Monday Meanderings 10 - 23 - 2023

Yikes! Our temps are suppose to go into the high 30s tonight. I guess I can finally say that it feels like fall.  It has been a busy week but I also got a lot of quilty stuff done.  

Here's my goal list from last week. 

10/16/23

✅Plan the Christmas present quilt and start sewing it together — I actually got some sewing done on this one -- no more planning, just sewing. 

✅Continue trimming units and making blocks for the Malted Mystery — not finished yet.

✅Bind a quilt or two — one done, one 3/4s done.

✅Work on Grands’ Christmas ornaments — 3 wool ornaments have the main designs sewn on.  Once the 4th one has the elements sewn on, it’ll be time for details.  

👎🏼Straighten up the cutting table (I may forget this one!)  I keep working on this but I’ve spread too much out across the front. Sigh  — nothing done — or at least I don’t remember putting anything away! 

✅Make a couple of placemats — 4 done and turned in. 

✅Guild meeting 10/18/23 & ✅World Singing Day 10/21/23.— I had fun at both events. 

I can't share many of the pictures as they are Christmas gifts. But I can share some more placemats. I turned these 4 in to the guild at the meeting last week. All were done as quilt as you go.  The rose one used Pat Sloan's String Bean block. The Pinwheel was an orphan block that worked pretty well as a placemat.  I quilted the block on my domestic machine and then added the side pieces to make it a bit larger. 

This space one was started with an odd size in the middle and I added strips log cabin style. (Different sizes but very similar style to the String Bean mat.) My favorite is the string mat.  It took a bit more time too. I started in the bottom right corner with a triangle and added various size strips as I went along.  It was a bit time consuming but when all the strips were sewn in place all I had to do was trim and bind it.  I'll probably do this style again as it helps use up some of the strings I have hanging around. 

Below is the beginning of the space mat. I didn't crop the picture very tightly so you can see the batting, backing and, oops, my wool mat in the background.  I used the sew and flip method to create the placemat on the batting and backing. Once I get to the edge of the batting, I cut strips with widths that would finish off the front so it matched the batting. (I carefully trimmed the front so no extra was hanging over.) Then I turned under about a 1/4" of the backing and turned that over the edge to the front to form a binding. I machine stitched around the placemat and that was it.    

On the string mat I actually had a piece of binding made that matched and was big enough so I applied regular binding to the red mat.  I think when I do more string mats I might not put the backing on while I do the sew and flip.  It would make the back look a little neater even though I would need to add some in-the-ditch quilting stitches to hold the front to the back.

At the guild meeting I turned in 3 quilts for donating to various organizations we as a guild contribute to:

Baby quilt will go to the NICU at one of our local hospitals. 

Granny Squares Quilt 

This quilt was made from blocks from the FCQ Equilters for my turn in 2018. I know I started making it sometime in 2019. You can visit past pictures of it here, and here.  I still have more blocks from this group. And, I honestly think I made another quilt with some of these blocks and donated it. (I don't keep a record what I donate but I should! Do you record your donation quilts? Or keep an ongoing record of quilts made?) 

I call this quilt the Big Pinwheel Quilt. The blocks started as large flying geese blocks for a retreat block drawing. Except I used homespuns and cottons. Oops. I was suppose to use batiks. I found the flying geese blocks too big so cut them in half and made pinwheels. Worked great. 

Granny Squares and Pinwheel quilts will be going to Valor Ranch.  (Read more about their work with wounded veterans and their families.) 

I'm hoping to get the following things worked on this week. 

10/23/23

Finish trimming units and make blocks for Malted Mystery

Work on Grands’ Christmas ornaments

Continue sewing Christmas present quilt together

Sew some rows from Ombré log cabin together

Have fun with grands this weekend

Finish binding two quilts

Phew.  It's getting late and I need to get some sleep before another busy week starts.  Here's my favorite Linky parties. I hope you can check them out. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Sew and Tell

To Do Tuesday 

I hope you all have a wonderfully quilty week. 

Happy Quilting. Bonnie