Monday Meandering 12 - 9 - 2019

Lots of sewing this past week and quite a bit of singing or listening to music.  This week is concert week.  Here's a preview of my music schedule: 

Monday:  Rehearsal for Spotsylvanians
Tuesday:  no formal practice but I'll be listening to several recordings of songs we're singing
Wednesday: dress rehearsal for Heritage Singers
Thursday: concert for Heritage Singers
Friday: dress rehearsal for Spotsylvanians
Saturday: concert for Spotsylvanians
Sunday: concert for Spotsylvanians

Luckily, I still have sewing time cause I'm going to need it to finish my projects.

I didn't take any photos this week.  Heck, everything I am working on is for Christmas presents. So, there won't be many product pictures for a while. 

This week I am sharing photos from previous Christmas quilts I've made. First up is Christmas Favorites by Arts to Heart. I finished this in 2016 (or so.) But I won't tell you how many years it took me to complete! It hangs in our entry way every December. 

My next quilt is a Trip Around the World made during the summer of 2017 with Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict's 12 Days of Christmas in July. I really lucked out finding all of the fabric in my stash.  And, believe me, it felt great using all of those stash fabrics.  (Hum, maybe it's time to make another TAW.) I gave this to Aimee and Ellie for Christmas that year.  (Click on the link above if you want to make one for yourself.) 

That's it for me today.  My goals are staying the same -- finish all those secret projects.  I don't think I'll be making the skirt I had planned to do as we've been able to find some other Victorian clothing to use.  The skirt will be made sometime but not under the Christmas pressure time. 

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  Check them out to see what folks are up to. I don't know about you, but I always find at least one quilt or project that tells me to make one like it when I surf the web.  I'm holding off starting anything new though. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

OMG Finish! At the Last Minute

I'm squeaking in at the last minute -- or almost the last minute.  I'm hand stitching the binding down on Christmas Favorites -- should be done long before midnight tonight.  I'll still have some threads to tie off -- I did several different background stitching including a diagonal stitching that had a million starts and stops and every one has to be tied off.  I'll be working on that tomorrow. For the most part it is done. Well, except about 30 buttons that need to be hand sewn on -- but I'm still saying it is done!  I'll share pictures later when I can get some decent ones.  It's suppose to be cloudy and/or rainy for the next few days. 

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.  I've got a few days to figure out what my next OMG will be.  It probably should be to finish one of my Taps quilts.  Only a couple of rows need to be sewn together and then it needs quilting.  I'll let you know in a few days. 

Have a safe New Years Eve.  And Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 28 - 2016

It seems like I really didn't get much sewing done over the last week.  On the other hand I did make 4 apple crumb pies -- with nary a picture to show for it.  What was I thinking?  Two pies were sold at a bake sale supporting the local singing group.  One was for dessert Thanksgiving day and one is residing in the freezer to be pulled out in the future.  Lots of work but I still have a whole pie left! 

So, I did get 2 Christmas shirts done for Sophie and Natalie. OOPS, no pictures. I did notice they were both wearing them the next day when their mom posted on Facebook.  But, you really can't see the designs.  Sigh.  I've made Theo a Christmas onesie but I can't even find it now.  Yikes.  So, I'll throw in a picture of some more of the onesies I gave him in October.  Jawsome is from Embroidery Boutique. 

And Boy at Work is from Designs by JuJu.  Who knows where I put his Christmas one.  Heck, where is the shirt for Ellie's Christmas embroidery?  I am getting a little too scattered. Must mean I need to spend way more time in the studio.  I have hardly been in there over the last week or two. 

Here's my newest knitting project.  Don't expect to see anymore of it for several weeks.  Just saying'.

I finished my OMG pretty early this month.  I wanted to sew the blocks together and get the borders on.  And yep, both borders are done.  

You can visit other OMG blogs by going to Elm Street Quilts to see if others have finished their November goals.  (If you have time, take a look at other posts on Patty's blog.  She has a lot of information on making bags/purses.  I need some time to page through all the wonderful posts.) I'll post my goal for December early in the month. 

Now, it's on to the weekly goals.  I didn't give myself too many goals as I knew I was going to be busy with non-quilty things last week.  Heck, it'll be the same this week actually.  So, overall, I did well. 

November 21, 2016

Keep knitting √

Get 2 more shirts embroidered before Thanksgiving√

Load customer quilt on Ruthie (Started the backing will finish on today)

Cook Thanksgiving dinner√

Make pies, cookies and muffins for community bake sale√ I don’t want to make another apple pie for a while…I made 4 of them!

And this coming week.... again, a little less quilting involved.

November 28, 2016

Load and quilt customer quilt

Make backing for Christmas Favorites

Knit

Have lunch with Dorothy and attend Pat’s concert

Sing with Spottsylvanians

Find Christmas cards and start getting them ready to send…

Embroider Ellie's Christmas shirt

We'll see if I buckle down and get the two quilty things done.  I'm very motivated on the knitting so I know I'll keep working on the various projects I have going.  

Take some time to relax with a cup of tea (unless you are a coffee fan) and check out these Monday Linky Parties: Main Crush Monday and Monday Makings.

That's it for me now.  I am going to load a quilt this afternoon and knit some more.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 11 - 7 - 2016

As usual, my post is all about trying to get Christmas Favorites done.  I've been using it as my One Monthly Goal for most of the year and this month is no different.  Here's where it's at now... 

It's together! It's got its first border on!  I've done the embroidery on the two blocks! But, oh no!  I realized I hadn't  blanket stitched around the center of the 2 "e"s in the Mistletoe block.  OH GOOD GRIEF! 

Hopefully early this week I'll have the last border put on.  Here's a close up of the border fabric. I was a little concerned about the variety of greens I've used in this quilt.  Lime green, yellow green, blue green.  Lots of different colors.  I finally decided that all those greens go together in nature so they can go together in this quilt. 

I have some real issues with the lighting in my new studio.  I will eventually get it all worked out but for the most part I don't have enough light on my design wall to take great pictures.  I had my overhead cam lighting on and about 3 additional lights on.  Must figure out how to get better lighting down there.

By the way, that embroidery of red circles on Santa's cheeks is his rosy cheeks not crazy eyes!  His eyes are little buttons that will be put on after the quilt is done. 

Goals were accomplished this week!  (Well most of them anyway!)  Here's last weeks:

Oct 31, 2016

Do the hand embroidery on Christmas Favorites√

Put the last few items on the CF blocks√

Knit on the second red sock√

Find a small quilt to quilt on Ruthie√

Work on Stack N Whack nope – nothing happened on this. 

And for this week: 

November 7, 2016

Put last border on Christmas Favorites

Make backing for Christmas Favorites

Finish second red sock

Load and quilt baby quilt

Pillow Case Day at guild Saturday

I'll be linking up with Main Crush Monday and Monday Making.  I'm also looking forward to spending time with the folks who link up with those two websites.  I find so many wonderful ideas by surfing these two link ups. (Well, along with all the other ones I link up to!) 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

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October OMG!

I NAILED IT! My OMG for October was to finish the last three blocks of Christmas Favorites. And, yes 2 were ready to machine blanket stitch around the pieces before the month even started.  I did take all three blocks to retreat -- the two I had ready to go were finished.  I finished the piecing on the last block and got it appliquéd down.  When these three were "done" I went back to the pattern to see what else had to be done.  Hum, I missed 3 holly leaves on 2 different blocks.  I have several pieces that will be 3-D and can't be attached until after the quilt is quilted.  And, oops! there's some embroidery to be done.   

Despite those few things that need to be finished I'm calling my October OMG done√√√√. Here's what the three blocks look like: 

Hum, the poinsettia looks weird -- but it has 5 3-D leaves that need to be put on after the quilting is done.  Lots of the blocks have buttons that will be added then too. The HoHoHo block and the Mistletoe blocks have hand embroidery that needs to be done before the blocks can be put together.  Plus I have 3 holly leaves I forgot that need to be added to two blocks.  

This brings me to my November OMG.  Yep, you got it... I want to finish the blocks as detailed above and sew them together.  If I really stay focused I may be able get the two borders added too.  But my main goal is to get the blocks done and sewn together. 

Today we celebrated Ellie's birthday by joining everybody at an indoor play area.  The girls were happy to be bouncing in several big bounce houses.  Some of the grown ups (me included) had a great time with some air guns that shot soft rubber balls.  Sophie and I had a major battle for a while.  The girls were lucky to ride some bumper cars.  (Only Sophie was really old enough.)  Natalie and Sophie really seemed to understand the directions on driving the bumper cars.  Ellie didn't quite "get" how to drive but she moved her car around and actually bumped into the other girls on occasion. It was fun for all of us.  Theo didn't necessarily agree because he slept through most of it. 

After the time at the play space Kevin and Aimee took us out to lunch at a local pizzeria.  The pizza was good and was followed by cake.  Yum!  Thanks Kevin and Aimee for the fun time.  And, they were happy to give me the leftover cake. (It's something I seldom have at home but I do like it!) Here's Ellie enjoying her cake.  She thought it was yummy too. 

I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts' October link up post.  Take some time to see how folks are have done this month on succeeding on their goals.  I sure hope Heidi plans to continue this program next year.  It has been very helpful for me. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

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OMG! September Woot! Woot!

I have completed my September OMG and with a few days to spare.  My goal was to make two more blocks from Christmas Favorites.  I took my Featherweight and my project box with me up to Ellie's house and was able to make one while Ellie was at preschool.  The next day I cut out the second block that I finished when I got home. 

Since I cut some of these pieces out and then moved them I knew I had to keep organized.  So, for the presents all of the colors pieces were clipped together with Wonder Clips. (Boy do I use these a lot.) 

The background fabrics got little stickers on them indicating what letter they were on the pattern diagram. Some got sizes, some got the number of the pieces. There was no rhyme or reason to my stickers except they all had their correct letter on them.  And, because I try hard to use things up the stickers were what was left after I used up addresses labels run through my printer.  It's the Californian in me to reduce, reuse and recycle!

It's a no brainer for me to choose my next One Monthly Goal.  I'm going to try to get the last three blocks done in October.  True confession time now.  The last three blocks will be machine appliquéd.  Two of the blocks are all ready to sew down.  The third one is traced ready to be ironed on once the background block is made.  These three are going with me to retreat in hopes of being finished there.  I'm guessing that will get done because I'm not planning on bringing a lot of other projects. 

I was so surprised to find this plant in bloom within a few weeks of moving into our new house.  The window gets afternoon sun.  I've owned the plant for a long time (probably 20+ years.)  It used to bloom but really hadn't in 10 years or so.  Needless to say I was surprised and delighted it decided to bloom again.  I'm guessing the Christmas cactus will be in beautiful bloom sometime in the next few months.  

I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts, Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, and Thursday morning I'll link up with Needle and Thread Thursday. It's a lot of fun to look around to see what other quilters are working on.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

OMG Success

YeeHaw!  I was able to finish the two blocks I had planned for the OMG.  And, surprisingly, I finished them really early -- maybe in the first week.  I don't remember.  I actually looked at doing more blocks but as usual I was overcome with indecisiveness.  It takes me longer to pick the fabric for each block then to make the blocks.  Sigh.

This block was already cut out, ready to iron down.  Because it is small it didn't take much time to finish, even sewing down the ribbons.  (If that dark blue looks familiar it can be seen as the background on this piece. I noticed I also was mentioning my upcoming goal and there was a picture of this block before I started on it in August.)

Much of this block was already done -- letters were cut out and some of the backgrounds were already chosen.  The majority of the time was spent stitching down the letters and making the tree.  Excellent.  Now if I could just get going on some more blocks.  

Which comes to my September goal:  I'm going to get two more blocks done from the Christmas Favorites book. Yes, really.  I'll pick the colors and get two more done. I may work on pieced blocks instead of appliqué but it's picking the fabrics that always gets to me.  I was thinking of using a block kit I bought in Alaska in the mid '90s but I'm not that in love with it and its mate.  (What was I thinking when I bought an Alaskan version of Sun Bonnet Sue?) I have it on the goals for this week so maybe I will spend time sewing it down but we'll see.   

I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts and Let's Be Social.  Take some time to see what others are up to in their studios.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie