Monday Meanderings 9 - 16 - 2024

Wow!  We've forgotten how much work a dog can be.  Especially a needy dog like Sunny.  She needs to be fed 4 times a day. Every 3 days she needs a bath. We're still trying to figure out her cues for potty breaks. And, someone is walking her a couple of times a day.  Add in the trip to the vet and a trip north to watch Teddy's soccer game and introduce Sunny to the kids and grands -- she's keeping us busy. 

Soph and Sunny hanging out during the game. Sunny's working hard at growing her  hair and fur. Yep, Westies have two coats -- the bottom coat is fur and the top coat is stiffer hair. 

Here's what I tried to get accomplished this past week. And, yes, I did check a few things off but I didn't do all I thought I could get done. Sigh.

9/9/24

✅Finish one more of Joan’s blocks and mail them — finished; but not mailed.

✅Quilt customer top — done and returned.

Finish Sea Side Village — all threads tied, ready to put a facing on it. 

✅Make happy blocks and plan layout — picked all fabs for the blocks and began the layout. 

✅Cut another quilt kit— finished.  

✅Keep stitching on the ornaments — worked on one at Monday stitching.

Here's a bit of the customer's quilt I long armed this week. She chose Ginger Heart and a light blue thread.  I think I took this picture with just the first row done. She was quite happy with it. 

And here are the Happy Blocks I've been working on. I decided to make a bigger quilt and make it neutral so it can be given to a boy or a girl. 

I've been picking fabrics for additional blocks to set it 5 x 6 or 48" x 60" approximately. The blocks finish at 8". I'll get the new blocks all cut out before I leave for North Carolina Tuesday.  After making a lot of these quilts I'm finally learning that some colors look really dark and don't enhance the quilts.  I'm trying to pick lighter fabrics but not ones that look too light. (The elephant one seems too light while the top left island one seems too dark. I don't think I'm changing any of those already made!) For these I used a 4.5" center square and 2.5" strips to make 2 strips 4.5" and 2 strips 8.5". It is a really easy pattern. I'm ready to find a new super easy pattern one of these days! 

On Tuesday I'm off for a several days of quilting at Sharon's house. Here's what I hope to get done. And, yes, I'm pretty sure I have at least one or two more projects to bring but these are the ones I want to finish while I'm gone.  It's better to have too many projects than not enough. 

9/16/24

Keep stitching on the ornaments

Drive to Sharon’s for a quilting get together

Put double border on purple/floral top

Put facing on Sea Side Village 

Cut out and make happy blocks, lay out, and sew the top 

Finish the panel top

Remember that trip to watch the soccer game mentioned above?  We left the house at 9 and didn't get home until after 2. But we were exhausted (as was Sunny.) I don't think I did anything in the studio or any hand stitching that day.  So, I have another day where no sewing took place. I did finish a book or two this week. Here are my numbers. Considering my success rate is in the mid 90s percent-wise, I'm pretty happy with the results.  

W/ending 9/15  — 259 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 14/15
• 15 minute days/2024 = 249/259 days
• Success rate = 96.1%

Have you been keeping up with Material Girlfriends' website? They have been offering a free 3 yard quilt pattern every month. This month's is called Bravo. I'm enamored with it and may have to find fabric to make it this month.  I've been making a point of buying more 1 yard fabric pieces so I can use some of these cool patterns.  If you like the idea of 3 yard quilts check out their offerings.  

I mentioned finishing a book this week. I actually finished 5 with a couple being audio books that I listen to while stitching.  Being an avid reader I pay attention when folks recommend a book or I think I might like a book from the blurb that shows up in the catalog once my library gets it.  This week I read Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles who also wrote The Paris Library. It was excellent.  

Here's what Amazon says about it: 1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France (CARDS). Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild destroyed French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians.  Then she disappears."

The story moves between what is happening in WWI France and 1987 New York  where a NYPL librarian and budding writer first reads about the organization and decides to find out more about Jessie. Her story is how she uncovers more information about the CARDS and writes a book about them. 

It was a riveting book based on many of the real women who were involved with CARDS.  My only problem with it is I've read too many world war historical novels recently.  I was really ready for something light and fluffy. I've promised myself I won't read anything but light and fluffy for the next few books. We'll see how that goes! 

I'll be linking with these parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meandering 8 - 27 - 2018

Well, even though I thought I should blog twice this past week I only got one post up -- last Monday's.  Part of the reason (excuse?) is I don't have much in the way of pictures to share.  And, I still don't have much new but I thought I would share where my OMG stands.  I still have 5 days -- I should be able to get my goal done in that amount of time.  Here's what my top looks like now. My goal is to finish the top.  

You might notice I have a slew of little notes on the piece.  See the yellow note on the right?  Pretty much all the columns below that are in process of being added.  So far I've found a strip set for all 26 columns.  I had made a LOT of strata.  I lined up slices of the strata to match the column above.  And then I had to remove the stitches from the slice where the next color was.  Let me tell you -- I messed that up a lot.  So there was a lot of unsewing and sewing up going on.  I finally got that all figured out.  Next, I removed 4 squares from each of the columns -- I didn't want it too long.  Unfortunately for me I had already sewn some of the columns together.  More unstitching and then repairing (as in stitching back up) some of the squares.  Most of the columns to the right are individual columns.  All of the columns on the left have been stitched into groups.  So to finish this one up I still need to do any repair work from taking off the bottom 4 squares and then sew all the rows together correctly.  Then, I need to sew 2 columns to the top section.  And THEN I can sew the bottom section to the top section and I'll be done with the top.  Sure, I can do that in 5 days!  I'll let you know by the end of the month. 

I did pretty well with my goals this week, although I admit I didn't have a huge list because I had a lot of non-sewing things scheduled.   Here's last week list -- yes everything has been finished or at least worked on! 

August 20, 2018

Bind Charity quilt√

Finish 9 patches for flower pots quilt√

Continue working on bargello√

Make more Christmas lotto blocks for Oct. retreat√

And coming this week --- 

August 27, 2018

Finish Bargello top 

Make more Christmas lotto blocks for Oct. retreat

Work on Jamestown Landing borders

Attend Country Piecemakers Quilt In

Cut more blocks for pirate quilt

Make 3 pillowcases

I'm linking up with my normal Monday Linky Parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward.  Yikes, only Oh Scrap is up tonight, Sunday.  I'll check back in the morning to see who else I can add.  I noticed Beth at Main Crush Monday was on vacation last week so I never was able to link up.  Maybe she's still on vacation but I will check tomorrow and a few times after just in case she's gets her next post up. I hope you spend some time checking out some of these linky parties.  

I'm ending with two of my granddaughters who we took out to lunch and to Build-A-Bear for their birthdays.  I know I've walked into a B-A-B location before but never with the intent to buy.  The girls had a good time picking their bear "skins" and putting music in and a heart and then watching their bear take shape with the stuffing machine.  Hubby says he refuses to get me a stuffing machine.  I used to make bears and it took me a LOT longer to stuff mine.  We then did a little clothes shopping.  

The green bear is a Power Ranger bear.  The pink is dressed in fairy clothes: Light up wings, light up dress and high heal sparkly shoes.  Yep, you read that right -- high heel sparkly shoes.  Orioles, the name of the green bear, also got some dinosaur pjs, a Univ. of Maryland t shirt and a Orioles baseball team shirt.  Definitely well dressed bears.  We had fun.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 10 - 31 - 2016

Here's what I finished this past week.  There wasn't much to finish but the top is now done. (Quilting will happen??? Sometime but I don't know when.) 

This is a design from Accuquilt. I changed the colors just a little.  You can read about it here.  Next up is deciding how to quilt this.  I still need to figure out the binding and backing.  It won't be finished really soon but it will be finished for spring! 

On to my goals for this past week.  A lot got done but not everything.  

Oct 24 2016

Enjoy playing with Theo √

Sew the flower quilt together √

Check all the Christmas Favorites blocks √ and add what is needed; sew them together oops, still need to stitch down the extras and sew this together

Knit on the second red sock√

Get back to the Stack ‘N Whack top √

And next week's goals:

Oct 31, 2016

Do the hand embroidery on Christmas Favorites

Put the last few items on the CF blocks

Knit on the second red sock

Find a small quilt to quilt on Ruthie

Work on Stack N Whack

You can be inspired by visiting Monday linky parties at Monday Making and Main Crush Monday. Take a look at what's going on in quilting blogs around the world. 

Here's a picture of Sophie when she tried to photo bomb my picture of Ellie eating her cake.  I snapped this cute picture of her. She's growing up.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

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October OMG!

I NAILED IT! My OMG for October was to finish the last three blocks of Christmas Favorites. And, yes 2 were ready to machine blanket stitch around the pieces before the month even started.  I did take all three blocks to retreat -- the two I had ready to go were finished.  I finished the piecing on the last block and got it appliquéd down.  When these three were "done" I went back to the pattern to see what else had to be done.  Hum, I missed 3 holly leaves on 2 different blocks.  I have several pieces that will be 3-D and can't be attached until after the quilt is quilted.  And, oops! there's some embroidery to be done.   

Despite those few things that need to be finished I'm calling my October OMG done√√√√. Here's what the three blocks look like: 

Hum, the poinsettia looks weird -- but it has 5 3-D leaves that need to be put on after the quilting is done.  Lots of the blocks have buttons that will be added then too. The HoHoHo block and the Mistletoe blocks have hand embroidery that needs to be done before the blocks can be put together.  Plus I have 3 holly leaves I forgot that need to be added to two blocks.  

This brings me to my November OMG.  Yep, you got it... I want to finish the blocks as detailed above and sew them together.  If I really stay focused I may be able get the two borders added too.  But my main goal is to get the blocks done and sewn together. 

Today we celebrated Ellie's birthday by joining everybody at an indoor play area.  The girls were happy to be bouncing in several big bounce houses.  Some of the grown ups (me included) had a great time with some air guns that shot soft rubber balls.  Sophie and I had a major battle for a while.  The girls were lucky to ride some bumper cars.  (Only Sophie was really old enough.)  Natalie and Sophie really seemed to understand the directions on driving the bumper cars.  Ellie didn't quite "get" how to drive but she moved her car around and actually bumped into the other girls on occasion. It was fun for all of us.  Theo didn't necessarily agree because he slept through most of it. 

After the time at the play space Kevin and Aimee took us out to lunch at a local pizzeria.  The pizza was good and was followed by cake.  Yum!  Thanks Kevin and Aimee for the fun time.  And, they were happy to give me the leftover cake. (It's something I seldom have at home but I do like it!) Here's Ellie enjoying her cake.  She thought it was yummy too. 

I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts' October link up post.  Take some time to see how folks are have done this month on succeeding on their goals.  I sure hope Heidi plans to continue this program next year.  It has been very helpful for me. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

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Monday Meandering 10 - 24 - 2016

Are the weeks going by faster for you?  It sure seems that it does for me.  We spent an overnight at Jenny's taking care of the girls when she was working in NYC while Brian was out of town.  We made dinner and got them to bed.  It was really easy especially since it didn't take much longer than an hour and 20 minutes to get up there.   

I brought up the girls' Halloween shirts.  Sophie decided to wear hers to school -- a day the temperature was above 80! I snapped her picture waiting at the bus stop:

I'm pretty sure the shirt is a bit too big! But Sophie liked Frankenstein.  The design is available at Embroidery Boutique.  They have lots of cute designs.  I'm looking at several for Christmas shirts for the girls.

Below is a close up of the design on Natalie's shirt.  It is from Designs by JuJu and is part of the Halloween Harvest Sock Monkeys design.  I tend to choose appliqué designs for the shirts so that they don't have too many stitches in the shirts. 

The next shirt is Ellie's.  The design is by Embroidery Boutique and is called Windy Witch.  Evidently she asked to put it on as soon as she got home from visiting us last weekend.  

I'm also excited that Ruthie is back up and running.  I quilted one quilt using the computer to drive the long arm after we first set it up here.  I actually wasn't really planning on using it for Theo's quilt but I wanted to look at one design to see if it would look ok.  Except the tablet couldn't find the long arm. Wait!  It's right there -- what do you mean you can't find it??? After several days and several packages of chips and cables we decided to dump the old program and reinstall it.  Except the USB port wouldn't read the original thumb drive with the program.  More wait time and finally the new drive arrived and all is well.  I need to find a small quilt to really test it out but I haven't taken the time to do so... let's just say the embroidery machine was running hot this last week or so! 

I did really well on my goals this last week.  

Oct 17, 2016

Finish the last embroidery on the corners of the flower quilt, put quilt together√ ready to sew the last two borders on

Embroider the last two Halloween shirts √

Finish the last Christmas Favorites block√ need to check through all the blocks and see if anything is missing

Visit with Jenny and the girls√

Oct 24 2016

Enjoy playing with Theo on Tuesday 

Sew the flower quilt together

Check all the Christmas Favorites blocks and add what is needed; sew them together

Knit on the second red sock

Get back to the Stack ‘N Whack top

I'm linking up to my favorite Monday blogs: Love Laugh Quilt's Monday Makings and A Place to Create and Share's Main Crush Monday. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie  

Monday Meanderings 8 - 29 - 2016

I have a finish.  Ok, it's a small finish but it is done!  It's not a UFO anymore.  Now I need to decide how I can hang my little quilts.  The only sad part of this finish is it wasn't on my UFO list so I can't cross it off.  This design is #595 from Bloomin' Minds.  They have a lot of very clever little quilts.  It won't make much of a dent in my stash but at least I can enjoy seeing it on my wall.  (well, soon...) 

No more pictures of quilty stuff today.  I did get much of my fabric loaded onto my new shelves.  Some of my books are now on a shelf but I need to move them around a bit.  At this point I'm just stashing them on the shelf. I've still got a lot to do to get the shelves filled up. 

I've made more progress on the RWB quilt and hope to have it off the design wall by the end of the week. (Note to self, quit goofing off and head to the studio earlier each day!) 

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 √

And I hope to continue to get everything done on my list this week! 

August 29, 2016

Finish sewing rows of RWB together

Put books away on shelves

Begin sewing another block for Christmas Favorites

Work on Shadow Box Mini Quilt for quilt along

Work on Alaska Blocks (pulling out a new UFO!) 

Do you enjoy making mini quilts?  Take a look at the Shadow Box Mini Quilt Along.  It is really easy to make and should be a great leader/ender project.  I've made a sample block and am ready to cut the whole quilt and get it sewn.  Sign up at Color, Creating and Quilting to see what it is all about. You won't have much time but it really is a fast little quilt. 

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Monday Makings at Love, Laugh, Quilt and Main Crush Monday at A Place to Create and Share. (Oops, Monday Makings isn't up yet.  I'll add the link later. She's camping and the linky party isn't coming up. Check next Monday.)  When I'm finished posting this I plan to spend a bit of time cruising the internet to see what's new today.  

Sophie enjoying new markers and sporting her new NEON shorts and shirts. She starts first grade today.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie