Malted Mystery

I just realized today is the last day to link up my finished Malted Mystery top to Cheryl's   I'm doing a short post today to share the finished top.  Cheryl does a great job keeping the quilt a mystery until the end.  

Here's a new photo of Malted Mystery.

I really like the end result and that many of the fabrics came from stash.  But, boy the dark purple really looks dark, or really black. In real life it doesn't overpower the rest of the colors so much. 

Here's a trip down memory lane (my earlier posts) about Malted Mystery.

It's been a great year.  Many thanks goes to Cheryl for her wonderful design and a fun time.  Don't forget, her next mystery is Marble Mystery starting on July 4.

Hum, looking at the first picture with my fabrics maybe I should have realized my dark was really dark!  Oh well -- I like this quilt anyway. 

I'm linking up to Cheryl's Malted Mystery Linky Party.  It's really fun to see all the different colors quilters used to make this quilt.  Amazing finishes and fun to see the different interpretations.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 2 - 26 -2024

Hello All! I've got way too much to squeeze into this blog post but I'm going to try to keep it a reasonable length.  Just a note -- I went to the Univ. of Southern California School of Journalism. I started in straight journalism but ended up with a degree in Public Relations.  I like to write. Although I go back and edit my blog posts to tighten them up, I have been known to carry on (and on.) Ok, moving right along to goals. 

2/19/24

✅Quilt and bind two baby quilts — I turned over these two quilts to binding elves. 

✅Make some FCQ Equilter blocks -- 2 are started, none are done. 

✅Work on Happy Blocks -- Yep, made some more of various sizes.

✅Finish Feb Malted Mystery clue -- Done! 

✅Update Accuquilt Dies in app and online -- Came up with a list but didn't update anything. 

Here's my Malted Mystery top all up to date!

Bummer. The color is much more pleasing than this shows. What looks like black is actually a dark purple.

Two baby quilts were quilted. Most of the fabrics were reproduction 30s fabrics that were given to the guild. Remember me talking about washing fabric? I pulled out all the pink 30s repro animal prints and cut them up into bricks. (I used my 3.5" x 6.5" brick die and cut them all on the Accuquilt.) There were enough bricks for 2 quilts. My friend Karen sewed the blocks together. Then I quilted both of them using more 30s repo fabric for the back. I turned them into the guild on Wednesday night and they will be given off to binding elves to finish up. 

And now, here's what I will be doing this week. 

2/26/24

Bind Picket Fence Quilt

Bind secret project (Look for the reveal on Wed. March 6.) 

Make some more FCQ Equilter blocks

Attend the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show 

Sew the green, blacks, & white 3 yard quilt

Update the Accuquilt online and app

I did have one big off list project this week. Sunday I spent the day quilting the Picket Fence top that I finished in 2022.  Late last year I bought a bunch of backing fabrics including a nice teal backing for the Picket Fence top.  (You can see the finished top here.) I will post the finished quilt soon. (Unless I forget!) 

In an effort to lessen the unfinished top collection I have,  I am going to try to quilt a couple tops a month. I know I have at least 7 (probably more) with backings and some with batting. So hopefully I'll get another couple done in March. I guess I need to stop finishing tops too. (😬 right!)

On to 15 Minutes to Stitch. Not bad! 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Feb = 25/25 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 56/56 days
• Success rate = 100%
  

It's ridiculously late but here are my stashbusting statistics for January.  Last year I decided I wouldn't keep track of fabric in and out. Eventually, I realized I did better knowing whether I was using up fabric or just endlessly adding to my fabric stash. I don't particularly like figuring out the fabric I use but at least I'll know whether I am using up the stash.  Here's January's results. Not bad.  I hope I finish a bit more in February. 

2023	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Jan	5.5	5.5	11.625	6.125	6.125

So far I haven't purchased any fabric in February.  I suspect that will change when we go to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt show.  Maybe I can have strong March finishes with no purchases. 

Later this week I hope to post a new month of Mysteries, Quilt Alongs, and Little Gifts.  I thought I'd mention one freebie you might want to check out now. Fabric Cafe has been releasing a free quilt pattern.  I haven't figured out how often they've done it so I just check back every month. However, I just checked and they have 3 of their early 3 Yard Quilt patterns available free now.  Here's the link to the free patterns. One thing to know if you haven't used any 3 yard patterns: They allow for an "economy" binding so it isn't double fold. If you prefer a double fold binding buy more fabric or use something from your stash. 

You might want to look over the other info Fabric Cafe has available there too. I was particularly interested in the sheet listing how much double fold binding you need to make for various sizes of 3 yard quilts. Note -- they base the totals on 2.25" binding. Have fun checking out their videos too. 

I'm ready to finish reading my latest novel -- I'm about 75% done and I'd like to finish it tonight. Here are the Linky parties I post to. Please go check out some other blogs. You'll come away with lots of great ideas. 

Oh Scrap

Life in Pieces: Stitching Stuff

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 1 -- 29 -- 2024

I'm not really much of a football fan but I do end up watching some of the teams from where we used to live. (Actually, it's generally Pat who watches and I look up every once and a while...) We were both disappointed that the Baltimore Ravens didn't win AFC championship.  Bummer!  I actually turned the game on in my studio but turned off the sound.  Maybe next year. 

At least I was working on one of my goals during the game. Here's what I got done. 

1/22/24

✅Work on secret project — a couple of more blocks finished

✅Start on Malted Mystery January clue — almost done, need to correct a triangle and sew small borders on 

✅Continue appliqué quilt — all 9 blocks now have triangles on.

Finish cutting out brick quilt — nothing done! 

✅Make more RSC Bow Tie blocks — 2 more done

This week I'll be repeating a lot of these items.

1/29/24

Work on secret project

Make more blocks for FCQ Equilter of the months

Finish January Malted Mystery Clue

Make a few more RSC Bow Tie blocks 

Finish cutting out brick quilt

Sharon and I FaceTimed today while we worked on the January Malted Mystery clue.  The clue was to put the center section together.  I ran into a couple of problems and didn't finish the whole clue.  Do you see my mistake? I've got a safety pin near the triangle I have to fix.  Then I need to sew on two narrow borders.  Hopefully I'll get it done this week. 

Here are my green bow tie blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've already picked out a couple more greens for more bowties. As of February red will be the color.  I guess I'll look for some red fabrics too. 

Despite having several days with lots of non-sewing activities I've continued my 15 minutes of stitching every day. I should be able to continue my 15 minutes every day for several more weeks.  But, maybe not vacation days coming up in March. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 28/28 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 28/28 days
• Success rate = 100%

We spent a lot of time at a car dealership this week.  My poor 10 year old car was unreliable.  We replaced the battery three times over the last year. But when Pat charged it to 100% and two days later it was at zero, we decided it was time to get me a new one. We did look at an electric vehicle but I didn't want something that "complicated." We already have a hybrid but I just couldn't see myself having to stop at a charging station when I drove to retreats or to friend's houses out of state. 

In the end we decided on a Subaru Forester. (My old car was an Outback.) Technology just keeps moving a head. My old car had quite a bit of technology but the new one has even more.  Luckily, the dealership hires someone to teach us about all of that technology.  Hopefully I can remember it. Next week I'll let you know anything that seems really out there to me. 

You know the drill: please go check out some of these Linky parties to see what quilters are up to this week. 

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

I'm ready to do some net surfing.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 4 - 2023

Welcome December! You sure came fast this year! I'm surprised that I feel pretty good about the gifts I'm making this year.  I see the end in site probably by the beginning of next week.  The purchased gifts?  It's panic time! I'm hoping to start in on the purchased gifts soon... if folks will tell me what they want! 

In the meantime I did a good job on my list this week! And there were a few off list items that spoke up and got done. Check out my successes.

11/27/23

✅Quilt Christmas present -- done! Yipee! 

Finish 1 of 4 ornaments (or more!) -- I made process but none are done yet! Yikes!

Quilt one small quilt -- the backing is loaded.

✅Finish Nov. clue for Malted Mystery -- ready for the next clue coming Thursday.

✅Make more maple leaf and basket blocks -- at least one of each were made.

✅Off List: more placemats; work on costumes -- both done.

I added Off List to remind myself that sometimes I choose to do things off list and sometimes I forget to put items on the list. I made two aprons to be used in a number for the concerts this weekend.

Sharon and I got together on FaceTime for our monthly clue sewing date.  We each succeeded in finishing the October clue.  Come on December clue! (Which probably won't get done until the end of the month.) 

And here's what's going to happen this week.  (Or at least I hope it happens!) 

12/4/23

Bind Christmas present 

Sew on ornaments

Make more placemats

Quilt small quilt 

Wash, dry and fold some fabrics* 

Concert Weekend: Fri night rehearsal, Sat night, and Sunday afternoon shows

* My local quilt guild was given the fabric stashes from 2 ladies.  We received about 10 boxes of fabrics.  Before storing it we are washing, drying and folding it.  I've volunteered to do several of the boxes.  I'm starting with low volume and reds.  My plan is to wash one load a day. My guess is it will take about a week or more to do each box.  It's fun to mentally plan quilts to use the new-to-us fabric. Hopefully we'll be making a lot of wonderful charity quilts with it. 

Hopefully next week I'll be able to get more pictures to share. This week things got done but only the one picture to share. So, it's time to say please check out these Linky parties to see what quilters are doing around the world. 

Oh Scrap!

Stitching Stuff at Life in Pieces

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Here's hoping you are getting all your projects moved forward and enjoying yourself while you sew. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 10 - 30 - 2023

 Good bye October! Hello November. Except we've been having summer weather here. It was in the 80s over the last few days. On Halloween the 80s give way to the low 50s. Yikes. Back to sweater weather. 

We had the two younger grands overnight Saturday.  We took them on a Ghost Walk in downtown Fredericksburg.  I'm not sure how much they got out of it because it was more about historic people (now ghosts.) We learned that Clara Barton was working in F-Burg during the Civil War.  She treated both Union and Confederate soldiers from a local church.  After the tour we went to a restaurant for pizza. And then stopped for Frostys on the way home.  We were really tired but had a great time. 

Needless to say Pat and I were pretty tired today.  I didn't do all that much on my quilting.  I did wash some fabric and then did some ironing. I also trimmed a quilt but didn't do anything about the binding. Overall I felt I did really well on my goals this week though. 

10/23/23

✅Sew some rows of Ombre Log Cabin together -  6 out of 13 diagonal rows are together

✅Finish trimming units and ✅make blocks for Malted Mystery - done! 

✅Work on Grands’ Christmas ornaments - making weekly progress 

✅Continue sewing Christmas present quilt together - 3 long columns done 

✅Have fun with grands this weekend - we enjoyed it and they seemed to have fun too although they kept saying it wasn't scary at all.

I finally finished all the trimming and block making for the Malted Mystery. I'm ready for the November clue. 

Here's what I'll be working on this week. Hopefully I can get all these things done.

10/30/23

Finish 3 Flower Song blocks

Sew more ombré log cabin rows together 

Continue on Christmas present quilt 

Sew on ornaments 

Maybe quilt a little quilt? 

When I was figuring out this week's goals list I decided to look back at previous goals to see if there was one I could add. I like to have a variety of projects to keep me interested.  So I added the Flower Song blocks.  We'll see how I do. 

I'm sending several Happy Blocks to Cynthia who blogs at Oh Scrap!  She is collecting blocks and making compassion quilts. The Happy Blocks quilts will be going to kids.  You can find the directions here. 

We've added some more color to outside of our house.  We couldn't get any mums last week so enjoy our marigolds and pumpkins. (Hum, I wonder if they will live through the cold weather this week!) 

Yep, small pumpkins -- we waited too long. Oh well. Hopefully we buy a plant and few pumpkins earlier. 

The bannister on the steps down is new too.  We don't understand why it wasn't included with the house originally.  We live in a 55+ community.  There are a lot of houses that did not have bannisters on their front steps.  

I hope you can spend some time surfing the Web by checking out these Linky Parties. I hope to have some time to do some surfing too. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

Sew and Tell 

I leave you with what I noticed across from our parking place when we were going to work out last week. EEEK! 

Happy Halloween All! 

Happy Quilting.  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 16 - 2023M

Last week was really a surprise to me.  Usually after 5 days of retreating I'm not all that interested in piecing or quilting. I'm ready to take it easy, read a book or three, and hang out with friends. Um, that did not happen. Sunday I was finishing a quilt and putting away my supplies from retreat.  Then my normal Monday: work out early in the am, breakfast, shower, go to the neighborhood stitching group and attend choral rehearsal.  Tuesday looked like it would be a great day to relax and read and maybe get a little quilting done.  Except. I really wanted to be quilting, so I did. And we got notice that someone at rehearsal had just tested positive for Covid. UGH. Hubby sat next to him so he maintained some separation: eating across the room from each other, wearing masks if we went out, sleeping in separate rooms. And, testing for Covid. I was still hoping that no one brought Covid to retreat. Luckily we've both tested negative every time we tested. 

So this week I spent a lot of time in my studio working on lots of different projects but not all the items on my list were completed.  Let's take a look.

10/9/23

✅Sew the setting triangles on Ombre Log Cabin — Setting triangles on; ready to sew rows together but it’s being retired for a while. Sorry, no picture. 

Plan the Christmas present quilt and start sewing it together — oops no progress on this one. 

✅Quilt a couple of small quilts — 2 small ones done and a customer quilt. See below for a pic. 

✅Work on Grands’ Christmas ornaments — all are prepped for stitching. 2 have been started. 

This is my smaller version of Pat Sloan's Traffic Jam.  Quilting is done, waiting on binding. It's about 36" square. Quilt design is Pipe Line and came with my long arm. You can just see the fun marbleized backing fabric I used at the top of the picture.  I haven't decided on binding but it's on my list for this week. 

Quilter Carol brought me this very cool Steam Punk Halloween top to be quilted.  She had Steam Punk fabrics and made her own design.  Great job Carol! 

Sometimes it's really fun to find the right quilting design and see how it progresses on a quilt.  This was one of those times.  She chose Spider Web from My Creative Stitches. See below for a close up. ⬇️ Carol was also brave enough to choose orange thread. It looked great! 

Sharon and I FaceTimed Saturday afternoon to work on the next clue for Malted Mystery -- something I didn't know we'd be doing this week.  Neither of us finished everything even working for 3.5 hours! I prepared all of the pieces for the flying geese in advance and I was able to get all of them sewn, cut and ironed. I still need to trim those down to the correct size. There were also 8 blocks that needed to be made. Sharon focused on the 8 blocks and completed all of them.  I completed 2 of them.  But I still haven't trimmed all of the 2.25" squares from last month's clue that were needed so I'll be working on that and then finishing the blocks interspersed with trimming the flying geese . We have until November to get all of these done.

I've packed a lot of goals into this week although I may not succeed as there is a lot of other things going on. 

10/16/23

Plan the Christmas present quilt and start sewing it together

Continue trimming units and making blocks for the Malted Mystery

Bind a quilt or two

Work on Grands’ Christmas ornaments

Straighten up the cutting table (I may forget this one!) 

Make a couple of placemats 

Guild meeting 10/18/23 and World Singing Day 10/21/2023 

One of the things I worked on today was making a placemat using Pat Sloan's String Bean pattern. (Here's the link to the measurements and here's a link to directions to make this log cabin block.) I decided I could actually use the quilt as you go method for the placemat. This one is my test run which actually turned out well.  I'm going to make more over the next few days so that I can take them to the guild meeting this week. 

The guild is collecting all sorts of place mats to give away at the end of the year. I thought this Christmas fabric looked good as the center. Next I'm trying a kid's novelty fabric but I'll have to come up with my own measurements as I don't have a piece the right size.  But the system worked really well. I think it takes longer to pick the fabric and cut out the pieces then it takes to make the placemat! 

October and November is my turn to receive blocks from Faithful Circle Quilters Equilters. I showed my block here. It's a block from Mary Quilts. Click here to see her instructions. Sharon and Pat W were over achievers. Sharon made hers during the retreat and "showered" me with them when she was done. 

Here are my, Pat W's and Sharon's blocks together. These are going to make great quilts for a variety of people.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the gang sending theirs.  (On the other hand I still have untouched blocks from last year, and several leftover blocks from previous years. EEP!) I have to say I was surprised with the yellow and blue blocks but don't they make a great POP of color? It'll be fun to receive more of these. 

That's it. You know the drill. Please visit these Linky parties to see what quilters are working on this week. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday*

*I'm hoping I remember to link to this one -- I seem to miss it more often than I remember to link up. Sigh. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie