Monday Meanderings -- 7 - 22 - 2024

It's been a week.  We flew off to Michigan on Monday to attend a memorial service for Pat's brother-in-law.  Although the reason for the gathering of the clan* wasn't a happy one, it was wonderful seeing his sister, our nieces and nephews and even some great nieces and nephews.  It had been a very long time since we visited in Northern Michigan.  *His family isn't Scottish but it seemed the right word to describe all the relatives who gathered.  Roger was an amazing man who made an impact on many people especially his step children, his children, and the people who knew him through AA. The visitation really was a wonderful sharing of stories about him.  I'll share some pictures of our time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan later in this post.  

We got back to our house in Virginia around 12:30 on Thursday. I finished packing a little suitcase and loading the car and was off to retreat around 2:00. About two and a half hours later I was at retreat. I had about 3 full days with my quilting buddies. I got a tremendous amount of sewing done which surprised me.  I some how got a second wind Thursday evening which helped me make a lot of progress.  Do you want to see it?  Let's look at my goals list for last week. 

7/14/24

Retreat! Make —

✅Forest Animals Easy Attic Windows —still need to put on inner and outer border.

✅Baby Buggies Boxes and Bow (3 yd quilt) — need to add borders.

✅Benny’s Quilt 2.5” square — finished

✅Sew a Happy Block Quilt Together — done. 

✅Work on a new needlework project — barely started. 

Those check marks really piled up.  Here's some photos of where the sewing projects are now. 

This is ready to put on the inner and outer border. The cute animal print was on a freebie table at one of the guild meetings I attended this spring. The rest of the fabric was in my stash. Bonus! 

OOPS!  I noticed this mistake when I was working with the photo.  It's easily fixed. This is a 3 Yard Quilt from Fabric Cafe called Boxes and Bows.  It was free earlier this year but isn't now.  I decided to make it smaller -- so it would be acceptable for our local NICU.  I plan to do an inner and outer border on this one also. 

This pattern is called Benny's Quilt from Michelle's Romantic Tangle. Here's the link directly to Benny's quilt pattern.  As you might guess all of these fabrics were in my stash.  This used a lot of 2.5" squares but I've already cut more so it did make a dent but that didn't last for long! I used a very pale bluish-green left over from another quilt. I think it might looked better if I had used white. (Hum, maybe I'll make another one with white fabric.) It's going into the to-be-quilted closet. 

I found this quilt in a ziplock bag with a note saying all I needed to do was sew it together. That wasn't quite true as I moved some blocks around.  (I wish I'd noticed how many dark blocks were in the top row!) It to is moving to the to-be-quilted closet. 

This wasn't on my list but I found the purple and white squares sewn into 4 patches. I hunted around until I found enough for the center section of this doll quilt. Then found the purple calico with some bright green in it. A quilt was born! I was trying to decide how I could take a pic of this little quilt when I remembered I had some tape in my box of stuff.  I taped it to my Elna which worked really well.  This machine is at least 40 years old and was recently serviced and is working like a champ.  My only complaint is it was hard to get an accurate 1/4" measurement. It has a foot holder that allows snapping on different feet. Amazon to the rescue!  Last night I ordered two different feet so hopefully I'll have an accurate 1/4" foot soon. 

See what I mean?  I got a lot of sewing done.  I have learned to cut out kits before I leave. This time I even cut the borders but decided it would be much easier to put them on at home where I had enough flat surface to work on. I'll be starting making kits for a week long retreat in October. For now,  let's see what I plan to do this week. 

7/22/24

Fix Boxes and Bows baby quilt and add borders

Quilt customer quilt

Put borders on forest animals quilt

Finish current hat being knitted 

Spend 15 min a day cleaning cutting table 

Hopefully I'll get all of these items done this week. Although, I really need to spend some time reading as I have had several books on reserve show up with little time to read. 

My trip caused just a little problem with my 15 minutes of stitching.  There was only 1 day I couldn't stitch. (Well, I could have but I was so tired from the all day memorial, funeral mass, family dinner, and driving back to Marquette to catch our flight that I didn't even try.) Here are my numbers.

W/ending 7/21 — 203 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 20/21days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 195/203 days
• Success rate = 96%

Well bummer! My percentage of time dropped by .4%.  I will hopefully be making it up over the next few months. 

Here's a short narrative of our trip to Munising, Michigan. First, it isn't particularly easy to get to and from. Pat did the research and decided Richmond, VA to Chicago, IL with a change of planes to get to Marquette, the closest airport, was the best way to go and we could get back fairly early on Thursday. 

A Lego man at the Richmond Airport. It used over 40,000 pieces.  We had no problems making our connections in Chicago nor renting a car in Marquette. The drive to Munising was less than an hour.  We checked in to the hotel and went to visit Pat's sister. We met up with a niece, great nephew, and one of Roger's brothers to have dinner at a funny little outdoor restaurant with wonderful wood fired pizzas. Food was great, company was wonderful, weather turned on us.  We were sitting outside with what looked like a corrugated tin roof and some tarps. Um, not such a great idea when the rain came in. 

We eventually decided it wasn't going to let up so the guys went to get cars. The ladies tried to get closer to an area that wasn't quite so full of water. I took off my tennis shoes and socks and waded through ankle deep water to get to the car. (I really didn't have a lot of shoe options if my tennies got soaked!) 

Tuesday we did some prep work at the local Catholic church as Pat, a niece, and nephew were going to be providing various parts of the music.  Afterwards I asked if I could go to the local quilt store, Miss Good Stitch. I came prepared with some fabric samples and the measurements of the Ombre Log Cabin quilt. I found a 108" backing fabric that hopefully will go with the quilt. The fabric is a pink ombre with gold dots on it. I think it is by the same designer who did the fabric in the Log Cabin quilt. I picked up a Villa Rosa design and another piece of fabric. I said I was supporting a small fabric store... but it was really about me liking their fabric.  I haven't compared the pinks yet but my guess is I will use it whether it is a great match or not. 

Munising has a population of less than 2,000 people.  But they had at least two of these businesses! 

It is a tourist town both in summer and winter so I guess they both can make a go of it in such a small town.

As mentioned earlier, Wednesday was a long day.  However, it was wonderful to see so many of Pat's family.  We met many members of Roger's side of the family for the first time. After the family dinner, Pat and I drove back to Marquette and saw Lake Superior. We went to bed early. 

Our flight left at 6:30ish on Thursday morning! Marquette is a really small airport with only two gates.  Our flights into Chicago and Richmond were both early.  YEA! 

Um, what? I had seen one just outside the airport in Marquette when we arrived but it wasn't there at 5:00 am when we came back. This one was at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Evidently you can leave your excess cannabis in the box so you don't have it with you when you go into a state that doesn't allow it. Ok then. 

We were so very thankful we weren't flying on Friday.  Thank goodness we were trying to get me back home so I could attend some of the retreat. I felt sorry for all the passengers who couldn't fly Friday. 

I didn't take many pictures at the retreat. But I do have a cute one to share later. I'm ready to go to bed and I still have to link up with the following Linky parties. 

Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  I'll be back Monday to link the other two.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie