbd-block-challenge

Do you want an easy sew along? Look at the Nine Patch Sampler. You will get an email with block instructions every week for 9 weeks. The quilt along begins Jan 2.  https://www.epidastudio.com/nine-patch-sampler-quilt/.

Sherri McConnell is offering a block of the month again in 2023. Find all the details here: https://www.aquiltinglife.com/a-quilting-life-mystery-block-of-the-month-2023/ Sherri offers directions for 6" and 12" blocks. 

Pat Sloan is offering Sweet Childhood Memories Block a Week.  It starts Jan 4 and runs until May 10th.  Patterns are released each Wednesday.  You can download the supply list now. https://www.ilovetomakequilts.com/sweet-childhood-memories.html

Which Way to Witchville is a Block of the Month for a Facebook group called Cackling Stitches.  The BOM starts January 1 and runs until September 30. Blocks are available the first of each month and are free for the calendar month. Fabric requirement is available now.  For info check https://www.moosestashquilting.com/2022/12/which-way-to-witchville-2023-cackling.html

Way back in September Quilting Gail announced the 2023 SAHRR that is starting now. SAHRR stands for Stay At Home Round Robin. You start with a center of your choice and add borders based on what is called for each round. You can read all about it here. https://quiltinggail.com/2022/12/30/announcing-sahrr-2023/

($)Book Nook Quilt Along begins January 15 and runs for 6 weeks. You will need to buy the pattern that will be available on Jan 6th.  If you like books this might be the perfect QAL for you. https://penandpaperpatterns.c

om/blogs/news/book-nook-qal?_pos=1&_sid=191c0019e&_ss=r

($)Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet along with the Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring Sew Scrappy Spools Quilt Along. You must purchase a downloadable PDF of the block patterns available January 6.  It begins January 12, 2023. https://blog.fatquartershop.com/announcing-the-sew-scrappy-spools-quilt-along/

($)Meadow Mist QAL for Board and Batten quilt. Must buy pattern.  Fabric requirements are available now.

https://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.com/p/board-and-batten-quilt-along.html?m=1

I've added a dollar sign ($) in front of any that require a purchase.  Often there is a pattern or book that must be purchased.  Generally the cost is reasonable.  Sometimes a donation is requested for a worthy cause. 

As I said above please feel free to send me info about upcoming sew alongs.  I'll be happy to add to the next month's post. (Although, I will retain the right to not include an event at my discretion.) 

If the links are not active you can always copy and paste them into your browser. 

I am happy to "enable" everyone with these opportunities. 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings - 3 - 27 - 2023

Here we are at the last few days of March.  I've kept busy but not sure how much of it was quilting related. But I did succeed at least partly on my goals. Let's see what I did get done. '

3/20/2023

✅Finish pink and ✅start green RSC blocks - Still working on both colors.

Design UFO Challenge #11, ✅rough cut shirts - Shirts measured and deboned, still working on design. Probably will use all on the front - nixed the two sided idea.

✅Baste baby quilt and start quilting - Half quilted.

✅Cut out another quilt - one of three fabrics cut.

Not bad. It would have been better to complete a design for the Tee Shirt quilt but I have lots of time to work on it. 

I'm really pleased with how the quilting is coming along on the baby quilt. Let me show one of the 5 motifs I'm stitching on it. (Remember the long arm is out for repairs so this is being done with my walking foot on my Bernina.) I first did a bunch of stitch in the ditch. Then I am working on the motifs. I think I have 2 left. I'm going to do parallel lines in the border. Hopefully that will be enough stitching to hold the quilt together. If not, I may have to do something in the white triangles. The goal is to have it completed by Friday so that I can show I finished something in March! 

Here's what I plan to work on this week.

3/27/2023

Make more green RSC blocks, finish the pink blocks

Finish Arkansas Traveler Block 

Finish quilting baby quilt; bind it

Finish cutting out quilt

Design Tee Shirt quilt

It's a longer list and I'll be tied up nearly all day at rehearsal on Saturday. We'll see how much I get done of this list.  

Oops, a squirrel ran across my view and.... 

This is Arkansas Traveler block.  I've owned the AccuQuilt die for 3 or so years without ever using it.  My local guild is having a block drive so I thought it would be good to make any 12" block dies I have.  Sorry, I didn't get far on the sewing but I wanted to share it.  Only the two bottom diamonds are sewn together.  It was easy to sew them together, I just ran out of time. I wish I had more of all of these fabrics so I could make a quilt but, nope, I sure don't.  I'll be making more 12" blocks over the next couple of weeks so I can turn them in to the guild. 

Another off list thing I did was plant some pansies.  I have a view to a little garden out of the French doors in the basement studio.  I "thought" I would enjoy seeing some flowers. Um, no, pansies are too short. I would need taller plants. But they do look good from the enclosed porch. 

I can see the pig and the bird feeder. The birds are fun to watch as they squabble over who gets to eat from the feeder. We have a lot of smaller birds who can clean out the feeder in less than a day. 

That's it for today. Please take some time to surf the web starting with these Linky Parties. 

Oh Scrap  

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday

Since everyone seemed to like the previous flowering trees picture I shared I thought I'd share this one.  This is a group of cherry trees at the beginning of our neighborhood. Enjoy another view of spring here in central Virginia. 

Happy Quilting All - Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 20 - 2023

I wish I had put read 4 books on my goal list last week.  Yep...I did spend a bunch of time reading this past week.  And my finished (or even worked on) list shows it.  I did jump off list for one little sewing spree.  But I'll share that later. 

Here's last week's list. 

3/13/2023

✅Add border to sea life quilt -- Finished, put in the to-be-quilted closet.

✅Make more FCQ Equilter blocks (picture below) -- all done.

✅Work on Rainbow Scrap blocks (picture below) -- one done. 

Start working on APQ UFO Challenge #11 -- I "thought" about it once."

Cut out another 3 yard quilt -- I actually drew out a pattern and figured if I had enough fabric to do this quilt. Don't know when I'll actually cut it out.

Eh, I really wasn't very motivated by the end of the week.  And, honestly, I am forcing myself to even think about the UFO challenge quilt. Here is this week's list. (Note - I tell a little more about the challenge quilt below.) 

3/20/2023

Finish pink and start green RSC blocks 

Design UFO Challenge #11, rough cut shirts 

Baste baby quilt and start quilting 

Cut out another quilt

First up the pics of what I did get done.

These are for the FCQ Equilter, Nancy. I didn't measure the blocks but I think they are 4.5 x 12.5".  I was FaceTiming with Sharon while we were each working on these blocks.  I was going to do 6 but somehow cut out 7 so I evened them up to 8.  It'll be fun to see what Nancy does with the blocks.

Here's the one (yes 1) RSC block I've done for February.  I like the block idea but honestly it's time consuming to make and have it turn out well.  I am thinking of just making 1 per month and then put sashing between and possibly borders and call it either a baby quilt of a wheel chair quilt.  I'm having an issue cutting these with the Accuquilt cutter.  I think I might have had one piece of fabric the wrong way. Most of the time the fabric needs to go length of fabric to prevent it from stretching the fabric. Additionally,  I am going to think about fixing the issue at the top center below.  (Of course that doesn't mean I'll actually fix it.)

My squirrel project came about from picking up a packet from my quilt guild on Wednesday.  Along with various sizes of quilts, walkers bags, dog beds and other miscellaneous items we make, we are making NICU Hearts. These are small hearts made out of flannel that moms of babies in the NICU can wear next to their skin for a day. Then the hearts are put in the isolette with the baby.  Evidently it helps the baby bond with its mom. I'm excited to work on this project but I really want to use my own flannel.  I have a LOT of it. One draw back, it uses a 4" Accuquilt heart die, which I don't have.  But a friend does so I hope to borrow hers and then keep a pile at the ready to work on for a while. 

Above is the heart sewn, right sides together.  I've left a space to turn it on the right. Below is 5 of the 11 little hearts that came from the guild. 

The pink one with the flowers was my first one.  I used a decorative stitch to make it a bit cuter.  However, one of my friends mentioned the NICU she gives to doesn't want anything but a regular stitch keeping them together.  Evidently the extra stitching can bother the baby.  I'll ask our charity chair to check with the local hospital to see if that is an issue when she delivers items to them.  

In case you didn't realize it the March APQ UFO Challenge for March for me is make a tee shirt quilt from my son's tee shirts.  He gave me two bags.  I separated them into college rowing shirts and running and biking shirts post college. EH. There are a lot of shirts. Hubby and I made some decisions about how to arrange them. I'm probably going to make this a two sided quilt with the running and biking shirts on the front and the college shirts on the back.  It may be so heavy that no one will be able to crawl out from under it when done!  I need to take time to measure all the shirts and decide how to put them together. Then comes the rough cutting and fusing interfacing on.  I'll also need to buy some fabric to go with the shirts.  I only want to get to the point of having the shirts interfaced along with the layout design this month. I have the rest of the year to actually make it.  Pictures will come after I get the front of the top done. (By the time that is done you will have totally forgotten about the project!) 

I'm done for this post.  Please remember to check out more quilters' blogs by going to these Linky parties. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Musing 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

I'll be back to link up the other parties as they become available.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 13 - 2023

 We finally had some snow! Wow. Truth is, it wasn't much.  We could only see it coming down. Nothing accumulated on the ground.  I sent a text to our family proclaiming our snow - pretty much the only snow we've seen all season.  My DIL's response had me laughing because they were getting some too but nothing was accumulating.  "Sent the kids outside and told them they could come in once they made a snowball." Probably didn't happen.  

I did really well on my goals this week.  Here's what I wanted to do.

3/6/23

✅Sew last border on Melodic Mystery — done this is retiring to the to-be-quilted closet.

✅Sew backing together for baby quilt — done, should I quilt it with my domestic machine? Probably or I won't have any finishes this month!

✅Sew blocks for next FCQ Equilter’s round — one done need to do a couple more. See below. 

✅Make another walker bag — done except putting some Velcro on. 

Here's the block I completed for Nancy who is up as this month for the FCQ Equilters' blocks. 

I always try to use either my AccuQuilt dies or my Deb Tucker's Studio 180 rulers. But I didn't figure it out correctly so I just followed the directions as written.  Nancy asked for black with bright colors. And, she'd like some with colors on the outside with black in the middle.  I plan to make the blocks in pairs so she has both kind to play with.  

Here's what I'm going to work this week.  

3/13/2023

Add border to sea life quilt

Make more FCQ Equilter blocks

Work on Rainbow Scrap blocks

Start working on APQ UFO Challenge #11 

Cut out another 3 yard quilt 

I have spent the last two days working on one of the fabric bundles I put together last week.  I ordered two 3 Yard quilt books from Amazon and Prime delivery had them here about mid day on Saturday. (In case you are wondering I got Quick As a Wink 3 Yard Quilts and Quilts in a Jiffy.) At lunch I decided which one I was going to use and by 9 pm I had everything cut out and the blocks made and laid out on the design wall. (You can see the fabric bundle here. It's the second picture.)  The big blocks are actually sea animals.

Today I was able to sew all the blocks into rows, sew the rows together and get the first border on. 

I didn't proceed with the last border as I don't like the single fold binding called for in the directions so I'm trying to see if I have enough of the dark brown left to make 2.25" or 2.5" wide binding and the 3" border it calls for.  I'll be doing some math after I get this blog written. (O Joy, math, my favorite subject.) This picture is a bit darker than what it looks like in person. I think for the next quilt I'll pick a smaller size for the plain blocks.  These are 9.5". It was fun to get this almost done so fast though. 

That's it for me. Enjoy surfing the web starting with these Linky Parties. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Musing

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

When we were driving back from Richmond last Tuesday I was impressed with all of the flowering trees.  I took a lot of pictures as we were driving. Here's what I considered the best picture. 

It won't be too long until the flowers will be blowing in the wind and it'll look like snow.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Fabric Acquisition Results!

I won a gift card during the October retreat.  It's been sitting just waiting for me to go spend it, or maybe burning a hole in my pocket.  I hadn't made much of an effort before because the store is an hour away from me.  Since we had another errand to do in the vicinity I decided it was time to splurge.  Being careful about buying fabric "because I like it," I decided to only buy fabric needed so I could use some piece of fabric I already owned.  I came prepared with 4 or so 1 yard hunks of fabric and one top that needed some borders.  

Here's the final results of my shopping. I don't go to quilt stores too often so I was surprised that much of the fabric was $13.99 a yard. Yikes! 

Being a rather squirrelly person regarding buying fabrics I looked for older fabric that would work with my older fabric. None of the fabric I bought was of the $13.99 variety and at least one was less $10.  I ended up paying about $17. more than my gift certificate but I'm really pleased with my results. Here's the fabric groupings that will be turned into a quilt soon. 

In real life the top fabric is much darker.  But I'm tickled with my go withs. For the most part I bought 1 yard pieces. ⬆️

The floral fabric and the yellow fabric I already had.  I also have a solid pink that is wonderful with this fabric.  I was lucky to find this green that leans more to the blue than the yellow side. ⬆️ 

I've had this grape fabric for quite a while and have no clue where I got it from. The bottom purple lines fabric is leftover from a backing from some quilt, who knows which one at this point. Unfortunately, I don't have very much of it.  I'm pretty sure I can get more of it but I won't worry about that for until I decide to do something with this grouping. ⬆️

The two purple fabrics above will be used as a small inner border and the outer border of the Merry Mayhem January 1, 1923 all day mystery quilt. You can see a picture of it here. I wasn't feeling very adventurous so when I saw the same color of Dimples fabric I used in the quilt I just went for that.  

Yes, I certainly have a lot of projects I can work on.  Truth be told, I've been gathering fabrics from my stash into groups I can use to make a quilt. Somehow, I think, I've got about 10 groupings hanging around the studio and getting in my way.  

My plan for these three bundles is to make some 3 yard quilts from patterns from Fabric Cafe.  Unfortunately I loaned my book(s) and didn't get them back. Sigh.  I have ordered 2 books that will be coming in today and then it's on to making some tops.  Most of these quilts will be given to charity and move fabric out of the stash! I think I'm starting with the sea life fabrics shown at the top. 

I'm off to get other items checked off my to do list.  I'm linking up with 

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Finished or Not Friday 

Beauties Pageant

I don't get many Friday posts up but I'm always happy to surf the web especially these three Linky party hostesses.  Hope you can kick back and do a little web surfing too. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 6 - 2023

 Welcome March!  Our weather has been pretty consistent but not like our normal winter to early spring.  It's chilly at night (30's to 40's F) but often sunny and reasonable during the days (50's, 60's and some times higher).  It's been a surprisingly mild winter here in the Mid Atlantic states.  Makes me wonder whether we'll have a ridiculously hot summer.  Hopefully not. I am definitely not a fan of hot weather.  

Let's move on to my goals for this past week.  I felt pretty good about the goals I accomplished although not everything was checked off.  

2/27/23

✅Finish baby quilt - quilt top done and backing fabric picked out. 

✅Sew Melodic Mystery together - missing one border which is ready to sew on. 

👎🏼Quilt something on Ruthie - she’s out for repairs. 

👎🏼Finish the pink blocks for rainbow scrap challenge - I made more but nowhere near finishing.

✅Anything else that strikes my fancy - I finished a 13” design board I started many months ago. 

Here's the baby quilt top I finished. (Hum, must be a record, I put it together in about 2 weeks basically using it as a leader ender for Melodic Mystery.) I'm not sure when I'll get it quilted but I just might do it on my domestic machine rather than wait for Ruthie.

Speaking of Ruthie -- poor girl is falling apart, kind of, at least.  It turns out the problem was not an encoder which would have been a fairly easy fix. It was determined that one of the computer boards was not functioning.  So our dealer, Mike, took her off to the shop to do a repair and update.  I except her back sometime in early April if all goes well. Sigh.  

On the positive side I am tickled with my version of Melodic Mystery. Here it is without the borders. This is the first mystery quilt I've done with Cheryl of Meadow Mist designs.  My quilting buddy Sharon and I sewed the clues at the same time via Face Time.  It was fun to chat and sew and we both liked the end results. I'll be looking forward to Cheryl's next mystery later this year. 

And here's a pic with all but the last border sewn on. 

I'm trying to keep my sewing expectations reasonable as I get used to my "new" eyes.  I find I can't see much for the first 30 minutes each day. But given some time my eyes start to work fairly well.  It's so amazing to be able to see things in the distance pretty darn well.  I still can't read a small digital clock from across the room but I can live with that. And, the readers I have from years ago are working out pretty well.  Today I'm going to drive to a weekly stitching group I go to in the neighborhood.  We'll see how I do with that before I commit to more distant driving. As Sharon said, I'm too young to quit driving.  

Here's what I plan to do this week. 

3/6/23

Sew last border on Melodic Mystery

Sew backing together for baby quilt 

Sew blocks for next FCQ Equilter’s round

Make another walker bag

I may get more done but who knows what will strike my fancy this week. We are going down to Richmond to pick up a Pat's college letter jacket we'd taken down a while ago to see if a big rip could be rewoven. (yep, he can still wear it and likes to!)  Sadly, no so I'll do a patch of some sort.  It won't be perfect but it will be wearable. 

We're also going to go to Quilter's Corner because at last October's retreat I won a gift card.  It's time to spend that money!  I have at least one top that needs a border and was thinking I'd check for go with fabric/s for some of my print fabric/s. (yep, it was enough for about 4 to 5 yards depending on what I decide I want.) 

That's it for me.  I hope you will join me in surfing the web using these Linky parties as a starting point.  

Oh Scrap 

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday 

I hope you have a quilty week -- with lots of finishes and moving projects forward. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie