Monday Meanderings 5/19/25

The week is winding down but I can't figure out what I've been doing all week. For the most part I spent the time reading, quilting, and a bit a knitting.  I did get most of my goals done which rather surprised me. I don't remember spending hours in the studio. Let's take a look.

5/12/25

✅Quilt 3 yard project — quilted a top for local quilt guild instead of the 3 yd quilt.

✅Sew May’s UFO blocks together— all rows done, need to sew them together.

✅Keep making 9 patches — a few more were made.

✅Finish knitting yellow hat — done, another started. 

✅Bind Happy Quilt — done.

✅Iron backings — several more ironed, one more left to do. 

Here's the quilt for my guild as I began quilting it. It was a jelly-roll-race style quilt. And, it was in yellow, white and black. I decided I had to use the quilt design that had bumble bees and flowers. You can see some of the flowers and the bees on the row below. 

The design is Busy Bees by My Creative Stitches. 👇🏼 Here's the design.

I made a few 9 patches this week.  Here are all the ones I have done. I've decided I'd make one of each color I make for the eQuilter to keep for myself.  They are a very good leader/ender project.

My plan going forward is to try to use both lighter and darker colors. So, I need to find some lighter blues, greens, reds and purples. It's going to be fun to go through my collection of 2.5" squares to find the usable squares. And, I'll probably cut into some of my fat quarters to augment the colors.

Here are two hats I've made fairly recently.  These still need pompoms.  I've been borrowing pompom makers from friends at our weekly stitching group.  It may be time for me to buy my own maker.  The hat on the right is child size and the yarn is actually navy blue. Sometimes I make hats flat and then sew up the seam -- like the stripe one. And sometimes I take the same pattern and make hats with a circular needle -- like the yellow one. I give the hats to From the Heart, a local charity. Their mission statement includes . . . "preserving and promoting fiber arts" . . .  as well as . . . "producing handmade items which bring comfort, love and solace to others." I have other skeins of various shades of yellow yarn and a couple of different white yarns.  I expect I'll be making more stripe hats and solid color ones in the future. I'm on the third yellow hat of this bright yellow yarn.

Here's what I hope to get done this week.

5/19/2025

Finish sewing UFO project to top

Quilt and bind 3 yd quilt project

Make more 9 patches

Quilt one of my tops 

Keep knitting hat/s

Pick a project to cut out for future retreat sewing

One thing I forgot to put on my goals list last week was making the Cali-Co Mystery block for May. Sharon and I get on FaceTime and chat while we make our block. We usually spend an afternoon together moving on to our own projects after our blocks are made. Here's my May block. The previous blocks have been made with mostly half square triangles.  This one was relatively easy with only 4 HSTs. Hum, I may change out the gold and dark purple triangles as I really prefer brighter colors.  However, I may wait until all the blocks are done before I change them.  When all 12 are done this block may look just fine. 

I've continued to get my 15 minutes of stitching done every day this week. 

W/ending 5/18/25. 138 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/May = 18/18
• 15 minute days/2024 = 138/138 days
• Success rate = 100%

Now a bit about the book I finished this week. I was reading Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict published in February.  Here's what The New York Times said about it: "a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder."  I've read quite a few of Benedict's books and this one is just as good as her others. It gives a lot of insight into the way women were viewed between the World Wars.  Surprisingly, many of the the slights women faced at that time are still happening now. It also gives a glimpse as to how authors develop their stories.  I admit I didn't figure out the who done it although I did suspect one.  

It's time to link up with various Linky Parties. Please enjoy surfing quilting blogs by going to these parties. (Hum, Oh Scrap isn't up yet. I'll check on Monday.) 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

 Happy Quilting All! Bonnie