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

 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 7 - 25

Another week has zoomed by. I didn't think I'd done very much on my list but looking over it I did have some some successes. I also got a book read.  Here's my less than complete goals list from last week. 

6/30/25
✅Quilt one of my quilts — Done! 
Make trip around the world quilt(?)—nope. Don’t have enough of the chosen fabrics to make a TAW. 
✅Cut out popsicle quilt — done. Ready and waiting for retreat to sew it. 
✅Finish knitting a hat — done. And I made pompoms for it and the previous hat. 
Start on July’s UFO — didn’t even look at it.

This is a soccer quilt I made at last fall's retreat. You can see it here after the border was put on.  I used Lynne's Soccer Ball pants. The pattern is from More Quilts for Babies Easy as ABC  by Ursula Reikes. I own all three of her books and I keep turning to them for quick easy quilts. They are also easy to add or take a rows or columns. (ThriftBooks.com has some of her books at a really reasonable price if you are interested.) Here's a close up of the quilting.

Below are two blocks for the popsicle quilt blocks I cut out this week. I'm using the same pattern, Pretty Please, as I used on the music quilt earlier this summer. You can see that finished quilt here. It is available as a down load purchase from Fabric Cafe. Yes, it is another 3 yard quilt. 

I also finished knitting the current hat for From the Heart.  I used a lighter yellow yarn and a periwinkle and made it in the child size.  When the knitting was done I made pompoms for the two hats.  The pink is a really cool self striping hat. I'm hoping Michaels, that has purchased JoAnn's intellectual property rights, will be selling these self striping yarns soon. 

When I looked at the Trip Around the World I thought I could make a small baby quilt with 5 fat quarters. After doing a lot of calculations I realized five  fat quarters wouldn't make a 36" quilt. So that project is shelved for the time being.  Here's what I cut out instead of the Trip Around the World.  

I wish I could remember who offered these free directions. I read a lot of blogs and this came from one of the blogs. Sigh. Maybe whoever passed it on to me will see this post and let us know.  Good news. Vicki and an annonymous commenter both came up with the correct blog. Check out The Colorful Fabricholic's charity patterns. I see some other ones I might want to make.  Thanks Jan for offering these free patterns for charity work.

Here's what I've cut out so far. I'll be cutting the sashing pieces this week. I think I'm going to use a cream color.  The white of the design wall seems a bit stark so that reinforces my color choice and I have a yard of it. I sure hope I have enough for this smaller size. 

 

Here's a closeup of some of the blocks.  I'm calling this one Dinos and Friends. I have a bunch of Dino fabrics that I've cut up.  Plus a bunch of friends - Snowmen, cats, dogs, even geckos along with some filler colors.  It should be fun to sew together. I may work on it before retreat and finish it at retreat.  Time will tell. 

I've cut back on how much I'm putting on my next goal's list because of a large customer quilt.

7/7/25
Load and quilt customer’s quilt -- this is my priority
Cut sashing for child quilt 
Make FCQ EQuilter blocks
Put some fabric away/ clean up a bit 

I've kept up my 15 minutes of stitching. 

W/ending 7/6/25. 187 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/June = 30/30 
• 15 minute days/July = 6/6
• 15 minute days/2024 = 187/187 days
• Success rate = 100%

Some days it was an all day sewing day. Somedays it was 15 minutes to an hour of knitting.  But I've done really well keeping up on stitching. I hope to continue. 

I hope you have time to visit some of these Linky Parties.  You can see what quilters around the world are up to.  Hum, maybe like me, you'll get way too many great ideas.  

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing 

I'm done. I need a good night's sleep to get all these things done this week! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

July 2025 Mysteries and Sew Alongs

Here's what I found for July.  There are probably a lot more out there that I don't know about. Please send me an email and I'll add it to my list.  I try to post about one the month before it starts.  Sometimes I don't find the info in time so I post it later.  Hope you find one you want to participate in.  

Mystery Quilts for Military group is having a sew along this summer to make a patriotic quilt appropriate for Quilts of Valor or other presentations to veterans. To access the clues you must join the group at this link. 

Mysteryquilts4Military.groups.io|home    Go to the bottom of the page to subscribe. You will start receiving the emails announcing the Sew Along and member comments. You should be able to access previous Mysteries in the files if you are looking for some more quilt ideas. Generally this is a quiet group except when there is a mystery or sew along.

Not much info available but check out this web page to join the Front Porch Quilt Along this summer. 

Up on The Rooftop Mystery Quilt and Cross Stitch Along will start at the Fat Quarter Shop on Tuesday, July 12 .  This is a slightly later due to delays in receiving the fabric you can buy to make the project. Every week patterns (quilting and cross stitch) and a video will be released. You can purchase fabric packs or floss for it.  Check out here for the basics.  Check here for the starting info.  

Free Sew along “Bloomers” by Quiltery started 6/30 and runs until 12/1, a  new block will be released every 2 weeks. Plan to get the patterns before the next one is released or there will be a charge for the old one.  Check it out.

The Magnificent Mystery Quilt is a free quilt-along offered by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Design.  This is Cheryl’s 11th mystery offering.  On July 3rd she’ll release hints and the fabric requirements. Then the first Thursday of every month until April 2026 another clue will be released.  Read more about it at Cheryl's blog. 

ScrapDash has a free sew along called Bean There that started in May. OOPS! Check out the info here. She has links to the hints for all of the units in the block.  Although it is almost over if the quilt is of interest you can use her schedule to create personal dates.  (This link was not working when I uploaded this post. I will keep trying to get it to work so please check on it again in a few days.)