September Mysteries and Quilt Alongs

I'm early this month.  Which is a good thing as some of these quilt alongs have already started. Here's what I've found this month. 

Pat Sloan started Chicken Salad Quilt Along on Aug. 24th. It will run until Nov. 17.  She will announce one block a week from Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Vintage and Farm Girl Vintage 2.  Sign up with Pat to get notices of her go-along videos. $$ for books. https://www.ilovetomakequilts.com/chicken-salad-qal.html

Jaqueline Steves will be starting a new snowman mystery on Sept. 25. There is a free option and a paid option https://jacquelynnesteves.com/snowmen-from-heaven-sew-along/  $ if chosen. 

Mystery Quilts 4 Military has started a new quilt. The Four Corners Mystery started Aug 2 with new clues released every other week.  You must join the group, MysteryQuilts4Military, at https://groups.io/g/MysteryQuilts4Military. The fabric and cutting info along with the first two clues are in the Files section. 

Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gathering has two quilt alongs just starting. First is Joyful Quilt Along started Tuesday August 27. Blocks will be posted every Tuesday. If you miss a block you can buy it for  $3.00.https://lisabongean.com/39539-2/ first clue is already up so check as soon as you get the newsletter to see if it is still available free. 

Lisa’s second event is a block of the month entitled Black Star Flower Farm.  This is offered for wool or for cotton.  The first monthly block was posted in August. Here’s the home page for all the info. The patterns are free in the month they are posted and $8.00 a pattern after that. The patterns are posted on the 10th of each month for 13 months.  Hopefully you still have a  bit of time to collect the first block without paying. https://lisabongean.com/39075-2/ 

Here’s something a little different and older: Riley Blake Designs was featuring some designs for its new low volume designer collection in October of 2021.  Follow the Blue Bird to get a choice of bird designs: appliqué, paper pieced, or pieced at https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/follow-the-blue-bird. Sandy Gervais shared a pattern for a 26” square mat called Fall Ya All. https://piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com/2021/10/follow-blue-bird.html A perfect small project to welcome fall. 

The guild that I write this column for, Faithful Circle Quilters, is having a show in early May of 2024. We will be having a $20 and Under Table of small items. I've been scouring the Internet for free patterns for small items that might work for this. Here's a couple of ideas I've found. 

Directions to make a needle minder. https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2023/07/needle-minder-tutorial.html?m=1

Directions for several different bookmarks. https://www.heatherhandmade.com/sew-easy-bookmarks-free-pattern/

Directions for a Triangle Pencil Pouch. https://sew4home.com/scrapbusters-triangle-pencil-and-more-pouch-1/

Directions for a Charm Square Fabric Tray.  https://aspoonfulofsugardesigns.com/charm-square-fabric-tray/

Hopefully these are live links and will take you right to the correct listing.  If they don't please highlight the address, copy, and paste to get to the site. 

Hope you have fun looking and making some of these quilts and little gifts. (Maybe a gift for you!)  

Many thanks to Vicki, who blogs at Vicki's Crafts and Quilting, for catching the incorrect link for Black Star Flower Farm. I'm saving the designs from that one. I may never use them but I really like how they look. 

Happy Quilting All Bonnie

Monday Meandering 8 - 28 - 2023

The bad news (for me) is I'm starting later tonight than I usually do.  The good news (for readers) is in the next day or two I'll post another Mysteries and Quilt Alongs.  Hopefully it will be done by Wed. 

I'm jumping right in on the goals list. 

✅Work on misc blocks: √FCQ Equilter blocks, √retreat blocks, √red and yellow RSC blocks — More FCQ Equilter blocks and retreat blocks need to be made. Red and yellow Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks are done. Here are pictures of all of them. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in red and yellow.

October Retreat lotto blocks.

FCQ Equilter blocks due by the end of September.

In case you really like these 9 Patch Shoo Fly blocks you can see how they are made at Missouri Star: https://www.missouriquiltco.com/blogs/missouri-star-quilting-tutorials/nine-patch-shoofly-quilt-tutorial They are made with 2 2.5" strips of a light and a dark.(ie 4 strips)  I don't tend to buy jelly rolls all that much so I have been cutting my own strips from fat quarters or small bits of leftover fabrics. I've got several more cut out except I realized I forgot to cut some of the 2.5" squares. So I'll be showing some more of these in the next week or two. 

✅Take out Tee shirt quilt and plan it out — planned and background fabric purchased.

✅Buy background and finish cutting Malted Mystery — more of the grey fabric is on order but I haven’t begun cutting yet.

Clean up the front of the cutting table — I can see progress but I doubt anyone else can. I’ve been using various dies to cut the fabric hanging around the front of the cutting table.

Here's my list for this week. 

8/28/23

Continue the clean up of the front of the cutting table

Quilt customer quilt

Bind the big pinwheel quilt

Finish the FCQ Equilter blocks and work on more retreat blocks

There's just a little difference between last week's goals and this week's. Hopefully I will continue to make big progress on the cutting table. 

And here's a little problem I had last week. (Or was it the week before?) 

I call it the cake mistake. We like carrot cake so I made one.  The recipe came from my aunt and I've made it many, many times.  Except I noticed I'd put a sticky note on it giving the info that the frosting recipe made too much frosting and gave amounts for a half a recipe.  I followed it but this is all I could cover. SIGH. Eventually I made another half recipe and got it covered.  But for some reason the cream cheese dressing just tasted like regular buttercream frosting. Another sigh. It was too much cake for us so we finally put quite a few pieces in the freezer and will enjoy them later.  

I'm looking forward to this week as a few days will be only in the 70s. Whoop! Whoop! And, we'll have a night or two go down in the 50s! 😃  We tend not to turn the oven on if the temps are in the high 80s and above.  I did turn it on for the cake  but most of the summer we are microwaving, air frying or grilling our evening meal. I'm looking forward to making banana bread and some cookies. Do you bake during the summer? 

That's it for tonight. Please enjoy surfing these web sites to see what is going on across the internet. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Sew and Tell

To Do Tuesday

I'll be back to link up to the other parties. (And, hopefully I'll do that in a timely manner!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 21 - 2023

We've had a few weather hints that mean fall isn't far off.  First one I noted -- overnight temps went into the 60s.  Then, day time temps stayed in the 80s instead of moving on to the 90s.  A few days had low humidity.  This doesn't mean we will actually slide into fall yet.  There will continue to be hot days but they will be interspersed with less hot days.  I, for one, am happy to see the hot temps cool down a bit. We even walked out side this evening (around 8:30) but it is still almost 80 degrees. No wonder I feel overheated! 

Let's take a look at last week's goals see how I did. I didn't get everything done but I did get a LOT done. 

8/14/24

✅Quilt Happy Blocks Top — done and bound and sent off to PA to begin its journey to Romania

✅Load and quilt Va Star charity quilt — done 

✅Finish 30 Something top — done 

Work on misc blocks: FCQ Equilter blocks, retreat blocks, red and yellow RSC blocks — worked a little on RSC blocks but lots to finish

This quilt was made with blocks from the FCQ Equilter group I am part of and many I made specifically for it.  The pattern is Happy Quilt from Mary Quilts.  I've used Mary's Happy Quilt instructions for so many quilts.  If you want a fast, easy quilt this is the one to use. You can see variations of it here, here, and here. (I need to see if I've ever posted the finished quilts at this last link.  I may still have the quilts or I may have already moved them along.  I'll check.) 

And, yes, these will be going with a therapist who is working with Ukrainian children in Romania.  When I read Nann's blog (who blogs at With Strings Attached) about her making a quilt or two for Ukrainian children I was all in too.  You can read a little bit about the lady who is helping these children and the quilts on Nancy's blog, Nancy Near Philadelphia. It's too late to help out but she might let folks know if the therapist is going again. (Check the Aug. 14 blog for a little more info.) Mine went in the mail on Friday. 

My next adventure was quilting a twin size quilt for Virginia Star Quilters. I frequently volunteer to quilt charity quilts.  This one was loaded on Friday, but not completed until Sunday evening.  (I was distracted by another activity!) But now it is done. Here's what it looked like loaded on Ruthie. 

For some reason, the color looks a little dark to me.  I was asked to use a big, loose flower.  I decided I didn't like the few flower designs I owned so I bought a new one from Urban Elementz. It's called Sunshine and was designed by Melonie Caldwell. I really like it except it took over 15 minutes to stitch the row.  Eek.  It took longer than I had hoped but I really love the design.  

And my last big success is finishing the Thirty Something top. Yea! This is a UFO from ages ago. (Think late 1990s.) (Hum, I used a lot of bright yellows.) This is a real scrap quilt. I don't know when I'll quilt it but it can come off the design wall now.

And here's what I'll be working on this week. 

8/21/23

Work on misc blocks: FCQ Equilter blocks, retreat blocks, red and yellow RSC blocks 

Take out Tee shirt quilt and plan it out

Buy background to finish cutting Malted Mystery 

Clean up the front of the cutting table

I threw in the clean up because I've been trying to clear out a bunch of fabric left overs. I did quite a bit of cutting and tossing small scraps this week. "I" can see the difference but I doubt anyone else can.  I've been using my dies and AccuQuilt Go to do the hard work.  I have soooo many HSTs that will make 2" finished units. And 2" finished squares.  And 3" fin. squares. And... you get the picture.  I think I'll have to find a pattern to use some of those half square triangles. (But, not yet I've got things I really need to work on.) 

My big distraction this week was a cutting session for Malted Mystery. It's not too late to join in the fun. Check it out at Meadow Mist Designs blog. Sharon and I are working on this mystery together.  She gave me until this week to figure out my fabric. Today we Face Timed and chatted as we cut our fabrics. I chose most of the fabric from my stash until I started cutting things out.  I got the first 3 fabrics cut but I made quite a bit of miscuts along the way.  Some of my fabric were leftovers from wide backs, of fat quarters with a few pieces cut out.  You get the idea. It wasn't yardage. I'm going to buy a background because I seriously doubt I have enough of my chosen fabric to cut all the background pieces. And it's doubtful I can still get it. 

I love these colors together. The purple has little fish in orange, green and a bit of turquoise. I never noticed the name of the fabric on the selvedge until this afternoon. Alligator Lunch. Someone has a real sense of humor.  I am hoping to find a grey fabric to go with these. 

It's time to pull out the tee shirt quilt and see if I can make some progress on it.  I'll keep you posted if I have success or not.  

Here's a picture of my favorite quilt holder.  Unfortunately he was looking directly into the sun. 

Did anyone start getting emails from BlogLovin'? I thought they had quit offering digests of blogs you want to follow. I like it so much better than the one most people went to so I'll eventually take a look at getting some of my favorite blogs that way.  

That's it for now.  Please take some time to visit these Linky parties and see what quilters are doing this week. (I apologize for not remembering to link up to some of the blogs last week. I was so into finishing a quilt that I forgot all about it.) 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Sew and Tell 

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 8 -14 - 2023

What a week! I was busy most of the week... not a lot of time to sit around and do nothing! But it was a fun week. I'll start with my goal list and share what was going on.

8/7/23

✅Work on Happy Block quilt (4 x 5 set) -- finished top

✅Grammy Camp - ✅make dog biscuits, ✅paint and assemble bird houses, ✅swim 

✅Work on red and yellow RSC blocks -- nothing finished but some parts were made

✅Meet up with Preeti Harris for lunch -- great fun to meet Preeti in person!  

I did finish my Happy Block top.  In fact I've already made a backing, stitched some batting scraps to get a batting to fit and loaded the backing onto my long arm. 

It took a while to figure out the layout to get a reasonable mix of light and dark blocks.  It'll be quilted this week.  

Monday I met Preeti Harris, who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts, for lunch and conversation.  We gabbed about quilting for several hours. Have you read her blog yet?  She comes up with so many wonderful quilts. It's always fun to meet up with a fellow quilter. 

Preeti and Bonnie lunching.

Preeti is an ambassador for Island Batik and gifted me with three pieces of orange batiks from Island Batiks.  I can't wait until I can add these gorgeous pieces to a quilt. (Don't expect fast results.  I am so behind on at least one Christmas present that I shouldn't start anything new. Bummer.) 

Early Wednesday morning we picked up our two youngest Grands for three days of Grammy Camp.  The plan was to have a couple hours of swimming every day but one day thunderstorms were predicted.  Pat and I had made plans that we thought would fill up the three days. 

 

The kids made dog treats for the new puppy. I'm not sure what caused this look on ES's face but she looks like her dad with that look!  

The next day they made puzzle bird houses. Pat had precut most of the pieces but let them use one of his saws for a small cut. Then it was sanding time.

Followed by painting time.  TS, 6, painted the one on the left. ES, 9, painted the one on the right.  She also made a friendship bone she plans to give half to a friend and keep the other half for herself.  

ES showing off a face mask we made for her mom who asked for a big mask and may be a weighted one.  Hum.  ES traced the biggest mask I own and then I added a little bit more to it.  We decided to try to make a channel in the mask and fill it with ground walnut shells. I don't know if it does what Mom wanted but ES enjoyed modeling it when it was done. 

Read aloud time was included in the plans. We read Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. It was just the right length to get read in two days plus it was pretty exciting.  What I didn't like was the dog dies in the last chapter and I started sniffling. (Darn sad stories!) I hadn't read it in years so it completely surprised me. But it was a terrific book and they enjoyed. 

I'm not sure why they were cuddling up with fleece blankets when it was 85+ degrees out. But they did every time we read together.

Friday afternoon we took them back to our designated meeting place where Mom was waiting to take them home. We were happy to find out our kids took advantage of no kids and had a very nice date night. It turns out Pat and I were totally exhausted. We picked up take out on the way home for that night and neither of us did all that much Saturday.

Sunday we went up to our son's house for a family party to meet the new puppy. (Well, we'd already met him but our daughter's family hadn't.) It was also a little celebration for us for our 50th Wedding Anniversary.  Kevin smoked a pork and we had pulled pork sandwiches and lots of yummy go-withs. It was fun to be all together.  Aimee and Kevin tend to host all of the full family get togethers. Lots of room outside to play and enough space for 10 or 16 when both sides of the family gather together. 

So after that busy week this coming week is mostly empty of activities.  Here's what I hope to accomplish. 

8/14/24

Quilt Happy Blocks top

Load and quilt Va Star charity quilt

Finish 30 Something top 

Work on misc blocks: FCQ Equilter blocks, retreat blocks, and red and yellow RSC blocks. 

Not a huge list but I'm hoping to get the two quilts done by Wednesday.  I need to take the charity quilt to the guild on Wednesday evening. We'll see how I do. 

You know the drill.  Please check the following Linky parties.  I haven't had as much time to do that recently but I hope to spend a goodly amount of time checking these parties out this week. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday

That's it for me today.  It was a great week but boy am I tired!  This week should allow for lots of sewing time and reading time. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie