Starts and Finishes

Here are two starts and one finish for you to enjoy.  First up the starts. 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022 I chose Whirl pattern.  It's a 9" finished block.  I specifically chose a 9" block so that I could use my Accuquilt Go 9" Cube and Go Companion Set Angles.  I'm continuing to try to use my Go dies as often as possible this year.  Over the last 2 years I've gone a little crazy buying dies (mostly on sale) so I really need to use them.  I can't decide whether to make only this block or make several different pinwheel style blocks.  What do you think?  

If one is good how about 2 and a sew along block? 

I want to make 3 RSC blocks each month so I would have 30 blocks after 10 months of colors.  We'll see if I actually succeed. The top block is the first block in Sherri McConnell's Quilting Life Quilt Block of the Month. You can read all about it, find the fabric requirements and the first block here. My friend Sharon has been doing these yearly sew alongs for awhile.  I decided to join her this year. I hope she pushes me to keep up. 

Next up is one of my finishes from December.  

Hum, for some reason this didn't come out as great as I thought it did.  I fell in love with this fabric with little bunnies wearing hats and holding peppermints. Truth be told, I bought it from Thousands of Bolts, Just One Nut probably in 2018 or so.  It was on sale for maybe $5.00/yard.  I let it simmer in my stash for a while but finally chose a pattern from one of Ursula Reikes books and made it up. It sat for a while  until I decided it was time to buy backing fabric and get it finished.  I originally planned to give it away but I like it way too much to send it out into the world.  It will be donated eventually but I'm enjoying it now.  

Here's an up close of the backing.  I can't find any info on the quilting design.  I know it is fairly new to me but I haven't been able to find it at any of the regular places I purchase designs from.  Weird. I do know I used a white So Fine thread from Superior Threads for the top and bobbin.  Unfortunately, I have not been recording all that information in my quilting book so I'm not sure the exact color number or the name of the design. It's a small quilt, maybe 35" square. (When I next go down to the studio I'll check the design name and the company name.) Click on the pic of the backing to see the design better. In fact, all the pics should enlarge if you click on them.

Last picture -- Pat holding the quilt with snow in the foreground. (That snow is left over from Jan 3.) 

I hope you will spend some time with these linky parties: 

Midweek Makers

Needle and Thread Thursday

Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

Scrap Happy Saturday

That's it for this Friday evening.  Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and check out what people are making across the Internet. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

More Quilts to Share

Yep, I'm still on a roll.  I finished a small quilt (31" square.) I really fell in love with this quilt and the fabrics I used.  I very seldom make quilts for girls but this is all girly! 

Pattern: Jacquelynne Steves Silver Lining Sew Along 

Quilting Design: Curley E2E by My Creative Stitches. 

Thread: Top - YLI Variations Thread in Tulip; Bottom - Superior Threads So Fine #418 It's A Girl!

Many thanks to my excellent quilt holder, Pat.  We're showing off the beautiful azaleas in our side yard. The sad part is we have no view of these unless we walk around to the side yard.  Aren't they grand this year? 

I used a grey solid for the backing and a white with grey polka dots for the binding.  The pink alternate fabric also has polka dots.  

And one last look with the dogwood tree in bloom. 

All of these photos should enlarge if you click on them.  The garden is beautiful this spring and the weather has been unusually mild for the last couple of weeks.  It was great to walk around the house checking for the best photo spots! 

The sad situation this week is Sharon and I canceled her trip to visit.  With the gas shortages I couldn't guarantee she could fill up her tank for her return trip.  She'll be up next week.  No pressing engagements and probably a lot more gas available.  Her town ran out of gas the day before we made the decision.  Virginia was showing 50% of stations out of gas.  We both decided it was the right move. 

Here's a peek at the next quilt I am working on.  My daughter Jenny made this with input from her daughter Natalie. It's a real generational quilt!  (SHshshsh! Don't tell anyone.  It's a teacher present!) It's been such fun to quilt this. Natalie picked the fabrics, the block placements, and the quilting design.  I'll show more of it at some point.  

I've only got one more row to do.  Pretty soon I'll be back to piecing a UFO.  Except, I need to decide what size top to make.  I sure hope I can use up all of the blocks so I don't have a bunch left over to become another UFO! 

Today I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties for the end of the week: Mid Week Makers, Needle and Thread Thursday, Finished or not Friday, Whoop!, Whoop! Friday, and Beauties Pageant.  I think I'm going to sit on the deck and do a bit of surfing. How about you? Enjoy all the eye candy. 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 1 - 27 - 2020

After a great sewing weekend with Sharon I made it home safely after the 5 hour drive.  I was home by 2:30 totally exhausted.  I was sound a sleep on the couch by 3:30 -- and didn't wake up until 5! 


I'm still sharing things I made for the grand's Christmas presents.  Here's one of the big presents for Ellie and her doll.  (Her name escapes me at the moment...)  For the last year Ellie has been asking me for a wedding dress for her doll.  EEK! A WEDDING dress??  Yep.  And I made it for her! Here are a few pictures... 

Dress in process.  (My spray bottle made a great dress form!) 

Finished wedding dress in the wardrobe Pat made for Ellie. 

Here's the wardrobe loaded up Christmas afternoon.  I'm sure she's hung a lot more clothes in there now. 

For some reason, this year I made way more than I usually do for the grands.  One of the things I made was a sports bag tag for Sophie and Natalie.  

Front of the baseball tag for Sophie's new sports bag.

Bag Tag Gone Wrong.  Notice where the tag is suppose to be sliced open to put the clip in. The sad thing is it didn't show up on the instructions with the cut area to the side.... it was perfectly lined up for the top.  My guess is the embroidery design was changed after the directions were written. Sigh. Needless to say I made another one.  These are made with marine vinyl.  

I wanted to share more photos from our vacation.  We were on an cruise that stopped at Aruba; Curaçao; Cartagena, Columbia; Panama Canal and Costa Rica.  The only stop we didn't have an excursion was Aruba.  We left the ship and walked around town a bit.  This was what we saw as we were leaving the dock. Looks good to me! 

One thing we saw was this National Archeological Museum of Aruba.  It was interesting to see how people lived on the island through history.  I'm not sure what the blue horse was all about but I had to get a picture.  The museum was housed in the green building.  It was bigger than that building hints at. 

We ended up at a bar that had WiFi.  (Unlike other cruises we've been on this one did not offer free WiFi -- even though we did have a suite. Sigh.)  We enjoyed ourselves just watching the main street.  Unfortunately, I don't like beer so I had soda water, which I do like.  Lots of bubbles but no sugar or caffeine.

I'll continue to share photos of the trip over the next few posts.  Knowing me and the fact I'm trying to get a top quilted before January is gone AND I have a challenge quilt that must be done by Feb 8th I'll probably only post on Mondays.  I'd like to get back in the habit of posting twice or three times a week but don't hold your breath.  

I'm linking with my favorite Monday Linky Parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. (Design Wall Monday will be added once it goes live AND I remember to do it!) 

I'm calling it quits tonight.  Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 9 - 18 - 2017

FABRIC SHOPPING!  (in Lancaster, PA too.)

From left to right: backing for TAW, sashing for a set of blocks from FCQ EQuilters,
and  a bright choice for a pillowcase and a baby quilt. 

Oranges for the stash, bunny print for future pillowcases,
blue for binding the streak of lightening quilt,
 and deep green to bind the TAW.

Once we hit Reading, Pa where we were attending a Barbershop Harmony competition, we also did a little outlet shopping.  Let's just say I've been having really good luck on when I've chosen to go shopping.  I hit a Talbot's outlet and was looking for summer clothes.  Can I just brag that I got 3 pairs of crop pants, 2 knit tops and a lovely knit jacket for less than the full price of one pair of pants. YES!  I'm going to do a little altering on some of the clothes but I'm quite pleased with my haul this time.  As a little side note, I use to shop Talbots frequently when I worked full time.  Since I retired -- not at all.  But this outlet shopping post-season really was a great deal.  

Friday afternoon and all day Saturday Pat and I attended the Mid-Atlantic District competition in Reading, Pa.  Friday featured quartets and Saturday (starting around 8:30 am!) the choruses.   The Virginians did really well and were pleased with their 8th place finish.(Out of 22.)   Just a side note, the winners from the district competitions go on to International.  And, there are some wild card spots.  Rumor has it there is a good likelihood 4 choruses will go to Internationals from MAD. (I know sounds weird but Mid-Atlantic District=MAD.) I haven't been to a competition for years so I was happily surprised to see a large number of younger men singing in both quartets and choruses. 

After two days of barbershop harmony I was ready to stay in the hotel and read while Pat watched our USC Trojans finally beat Univ. of Texas instead of attending the last MAD event.  The next morning we headed home stopping to pick up Kona at Jenny's house. I hit the couch to read but was soon sleeping!  

I'll let my goal list from last week speak for itself. (I think I just heard it say UGH!) 

Sept 11, 2017

Make lotto blocks for retreat oops – didn’t happen

Prep a project for retreat √ at least it’s started

Finish placemats√

Mail pillowcases Eeks, nope

Do some serious fabric shopping! √

Enjoy Barbershop singing competition√

This week should be much better! I've got a week and a half before my retreat so I need to get my projects all cut out and ready to go. 

Sept 18, 2017

Make lotto blocks for retreat

Mail pillowcases

Wash, iron and put away new fabrics

Bind Streak of Lightening Quilt

Load Christmas Trip Around the World quilt

I'm linking up with my regular Monday group: Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Oh Scrap and Moving It Forward (when it is posted.) 

That's it from me.  I'm looking forward to some quality time in the studio this week.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Forward Progress

I've been tickled with my progress on my Red, White and Blue quilt.  I ran out of room on my design wall to layout the entire quilt.  It's sewn on the diagonal so that makes it just a little more "involved." I started in the top right corner and sewed rows together.  

So this was suppose to go into a post Wednesday or Thursday.  Um, didn't happen. After I get three or four rows done I start another section. See the baseballs near the middle?  That row is part of the third set of rows already sewn together.  Making steady progress! 

Meanwhile, back at the farm (um, the rest of the house) Pat's been putting in custom closets.  This one's mine. Yea! 

And the dogs have been learning about their new backyard and having an electric fence.  They are very unimpressed with both.  I think they would prefer their fenced acreage at our old house.  Sorry guys.  That postage stamp is your yard. 

One last thing in closing -- do you like to do quilt alongs?  I've joined one over Color, Creating and Quilting. Janice, along with Jen at A Dream and A Stitch are sponsoring a Shadow Block Mini Quilt Along.  The pattern was designed by Debora at Studio Dragonfly.  So are you up for making what Janice promises is an easy fast quilt?  Drop by Janice or Jen's sites to sign up.  The reveal date is Sept. 5th. AGH!, you say?  I checked the pattern out and it really will be quick to make and finish.  I'm thinking the hardest thing for me is to decide on what fabrics to use.  I just had a moment's inspiration.  I always give a donation to FCQ guild for a fall silent auction.  This would be the perfect thing to use for that and I would be done with it really early! Hope you'll join me. 

I'm linking up with Can I get a Whoop Whoop over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  I may come back tomorrow and see what else I can link up with.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie