Monday Meandering 7 - 24 - 2023

I've had a busy weekend and it continues.  First, my daughter and her family came down for an overnight on their way to the beach.  We're about 2 hours south of them and it gives them a nice head start.  They left early Saturday morning and were at the beach club a little after noon.  

Later that day my friend Sharon came for a quilting visit.  We try to do in house retreats at least twice a year - one at mine and one at hers.  We've spent most of the time in the basement studio. She has two big quilts she's quilting with Ruthie. Needless to say, I've not been as focused on my goals from last week as I should have been.  On the other hand the studio got a spiff up and quite a bit of extra cleaning was done upstairs.  

So let's see what I did get done last week.  It really wasn't too bad -- there are still a lot of items checked off.  

7/17/23

Bind Moose in Winter quilt — The binding is made I just haven’t attached it yet. 

✅Read a book — I probably finished 2 or 3 actually. 

✅Pick up the studio especially the front of the cutting table

✅Find backing and quilt the String Bean Blocks — done, need to make binding 

✅Have fun with Sharon 

7/24/23

Bind Moose in Winter quilt

Bind Floral String Bean Blocks 

Make one more FCQ Equilter block and put in the mail 

Sew Two by Two blocks into a top

Find a quilt to quilt

Here's my Floral String Bean quilt being quilted on Ruthie.  See those blue tape pieces?  That's how I measure where I need to mark the next row.  The quilt pattern is an old favorite - Ginger Heart by Apricot Moon.

I didn't take many pictures of quilting activities last week.  I'll try to do better this week. Plus I have Sharon's quilts to share too. 

Now it's on to more of our vacation pictures.  The next stop was in Tallinn, Estonia. As Pat commented last week I had the geography wrong.  From Germany we cruised by Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia to get to Estonia.  Tallinn is quite close to St. Petersburg being about one hour by car.  

Below is the port of Tallinn as we saw it walking down the dock to get to our tour bus. I found the stones? (sculptures in front of the building) interesting. 

Our tour in Tallinn was called Estonia's Soviet Past. I know we heard about some of the reasons that Russia was involved in Estonia as well as the Soviet influence but I admit I don't remember all the examples. The one thing we saw that will remain a stark memory was a KGB prison. Don't think big prison.  This was a house in the old part of Tallinn.  And, inside it was grim. I'll share the pictures I took. First a small sign outside the house. The second paragraph read in English: "One of the most notorious and feared prisons during the Soviet occupation. The exhibition speaks primarily of the crimes against humanity that were committed in this house on Pagari Street." The Soviet Union annexed Estonia in 1940 - 1941 and again 1944 until the fall of the Soviet Union.  During that time the building housed what became  the KGB's prison cells. The museum consists of two hallways, six prison cells and one solitary confinement cell. 

This is one of the cells. I doubt anything has been cleaned up or repaired since this was used as a prison.  The ground floor where the displays are is quite small. With a tour of 40 people or so I didn't take a lot of time reading the info but did get these pictures. 

This appeared to be a prison cell although I'm not sure what happened behind these doors. 

The solitary confinement unit was awful. Think of a small pantry -- no sitting down, no turning around. And, no, I didn't take a picture. 

One of tour members chose not to enter saying she didn't need to add horrible images and thoughts to her memory.  I think she was right.  

Once we were back out side enjoying the sunshine we walked through Old Town Estonia. 

Tallinn has a beautiful old town section. Since 1997 it has been registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

This beautiful doorway was the entrance to the Brotherhood of Blackheads, an association of local unmarried male merchants, ship-owners, and foreigners. It began in the 1300s although it wasn't until 1407 when it was given specific rights by the Tallinn City Council. You can read more about them in this Wikipedia article. It's amazing how Europe has such deep history.  The Brotherhood is still active in Germany according to the article. 
 

And here's another paean to a long history.  I took this picture specifically to show the age of the building.  Just below the brown triangle at the top of the building is the date it was built: 1410. You should be able to enlarge it to see the date but it isn't very clear. The building is currently used as Estonian History Museum. Unfortunately we did not get to go into it. (The tours we took were mostly half days just to give us a taste of each location.) 

T

There is a beautiful town square near the other buildings I've shared.  I didn't take a picture of it, however, the Tallinn Town Hall made up one side of the square. And, there up high is this lovely dragon gargoyle. You can't see it very well here but if you go to this article there is a great picture of one of them. And, you can read about the long history of this building. 

And, who doesn't like a flower market?  Evidently most of the flowers come from the Netherlands. 

I still have one more day of touring to share as well a few pictures shipboard.

But for now I'm linking with my regular parties. Please take a few minutes to visit some of the other blogs. 

Oh Scrap!

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 7 - 17 - 2023

What a great week!  I had a wonderful, productive time at the retreat.  There were eight of us ready to quilt our hearts out.  We were paired up to make dinner one of the four nights. Breakfast and lunch were on our own. There were no quilt stores near the location so we pretty much sewed from getting up until going to bed at night with breaks for meals. Before I share retreat pictures I'll share my goals for this past week and next week. 

7/10/23

✅Finish stitching on needlepoint -- photo to come soon

✅Go to retreat and enjoy sewing and friends

✅Finish all Flower Song blocks, put the center together — didn’t sew it together yet

Make progress on ✅Two by Two, ✅String Bean, and ✅30 Something blocks

And this week's goals: 

7/17/23

Bind Moose in Winter quilt

Read a book 

Pick up the studio especially the front of the cutting table

Find backing and quilt the String Bean Blocks 

Have fun with Sharon who is visiting at the end of the week 

Here are photos of a couple of the goals I worked on at retreat.

I couldn't turn these Two by Two blocks into a top because I was missing one of the white rectangles for the last block.  But here is one of the many photos I took trying to balance the light and dark blocks through out the quilt. I think there are some more changes coming to this one. I forget which color I have left. 

I think I'll call this one Floral String Bean quilt.  It's ready to be quilted. I fussed with the Two by Two top trying to get the darks and lights evenly spaced. This one I just laid out on my bed and called it done.  I hope to get it quilted some time this week. I think I have a floral fabric that will have enough for the backing. 

This wasn't on my goal list but I threw these blocks into the car in case I ran out of things to work on.  I was able to sew them together without a lot of block moving.  I made the blocks a while ago. I used a navy blue dimple as the center string which gives it a strong geometric look to it.  Sadly, I ran out of fabric so this is the size the quilt will be. (Blocks are 7" unf. I stitched them on paper from a small phone book.) I have several left that may be put on the back.

I did make progress on the 30 Something blocks. I think all of the units are done for the center blocks which still need to be sewn together. I still have to make some of the border blocks.  Not sure when I'll get back to this one but I did make great progress on it. 

I didn't take very many photos of the retreat but here are a few two of them. 

Serenity Cottage home during our retreat. 

Bea and Dorothy sharing their lamb blocks. 

Yikes!  I really didn't take many pictures of the facilities.  If you are interested you can check out more about it and see pictures at Serenity Cottage. It was originally set up as a scrapbooking space but works as well for quilters.  I was invited to go as a replacement for someone who couldn't make it this year. I hope there is an open spot next year! 

The day before I left I stopped at a friend's house to pick out some decorator fabric she was ready to move out of her space. She makes table runners, ironing board covers and other crafty items with decorator fabrics. She had 2 big boxes for me to go through. I was picking out fabric that would be suitable to make walker bags. Virginia Star Quilters Guild will be using the fabric to make the bags. I hope we can make some kits and I can move this stuff out of my house. 

Now back to our Scandinavia trip. Last week I shared our first day in Kiel, Germany. On to the second day -- a walking tour of the city and a brewery tour.  Again, I didn't go wild taking photos but several I did take I found interesting. 

This is a statue of Peter III of Russia. He was born in Kiel and became Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (the area Kiel is in) at the age of 11. When he was 14 he became the heir apparent of Elizabeth, Empress of Russia.  At the age of 17 in 1745, he was married to Sophia. (Yikes is all I can say!) He became the Emperor of Russia on January 5, 1762 and was overthrown by his wife on July 9, 1762.  She became Catherine the Great. You can read more about him and his life on Wikipedia.  He had connections with many of the royal houses around the Baltic Sea area. This statue is in Kiel honoring him.     

I thought the the chair and hassock was interesting. Yep feet of a bird of some sort.

Most of the towns and cities we visited had lots of bicycles and lanes especially for them.  We had to keep a sharp look out for bikes whizzing by and remember to not wander into their lanes.  

We walked by many interesting buildings and areas in the city. Our next stop was at a pub. (I have no idea what the place we went to was called so I'm using the well known concept of a pub.)  It looked similar to a pub except it had big vats as we walked in. There was more apparatus in the basement that we were able to see but I don't remember much about it. 

We sat in a back area and had 3 pitchers of beer to taste and giant pretzels.  

Not being a beer fan I enjoyed the pretzel.  (And, no that wasn't my beer. I had one sip of the lightest beer and then drank water!) 

Somehow we were sitting at a table with just 2 other people, most held 8.  We realized there were a few extra pretzels left. I asked if we could take them with us and was able to take two back to the ship. I know we didn't need to bring any food to the ship but they were so very good. (I did nibble on one off and on for the rest of the days on board. But we decided to take what was left home with us. Because they were going stale we decided to make croutons with it in our air fryer. YUM!) 

By the way you only have to be 16 to drink beer in Germany. In 2020 Germany ranked third in per capita beer consumption in Europe. (Hum, I wonder how America ranks? You can check out world wide beer consumption here. Scroll down to find the per capita consumption of beer world wide. Did the results surprise you?)

One of the cool things about Kiev is that the cruise docks were within walking distance to the city. After our beer tasting we went to a big craft store thinking  maybe it was a fabric store.  It was quite amazing at how big it was and the variety of craft supplies you could find there. They had a bit of precut fabrics (probably meters not yards,) but I decided not to purchase any.  I did buy a wonderfully soft sock yarn and a wooden whale decoration that is sitting on our mantle. I'll try to remember to show you them later. 

I took several pictures of the Kiel Week logo. (artwork? I'm not sure what to call it.) I liked how some of it used elements from a quilt design. No, I don't intend to make any quilts based on the artwork. Maybe I'll utilize the color scheme someday. Notice the beautiful sail boats on the right side panel.  

Our next port of call was Estonia.  Pat's mother's family is from Lithuania so he was sorry we didn't have a stop there. But Estonia was the next country over from Lithuania. Look for our time in Tallinn, Estonia next Monday. 

I'm linking up with my regular Linky Parties:

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing

To Do Tuesday 

I'm giving myself a day or two off from quilting this week but then I hope to get right back in finishing up some quilts. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 10 -2023

Another week has zoomed by. Did it go by fast for you too?  I spent most of it trying to get everything ready to go on retreat Wednesday.  I completed several things on my goals list but not everything.  But I'm ok with that.  And there is always another week to finish the items I didn't this week. Here's how I did on last week's goals.

7/3/23

Finish cutting out ✅Two by Two blocks & ✅String Bean Blocks. 

Make more blocks for FCQ Equilter — Nope - didn’t do anything on this.

✅Cut out more background fabric for 30 something.

✅Quilt something on Ruthie — the Moose in Winter is quilted. 

Figure out fabric in and out since I last reported it for 2022 — Nope nothing done.

Two by Two ready to be sewn.

And on to this weeks goals:  

7/10/23

Finish stitching on needlepoint 

Go to retreat and enjoy sewing with friends

Finish all Flower Song blocks, put the center together

Make progress on Two by Two, String Bean, and 30 Something blocks

One thing that wasn't on my to do list was buying a ridiculous amount of fabric at the JoAnn's sale last week.  Honestly, almost everything I bought I had a very specific purpose for. Kind of. I overbought a little bit because I liked the fabric. But I scored some Fabric Traditions fabric for $3.00 a yard.  Yes it's a bit old but it is new to me and I have plans for both color ways I bought. The blue geometric is a backing and the green speckle is part of a 3 yard style quilt. I'm not sure what I had planned for the blue speckle. I've been going through white on whites like crazy so I added some new ones. The top two solids I'm going to use to make some lotto blocks for the October retreat. 

When all was done I saved over $75. For some unknown to me reason I paid only $1 for the light blue solid - 1 yard of it. Weird. It's all washed and waiting for me to use it. 

Do you overpack when you go on quilting retreats?  I always have at least one or two more projects than what I need.  I use a list to make sure I bring everything I need.  I should use it to pack up too although I don't really pay attention to it after I get there.  And I must make a mental note that I make sure all tools are marked with my name. 

On to more pictures and information about Kiel, Germany.  We were in port for two days so we had more time to see the city. What was cool about our berth this time is the city center was within walking distance of the ship. Many times the excursions we take are bus tours. In Kiel we had a bus tour and a walking tour. First some information about the first tour on the bus. 

We visited the Laboe Marine Memorial. Originally it was built to memorialize those seamen who died during World War I. In 1945 it added those who died in WW II. In 1954 it was rededicated as a memorial for the sailors of all nationalities who were lost at sea and at the same time a memorial for peaceful sailing in open seas. 

236' tall Marine Memorial. There is a viewing area at the top. I am claustrophobic so I did not go up to see the view.  

We walked underground to the other side to view another part of the memorial. This was a solemn place with flags from around the world and little displays of artifacts. Very moving. 

Walking back to where the bus was parked I snapped this photo at what looks like a pine tree. 

This is a Monkey Puzzle tree also known as a Chilean pine. According to The Spruce website it has been on earth since the dinosaurs. It can live up to 1,000 years. One fact I found interesting is the leaves are not needle-shaped. "Instead, they are leathery, broad, and dagger-like and can remain on the tree for 10 to 15 years." I wish I had seen the leaves up close. 

Laboe is situated on coast of the Baltic Sea. It has some lovely beaches that were in full use when we were there.  The weather for most of our trip was mid 70s to low 80s. One weird thing we found in Laboe was that most small food stands didn't take credit cards.  We didn't travel with Euros so no ice cream for us that day! 

Kiel was hosting Kiel Week, or Kiel Regatta, is the largest sailing event in Europe.  There were quite a lot of boats out and about on the waters that we past.   "While Kiel Week started out as a ship racing championship, it has long since become a large festival with many popular bands playing on public stages." (You can read more about Kiel Week on Wikipedia where this quote came from.)  Evidently across from our berth was one (or maybe two) of the public stage as we could hear the music from our balcony. 

Pat said these were full size hot air balloons but they sure didn't look it from the balcony.  

Next Monday I'll tell about our second day in Kiel when we took a walking city tour, went to a beer tasting and did a little shopping. I was surprised how little free time we had so not much shopping was done. 

Now, I'll be linking up with my favorite Monday Linky parties. 

Oh Scrap! 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 3 - 2023

July snuck up on me.  How about you?  For those in the USA Happy Fourth of July.  We don't tend to go to fireworks shows anymore but we do enjoy A Capitol Fourth on our local PBS station.  It will also given me some time to work on some hand projects I've got going. Most of this post will be pictures from our day in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

On to my goals.  I didn't list many last week and I barely got through them.  On the other hand a friend brought me a quilt to do and the sooner I could get it done the better for her.  So I spent 2 days working on it. I was happy to give it back to her yesterday.  I'll share it with everyone in the next week or two. 

6/26/23

✅Cut out 1 quilt for upcoming retreat - at least I started one.

✅Make some blocks for FCQ EQuilter — 4 done so far.

✅Make some more 30 something blocks — units for 2 more blocks done and a lot of pieces cut out.

The right hand blocks are for Irma, the FCQ Equilter for this 2-month period.  The one on the left is called Two by Two and was the practice block once I cut out a couple of blocks.  Silly me, I had also made it last week for Irma.  Anyway, I'm using up a bunch of my bright whites making the blocks.  I've got about a third of them cut with almost all of the whites cut.  The go-with rectangles are going to be completely scrappy. I've got a stack of fabric on my cutting table that I'm slowly working through.  Only 1 block (4 rectangles) from each fabric. I'm using the rectangle in my Accuquilt 9" Cube.  In fact the first two blocks below used my Cube and the last one is a block on board called Go Starry Path. 

And now, on to goals for this week.

7/3/23

Finish cutting out Two by Two blocks & String Bean Blocks 

Make more blocks for FCQ Equilter

Cut out more background fabric for 30 something

Quilt something on Ruthie

Figure out fabric in and out since I last reported it for 2022

UGH! I can't believe I just stopped reporting my fabric in and out since the beginning of the year.  I know I kept up writing it down in a little notebook I have but I didn't publish any of it.  And, honestly sometime in May I quit writing things down.  So, I may only get a few months figured out this week. If I do I think I'll organize the reports by quarter years.  Eventually I'll admit to all the fabric I've brought in this year. (And, I have a hankering to buy more...) 

On to Copenhagen, Denmark.  We were only berthed for a day in Copenhagen.  The cruise we were on offers one free excursion for each port.  So we chose Christiansburg Palace and Tivoli Gardens.  First stop was a quick photo opportunity to the Little Mermaid statue.  It is based on Hans Christian Andersen's story of the Little Mermaid.  (Although the Disney version ended happily, Andersen's version does not.). I was surprised that it wasn't in the middle of the harbor. You can read more about this major tourist attraction on Wikipedia. 

After a short visit (along with throngs of other visitors) we went to Christiansborg Palace for a short tour. Although this is not the residence of Queen Margrethe II it is used for state receptions.  We saw several of the public rooms. Our first job was to put booties over our shoes to protect the beautiful inlaid wood floors. 

This room is one of the royal reception rooms.  Notice the beautiful parquet floors. This palace was started in 1907 and finished 1928. Evidently the day before we toured it had been used for a reception. (Hum, I wonder if the guests had to put booties on their shoes?)  

I didn't get a picture of the huge dining room (and table.) Below is a close up of a star on the floor.  Hum, does anyone want to make a quilt using this star idea -- star with strips? 

This doorway was on the right as we went up the staircase (I think it is called the King's Staircase).  I was enamored of the colors.  The lovely dark peach with a deep sage green.  My quilty mind was thinking about Cheryl's newest mystery Malted Mystery which starts July 6. Realistically though I doubt I have anything in these colors.  But I will take a look and see what comes up! 

Although I showed one of the Queen's Tapestries earlier, I thought I'd share a close up of a section now.  This is the left bottom part of the tapestry. I'm sure you recognize some of the faces on the bottom.  The men with the gas masks represent World War I when mustard gas was used. On the far right you see can see Nazi Salutes and some soldiers in German helmets. What you can't see in the upper right is Hitler's face with a swastika with a red circle and a line through it next to him. (You can see the whole tapestry on June 18.)

After our short tour of the castle we went on to Tivoli Gardens. (Read a little more about them here.)  There are lovely gardens along with a small amusement park.  We had a couple of hours at the gardens and walked through a good portion of it.  We had a light lunch at one of the venues before walking back to the front to await the bus.  Sometime during that time I realized I had lost my boarding card for the ship and was doing a little panic. I rationalized that I would be allowed back on the ship although it would be a mess getting back on.  As we neared the front we decided to go check with guest services. SURPRISE! They had my pass.  Evidently I dropped it as I was entering the park and someone picked it up and turned it in. Phew! 

I was enamored of the main stage. It is so vibrant and has so much to look at.  Lots of people were just sitting around enjoying the weather and the scene.

There were a lot of flowers around. 

But look closely... 

Anyone need color inspiration?  It somewhat resembles the colors I used in Melodic Mystery quilt. Hum, also the quilt in my header. ⬆️

For my last glimpse of Tivoli -- aren't these birds wonderful?  They were on glass panels. Unfortunately the glass reflected a bit in the photograph.  Can't you see a fun quilt using these birds as inspiration?  Unfortunately I could not find any further information on them.  I'll keep looking and let you know if I find out more about them.  

Needless to say I really enjoyed the excursion into Copenhagen.  The only problem with the excursions in general is there isn't really enough time for the amount of sites we would be visiting.  Sometimes instead of an hour to spend somewhere we had 40 minutes.  I wished I'd done some research on the locations before we left.  I might have looked more closely at the locations or at least known what to look at. 

I'll be linking up with my normal Monday parties. (Hopefully I'll remember to come back to link up to To Do Tuesday on Tuesday!) 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday 

I'll be back soon to share Mysteries and Quilt Alongs post for July.  And I'll probably add more photos from Gothenburg, Sweden to the end of it. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie