What a great week I've had. Lots of singing at rehearsals, tech rehearsal, and 2 great concerts. Our spring concert has been held in a very nice Lutheran church in our county for a couple of years. The pastor is one of our singers and has been so giving with her time, talent and her church. In the past we haven't had huge audiences -- maybe a hundred or so. We were very pleasantly surprised when we were told to hold off on starting the concert because people were lined up trying to park still! I never heard an official word on the numbers at the afternoon or evening concert but it looked packed. Chairs had been added in the front. Chairs were lined across the back of the room. And the crowds was engaged. We did a lot of classic American songs as sing alongs. We sang a few standard patriotic songs. Our three big pieces went really well. Those were America Sings, a medley from Hamilton, and Stomp from an opera by Aaron Copland. I am tickled to invite you to Facebook to hear our rendition of Hamilton Highlights. Here's the link to my page with the posting. https://www.facebook.com/bonnie.stapleton.52.
4/27/26
✅Finish 3 more dash block, start trimming to correct size — all dash blocks finished, none trimmed.
✅Quilt a top — just 3 of 9 rows to finish.
✅Make some more batik blocks — 2 more started.
✅Make binding and bind Bear quilt — binding made and quilt bound.
✅✅✅Enjoy singing two concerts and one tech rehearsal —great rehearsal and two concerts with large audiences.
Not a lot of pictures taken of items in progress. But I have pics of the bear quilt. The bear fabric is really old but still works well in a baby quilt. I used red Sew Fine thread and Criss Cross Applesauce. This will be going to a local hospital's NICU. (Or I think that is where it will be going.)
I was happily surprised I was able to maintain my 15 Minutes of Stitching all week.
Week ending 5/3/26: 123 days of 2026.
123 stitching days out of 123 days. 100%
And now my goals for this coming week.
5/4/26
Finish Quilting Trip Around the World for Nancy
Stitch on Snowman #2
Quilt Cats in Pajamas
Work on UFO Challenge for May
Trim Dash blocks
Cut one quilt kit
Here's the beginning of Nancy's quilt. I believe the pattern is Scrappy Trips by Bonnie Hunter. I haven't poked around Bonnie's blog for a long time. Wow! She has a lot of great patterns available under Free Patterns, where this one is. If you want some ideas that's a great resource. I found patterns for quite a few quilts I've made from Bonnie's free patterns over the years.
The story behind this quilt is I was able to do a fast quilting job for my customer/friend in December. We are in the same quilting guild and she had it ready in December and I said I'd quilt it for her and the guild. Fast forward to April when I "found" the quilt in a bag that had been covered up with other quilts. And, I'd forgotten all about it. No clue who had made it, when I'd gotten it, why I didn't write up paperwork for it. I asked around with no one claiming it. So I took it to the April meeting and she came over to talk to me and saw it in a bag and was tickled thinking I'd gotten it done for her. OOOPS. No -- I had no clue who it belonged to! We had a laugh and I will have it done before she brings me another quilt to do this week. It's tough losing your brain. I relate to Scare Crow in the Wizard of Oz!
Here's my UFO Challenge project for May. This is a quilt-as-you-go bargello table runner. A friend of mine got totally fed up with it and offered it to me to finish as she didn't want to see it again! I've let it sit for a good 10 years and decided to put it on my UFO list this year. Its number came up for May. I added two more columns to it today and will try to get it farther along this week. Not much is happening so I might be able to get it finished except binding soon. Time will tell. It will be a little smaller than the pattern.
And last, here's snowman #2. I haven't fused on all the elements. But I did start getting the jacket hand buttonhole stitched, except you can't really see the thread. I started left of his "neck" and am going down the jacket then across the bottom. Cool thing about the jacket wool is my dad bought it for me in Hong Kong in the 1960s. He was career Navy and his ships (he was Commodore of a squadron of destroyers at that time) went to Hong Kong. I also got some beautiful pearls at the same time. Hum. Poor Mr. Snowman looks a little blank. Hopefully I'll get more done on him this week. He can't see a thing yet.
I'm linking up with the following parties.
As some of you know I am a big reader. Sometimes I get inundated with reserved library books that are available for my Kindle. That happened this past week. I turned in one or two books that weren't finished so I could read Norah O'Donnell's new book, We the Women. It has been very interesting reading about women who helped shape the United States from revolutionary times to now. The book is divided into sections based on the years. I'm starting The Gilded Age 1876 - 1926. Within each time frame several lives are covered. So far it has been fascinating. It is really an eye opener how women were nearly invisible except as homemakers. Did you know a married woman couldn't own her own property as it transferred to her husband at marriage. I'm looking forward to reading about more of these heroic women.
Our country has been on a real roller coaster recently. I keep up with the news. I'm not happy with where we are now. But I also spend time stitching to help me keep myself centered and happy. I hope you are also.
Happy Quilting All! Bonnie
