Monday Meanderings 6 - 3 - 2024

Welcome to the new month, the 6th month of the year.  I spent the last three or four days in May getting some finishes.  Here's my goals list for last week.  Not as good as I hoped for but not all that bad either. 

5/27/24

Make some placemats (3 -4) -- ✔️ One done, more to come. 

✅Bind Knuffle Bunny quilt -- finish #2 for May.     

✅Pull out a block set and plan a top -- 9 big blocks make a decent size quilt. 

✅Quilt one of my quilts  -- quilted and bound. 

✅Sing in local community show -- I'm glad it's finished but I did have a lot of fun. 

I used an old orphan block for this placemat.  Surprisingly, I even found a piece of the fabric that was in the pinwheel and used it to surround the block.  I've had it ready to quilt and finish for about 3 weeks and finally did it this week.  I have enough of a pretty fabric with flowers and pots on it that I'll be making several more  placemats in the coming week(s). I may just do a regular binding on it. The pink above just looks like too much for the overall placemat.  I know I made it smaller than the pattern called for but it needs to be even smaller.  

The blocks below are called Picket Star and were designed by Preeti Harris who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts. If you click on the link and then scroll down just about to the end you can find her tutorial for Picket Star.  I used it as the block for my round for FCQ EQuilters a year or so ago.  I have already made one quilt from the blocks. You can see it as a top here.  (Hum, I wonder if I've actually shared the finished quilt yet? It didn't come up in a search of my blog.) 

I'll be sewing this together this week.  I will probably figure something to add to the top and bottom to make this into a rectangular quilt. The blocks finish at 17". On the first quilt I used some smaller squares separated by white fabric at the top and bottom to make it rectangular.  (I still have 4 star blocks left. Hum, maybe a baby quilt or I could just make 3 more blocks...decisions, decisions!) 

Here's what I hope to work on this week. 

6/3/25

Make some more placemats (2 - 3)

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Start sewing Picket Star blocks together

Continue cleaning up cutting table

Cut scraps into squares, rectangles, and bricks 

I think all of that is doable this week. I have my regular stitching group on Monday afternoon and one morning get-together this week and the rest of the week is free. Wopee! 

Last week I took advantage of a $4.99 a yard sale on Keepsake Cottons at JoAnns. I have had great success finding decent fabric in the Keepsake collection to use for backings. I check them carefully to make sure they are higher quality.  This time I bought 5 backings and one piece to recover my big ironing board.  The cute, bright, colored, speckled one is for the ironing board.  I think it'll make me smile every time I iron some fabric. Hum, that bright green on the far right is an odd color. It went well with the quilt it will be backing... I hope I still like it when I start quilting it! I didn't write down which piece went with each top. I'm not sure where the geometric green one goes. Maybe I can tell by size.

The light turquoise at the far left has already been used on my Wiggle Time quilt. Pictures to come!

I've continued to succeed on my 15 minutes of stitching.  Sometime I'm long arming, some stitching on the domestic sewing machine, some knitting, some planning, some processing scraps or ironing fabric.  But I am having fun doing what I love to do.  I just realized I've been calling May April all month long.  I've checked the number of days to June 2 and it is correct. Hopefully I'll continue with the right days for the rest of the year. 

W/ending 6/2 — 154 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 5/5 days or 31/31! 
• 15 minute days/June = 2/2 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 147/154 days
• Success rate =95.4% 

Not bad!  I foresee June as 30 of 30 days of stitching. July might have some non-sewing days. We’ll see what happens as it gets here. 

It's time to do a little reading.  I'm in a cycle of reading happy ever after books. I'm still reading The Ministry of Time but I keep putting it down and thinking about it. I like to think I am savoring it but I'm not so sure I am.  It is a remarkably different book.  But I wonder if it is as good as I anticipated since I can put it down for days, if not weeks? 

I hope you can spend some time checking out quilting blogs around the internet by using these Linky parties: Oh Scrap, Stitching Stuff, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 5 - 2021

Good Morning All! 

Not much to share today.  Here's the completed goal list.  Everything got marked off.  But most of it is repeats of ongoing activities. Always happy to move along projects though. 

6/28/2021

✅ Finish sewing binding on remade log cabin

✅ Continue cutting and making Positivity blocks

✅ Make a few Ombré log cabin blocks

✅ Cut out and begin sewing a new small quilt

And here's what I'll be working on this week.

7/5/2021

Load and quilt one quilt (maybe two!) 

Knitting on baby blanket 

Continue cutting and making Positivity blocks

Finish new small quilt, find backing fabric 

Make a few Ombré log cabin blocks 

Did you notice knitting on the baby blanket?  Nobody I know is having a baby so it isn't a gift.  I have a lot of yarn that I'd like to move out of the house and this is one way I can do it.  I will be donating the finished blanket to a group that passes them on to people who need them.  It's a win-win to me.  I use up some yarn and someone gets a pretty baby blanket.  This one is turquoise.  I had made myself a sweater in the 80's when we lived in Pennsylvania.  Out next location was Georgia.  Nope, didn't need a sweater there very often.  So I unraveled the sweater and have kept the balls of yarn for years.  I figure a baby blanket would be great to make out of it.  So I've been slowly knitting on it.  

One thing I did do this week was relist all the tops I have that are ready to be quilted.  Then I also figured out how much backing fabric I would need.  Here's my worksheet. You can enlarge it if you want to read the nitty gritty.  I will update my spread sheet with this info.  And print it out to have it handy at the desk I use with my long arm.  

Then I checked which tops would work with patriotic fabric.  JoAnns had patriotic fabric on sale for 50% off over the weekend.  I took a list of 5 or so tops but decided not to buy that many backings.  I feel that many of JoAnns fabrics have improved over the years but they still have some "stiff" fabric. You know, the ones that don't drape or flow?  I've bought some over the years thinking they would soften up in the wash -- nope didn't really do that after a few washings.  I made sure I bought fabric that would be cozy and drape nicely.  Here's what I got: 

Do you see the little yellow tape measure on the bottom of the dark blue one? Enlarge the photo to get a better view. That selvedge is 1.5" wide.  GRRR! In the past the selvedges have been an inch wide and I had to buy more to be able to fit the top on the backing. I sure hope this  isn't the new trend. I've bought this fabric before but I don't remember the wide selvedge. Rant, rant! 

Here's my linky party list. Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday.  (hanging my head -- I've not done a great job going back to link all of my list.  Today being Monday I'll get the first 3 done and hope I remember Tuesday's blog! Finally did it Friday night!) 

Have fun surfing the web.  You can get a ton of ideas for your next project! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

OMG Success and Weekly Goals

YES! (I'm shouting this!)  I finished my OMG for February with one day left.  Kind of close to the wire but I've finished it.  And I really like it.  As I say when Pat asks where the quilt is going "It's living here for a while."

I pieced the back because I just don't buy fabric in big hunks.  I did find a 3 yard piece of orange leaves but that wasn't going to be big enough.  I had a few plus blocks left over so I decided I would make a few more and put them in the middle of the backing.  I didn't get around to finishing the backing until Saturday afternoon.  That's important because on Wednesday last week I was paying attention as I was looking at Bonnie Hunter's quilts -- front and back.  She often pieces her backs from extra blocks or old left over blocks.  But I noticed she didn't split a bigger piece of fabric and put blocks in the middle.  LIGHTBULB moment for me.  It would be hard to get the quilt top lined up in the middle of the backing.  

My way of dealing with it was to attach the blocks to the wof.  I had an extra wof piece that I realized would be perfect to split down the middle and sew end to end to give me another piece to make the backing wide enough.  I did mess around a little bit while trying to place the top to the backing on the long arm.  I would have preferred a bit more orange on the right side but, yep, it takes a bit more fussing than I wanted to do at the time. 

Here's a close up of the quilting. 

I bought a new design specifically for this quilt as I wanted to enhance the fall look of it.  I used Maple Sugar by Apricot Moon.  I used So Fine thread on the top in soft orange.  I chose to use a different thread in the bobbin.  It was Essential Pro, Pumpkin by Connecting Threads.  I used some of the Pellon 80/20 cotton/poly batting that I bought on Friday. I even got a label made and inserted between the binding and the back of the quilt.  DONE. 

Tomorrow I plan to bind the doggy Alphabet Challenge quilt.  I'll have two finishes for this month along with a couple of pillowcases.  It should be a good month for fabric usage. 

Since I skipped the goals on Monday, here's a look at my goals from last week. Wednesday may be a good day to list them.  At least I might get into the habit of doing two (or more) blogs a week. 

February 19, 2018

Prep for + attend Bonnie Hunter’s Jamestown Landing class (Whoop! Whoop!) √

Attend Bonnie’s lecture √

Attend Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show √

Finish hand sewing on Alphabet Challenge almost done!

Put borders on Taps Quilt Need to figure out outer border – not enough fabric

Make 3 pillowcases 2 are done

And here's what I'm working on for this week. 

February 28, 2018

Finish quilting Plus Quilt and bind it

Finish embroidery and bind Alphabet Challenge

Work on Jamestown Landing

Design Outside border of Taps Quilt

Make a pillowcase or two

Work on T Shirt quilt

After I get the next binding on the rest of the goals should be easily reached. Plus, I have NOTHING going on this week for the most part.  I'm going to be reading, sewing and surfing the web.  (Ok, I'll probably continue to seek genealogy info -- I'm looking for info on my Great grandmother on my dad's side.  They lived in Montana -- Anaconda and Butte at various times.  Anyone have any hints on how to find out more from Montana? I'm using Ancestory for the time being.) 

I'm linking up with To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wips on Wednesday and Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal Finish.   I'll have to come back to link up one of these. (Hopefully I'll actually remember to do it!  Yep I did!) 

That's it for me today.  I think I'll do a little surfing now. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 19 - 2017

It has been a full week but not all sewing.  First I got another pinwheel top quilted.  It's waiting for binding now.  I also found fabric to make another backing for the 3rd pinwheel quilt. The top fabric is an old Debbie Mumm fabric.  I had to piece it to make it wide enough. I was able to match the Uncle Sam but the sun flower and the watermelon above it didn't line up well.  I'll load it soon and get the quilting done.  

I also made one of the foldable boxes.  Still need 6 or so more but at least I got one more done.  I've got them cut out and waiting so I can't really clean off part of my cutting table until all of them are made.  (Yet, I don't need them for a few months.) 

Then I decided to try making some giant flying geese using the 4-at-a-time method.  Whoa!  Super easy and fast to make these blocks.  Finding a piece of fabric big enough without cutting into my yardage took the most time.  It took me a while to find a fat quarter that I hadn't cut into! I've been using the white off and on for a year or two.  Not much left of it now.




I spent Friday attending an educational presentation by a representative of AccuQuilt.  I've been using mine for several years but I learned quite a few useful things.  And, of course there were quilts for inspiration. Here are a couple of quilts I really liked. 

I recently bought this kite die so I took a picture of this example.  (I also have a Quiltmaker magazine showing directions for making a similar quilt.) 

I wish I could remember how this block was made! I liked the look of this and some day I'll make myself a similar one. I have no idea which dies were used on the table runner. I bet I have a ruler that I could use to make it. (Hum, maybe two different rulers.) Hum, I wonder what type of batting was used as many of the quilts were very wrinkled. On the other hand, they'd been folded and in a car for several weeks! 

Pat and I celebrated our 44th anniversary by going to the local dinner theater.  "Some Enchanted Evening" was a musical review of Rodgers and Hammerstein's light operas. We had a great time.  The food was pretty good and the cast was wonderful.  No doubt we'll plan to go again sometime.   

I was very pleased to actually get everything done on my goals list last week. 

June 12, 2017

Add the borders to table topper√

Quilt another pinwheel quilt√

Make backing for 2 pinwheel quilts √ √

Put binding on pinwheel quilt √

Make some fabric boxes √ 

Here's what I hope to do this coming week.

June19, 2017

Hand quilt on Civil War Quilt

Quilt another pinwheel quilt (#3)

Bind pinwheel quilt #2 (and maybe #3)

Start appliqueing flower wall hanging

Make some fabric boxes

I'm linking up with my normal Monday linky parties: Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. (I'll link as the blogs are posted -- or as soon as I remember afterwards!) Take a look at some of these linky parties -- there are always lots of pictures to encourage and inspire you. 

That's if for me today. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie