Monday Meanderings 7 - 28 - 2025

It was a great week and a great retreat.  I really enjoy gathering with these ladies, catching up and sewing.  I'll see some of them at the Country Piecemakers meeting in August. I was really successful too. Here's my goal list.

7/21/25

 ✅Attend retreat — great fun and terrific to see these friends again. 

Piece these tops in the order given as time allows:

 ✅Soho — center done, will do borders at home.

Triple Rail baby quilt — what was I thinking?  This was not a doable project! The rails were all made but the novelty fabric wasn’t right. 

  Irish Christmas (mine in spring colors!) — HSTs were sewn and trimmed. Putting the quilt together will come later. 

 ✅Cornerpost — all done. 

 ✅Pretty Please — need to find a border.

 ✅Dinos and Friends (PCQ Charity Quilt for Kids) — easy-peasy. Finished, ready to find a backing and quilt

 ✅Write article on Mysteries and Sew Alongs  — done. 

 ✅Keep working on cross stitch project bag — one thread was stitched. (Doesn’t sound like much but it is making progress.

First up, Soho. Not a great picture but you get the idea. This is a Fabric Cafe 3 yard quilt.  The beige fabric corners on the blue block should be the border on this one.  I knew I would need to use a different fabric for the border as I didn't have enough. I'll check my stash to see if anything will go with this one.  It may take a while to finish. 

Triple Rail baby quilt -- oh my goodness.  I don't know what I was doing when I cut out this "kit."  The triple rail part of this one was made although I had to cut some more strips to succeed.  But the center novelty fabric? I have about 20 8 x 8" blocks. I needed 4 much smaller squares. I decided not to cut the 8 x 8" blocks as they would work really well for a quilt bigger than 36" square. I'll find another novelty fabric to go with the rails.  Stay tuned. 

Irish Christmas is a more involved quilt.  I got all, 48, of the half square triangles sewn and trimmed.  This project might wait for my October retreat or I might sew it before then.  It is a bit more complicated to try to make it in a retreat setting -- catching up with friends, talking and carrying on. So maybe this will be done at home in the near feature.

Cornerpost is from a magazine design I had saved.  I probably won't do another one but it was fairly easy to put together.  (I turned the center row upside down so I ended up with the three light blocks all at the bottom. Bummer. But, not worth turning it around.) 

Pretty Please is another 3 Yard Quilt. I made it earlier this year that you can see here. This is a very easy, quick quilt.  The borders, in purple, will be added soon.  I like the multicolored popsicles It's a fun quilt. 

Dinos and Friends was super easy and fast to sew together. It took much longer to find all the fabrics, iron them, and cut them out than to sew it. (I love having kits to sew at retreat.) I probably should have cut out two instead of just one. I may have to find some more fabric to make another one of these quilts. 

Here's a link to Jan Ochterbeck's blog and directions for this quilt and others. This will be given through my quilt guild to a youngster in our community. 

Luckily the drive back from the retreat house was easy -- no rain, no wind just some traffic. I've already taken one nap.  I'll probably go to bed early tonight -- I'm pooped! Here's what's on the list for this coming week. 

7/28/25

Put all my retreat supplies away

Put borders on Pretty Please

Finish FCQ Equilters blocks 

Pick a top and backing and quilt it

Keep knitting on the current hat

Work on cross stitch project bag 

I definitely got my 15 minutes of stitching done this week. 

W/ending 7/27/25. 208 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/July = 27/27
• 15 minute days/2024 = 208/208 days
• Success rate = 100%

Here are a few photos of some of the other projects people were working on. (BTW -- there were only 7 of us.) 

M's lunch box from a pattern from Annie's called Out to Lunch 2.0. She had a good time making it. She also made -- get this -- tennis shoes! 

Pretty cool. I'd love to make a pair but my feet like good arch support! 

B cut and sewed this top at retreat. (It was 6 days and 5 nights, although we all left by about 11 this morning.) This doesn't do the colors justice though.

D is a Studio 180 teacher and was working on these blocks. She was able to get quite a few of them done. 

I was surprised that I didn't have more photos.  I hope my friends will share photos when their blocks becoming tops.  A lot of fun sewing was going on.  

I'm worn out. So, let's get the link-up done and call it a night! 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

I'll be back to link the last two tomorrow.  I hope you can take some time to visit these Linky parties and check out different blogs around the world. 

Happy Quilting,  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 -- 21 -- 2025

No news on the weather here.  It's been the same for most of the week.  Maybe a little more humid than last week. UGH.  This week it is suppose to get to 95˚ (that's 35 C.)  Heaven only knows what the "feels like" temp will be. On the other hand I'll be up in some local mountains.  Nothing that high but hopefully slightly cooler. But I'm going to be in quilting heaven -- it's retreat time! 

Last week's goals- 

7/14/25

✅Make more FCQ Equilter's blocks — A couple more finished, a couple need to be finished.

✅Put some fabric away/ clean up a bit a lot — Great progress made! 

✅Make more string blocks and trim — did not trim yet but more were made.

Load and quilt one of my quilts — nope, not done.

Cut more Happy Blocks — a few more cut and a few more fabrics found.

First up 4 of the FCQ Equilter's blocks. I've got two more partially made. They'll be waiting til next week to be finished. 

I spent a whole day cleaning up my cutting table.  I got 2/3rds of it done and looking great. Here is the before picture. 

This is what my secondary cutting space looked like when I started cleaning.  I didn't take a pic of my main cutting area. It wasn't this bad because I use it for cutting all the time. But look at the difference! 

The front area is mostly cleaned up. The area with the yellow mat is my main cutting area looking ready to be used. Of course, after I used it it didn't look that good. Sigh. But I did put any fabric on it away -- the rulers can stay there. 

If you could see the whole front and the right side better you would see that side still needs a lot of work. I've found that I tend to leave fabric out, bits that are usable if cut into squares and HSTs but I never seemed to get to it.  I'm hoping I can have another day cleaning out the fabric bits and pieces next week when I'm back from retreat.  There are a few other areas that need work too. 

Since I didn't think to take any pictures of my string blocks let's move on to my goals for this coming week.  The biggest thing is the retreat I'm going on with 6 of my quilting buddies. So, sewing my several quilt kits together is my main plan. 

7/21/26

Attend retreat

Piece these tops in the order given as time allows:

  Soho

  Triple Rail baby quilt

  Irish Christmas (my fabrics are spring colors!) 

  Counterpoint 

  Pretty Please 

  Dinos and Friends (PCQ Charity Quilt for Kids)

Write article on Mysteries and Sew Alongs 

Keep working on cross stitch project bag 

Yep, I've got a lot of projects but it's ok if I don't get to all of them.  Soho is leftover, untouched, from the October 2024 retreat. If I don't get all of the projects started they will stay for the October 2025 retreat. Many of these are 3 yard quilts so they should be fairly easy. 

I did start the counted cross stitch on my new project bag.  I didn't get much done but here it is. I won't mention how many stitches I took out either.  It'll go with me and maybe I'll be able to get some more stitching done.  

I also did the July Cali-Co block. My friend Sharon and I call on FaceTime and chat as we make the block each month. So here is block 7. Hum, I need to trim this block especially on the right side.         ↘️

Here are all seven blocks together. 

I'm enjoying making these blocks.  I have no idea what the final quilt will look like -- but I'm looking forward to making all the rest. 

I have been sewing or knitting or cross stitching every day this week.  Not bad! I'm still at 100%. 

W/ending 7/20/25. 201 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/July = 20/20
• 15 minute days/2024 = 201/201 days
• Success rate = 100%

I leave Tuesday for the retreat. We rent a house in western Virginia that is set up for quilting and scrapbooking retreats. Unfortunately we do have to bring our own food. We cook dinner in pairs but bring our own breakfast and lunch supplies.  I'm all set with my quilting plans and food plans.  I just need to pack and drive off on Tuesday.  I'll be back Sunday early in the afternoon.  

Please check out these Linky Parties.  Lots of great things to see from bloggers around the world. 

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 14 - 2025

Monday evening we got rained on...and on... and -- you get the idea. We had gone to the county board of supervisor meeting in support of our community's request for some help.  We didn't have to stay all that long as the Chairman kindly moved our speaker up nearer the beginning. And, he also recessed the meeting so that we could leave rather than sitting through the whole meeting. Except unbeknownst to us it had started raining. 

It was coming down in sheets. Although we hadn't parked all that far away we waited it out. But, we still got wet! 

Here's last week's goals list with some check marks. 

7/7/25

✅Load and quilt customer’s quilt — Done

✅Cut sashing for child quilt and sew — all cut but no sewing done

✅Make FCQ EQuilter blocks — One made, several more in process

Pull fabric for a baby quilt — nothing done — couldn’t find the pattern! 

Put some fabric away/ clean up a bit — a very little was done and even more fabric actually was spread around! 😳

I was happy to get a queen sized quilt top quilted this weekend for a customer. I need to check with her to see if she minds if I share it here.  But it really was a nice quilt and she picked a great design for the quilting. 

Here's the June/July quilt block for the current FCQ Equilter.  I made one block to make sure I knew what I was doing.  I have several more ready to put together.  Which I hope to get to this coming week. 

My local guild likes to give out SWAG when we have booths at community events or are selling raffle tickets at various fairs.  This year we were given the opportunity to make some swag from kits.  Here are the three I put together.  They gave us everything including floss, needle and precut pieces.  I did the orange one all by hand but I also did a buttonhole stitch around the outside edge.  So for the other two I did a machine buttonhole stitch which took a lot less time.  I'm not sure who would want these cuties but hopefully some one will think they are cute. 

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

7/14/25

Make more FCQ Equilters blocks

Put some fabric away/ clean up a bit lot

Make more string blocks and trim to size

Load and quilt one of my quilts 

Cut more Happy Blocks 

For some reason my sewing space looks like a whirlwind went through it.  It's driving me crazy. I am not by nature a neat person but this mess has finally gotten to me so hopefully I'll be able to put things away. 🤞🏼

I've been making string blocks off and on for the last several weeks.  I need to count how many, trim what I have and start ripping the newsprint off the back.  Hopefully I've gotten closer to the needed amount.  I figure it is time to list it as a to do! 

Here is my start on another Happy Blocks top.  The finished blocks are left overs that I want to put to use. I've cut some more and gathered fabric to cut the inside squares but need to figure out the go with fabrics. It may go with me to retreat but maybe not. I've already got 5 or 6 precut tops although it's a 5 day retreat and may not be enough. I am hoping to make this a neutral baby quilt rather one with pink in it. I have a friend who is a NICU nurse and said most dads of boys don't want  any pink on their boy's quilt.  I try to make some quilts without pink on them a few times a year.  Notice I don't call them boy quilts.  My thought is girl babies might be happy to have dinosaurs and soccer balls too. 

I've also maintained my 15 minutes to stitch each day.

W/ending 7/13/25. 194 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/July = 13/13
• 15 minute days/2024 = 194/194 days
• Success rate = 100%

For years I kept statistics on fabric coming in and going out each month.  One year I decided not to and I was disappointed because I didn't know whether I was bringing in more fabric than I used. So, I've started keeping track of fabric coming in and going out this year.  But I've decided to do it quarterly. So here is the 2nd quarter 2025 fabric usage stats. (Hum, I noticed that the 1st quarter I showed each month's numbers separately rather than the whole quarter as below. It would be much easier if I did each month separately.  I'll try it for 3rd quarter...) 

2025	Fabric In Quarter	Fabric In Year to date	Fabric Out  Quarter	Fabric Out Year to Date	Total In or Out Year
2nd Quarter	27.00	46.50	26.375	71.250	24.7

I did bring in more fabric than I used but honestly it wasn't even an extra yard. I have a couple more backings available that I hope to use this quarter and I may break down and buy some more fabric specifically for backings especially since I'll probably make several more tops at retreat. 

One of these days I need to update my tops waiting-to-be-quilted list.  I've been finishing quilts a lot recently.  I have one waiting for binding and I hope to get at least one maybe two quilted this month still. 

Here's the info on Linky Parties.  Check some out this week. 

Life In Pieces

Oh Scrap 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

I hope every one is staying cool and safe this summer.  There's just so much going on. The weather here is hot and muggy with thunderstorms forecasted for every day this week. Eek!  I'm quite happy to stay in my cool basement studio and hopefully be able to sew.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie