Monday Meanderings 9 - 30 - 2024

It's been a week.... we've had more rain this week than we've had in months.  The humidity is awful. The good news is we had two nights at our son's house instead of the one that we thought we were having. It was fun to hang around the kids. Soccer practice was canceled which made our job easier.  Sunny met Chewey.  Here they were checking out what Pat had. Was there a treat involved? 

You can see that Sunny is doing a great job of growing her hair back. We'd never really heard her bark until we crated both dogs in order to get the kids one afternoon.  They both were barking their heads off and howling as we left.  By the time we were back they were calm.  I should have recorded them. 

I didn't get as many of my goals accomplished this week. But there were extenuating circumstances. More on that later. 

9/23/24

✅Keep stitching on the ornaments — one is done except for bow/ribbon around the penguin’s neck. 

✅Evaluate purple floral top does it need 2nd border — sticking w/ 1 border and a slightly darker binding. 

Finish the panel top with border — didn’t even look at it. 

✅Pull out Halloween top to see what to do to finish — plan figured out, ready to proceed. 

✅Quilt one or two of my quilts — finished quilting a baby quilt and sewed the binding on the front.

Here's the Halloween quilt.  I started it last year because I had a bunch of Halloween blocks.  I think some were from the FCQ Equilters. But some were from a small block swap when I was on Prodigy in the '90s.  It was time to put them all to use last year. But then I couldn't make up my mind so I let it sit until this year. I have that one piece of black on black fabric -- maybe 17" by WOF, shown behind the right side of the quilt.  I'm pretty sure I can add a 1.5" border (fin.) and still have enough to use the same black as the binding. And, the backing will be a Halloween print fabric I've had for a while. Sometimes the planets are aligned just right! In the end this will be around 40" square. (Ok, almost square.) We have a quilt hanger over the fire place in the great room and this will fit nicely on it. You can see my progress here, here, here, and here. 

Here are my plans for this week. 

9/30/24

Finish the border on Halloween top

Make 2nd ornament

Quilt one of my tops — maybe the Halloween one

Layout more blue blocks from FCQ Equilters and make top

Finish hand sewing binding on baby quilt

Who knows whether I'll succeed with all of those goals. But I will be trying. 

One thing I was able to do because we left the kid's house before breakfast on Thursday was attend a craft club meeting at our clubhouse.  I don't get to many of them but I was interested in the jewelry making this time and we got home 10 minutes before the start time! I gathered some scrapbooking paper and headed out.  Here's the Halloween set I made for me! The earrings are missing the wires but I got them on before I left. 

I think the ghosts are really cute.  But the olive?  Just doesn't make it.  It really isn't an olive but it looks like it to me.  That one has two different glitter papers. I don't know if I'll ever wear it.  These were really easy to do.  We used 1" and 1/2" circle punches. You glued the papers on to the silver (colored) backings.  There was some fitting them into the backing but not all that hard. Then we glued the glass bezel on top. The earrings had the wires added. Easy peasy.  I may have to look into this to do with a couple of granddaughters.  Below are all the pieces the group made. 

I think the gal who did the other ghosts (after seeing mine!) did a better job placing the punch than I did.  I have a lot of seasonal jewelry from when I worked at the elementary school.  I try to remember to wear them but often forget! Maybe this year I'll succeed with my ghost collection.

I've been considering getting a new sewing machine for a while.  I really didn't think I would ever get a new one as I figured my Bernina did everything I thought I needed.  The only drawback is it randomly breaks a thread after sewing.  I've had it in to several certified repairmen but it's never been solved.  Sharon loves her new machine and let me try it out. Hum... it was pretty nifty.  Bernina was having a trade in event so I figured this was the best time to swap out machines.  I've been setting it up and trying to figure out all of its high tech functions.  Today I used it to sew binding on after I quilted a little baby quilt. It worked really well.  I need to get more familiar with sliding the fabric in at the 1/4" mark and foot.  But that will come with use.  I think I'm going to love it.  But there is a learning curve.  Guide classes start in November. 

Here my stats on time spent sewing this week. Not bad.  

W/ending 9/29  — 273 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 28/29
• 15 minute days/2024 = 263/273 days
• Success rate = 96.3%

Make sure you check out these links parties. Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  I've been neglecting reading other people's blogs because of all that has been going on. Hopefully this week I'll see what everyone is up to.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie