Monday Meanderings 5 - 10 - 2021

Happy Mother's Day  

I spent the day happily working playing in the studio.  Both of my children called so we had great chats.  It's always fun to catch up.  

Friday afternoon I drove down to the Richmond area and made a stop at Quilter's Corner. I got there just as a huge cloud unloaded rain for at least an hour and included some lightning and thunder.  I was happily searching the store for some fabric to make a new wall hanging. I found some great batik and made the purchase.  The rain had slowed quite a bit so no big deal driving out to my friend's house.  Dorothy is a certified Studio 180 teacher.  She has the most beautiful quilts hanging around her house.  It was like a personal quilt show to see what she's been making over the last few years. 

Early the next morning we went to our guild meeting (Country Piecemakers in Powhatan.)  It was a lot of fun to catch up with friends I hadn't seen since July. After the meeting Dorothy got started on giving us lots of hints and help to make a LeMoyne Star block using Deb Tucker's Rapid Fire LeMoyne Star tool.  

I should have finished one star in the appx 3 hours we were working on it but I made a major mistake -- I forgot to trim the points before I tried to sew them together.  Out came Jack to do his thing.  I did succeed in getting half a star finished.  We didn't have lunch and I was getting hangry so decided I would finish at home.  A quick fast food lunch and back on the road to home. 

Here's my finished star.  If you look carefully you'll notice the center doesn't come together as well as it should.  It's very close.  But, I'm not redoing it.  I think the next one I make will finish at 12". The one shown is 8". The previous one I made was 6.  I'm thinking of using the colors of the polka dots to make more stars.  There is a pattern that comes with the tool that uses a bunch of different size stars together. I suppose I should keep making some so I get better at matching the points. 

On to my goals this week.  Um, not quite successful there.  I really didn't count in the fact that I would be gone for a day and a half when I set these goals.  Oh well.  Here's last weeks: 

5/3/2021

Border doggy tumbler ✅

Quilt ✅and bind one of my quilts 

Start cutting-table clean up ✔️ — started but a little more to do

Put together green scrap basket ✅

Pull a UFO to work on — nothing done  

Here's a sneak peek of the bunny quilt I finished quilting.  Binding will go on this  coming week I hope. 

I finally finished the green basket for my fabric scraps.

Would someone please tell me how come the green scraps are overflowing but the others aren't?  Maybe because I use more of the other scraps. (Odd note -- I have very few green quilts.) 

I'm looking forward to my friend Sharon coming up on Friday.  We will be knee deep in talking, quilting and having fun.  Here are some of the things I hope to work on this week. 

5/10/2021

Begin red table runner 

Pull a UFO to work on

Quilt daughter Jenny’s quilt

Bind a bunny quilt 

I'm worn out so will end here with my favorite Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. I'll try again to hit up To Do Tuesday. Shame on me for forgetting!  Done!  Join the parties and let's start surfing. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 9 - 9 - 2019

I've been busy in the studio and making progress.  Unfortunately it is very slow progress -- partly because I'm still losing energy and partly because the blocks I've been working on have a gazillion a lot of pieces that need to be sewn.  

First up are blocks for Beth, who is a member of the FCQEquilters group.  The pattern is called Rickrack.  It is part of Missouri Star's videos.  Here's the link if you want to make some yourself.  This is going to be a really cute quilt when done.  Beth asked for cool colors.  Because the block is based on a log cabin style it can be laid out anyway a log cabin can be laid out.  Too cool! 

I'm late finishing these blocks off so I should be starting on the next block.  Of course, I'm not ready to yet.  I need to figure out the finished block size so I make sure I get the units made correctly.  I think it is 20" or so and we only need to make one.  Should be fun to give it a go. 

As I've mentioned before, the Country Piecemakers retreat is just around the corner.  I was working on getting a few kits cut out and bundled to make it easier to work on projects.  I have one completely done and another semi-done.  What I'm focusing on now is making blocks for the swap. Here are 5 of the hexagon blocks I've finished. Five more to go. Hum, I may need to use a few more mediums as the final round as the green one really sticks out. (Although I probably won't win any blocks.) 

I realized I haven't shown photos from the rest of our California trip.  We were staying with my brother and sister-in-law in Orinda.  They were the perfect hosts and tour guides.  We went to the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio.  If you are a Mickey Mouse fan or Disney fan this is a must see museum.

It's hard to see all the Oscars but check out the center bottom Oscar.  It was for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Someone had a sense of humor! Mickey Mouse was evident throughout the museum.

Here's a large poster showing Mickey circa 1933. I have to admit I was so busy looking at the artifacts and reading about them that I didn't get all that many pictures. 

The weather was cloudy in the morning.  It's hard to tell but the bay is straight down the sidewalk behind the tree standing by itself. (Well, it probably is farther away than that but that's what it looks like in this picture.) The Presidio is a former Army fort on the northern tip of San Francisco. It's now part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. You can read more about it at Wikipedia's entry Presidio of San Francisco.

After several hours enjoying the museum we went over to Sausalito, under the Golden Gate Bridge. The morning marine layer was still hanging around.  

 We had a great lunch in Sausalito and then went across the street to a harbor.  The sun was shining, the day had turned beautiful. Here are the tour directors: Larry and Jean. 

Unfortunately on the way home the freeway came to a grinding halt. We inched along for a couple of hours.  Argh, it reminded me of the worst of I-95 at home.  Overall it was a fabulous day.  I'll share our last day in San Francisco soon. (Notice that is an open-ended time period!) 

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Moving It Forward, and What I Made Monday. I hope you can spend some time seeing what folk's are working on this week. 

Happy Quilting, Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 11 - 13 - 2017

Here are some successes from last week's goals:

I showed the pattern and my fabric here. Here is "Kit" modeling the dress almost done.  I have stitched the lapels back but there are some roses that still need to be put on the dress.  

I've cut out a top and a pair of shorts.  The shorts are done but the top still has a little work to go.  Next up will be another baby doll outfit.  Quilting and piecing have taken a backseat to these doll clothes. 

I won Kit with a trunk, clothes, accessories and quilts from Village Quilters in Catonsville, Md at least 10 years ago. When she came to live at my house I displayed her.  When Jenny was home from college she would often change Kit into one of the many outfits she had.  When the grands came along, Kit retired to her trunk because Jenny's doll and clothes were available.  Needless to say, she was very happy to get out in the world again wearing this fabulous outfit! 

The Country Piecemaker's pillowcase day was so much fun! Sharon came down and we traveled the hour and half to Powhatan, Va together.  The guild made 152 pillowcases Saturday.  All were cut out and in kits before the day began.  Some were already pinned in "burritos."  We had more people stay this year to do the sewing and all the turning, pinning, ironing and etc. that goes into making the pillowcases.  Rumor has it that only 110 were made last year.  

Sewers in the front, pinners in the back.  Standing folks were ferrying cases from one location to another.

Becky, Bonnie and Nancy sewing away. You can see cases ready to sew and ready to turn in front. 

Through the 8 years that Country Piecemakers have been making and giving pillowcases for sick kids we've contributed 2,685 cases.  Amazing!  The funds and/or fabric are all donated -- the guild does not provide any financial assistance. Hats of to Colleen, our intrepid pillowcase leader, and her special elf, Donna, who cut the fabric and put together all the kits.   I will continue to make pillowcases for this -- in fact I think I bought 5 yards of Easter fabric when I was up in Lancaster.  

I was more successful with my goals this week. Here's last weeks:

November 6, 2017

Make first doll outfit√

Retime Ruthie, the longarm√

Attend Pillowcase day in Powhatan√√

Finish one cross stitch ornament √

Catch up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge √ mostly

November 13, 2017

Finish 2^nd doll outfit

Cut out baby doll outfit

Work on another cross stitch ornament

Continue to work on Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Play on Ruthie 2

Attend Spotsylvanian’s rehearsal and first concert of the season

A lot is going on this week so I may fall short on some of these goals.  

Check out my favorite linky parties:  Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  I'm going to spend a bit of time today cruising through the Internet to see what folks are working on. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Ryan's Case for Smiles

Saturday was the annual pillowcase making day at Country Piecemakers Quilt Guild.  Our November meeting has been dedicated to making cases for Ryan's Case for Smiles, the new name for ConKerr Cancer, for the last seven years.  Wow! A group of quilters that generally number 42 to 43 members have cranked out 2243 pillowcases in that time.  In reality only 20 to 25 members show up at any one meeting and this past week was lower than normal with 19.  And, yep, less could stay to work on the pillowcases. 

But our pillowcase leader was well organized and we all buckled down to make cases.  C announced that we made 100 pillowcases on Sat.  This year alone we made and donated 400 pillowcases.  C has a dedicated closet to pillowcases and fabrics for pillowcases.  She announced it was bare.  Time to restock as all of these pillowcases have been given to the organization for distribution.

Some of us used sergers, others used regular sewing machines.  All the cases were made with French seams.  A group of gals ironed, turned, pinned and carried cases from ironing boards to sew machines.  We were a well oiled machine! 

Knowing I'm seeing a guild member tomorrow, I decided I was going to make a pillowcase to help restock the closet.  I can't make the December meeting and who knows what the weather will be like in January but at least one lonely pillowcase will start the restocking of the closet. And, I'm down a yard of fabric. Did I mention we are meeting at the local quilt store with every intention to look at buying some fabric?  (And, yes, long time readers -- eventually I'll figure out my fabric usage and purchases/acquisitions since I last reported.  I know I've been going pretty crazy on the purchases.)  

I know I've made at least one, possibly two baby quilts out of this fabric.  I still have some left and I'm thinking of fussy cutting the musicians to make Happy Blocks. That is any easy pattern to make and perfect for donation quilts. 

Do you want to make a pillowcase or two?  They are great for gifts for the grands or for donations to various organizations.  I used directions from Craftsy but used the guild's measurements.  We use 26" for the main case, 10" for the cuff and 2" for the accent. (Honestly, I think a 2" accent is too big so I used 1 1/2" accents -- and I can always find a strip in my strip drawers.) The 26"/10" makes great sense as you can buy two different 1 yard pieces and get 2 cases out of it.  

I'll be linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Let's Be Social. As always,  go take a look at all the fabulous things people are working on these days. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

SaveSave

Design Wall Monday 11-16-2015

My big finish this week was actually working on pillowcases on Saturday with Country Piecemakers. Friday I made a couple of Christmas ones to turn in Saturday morning. 

Before we started sewing Alison Eichler, the coordinator for the Richmond area,  spent a few minutes talking to us about Konker Cancer and it's new name Ryan's Case for Smiles.  You can read more about this wonderful group at its website Caseforsmiles.org. Alison shared the fact that volunteers have now made and donated over one million (1,000,000) pillowcases.  Wow.  It's taken many years to get to that goal but if you have sewn even one of these pillowcases, pat yourself on the back.

My small guild, Country Piecemakers has been making pillowcases since 2010.  This past Saturday we completed 156 cases with less than 20 ladies working away. Our pillowcase guru was well organized and had cases in various stages of sewing so everyone could get started at the same time.  Since 2010 we've made and donated 1841 pillowcases.  Amazing when you realize that we are a group that averages around 41 members.  

  

These pillowcases are in addition to making baby quilts for a local NICU and small lap quilts for a local nursing home.  Without a doubt quilters are amazingly generous.

Here's one of the two quilts I turned in on Saturday.  This is going to the nursing home. This was a mystery quilt from Mysteries for Relay.  The original quilt was finished years ago but I had extra blocks left.  I decided to add some more to it and make another smaller quilt.  It's off my UFO list and in process of getting into the hands of a senior citizen. I quilted it with African Samba edge to edge from Apricot Moon.  I don't remember for sure but I would guess the thread is So Fine.  Love the quilting design but my guess is it will look even better on a less busy quilt.  I love that you can see it on this picture.  The block design is Buckeye Beauty that you can find at Quilter's Cache.

I feel like I did pretty well on the goals considering several things took precedence over the planned goals. 

Week of November 9, 2015

Quilt donation quilts (yep, 2) √

Finish setting triangles for Easy Street√

Make up cross stitch ornaments Oops… didn’t get to this

Finish another pair of mittens Got one mitten done but too big

Add border to Zig Zag quilt √

And this week: 

Week of November 16, 2015

Quilt Jelly Roll Quilt 1

Continue sewing Easy Street together

Make up cross stitch ornaments

Enjoy time with Sophie and Natalie

Take down Halloween decorations and put up Thanksgiving…

Order embroidery thread as needed

Sophia, Natalie and their parents are coming down for the weekend.  We're still figuring out what to do.  Hum, I wonder if they would like to go to the Peanuts movie.  That would be entertaining for all of us.  I was hoping to take them to a play but the tickets sold out while I was trying to find out if they had age limits on the ticket sales.  Maybe some other time. 

I'm linking up with Monday Makings, Main Crush Monday and Design Wall Monday.  Check them out to see what's being worked on in quilt studios across the globe. 

That's it from me.  I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to share something I've had under wraps since before last Christmas. (I'll admit I'm still working on things from last Christmas!!!YIKES.) 

Happy Quilting!