Monday Meanderings - 12 - 30 - 2024

Welcome to the last few days of 2024.  I'm a big user of my library's ebooks. Since I check out books frequently,  I'm already getting used to the year as 2025. And in just a day or two it will be 2025.  Will you be staying up to welcome it in on Tuesday night?  I doubt if I will. I might if I find something interesting to watch on tv that will motivate me to stay up.  

I promised I'd share the ornaments I made for my grands once Christmas was over. Here's one picture of them.  Yes, I really staged them. 

Everyone thought they were very cute.  I was happy to have them done. I'm starting to think (only think) about what I want to do for them next year. Maybe some machine embroidery instead of all the hand work.  

Here's what I did toward finishing my goals this past week. 

12/23/24

✅Bind bow tie quilt — done!

✅Enjoy the family together on Christmas — we had a great time. 

Put borders on fall quilt — not even started.

Pick fabric for New Years Day Mystery — I decided to save directions then decide if I want to make it later. 

✅Quilt and bind pinwheel windmill quilt — Quilted and first side of binding sewn down. 

✅Pick 12 projects for the UFO challenge — 9 piecing projects and 3 quilting projects are on my list. 

Not a bad week considering Christmas was in the middle of it. Luckily I only had to do a little food prep.  And, I made a point of hitting my studio on Wednesday morning before we went to our son's house.  

Here's the windmill quilt while it was being quilted.  

Generally, I'm not a fan of variegated threads but this one worked so well on this quilt that I used it.  It is a YLI 100% cotton thread called Havana Market, 40 weight. It did lint a lot but I really like the colors on this one.  You can see the whole top here.  Below is the backing I used.  I tend to use excess backing for my binding which worked well on this quilt.  I used Fern Gully quilting design to give a lot of texture.  (The first side of the binding is sewn on the back. Sometime this week I'll flip it to the front and machine stitch it down. 

Here's what I'll be doing this week.

12/30/24

Finish bind pinwheel quilt

Put borders on fall quilt 

Enjoy the Rose Bowl Parade 

Work on UFO Challenge project

Spend 15 minutes a day cleaning up especially the front of my cutting table

I've been making a point of using up small dribs and drabs of thread on spools. One of these was used up; the pink is still available. I'd sure like to get it and one other used before the new year. 

Sometime after the new year I'll make a report on my thread spool usage this year. 

I had another 7 days of success making sure I'm stitching for 15 minutes every day. 

W/ending 12/29 — 364 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week Dec = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 353/364 days
• Success rate = 96.97%

I'll be doing this again in 2025.  I like the idea of having a bit of stitching going on every day.  If you are interested in joining this program go visit Kate at Life in Pieces. I think the main part of joining is to report your numbers every week. Pretty easy.  I need to ask Pat to make me another spread sheet to mark off my stitching days. 

I'm linking with the following parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musing.  

Here's another closed up pic of the little penguin ornaments. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie