Monday Meanderings 5 -- 18 -- 2026

The last concerts for the two singing groups I'm in are over. That gives me more time to quilt! Or maybe read more or ??? Has summer started with a vengeance where you live?  We had 90º today and it'll be even hotter the next 3 days. One day will be only 59º over the next 10 days. And a lot of rain is predicted. We need it so I'm hoping the forecast is accurate.   Of course the 10 day weather forecast can and does change a lot before the day actually arrives. Time will tell. I will be enjoying a lot of time in my studio in the basement. 

Here's last week's goal list.  Everything marked off! 

5/11/26

✅Quilt customer’s quilt — done and returned.

✅Add border to rainbow rail top — done.

✅Work on UFO Challenge for May — continuous process is being made.

✅Start sewing dash blocks together — 3 rows of blocks sewn together.

✅✅2 concerts and ✔️1 rehearsal— all finished. 

Check out this sweet quilt my customer made for her friend. She did a great job choosing the quilting design, Ginger Flower, and the thread color.  She chose an Omni thread, Vanilla Wafer, 3042.  It looks gold to me! But I notice there are a lot of Omni threads that look gold! The hexagons are machine appliquéd onto the blocks. 

Here's a close up of the front and the nice backing fabric. 

Last week I showed my daughter's quilt and her backing fabric as a suggested border for my rail fence quilt.  This week I returned her quilt and had lunch with her. We both drove about an hour to meet, eat, and exchange the quilt.  It was great to get together which we don't do too often. And, I was able to put some of her backing on my quilt as a border. OOOH did it turn out well! I chose to use a smaller border on the top/bottom and wider on the sides.  It definitely works well with these little 3" finished rail fence blocks. I'll be looking for a backing fabric for this one, eventually.  

This week's goal list is a bit longer as I have more time to sew. 

5/18/26

Quilt top for quilt guild

Quilt one of my baby quilts

Continue working on UFO Challenge for May 

Stitch on Snowman #2

Finish sewing dash blocks together

Look at making pillow shams to go with Ombre Log Cabin

I haven't been working on the second snowman because I needed to buy a different  floss color.  Now that I have it I can work on Mr. Snowman. Here's what he looks like after I added his scarf, hat and facial features, ready to sew.  It will take me a while to get all these items stitched down. Hum, the blue scarf is not royal blue! Once I get more done I'll take some more photos and see if I can get the color closer to reality that is a dark turquoise.  .  

Despite having all sorts of things going on I was able to stitch every day this week.  Most of it was actually sewing machine work although one day I was knitting on hats. 

15 Minutes to Stitch 

Week ending 5/17/26:  137 days of 2026.

  137 stitching days out of 137 days. 100%

Are you facing a big stash, multiple sewing machines, way too many books and patterns?  I'm trying to make some inroads on all of those things in my studio.  Except buying fabric for specific projects, mostly backing and one border, I haven't really been buying fabric. I need to really look at my books and move out the ones I don't use.  Same with patterns.  Let's see if I have any luck with that in the next couple of months.  I'll try to give little reports on successes.  For instance, I gave a dozen mason jars I used for dying fabrics 20 or so years ago to a craft group in our neighborhood who needed some more.  So a small step was taken.  It'll take a lot of small steps before I'll actually see the difference but I hope to continue and report  these small steps. 

I link up with these blogs every Monday. Check them out: Stitching Time, Oh Scrap,

Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 1 - 13 - 2025

Surprisingly we still have snow on the ground. It's been pretty cold over the last week.  The greater DC area often has weather ups and downs during the winter.  In fact we've hardly had snow for the last 3 years. I was surprised that temps stayed so cold for nearly a week.  I suspect most of the snow will be gone by next weekend because each day is going to be warmer than freezing.  There is a chance of more snow next Sunday. Hopefully nothing will come of it! 

I was pretty distracted this week so I didn't pay as much attention to my sewing as I usually do. (I also had several books that came in and I wanted to read...) Here's how I did on my goals.

1/5/25

✅Layout the 3.5” rail blocks — most of the rail rows are sewn together 

Load and quilt a top - didn’t happen 

✅Continue cleaning cutting table — minor progress made 

✅Make 2 E quilter blocks for me — done 

Start a new top — looked but nothing concrete happened

For the last several years I've been making rail blocks using 1.5" by 3.5" strips. Evidently, I passed the number I needed years ago. I had put these blocks on my UFO challenge list this year and the number was pulled for January.  I wasn't really excited about it but I did have a folder with some ideas of how to lay them out.  My first layout just didn't look good to me. I went back to the folder and decided to emulate Nann's version.  Here's Nann's post showing her version.  Hum, looking this over I notice that all the color in each of her blocks was the same color. If red, the outside rails appear the same color while the inside rail is a different red.  I didn't focus on the center rail and often used all sorts of different fabrics.  Here's what mine looks like now. 

So all the rows have 12 blocks except the blue that has 13.  I'll be removing a block from each of the blue rows and sewing the purples together this week. I hope to get the background fabric cut and sewn to finish it to a top. 

Here's a strip of fabric I might be using for a small border.  It's a leftover from a backing fabric. I hope I have enough fabric left to put at least a 2.5" border around the top. 

And, I made two additional blocks that I call the FCQ Equilter blocks (for lack of knowing the real name.) Hum, the center pink is the original block I made.  The top and bottom are the new ones.  The bottom one seems a little too dark.  I'm looking forward to receiving more blocks from the Equilters. 

And now my goals for this week . . . 

1/13/25

Finish 3.5 rail blocks to top stage 

Load and quilt a top

Cut out and begin sewing new top

Find something else to work on that strikes my fancy

I was at a loss as to what to put on my new goals list.  I'm not sure what I'll choose to add to my goals. I'll probably continue cleaning up the cutting table. Part of that cleaning up is cutting scraps into various sizes with my Accuquilt dies.  Eventually I'll need to figure out what I should do with these various sizes! 

15 Minutes of Stitching 

W/ending 1/12/25. 12 days of January

• 15 minute days/Jan = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 12/2 days
• Success rate = 100%

I like that 100% success rate.  We'll see how long that lasts. 

I'm linking up with the following parties: 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing

Hopefully this week I'll remember to link up the other two blogs on Monday rather than later in the week! Have fun doing some surfing this week! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie