Monday Meanderings 8 -- 18 -- 2025

This past week was quiet for me -- especially after all the fun and action while my friend was visiting. I took afternoon naps... not necessarily on purpose. I would be reading after lunch on the sun porch and all of a sudden I would wake up an hour later with my Kindle in my lap and feeling way too warm.  I figured I must have needed the extra sleep.  I did finish some books and  I've halfway finished another ebook.  Although I did pretty well on my goals I didn't spend as much time being productive in the studio. 

8/11/25

✅Keep working on project bag — one sheep done. 

✅Read a book or two — finished 2 audio books and 1 ebook.

✅Wash and iron new fabric and put it away — only a few pieces to finish.

✅Quilt one of my tops — a RWB sampler quilt is loaded. 

✅Make blocks for various projects — 3 blocks made, more still needed to be done.

This red, white and blue sampler top was from Sherri McConnell's block of the month in 2022.  Earlier this year I put the blocks together with sashing and borders.  I have to say I really like this top.  I've decided to keep it rather than give it to my local quilt guild to give away.  We have a quilt hanger in our entry way which can take this size quilt so that is the plan for it.  I probably won't get back to quilting it until Tuesday.

Here's my Rainbow Scrap Challenge block in aquamarine.  Unlike my normal method, this month I decided to focus on turquoise fabrics that lean more to the green side.  I haven't made the opposite color way with more light blocks yet.  Hopefully I will get it done this week. 

I also realized this week that I missed some of the monthly colors for RSC this year. I need to make blocks for orange and purple. I'll be trying to get caught up on those colors over the next several weeks. 

Here's the last Happy Block I made using the popsicle fabric I used at the retreat. 

I've got another Happy Block quilt almost ready to sew together.  Here's the current layout. 

The blocks need to be moved around a bit still. Because these blocks have all sorts of colored frames I like to look at the grayscale version.  Hum, just what I thought. There are three blocks that read dark in column three.  I think I've substituted some thing else for the 4 row, 2nd column block also very dark. I'll be playing around with these using this photo as my guide.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish the top and find a backing for it soon.  

Here's my plan for the upcoming week. 

8/18/25

Keep working on project bag

Quilt RWB Sampler 

Make some more blocks: RSC, nine patches with the white center,  

Sew current Happy Blocks into a top

Put borders on a 3 yard top and possibly quilt it.

Finish binding two quilts. 

I've maintained my 15 minutes of stitching this week.  I knit hats for an organization that needs around 300 in the fall so I always have a hat on my needles and can knit a couple of rows to make up my stitching time each evening if I haven't already done some quilty "stuff." 

W/ending 8/17/25. 222 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/August = 17/17
• 15 minute days/2024 = 222/222 days
• Success rate = 100%

I keep finding mistakes in my postings.  I'm pretty sure next year I'll change up this report to make the math more accurate or easy.  Did I ever mention that I went to 11 different schools from kindergarten through high school? Once my folks took me out of public school to put me into private school. Sometimes I went to a different school in the same school district. And, a couple of times we moved mid school year or at the beginning of a school year.  What I finally figured out rather late in life is I did not have a good grounding in arithmetic.  I'm lousy at math in general. I say all of the above to explain why I keep finding mistakes in my stitching reports! I do know that 222 days is as of Sunday, 8/17. So this report looks accurate. 

That pile of new fabric I shared last week has been ironed and put away with the exception of the top fabric. This week I washed 5 or 6 yards from a bolt of fabric I purchased from Marshall Dry Goods. It's a mottled beige and I plan to use it as the borders and backing of one of the 3 yard quilts I started at retreat. If I get the borders done I'll share pictures then. 

As usual I am linking up with four Linky parties.  Please take a some time to visit and check out some of the blogs that are listed on the parties. I keep getting way too many ideas but I like to see what everyone is working on! 

Stitching Stuff 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

And before I call it a night I want to mention the administration's assault on Washington, DC.  DC is not a state although they would like to be. Because they are a federal district the administration can send troops into the city to patrol. From local news reports these troops have been working in the areas that are more visible -- near where federal buildings and parks are located.  One of the things that has been said is that DC is a crime ridden area.  That there are awful people in the city.  Just to put the record straight DC's crime rate is down. "Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and announced by United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves." You can read more about it here. 

One of the scary things about federal troops "policing" the District is they have no training in that area.  I keep waiting for some one to be killed or seriously hurt because of the wrong people "policing" the area.  

I, for one, do not think DC is in an emergency and it does not need federal assistance.  I am hoping that the troops are only there for the 30 days allowed for  this "emergency".  America is NOT a police state.  

That's it for me.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings - 9 - 23 - 2024

I had a great week visiting in North Carolina.  As usual I brought way more projects to work on than there was time.  I was very happy to finish two projects and move another project ahead.  Here's the skinny on my goals for last week. 

9/16/24

✅Keep stitching on the ornaments — a little done. Need to focus a little more as there are 4 to make. 

✅Drive to Sharon’s for a quilting get together — great time! 

√Put double border on purple floral top — one border on, need to evaluate 2nd. 

✅Put facing on Sea Side Village — done, better picture to come.

✅Cut out and make happy blocks, lay out and sew the top — finished top. Need backing. 

√Finish the panel top — good start, need to evaluate border and size of top. 

This little quilt is actually done but I forgot to take a picture.  I chose to face it rather than bind it as I didn't want the binding to take away from the picture.  I'll try to get a new picture this coming week to share next Monday. I sure hope it isn't crooked like it looks in the picture. 

This top took me way more time to finish than it should have. I was sewing the blocks together when I realized one of the blocks had slits through the frame.  I never noticed that while laying out the top but ugh. I had to use some of Sharon's fabric to finish it. (Not that she minded -- she has a lot of fabric also!)  It's hanging in the "to-be-quilted" closet.  I have several tops before I'll get to this one.  I've told myself to quit making so many happy block quilts.  Except I have two more groupings of blocks in different sizes. I'll have to add more blocks. Sigh. 

The panel top got to this stage late afternoon of the last day.  I have a brown border planned for it but I didn't want to work on it when I was tired. (That's when I start making mistakes -- when I'm really tired.) Pat thought it would make a good quilt to hang in our entry way.  I'm donating this one to the guild to send it off where it is needed.  But somewhere I have another panel so I could make another one. If I can find it.  The starburst top and bottom is from a Villa Rosa card called October Sky and was published in 2021.  I had to add to the panel to bring it to the size of the starburst. Hopefully it will be a finished top this week. 

On January 1, 2023 I participated in a Merry Mayhem mystery quilt.  I finished the main part a long time ago.  While looking through my closet I saw this hanging with the necessary fabrics  and decided it was time to finish it.

 

I got the light purple border on Sunday afternoon.  I have been tired from driving and not sleeping as well as I usually do at Sharons. So most of the day I unpacked, did a little shopping for dog things and then sat around most of the afternoon. The first border was finished before dinner.  And, now I'm trying to decide if I need the second border.  It would be repeating the dark purple squares.  If I don't add another border, the dark purple will be the binding.  I forget the size it is now -- maybe 55 x 66". Or that might be before the first border.  The pattern says to add a 4.5" border on all sides.  That seems huge to me for lap quilt.  Do you have an opinion? I'm inclined to say no border.  And it definitely won't be 4.5".  Maybe a smaller one.  

Here are my goals for this week.  We have a couple of days of watching grands as both parents have to be out of town for work.  It doesn't happen all that often so we don't mind doing it. We'll see if I can get through all of these goals -- mostly after we are home. 

9/23/24

Keep stitching on the ornaments 

Evaluate purple floral top, does it need 2nd border

Finish the panel with border 

Pull out Halloween top to see what to do to finish

Quilt one or two of my quilts

I was able to stitch every day this past week. Yesterday after I got home (5 hour drive!) I made a point of knitting for 15 minutes except I was at it for over 45! I was happy to start another of the little winter hats I make to donate. 

15 Minutes of Stitching:

W/ending 9/22  — 266 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 21/22
• 15 minute days/2024 = 256/266 days
• Success rate = 96.2%

Just before I left I ordered one of Connecting Threads Stash and Save specials.  It was called Chambray Tonals Landscape Fall Quarter Sampler of 24 fat quarters.  The price with shipping and tax came to $43.94 which is less than $1.83 per fat quarter or & 7.32 a yard. It came while I was gone. Oooooh! Aahhh! Today I washed the lights.  I'll get to the darks one of these days. These are going to be great blenders.

Lights.

Darks.

I like that they give a card showing all the colors and their names if I ever want to buy yardage.  I'm looking forward to using some of these soon. I've got to make some acorns to go with the maple leaves I made a while ago. They will be in a lottery at retreat.  Maybe some of these fabrics will work. 

Tonight I was watching a tv show and putting online puzzles together instead writing my blog.  So, I'm ending here.  Please take some time to look at some of the bloggers who link up with Stitching Stuff at Life in Pieces, Oh Scrap at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, and Monday Musing at Songbird Designs.  

When I went to post on Stitching Stuff she headlined her blog as Week 38 of 2024. Time is flying by!  I hope you have a great week planned. Before we know it December will be pushing into January 2025. Yikes! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Friday Finishes! 8 - 23

Are you in shock?  I am!  But it's dawned on me that I haven't shared many of my quilts that have been finished this year.  So I thought I'd start showing some on Fridays.  

First up is a Happy Quilt. (I started using Mary's pattern (who shares lots of quilt patterns at MaryQuilts.com. Scroll down the right hand side until you come to Happy Quilts. There are several from which to choose.)  I have donated this one to my guild for community outreach. 

I used a red and white pillow ticking for the binding.  Many of these blocks came from my FCQ Equilters several years ago.  The quilting design is called Squiggle Wiggle from MyCreativeStitches.net. 

I also finished the doll quilt I shared here and gave it to my local guild.  Scroll toward the bottom.  I forgot to measure it or take pictures until I was about to turn it in.  I took a quick picture on the floor so I could share it.

When I find other leftover little blocks I think I'll make some more doll quilts. They are fast and easy -- or at least this one was.  

Next up -- I finished recording my fabric usage statistics for June and July.  And, I'm really jazzed with the results!  (Which may save me once August is done and my big fabric acquisition numbers get added in!) 

2024	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	1.75	41.5	20.5	87.875	46.375
July	5.00	46.5	9.0	96.85	50.35

Would you look at that? I've used 50 yards more than I've brought in during 2024! Yee Haw!  🎉🎉🎉  Hopefully I'll get August done early in September. (Don't hold your breath! It's looking like it will be a busy month.) 

I'm linking up with the following Linky parties: Take some time to see what quilters across the world are working on: Midweek Makers,  Needle and Thread Thursday, and Finished or Not Fridays. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings -- 7 - 22 - 2024

It's been a week.  We flew off to Michigan on Monday to attend a memorial service for Pat's brother-in-law.  Although the reason for the gathering of the clan* wasn't a happy one, it was wonderful seeing his sister, our nieces and nephews and even some great nieces and nephews.  It had been a very long time since we visited in Northern Michigan.  *His family isn't Scottish but it seemed the right word to describe all the relatives who gathered.  Roger was an amazing man who made an impact on many people especially his step children, his children, and the people who knew him through AA. The visitation really was a wonderful sharing of stories about him.  I'll share some pictures of our time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan later in this post.  

We got back to our house in Virginia around 12:30 on Thursday. I finished packing a little suitcase and loading the car and was off to retreat around 2:00. About two and a half hours later I was at retreat. I had about 3 full days with my quilting buddies. I got a tremendous amount of sewing done which surprised me.  I some how got a second wind Thursday evening which helped me make a lot of progress.  Do you want to see it?  Let's look at my goals list for last week. 

7/14/24

Retreat! Make —

✅Forest Animals Easy Attic Windows —still need to put on inner and outer border.

✅Baby Buggies Boxes and Bow (3 yd quilt) — need to add borders.

✅Benny’s Quilt 2.5” square — finished

✅Sew a Happy Block Quilt Together — done. 

✅Work on a new needlework project — barely started. 

Those check marks really piled up.  Here's some photos of where the sewing projects are now. 

This is ready to put on the inner and outer border. The cute animal print was on a freebie table at one of the guild meetings I attended this spring. The rest of the fabric was in my stash. Bonus! 

OOPS!  I noticed this mistake when I was working with the photo.  It's easily fixed. This is a 3 Yard Quilt from Fabric Cafe called Boxes and Bows.  It was free earlier this year but isn't now.  I decided to make it smaller -- so it would be acceptable for our local NICU.  I plan to do an inner and outer border on this one also. 

This pattern is called Benny's Quilt from Michelle's Romantic Tangle. Here's the link directly to Benny's quilt pattern.  As you might guess all of these fabrics were in my stash.  This used a lot of 2.5" squares but I've already cut more so it did make a dent but that didn't last for long! I used a very pale bluish-green left over from another quilt. I think it might looked better if I had used white. (Hum, maybe I'll make another one with white fabric.) It's going into the to-be-quilted closet. 

I found this quilt in a ziplock bag with a note saying all I needed to do was sew it together. That wasn't quite true as I moved some blocks around.  (I wish I'd noticed how many dark blocks were in the top row!) It to is moving to the to-be-quilted closet. 

This wasn't on my list but I found the purple and white squares sewn into 4 patches. I hunted around until I found enough for the center section of this doll quilt. Then found the purple calico with some bright green in it. A quilt was born! I was trying to decide how I could take a pic of this little quilt when I remembered I had some tape in my box of stuff.  I taped it to my Elna which worked really well.  This machine is at least 40 years old and was recently serviced and is working like a champ.  My only complaint is it was hard to get an accurate 1/4" measurement. It has a foot holder that allows snapping on different feet. Amazon to the rescue!  Last night I ordered two different feet so hopefully I'll have an accurate 1/4" foot soon. 

See what I mean?  I got a lot of sewing done.  I have learned to cut out kits before I leave. This time I even cut the borders but decided it would be much easier to put them on at home where I had enough flat surface to work on. I'll be starting making kits for a week long retreat in October. For now,  let's see what I plan to do this week. 

7/22/24

Fix Boxes and Bows baby quilt and add borders

Quilt customer quilt

Put borders on forest animals quilt

Finish current hat being knitted 

Spend 15 min a day cleaning cutting table 

Hopefully I'll get all of these items done this week. Although, I really need to spend some time reading as I have had several books on reserve show up with little time to read. 

My trip caused just a little problem with my 15 minutes of stitching.  There was only 1 day I couldn't stitch. (Well, I could have but I was so tired from the all day memorial, funeral mass, family dinner, and driving back to Marquette to catch our flight that I didn't even try.) Here are my numbers.

W/ending 7/21 — 203 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 20/21days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 195/203 days
• Success rate = 96%

Well bummer! My percentage of time dropped by .4%.  I will hopefully be making it up over the next few months. 

Here's a short narrative of our trip to Munising, Michigan. First, it isn't particularly easy to get to and from. Pat did the research and decided Richmond, VA to Chicago, IL with a change of planes to get to Marquette, the closest airport, was the best way to go and we could get back fairly early on Thursday. 

A Lego man at the Richmond Airport. It used over 40,000 pieces.  We had no problems making our connections in Chicago nor renting a car in Marquette. The drive to Munising was less than an hour.  We checked in to the hotel and went to visit Pat's sister. We met up with a niece, great nephew, and one of Roger's brothers to have dinner at a funny little outdoor restaurant with wonderful wood fired pizzas. Food was great, company was wonderful, weather turned on us.  We were sitting outside with what looked like a corrugated tin roof and some tarps. Um, not such a great idea when the rain came in. 

We eventually decided it wasn't going to let up so the guys went to get cars. The ladies tried to get closer to an area that wasn't quite so full of water. I took off my tennis shoes and socks and waded through ankle deep water to get to the car. (I really didn't have a lot of shoe options if my tennies got soaked!) 

Tuesday we did some prep work at the local Catholic church as Pat, a niece, and nephew were going to be providing various parts of the music.  Afterwards I asked if I could go to the local quilt store, Miss Good Stitch. I came prepared with some fabric samples and the measurements of the Ombre Log Cabin quilt. I found a 108" backing fabric that hopefully will go with the quilt. The fabric is a pink ombre with gold dots on it. I think it is by the same designer who did the fabric in the Log Cabin quilt. I picked up a Villa Rosa design and another piece of fabric. I said I was supporting a small fabric store... but it was really about me liking their fabric.  I haven't compared the pinks yet but my guess is I will use it whether it is a great match or not. 

Munising has a population of less than 2,000 people.  But they had at least two of these businesses! 

It is a tourist town both in summer and winter so I guess they both can make a go of it in such a small town.

As mentioned earlier, Wednesday was a long day.  However, it was wonderful to see so many of Pat's family.  We met many members of Roger's side of the family for the first time. After the family dinner, Pat and I drove back to Marquette and saw Lake Superior. We went to bed early. 

Our flight left at 6:30ish on Thursday morning! Marquette is a really small airport with only two gates.  Our flights into Chicago and Richmond were both early.  YEA! 

Um, what? I had seen one just outside the airport in Marquette when we arrived but it wasn't there at 5:00 am when we came back. This one was at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Evidently you can leave your excess cannabis in the box so you don't have it with you when you go into a state that doesn't allow it. Ok then. 

We were so very thankful we weren't flying on Friday.  Thank goodness we were trying to get me back home so I could attend some of the retreat. I felt sorry for all the passengers who couldn't fly Friday. 

I didn't take many pictures at the retreat. But I do have a cute one to share later. I'm ready to go to bed and I still have to link up with the following Linky parties. 

Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  I'll be back Monday to link the other two.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie