Monday Meanderings 1 - 15 - 24

We finally were able to meet up with both of our kids and all the grandkids this weekend.  We celebrated with our daughter's family on Christmas Day.  We all ended up at our son's house on Saturday afternoon for present swapping, chatting, and simple food.  That means I can finally show some of the Christmas presents I made last year.  But first let's look at the goals' list from last week.  It was a good week. 

1/8/24

✅Finish 3 yard quilt top — done.

Make ✅backing for and ✅quilt small strippy quilt.

Start on UFO appliqué block — Started but realized I didn’t want to make more blocks. The plan is to use a setting from Circle of Nines book. 

Bind 30 Something quilt and strippy — neither got done!  

✅Iron one or ✅two backing fabrics  -- done and sewn together.

I was happy with what I got done.  I did get the last box of fabrics washed, dried, and folded. It will be going back to the guild Wednesday so it can be used in more quilts for our community projects. 

Here's what I'll be working on this week. 

1/15/24

Bind 30 Something and Strippy quilts

Load and quilt another quilt

Work on Appliqué quilt

Make more Bow Tie blocks, start blocks for FCQ Equilter 

Start ripping out row of Ombre quilt 

Cut out a bricks quilt 

Yes, I decided I'm taking one of the rows out of the Ombre quilt.  It shouldn't take that long to rip out the stitches.  But I'll have to move the setting triangles too. This quilt isn't on the top of my to do list but I will start ripping out the stitches during my weekly hand stitching group. The group is always entertaining and ripping stitches will get done fairly quickly. 

Speaking of the grand's ornaments I can now share all of them. First up is all four together. 

These were from a kit by Rachel's of Greenfield. I changed up some of the designs by adding buttons on the cuffs rather than embroidering snowflakes along with other things. I also swapped out some of the felt with other colors.  Here are each of the designs up close. 

My thought on the ornaments for 2024 is to do something machine embroidered.  Although, I may change my mind before I actually start on them later in the year.

The big homemade gift for this year went to our son, Kevin.  Years ago he gave me two big bags of t shirts.  No ideas were given on which t shirts were the most important. What he might like color wise, etc.  I let them sit in the quilt closet for years.  I made our son-in-law his quilt. Someone paid me to make another t shirt quilt. I waited a bit more and finally, this year, I decided it was time to do it. I don't particularly like making t shirt quilts although the recipients generally love them. He had totally forgotten about them. (Or maybe he lost hope that I would use them!) 

Here's his first look in the gift bag. 

And then he was taken with the first shirts he really noticed. Yea, he was really touched about the whole thing. But he really liked the two white shirts center front. They were from his wedding day 5K. Yep, we all did a 5K the morning of his wedding. One shirt says "Aimee and Kevin's wedding day 5K." Then there is a picture of his dog, Cassie and the words "Cassie Sponsored."  The one below that was from the back of the shirt and has a picture of Homer and the words "Homer Approved!" Homer was Aimee's dog. They both loved them included in the quilt.

Now for the full quilt picture. Hum, their daughter was peeking out and has her tongue out for some reason. (Almost every picture I took of her this weekend that tongue is hanging out! What??)  There were a lot of shirts for races (running and biking), some from rowing in college and one from the music school in college. Sorry this one isn't the best picture.  You can see the shirts better in the next one which was taken while I was working on it. 

The backing was the same as the border. The binding was the same blue grunge used in the quilt.  The quilting pattern is Rhapsody E2E with Puppy Paws from My Creative Stitches. Kevin and family are all great dog fans hence the Puppy Paws in the quilting design. 

I did really well with 15 Minutes to Stitch this week. Even the day we went for our family Christmas get together I was able to get 45 minutes of stitching in before we left!  Here are my  results. I'm really happy. But I know there will be some days I won't get any time but in the meantime I'm in the stitching zone! 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 14/14 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 14/14 days
• Success rate = 100%

It's time to move on to the Linky Parties. Let's check out what's happening with quilters by using these links. 

Oh Scrap

Life in Pieces

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

It's time to get to bed! Morning comes early and there might be snow! If it isn't there first thing in the am there's a continued chance during the afternoon and evening.  I can't decide if I like that or not but I have plenty of things to do to keep busy! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie