Monday Meanderings 6 - 22 - 2026

Happy Father's Day -- at least here in America. We were able to spend part of it with our son and his family. I hate to complain about the weather so I'll say we've had some wonderful days with low humidity and reasonable summer temps. We may have a lot of rain this week.  My weather saying is wait a few days it will change! Do you say that about weather where you live? 

Here's what I got done this week.  It was satisfying to move forward on all of these goals. 

6/15/26

✅Bind 1 quilt — Done.

✅Cut one quilt kit — Done. 

✅Make more ✔️Veronica blocks and ✔️✔️Hollow 9 patches — 3 blocks were made. Another two are started. All the blocks for Hollow 9 patches are finished. 

✅Baste Fall Blocks top (June ufo challenge project)— Done. 

✅Check a couple of project boxes, empty, and put away fabric if project is finished — One zippered pouch was liberated. 

Here's the finished quilt with binding. My grands helped me out with holding the quilt.  You can read more about it here. 

Before we left for our son's house I was able to finish pin basting the fall quilt.👇The blocks are old -- 10 or 12 years old. Last year I put the finished blocks into a quilt. And then I let it sit for a while. I did put it on my 2026 UFO Challenge I do with Sharon.  Its number came up for June.  

At one point I was thinking of doing some more applique blocks but decided I probably couldn't do the hand appliqué as nicely as I did the original blocks.  And, we have a quilt hanger over the fireplace where this would fit beautifully. It's about 38" square. I will be quilting it with my domestic machine and a walking foot.  My preliminary plan is to stitch around each square but in the black and gold fabric. I'll stitch in the ditch on the outside of the small gold border. I will probably do something in the middle of the black border. You might notice I'm not talking about the rust rectangles. 

Well, lazy me says stitch in the ditch and call it done. The more artistic me says, maybe some parallel lines 1" or so apart. Or a checkerboard on the diagonal.  I will probably do some parallel lines using whatever size masking tape I have to mark them. But it is going to take way more time than this last week of June!  I'll try to keep you posted on my progress. 

I have way too many projects started and am using way too many project boxes and plastic zippered bags. I did check one of the boxes and found it full of fabrics with an ocean theme. I know I've made one quilt from the fabric but there is a lot more. The quilt kit I cut was made from 5" squares of the same fabric. It will stay in the box until I make some more quilts out of it.  It's going to take a while! Plus there is another project in the box that I didn't even look at but I think it is also ocean scenes. Oh my!

Here are my goals for this week. Wait, how did I get sooooo many items on the list? 

6/22/26 

Start quilting Fall Blocks (June ufo challenge project)

Finish two more Veronica blocks that are already started

Keep checking project boxes and/or zippered pouches to free them up for other projects

Work on Snowman #2

Knit a beanie

Start table runner for retreat  

I may not get to everything but I hope I can get some of each of these projects done.  

I did sew everyday this week including spending some time this morning finishing the pin basting before we left for our son's house. I'm glad I did as we stayed later than planned and I was unmotivated* when we got home. (*I admit I fell asleep on the couch while trying to read!) 

So I was successful on sewing every day this week. 

Week ending 6/21/26:  172 days of 2026.

  172 stitching days out of 172 days. 100%

I notice I often make mistakes on the info regarding sewing every day.  Last week was a big one when I said I'd stitch 158 of 165 days.  OOPS! I'll try to proofread better but don't hold your breath! 

Now another quilt my friend Sharon quilted while here last week. 

This is her version of Cheryl Brickey's Magnificent Mystery.  You can see my top here.  It's amazing how differently they look but they are the same pattern.  I'll get around to quilting mine someday! 

Please spend some time checking out these Linky Parties.  Lots of fun pics and info about what quilters around the world are doing. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

I've got 3 more weeks to get ready for retreat with friends. We rent a house in the Shenandoah mountains and sew for 6 days. So, lots of projects need to be readied.  I generally take about 6. I think I have two or three ready so far. I think I'll check some of my projects that are sitting around waiting to be worked on. That's better than starting new projects for sure.  We also need to plan a dinner with another attendee.  I have it easy as I usually do dessert and a salad while a friend does the main dinner. Dinners are very good. We bring our own breakfasts and lunches. It is a great week to spend sewing times with good friends I don't see as often. 

How is your quilting going? Do you keep a goals list or just tackle what ever you feel like each week? I hope you get a lot of stitching done this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

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 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 9 - 2026

 Weather changes and time changes.  It was really nice to walk Sunny this evening -- it was still light. And it was in the high 60s at 7 pm.  So nice.  Spring is coming.  And I have a spring-looking UFO to work on soon. Here's what I got done this week. 

3/2/26

✅Bind bottom of grey sweatshirt. — done. 

✅Keep working on sewing blue bricks together — All sewn together, maybe. 

✔️Plan rest of February UFO blocks and start sewing together — All blocks framed.

✔️Finish knitting sock currently on the needles — Still have a few inches to finish the sock.

✅Keep working on the Magnificent Mystery blocks and rows — all blocks made.

✅ Look at the March UFO project — 42 blocks to make a 6 x 7 center.

I got a lot done this week but some things weren't finished so I've marked them with the black check mark.  

Here's the blue bricks sewn together. It's about 30" wide by 39" long. I think I'm going to add a few more columns to bring it up to 36" wide. The bricks are 2.5" x 5". The squares are 2.5", just incase you want to make your own.  

I snuck in a few special blocks for laughs. Check out the frog in the center  of full top picture.  

Here is one suggestion for the Feb. UFO blocks.  I have a really nice Oriental fabric that was with all the blocks.  The flowers in the basket block are from it. This way this border is overwhelming the blocks.  

So then I added a little border of fabric that is used in many of the blocks. I don't think this really works.  What do you think? Any different ideas? Maybe I'll try some sashing or a different border fabric. 

Here are 4 blocks from the Magnificent Mystery top -- one of each full block and half block. I've got all the blocks done. But I need to start putting them together. Shouldn't take long to put 5 full rows and 2 half rows together.  I just need to be motivated to do it! It'll go on this week's goal list to help with my motivation. (What looks like really dark fabric is actually a purple print with leaves and vines -- rust, gold and greens on the purple ground.)  

And now, this week's goals. 

3/9/26

Finish Feb UFO to top stage

Stitch on Snowman block

Trim March UFO blocks 

Sew Magnificent Mystery blocks into rows

Finish knitting sock

I'm not sure I'll be able to finish February's UFO to top stage as I'm not sure how I want to finish it.  Decisions, decisions. But there's always March's UFO project. I won some of these paper pieced blocks years ago from Paper Panache. Then a few years ago I had my FCQ Equilters make me some more.  I've not been really interested in finishing them but this year I put them on the UFO challenge 3 times. It came up for March so the first activity I planned was to evaluate the blocks, remove the papers and sew the blocks together.  I have 42 blocks and will set them 6 x 7, 36" x 42".  I've decided on using the green with various whites to make the border blocks the next time these blocks come up on the challenge. 

I've stuck to stitching every day this week. Many days were a lot more than 15 minutes. 

Week ending 3/8/26:  67 days of 2026.

  67 days of 67. 100%

I went wild recently.  I bought a bunch of wide backs from Marshall Dry Goods to go with several tops that are waiting to be quilted.  I'll share what I bought once it arrives in the next week or so. And, then I need to get some quilting done! 

Now, I'm reminding you to visit some Linky Parties to see what is going on across the Internet.     

Stitching Stuff 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Also, check out my listing of March 2026 Mysteries and Sew Alongs. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings -- 2 - 9 - 2026

Weather is still a major issue here.  It has continued to be much colder than usual and we had a little extra snow this week.  That means I stayed in the house most of the time and sewed! And, I got a lot done this week! 

Here's my goal list.  Most everything is checked off. YEA!

2/2/26

✅Work on the spools quilt — top is finished. 

✅Work on snowman block — little bits of progress made.  

✅Start new knitted hat — about 3” are done. 

✅Work on outline stitching on zippered bag — left section done. 

Make 4 more dash blocks✔️✔️✔️ — 3 out of 4 done. 

Mail quilt blocks MB, Joan, and Many Hands and Many Hearts — Oops, they aren’t even packaged! 

I finished the spool top. And, I really like it.  I've got to find (or buy) something for the backing.  But, am I'm actually done with this?  Does it need a border?  It can't be very big because I want to use it on an existing hanger that isn't much bigger than the top is now.  Maybe it just needs a binding in that same blue?  What do you think?

Here's what I've done on the zippered bag. I've finished about a third of the backstitching.  I should have finished it but instead worked on the other hand stitched items on my list.  I'll be showing them once I have enough done to actually see. I plan on using this bag for my knitting projects. 

Here's what I'm working on this coming week.  (Hopefully I'll actually mail out the  packages!) 

2/9/26

Mail quilt blocks to MB, Joan, and Many Hands and Many Hearts

Begin planning for Feb UFO Challenge

Finish stitching on zippered bag, add buttons

Work on snowman block

Continue knitting on hat

Continue putting Magnificent Mystery blocks together

I had another week of sewing every day.  I went back to last week's statement and I realized I had the wrong number of days -- one too many.  So this number is correct. 

Week ending 2/8/2026 -- 39 days of 2026 

  39 Of 39 days 100%.

Sunday I spent the afternoon off list! Sharon is back from a trip and we decided to work on our Magnificent Mystery quilts together on FaceTime. Evidently the February instructions are for the rest of the quilt. But first there are a lot of units to be sewn into blocks and half blocks.  I laid out the two main blocks and took photos.  (I had them on design boards one with turquoise edge, the other with a red and white check edge.) 

I am going to need to remake some units in the half blocks as I switched up the placement of some colors.  It won't take much to make the correct blocks.  I like what's been done so far.  I finished 7 blocks of 13 like the top block and just the one of the bottom one.  We'll get together again to have another try at finishing these blocks. 

I hope you can spend some time surfing these Linky parties to keep up with what quilters are doing around the world. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie