Monday Meanderings 9 - 8 - 2025

As of Sunday we are 250 days into 2025. Wow -- this year is flying.  We've enjoyed the cooler weather but we sure could use some rain.  We got some rain but not enough. Hopefully we'll get more over the next month or so.  I did make some good progress this month.  Here are last week's goals. 

9/1/25

✅Put borders on Soho 3yd quilt from July retreat — done! 

✅Quilt another top — quilted a small baby quilt. 

✅Cut a top for October retreat — started cutting more Economy blocks 

√Clear off right side of design wall — some things have been removed but not all.

✅Begin cutting fabric for Magnificent Mystery Quilt from Meadow Mist Designs — the first two fabrics are done. (Minus one 2.5” square. I’ll do it tomorrow or the next day.)

This is Soho, a Fabric Cafe 3 yard quilt.  I changed it a little as I didn't have a yard of beige.  So I used one fabric for the half square triangles. I bought another fabric for the borders which I did with only one fabric rather than an inner and outer border. I'll probably use some of the beige border fabric for the backing.  

For the next quilt kit I chose to use the September UFO Challenge project.  Several years ago I made an economy block quilt and cut some extra pieces for it. This week I cut the background fabrics for all the pieces I had already cut out.  Then I pulled a bunch of additional fabrics so I could make a bigger quilt. First the finished blocks. (Yep, just 2!) 

Here are the cut pieces and a bunch of fabrics that still need to be cut. I'm using dies from my 9" Accuquilt Cube. Any cube will allow you to make an Economy block using dies # 1, 3, and 4. The triangle die for the light fabric uses a too much fabric so I'm considering figuring out the correct size and cutting them myself.  I'll keep you informed if it works.  

I did make some progress on clearing off the side of my design wall.  I forgot to take a before picture so I found one from awhile ago.  Here are the two ... 

   So, argh -- I wish I had more control of my photos!  Anyway, the left is a while ago and the right is showing I've made some progress. I moved several orphan blocks and some excess papers.  Obviously there is some more work to do. With perseverance I should be able to remove and put all of this stuff away. (Or throw it away.) 

I did get a start on cutting out the Magnificent Mystery quilt. Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs starts her mystery quilt in the summer. She gives cutting directions for the entire quilt early on. If you cut it all at the beginning it makes it easier to make each clue as all that is needed is sewing.  I've enjoyed that part so I do all the cutting at the beginning. I will continue working on the cutting this coming week. 

Here's my plan for this week. 

9/8/25

Load and start quilting Ombré quilt

Make RSC blocks in light blue and light green and more 9 patch blocks

Cut out more Sept UFO challenge- Economy blocks

Continue cutting out the Magnificent Mystery quilt

Bind baby quilt 

I had another 100% sewing week. 

W/ending 9/7/25. 250 days of 2025

• 15 minute days Sept = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2025 = 250/250 days
• Success rate = 100%

I hope you can spend some time checking out some of the Linky parties -- don't you want to get some new ideas? (Ok, so I get way too many ideas every week and have enough of my own ideas but I still get excited about what I see each week.) 

Life in Pieces

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

I'll leave you with this wonderful picture I took while walking this week. Yep that's hubby with Sunny. I stopped to get the picture. 

We didn't get the rain but we got this huge rainbow.  For a short while there was a double on the left hand side but that picture wasn't very good.  

Happy quilting all -- Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 11 - 2025

What a wonderful week Sharon and I have had.  She's gotten a lot done which you can see below.  I did some "negative" stitching on my counted cross stitch before I was able to make forward progress. Check below for the picture.  And the weather has been great though we've spent a good deal of our visit in the studio keeping Ruthie busy.  First let's look at my goals for the week.

8/5/25

✅Figure out next steps for my 1.5” squares sewn into 9 patches — read directions, found background fabric. It's ready to cut out.

✅Quilt a top —  top quilted but needs binding.

✅Prep triangle top to quilt on my domestic machine — pinned and started quilting. 

✅Continue working on the counted cross stitch project bag — progress made but there’s been a lot of pulling stitches out and then recounting and stitching. 

✅Attend Country Piecemakers guild meeting Saturday — Great fun to see so many friends. And a bonus — lots of free fabric from a quilter who has given up quilting.

 

Here's a picture of the triangle quilt.  I pin basted it and made a mistake. Probably a big mistake. I usually tape the backing fabric down and then pull it taut and tape some more. OOPS. I forgot the taping step. And, I was ready to get to quilting so I didn't fix it. I may regret that. The positive is this is a wall hanging and the back won't be showing. 

And here's a closeup of it. I'm stitching with my walking foot in the white triangles although I am quilting by rows.

Eventually all of the white triangles will be stitched on all sides. It's pretty easy to do -- I started by going up and down the rows. I may have to fill in some spaces but hopefully it will continue to be easy. 

Ugh.  No I don't really like this decorator fabric for the backing. And, no it doesn't look great but it is a wall hanging so it won't show. Or at least that is my plan.  It's more puckery than I want but ... I was lazy. 

As I mentioned the cross stitch project bag is a challenge.  I removed a lot of stitches on the left side. I finally figured out the error and have been able to continue to make progress.  Hopefully the lamb on the left will be finished by next week...maybe more. 

Now on to this week. I'm going to take it easy this week.  I want to read a bit, knit and do a little sewing. Plus all that new to me fabric needs to be put away. Hum, I might be busier than I want to be! 

8/11/25

Keep working on project bag 

Read a book or two

Wash and iron new fabric and put it away

Quilt one of my tops

Make blocks for various projects

I have already washed most of the dark fabrics that I got. Including some greens I bought at Quilters Corner in the Richmond area.  I am hoping to make a paper pieced Christmas tree sometime this year and bought a medium and dark green.  Once again, I was surprised by the amount of color Color Grabbers™, well, grab. The bigger sheets are Color Catchers™.  I'm going to be buying more Color Grabbers in the future. 

The funny thing is there was only a yard or two that were brown.  I've already started the ironing and folding but it will take a while to go through all 25 yards plus the extra 2.25 yards from the store.  Here are the dark fabrics ready to iron. 

Here are the quilts Sharon was able to quilt on Ruthie.  In quilting order:

This is Baby Goose pattern from Villa Rosa.  Sharon won a kit.  It's now ready to bind. 

Next is a Fabric Cafe 3 yard quilt.  Sorry we're not sure which book it comes from or if it is a stand alone pattern.  The pink fabric has ballerinas on it and the black fabric has ballet inspired words. Really cute quilt. 

 

And finally, this amazing quilt.  Sharon decided to do the Bernina - Sugaridoo quilt along last year.  (The pattern, Between the Lines, and information is still available at Sugaridoo https://sugaridoo.com/qal/.) She chose one of my new quilting designs, Hidden Diamonds by My Creative Stitches.

And here is a close up of the quilting design, Hidden Diamonds. 

I have to say she did a beautiful job on the color choices, piecing, and picking the design. It was an easy design to use and went fairly fast.  

This was another successful week on the stitching front. I will admit I nearly skipped my stitching Saturday.  But I decided to set the timer for 15 minutes and work on the project bag.  Needless to say I spent more than 15 minutes! 

W/ending 8/9/25. 222 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/August = 9/9
• 15 minute days/2024 = 215/215 days
• Success rate = 100%

It's been a busy day quilting Between the Lines, washing fabric, and trying to straighten the studio.  It looks like a bomb went off in it with all the new fabric needing to be put away.  Hopefully I'll be able to get to sew sometime this week. 

Here's my favorite Linky parties. Please go visit them.

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 8 - 4 - 2025

Yahoooooo! Our hot weather has broken.  Early this morning it was 60˚.  And it stayed nice with lower humidity all day.  Although most of my time was spent in my studio in the basement, I did get out a couple of times to walk Sunny. We didn't even have to worry about paws being burnt on the asphalt street.  I finally had a bit more motivation to finish up another of my retreat tops. Most goals were achieved last week. 

✅Put all my retreat supplies away — done. 

✅Put borders on Pretty Please — finished. 

✅Finish FCQ Equilters blocks — completed and ready to get it in the mail. 

Pick a quilt and backing — I picked them but didn’t do anything with it! 

✅Keep knitting on the current hat — finished except pompom. Another one is started. 

✅Work on cross stitch project bag  — more stitches are done. 

Here's Pretty Please which is now named Popsicle. (Pretty Please is the name of the pattern from Fabric Cafe.) Who knows when I'll find a fabric for the backing. 

I also finished the last few FCQ Equilter blocks this week.  I'll get them off in the mail sometime this week. There are other ways to lay them out but this one caught my eye. I quit at 6 blocks. 

I didn't take photos of the hat nor the cross stitch project bag.  Maybe next week. Now on to this week's goals list. 

8/5/25

Figure out next steps for my 1.5” squares sewn into 9 patches

Quilt a top

Prep triangle top to quilt on my domestic machine 

Continue working on the counted cross stitch project bag and the hat

Attend Country Piecemakers guild meeting Saturday 

Here are a few things I worked on off list. First is a triple rail quilt from Even More Quilts for Baby from Ursula Reikes.  When I opened this quilt kit at retreat I had no idea what I had done.  Evidently I hadn't cut all the rails I would need and the focus fabric was cut the wrong size and way too many than needed. Last week I auditioned three different fabrics for the centers. 

Biker Chicks 

Dalmations 

Mickey Mouse 

As much as I like the Biker Chicks I just couldn't see it as a baby quilt. Dalmations would have worked but Mickey won out because I had enough fabric to cut the 4 8.5" blocks and not a lot leftover. Bonus. 

Here's Mickey's Triple Rail quilt top. It's about 38" square if I remember correctly. The hospital we donate our baby quilts to like smaller quilts for the NICU. So this will work great. 

I also decided on my fabrics for the Magnificent Mystery Quilt being offered by Cheryl Brickey at Meadow Mist Designs. (This links directly to the info page for the Mystery Quilt.)  The cutting directions will be released on Thurs, 8/7.  I've got my fabric picked but I'm waiting for my background fabric that I ordered Sunday. 

All of the colored fabric came from my stash. Amazing.  Although I really like the background fabric at the top it's only a fat quarter so I'm not using it. Hopefully I'll like the fabric I ordered.  I bought a bolt of it as I needed some beige-y fabric for bordering one of my quilts from retreat and possibly could use it as backings fora couple of tops. I really like these fabrics and how well they go together. Fingers are crossed that the new background fabric will look terrific with them. 

Another week of 100% on 15 Minutes of Stitching.

W/ending 8/3/25. 215 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/July = 31/31
• 15 minute days/August = 3/3
• 15 minute days/2024 = 215/215 days
• Success rate = 100%

Please take a few minutes to visit these Linky parties. Lots of ideas will pop off the pages. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musings 

I'll leave you with one more photo.  Be careful of wandering seam rippers! This one rolled off my sewing machine table. I don't know if it rolled off through the open area at the side of the machine or whether it rolled off the front. But it landed point first.  I showed the presser foot to show that it was ridiculously close to my foot which was wearing a sandal at the time. 😳😳

And with that I'm done. My quilting buddy Sharon is coming up at the end of the week and we're looking forward to making progress on some of our projects and getting to visit in person for the first time since last October, I think. 

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