Monday Meandering 11 - 19 - 2018

Last week?  I goofed off most of it getting a LOT of reading done. On Mondays I go to stitching group up at the community's clubhouse.  That's where I've been getting most of Theo's sweater worked on.  Weird day though because I actually knit a hole in my finger that drew a scant amount of blood.  Say what???  I've been using the same needles for the entire sweater and this time it caused a small wound. Go figure.  Needless to say I quit knitting on it and haven't picked up the sweater since as I was waiting for the thing to heal.  Here's where I am on it.  A few more inches until I can do the ribbing and then on to the arms.  I can see the end coming.  Must knit more!  

I received my wide backing fabric for Jamestown Landing. Whoop! Whoop! (Hum, it's brighter than this pic.)  Yes there is a tiny spot below the red line.  I think it was from some of the black fluff I found along the edge.  I'm guessing it is from the machine that printed the fabric? It's the only spot I've seen so no worries. I doubt I'll get this finished in November but I definitely want to in December.  It will be a boost to my fabric usage for the year. 

Here's my pathetic results from my goals last week.  I didn't list make two batches of cookies and some muffins for a bake sale but I did those too. 

November 12, 2018

Knit on Theo’s Sweater√

Sash rail fence quilt√ started sewing rails together into blocks

Make backing for red and blue 16 patch OOPS 

Border the pirate quilt√

Clean up the cutting table — it’s a mess  -  didn’t happen! Sigh

November 19, 2018

Knit on Theo’s Sweater

Finish sewing rail fence quilt together and start sashing

Make some ornaments ?maybe?

Clean up 1/8th of the cutting table (Nothing much is happening when I say clean the whole table, maybe only cleaning 1/8th will get me going!) 
Clean house and cook dinner for Thanksgiving

We'll see if I have any success with the goals this week.  I'm hoping to at least make progress on the rail fence quilt as I want to turn it in to the quilt guild in December to give to a senior center. 

Here's my last photos from our vacation in Canada.  These were taken in Bar Harbor, Maine mostly in the rain.  Our excursion was a short sail on a clipper ship.  Sounded great in the middle of summer.  Reality was colder and wetter than anticipated.  

This was taken from our cruise ship.  Notice the rain on the windows and the grey skies.  

We were getting so wet! Pat had a new rain coat and I was wearing an old, worn out, thin rain coat with about 4 layers underneath. Again, I was pretty well soaked at the end of the event.  We enjoyed the views and saw some dolphins (or a cousin of dolphins as I don't remember what they actually were.) Afterwards we had lunch in Bar Harbor with a nice view of the river front. 

I took this picture to show the cruise ship we were on -- the Veendam of  Holland American Line.  We traveled 1635 miles and the ship used 170,000 gallons of fuel. (yikes!) I'll have at least one more post from Boston from when we were waiting for our plane.  

My comments are not showing up in my email account any more.  Has anyone found a way to have them show up there again?  HELP! 

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward. Yes, I've linked everything since I'm writing this Monday morning.  Take some time to see what folks are doing in their studios this week!  I'm looking forward to some surfing! 

Happy Quilting, Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 11 - 12 - 2018

Busy week with not a lot to show for it!  One customer quilt came off Ruthie the long arm and a small charity quilt was put on and quilted.  It still needs binding which I plan to do during this month. 

My friend Sharon came up from N.C. for the weekend.  We always have a great time. She was teaching a new mystery table runner for Country Piecemakers.  It was fun to do.  The gals did a great job making some really cute table runners.   I finished putting the border on mine today.  Once it gets quilted and bound I'll share it with you. 

I decided it was time to see how a rail fence project I was working on was doing.  I've been making rail fence blocks but hadn't put them on the design wall for quite a while.  So up they went.  This project was started by a quilter who died last year.  I was given her stash which had a mixture of newer fabrics and much older calicos.  I've used some of the fabric for charity quilts,(remember this airplane quilt?) little projects and the like.  Also in her stash was a rail fence project.  She had quite a few blocks made, some sewn in rows and a lot of extra fabric cut to the right size. I recognized a lot of calicos from the 80's and early 90's. (Heck I HAVE some of those fabrics or bits of them still!)  I cut some of my own newer fabrics, remade some of hers so the new and old would fit together.  

Now it was time to see what I could do with all of the blocks.  Sharon and I agreed the blocks needed to be broken up a bit.  So I will take 4 smaller blocks to make a larger block and sash them.  Help!  I had hoped to use a darker blue batik already cut into 1 1/2" strips but I don't have enough of them.  Here's what it looks like now. 

The blue is the batik.  There's some black on the upper right side.  A red print on the left side and a cherry red solid chunk of fabric rolled up and a green rolled up.  Sharon and I like the reds best.  See the close up and let me know what you think. Once done this will go a local senior group. 

I'm wavering between the red print and the solid cherry color.  It looks surprisingly bright in the pictures which makes me thing the print might be better.  I need to figure out how much fabric I need and see if I have enough of either of these fabrics.  Notice the block in the top picture that looks black?  It's actually dark purples.  I'll be replacing it with something that shows the block style better.  I may also drag out a navy blue solid too.  I sure wish I had enough of the blue batik.  Sigh.  I'll start sewing this together when I figure out what fabric is going to become the sashing. 

I've done pretty well on my goals this week even if there isn't a lot to see.  Theo's sweater is coming along really well.  Hopefully I'll get the body done this week and start on the sleeves.  

November 5, 2018

Knit on Theo’s sweater√

Finish customer’s quilt√

Attend Country Piecemakers’ Mystery Table Runner event√

Load and quilt charity quilt√

Decide on another top to quilt and start it OOPS! 

And for this week... 

November 12, 2018

Knit on Theo’s Sweater

Sash rail fence quilt

Make backing for red and blue 16 patch

Border the pirate quilt

Clean up the cutting table — it’s a mess

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Canada.  We took a bus tour from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Peggy's Cove to see an historic lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean. The day was blustery and rainy.  Needless to say it was wet!  My water repellent rain coat wasn't doing much repelling so I was pretty much soaked once we finished seeing the outdoor sights. 

I stayed close to the light house.  The rocks were wet from the rain and ocean spray and I wasn't willing to scramble over more rocks to reach the ocean.  Heck, I would have gotten even wetter.  But Pat checked it out.  You can't miss him -- he's got the bright yellow raincoat on. 

The ocean was splashing up on the rocks. 

BEWARE! 

The view to the right of the lighthouse shows the shoreline and some of the village. This is a fishing village but I didn't get a picture of the ships. 

After we had seen the sights and gotten drenched we went into the cafe and had a yummy hot chocolate.  Then we went off to see a store that had pewter jewelry.  The rain was really coming down by then and we headed back to our bus to try to get dry! 

There are some more pictures from our Canada trip to share.  Our last port was Bar Harbor, Maine and then Boston.  I don't have a lot to share from there but I have a few more interesting places to show.  

I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward.  I will try to link up to Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward Monday but it is a really busy day so I might not get to it until Tuesday. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Let us remember our veterans for the their willingness to serve and protect our country.  Both of my grandfathers served in World War I; my brother served in the Viet Nam war.  My dad was a career naval officer and served from World War II until he retired in 1972. They served for the common good of the United States of America.   

Goals, New Toys and Stashbusting (or not)

Oops!  On Monday I forgot to put in my weekly goals.  I did pretty well on last weeks goals...

October 29, 2018

Load and quilt charity quilt√

Bind the monkey quilt√

Knit on Theo’s sweater…. it’ll be on here until it’s finished√ 

Order backing for Jamestown Landing√

Buy fabric to border the heron piece Nope, didn’t happen

And this week I'm working on: 

November 5, 2018

Knit on Theo’s sweater

Finish customer’s quilt

Attend Country Piecemakers’ Mystery Table Runner event

Load and quilt charity quilt

Decide on another top to quilt and start it 

Here's my stashbusting (or not) report for October.  Yea, I didn't actually bust any stash... sigh.  The good news is I've still used more fabric than I've bought this year.  But with only 2 months left I'm hoping to be able to finish a few more quilts; maybe I'll get Jamestown Landing quilted and bound before the end of the year.  

2018	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Oct.	4.250	58.875	2.750	76.500	17.625

Um, I got an ad in my email in box last week:  

I've been thinking about getting a new machine, especially one with bigger embroidery hoops.  

I ended up getting a Viking Ruby 50.  I've been playing with it a bit but I need to take the classes and play with it more to really get comfortable with it. I'm not used to a computerized machine... what? There isn't a manual lift for the presser foot?  That's like the new cars that have keyless entry and driving.  Ick. It'll take me a while to get used to that feature.  

Beth and I finished her king size quilt on Tuesday.  She's tickled with it.  I like the look of it too. 

It's going to look terrific on her bed.  The stripes will go from the headboard to the footboard.  We loaded it sideways so the design would parallel the strips.  It was a real challenge to quilt this because of the small backing. 

She bought a wide back that was suppose to be 118" wide. She washed it to remove excess dye and to preshrink it.  Except it really shrank a lot.  It was barely 112" wide when we loaded it.  The quilt was 111".  We were really careful as each row was quilted.  Sometimes we had to hold the backing so that Ruthie could finish the row.  But it is done and we're both happy! 

I've already quilted another small charity quilt for my Powhatan guild.  I have one more panel to do.  I probably won't get it done before I go to the meeting Saturday.  

I'm sharing a few more pictures from our Canada trip... we stopped for a day at Sydney, Nova Scotia.  It was the only port that we didn't have a tour scheduled. Instead we walked through the little dockside shops.  Saw the famous "fiddle" although I didn't hear why it was there.  Then we walked into town to have lunch.  It was very good. We didn't do any other shopping and I didn't take many pictures because it was a cloudy, dark day. 

I'll share more Canadian pictures during my next post.  

I'm linking up with Free Motion by the River,  Midweek Makers, and Needle and Thread Thursdays. (I'll try to check back tomorrow to link NTT. Oops, forgot all about it until Sat. morning and it was closed.)  I had a great time checking out quite a few blog posts on Monday.  I hope to spend some time seeing what folks are working on this evening and tomorrow. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 29 - 2018

One king-sized quilt quilted!  I finished my customer's Redskins quilt this week. It has about 189,000+ stitches in it and nearly 7 hours of quilting (by the computer) not including the time it took to load it, roll the quilt up and basting it.  I'm happy to have this quilt finished.  I'm going to throw on one of the charity quilts I'm doing for Country Piecemakers next.  Then I have another king size quilt to do.  Once that is finished I can quilt my Jamestown Landing!  That is great motivation to getting these big quilts finished.  

I also was able to make a block for a clubhouse quilter who is moving out of the area.  My block is at 12 o'clock. I didn't get a picture of my block... silly me!  I used some new dies I have for my Go.  I used the drunkard's path along with some triangle dies.  There was a nice assortment of blocks to send off with our neighbor. 

One of the things on my to do list was begin working on the heron picture. It was a kit I purchased the summer of 2015. It was the row by row pattern for Lib's Place in Rice, Virginia. Check out the other designs to go with this lovely heron. (Scroll down to see the quilts.)  It looks like these patterns are still available and kits too.  I'm just making the one heron.  He will be bordered to make the finished pieced a bit bigger.  I have a small wall between a door and a window where I hang wall hangings.  


I notice I also have a problem with my background.  I may peel off the heron and unstitch where the first and second background pieces meet.  I think that one is causing the whole thing to list slightly to the left at the top.  Fun times figuring this out!

I also had some visitors today.  Well, Theo got his picture made but Kevin didn't.  They had a burst water pipe at home and had to move to a hotel for a couple of days until the place dries out and repairs are made -- hopefully they can return by Monday.  Kevin was happy to drive down and I got to play with Theo. Boy howdy, that boy is tiring.  He never stops going.  We played with our Brio train, we threw a soft pumpkin around, he ate raisins and more raisins, and we took a walk.  Pat missed out because he had a barbershop concert. Hopefully Kevin enjoyed some time with his mom! 

I did great on my goals this past week.  I didn't have many listed because I knew it would take a couple of days to get the customer's quilt loaded and quilted. And we had a full day rehearsal on Saturday.  I'm tickled every item on the list got checked off! 

October 22, 2018

Continue working on customer quilt — 11 more rows to do! √

Pick out designs and embroider Ellie’s and Theo’s Halloween shirts √

Try again — Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces√

Knit on Theo’s sweater √

October 29, 2018

Load and quilt charity quilt

Bind the monkey quilt

Knit on Theo’s sweater…. it’ll be on here until it’s finished! 

Order backing for Jamestown Landing

Buy fabric to border the heron piece

Here's a couple of pictures I snapped in Charlottetown, PEI.  I was taken by this big mural on the side of a building. (Sorry, I have no idea whether it was a private home or a business.  We had walked downtown after our bus tour around the island.)  

I thought it was just an interesting mural and maybe there was a quilt shop with it.  But no.  We found this sign that went with it... 

It was part of a story walk.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to walk to any other locations.  But it seemed like a fun way to interact with children.  Try clicking on the pictures to enlarge them.  Do you know what a skulk is? I didn't really read the sign -- just photographed it.  I was charmed by the story unfolding on this sign once I read it at home.  I would have liked to see some of the other locations. 

I've got a few more photos from Charlottetown and PEI.  Keep checking back as I will continue to post photos from our Canadian travels along with my quilting info. 

Today I'm linking up with my favorite early week linky parties.  Honestly, I'll try to remember to link up when they go live.  Last week it didn't even cross my mind until Thursday when most of them were closed.  I'm going to link up with Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. Ok, 2 out of 4 isn't too bad. (Writing note to self to remind me to link with the other two blogs!) 

Happy quilting all! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 10 - 22 - 2018 and PEI

Busy week -- I've been trying to get two posts up each week.  Sure didn't happen this week.  So here's what I've been working on recently.  I spent one day wrestling a big king size backing -- I needed to add a few more inches to the backing.  The next day I loaded it (with Pat's help) on Ruthie.  Then I got the design figured out and started quilting it.  I got 3 of the 14 rows done.  It takes Ruthie about 30 minutes to quilt out a row.  I must say, I love the electronics on her! 

I spent a lot of time on embroidering the Halloween shirts for Natalie and Sophie this week. I probably should have picked a different design for Sophie.  Her's had 34 different stops; half had thread color changes.  If you aren't familiar with appliqué style embroidery the first stitching line is designed to give you a base line so you can then put a piece of fabric on it.  The second stitching line stitches the fabric down.  Then you remove the hoop and trim the fabric close to the line.  This design had 8 different fabrics added.  Hind sight -- I would have picked a different design to save some time!  But Sophie liked it.

And here's Natalie's. It only had 6 fabric placements and 21 total stops. She too likes her shirt.  I figure someday they will both grow out of these cute shirts but until they tell me that I'm still going to make them. 

I also gave up on the pattern for Theo's v neck cardigan I showed last week.  I finally realized I had no idea what the directions wanted me to do.  So I reviewed the old pattern and decided to go with the pullover sweater.  Much easier.  All the stitches got ripped out and the new sweater is started.  Hopefully this new design will go much faster without any more pulling out all my stitches! 

I did fairly well with my goals this week. 

October 15, 2018

Work on customer’s king size quilt - fix backing, load and begin quilting√

Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces Nope, nothing

Knit on Theo’s sweater√ started a new sweater — pullover! 

Pick out and embroider Sophie and Natalie’s Halloween shirts √

Put out Halloween decorations… √

And this week --- much the same hopefully with more forward progress. 

October 22, 2018

Continue working on customer quilt — 11 more rows to do! 

Pick out designs and embroider Ellie’s and Theo’s Halloween shirts 

Try again — Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces

Knit on Theo’s sweater 

Here's the next grouping of photos from our time on Prince Edwards Island.  Lucy Maud Montgomery lived in PEI as a child and young adult.  As an adult she wrote Anne of Green Gables. The Green Gable Homestead is the house and some of the surrounding land that was the setting for the Anne stories.  It was fun to see the short video of her life and see her aunt and uncle's home that was the bases for Green Gable home in her novels.  

Here I am standing at the back of the house.  I realized there is a ladder on the roof.  I didn't hear anything about why there would be a ladder on the roof.  Anybody know?  

I had to take a picture of this quilt.  We didn't have a guided tour so I have no idea if it is original to the house or perhaps a quilt from the time. It was a beautiful sunny day so many of my pictures were washed out.  

On the way back to the harbor we made a quick stop at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company.  I bought some blueberry preserves and some tea.  It was fun to see this statue of a Scottish piper.  He represents one of the many Scotts who moved to the Maritime Provinces. Most of the areas we visited were settled by English, French or Scotch.  In some places we visited, such as Quebec, the French were predominant.  Everywhere we toured there was discussions about where folks from the different countries settled. 

Also, at the Preserve Company was a neat gourd display at .  Hum, I wonder if I could use some of this in an appliqué project....?

I have more to share from PEI so my next post will continue our time there. 

I'm linking up with my regular, wonderful linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward. It's time to see what others are working on.  (Yep, I'll need to link these up tomorrow morning!)  Thursday afternoon --  Well CARP!  I meant to come back and link up these places and I forgot all about it. I just linked up to Moving It Forward.  All the other linky parties are closed.  So much for getting this written Sunday night.... Sigh. See you next week. B

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 15 - 2018

We are home to stay for a while.  Yes, we were gone much of last week.  We were down in Nags Head checking on the beach house after Florence and the summer rental season. When we go in early fall Pat spends most of his time doing small repairs -- replacing window screens, moving outdoor furniture in to the storage area. And, he loves doing that.  I usually bring my Featherweight and sew on projects.  This time I decided not to bring the FW.  I did bring projects that needed to be cut out (appliqué stuff) and a sweater I'm making for Theo. 

Yea, it doesn't look much like a sweater does it.  It's being knit from the top down. It's a v neck cardigan.  So the two things sticking up end up being the border at the neck.  I've gotten about 5 inches done and I realized I may not have followed the pattern correctly.  ARGH.  I'm suppose to have 205 stitches on the needle and I only have 164. I guess I'll spend some time this afternoon figuring out why I am 40 stitches short.  I may give up on this one if I have to rip it all out again.  Sigh.

I did do some sewing -- I threw a quilt on Ruthie and quilted it.  I haven't used her in 2 months or so and it was almost like I had to relearn how to use her.  Bummer.  But once I got her set up she quilted like a dream.  She's got a king size quilt to do next.... not mine, for a customer. 

I did alright on my goals, however, I knew I was going to be gone most of the week so I was careful choosing my goals.

October 8, 2018

Theo’s sweater — finish taking off rows & then start knitting using the correct info!√argh

Continue cutting out pieces from Wacky Family Portrait, lay out pieces and fuse in place √ still need to resolve some issues… but progress was made

Load small quilt on Ruthie and quilt it! √

Put everything away from retreat - mostly put away! 

Figure out additional fabric for friendship stars - nope, didn’t get to it

And this week: 

October 15, 2018

Work on customer’s king size quilt - fix backing, load and begin quilting

Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces

Knit on Theo’s sweater

Pick out and embroider Sophie and Natalie’s Halloween shirts 

Put out Halloween decorations… 

Here are some more pictures from the Canada trip.  We left Quebec City and two days later stopped at Prince Edward Island. Scroll down here for a map of the area.  It is in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.   We took an Island Drive tour that included the Green Gables Heritage Place.  But first a bit of sites on the way.  

One lobster trap with a fake lobster.  Lobstering is a major industry in the Maritime Provinces.  We learned how a lobster is caught and how ingenious the traps are to keep them caught.  Here's a bunch of traps on a dock.  Lobstering has different time restraints in the various areas.  Mostly, you can get fresh lobster all year round.  Rules and fishing limits are in place to protect this natural resource.

I was particularly interested because I lived in Newport, Rhode Island when I was 5.  We used to go down to the docks and get live lobsters that my mom would cook for us.  Needless to say my grandparents were pretty shocked the next year when they took the family out for a fancy dinner in Miami.  I ordered a full lobster dinner.  And, you bet, I ate that whole dinner! 

We made one more stop on the shore before heading to the Green Gables Heritage Place.  First the sign...

In English and French

And next the wondrous scenery... to the left.

And to the right... 

I'll be sharing more of Prince Edwards Island on my next post. 

I'm linking up with my regular, wonderful linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. I plan to spend some time this week checking out quilters on the internet.  I haven't had a whole lot of time recently to do that.  Hope you can join me. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie