Monday Meanderings 3 - 3 - 2025

Last week I attended the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show.  I didn't have a lot of time because Pat, Sunny, and I were going to the beach house after the show.  (We did the same thing last year but no Sunny yet.)They spent time walking around the parking lot and sitting in the car.  I spent about an hour and a half at the show and saw a surprising number of the quilts and did just a little shopping. Okay, also one big shopping. I've been buying rolls of Pellon 80/20 batting from I Sew Desire Quilts.  This year was my third purchase. I now have a roll 90" by 30 yards.  It's 50% bigger than my former rolls. My first roll took two years to use up. The second roll is almost finished after a year.  Hopefully this bigger, third roll will last a year to two years. Except I am trying to turn more tops into quilts so ... who knows how long it will last. 

Afterwards we drove to Nags Head, NC to do a little work on our rental house. Some locks were changed, some baseboards were washed, some screens replaced and some spots painted.  A little shopping took place.  And Sunny went on a walk on the beach with us.  It was a beautiful day although not really warm. 

The above explains why I didn't do very well on my goals this week. Sigh. Here's what I was suppose to work on. (Remember I only had 3 1/2 days at home!) 

2/24/25

✅Finish knitting current sock and start its partner — Done. 2nd one barely started

Bind the R,W,B quilt

✅Go to MidAtlantic Quilt Show — Enjoyed the time I had! 

Make blocks for FCQ EQuilter of the month 

Here's the sock and the beginning of its mate. 

See my original sock I finished last March. ⬇️ Yep, it looked ridiculous.  I ripped it out and started over. Hopefully it won't take too long to finish the 2nd sock.  It's been so cold here this winter I've been wearing my hand knitted wool socks a lot. 

Here's what I hope to get done this week. I probably should think up a few more items but I haven't a clue at this point so I may add some off list project(s).

3/3/25

Bind the R,W,B quilt

Quilt another top 

Make blocks for FCQ EQuilter of the month

Cut a new kit out

Work on the March UFO challenge 

With JoAnn going out of business I've decided to try another source for backing fabrics. I recently purchased a bolt (15 yards) of fabric from Marshall Dry Goods. I chose a basic purple because I have several tops that this will work for backing and possibly the binding. I originally planned just to buy several lengths of fabric for some different colored tops. I was having a hard time making up my mind and thought I'd try a bolt. Bolt prices are less than by the yard fabs but no free shipping option for buying a lot.  As it turns out by the bolt plus shipping is cheaper than the fabric purchased by the yard. 

I plan to cut a couple of backing lengths from the bolt and then prewash it.  I'm pretty sure that one of the tops that the purple will work with will be my next top loaded on Ruthie. Check in next week! 

I took some picts of some of the quilts hanging at Mid-Atlantic.  I'll share a couple of them this week and if I remember, more will be shared over the next few weeks. First up is Lady Bug.  I specifically shot this quilt for my daughter-in-love. She loves bugs and was thrilled when I shared it with her.  Enlarge the picture to read all the interesting facts. Unfortunately, I was so excited to get the picture I forgot to photograph the maker's statement. Enjoy Lady Bugs and all the facts shared. Aimee said she nailed all the facts. 

Next is Midnight Compass by Laurie Mutalipassi.  Here's her card telling about her quilt. 

And her wonderful quilt. 

Look for more quilts in the upcoming weeks. 

I was able to keep up my 15 minutes of stitching every day.  I am lucky to be able to knit in the car so driving home I was able to start an easy hat. Here are the stats.

W/ending 3/2/25. 61 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Feb = 28/28
• 15 minute days/Mar = 2/2
• 15 minute days/2024 = 61/61 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm linking with these parties. Come join the fun by checking them out. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Happy quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 8 2023

I have had a great week. Pat and I went down to Nags Head to take care of some work around our beach house before the summer begins.  We've had a great spring with rentals and the summer and fall seem to be gearing up to continue apace.  

One thing I generally bring down is my trusty featherweight and too many projects to get done.  This time I finished two tops and made several different blocks. I did have another group of Happy Blocks I could have put together but didn't get to it. I also brought down my most recent finish for a photo shoot. But before I show those let's look at my goal list from last week. 

5/1/23

✅Make extra Happy Blocks — 6 done

✅Sew one group of Happy Blocks into quilt top — top done

✅Sew grape top together - made blocks and put top together 

✅Make some Flower Song blocks — 3 more made 

This was the last project I worked on.  I was happy to get 3 more blocks made.  Luckily I have quite a few additional blocks cut out and sewn into half square triangles.  I'm going to try to continue working on this project over the next few weeks. 

Here's my goals for this coming week. 

5/8/23

Start working on APQ’s UFO challenge - mine is a small wall hanging that needs a border, quilting and binding

Make various blocks to donate

Continue to make Flower Song Blocks 

Start fusing and trimming tee shirts for a quilt

Before the end of April I finished another small quilt.  I decided to take it on our trip so I could get some glamor pictures of it.  Pat and I went over to Roanoke Island's Festival Park.  Roanoke Island is famous as the site of the first attempted settlement from England in America.  The first English child was born in the settlement in 1587.  Unfortunately the settlement vanished and no one knows what happened to the people living there. You can read a bit about here and here. 

It was a beautiful sunny day with a bit of wind.  As usual, I took way too many photos and chose only a few to share. 

Pat fighting the wind. 

 

Using my 9" Accuquilt Cube I was able to make a 14" unfinished block. The quilt is approximately 41" square.  You can make this block using any cube using shapes 1,3, and 9.  The block will be larger than your cube size. (Basically it will be about 3 times the size of your shape 1 excluding the seam allowances.)  

There was this interesting stage that also let you enjoy the water view. 

On a tree!

On our back deck.  The backing fabric is a wide back from Connecting Threads called Cobblestone in Light Honeysuckle. I did not use it in the top but I did use it to bind the quilt. 

I have way too many tops to turn into quilts -- I'm still waiting for my long arm to come back. Once that happens I'll be spending more time getting tops finished.  I've run out of the plastic hangers I use to keep them neat. 

It's time to share my favorite Linky parties. I hope you can use one of these as a jumping off source to see a whole lot of blogs chock full of great ideas! 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday

Here's hoping you have a Quilty week! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Stitching and Traveling

We've come down to our beach house in Nags Head, NC to see how it held up after Hurricane Matthew.  Thankfully it is fine.  We haven't been down here since the end of May because the house has been rented almost the entire summer all the way through October.  It's beautiful weather here this week. 

We went out to dinner at the Black Pelican last night.  Pat took this photo of the beach road -- well what was the beach road and the sand dune before Matthew came to visit two weeks ago. We were here about the same time last year and took nearly the same picture then.  And, yes, dinner was great as always.

                                  

Pat is definitely a morning person and I am definitely a night owl.  He went out to the beach to get these pictures of sunrise this morning.  He captured some spectacular pictures this year. 

And a few minutes later...

I often set up a little sewing area and try to get some piecing done.  Here's what I'm working on this time. I started this in a Stack N Whack class in early September.  I did this block before I left home to make sure the sizes I was cutting were correct.  Today, I finished cutting and then started making the blocks.  I was working around the house also so didn't get as much done as I should have but tomorrow morning I'll try to get a few more blocks done before we do a little shopping.  (Yep, there is a outlet mall not even a mile away...) 

I've also finished one sock.  This yarn is hand dyed burgundy but it sure doesn't look it in the picture. The picture shows some of the variation in the yarn but, honestly, this is a deep burgundy without much variation actually showing.   The yarn is wonderful to work with.  Since this picture was taken I've already gotten about 2" done on the new cuff. 

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday. I'll link up with Whoop Whoop on Friday.  Take some time to check out some inspiration across the internet. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

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Retreat Review

Within 24 hours of getting home from retreat we were off to the beach house -- the first time I've been there since May!  Here are some more photos and commentary about retreat.  It was a great time despite 4 days of rain.  At least the hurricane didn't add more excitement! 

Quilters are in the building! (mine is the one farthest away. But it didn't stay the last one as more were added.) 

Mary brought a finished scrap quilt to show to the group.  Yummy!  I love the half square triangle borders. Nice job Mary! 






And now some of the finishes folks had while at the 3 and a half day retreat. 

This is Michelle's quilt top.  I can't remember what she said the name of the block was.  I believe a lot of the units were done before she go here.  Nice job getting the whole quilt top together.  I wonder if she will put borders on it or not?   Behind to the left is Mary's quilt that we had hanging the entire weekend.

Michelle also finished her galaxy quilt top.  She made the medium size.  She doesn't live in state so she did this one on her own.  It looks great. (Can I say she is incredibly fast and she stays up really late?)

MaryBeth finished another t shirt quilt. You can see another one she made at the FCQ June retreat here. Scroll down to see it. 

Sharon got her FCQ Cuddly Critter Challenge quilt top done.  Anyone who wanted to participate was given a bag of fabric to use. The guild was given a lot of fabrics to put to use -- thus the challenge.  Sharon will get this quilted at home and then turn it in.  I need to check out my bag more thoroughly as I have hardly even looked at it since I got it in June.  The quilts will be donated to Project Linus after the FCQ Quilt Show in April. 

Here's my set up.  We have narrow tables that can get exceedingly messy.  Or, maybe that's just my table! I did a fairly good job keeping the mess more controlled this year.  Behind me you can see half of Dorothy, my Row by Row buddy, and Kay.  We get together every few months to embroider or sew.  Lots of fun. 

I'll end this with a photo I took the last night we were in Nags Head. There was a rocket launch from Wallops Island Wednesday night.  We had tried to watch an earlier one but the rocket blew up.  (Seems to me we actually saw the flash of the explosion.)  This time the launch went well but we sure didn't see much.  Just one dot of light traveling up really quickly.  I tried to get a picture of the dot but, hey, this is a cell phone camera... what did I expect?  

This is what is waiting for me.  It is time to unpack, put the sewing machine back in place, unpack the bags.  And, get back to work.  Halloween is creeping up on me and I have several shirts to make for some cute little girls!  I'll share more photos from Nags Head soon.  The ocean was amazing!  Food was fabulous, although I doubt if I took any food pictures.  And, best of all I did some cross stitch and sweater knitting. 

I'm connecting up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Let's Make Baby Quilts. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 5 - 18 - 2015

I had a good sewing day while at the beach house last week.  I am now working on finishing two of the three newest quilts I have started.   I've got the inner border sewn.  I'm now sewing the string pieced blocks together for Love Shack.  I see a finished top coming soon! 

I spent more time yesterday working on Galaxy than I did on Love Shack.  With the V Block ruler from Studio 180, as with all Deb Tucker's rulers that I own, you make the block slightly larger and trim it to the exact size.  The down side of this is that's a LOT of trimming.  The up side is the blocks go together perfectly and you don't need to trim the blocks up at the end. I ran out of units just as I was finishing up for the day yesterday.  

On to my goals.  Last week I was very successful.  Let's hope I can continue the trend for this week! 

Week of May 11, 2015

Trim antique quilt√

Make and apply binding to antique quilt√

Work on Galaxy blocks√

Work on Love Shack√

Have fun at the beach√

Week of May 18, 2015

Continue on Galaxy Blocks

Load and begin to quilt Wild Dogs

Keep progressing on Love Shack

Figure out Christmas blocks to make a table runner 

I leave you with a picture of Pat and I on the Nags Head Pier.  It was chilly most of the days we were there but we did spend a little time sitting on the beach and enjoying the surf.  

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times and Love Laugh Quilt. 

Happy Quilting All!