Monday Meanderings -- 10 -- 19 -- 2026

What a great week retreating.  I was worried it would be chilly and rainy but the weather turned out beautiful.  No rain going down or coming up. The only rain was overnight. Do you hear me singing "The rain will never fall 'til after sundown" in the background? (For those who don't know it's from Camelot and my folks had the record of the original cast...it got played quite a bit!) 

The retreat was sponsored by a guild in Powhatan, Va where I lived before here. I've maintained my membership as has Sharon as we both enjoy this group of women.(Sharon joined after the first time she went on retreat with us because they didn't have enough members sign up.) It was held at Skelton 4 H Conference Center in Wirtz, Va on Smith Mountain Lake.  It is about 3.5 hours from my home, longer with stops for a meal. I got a lot of my projects completed or moved forward.  Here's how well I did on my goals this past week. 

10/12/26

✅Attend Country Piecemakers retreat — I had a great time!

Make boy and ✅girl 64 charm quilts — held off on the boy quilt as it was hard to lay out. 

✅Make Honey Bouquet baby quilt — done!

✅Sew EQuilter’s blocks into top — done!

✅Put everything away and rest on the weekend! — Almost everything has been put away but not a lot of resting took place.

Here are pics of what I accomplished. I shared this top as it was laid out last week. Now it is a top.  One thing I hadn't noticed was that several of the blocks were not made as the others. And frankly, I don't have any idea why I didn't notice them. I won't be changing the layout though! (Call me lazy 'cause I do not want to rip out all those stitches!). 

This is my 64 Charms baby quilt. I found some charm squares left from a pack of baby squares.  I separated them into boy and girl squares.  Then I added squares from my stash that go with the colors.  Here's the girl one. There will be a boy one eventually but laying the girl one out at retreat was difficult.  I haven't decided if I'll make the boy one at home or maybe just lay it out at home and take it to a March retreat.  I particularly like this top pattern (and the one below) as they only take one length of fabric for the backing. 

Here is the baby version of Honey Bouquet from Villa Designs. This was actually finished but I didn't get a picture of it when done.  I made it smaller than the pattern called for as our baby quilt donations go to the two local NICUs and they want them approximately 36 x 36.  I started with the ABC fabric and added what I could find to go with it.  I'll share it when I get it quilted and bound.

I also made some progress on my leader-ender project but I didn't take any pictures.  My progress on putting everything away is not enough. I still have a bag of goodies.  I also have a quite a few of new fabrics waiting for a spin in the washing machine before they get put away.  I'll share them soon.  

Here's my plan for this week. 

10/19/26

Sew borders on paper pieced pastels top

Finish Halloween stitchery

Quilt a small quilt of mine

Cut pieces for Marigold Oct Clue

Wash, dry, and iron new fabrics 

Do you doubt that I got 15 minutes plus of sewing every day this week? It was way more than that during the retreat days! 

  

Week ending 10/18/26: 291 days of 2026.

 289 stitching days out of 291 days 99.3%

Here's another project I sewed together on retreat. I always precut my projects before going on retreats or sew days. It's much easier to cut on my table that is just right for my height.  Although we put risers under tables for cutting and ironing so if I have to cut it isn't too bad height-wise. I used a very old fabric that really says spring.  I've received a lot of compliments on this top from the retreaters. It actually should have a floral border that finishes at 2". I've decided to leave it as is even though I'd already cut the borders.  They will become the binding. I only have about 10" of the fabric left!  

This is Spring Splash, a free pattern from McCall's Quilting.  Here's the link to the pattern: https://www.quiltingdaily.com/friday-free-quilt-patterns-spring-splash-wall-quilt-pattern-mccalls-quilting-blog/

Even though I didn't get all my "stuff" put away I did get a small top quilted. Ruthie, the long arm, did a great job.  No problems.  Hopefully she'll continue to be reliable. Here's the top I quilted for the local guild. This one is 37" square.  I used New Zealand Kofu by My Creative Stitches.  Unfortunately this picture was taken while the first row was stitching. This top will go back to the guild on Wednesday so that another member can bind it. 

As always I'm linking up with the following Linky parties: Stitching Time, Oh Scrap, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings. Just a note: I'm sorry to say I forgot to link up to the Monday Linky parties last week.  I forgot to link up Monday before I left for retreat.  And once there the available Internet connection was pretty bad.  So no links added for the Monday parties.  Hopefully this week I do it correctly! 

I also noted that I didn't receive any emails from my commenters. That lack of emails means I never responded to my comments. I'll be going back and responding this week... sorry for the delay.  

Hubby reports a busy day at early voting in our county today.  He works at early voting every Tuesday and a few other days.  If you haven't voted yet -- get out and do it as soon as possible.  My guess is Election Day will be packed with folks voting.  Make it easier on yourself and opt for early voting. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie