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 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 13 - 2025

Hello All!  This will be a short post as I'm nearly ready to go on retreat. It's about 3.5 hours away and hopefully will be an easy drive. (Let's hope there is minimal to no rain for the drive!)  This should be a  somewhat shorter post.  Look for more photos next week at this time! 

Here's my goals from last week. Not that many green check marks. 

10/6/25

Make sections 3 & 4 of Tall Trees — nothing done.

✅Figure out fabric usage stats — finished but will post later. 

✅Work on clue 4 of Marvelous Mystery — Clue is done. Yea!

✅Organize and pack for retreat 10/13 — Organized but only partially packed. But things are ready to go into the suitcase. 

Not many pictures of what I was working on last week. I've included one sample block. Yep a very simple block. I will be making this block with a group of turquoise fabrics with a yellowish green. Doesn't that sound weird. But the fabrics look good together.  Once the blocks are made I'll figure out the layout. It is going to be baby quilt so it is fairly small to meet the requirements of the hospital the guild donates them to.  this is 4.5" finished.  I have a 9" AccuQuilt Cube so I used dies from it for this block.  And, yep, this pink one is not going into the quilt! 

Here's what I've got planned for the coming week. 

10/13/25

Have a great time at retreat

Finish at least 4 of 6 projects

Start loading a quilt on long arm  when back home

Nope, not much listed.  I don't know which projects I'll work on. Although I'd love to finish all 6 I probably won't. I'm being realistic. 

My daily 15 minutes of stitching continues. Truth -- after I finish writing this post I plan to stitch for 15 minutes before bed...I'll change this info if I can't get it done! Just finished about 25 minutes of stitching on a needlepoint. If I hadn't already packed up my current knitting project I would have worked on it. YEA! Still at 100%.

W/ending 10/12/25. 285 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/October 12/12
• 15 minute days/2024 = 285/285 days
• Success rate = 100%

Last week I finished quilting and binding a small quilt. This week I took some photos of Whirl quilt I finished to share. It was a windy, cloudy and sometimes rainy day so only indoor photos of Whirl. 

Whirl is the name of the block. I used my AccuQuilt 9" Cube for these blocks that were made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2022. These were left over after making a bigger quilt. You can see the other blocks here, here, and finished quilt here. I noticed I called it Spinner rather than Whirl. Whirl is the name on the Accuquilt block pattern. 

Here's the back of Whirl. That's the purple fabric I bought earlier as a bolt from Marshall Dry Goods.  I'm pretty sure I'm down to about 2 to 3 yards left on the 15 yard bolt. But I still have a lot of big scrap pieces left.  I may be using it for years to come! 

Here's an unclose picture of the quilting on Whirl.  I'm pretty sure I used a white So Fine thread. The pattern is Rhapsody Edge to Edge Leaf.  (Again, from My Creative Stitches.) 

Please take some time to check out other bloggers via these Linky parties. I may not get the last two linked on Monday morning. But the computer is going to retreat too so I will get to it eventually!

Life in Pieces

Oh Scrap 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings. 

I'll finish this up with a before and after picture of Sunny.  Here's what she looked like before grooming this past Friday. 

And after her grooming.  I bet she can see a whole lot more of the world now! 

I've learned to make her next appointment while dropping her off for grooming. Her groomer is very busy! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 6 - 2025

Talk about productive weeks!  I was so tuned into my quilting that I got a lot done -- both on and off my goals list.  Now if I could just remember what all I did off list!  We sang at the Spotsylvanian's Cabaret on Saturday evening.  Of course, there was a rehearsal the night before.  It was a much smaller area and drew a nice crowd. The chorus sang 6 songs with various individuals, duets and small groups also singing. It was a lot of fun.  Last year we missed it because of a wedding.  Now, on to the quilting goals.

9/29/25

✅Finish clue 1 of Magnificent Mystery — well, not finished but a good start was made.

✅Finish sewing down ombré Log Cabin binding — Done! pictures to come later.

✅Quilt and bind another top — Done. 

✅Make some more Economy blocks — 2 or 3 more finished! 

✅Make section 2 of Tall Tree — Done! 

I had pretty specific goals last week. Because I've changed my fabric usage statistics to quarterly and Sept. 30 was the end of the third quarter I was determined to finish one more quilt and the large, Ombré Log Cabin. And I am so happy to report I finished both! I'm not sure when I'll be able to get some pictures but I will maybe this week or after I'm back from retreat. 

It turns out I've misnamed the Magnificent Mystery clues. September was actually Clue 3 but the first clue to sew.  So this week I started Clue 4 which I'll have all of October to finish. Here's the picture of some of the finished units. These were called Irish Chain blocks. The dark fabric is actually deep purple. I finished less than 20 of the 60 blocks needed. But most of the strip piecing was sewn and I just need to cut them into the various rows and sew them up. Magnificent Mystery details can be found on Meadow Mist Designs web site. It's not too late to start this project!  (Note: as of 10/5 Cheryl has not added the current clue info to the linked page. But she will do it. All the other links are live so you could start catching up!You can also click on the October link on the sidebar.) 

And, check out my Tall Tree! (Sorry for the dark picture. The sun goes down earlier and earlier.  I should have taken the pic by 2 pm or so when more outdoor light comes into the studio.) These sections have been very easy to do. In fact, I thought I might do an extra section this week but rehearsal and the concert took up more time than I thought it would. Maybe I'll get 2 done this week. (I'm not planning on taking this project to retreat.) 

Now what needs to be done this week? More retreat prep for the most part and a few more projects I want to move forward! 

10/6/25

Make sections 3 & 4 of Tall Trees

Figure out fabric usage stats

Work on clue 4 of Marvelous Mystery

Organize and pack for retreat 10/13

This week has a lighter load as I'm not sure how many more projects I might want to cut and take to retreat next week.  I always precut my projects so I don't need to be cutting while I chatting! Let's just say my concentration is pretty scattered. But we have a lot of fun. 

I've been able to sew every day this week. Here are the stats!  

W/ending 10/5/25. 278 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/September 30/30
• 15 minute days/October 5/5
• 15 minute days/2024 = 278/278 days
• Success rate = 100%

I've decided to make some more blocks to go with 5 leftover blocks from one of my turns with the FCQ Equilters.  No need to have these blocks sit around longer. Let's get more blocks done and then a quilt top.  I think I'll cut out several more blocks and take them on retreat to finish. These will be trimmed to 9.5".  So, how many more do I want to make?  Hum, if I plan a top 4 x 4 I'd need 11 more blocks. The quilt would be 36" square.  I may need to make more as I don't see these as baby quilt blocks.  What do you think? This block design was from the book California Cruisin' from Terry Atkinson.  From what I can tell you can only find it used. 

I did finish two more RSC potato chip blocks for September.  The October colors are brown and black. I haven't decided if I'm going to add either or both of those colors. I tend to only use the brighter colors.  I've made two 12" block each month except September when I made 4 blocks. I need to give some thought to how big I want to make this quilt and whether I need to make a few more blocks.  I probably won't make any decisions for a while. 

I hope you can spend a little time checking out blogs this week.  I tend to spend time on Mondays checking out blogs but often that is the only time I do.  Here's some Linky parties for you to check out. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie