Monday Meanderings 5 - 15 - 2023

Before I tell you about my goals let me just say -- I read 5 books this past week.  So, no, my goals got shunted to the side for the most part.  And, the bigger announcement is Ruthie, the long arm, came home on Saturday!  Whoop! Whoop!  And there went the rest of the goals for the week. Except the one I did get a good start on. Let's take a look. 

👎🏼 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 -- not finished but some are done, more to come

👎🏼 Continue to make Flower Song Blocks 

👎🏼 Start fusing and trimming  tee shirts for a quilt

Cynthia who blogs at Quilting Is More Fun than Housework has been collecting blocks to make into compassion quilts.  You can read more about the project here and get directions for the blocks. Yes, you get a choice.  I'm glad I posted the link here as I reread the info and realize I don't have to make these three as one block. I think I see some more 4 patches in my future. This drive ends with the end of the month.  I'm slow getting going but I hope to finish several more before I mail them to Cynthia.  

I also made at lease one more block (with one more cut out) to send to the FCQ Equilter this round. She asked for 9 patches for either children or veterans.  I'm making some of both types.  It was fun diving into my fun children's prints again. 

Hopefully both of these will go in the mail this week. 

And here's the plan for this coming week.  Maybe I'll spend more time in the studio playing rather than laying on the couch and reading! 

5/15/23***

Quilt two tops

Make blocks for BOM for guild

Start fusing and trimming  tee shirts for a quilt

Put border on the UFO

*** Oops! I forgot we have a big rehearsal Friday night and the concert and dinner Saturday.  So I may have listed way more projects than I can reasonably do.  I'll let you know next week if I come close to succeeding.

So here's a shot of Ruthie as I was getting a quilt loaded. ( Yep, I realize I don't have any batting there...I'll get it on tomorrow! Just wanted to include a colorful quilt.) I finished a small one today.  Hubby had to do a little maintenance so things didn't knock and ping. He switched how some bolts were placed in the rails which took care of the noise/problem. 

She's been gone for two and a half months. I forgot nearly everything on how to run her! Biggest issue was the password to get into the computer running the electronics for the quilting design. Phew, my first guess was the correct one. Here's a peak at the first top I finished. It's called Sheep in Boots based on the main fabric. I'll show the whole quilt in a week or two -- once I get the binding on. (During that 2.5 month without my long arm I finished 4 tops, two of which I started and finished. Along with blocks for various projects.)

I had a very nice Mother's Day.  My daughter-in-law and the kids made a wonderful candle for me.  But I was laughing my head off when I opened the box.  Here's what was in it. 

Yep, there were two rolls of toilet paper included.  Once I finished laughing I realized it made a lot of sense as the TP rolls prevented the candle from moving around in shipping. Theo and Ellie colored the hedgehogs as book marks for me.  They included a really cute otter card which I assume they picked because of the great day we had looking for the otter statues around Fredericksburg in the fall.  

They also sent this lovely floral arrangement. I love getting flowers and really didn't think I needed any more after the candle and goodies. But I was happy to receive these flowers first thing on Friday morning. I usually take really good care of any flowers that come in by changing the water every couple of days and putting a special powder in that prolongs the blooms. If I'm lucky I'll have these for 2 weeks, hopefully longer. 

I'm calling it done for this post.  I'll link up to my regular Linky parties. Please join me on checking out what folks are working on these days. 

Oh Scrap!

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday

I realize I failed to blog about Mystery Quilts and Quilt Alongs at the beginning of the month. (I blame it on traveling. Ok, you don't have to believe that I just kept forgetting.) I'll post it Wednesday.  Take a look if you want to know about new opportunities. 

I hope you had a happy Mother's Day.

Happy Quilting All -- Bonnie  

 

Monday Meanderings 9 - 26 - 2021

Another successful week has come to a close.  Let's jump right in and see how I've done on my goals this past week.  It was a pretty darn good week, if I do say so myself. 

9/20/2021

✅Finish orange table runner (see it here.) 

Start sashing UFO --  this might be going with me on retreat.

✅If parts arrive, fix Ruthie

✅Finish quilt on Ruthie

✅Put border on curved 9 patch

This was made with the Accuquilt Go! Glorified Nine Patch.  I'm not sure I would have tried this block without having the die.  It was so EASY to cut and sew those curves.  My mind is wondering what other colors I can make these blocks in.  As to the borders, I'm not so sure about them.  When Sharon visited earlier this summer we auditioned all sorts of fabric from my stash. This is the one we thought looked the best. Um, I'm not so sure now. I'm going to take it on retreat this weekend and see what folks say. I might be buying new fabric for the border. (Click on the picture to see it a little bigger.) 

Yea! The parts for Ruthie finally arrived late Thursday afternoon. After dinner I went down and put the new items on her and got rid of the old pieces. I got 3 of the 5 rows done on one of my small quilts. The next morning I finished it up. I put a charity quilt on Ruthie Saturday and got it finished first thing on Sunday.  Hopefully Tuesday I'll put another one on and get it done so I can pass all 3 quilts off to MB to take to FCQ in Maryland. 

Let's look at this week's goals list.  It's loaded with all sorts of things! 

9/27/2021

Quilt 1 charity quilt

Take Bernina in for spa treatment and do a little fabric shopping 

Prep one last kit, 

Attend Retreat! 

Sew 16 patch sawtooth star blocks 

Sew the turquoise strip blocks 

Start on economy blocks

Short post today. You know the drill:  Check out these linky parties to find lots of blogs to read! 

Oh Scrap!

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

Hum, I'll be back to link up the other locations. (Did you notice I even succeeded with To Do Tuesday last week?) 

I'm looking forward to retreat this week.  If I can I'll post something on Friday.  If not come back Monday to see what I was able to do on retreat. 

Happy Quilting!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 7 - 9 - 2018

The project from last week's goal list that I made progress on at the end of the week was -- the red, white and blue hearts.  The hearts were done in 1996 and then were aged for, um, 22 years or so.  Fast forward through 3 or 4 moves and a lot of other quilts taking priority to 2018.  I'm trying to get it finished this year -- to get one more UFO off the list.

Here's the center sewn together.  I've placed a bit of black around the sides to audition it as a small inner border.  Below are up close pics of the two corners.  The top one has a more cherry red color.  The bottom one is actually the color used in the stars -- more of a deeper burgundy. 

Hum, I'm not sure the color differences are going to show up.  Any one want to give me your 2 cents on which color?  I'm thinking the black will be about 1" finished.  The outer border will be about 2" finished.  The blocks are 4" finished so it isn't really very big.  It will fit on a small hanger in the great room that gets different quilts throughout the year.  This will work well for patriotic holidays.  

Here's the scoop on my goals last week. Let's just say it was a pretty good week. 

July 2, 2018

Start sewing secret project√

Begin making string border for Jamestown Landing√

Sew Beachside Bungalow (celebrate) together√

Sew red, white and blue heart blocks together√

Quilt airplane quilt√begun 

July 9, 2018

Make more string borders for Jamestown Landing

Work on Stripe blocks 

Make backing for Celebrate

Border heart wall hanging

Make some pillowcases

Attend Angel ornament class

One problem that came up is the long arm isn't working correctly.  I received a new chip to put into it.  Here's the old one on the left and the new one on the right.   Hum . . . it looks to me it is missing a section on the left side. I wonder if that is why it isn't working.  Sigh.  Hopefully tomorrow tech help can get a new one in the mail to me.  And, I had hoped to get Celebrate quilted this week.  Probably not going to be done, thus left off the goals list. Hopefully I'll get Ruthie up and running this week if the new part can come in fast enough... 

I'm done for now.  Don't forget to visit these linky parties to see what folks are working on this week. Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. Some of the links will need to be done tomorrow.  But I hope you will spend some time checking them out. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Quilts from the At-Home Retreat

Two weeks ago three friends came down from Maryland for our annual at-home retreat.  Ruthie 2 was a popular machine over the weekend.  I finished up a charity quilt that I wanted them to take back up to MD.  And they each brought quilts to long arm. 

Here's Nancy working on her quilt.  She chose Malachite pattern designed by Patricia Ritter. 

It was a lot of fun to see the design stitch out.  I bought the design when I had Ruthie and it was a little too big for her.  But it is much better on Ruthie 2 as she has more space.  Check below for the close up of the design.  It provides a lot of texture.  

Close up of Malachite pattern.

Mary Beth brought a TAPS* quilt to get it finished quickly.  (Nothing like a computerized long arm to make quilting easy!) She chose Ginger Stars by Apricot Moon.  This is one pattern that I have used over and over again. There are other "Ginger" patterns that I use a lot too.  

MB also brought this gorgeous quilt to get finished.  I believe it is a Bonnie Hunter quilt but don't know the name.  (MB -- feel free to leave a note with the name!) Her pattern choice was Easy Peasy Baptist Fan by Naomi Hines. 

After much persuading Sharon decided to quilt a TAPS quilt she had just put together. She made this quilt last year as a block of the month through A Quilting Life blog.

She chose the Ginger Stars design also.  (Sharon -- found another star pattern that I didn't have in my notebook.  Maybe your next red, white and blue quilt will be quilted with it.) 

* TAPS stands for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. Members of Faithful Circle Quilters have been supporting the program for several years now.  These donated quilts are given to children who attend the program in May in the DC area.  I recently heard how the children (up through the teens) enjoy receiving the quilts, dragging them around the event.  Even returning campers love getting a new one.  I've got my fabrics pulled and pattern picked out.  It will be my next new quilt, eventually.  Quilts are due by mid-May.

I have more pictures to share of projects that were being worked on... I'll try to remember to include them in another post. 

Today I'm linking up with Midweek Makers, Let's Be Social and tomorrow I'll link with Needle and Thread Thursday. I forgot to come back and link this until Saturday morning -- the link was no longer available.  Sigh.  I hope to spend some time today checking out blogs posted on these linky parties! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Quilting Show and Tell

I volunteered to quilt several quilts for Faithful Circle Quilters.  They are a big guild and are very involved with making quilts for charity so they almost always have quilts that I can quilt.  I did two right after Ruthie 2 was installed.  You can see the first one here.  This next one is a pineapple quilt which is rocking scraps! What a great quilt -- so fun and vibrant.  Wish I could give a shout out to the quilter... I'm not sure who did it. 

I went to my go-to pantograph by Apricot Moon, Ginger Snap.  It looks good every time I use it, no matter if it is small or large.  I used a light blue Omni thread.  I was given the batting with the quilt so no clue which batting was sent to me. 

And the closeup! 

Special thanks go to Nancy.  We met for breakfast last week because she was in the area.  She took the two quilts up to give to Stephanie who was organizing the trimming and binding.  

This weekend is our busiest of the year.  We will be rehearsing tonight and then singing concerts on both Saturday and Sunday.  The kids will be coming to the Sunday matinee and then there'll be pizza at the house for us afterwards.  I know I'll be exhausted when I hit the bed Sunday night.  

I'm looking forward to some reading, stitching and knitting time next week.  I don't feel like I've done much of that recently. 

Happy quilting all!  Bonnie 

Let Me Introduce . . .

Ruthie 2! 

She was an early Christmas present according to my hubby.  Pat went wild and traded in my old long arm, Ruthie, and bought the newest NV by Nolting.  Here she is! Well, here she is before she was mounted on my frame. 

Mike, of Memory Lane Quilting, and his wife, Bonnie delivered and set her up today. 

Here are the two long arms -- the old Ruthie was taken off the frame. (Hum, she's hanging upside down on a holder in this picture.)  Ruthie 2 is waiting in the background. Rutihe 2 is 24" while Ruthie is 18". And what is cool, Ruthie isn't going to be sitting around in a warehouse.  Someone bought her right away.  She'll be stitching away, doing her best, for another quilter.   

 A few changes had to be done to the frame before the new one could be loaded on the frame. And then she was put on the frame.  Here Mike is teaching me what the buttons on the pad do.  That's the blue pad on the head of the machine. And, wow this machine has some cool buttons.  The black tablet on the right is the computer that drives the machine to stitch out patterns. 

Here's what it looks like from the front. It will take me a few quilts before I figure out what all the buttons do and to look at the right tablet to start the electronics instead of starting the machine to hand guide quilting. 

So once she was up and operational I had to figure out which quilt was going to be loaded and quilted first.  I didn't want a huge quilt to start out with.  I didn't have any backings ready for baby tops.  I didn't want to start with a customer's quilt. So I pulled a charity quilt out and got it loaded.  Here's the first row of quilting.  I'm going to be reevaluating the speed and stitches per inch settings. But I'm thrilled with how well she stitches.  And, she's smooth.    

I have a number of my own quilts to do, quite a few charity quilts as well as customer quilts. Unfortunately it is now getting to be concert season. A rehearsal and a concert are scheduled over the weekend. I have to wait until Monday before I can finish quilting this quilt.  And then Christmas is sneaking up on us.  I still have doll dresses and ornaments to make.  So my quilting time and piecing time will be limited. But I'm excited to be using Ruthie 2.  (Did anybody notice I said I would be playing on Ruthie 2 on my goal list on Thursday? Big hint about what was to come!) 

Today I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?.  Take a break this weekend to see what others are working on in their sewing rooms and studios.

Happy Quilting Alll! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 8 - 22 -2016

Great things happening here today.  First off my shelving has arrived and is installed. Here's the left side. 

And here is the right side. Now the hard part comes -- deciding where everything goes and getting it all put away.  That may take a while ... lots of other things happening this week.  

Including the first quilt going on Ruthie since we moved in. My daughter Jenny has made a quilt to send to the collection for Pulse night club.  She asked her friends to send her heart blocks and she put them together.  Hopefully I'll have it quilted for her and will be able to give it back to her on Wednesday when we meet for us to take the grands for a few days.  Here's the back being loaded. Tomorrow I'll start the actual quilting. 

I did pretty well on my goals last week but I bet I've put too many goals on the list for this week. 

August 15, 2016

Continue on the RWB project√

Work on the “Online Friends” piece√

Work on another block from Christmas Favorites- planned one of the blocks

Clean out “stuff” stored where new shelving is going√

Finish the last 3 blocks for secret project “B”√

August 22, 2016

Quilt Jenny’s Heart Quilt for Pulse

Finish the “Online Friends” piece

Begin Shadow Box Mini Quilt for quilt along

Start filling my new shelves

Enjoy Sophia and Natalie visiting us

Today I'm linking up with Monday Making and Main Crush Monday.  Go take a look.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Design Wall Monday 5-4-2015

Last week seemed to fly by.  All my studio time (for the most part) was focused on quilting on Ruthie.  I finished a big queen sized quilt by Thursday.  I was pleased with myself to stay so focused on it that I actually got it done earlier than I planned.

Then I loaded another quilt for a customer and I'm almost done with it.  I don't usually like using variegated thread.  Most times it just doesn't show up.  But I had the perfect variegated thread for this little quilt so we decided to use it.  I am tickled that it is sewing with very little problems. (Update: I wrote that first thing this am but didn't get the blog finished. I am having thread breaks 2 and 3 times a row.  No fun!)  Sometimes Ruthie gets finicky about what thread I use on her.  I thought it was great but now I realize the thread is breaking more than it should.  This particular cotton just doesn't seem all that strong.  

Here's what I've been quilting over the past week. 

This was made by the Country Piecemakers.  We will be having a luncheon in July to honor some local veterans and give them a quilt.  I quilted this one with Flying Stars Chevron panto.  Boy, did it use a lot of thread and it isn't a really dense design.  

This is a little strippy quilt I made in early March as a donation to the NICU at a local hospital.  It was very easy to cut and piece.  My only issue was the design I chose for the black stripe was too dense.  But it is a really cute design that you can't even see here.  

Here's a corner of Mary's Mystery of Powhatan which we did at the guild last year abut this time.  This pattern came out HUGE.  We had no idea how big it was going to be going into the class.  Mine is a finished top but I'm waiting to have time and a big backing for it.  Below is a close up. 

You can see the leaf pattern, Creeping Fig in the navy blue.  I have an 18" long arm and most of the time with big quilts I have to take them off the frame and turn them.  I was really careful to keep the take up roll with the finished quilt on it tightly rolled and I didn't have to turn the quilt.  This thing weighs a ton.  It will be nice to cuddle under during the winter, that's for sure.  

That's it for what I have been working on.  Not all of these were done last week but they have been done since mid April. 

Here's what the goals looked like last week:

Week of April 27, 2015

Load and quilt Mary’s quilt√

Continue working on Love Shack√ not much but a little

Figure out Christmas table runner Oops… didn’t work  on it at all.

Make binding and apply to penguin donation quilt√

And this week: 

Week of May 4, 2015

Finish customer’s baby quilt on Ruthie

Cut out Galaxy quilt and attend class

Spend time helping Kevin

Get Love Shack to top

Have fun with Sharon visiting this weekend 

I'm late posting this but you can see other blog posts this week by going to Patchwork Times and Love Laugh Quilt.  

Happy Quilting All!