Monday Meanderings 9 - 15 - 2025

Here we are in the middle of September. What? September? It's still in the 80s where I live. It's getting dark earlier and the humidity isn't as bad as it is in the middle of summer. I enjoy taking Sunny for walks in the evening but for the most part I hang out in my basement studio. This week I read or listened to 3 books.  Nothing spectacular but entertaining. Now, on the quilting side of things... not a lot of check marks. But that is fine with me because the main checkmark is a finish (of sorts) that has been waiting for a year to be worked on. See below. 

9/8/25

✅Load and ✅start quilting Ombré quilt - Whoopie!  Quilting is done! 

Make RSC blocks in light blue and light green and more 9 patch blocks — cut out a couple of 9 patches but nothing else. 

✅Cut out more Sept UFO challenge- Economy blocks — just need 5 more.

Continue cutting out the Magnificent Mystery quilt— nothing done. 

Bind baby quilt — trimmed quilt, cut out binding but nothing else done. 

I finished my super queen size Ombre top last year.  I love/d how it looks. I bought the backing for it in MI last July.  It sat in the laundry room waiting for me to wash it. Surprise, a few weeks ago I washed it. It sat in the studio waiting to be ironed for several weeks. I finally decided I really need to get it finished in September cause I need to be able to show more fabric usage. (I went wild buying fabric this quarter!) Happily enough, I did the ironing, I loaded the backing and the batting and the quilt top (which also needed ironing). Saturday I started quilting it. My thought was I'd get it done later this week. But, I was ready to get'er done. I got several rows done Saturday and the rest done on Sunday.  It is quilted! 

Darn, you can't see the quilting.  Here's the E2E I used so you can see it clearly.  I love how it turned out. It's called Briar Rose in Winter and is a computerized Edge-to-Edge pattern. The pattern is available at My Creative Stitches. And yes, I've used it a few times. Below you can read some of the statistics and why I really wasn't looking forward to doing this big quilt. 

So it took approximately 23 minutes for each of 9 rows. So total actual stitching time was 3 hours and 43 minutes. (Which doesn't count the bobbin winding time, the time to load this big quilt, time moving the quilt forward after each row, and the time I had to rip out one/tenth of the row.) There were 166,140 stitches in the quilt (including the small section I had to rip out.) That is equal to 459 yards of thread.  One of my jumbo bobbins could only do 2 rows before running too low to start another row.  

So, I now have 5 bobbins with just small amounts of thread on them. (And, no empty bobbins!) Hopefully the next quilt I do will be much smaller and use white thread! There is more than enough thread if I do, say, a 36" wide quilt.  These small amounts would probably last for the whole row.  I do have one bobbin with not very much thread on it so I could unwind it if my next quilt isn't with white thread! 

I realized last week I left off the picture of the Economy blocks that are ready to sew.  This is last week's photo. If I had taken a pic this week about 4 of the fabrics would be sets now. I'm definitely going for fall colors.

As you can see I got a little bit of one other project done. I prepped some blocks to sew and I got the binding cut and pinned together for the baby quilt. Now that I think on it a bit -- I also worked on another knit hat and spent one evening working on my cross stitch bag. (You can see it here although I've done more since this picture.)  I really have to concentrate to get this one done correctly.  (And honestly, I haven't been as accurate as I should be but I think in the end it will look fine.) 

Here's what I'll be working on this week. 

9/15/25 

Cut, prepare, and sew  binding on Ombre Log Cabin 

Sew binding on baby quilt 

Continue cutting out Magnificent Mystery Quilt 

Keep making 9 patch blocks and/or RSC blocks

Quilt two quilts (not mine… sigh.) 

Quilt  a little doll quilt on my domestic machine to give to the guild

That should keep me busy this week. And, all my choral groups have gone back so that is taking up some time too.  Maybe I'll get even more done this week but I'm not holding my breath. 

Here's my 15 Minutes of Stitching report.

W/ending 9/14/25. 257 days of 2025

• 15 minute days Sept = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2025 = 257/257 days
• Success rate = 100%

Not much more to report from here.  Sunny is thriving and stubborn.  She likes to play with her balls but also tends to put them under the couch which means she can't actually get to them without some help.  Sigh. 

Please spend some time checking out these Linky parties.  Hopefully it won't take me until the end of the week to link up to the bottom two parties.  

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Hope everyone is finding peace in their quilting this week.  I always appreciate it when the outside world has gotten intolerable.  It's cheaper than therapy...maybe! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 9 - 8 - 2025

As of Sunday we are 250 days into 2025. Wow -- this year is flying.  We've enjoyed the cooler weather but we sure could use some rain.  We got some rain but not enough. Hopefully we'll get more over the next month or so.  I did make some good progress this month.  Here are last week's goals. 

9/1/25

✅Put borders on Soho 3yd quilt from July retreat — done! 

✅Quilt another top — quilted a small baby quilt. 

✅Cut a top for October retreat — started cutting more Economy blocks 

√Clear off right side of design wall — some things have been removed but not all.

✅Begin cutting fabric for Magnificent Mystery Quilt from Meadow Mist Designs — the first two fabrics are done. (Minus one 2.5” square. I’ll do it tomorrow or the next day.)

This is Soho, a Fabric Cafe 3 yard quilt.  I changed it a little as I didn't have a yard of beige.  So I used one fabric for the half square triangles. I bought another fabric for the borders which I did with only one fabric rather than an inner and outer border. I'll probably use some of the beige border fabric for the backing.  

For the next quilt kit I chose to use the September UFO Challenge project.  Several years ago I made an economy block quilt and cut some extra pieces for it. This week I cut the background fabrics for all the pieces I had already cut out.  Then I pulled a bunch of additional fabrics so I could make a bigger quilt. First the finished blocks. (Yep, just 2!) 

Here are the cut pieces and a bunch of fabrics that still need to be cut. I'm using dies from my 9" Accuquilt Cube. Any cube will allow you to make an Economy block using dies # 1, 3, and 4. The triangle die for the light fabric uses a too much fabric so I'm considering figuring out the correct size and cutting them myself.  I'll keep you informed if it works.  

I did make some progress on clearing off the side of my design wall.  I forgot to take a before picture so I found one from awhile ago.  Here are the two ... 

   So, argh -- I wish I had more control of my photos!  Anyway, the left is a while ago and the right is showing I've made some progress. I moved several orphan blocks and some excess papers.  Obviously there is some more work to do. With perseverance I should be able to remove and put all of this stuff away. (Or throw it away.) 

I did get a start on cutting out the Magnificent Mystery quilt. Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs starts her mystery quilt in the summer. She gives cutting directions for the entire quilt early on. If you cut it all at the beginning it makes it easier to make each clue as all that is needed is sewing.  I've enjoyed that part so I do all the cutting at the beginning. I will continue working on the cutting this coming week. 

Here's my plan for this week. 

9/8/25

Load and start quilting Ombré quilt

Make RSC blocks in light blue and light green and more 9 patch blocks

Cut out more Sept UFO challenge- Economy blocks

Continue cutting out the Magnificent Mystery quilt

Bind baby quilt 

I had another 100% sewing week. 

W/ending 9/7/25. 250 days of 2025

• 15 minute days Sept = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2025 = 250/250 days
• Success rate = 100%

I hope you can spend some time checking out some of the Linky parties -- don't you want to get some new ideas? (Ok, so I get way too many ideas every week and have enough of my own ideas but I still get excited about what I see each week.) 

Life in Pieces

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

I'll leave you with this wonderful picture I took while walking this week. Yep that's hubby with Sunny. I stopped to get the picture. 

We didn't get the rain but we got this huge rainbow.  For a short while there was a double on the left hand side but that picture wasn't very good.  

Happy quilting all -- Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings -- 9/1/2025

I can't help but rave about our weather in the Mid-Atlantic region.  The humidity has been low. The temps have been in the low 70s to the high 70s.  But wait, there's more! We woke up to the high 50s a couple of times this week.  Amazing.  So much nicer than it has been recently.  And yet, I did spend a lot of time in the studio this week instead of outside.  

Here are last week's goals with a bunch of green check marks. Yea! 

8/25/2025

✅Bind Space quilt and ✅ Red, White and Blue quilt — both done! 

✅Quilt another small top — little quilt went fast! 

✅Cut a top for October retreat — Hens and chicks cut out!

✅Finish Cali-Co block — done.

✅Keep working on project bag — got another section done.

Here's the Red, White and Blue Sampler quilt done. (I took this on the floor in the studio, not outside so the lighting isn't as good as I wish it were.) I need to figure out why the borders are waving more than I expect them too.  Any one have suggestions? 

You can't really see the quilting design on it but it is Quick and Easy Stars by My Creative Stitches.  I like it because it does go quickly and it is easy! 

I quilted the little Happy Quilt from last week. It was less than 36" square so I only needed 1 1/4 yards for the backing and I found it in my stash. And it went really fast!  I'll share photos in the future.  

I finished cutting out the pieces for Hens and Chicks.  You can see the pattern and the 3.5 (unfinished) 9 patches on the May 5 post. (It's close to the bottom...) First are the 3.5" bright squares. And then all of the background fabric except the border and binding.  I'm looking forward to getting this to top stage.  I think I have some bright green fabric for the borders. May be there will be enough for the backing too. (dare I hope so?) 

I was happy it didn't take all that much time to tear out the stitches from the August Cali-Co block.  And I didn't have to start over -- for the most part the center blocks minus the 4 corners were ok.  Here's the finished block. 

And here are the first 8 blocks together.  I really like how this quilt is coming along.  (Hum, is this going to be another keeper for me? It could be...) I just slapped these up on the design wall.  I'll pay more attention to colors once they are all done and I want to finish the top.  

And now, what I hope to work on this week. 

9/1/25

Put borders on Soho 3yd quilt from July retreat

Quilt another top

Cut a top for October retreat

Clear off right side of design wall 

Begin cutting fabric for Magnificent Mystery Quilt from Meadow Mist Designs

My next retreat is only 6 weeks away. I hope to have 6 projects to take with me. If they are really easy I can easily make one a day. Two kits are done -- one left over from July.  I have a paper piecing project I want to start now and see if it would be easy enough to work on at retreat. Maybe not the whole thing but a couple of sections finished would be great. It would be good to have a couple more 3 yard quilts to work on too. 

Sunday we decided to go on an adventure -- well an adventure for us as we had never been to the Virginia Scottish Games.  We weren't going for the games as much as for the Scottish dogs.  There are 13 breeds that come from Scotland.  You can read more about which breeds come from there here. I'll wait if you want to check it out ... lalala ... right, you're back.  Did you read the list to the end? Yep? Well guess who is a Scottish breed?  Yes, our own little Sunny dog.  We thought she might like to meet some dogs that look like her.  And she did.  Westie Rescue -- Mid-Atlantic Region had several dogs looking for homes and a bunch of Westies who had been adopted through them were there for Sunny to meet and greet. Here's some photos of our morning and early afternoon. 

Sunny is the dog in the back.

Each day there is a parade that includes a bagpipe band, a showing of the clans and the walking of the Scottish dogs. Usually the dogs are at the back of the parade. Except this year they ended up being at the beginning of the parade.  No picture of Sunny in this group -- she was behind, closer to the end. (I believe the brown dog was with one of the spectators to the right.)

There was also a Wheaton Scotty dog and a Black Scotty. 

After the dogs, the bag pipers marched out. Below is a 30 second video I took of the bagpipers with some of the dogs walking at the end. The last two dogs are the Wheaton and Black Scotty.  Sunny is right in front of them. 

I can report I stitched every day this week.  Here are my current numbers. 

W/ending 8/31/25. 236 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/August = 31/31
• 15 minute days/2024 = 243/243 days
• Success rate = 100%

One more thing to report this week.  Some of you know I read a lot and try to read every day on my Kindle. I'm sadden to report I forgot to read one day this week.  (Silly me, I put an extra 15 minutes in knitting after I'd spent half the day sewing!) I was just beyond 500 days and, sigh, I was knocked back down to zero. Today I'm up to 5 days.  The positive note is I've read 371 weeks in a row. That is over 7 years in a row.  Not too bad, eh? 

As always I link up with several different parties. Please take some time to visit these sites and see what others are working on.  I apologize for not linking up the other two parties last week. I don't know why I forgot about it but I did.  Sigh. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

I hope you make time for quilting or stitching every day.  I know with all that is going on in the USA now it helps me find peace and calmness.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 -- 25 -- 2025

Hello All!  We've been traveling this past weekend.  I've gotten some knitting done but no quilting. It has been raining most of today but we did do some outlet shopping.  A concerted effort was made to have most of my goals from last week done before we left. Take a look!

8/18/25

✅Keep working on project bag — made some progress.

✅Quilt RWB Sampler — finished, next up binding.

✅Make some more blocks: RSC, — RSC, some 9 patches, and started Cali-Co mom.

✅Sew current Happy Blocks into a top — done!

✅Finish current hat. — done except pompom.

I didn't take a new picture of the project bag but I did decide I would only work at it at home to avoid more mistakes.  Hum, who knew talking would distract me so much! 

No photos of the quilted RWB sampler quilt but it is all quilted. 

Here are both of the RSB teal blocks. Last week I showed the more colorful one. This week it is the two together. I need to spread all of the blocks out to see how they look together. 

Earlier in the week I worked on the current Happy Block quilt. With the help of my friend Beth we came to a decision about placement.  Here's the end result.  I think I made a new block to replace one of the dark ones. (It's second row, third block. Both fabrics were from the 25 yard haul. Unfortunately the cute animal print is only a 6" WOF piece.)  The dark ones (that mostly show when I turn the picture to gray scale) are in a diagonal row from top left to bottom right.  It's hard to believe that red often looks really dark when seen as on the gray scale.  

Now let's see what I hope to do this week. 

8/25/2025

Bind Space quilt and Red, White and Blue quilt

Quilt another small top

Cut a top kit for October retreat

Finish Cali-Co block

Keep working on project bag

That seems like a big list although I don't have a lot of commitments this week. We'll see how I do. 

The other thing I'll admit is I totally screwed up the Cali-Co bom for this month. I failed to put on the second frame before I put on the triangle corners and trimmed the block.  UGH. The block was 2" too small and I sliced into all four corners before I realized my mistake. Jack and I were getting too well acquainted this past week. I won't have to remake the whole block but I need to take out each of the corner blocks in the center. Sigh. Shouldn't take too long if I can keep focused. 

Another successful week of stitching 15 minutes every day.  (If I get this post done soon enough I'll be able to get today's 15 minutes done.) 

W/ending 8/24/25. 236 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/August = 24/24
• 15 minute days/2024 = 236/236 days
• Success rate = 100%

Here's an older quilt that I made for our beach house.  I decided to bring it home and substituted a quilt with ocean fabrics - whales, star fish, and the like.  These Wild dogs just make me smile! Too bad there isn't a West Highland Terrier like Sunny! 

I'm linking with the following parties. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musings

I hope you have a quilty week. Keep your spirits up and your hands doing what you like to do! 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie