Monday Meanderings 5 - 1 - 2023

They say April showers bring May flowers.  Well we've had a LOT of rain in the last couple of days -- at least 2" according to one report. Let's just say it was a good time to stay inside and sew and read. So that's what I've done since Friday afternoon. I'm looking forward to some May flowers!  Ok let's start by looking at my goal's list from last week. 

4/24/23

✅Finish quilting and binding cupcake quilt — done, pictures to come

✅Make a few more 12” blocks — done

✅Make some bow tie blocks — done 

✅Pick Happy Blocks to make another top — done! 

I have several sets or partial sets of Happy Blocks hanging around the studio.  Here's one of the sets I plan to put together this coming week. 

These blocks were made by my friends in the FCQ Equilter's group from quite a few years ago.  These will be 8.5" blocks when finished.  I gathered a different bunch of blocks that I had made and decided I'd make some more. I want to make it a bit bigger even though the blocks will finish at 9".  I know I have at least one more set hanging around so you'll be seeing even more Happy Blocks in my future.  Here's the link to Mary's instructions. I'm pretty sure I've used all the size centers for which Mary gives instructions. Check her side bar to see directions for the other two sizes she uses.  

Now here's what I hope to get done this week.  Who knows whether I will or not but this is the list.

5/1/23

Make extra Happy Blocks

Sew one Happy Block quilt top together (or two!) 

Sew grape top together 

Make some Flower Song blocks 

I've probably put too much on my list but who knows, I might succeed. And even if I don't get all of them done I will make some progress. 

Here's what the Flower Song blocks look like.  I've been taking these blocks to retreats for years. The only thing I don't really like is all the half squares triangle outside edges are on the bias. I've got several pieces already cut and units sewn together. Once I have those all sewn into blocks I'll be using the Easy Angle ruler so the edges will be straight of grain for the next group.  We'll see if I get very many of them done. Part of my issue is I find them boring to work on. What? Oops... I've taken it to several retreats. But this project may end up going to another retreat before it's a finished top. 

I am using part of a jelly roll so all of these will be made in fun, bright colors. 

As usual I'll be linking up with my favorite Linky parties. I hope you can do some web surfing to see what quilters are currently working on. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday 

Are you a fan of dogs? How about mysteries?  If so you should check out the Chet and Bernie mysteries by Spencer Quinn. I finished listening to his latest book this week.  I get a kick out of them as the narrator is Chet, the dog who flunked out of K-9 school on his last day.  There went his job as a police dog. So he now works with Bernie as a private investigator.  These books are pretty light and funny as well as entertaining to listen to while I'm stitching. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings a Day Late

Hello Tuesday!  Sunday I blogged about making charity quilts for Sarah's Hands 2 Help 2023.  Take a look at my finished pinwheel top I shared. I decided to wait until Tuesday before I posted my normal Monday Blog.  So let's look at my goals from last week. 

4/17/2023

✅Quilt cupcake top — started. 

✅Sew “squirrel” top together part of the UFO Challenge — top done!

✅Finish purple RSC blocks  — all 3 are done.

✅Pick a new project to cut out or look at an old project —  hum, I did a dive into my orphan block box and found quite a few bowtie blocks so I’ll be making some more so I can make another bowtie quilt.

Not a bad week.  Although I didn't realize I was starting an old project until I cut several bowtie blocks today.  Yep, I can check mark the last goal from last week.  

Left side blocks are more 12" blocks for the guild. The three right hand blocks are  Drunkard's Path blocks I'm using for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. 

The list this week may be less successful since we're visiting our daughter's family for a soccer game and a county choral concert which will take up most of a day.  But this is what I hope to work on the days we are at home. 

4/24/23

Finish quilting and binding cupcake quilt

Make a few more 12” blocks

Make some bow tie blocks

Pick Happy Blocks to make another top

That should keep me busy during the days.  I have several ebooks that I've reserved at my library that keep showing up.  I'll be trying to keep up with them this week too. 

I'll be linking up with the following parties:

To Do Tuesday 

Midweek Makers 

Wednesday Wait Loss

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

A Fast Quilt for Charity!

I'm happy to be making quilts for Sarah's Hands 2 Help 2023. And, once again, writing a blog to support Sarah's efforts and give you some ideas of what you can make. 

As I was thinking about what I might write about 2 things happened in my life. One was the APQ UFO Challenge for April was #4 which for me was a set of huge flying geese.  Yep, huge - 8.5" by 16.5". I had made them for a block drawing for a retreat years ago and they were wrong. No, size was fine, I just didn't notice it said use batik fabric.  I probably have another group that I won that were batiks but that's for another day.  It was time to do something with them. 

My friend Sharon had cut hers into smaller half square triangles and made some other blocks from them. Hum, could I do that too?  I had two goals -- use the blocks and make a fairly big quilt.  Well, big blocks make big quilts faster. So I trimmed these blocks into 6.5" half square triangles.  I was able to make one 12.5" pinwheel block from each set of two. (I didn't use the white flowers for this project as they didn't go well with the other two.) 

Here's how I cut them up.  I saved the two strips from each triangle for another day. (I see a string quilt in my future.) Then all that was left was to sew the 4 - 6" blocks together. Easy peasy to make a simple block. 

To make a big quilt I needed a lot more blocks. Another benefit of making the blocks 6.5" was I have an AccuQuilt die for that size half square triangle. I started pulling fabrics that were mostly light and darks to go with the existing pinwheel blocks.  And, next thing I know I'm cutting triangles and then I'm sewing them together. Four 6.5" HSTs make a 12" finished block.  At first I thought of this as my "squirrel" project, something that was interrupting my weekly goal lists.  Eventually I figured out it wasn't really a squirrel project because it was listed as "use the big flying geese blocks." A week and a half later I have a finished top. 

My 12.5" blocks made up quickly, made a dent in several different colors of fabric and is a fairly large quilt.  I set the blocks 4 x 5 which makes the quilt approximately 48" x 60".  I have to admit I was tickled that I could get this top made in less than 2 weeks. Quilting is another matter as my long arm is still out for repair.  

Remember I mentioned two things happened? The other was my guild was collecting 12.5" blocks to use for charity quilts. Off to the orphan block box  I went.  And I found several blocks I could pass on. (Check out the picture of 4 blocks from last week's blog.  The two on the left were orphans.) 

And, look what else I found: 

What a great idea -- another fast, easy way to make a 12" block -- made from four 6.5" blocks sewn into the 12.5" block. I'm pretty sure I'll be making some more batik bow tie blocks to be able to put this block into a quilt.  I also found a bunch of other bowtie blocks. So, shouldn't I make some more to go with them? Of course!

Here's what you need to make one 6" finished bowtie. 2 - 3.5" squares of light fabric, 2 - 3.5" squares of medium or dark fabric, and 2 - 2" squares of the same medium or dark. Draw a diagonal line down the center of the 2" squares.

Place a 2" square on a corner of each of the light squares.  Sew on the diagonal line on both squares. Trim the excess fabric leaving a quarter inch seam.  Then flip the triangle over and iron.  I tend to trim up the light triangles after flipping just to make sure they stay at 3.5". 

Lay out the blocks to form the bowtie. 

Sew a purple square to the white with the purple triangle. 

Sew the two halves together. Voila! You have one quarter of a 12" finished bow tie made.  Make three more. These blocks are great for using up smaller pieces of fabrics and are really fast to sew.  

While I was trying to decide on which blocks I would make as 12" blocks I came across this nice web site for blocks. Many times 12" blocks are made from 6" blocks.  You can find various size blocks here with good directions. Here's the link for a 6" finished Pinwheel block. Do you want to print the directions?   Yes, there are a lot of ads but look for the note about how to print (or save) the information without having a lot of ads. It's a separate site but it drops the ads for you and allows you to drop out some of the instructions or pictures if you don't really need them. 

Poke around the web site and you'll find all sorts of interesting info. They even have a section on patriotic quilt patterns. 

Another great web site with LOTS of quilt pattern is Quilter's Cache. As stated on the main page this site has "a gazillion patterns." You can spend days picking and making blocks from their directions. Find the drop down menu on the main page and choose "Quilt Blocks Galore." Then you can look at them either by name or by size. In some ways this is a bit clunky but oh the number of standard blocks and original blocks is amazing.

Here are a few I think would be fairly easy to make: A Dandy, Antique Tile,  Arrowhead Puzzle, Box Kite, Buckeye Beauty, Calico Puzzle and Churn Dash.  Do you get it?  I gave up after "ch" titles because I had way more than I needed to share!  

As you plan your next charity quilt or a quilt for your family, consider using  an easy 12" block. A 3 x 3 setting will yield a 36" square quilt. That 36" square quilt would make a cute baby quilt.  A 3 x 4 block setting would yield a 36 x 48" quilt, a perfect size for a toddler or elementary age child. The 4 x 5 set makes a great lap quilt for teenagers, seniors and most anyone.  And, think how much easier an easy 12" block would make a twin, queen or king quilt! 

If you are trying to make quilt tops quickly pick a 12" block that is easy to make and go to town!  

I'm linking to these parties.  I hope you have some spare time to surf the web! My normal Monday Meanderings will be posted Tuesday, hopefully. 

Oh Scrap 

Monday Musings 

Design Wall Monday

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 4 - 17 - 2023

Monday has rolled around again.  I didn't get any other blogs posted this week.  And, honestly, I don't have much to show you but I can share some things with you starting with my goals for last week. Eh, let's just say a squirrel carried me away from what I "thought" I wanted to work on! No info on the squirrel this time but check back Sunday when all will be revealed. 

Last week's goals... not a lot of check marks. 

4/10/2023

✅Make more RSC blocks in green and purple

✅Make plan for big flying geese blocks and start doing it! 

Clean up cutting table, put away 2” squares — I did clean up the squares but honestly not much else! 

Begin sewing grape quilt together — decided I’d save this for sew ins 

✅Pick another top to quilt on domestic machine; prepare backing

And now this week's goals...

4/17/2023

Quilt cupcake top

Sew “squirrel” top together, part of the UFO Challenge

Finish purple RSC blocks 

Pick a new project to cut out or look at an old project 

Hum, reading these two lists I realized I didn't really have a squirrel distract me -- I have been working on the flying geese from last week's goals. But a lot of things went to the wayside while I worked on them. 

One thing I did was go through my box of orphan blocks.  My guild is collecting 12" blocks to start making charity quilts with. Here are a group I'm planning on donating along with however many additional ones I can make in the next few days. 

The two on the right I made especially for this block drive.  The ones on the left were in the orphan box.  The top left photo has 4 blocks of the same design pinned together. It is called Bright Hopes and is a good beginner block. It uses partial seams to make each of the 4 blocks that make up the pattern. Here are some directions to use, Bright Hopes by Generations Quilt Patterns. Hum, maybe I can make a few more before the meeting? 

I've been reading and listening to audio books a lot this past week.  A Special shout out to Diann who blogs at Little Penguin Quilts. She recommended the book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.  I had to put it on reserve and it finally came my way.  I found it fascinating.  Its tags are Fiction, Literature, and Science Fiction.  Say what?  I didn't realize it was considered science fiction until I was well into the book.  It grabbed me.  .  It's an interesting story.  Just a note -- at my library there is a 6 month wait or more for the book but only 3 weeks for the audio book.  I tend to check both media as I enjoy both and can often get a book earlier.  Now I'm whipping through a book called Lost English Girl by Julia Kelly, another book that gripped me from nearly the first page. 

So with those two reading recommendations, please remember to spend some time checking out my regular blog parties:

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 4 - 10 - 2023

Happy Monday Everyone!  Another beautiful week is beginning in the Mid Atlantic states. Weather is forecasted to hit the 80s mid week with one rainy day next weekend.  But hold on!  Don't get too jealous of our weather -- it could change drastically between now and next Monday. Weather is tricky like that. 

Last week was a disaster goals-wise but I had a great week nonetheless. Saturday night we (the Spotsylvanians) sang the Star Spangled Banner at the Fredericksburg Nationals, a farm team of the Washington Nationals. We also were able to enjoy a suite with dinner. It was ridiculously cold out so I was happy to stay inside the room on a fairly comfy couch and watched the game on the TV.  

Sunday our son and daughter-in-law hosted a great brunch at their house for both sides of their families. (We are only 18 kids and adults.) The adults stuffed plastic eggs while the kids were playing all over the place. Then the men went out in the yard (pretty big yard too) to hide the eggs. Kids were from 2 to 12 so some places were hard to find and some were easy.  I don't know why they wouldn't let me fill my basket too! On the other hand I did help a few people (at both ends of the age range) find eggs.  It was so much fun to hang out, talk and play.  Needless to say I fell asleep on the way home.  And, the most remarkable part of the day -- there was hardly any traffic on I-95 going (kind of expected) and very little coming home. (Totally shocking! We were home within an hour.)  

Hum, I might be babbling about our weekend because I really didn't get much done on my goals list. Although I did have one little squirrel I worked on.  What I was suppose to do:

4/3/23

Make plan for APQ UFO Challenge #4 - a group of big flying geese blocks — didn’t even get them out. 

Clean up cutting table - work on it 15 min a day —ugh only one day. It’s still a mess. 

✅Sew borders on Traffic Jam —finished!

Begin sewing grape quilt together — nothing done.

Make more RSC blocks in green and start purple —started but none finished

Here's Traffic Jam made with 2" squares instead of the 2.5" as written in the free pattern on Pat Sloan's website. You have to scroll down to the bottom to find the link to the free version.  I love how different this pattern looks with different colorations. 

It did make a dent in my 2" squares but I keep cutting more so not that much of a difference. 

Now on to my goals for this week.  Who knows, maybe I'll get a few more done this week. 

4/10/2023

Make more RSC blocks in green and purple

Make plan for big flying geese blocks and start doing it!

Clean up cutting table, put away 2” squares

Begin sewing grape quilt together 

Pick another top to quilt on domestic machine; prepare backing

Here's what I did off list.  Not much but some progress made. Joan is an FCQ Equilter who asked for 6" fin. 9 patches with darker colors in the corner and whites in the alternate blocks. Here's what I've made so far. 

Um, yea, those bottom three don't match the request.  She asked for kid prints or patriotic.  Like most of us in this group we use the blocks to make charity quilts.  I thought I had picked some fun fabrics for kids. Once I reread the directions I realized I have a start of a new quilt with 3 blocks for kids.  Okay then.  I'll keep making blocks for a while and then make a kid size lap quilt from my "mistake".  And I'll keep making blocks for Joan as I like making blocks and sending them off for someone else to finish.

Here are my normal Linky parties.  I hope you can find some spare time to surf the web from these parties. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday

It's time to get doing something in the studio today.  Here's a beautiful redbud I saw at the library last week. (no, it isn't quite as beautiful as the redbud in my header but it is a beautiful flowering spring tree.) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Melodic Mystery Top Finish!

This is the first time I've done one of Cheryl's mysteries at Meadow Mist Designs.  Need I say I'm now a big fan?  

I talked my quilting buddy, Sharon, into joining me.  Every month we got on FaceTime and chatted as we got the clue done.  It was a great reason to get together.  And, we each got wonderful quilt tops done.  Mine won't become a quilt for a while as my long arm is being repaired.  Even when it comes back I have quite a few quilts with backings ready to be quilted. 

Here's a few pictures showing the quilt in process. (I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the fabrics before they were cut. Nor one of all the pieces cut. Sigh.) 

One of the cool things about doing this quilt is half the fabric came from my stash.  I bought the light magenta and a bit more of the background fabric. 

This top will be living in the to-be-quilted closet for a while.  Here's the note I've attached to it so I know what to buy when I get the backing fabric. 

I'm looking forward to the next Meadow Mist Mystery.  

Here are the parties I'm linking up with: 

MidWeek Makers 

Wednesday Wait Loss

Needle and Thread Thursday 

Melodic Mystery Link Up Page

I'll be linking up the other pages as they become available.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings -- 4 - 3 - 2023

Did you realize with the beginning of April we are 25% through with 2023?  Yep, time flies when we're quilting away!  

Although Pat and I had an all-day rehearsal on Saturday, I still got a lot done this week.  Here's the list: 

3/27/2023

✅Make more green and pink RSC blocks — need more green, pink is done 

✅Finish Arkansas Traveler Block — completed sewing it together

✅Finish quilting baby quilt; ✅bind it — all done! 

✅Finish cutting out another quilt — cut all but the border/s, not bad

Design Tee Shirt quilt — I’m just not motivated yet … one of these days! 

Here's the finished Arkansas Traveler Block.  It is a surprisingly easy block to make when using the Accuquilt die. Someday I need to plan a quilt using this die/pattern.

  

Here's the baby quilt I finished this month. (Sadly, it is the only quilt I finished this month.) It's about 36" square and will go to the local hospital's NICU.  They like bright quilts and small ones. (works for me!) 

All the quilting was done with my domestic machine.  Ruthie, the long arm, is still out for repairs. You can see an up close picture of the spiral flower here. 

And, finally, a picture of a little of the back and most of the front. I didn't have enough of the green print fabric so I added a small piece of a green print that I had in my stash.  So, yes, this entire quilt came from my stash! 

Now it's time to focus on this week's goal list. Here's what I should be working on. 

4/3/23

Make plan for APQ UFO Challenge #4 - a group of big flying geese blocks. 

Clean up cutting table - work on it 15 min a day 

Sew borders on Traffic Jam 

Begin sewing grape quilt together

Make more RSC blocks in green and start purple 

We've got several events to attend this week.  Saturday night we'll be joining the Spotsylvanians to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the Fredericksburg Nationals' baseball game. We sang last summer and enjoyed the game. Hopefully the weather will be decent. 

Sunday we'll be joining our family for an Easter dinner.  Hum, I wonder what I should bring to this.  I generally bring a veggie tray so the kids can snack on them before dinner is served. I'll probably do it again.  

Between these two events, I won't have as much quilting time as usual. But I should be able to get some of my goals checked off by the end of the week. 

I've redone my Mysteries and Quilt Alongs page.  See the link right above the date and headline for today's post?  I removed and then reposted the January post.  Then I redid the main page and listed all 3 postings I've done so far.  Yesterday I did the April listing.  If you are looking for a quilt along check out the listing.  (I could only find quilt alongs for April.)  If you are doing a quilt along or a mystery please let me know a month before it starts so I can include it on my monthly page.  

That's about it for me except to let you know the Linky parties I am joining. (Go check them out please!) 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie