Monday Meanderings 7 - 1 - 2024

Is anybody beating the heat this week?  I’m confounded by temperatures that are staying in the 70s overnight!  Sunday wasn’t all that hot but the humidity was awful.  Feels like temp was in the mid 90s. I can't believe we'll have a low of 75 degrees this week. Yikes. 

But let’s not dwell on that. A quick update on my old Elna. There is a machine technician who will come to your house to repair machines. My friend Barbara had him come out on Wednesday last week and I asked if I could bring my machine over. He was happy to have another machine to work on. He cleaned and lube it. I spent that afternoon sewing on it. It worked really well for a 40 years old machine. 

Let’s see what I accomplished this week. One of the biggest accomplishments was getting a post up on Friday that showed two of my many finishes since the beginning of the year. Check it out here. 

My goal list isn't showing a bunch of ✅s.  But I'm happy with all I got done. 

6/24/24

✅Finish blue blocks and sew into top — one top done. 

✅Quilt one of my quilts — Spinner is quilted.

Bind one of my quilts — moved to next week.

✅Keep working on seaside top — more threads tied off, more stitching done.

Cut out a kit for July retreat — not yet.

Do you remember the blue blocks I shared last week? I made a pair of blocks to replace the yellow stripe ones.  And during a FaceTime call with my quilting buddy, Sharon, we came up with a new layout that worked. I'm happy to say I finished the top! 

Hum... the two light blocks on the bottom row look a lot alike.  Although in person they really don't seem that close.  These blocks are made in pairs.  I pulled two batiks  -- one blue and green (block 1, row 6) and the other was a light green (block 4, row 2.) 

My Spinner top has been quilted.  And, that's all I did with it this week.  The blocks were from 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Here's a peek.

Although the blocks were made in 2022, I actually put them together earlier this year.  Hopefully I'll get this quilt bound next week. 

Here's what I hope to work on this week. I'm keeping this list fairly short, with items easily completed.  

7/1/24

Make a small bag 

Keep working on seaside top

Process more scraps

Bind Spinner 

Cut out a kit for retreat 

I normally spend a lot of time in my studio but this week I was out shopping a few times. (Note: I am not a great fan of shopping!) But Barbara asked me to go with her to a quilt store a good hour away. Well, of course I said yes. We visited the Quilting Studio in Fairfax.  It is a beautiful shop with lots of fabrics. She was trying to find the perfect fabrics to make a quilt for her son and his wife -- starting with some flamingo fabric. She found the two great go with fabrics. I purchased a yard of a black with a little grey in it.  We didn't get home until after 2pm. I was impressed that she stayed up late and got about most of her pieces cut. Wow! 

The next day I needed to pick up something at the local mall so Pat and I went off to run a couple of errands and went out to lunch.  So, not as much studio time this week. 

I did get a start on a doll quilt from leftover pieces as an off list project.  Here's what I've done design wise.  I have the pieces for one more of the four patches ready to sew together. I have more of the blue and black fabrics.  I think I'll be adding a couple of borders to make it a little bigger.  Anyone know what size I should make a doll quilt? I probably won't work on this very diligently.  My guild is collecting doll quilts but I won't be at a meeting until August.  

The good news is I have had a great week of stitching for 15 minutes every day.  Here are the stats:

W/ending 6/30 — 182 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 30/30days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 175/182 days
• Success rate = 96.1%

I have my doubts about how much I'll get done on my list this first week in July.  Our daughter and her family are coming down Friday to spend the night before they go on their beach vacation.  It helps them to skip the Saturday traffic through DC and Northern Virginia.  And, we get to spend some time with them.  And, I need to do a little cleaning too. (Bummer, I don't like to clean!) 

Maybe I'll get another late week post sharing a few more quilts I've finished.  But, as usual, don't hold your breaths! 

Here are my normal Linky parties.  Take a look around to see what folks are working on.  Oh Scrap, Life in Pieces Stitching Stuff, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

A Couple of Finishes!

I've had quite a few finishes so far this year.  For some reason I haven't been posting pics of the finished quilts.  Here's hoping I can start sharing finishes once or twice a month until I have shared all the quilts I've finished this year.  

Here are a few I’ve already photographed.

First up is Thirtysomething.  I started this ages ago…the book by Gail Bong, was published in 1997. My guess is I started it in the late 1990s.  I also had a special ruler and a stand alone pattern dated 1996.  It was a great scrap user but the small blocks were fussy to make.  And, in its way, it wasted a lot of fabric.  I was happy when I  finally finished it.  

The quilting design is a stipple that was included with my computerized quilting set up.  It has been donated to Virginia Star Quilters.  (Notice some of my Rubber Ducky collection sitting on the quilt holder.)  Sorry I don't have any other pictures of the finished quilt. I was happy to move it on. 

Next up is my first Picket Star quilt. The blocks were from the FCQ Equilters.  When I emailed info about my block I included some pictures showing the colors I wanted in the blocks.  I don’t remember if this is the source I used for pictures but it was like this website, Design Seeds. (https://www.design-seeds.com/p/palette-search.html) 

The blocks are designed by Preeti Harris who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts. You can find the pattern here. https://sewpreetiquilts.blogspot.com/2020/04/picket-star-quilt-block.html  This may look familiar to you as I’ve recently finished another top using the more “girly” colors of pink, purple and blues. (Ok, blue isn’t girly but the other two definitely are.) It's sitting in the to-be-quilted closet until I get backing for it.

Quilting design is Random Clams by Jessica Schick.  I like how much texture this design adds to a quilt. 

I used leftover backing for the binding.  I still have this quilt but it probably will be donated through the guild sometime.  

These photos were taken in mid March. Notice the blossoms on the tree behind.   Thanks to hubby for being my quilt holder.  

Say hello to Piggy who lives in our garden.  Our granddaughter gave us Piggy a long time ago.  She likes to move him around so we have to figure out where she's put him and bring him back to this spot so we can see him. I can see Piggy, this bit of garden, and our bird feeder from my sewing machine.  

Thanks for visiting. Visit the following Linky parties: Midweek Makers, Finished or Not Fridays, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Beauties Pageant.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

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