Monday Meanderings 4 - 28 - 2025

A great week for my stitching and a quilting celebration.  First the Virginia Star Quilt Guild celebrated their 40th anniversary.  We are set up as a social club rather than an educational group.  So, we decided to have a formal tea to celebrate our 40th year. Here are a few pictures from our celebration. 

Guests were greeted with name tents. The flowers in the back were arranged by our member Mary. (I donated the use of my favorite vase which had been my mother's.) 

One of the table decorations before all the other items were added. 

Yummy scones were served.  Notice the cookie (!) that had a special design on it celebrating the guild's anniversary.

We also had a display of several quilts from our members. This one 👆🏼is a president's quilt from several years ago. The members made houses to be put into the quilt. 

Most of these pieces were from classes the guild sponsored.  The big quilt 👆🏼 hanging is Jamestown Landing made by Shirley K. from a class by Bonnie Hunter.  (I have a matching one in turquoise from the same class. You can see it here.) 

We had a Pat Sloan workshop.  This is Linda K's result of the class. 👆🏼 Below 👇🏼 is Karen E's version. They are both called Mama's Garden.  What fun to see two very different quilts from the same class.  

Now on to my normal Monday blog content!  It was a good week for stitching. Here's my goals list from last week. 

4/21/25

✅Make Cali-Co quilt along April Block — done.

✅Quilt Orange Peel on domestic machine — done, waiting to bind. 

Finish another hat — half made. 

✅✅Make 2 more Equilters 9 patches — finished the cut out ones from last week and 3 more done. 

I'm enjoying working on each block of this mystery quilt along from Coriander Quilts. This week I cut out all the white strips and a selection of squares for the corners. (That'll save time while making the rest of the blocks.)

It's such a good feeling to make lots of progress on an old top.  I started by quilting the big circles the peels made. One column done. Then I started on the next column. Except, um, I got lost following the circles and made a wrong turn. Ok, I can deal with that. By the end of the day I had echo stitched all the peels but not as big circles. 👇🏼 The stitching still enhances the big circles but also the inside of the circles.  

The next day I got the borders done. (Pictures to come.) Which brings me to this week's goals. Yep, I'm planning on doing the binding. 

4/28/25

Bind orange peel quilt 

Finish knitting hat

Begin 3 yard quilt project 

Make more 9 patches 

Attend dress rehearsal and sing two concerts with Spotsylvanians

My 3 yard quilt project has a deadline. It was originally Sunday the 4th. Luckily it can be postponed to the end of May instead.  The fabric comes in tomorrow so I can get started on it. It's a secret project that will be a gift. I'll tell more about later. 

My 15 minutes of stitching has been successful again this week. Yee haw! I doubt if I'll make it all year but it feels great to keep this up!

W/ending 4/27/25. 117 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Apr = 27/27
• 15 minute days/2024 = 117/117 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'll be linking with my regular parties. Check out these parties to see what quilters are doing this week. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

It's going to be a long week with not as much stitching time as I would want. But I'm actually looking forward to having Monday evenings at home instead attending rehearsals. We'll be singing the National Anthem at the Fred Nats minor league baseball game later in the month.  And the neighborhood chorus is getting ready for concerts at the end of May. So I'll still be singing. 

That's it for me today.  If you are interested in mysteries and sew alongs I posted   May's info on April 26. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

What Do You Think?

I've now completed all of the orange peels for my little quilt.  The background squares are 3 3/4" -- not all that big.  But it was great fun appliqueing them.  I used the starch method to turn under the seams which I wrote about here.  With the peels all prepped it was a matter of minutes to applique each one down.  Needless to say I didn't do them all at once! But now they are ready to be sewn together. 

What do you think?  Is this a good layout? I've been moving these around off and on for a day or three. I keep checking for the background colors not to be the same repeatedly.  Also, I want to mix up the colors well.  Most of the pale yellows and pale pinks I tossed and made new peels. 

Hum, the darker background fabrics need to be spread out a little better.  They appear to be clumped together in various areas.  And, it looks like two of the yellows are in a row diagonally.  It's so much easier to see these type of things in a photograph.  I'll wait to hear from you guys before I move too much. 

I have one more little quilt ready to sew together.  Something like 48 1-3/8th inch triangle squares.  I know, 1 3/8" is a ridiculous number.  But I had a bunch of little pre-sewn triangles that squared up at that number.  It was all laid out and ready to be sewn when, well, a picture is worth a thousand words... 

I was using a funny little vacuum near Ruthie.  The darn thing blew these little pieces off the cutting mat and all over the table and floor.  Rats.  The worse is that I had many blocks I had rejected next to it and they are all intermingled.  Sigh, back to arranging them! 

The best part is I am enjoying the studio and making some progress.  The huge design wall is full with 3/4th of a quilt laid out.  I hope to finish all the blocks before Monday's Design Wall post.  I'm planning on focusing on those and the QOV blocks over the next few days.  Now to get back to work! 

Happy Quilting All! 

What's Done

I finished hand quilting my little Hexagon Flower quilt last week.  I'm happy to share this one as I started it in 2011!  Evidently I didn't work on it all that much over the ensuing months. 

I love the little wavy stencil I used on the border, but evidently so did Raggs as one end was chewed up after I left it some where he could get it. 

I am now working on an Orange Peel small quilt.  Both of these patterns came from Kathleen Tracy's books.  Several weeks ago I showed how I was making the peels.  It has been so easy to just grab the little bag of my supplies and applique away.  I've been doing them by colors so I can use the same thread if I cut too much at a time.  Most of these are from a box of fabrics all from one line that I won about a year ago.  I'm using a bunch of different backgrounds.  I may take far less than a year for this project. 

Do you do Quilts of Valor?  I try to but seem to not finish all that many in the long run.  But I love to make blocks and ship them off for someone else to finish them.  Alycia is doing another block drive. And this time the incentive prize is hand dyed fabrics from Vicki.  Yummy.  Go to Alycia's blog to get the details. The blocks are due by March 8th.  I need red, white and blue fabrics so I will be looking for some bright ones soon.  Of course, I'll hit up my stash first!  

Happy Quilting All!