Design Wall Monday 3 - 23 - 2026

Well, the awful weather we were suppose to have last Monday wasn't awful. It was a dull, rainy day with no tornados in our area. Some areas had a lot of trees down but not in our general area.   However, we weren't sure about how bad it was going to be so we canceled the lunch.  We'll reschedule at some point.  I did get most of my goals list done.  Here's what I was going to do. 

3/16/26

✅Sew Magnificent Mystery rows together — all done!

✔️March UFO blocks/take out papers — all blocks have been trimmed.

✅Quilt Springtime Irish Chain — quilting done! 

✅Make more Dash blocks — 3 more added to collection.

Finish 1st Snowman block — nope, nothing done. 

First up the finished Magnificent Mystery top. I'm very pleased with it.  I'm not happy that the backing I bought on line use is way too wild. You can scroll down last week's post and see the orange fabric. It's beautiful fabric but just too colorful for this quilt. 

Close to the end of the week I was able to load my top Springtime Irish Chain. It is a 3 yard quilt in the book Quick Christmas 3 Yard Quilts called Irish Christmas. 

The backing is from Marshall's Dry Goods.  The floral fabric was from my stash and was probably quite old.  I have 3 choices for binding: the solid pink, the floral print, or the backing fabric pink. (You can see a little of the backing at the top of this photo.  It is a floral with multiple shades of pink.)

Three more Dash blocks were completed today.  Earlier in the week I grabbed a bunch of reds, blues, and lights to make more Dash blocks.  I finally was able to cut 3 blocks and sewed them in the afternoon while I was Face Timing with my friend Sharon. Unfortunately I only took a picture of the top block-- two more are behind it. 

I've got 4 more fabric sets planned but not cut yet, I "think" I need to make 15 more blocks.  So I need to make quite a few more.  I may have planned this bigger than I need so I'll look at the setting and number of blocks needed.  It's going to show up on the goals list for many more weeks. 

I did get all the March challenge blocks trimmed.  I need to clear a spot on the design wall to lay out these blocks. They are paper pieced which means there is a lot of papers to take out! I think I'll take the inside papers out leaving the edge papers on before sewing them into rows.  Let's hope I can get these moving forward. 

I "might" have worked on the snowman this week but I don't remember doing it.  (It's so much fun aging!) I usually would work on it at my Monday stitching group but we didn't meet because the clubhouse was being painted. So maybe some got done but who knows! Perhaps I should take a picture of it at the beginning of each week so I can check what's been added. 

Here's what I'm working on this week. 

3/23/26

Sew March UFO blocks together

Bind Springtime Irish Chain top

Continue working on 1st snowman block

Quilt Charm Challenge top

Quilt and bind one of my quilts  

The end of the month is coming and I'd like to have 2 quilts finished.  The second one may be smaller than the Irish Chain one but at least I'd have another finish. 

One of the things I forgot to put on the goals list last week was the Charm Challenge our guild sponsored at our open sew.  The guild provided charm square packs made from donated fabrics.  I chose a wild one with lots of colors.  I enjoyed the sewing and was happy with the result. The community outreach chair brought me a backing so I can get it quilted before the next meeting.  These were sewn into a straight rectangle then cut along two diagonal lines and sewn back to make this square.  Unfortunately, I didn't know how the charms' placements changed the finish.  I'm looking forward to making another one soon.  Cutting the charms will take the most time! 

I also was able to finish the February UFO challenge top.  I'm very pleased with the results.  It's going into the closet for a while.  I need to use some of my new backing fabrics before I buy more backings. (Although, honestly, I need to check out my stash to see if there is anything that would work for this wall hanging.) Originally I didn't want to use the dark fabric for the border. But, it really looked better than all the other fabrics I auditioned.  

I'm keeping up with my 15 minutes of stitching.  Generally I stitch way over 15 minutes.  

Week ending 3/22/26;  81 days of 2026.

  81 days of 81. 100%

Here are the Linky Parties I participate in.  

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

We had a beautiful warm day today: low humidity and 80º. I was able to enjoy the sunshine looking out of the French doors in the basement up to the back yard. And, it was still beautiful when we took Sunny for a walk this evening. The temps are going to be up and down all week. That's better than really cold as in Jan/Feb and ridiculously hot and humid which is our normal summer. 

Let's keep quilting to keep our spirits up! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

No Finish But . . .

I did get the yellow squares cut out to put with the Chunky Churn Dash blocks.  Nothing sewn together yet but there are still 2 more sewing days before I do my next goal post!  (Hope springs eternal!) 

Hum, I see a few blocks I want to move around to better balance color but this is the basic plan.  Maybe it'll get done this weekend.

I've been pretty involved with reading books over the last week or so (which also might explain why I haven't finished a quilt yet.)  For some reason every half the books I had on hold started showing up -- about one every other day.  I love reading on my Kindle but there was no way I could keep up. I was able to skip my turn and not really lose my place in line for a couple of the books.  No doubt in two weeks or so they will start showing up again.  Sigh.  

This is a short post today.  I'm linking up to the weekend parties so take a look at these blogs to see what is going on! Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Alycia Quilts, and From Bolt to Beauty.  You know the drill -- check out what folks are making across the internet.  You can always add it to your someday-I'm-going-to-make list! 

Have you checked out Hands 2 Help 2021?  It's a great opportunity to make some quilts and give them to good causes.  Sarah has been doing this yearly since 2011.  She says nearly 3000 comfort quilts have been made and shared.  Do you want to join in this year?  If you sign up before the end of Sat., March 20th you'll be eligible for some prizes.  Click on my link on the right to get directly to the H2H page with all sorts of information. Hope you join in. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Decisions -- What Looks Best?

I've been working on a UFO for the last few days. (Well, not all that much work as I've read at least 3 books so far the week...) 

A little back story.  As many of you know I'm part of a group of quilters who used to belong to Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland.  As we moved away we became a block making group.  Every other month a member tells us which block she'd like us to use and what colors.  We then make blocks (and sometimes we go crazy!) and send them off to the member.  Several turns ago I asked for Chunky Churn Dashes from Bonnie Hunter's pattern. I've made at least one quilt ages ago and now I'll get two quilts out of the blocks I currently have.  I broke my blocks into two groups -- one with cutesy fabric and the other with more adult fabric. 

Over the last few days I've made a bunch of 9 patches thinking they would be a great way to bring the cutesy blocks up to a decent size.  What do you think? 

Unfortunately, I wasn't really happy with how this looked. I was really happy that I could use fabrics I already had for these 9 patches but I just think it is too busy. (Hum, this is getting to be a theme of mine...) 

So I found 4 different solids to see if anything was better. So here's what I came up with. Upper left is Kona Snow, upper right is Kona White, lower left is Kona Lake (I think) and bottom right is an unnamed yellow.  I wasn't excite by either Snow or White. I thought the blue and yellow were fine. Do you have a favorite?  I have enough of each fabric to cut 6.5" squares to put between the Chunky Churn Dashes. Let me know which you like best. 

Then I decided I would take a quick look at what I could do with 21 green and white 9 patches.  Oh yes, I did find a couple of fabrics I had enough to cut 6.5" squares to go with the 9 patches. Right now I'm leaning toward the bottom floral print but possibly using the hot pink as a border.  I don't have much of the elephant print but they would look cute with the 9 patches too.  I have a little bit of the green and the white left so I might be able to make more of  the 9 patches and cut the elephants to set a smaller quilt. (I might need to hunt up a border to get these up to 36" square or so.) 

By the way, this whole effort has been off my goal list. (OOPS!) Tomorrow and Sunday I need to get some progress made on that! 

I'm linking up with My Quilt Infatuation, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Alycia Quilts, and From Bolt To Beauty.  Join me in some blog surfing.   

Remember Daylight Savings Time starts Saturday, 3/13! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Small rant -- blogger... please make the print the size I request.  Don't make it bigger or smaller.  I always check the font size  1) when I preview the post and 2) when go back to the post after checking the preview.  I can't believe how often the font size goes up or down from what I marked.  

Monday Meandering 3 - 1 - 2021

Are you ready for March?  To me, February seemed to drag by and yet it's the shortest month. Go figure! The week has been very productive for me though.  I read a couple of books and got just about all my goals ticked off the list.  It's taken me a couple of days to decide what I'm going to work on over this coming week. But I finally came up with a decent list.  Let's look at last week's goals list. 

2/22/2021

Make blocks for the Anniversary top I cut out a block but didn’t work well by machine so it got sidelined.

Bind propellor quilt☑️  Will show on next post.

Keep making yellow fabric for basket☑️ Completely finished basket! 

Start a stripppy baby quilt ☑️ Top Done

Cut out & make more RWB Ohio Star blocks☑️ 1 done, 1 ready to sew 

The only finish I am sharing today is the new yellow basket. (Yellow was the RSC color for February so I decided to use it for the basket since gobs of the yellow scraps were out anyway.)

Once I make the fabric I iron on some Pellon Flex Foam  2 sided fusible. The lining fabric is on the other side. I've got enough for about 2 more baskets but after that I might just get regular Flex Foam without the fusible.  It doesn't adhere too well.  I was augmenting it with a spray adhesive.  Then I quilt all the oversized pieces.  Yep, I'm using 1" painter's tape to get my lines.  I'm not looking for perfection here -- just getting the job done keeping all the pieces together. 

You can read about how I made the red basket here.  Originally I thought it was a mistake to sew the basket together with right sides facing.  The pattern called for sewing wrong sides together and then put a binding on the seams.  Not paying attention I sewed RST and wasn't too happy about it on the red one. But I could easily add a piece on the top instead of more binding.  When I made the yellow one I decided it made a lot of sense to do it that way -- it was much faster than fussing with all the binding!  The only thing I'm not thrilled with is the handle of the dark yellow plaid.  Oh well.  It's done and now in use! 

I've been surprised about how many yellow scraps I have.  I use yellow sometimes but I didn't think I used enough to have a whole basket  of it left! 

And, now it has joined the red and purple baskets on the shelf.  

I've enjoyed being able to grab a basket and do a quick search for scraps over the last few months.  I will be starting another soon -- I just don't know whether I'll go with the RSC color that is green or perhaps opt for blue which is overflowing the bag I have it in. I'm need to move a handful of books on the left of this shelf to be able to fit the next basket.  I have another shelf with some books on it that I hope to clear to get a total of 8 baskets of scraps. 

My goal list for this week is ready to see some action on it. 

3/7/21

Make a couple masks 

Make more "Anniversary" blocks 

Quilt a charity quilt for FCQ 

Make 3 or 4 more blocks for FCQ Equilters 

Pull out the Chunky Churn Dash blocks to see if I need more blocks & make some as needed

Both Pat and I have decided it makes sense to have a few more masks each.  I bought some "nose" bridges that allow you to shape the top of the mask to your nose. I used pipe cleaners in the original ones I made.  They have held up surprisingly well although we always take them out before the mask hits the washing machine.  I'm not thrilled with making new masks but it shouldn't take all that long once I get started. 

I thought I'd share a Chunky Churn Dash block that I made today. 

Altogether now "Awwww."  I have a multitude of scraps that have dogs on them. When I saw this guy I decided he had to be in a block.  The Chunky Churn Dash blocks are a UFO from several years ago.  I have something like 30 blocks hanging around.  Approximately half are cutesy like this new one and the other group is nice but not kid oriented.  I divided the blocks and put the "nice" ones away for another time but started making cute ones and now have 20 of them.  I'll be putting them on the design wall to see whether that's enough or whether I'll add more to them or a go with block.  These blocks were on a list of projects I wanted to pull out and finish. (Hum, does that mean I'll pull out the other group and make another quilt? Time will tell!) 

One last thing.  When I was checking my library for ebooks this past week I realized they listed pages of magazines as being "new."  I wasn't thrilled as I went through the pages as I thought maybe there were new books coming in that I might have wanted to reserve or put on my wish list.  Eventually several quilting magazines showed up.  I checked out a Quiltmaker, McCall's Quilting, and Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting. These were all current issues and they had issues going back to 2018 available too.  I can read it in my laptop's browser.  I haven't tried it on my iPad.  I haven't subscribed to a quilting magazine in years.  This will be a fun option when I feel like browsing a magazine. (But, do I really need new ideas? I saw one I liked when I was checking the names and how I could read it to report on it here.) 

Although I could continue to babble on I think I'll end it here.  You know the drill -- I'm linking up with several fun linky parties.  You and I need to visit them to see what people are working on.  My line up: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

Monday Meandering 4 - 13 - 2020

Hello!  Monday has rolled around again.  We're still staying home.  And I'm making progress on UFOs.  Whoopee! 

Last week I was finishing up the Scrappy Majestic Mountains. The top is done and I've moved on to a variation on a pinwheel block.  I had six leftover blocks from various times I've made these pinwheels. Visit here, a couple here, and scroll down here to see some Sharon made.  I separated out the red, white and blue ones and have started to make additional ones to fill in.   

Using two contrasting fabrics you start with a 14" block that eventually gives you two 11.25" blocks.  An odd size however I have never tried to mix this block in with other types of blocks. And, it goes pretty fast.  Well, unless you don't put right sides together before you start sewing.  FACE PALM!  And, worse, I had already started the cutting process before I realized everything was wrong.  I did a bit of ripping and am ready to sew these correctly. 



I'm almost done with the baby girl Happy Blocks.  (Remember you can find the pattern for it at MaryQuilts.)  This one is a bright, cheerful quilt.  And, I almost always make quilts for boys rather than girls.  It was fun to use those bright pretty pinks from a charm pack.  Eventually I'll do something from the blues and greens in that pack but not for a while.  

Pat helped me lay this one out.  Most of the colors are strong and it was distracting to have them spread out randomly.  He suggested order. It worked well. I'll sew the rows together this week. I think I have a backing for this particular top so it might be quilted soon! 

I've also started sewing the red, white and blue churn dash blocks together.  They make great leader/enders while working on other things.  I'll take the top row off and then lay out another row.  I have these blocks pinned together in rows so it's easy to take the top row one off, move up the bottom one and keep laying out blocks. 

I have a huge design wall.  And, here's what it looks like at this moment.  The far right side is a mess but I can get three different quilts up there although the Happy Blocks when seen together will come down to get all the pinwheel blocks up. 

Last week I didn't set hard and fast goals. I have still been making masks.  Our neighborhood mask sewers have been giving away masks to our neighbors who ask for them.  We live in a 55+ neighborhood so most of us are being extremely careful.  I need to make more masks so I can give at least 10 to Life Care.  

My Top Three Goals 4/13 to 4/19:

1) Keep up with mask requests and give 10 a week to Life Care.

2) Finish Happy Quilt top and quilt it.

3) Make more pinwheel blocks so I can make a QOV approved size top. 

4) Keep sewing churn dash rows together. (I know, I said three goals but honestly, this is just a leader ender!)

I'm ready to move down to the studio so before I go I'm linking to Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  It should be fun to surf the web and see quilts and masks in progress. 

Happy Quilting and Stay Safe.  Bonnie