Monday Meandering -- 6 - 24 - 2024

It was a great week for sewing. I went to my guild's sewing day before the evening guild meeting on Wed.  I know I can't spend a whole day out and about but I did pretty well getting to the sew in a bit before 3 and getting some string blocks started. I didn't finish them because I usually use half square triangles for the corners and the ones I brought to use were too small. Bummer.  I like the fact that I always have strings and phone book papers cut to size ready to go.  It didn't take me long to pack up and go. Funny that I didn't think to put that on my goals list last week. Nonetheless, it was a great sewing week. 

6/17/24

✅Make 2 more placemats — done and turn into guild. 

✅Quilt a bit more on the seaside picture — done, still have to tie off some threads. Wait, no, I didn't finish the whole thing I just did more quilting on it! 

✅Bind string quilt — finished. 

✅Lay out the blue blocks from FCQ EQuilters and sew into top — the blocks are on the design wall. More are being made before it can be sewn into a top. 

✅Finish the inner and outer border on the stars quilt — done and returned to the guild. 

Here are some of the blocks that FCQ Equilters sent me on my last turn. I picked out the ones that had some other colors in them and then started making some more.  Does that yellow stripe one bother you?  It screams at me.  I probably will remove it and make something else to go there. (These are made in pairs so I'll probably take out both of them.) You'll be seeing more of these blocks in the future. I probably have enough for another fairly big quilt.  I'm making this the size the guild requested for seniors -- 40" x 60". 

One goal I really wanted to get done was finish the star quilt for Virginia Star Guild. You can read the background story here and here. All I had left to do was to put the borders on, one with mitered corners. Ugh. I used the 6.5" cut borders that the woman who had been making the quilt had precut.  I whipped out my trusty book on making mitered corners to see how to do it. Many years ago I took a class with Susan Cleveland to learn how to do mitered corners. She had a great book, Marvelous Miters, available so I bought it for future reference.  It was pretty much easy peasy using her directions. 

I found it interesting that you can't see the miter because the border fabric is so busy.  Luckily, I will not have to quilt this one.  I can't see doing an edge to edge quilting design over those gorgeous stars. Hopefully another long armer can do a great job on it.  It's good to have this done! 

Here's what I hope to work on this week. 

6/24/24

Finish blue blocks and sew into top

Quilt one of my quilts

Bind one of my quilts

Keep working on seaside top

Cut out a kit for July retreat 

I'm glad I made it to the guild sew in last week because I always take my featherweight (FW) sewing machine since it is very portable.  Although I really like my FW unfortunately it is really slow.  I've compared my FW with friends who have them and, yep, it is s-l-o-w. Which got me to thinking about a very old Elna Carina I have.  I stapled the receipt to the instruction book so I know it will be 40 years old on July 16th. (I paid $909.48 for it.)  Within the last 10 years I had it serviced and put back into working order. Except, when I took it to a class it didn't work. I can't remember if I tried it after that day but I decided it was time to figure out what was wrong and whether hubby and I could fix it. 

Surprise, surprise! It works pretty well. Except, the light didn't work. In fact, there was no bulb in the socket. Except, there was the remnant of the bulb. Took hubby quite a while to get it out. Thanks to Amazon, a new bulb arrived the next day. Light is restored and the machine works. It's a little clunky but it definitely sews faster than my FW. I plan to take both the FW and Elna to the retreat I'm going to in July. Hubby also made wooden pieces to hold up the plastic insert I had for the sewing desk. (Don't cry -- but the insert only cost $9.00.)  Here's what it currently looks like. 

The other bonus to this machine is it is lightweight.  I think it is even lighter than the FW. I'm not sure it will last long as it really sounds like it is old when I sew. I'm happy to give it a try and hopefully it will work well for me. 

Stitching Stuff -- 

Yea me! I again was able to stitch every day.  Here are the latest numbers. 

W/ending 6/23 — 175 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 23/23 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 168/175 days
• Success rate = 96%

One of these days I'll share some of the finishes I've had since the beginning of the year.  I tend to post only 1 time a week and don't want to spend anymore time.  Ok, I'm reading and sewing and knitting so why would I want to stop what I love to post something else?  To combat my inertia, I plan to write a post earlier in the week and then post it later in the week. (Don't hold your breath, I haven't done well getting a second post done this year, but I will try.)

I'm linking with these parties -- Oh Scrap, Life in Pieces, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  Hope you find a lot of inspiration surfing this week. 

The bunny from last week has been showing up and perhaps is living under some of our bushes. He's eating the hostas.  Darn him.  Why couldn't he chomp on the little purple flowered ground cover that goes all over the place? Sigh. 

Happy Quiting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 6 - 17 - 2024

Our weather is changing starting on Monday.  It's not rain, it's summer blazing away.  We have 90s forecasted for the whole week. Next Sunday it is supposed to be 99°. And that doesn't include the feels-like temp.  I figure my basement studio is going to be the place to stay cool all week.  I should get a lot done if I actually sew instead of reading. So what will I be doing down there?  Wait a minute -- what did I do this past week?

6/10/24

✅Bind my 3 yd quilt — finished. 

✅Make 1 or ✔️2 more placemats — done using a new method. 

✅Sew the top and bottom section of Picket Star — done;  it moved to the ‘to be quilted closet’. 

✅Pin baste seaside picture and start quilting — all green trees and bushes are finished. 

Here are the front and back of the two placemats I made.  I used a different method that I found on You Tube. If that link doesn't work it is called Quick and Easy Placemats and Napkins by Jordan Fabrics. I was happy to use this pretty spring flowers fabric. Now to figure out what to do with the small pieces still left. 

I was able to get a lot more done than what was on my goal list.  Pat and I finally got around to recovering my big board.  I decided to pick a bright pretty fabric this time. 

Here's what I hope to do this coming week. I've got several things going on away from home this week so I'm hoping I can get through my list. Here's what's on it. 

6/17/24

Make 2 more placemats

Quilt a bit more on the seaside picture

Bind string quilt

Lay out the blue blocks from FCQ EQuilters and sew into top

Finish the inner and outer border on the stars quilt

Because I had finished all of my goals for the past week, I decided it was time to quilt another top in my 'to be quilted' closet. I picked a smaller quilt to do as I wanted to get it done in one day.  The perfect choice was a string quilt. It needed only 1 width of fabric. And, once I got it loaded and started it took less than 5 minutes to quilt each row. 

It was a string quilt.  I look at the fabrics and think about where I acquired them and how I've used them through the years. I chose a simple stipple.  Hopefully the leftover backing will be enough to bind it.  

Do you keep track of fabric as it comes and goes from your stash?  I've done that for many years. Then last year I decided not to.  No, that wasn't fun.  So this year I started keeping track again. But, I forget to figure out the amounts and post them. Oops!  Here are two -- April and May. 

    

2024	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
April	16.5	25.25	16.625	56.125	30.875
May	14.5	39.75	11.25	67.375	27.625

You might notice I acquired a lot of fabric in April and May this year. In April I went to 2 different guild meetings and both had fabrics on the free table. I was happy to take a lot of it home with me. I've already cut up two pieces to make a kit for an upcoming retreat. My May fabric enhancement was all backing fabrics.  I think I purchased for 6 different quilts. I've already used two of them.  (Check out the blue backing rolled on my long arm to see one of them.) Unfortunately, neither were finished in May.  Look out June -- I'm aiming to get a few more quilts quilted before the end of the month. (Note to self: Check to see which backings from my previous purchase still haven't been used and USE them.) 

Next up is my daily stitching results. Oh yes, I stitched at least 15 minutes every day.  Most days it was much longer.  Here's the latests stats. 

W/ending 6/16 — 168 days in to 2024; that means we are currently 45.63% through the year.

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 16/16 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 161/168 days
• Success rate = 95.8%

I hope you can spend some time checking out quilting blogs across the Internet by using these Linky parties: Life In Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

Here's a pic of a visitor we had under our bird feeder this week.  We've seen smaller ones but this was a big one. 

He was a brave bunny. His friend hopped away when I came down the deck stairs and then sat on the bottom step to get a better close up pic. Do you have bunnies in your yard? We've also seen a few squirrels and a fox but most of the critters live in the woods behind the houses across the street.

Stay cool this week and remember to drink a lot of water.  I'll be down in my studio playing with fabric. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering -- June 10, 2024

It was lovely to have a quieter week for the first week in June.  I did a lot of reading, a little knitting, some piecing and quilting. Not that I got everything done on my goals list though. But that's okay. 

6/2/24

✅Make some placemats ✔️✔️(2 - 3) — 2 done maybe more over the next week or two.

✅Quilt and bind one of my quilts — Quilting done, binding coming up.

✅Start sewing Picket Star blocks together — blocks are together, need to sew a top and bottom row to make it a vertical quilt, not square.

✅Put some more fabric away — More away but then I pulled out a different grouping for something else that needs working on. Sigh.

Cut scraps into squares, rectangles and bricks —Very little got cut but some did and got put away! 

Here's Picket Star.  The blocks were made by the FCQ Equilters a couple of years ago when it was my turn to decide on the blocks and receive them from the members.  (The block was designed by Preeti who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts. Here's the link to the directions.) These blocks are much brighter and lighter in real life. 

The two rows at the top will actually be attached one on top and one on bottom. I think I'll only made one of these 9 blocks but I couldn't find any leftover fabric. (That's a positive, it means I've used those two fabrics up. Or, maybe they are put somewhere I didn't look! Sigh.)  I'm also thinking of adding a white border between the squares and the Picket Star blocks.  I will be donating this quilt and it makes more sense to me that the quilt is rectangular rather than square.  

Next up is my top that I quilted today. It is a Fabric Cafe 3 Yard Quilt. It's called Stepping Up. It is available as either a printed pattern or a download. Also, Fabric Cafe has been offering free pattern downloads for a while.  Here's the link to the free patterns that are currently available. When I checked it out while writing this post they had 2 patterns, Pretty Please and Zig Zag Quilt, available as free downloads. Needless to say I grabbed a copy of Pretty Please but I already have Zig Zag quilt directions.  I try to visit every month although they don't necessarily change the free quilts every month. 

Here's a close up while Ruthie, the long arm, was working on quilting it. I chose a  beige So Fine thread and a quilting design by My Creative Stitches called Rhapsody Edge to Edge Leaf. (I also have the puppy paws version.) 

I was playing it close on the bobbin thread. Needless to say I was very happy that I got the last row quilted without running out of thread. 

Here's what I hope to get done this week.

6/10/24

Bind my 3 yd quilt

Make 1 or 2 more placemats 

Sew the top and bottom section of Picket Star to the top

Pin baste seaside picture and start quilting 

My design wall is so covered in projects that I couldn't get a picture of the placemats I made this week. I have almost two weeks before the next guild meeting so I am going to try to make a couple more placemats.  The ones I've been making recently are just a pretty print cotton that I quilt and bind.  Easy peasy and I move fabric I probably won't use out of the stash. 

Here's what I'm calling the seaside picture.  It's been on my design wall for YEARS. I'm guessing around 6 to 7.  It needs very intensive quilting because all the little pieces that make the scene are only glued on. (Yes, one or two have fallen off...eek!) Any way, a piece of netting is over it and now every little piece needs to be quilted in place.  You might understand why I've been putting this thing off.  My friend Sharon did hers a long while ago and said she changed thread color a lot.

 

I don't imagine I'll spend hours and hours this week but I will get it started.  The blue fabric hanging on the right side is the backing fabric. I think I'll start with the sky and the sea.  I'll figure out an order for some of the other colors.  

Evidently I haven't been sharing many finished quilts recently. (Like for months!) I'm hoping to get a post up some time later in the week to share a few finishes. I may go back to my first 2024 goals list to see which quits I've finished this year. 

Seven days of stitching took place this week! Whoot! Whoot!.  Here's my numbers for the 15 minutes to stitch effort. 

W/ending 6/9 — 161 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 9/9 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 154/161 days
• Success rate =95.6%

Don't forget to do a little internet surfing this week.  You can start by visiting these Linky parties.  (Do you find this surfing is a black hole and you just get pulled in? Me too but I do try to visit some of the blogs listed.) 

I hope you can spend some time checking out these quilting blogs by using these Linky parties: Life In Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

It's amazing but it's not way past bedtime as I finish writing this.  I'll proof read it, post it, and then link up to the available Linky parties.  I'll be back tomorrow to finish up.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie

June 2024 Mysteries and Sew Alongs

Piecing the Past Quilts is offering a free Block of the Week that started June 3.  Sign up and find details https://www.piecingthepastquilts.com/rest-and-refreshing-signup.

The Fat Quarter Shop’s Halloween mystery quilt starts in June. Spooky and Sweet Quilt and Stitch Along lets you decide if you want to piece or cross stitch the Halloween pattern.  Go to this page to read about it. https://blog.fatquartershop.com/category/halloween/spooky-sweet/. Then you can go to https://www.fatquartershop.com/sew-alongs/spooky-and-sweet-sew-along?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=squal-spooky-and-sweet-2024 to find what’s available to buy although the patterns are free. 

The newest Accuquilt/AQS Quilt Along has been announced. Check out the intro details here including Accuquilt dies needed and traditional cutting directions. https://www.accuquilt.com/blog/2024-aqs-accuquilt-along-warm-wishes-intro. Each Wednesday during the quilt-along, there will be an online show at noon CT and a blog post with the directions for the day. 

Bernina Row by Row quilt along will start in June. It’s a fresh, modern design using various techniques.  Check out the preliminaries: https://blog.bernina.com/en/2024/03/announcing-a-new-quilt-along-between-the-lines/

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie  

Monday Meanderings 6 - 3 - 2024

Welcome to the new month, the 6th month of the year.  I spent the last three or four days in May getting some finishes.  Here's my goals list for last week.  Not as good as I hoped for but not all that bad either. 

5/27/24

Make some placemats (3 -4) -- ✔️ One done, more to come. 

✅Bind Knuffle Bunny quilt -- finish #2 for May.     

✅Pull out a block set and plan a top -- 9 big blocks make a decent size quilt. 

✅Quilt one of my quilts  -- quilted and bound. 

✅Sing in local community show -- I'm glad it's finished but I did have a lot of fun. 

I used an old orphan block for this placemat.  Surprisingly, I even found a piece of the fabric that was in the pinwheel and used it to surround the block.  I've had it ready to quilt and finish for about 3 weeks and finally did it this week.  I have enough of a pretty fabric with flowers and pots on it that I'll be making several more  placemats in the coming week(s). I may just do a regular binding on it. The pink above just looks like too much for the overall placemat.  I know I made it smaller than the pattern called for but it needs to be even smaller.  

The blocks below are called Picket Star and were designed by Preeti Harris who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts. If you click on the link and then scroll down just about to the end you can find her tutorial for Picket Star.  I used it as the block for my round for FCQ EQuilters a year or so ago.  I have already made one quilt from the blocks. You can see it as a top here.  (Hum, I wonder if I've actually shared the finished quilt yet? It didn't come up in a search of my blog.) 

I'll be sewing this together this week.  I will probably figure something to add to the top and bottom to make this into a rectangular quilt. The blocks finish at 17". On the first quilt I used some smaller squares separated by white fabric at the top and bottom to make it rectangular.  (I still have 4 star blocks left. Hum, maybe a baby quilt or I could just make 3 more blocks...decisions, decisions!) 

Here's what I hope to work on this week. 

6/3/25

Make some more placemats (2 - 3)

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Start sewing Picket Star blocks together

Continue cleaning up cutting table

Cut scraps into squares, rectangles, and bricks 

I think all of that is doable this week. I have my regular stitching group on Monday afternoon and one morning get-together this week and the rest of the week is free. Wopee! 

Last week I took advantage of a $4.99 a yard sale on Keepsake Cottons at JoAnns. I have had great success finding decent fabric in the Keepsake collection to use for backings. I check them carefully to make sure they are higher quality.  This time I bought 5 backings and one piece to recover my big ironing board.  The cute, bright, colored, speckled one is for the ironing board.  I think it'll make me smile every time I iron some fabric. Hum, that bright green on the far right is an odd color. It went well with the quilt it will be backing... I hope I still like it when I start quilting it! I didn't write down which piece went with each top. I'm not sure where the geometric green one goes. Maybe I can tell by size.

The light turquoise at the far left has already been used on my Wiggle Time quilt. Pictures to come!

I've continued to succeed on my 15 minutes of stitching.  Sometime I'm long arming, some stitching on the domestic sewing machine, some knitting, some planning, some processing scraps or ironing fabric.  But I am having fun doing what I love to do.  I just realized I've been calling May April all month long.  I've checked the number of days to June 2 and it is correct. Hopefully I'll continue with the right days for the rest of the year. 

W/ending 6/2 — 154 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 5/5 days or 31/31! 
• 15 minute days/June = 2/2 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 147/154 days
• Success rate =95.4% 

Not bad!  I foresee June as 30 of 30 days of stitching. July might have some non-sewing days. We’ll see what happens as it gets here. 

It's time to do a little reading.  I'm in a cycle of reading happy ever after books. I'm still reading The Ministry of Time but I keep putting it down and thinking about it. I like to think I am savoring it but I'm not so sure I am.  It is a remarkably different book.  But I wonder if it is as good as I anticipated since I can put it down for days, if not weeks? 

I hope you can spend some time checking out quilting blogs around the internet by using these Linky parties: Oh Scrap, Stitching Stuff, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie