Monday Meandering 11 - 10 - 2025

It's been a week.  Most notable for me is I ended up with a cold on Wednesday.  It's still hanging on and driving me crazy.   Needless to say I wasn't as motivated on my sewing front as I like to be but I did keep stitching every day.  Goals were not all finished but that's ok too. 

11/3/25

√Finish Tall Tree sections 6 & 7 and 2nd skirt section — started section 6 but didn’t finish, cut out the flying geese for 2 skirt sections.

✅Continue making Benny blocks — all blocks are done, 1st row sewn together.

✅Baste small top for quilting on domestic machine — all basted, ready to start sewing 

✅Make more Economy blocks — several more blocks finished.

Here's how far I got on Tall Tree section 6.  Not that far. Okay more than half done. I cut out all the flying geese parts for both skirt sections. Hopefully this week I'll get more done on Tall Tree. (I used the small check mark because I didn't finish all of it!) 

All of the Benny blocks were finished and the first row is together. (The picture was taken before the first row was sewn together.) 

Here are two of the Economy blocks I finished this week. I think I'm down to just 10 more blocks to finish.  I'll try to finish them all this week but they aren't a priority. 

Here are my goals for this coming week.  Hopefully I make better progress this coming week. 

11/11/25

Finish Tall Tree sections 6 & 7 and 2nd skirt section

Sew clue 5 of Magnificent Mystery together 

Begin quilting on In Home Round Robin 

Continue sewing Benny rows together

Make more Economy blocks

That seems a lot to do this week considering I have a singing engagement on Veterans Day that will take up half the day. Hopefully I'll make more progress on these goals. 

I did do some off goal list sewing this week. Here's one of the blocks I made for the current FCQ Equilter who asked for any star block in red, white and blue.  I used the Accuquilt die Blazing Star.  It's a bit fussy making sure everything is turned the right way when cutting and then sewn together correctly.  Let's just say I recut a bit and ripped and resewed too. But the finish looks great! 

And I made an Ohio Star block using the Accuquilt die.  Much easier and looks good!!

The FCQ Equilters met as members of Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland many years ago. All of us have moved away from the area but we continue on as the FCQ Equilters and make blocks for each other. I figured using the picture of the Maryland Statehouse made a lot of sense. According to Wikipedia "It is the oldest U.S. state capitol in continuous legislative use, dating to 1772, and houses the Maryland General Assembly, plus the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor." You can read more about this interesting building here.  

The fabric was designed for the Mid Atlantic Shop Hop this year.  I was able to buy some when on retreat in October. It helps having a good selection of RWBs! I hope to make another RWB quilt myself sometime in the next few months. 

Another week of 100% of 15 minutes of sewing. WooWoo!

W/ending 11/9/25. 313 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/November  9/9
• 15 minute days/2024 = 312/313 days
• Success rate = 99.68%

Not bad at all!  I hope to continue to get my 15 minutes of stitching in the rest of the year.  We'll see if I succeed. 

Remember to check out these blogs for Linky parties. You never know what will inspire you! 

Stitching Stuff 

Oh Scrap! 

Patchwork and Quilts 

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 3 - 2025

November has officially begun which means there are only 2 months of 2025 left.  Do you think 2025 has been whizzing by like I do?  It also means I need to start figuring out Christmas presents for the family.  The grands have gotten older and seem to prefer gift cards.  It sure makes my life easier.  But I still like to have little gifts to go with so they have a few things to open.  

In the mean time, let's see what's been happening on my goals last week. 

10/27/25

✅Baste Halloween top and quilt on domestic machine — finished! Click on this link to read all about it. 

✅Continue making Benny blocks — more blocks and parts finished. 

✅Sew section 5 of Tall Tree and keep working on skirt sections — both items are done! 

✅Continue working on Benny top — see second goal. OOPS -  didn’t notice I had listed it twice. Unfortunately I didn't get twice as much done on it! 

Not a lot of photos this week.  You can see the Halloween quilt I finished by clicking on the link above.  

Since I figured the number of pieces I would need for Benny quilt wrong I decided to cut some more novelty pieces to go into it. I may be cutting more as I only went through a small number of my novelty fabrics.  

Here's the first skirt section of the Tall Tree pattern.  I realized it would take a lot longer to make than the other sections. It made sense to start on these 3 sections as I finish the big ones.  Two more to go of the tree skirt. 

Here's what's planned for this week. 

11/3/25

Finish Tall Tree sections 6 & 7 and 2nd skirt section

Continue making Benny blocks 

Baste small top for quilting on domestic machine

Make more Economy blocks

15 Minutes of Stitching was another successful week. 

W/ending 11/2/25. 306 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/October 30/31
• 15 minute days/2024 = 305/306 days
• Success rate = 99.67%

Here's a reminder to check out these Linky Parties.  You never know what great ideas you will find.  

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Boo!

Happy Halloween 

It's been a bit spooky around our house for the last month.  

At the front . . . .

In the house . . . .

Hum, someone must have been relaxing in the sun room with the Halloween tree and pumpkin. 

It  wasn't only at our house. . . . check out Mr. Motorcyle . . . waiting at the library!  

You might be wondering why I've shared so many Halloween items.  (No, these pics weren't all the decoration we have.) But I have a new quilt that will take the place of The Witch Is In next year.  

This quilt has been a long time in the making.  Most of the picture blocks were from a swap of 4" blocks when I was on Prodigy. What's Prodigy you ask?  It was one of the first on line services geared for home use of the Internet. It was active from 1984 to 2001. At one time it was the largest and was user friendly with a graphical user interface. There was an active quilters group on it. All of the pieced blocks with surrounding borders were from the swap.  I'm guessing this swap took place in the early 1990s. (Yep, they are definitely old.) Last year I finished the top by making some additional blocks. I may have gotten some of the extra blocks with the black squares from the E Quilter group I'm in... but I don't remember. I know I don't recognize all of the fabric which makes me think I asked for some of them. I bordered the 4" blocks to match the 6" blocks. I didn't want to quilt all over the blocks so I used my trusty Bernina to stitch in the ditch.  Since this will be a wall quilt I'm sure the in the ditch stitching will be enough. It finished at 39' x 39".  

Here's a close up of a couple. I had to highlight the witch's legs. Whoever made that one pieced the stripes!!! Amazing. Love those crazy eyeballs too. 

Surprisingly I had several Halloween fabrics that could have been used for the backing.  But I really think this one is cute. It's sad it's on the back but I'm always happy to use up older pieces of fabric. It is Mind Your Mummy by Kim Chritopherson of Kimberbell Designs for Maywood Studio. (No I don't normally keep up with who designs the fabric I use. This one had a cute selvedge with all the pertinent information except the date. 

I'm going to share this post on the following Linky Parties. 

Finished or Not Fridays 

Off The Wall Friday 

Beauties Pageant 

Happy Halloween and Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 27 - 2025

Fall has definitely fallen here!  We've had freeze warnings this past week.  Days are still mild but the nights are chilly.  This week we're hoping for some rain -- our area is in a drought situation. Hopefully we'll get rain Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday according to the weather report.  We'll see if that happens!

On the other hand, rainy weather makes me want to stay in my studio and play! Here's what I worked played with last week. 

10/20/25 

✅Work on the Benny Quilt — made forward progress but realized I have a lot more to do on it! 

✅Find border for baby quilt — found and added. 

✅Sew sections 3 and 4 of the tall tree — done plus started on the first section of the tree skirt with lots of little flying geese.

✅Pick a top to quilt — picked but not started! 

This is what a Benny block looks like. 

I posted the link to the Benny quilt last week if you want to get the pattern.  I changed from 2.5" squares to 2" squares because those squares were overflowing their container. (Today, I checked the 2.5" and now they are overflowing!) Here's a little less than half of the quilt. Most blocks have animals or things that a child would enjoy finding in it. You can click on it to enlarge it to see some of the cats, dinosaurs, foxes and other little critters. 

Here's the finished top that I shared last week before I put on the border. I was able to find a purple fabric in the stash -- YEA! It's been put away in the to-be-quilted closet. I'll have to see if I have a backing I can use. 

Here's this week's goals. The Halloween top was finished two years ago.  You'd think I would have already quilted it -- but no, it didn't happen. So hopefully I'll get it done this week. But no doubt it won't be hung up until next year! 

10/27/25

Baste Halloween top and quilt on domestic machine

Continue making Benny blocks 

Sew section 5 of Tall Tree and keep working on skirt sections

Continue working on Benny top

I've had another 7 days of stitching every day.  Here's what the stats look like. 

W/ending 10/26/25. 299 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/October 25/26
• 15 minute days/2024 = 298/299 days
• Success rate = 99.66%

Off list I made the first of several red, white, and blue star blocks. MB asked for any 12" RWB star block for her FCQ Equilter blocks this time.  I'm planning on using some of my AccuQuilt star dies to make the blocks.  This one was a paper pieced block called Stars and Stripes designed by Debby Kratovil as part of her Galaxy of Stars block of the month.  I saved all of the designs but haven't used them before. Maybe I'll make a couple more for MB. 

And now, it's time to remind you to check out these Linky Parties.  You never know what great ideas you will find. 

Stitching Stuff 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 20 - 2025

 It was a terrific retreat!  So much fun chatting with all the quilters -- friends for years and new friends too. The weather was wonderful -- cool but not cold at night, sunny and warm during the day.  And, no rain.  What more can you ask for? Um, and we didn't short out the sewing room. (I say that only because at one quilting class, many years ago, the quilters caused an entire community center and the local police station to lose electricity!) 

Here's what was on my goal list.

10/13/25

✅Have a great time at retreat - wonderful retreat, good food, fun and quilting.

Finish at least 4 of 6 projects — nope, 1 finished at home, 1 is ready for a border, 2 were moved forward. 

✅Start loading a quilt on long arm when back home — loaded and quilted a small quilt.

First up is a 3 yard quilt from the book Quick Christmas 3 Yard Quilts called Irish Christmas.  My quilt is definitely not a Christmas quilt.  I used fabrics from my stash and one purchased fabric. Here's what it looked like after retreat. I had the border strips cut but it's easier to cut the length and apply at home. 

Here's what it looks like with the borders I put on over the weekend. 

It's gone to the "To-be-quilted" closet.  I do need to see how much fabric I have left. I know there's a hunk of the floral print and some of the pink. Maybe I have enough to do the backing or at least a start. 

Here's a small baby quilt I was able to finish the inside. I brought a couple of possible border fabrics but they were vetoed.  One was a bright orange that just didn't work. I have more of the polka dots but I hope to find something in my stash for a border.  I'll report when I find it. 

Here are two of the blocks for Benny's Quilt. I made it with 2" squares rather than 2.5" squares it called for. I did find a link to the pattern too. It was on Michelle's Romantic Tangle.  I'm pretty sure it isn't a current blog but the patterns are still available. Benny's Quilt is the first one -- just click on it if you are interested in making your own. There are several more you can look at to see if you might want to make a different one. 

I was able to sew all the 2" squares needed for the "foursies" at retreat. I then started sewing the blocks together. I was mostly using them as my leader enders and then starting to make the squares.

I made some inroads on another project using it as a leader ender but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I hope to move all of these projects forward over the next few weeks. 

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

10/20/25 

Work on the Benny Quilt 

Find border for baby quilt

Sew sections 3 and 4 of the tall tree

Pick a top to quilt 

It finally happened! I forgot to sew the day I drove home from retreat. Honestly, I can't believe I forgot to even knit for 15 minutes! I did get most of my stuff put away. One more container has a few things in the bottom that need to be put away before I can stash it in the basement. 

W/ending 10/19/25. 292 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/October 18/19
• 15 minute days/2024 = 291/292 days
• Success rate = 99.6% (it would be 100% if I rounded up!) 

Here are two of Sharon's quilts she finished at retreat. The first one is a Fabric Cafe 3 Yard Quilt. (Sorry, don't remember which book it is from although I know I made one of these too.) 

This second one used charm squares and Cheryl Brinkley's book Just One Charm Pack Quilts.

I wasn't very good at taking pictures this time.  But I did take several pictures of this sunset last Monday evening.  Isn't it beautiful? It was the only day we had such a spectacular sunset.

I did notice this license plate frame. I'm all about the fabric! In fact, I went shopping at Fork MTM Quilting (in Rocky Mount, Va)  and came home with a couple of yards of mostly red, white, and blue fabrics. I'll share them later. 

I'll be linking up with these parties. Please take some time to visit the blogs listed on them. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie