Monday Meanderings 11 - 27 - 2023

The race is on toward Christmas and all the other December holidays.  I have a distinct feeling I'll be highly successful finishing the few projects I've got to finish by Christmas. We had a nice Thanksgiving up at our daughter's house.  There were 7 of us.  Food was good and company was better.  Our son and his family were celebrating with his wife's family.  Both families will be together for Christmas and will have much wonderful food and company!

I've had a really good week on the sewing front.  Here's what last week's goal list looks like.

11/20/23

✅Sew on ornaments -- Several of the 4 ornaments are close to being finished.

✅Add borders to Christmas present quilt -- Done, plus backing fabric is ready to load. 

✅✅Put borders on Flower song quilt -- Two borders are on. This is ready for quilting once I get a backing.

✅ Stitch one sweatshirt — First one done! 

✅Work on the Nov. clue for Malted Mystery -- All of the HSTs are sewn and trimmed. 

I was so happy to finish this top this week.  Last week I had the center done and now the top is finished with two borders and corner stones. This one has been in the work for years. It may be years before it is quilted but I'm happy to have the top done. Notice the card on the bottom left?  It is an old library catalog card. I kept a big box of these cards to use for notes. This one lists info about the quilt and the size. 

If you look at my web address on the above picture behind it you'll see the Christmas present quilt. It's ready to quilt. 

By the way, I had all of this done by Saturday afternoon! Wow. I spent Sunday making two more placemats. Here's what I'll be working on this week. 

11/27/23

Quilt Christmas present top

Finish 1 of 4 ornaments (or more!)

Quilt one small quilt

Finish Nov. clue for Malted Mystery 

Make more maple leaf, basket, and happy blocks

So, yes, I did do some fabric shopping last week. In fact, I went over to JoAnns on Wednesday and Friday.  I bought 8 yards for backing 3 quilts on Wednesday. Then on Friday I decided the prices were so good I wanted to get some more backings. So another 10 yards for 3 more quilts came home.  

I'm a "washer" before adding fabric to my stash. So I cut the fabric into pieces I would need to sew together for the backings and washed and dried them. Over the next week or so I hope to piece the backings as needed.  I may not get the tops quilted for a while but I'll be ready to throw them on Ruthie when I have the time. 

Needless to say I've got a lot of quilting ahead of me!

Please take a look at these Linky parties to see what quilters are doing this week. 

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff at Life in Pieces

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musings

Sew and Tell

It's about time for me to continue reading my novel.  I haven't read any today and I want to keep up my reading days on Kindle. I'm up to 586 consecutive days of reading.  I've read every week for 278 weeks in a row. (That's more than 5 years.)  Yep, I am a voracious reader.  And, I often listen to audio books while I'm stitching even though the time isn't included in the Kindle stats. May you too find some quiet reading time during this busy month.

Happy Quilting and Reading! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 20 - 2023

Hello and welcome to Thanksgiving Week in the USofA.  Have you seen all the ads for pre-Black Friday sales?  I've noticed all sorts of ads offering too good to believe sales.  I am trying to decide if I am going to buy some backings at JoAnns this week.  Their Keepsake cotton is on sale for $3.99 a yard. Wow.  Best price I've seen.  I just bought 6 yards for border and a backing and the best I could get was $5.30 a yard. It was a decent quality and went well with the top I'm making. You'll see the end result after Christmas as, yes, it is a Christmas present.  There's a good chance I will buy some backings as I have over 20 tops waiting to be quilted.  A few already have backings but most do not.  And, honestly it's hard not to as I live about mile away from my local JoAnns.  

I've had a decent week but I didn't get all ✅ marks.  I was very happy with what I did get done.  Take a look - 

11/13/23

✅Sing two concerts  — They went well. Just 2 more with our other group in Dec.

✅Make some placemats for guild - one made and delivered, more made for next month.

Finish turquoise RSC blocks — didn’t even start this one.

✅Layout and begin sewing Flower Song quilt — The center is sewn together; on to the borders.

Stitch out a sample embroidery before starting some sweatshirts — Started but gave up on it… 

Check out these placemats I've made for the guild's charity work. (Do you have any of these fabrics?) 

 Blue strings placemat. 

 Potato chip block with 2.5" strips on the side. 

I made my block with 2.5" x 4.5" strips. I followed the brief directions that Sarah wrote on her blog, My Sewing Room. Scroll down to the end of the post to see her block.  I used the same coloration she did.  I might reverse the darks and lights for the next one, especially if I use it as a placemat.  I quilted in the ditch. First I did the two teal strips from top to bottom.  Then I started at the top white rectangle and quilted to after the green and made a right turn. Down to the end of the darker grey and made another right turn. After the green and pink block I made another right turn. I turned right again after the grey, white and black block. Another right turn before the orange, a right turn at the white block and a final right turn between the white and the multicolor ribbons. In other words, I was able to quilt the whole thing with only 3 starts and stops! Bonus.  

Well, I admit, I went wild on my last placemat. This was from a pattern in an old Quiltmaker. There were 2 snowmen and 2 penguins.  I wasn't sure I'd ever make them but, why not? They are really cute. I think there will be at least 1 penguin in my future. True confession time... I picked the easiest one. And, the penguin is a bit more involved but I guess I'll make him too. And maybe more of both of them.

Mr. Snowman 

Because I had decided not to work on the Christmas present quilt, I took out the Flower Song pieces to see if I could put it together. I spent most of Saturday getting the center blocks sashed and sewn together. 

I had cut the border strips out before I went to the October retreat. So when I was fussing with color placement I laid out the two borders too.  I was tickled to get it this far.  

It wasn't a bad week for goals considering we were driving home one day, sang an afternoon concert another day, a night concert another day and a brunch after all the singing. (Dare I admit to finishing 6 books during the week too? Two were audio books I was listening to while sewing. One of those was really long and I'd been listening to it for the last two weeks.) 

I did a little off list sewing -- mostly sewing and marking the half square triangles for Malted Mystery. I got one set (62) HSTs finished but have another group still to do. 

Here's what's up for this week:

11/20/23

Sew on ornaments 

Add borders to Christmas present quilt

Put borders on Flower Song quilt

Embroider one sweatshirt 

Work on the Nov. clue for Malted Mystery

It's been a long time since I've used my machine embroidery unit. I was going to make a sample stitch out this week but when I got started I ran into tension issues. They were probably due to not having a full bobbin. (Or something else, who knows.) Anyway I figured out how to do everything again so I hope I'm ready to actually stitch the design on the sweat shirt. And, yes, I'm putting a full bobbin in for this one! We'll see if I'm pulling my hair out by the end of the day I decide to work on this one. 

I've been blathering on enough and thank you if you've read to the end. You know the drill now -- try surfing the web from this list. You never know when you'll see something you might like to try. (Think of the potato chip block I tried!) 

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff at Life in Pieces

Design Wall Monday

Sew and Tell 

Did you notice I put in a new Linky party? I've been reading Kate's Life in Pieces for years. And, I just figured out I could join her Linky party on Sundays. Well, duh of me! I haven't been doing the 15 minutes a day challenge this year but I thought I'd start up over the next few weeks to see if I could succeed for a whole year.  So, I have figured out which days I've sewn for 15 minutes from Monday to Sunday.  5 out of 7 days I was able to sew.  (If we were talking about reading it would be 7 for 7. I've read at least 30 minutes every day for 580 days! Wow.) 

Here's wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving or a great day in the countries that celebrate a Thanksgiving day some other day than we do in America. May you also be thankful for your sewing and quilting time. I sure am. 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 13 - 2023

Another week has flown by.  Maybe it was because we came down to our beach house Friday after our last rehearsal. We went to the owners' meeting. Did a bit of work around the house. We drive home early Monday to make our regular Monday night rehearsal. There are two concerts this week on Tuesday and Thursday with our neighborhood group. Our second round of concerts will be the second weekend of December. It'll be a busy week with not a whole lot of sewing going on. I hope to squeeze in some during the mornings.  I did a great job on my goals last week before I left. YEA! 

11/6/23

✅Finish the Flower Song blocks -- 3 blocks finished.

✅Add sashing to Christmas present quilt -- ready for borders. 

✅Sew rest of ombré log cabin rows together -- done. 

✅Make 5 more Christmas tree skirts for mini trees -- done and turned in. 

✅Sew on ornaments -- I generally sew on them at a Monday stitching group. I brought them on our weekend away and made even more progress. I can see the end in sight for one of them. And the other three aren't that far behind. 

Here's the finished Ombre Log Cabin top. Except, wow! I didn't expect it to be so wide!  It's just about hitting the floor on both sides. Eek.  I'm not sure what I plan about that.  I'm considering taking out one diagonal column to make it about 14" shorter.  I do know I'm not really going to be doing much on it over the next few weeks.  Any opinions?  I don't mind ripping 2 seams -- I don't imagine it will take all that long.  It would also give me enough blocks to make pillow shams.  Decisions, decisions! 

 

11/13/23

Sing two concerts

Make some placemats for guild and attend guild meeting

Finish turquoise RSC blocks 

Layout and begin sewing Flower Song quilt

Stitch out a sample embroidery before starting some sweatshirts 

I'm sure that is way more than I can accomplish this week.  But I just might surprise myself.  And, I do like to move lots of projects ahead each week. 

Off list I made a couple of maple leaf blocks with the Accuquilt die. I need to add some other colors but here's what I have so far.  

I started by making three of the same burgundy fabric. I've added dark brown and orange.  I have a purple fabric picked out.  I need to figure out some more colors to use.  I also found an old block that I think might be interesting to add to this group.

It's about an inch smaller so I would have to add a small border to it. But I like the idea of the on point setting. (Oh no!  Not another one right after my Ombre Log Cabin!) This is going to be about 40" square quilt to hang over the fireplace.  I have a lot of seasonal quilts that size that get highlighted there.  I don't have a fall one I actually like so this one will become my fall quilt.  So what do you think?  Should I add the paper pieced block as the center? I probably need 7 more to finish off this round.  And then I'll decide how many more I need after that.  

I'm keeping this one short. We'll be up early in the morning to drive back home.  Then on to our normal Monday night rehearsal.  It's a busy week.  Hope you can spend some time checking out some blogs from these Linky parties. I'll try to get the other three links done on Monday morning. But it might be afternoon before I succeed. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Show and Tell Monday 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 6 -- 2023

It seems like all of a sudden I have lots of things going on.  It's starting to impact my ability to get my quilting projects done. Last weekend we had our grand kids. This past Saturday we had a 6 hour rehearsal for our community chorus. This coming weekend we are heading to our beach house for owner meetings. There goes a lot of sewing time.  I got a lot of things marked off my list last week but not everything. 

Here are my goals from last week. 

10/30/23

√Finish 3 Flower Song blocks — One finished, 2 ready to sew together.

✅Sew more ombré log cabin rows together  - 4 left to do. 

✅Continue on Christmas present quilt — columns done.

✅Sew on ornaments — moving forward, probably need to stitch more each week.

Maybe quilt a little quilt? — nope, not done.

I am making good progress on my Ombre Log Cabin.  You might not be able to tell but the left bottom corner still needs to be finished.  I think there are only 4 rows to sew on and they are getting shorter so they'll go faster.  Hopefully I'll finish sewing the rows on Tuesday. I really like how it looks so far. 

The only other photo I got was of the one Flower Song block I got finished.  All the units are made for the last two blocks. Once they are done I can put this quilt top together. (But probably not for a while!) 

I keep doing off-list things.  I volunteered to make 10 Christmas tree "skirts" for some mini trees. A friend volunteers at a food bank and has 50 little trees to donate to the clients. Several friends have agreed to make the little skirts to cover the holder on each tree. I've done 5 but want to finish 5 more this week.  I also have a couple of maple leaves ready to sew. But it turns out I only have a limited time to sew this week. My goals for this week may be too optimistic but I'm going to try to get these things done.  

11/6/23

 

Add sashing to Christmas present quilt

Sew rest of ombré log cabin rows together

Make 5 more Christmas tree skirts for mini trees

Sew on Grands' ornaments 

Finish the Flower Song blocks 

I don't want to shock but we only have 7 weeks until Christmas.  I have 4 concerts, one trip out of town, a few parties and a whole lot of projects to finish up before then.  I "think" I have things under control. How are you doing?  Are you making progress on your projects? 

Here's the list of Linky parties that I'll be joining this week. I hope you can spend a little time surfing these sites to see what quilters are working on this week. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing

Sew and Tell 

Now it's time for me to finish this up and see if I can spend a little time working on an ornament.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

November Mysteries and Sew Alongs

Bonnie Hunter's year end mystery quilt has begun!  Check out her October 31, 2023 post for fabric requirements for Indigo Way Mystery. https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2023/10/indigo-way-mystery-introduction.html. Part One will go up on the day after America's Thanksgiving -- November 24, 2023.  Let the fun begin! 

Bonnie has also designed "Star of Hope," a quilt she's offering as a sew along in response to the world events over the last severalweeks.https://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/star-of-hope-sew-along.html. This pattern has been released in two parts. 

Shine Bright Quilt and Stitch Sew Along Starts in October 2023 and will run through September 2024. You will need  The Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee Quilt and Cross Stitch Book. https://blog.fatquartershop.com/announcing-the-shine-bright-quilt-and-stitch-along/ $

How about some cute gift ideas? 

These would make great presents during the winter. Flannel and Felt Reusable Handwarmer Tutorial https://www.diaryofaquilter.com/last-minute-gift-idea-handwarmers/. 

Any crocheters out there? I couldn’t pass up this very cute princess crown. It would look cute in some sparkly pink or purple yarn.  https://irarott.com/products/princess-crown-crochet-pattern. (Ps -free pattern.)

Here are directions for a cute zippered pouch. https://modafabrics.com/tags/pouch-club

I love the idea that these small fabric baskets could be used as small plant cozies or for trinkets https://www.instagram.com/p/Cue3aXDKS4R/.

Here’s an index to a whole lot of notecards using fabric scraps.  Check them out: https://joysjotsshots.blogspot.com/p/fabric-cards.html. She uses an iron on adhesive (Wonder Under or the like) to attach the fabric to a note card.

Enjoy checking out these links. If for some reason a link doesn't open, try copying it and pasting it in your browser. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie