Monday Meanderings 8 - 3 - 2026

It's been a busy week. I tried to get everything done on my goals list. And I added working on a challenge project.  Plus, the Spotsylvanian's had a singing opportunity. More about that at the end. First the goals list. 

7/27/26

✅Finish quilting fall appliqué quilt — machine work is done. Started hand quilting around the appliqués. 

✅Bind Jane’s table runner — need to hand stitch the binding down 

✅Bind Eiffel Tower Quilt — done. 

✅Stitch on Snowman #2 — bunny body done, on to ears. 

✅Finish beanie hat — done. 

Wait! I forgot to take pictures of what I did this week except the last one. So here is a picture of the beanie hat I finished this week.

A friend gave me this yarn because she couldn't use it the way she wanted.  This is the second child beanie I've made with it and I'll probably have enough for another hat. This one is going to my friend. She may have to hold onto it for a year or two but her grandson will grow into it.  It's fun to knit with wild yarn.  

Now on to this week's plan.

8/3/26

Sew down binding on table runner

Draw out plan for Idiom Challenge, stitch rain and puddles on background

Stitch ears of bunny on Snowman 2

Pick fabric for Marigold mystery 

Start making 6” blocks for Aug UFO Challenge

Unfortunately there is a lot of hand sewing needed this week. I doubt I'll get it all done but I can make some progress.  

I spent 15 minutes sewing every day this week. See below for the numbers.

Week ending 8/2/26: 214 days of 2026.

 213 stitching days out of 214 days 99.5%

I also did something I've been putting off for way too long: figuring out my fabric use statistics.  I don't think I've shared any for this year, although I thought I had. 

Here's a stashbusting statement for the first 2 quarters of the year.  

2026	Yards in Quarter	Yards In Year	Yards Out Quarter	Yards Out Year	Total Yards In or Out Year
Quarter 1	27.25	27.25	33.50	33.50	6.25
Quarter 2	16.625	43.875	19.20	52.750	8.875

One year I decided not to keep my stats on fabric usage.  Then, I decided I missed knowing how I was doing. So this year I thought I would keep stats for each quarter instead of monthly.  The drawback is it's usually a lot of items I have to keep track of and figure out.  I thought I'd reported on the first quarter but I couldn't find anything in my posts. So here are both quarters. I need to get back in the habit of recording what is going out and coming in.  Hopefully 3rd quarter stats will be easier to figure out. 

That said, I am tickled that I didn't bring more fabric in then I used.  The fact that I don't count fabric used until the quilt is done or in case of blocks going out of the house, until they are on their way wherever they belong.  I have several tops waiting to be quilted and I have backing for them.  Hopefully I'll get some of them done this quarter AND I don't go crazy buying fabric. (Or picking up too much from one of the free tables!) 

Saturday the Spotsylvanians were invited to sing the Star Spangled Banner and another patriotic song for a young man who was receiving the keys to a new home that was built for him and his family. The house was built by Homes for Our Troops. Their mission says it all: "To build and donate specially adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured post - 9/11 Veterans, to enable them to rebuild their lives."

It was an amazing morning.  There were quite a few speeches given by community people many who had been in the military also. Surprisingly, I found most of the speeches interesting as well as educating me on the organization.  It was well done although the temperature and the sun kept rising.  The house was open so that anyone who wanted to could view it and its many adaptions. Unfortunately, we had somewhere else to be shortly after the end so we didn't view the house.  If you are looking for a place to donate money that is well organized and well rated check this group out.  

We had just finished our last song.  It was a warm day but definitely worthwhile to support this great organization. (I'm second from the left. Just in case you want to put a face with the name!) 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Take a few minutes to visit these Linky parties.  It's always fun to see what folks are working on.

I wanted to share this last bit.  I'm sure it's 100% correct! 

Thanks to https://redthreadstudio.com/.  Check out the amazing selection of solid fabrics at their web site.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 8 - 2026

Recently beginnings of my post have been weather related, especially through winter and a semi-wet spring.  Summer has finally hit (with a vengeance) and we are in the hot, humid and repeat stage. Which will probably be the case for the whole summer. I'm lucky because my studio is in the basement which is naturally cooler.  In fact after a few hours down there I usually need to put on a light sweater or come up stairs to warm up.  I see a lot of sewing going on this summer. 

I did pretty well on my goals this week. Most progress came at the end of the week rather than the beginning. Here's what I did. 

6/2/2026

✅✅Quilt two of my quilts — One baby top and one throw top quilted! 

✔️Make some hollow 9 patches - just one finished but a couple more cut out. 

✅Knit more kid-size beanies — one done, one more started.

✅Stitch on Snowman #2 — a little stitching done. 

Cut one quilt kit - not even planned! 

So the big finish was quilting two tops.  The first one I did was scrap blocks made by my FCQ E Quilter's group.  I don't remember when I got these blocks but I made the top last year.  I purchased the backing at a local store probably last month. 

The block is the Ultimate Scrap Busting Quilt Block by Create with Claudia.  You can find the block here: https://www.createwithclaudia.com/2019/08/scrap-busting-quilt-block-tutorial/.  I really like how vibrant the colors are and the way it looks like it has been sashed. Nope, that is part of the block. 

I chose Feather Late Than Never, by My Creative Stitches,  for the quilting design. It stitched out beautifully.  I chose a beige thread -- it doesn't stand out very much so  maybe I should have picked a different color. 

Here's some of the back and a close up of the front. The backing is little flowers in fall colors on a beige background. I will probably use that leftover fabric in a small quilt with other autumn colors. This picture definitely doesn't show it off well.   

I also quilted a baby top. I've decided to call this Bubbles and Checks. (That blue fabric has little checks in it.) All the fabric came from my stash.  So I think of it as a free quilt! For the back I used the last larger piece of the purple from the bolt I got from Marshall Dry Goods a year or so ago.  I still have odd ball scraps from it so I'll be using it for years to come!  (You can just see it in the upper left of the picture.) 

I used Hills and Valleys #1, again from My Creative Stitches.  I check the web site to see what they recommend for nesting, whether it had overstitching and the size it was designed at.  Yes on nesting, no on overstitching. It was pretty close to a square design.  I thought that made a lot of sense for a square quilt. (36" x 36" basically.) 

I also tend to read the reviews to see if there is any more information shared there.  Yes, many folks said it stitched out quickly.  Yep. It really did. I think it took about 3 minutes to stitch each row.  It dawned on me closer to the end of my 7 rows why it stitched out so fast.  Each row was like a half a row.  It needed to be tightly nested to make it look like a full row.  And this was done really quickly with no problems. See the close up 👇. It creates lots of nice texture. 

And this week I'll be trying to get these items done, or at least moved forward. 

6/7/26

Bind 2 quilts

Knit more kid-size beanies 

Stitch on Snowman #2

Cut one quilt kit

Make more blocks for Veronica, Hollow 9 patch, & E Quilter blocks 

Attend Country Piecemaker's meeting and class 

I did a little off list sewing this week. Pat W chose blocks for the EQuilters to make her during May and June. She wants them child oriented with bright colors. She chose Jenny Doan's Two Step Quilt. Here's the link to the directions if you want to make it yourself. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r7eObCvo9H4.  I've decided that each of my blocks is good individually but they are pretty busy together. Or, I haven't arranged them correctly.  

I was successful sewing every day. Most days were much more than 15 minutes. 

Week ending 6/7/26:  158 days of 2026.

  158 stitching days out of 158 days. 100%

Sharon should be coming to visit at the end of the week. And we'll be going back to Country Piecemakers (west of Richmond) as she is teaching a mystery class.  And, no, I don't know what it is! I'll be sewing along with the other guild members. 

Don't forget to check these Linky parties. 

Stitching Stuff 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Oh yes, there is one more item to share. 

The Spotsylvanians sang the National Anthem at the Fredericksburg Nationals, a farm team for the Washington Nationals.  This is the fourth year we've sung and we had a large turnout of singers.  These are mostly the sopranos. This was the only picture I could find that you can actually see me!  After singing we had a great dinner and could watch the game from seats on the first base line.  (And, yes, we had to pay for all the tickets and dinner. But some how we got free parking.)  The Fred Nats won and we actually lasted through the whole game. 

As much as I am enjoying my Monday nights off, I miss these ladies, gentlemen, and singing.  We'll start up again in mid August. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings -- 5 - 4 -2026

What a great week I've had.  Lots of singing at rehearsals, tech rehearsal, and 2 great concerts.  Our spring concert has been held in a very nice Lutheran church in our county for a couple of years. The pastor is one of our singers and has been so giving with her time, talent and her church. In the past we haven't had huge audiences -- maybe a hundred or so.  We were very pleasantly surprised when we were told to hold off on starting the concert because people were lined up trying to park still! I never heard an official word on the numbers at the afternoon or evening concert but it looked packed. Chairs had been added in the front. Chairs were lined across the back of the room. And the crowds was engaged.  We did a lot of classic American songs as sing alongs. We sang a few standard patriotic songs.  Our three big pieces went really well. Those were America Sings, a medley from Hamilton, and Stomp from an opera by Aaron Copland.  I am tickled to invite you to Facebook to hear our rendition of Hamilton Highlights.  Here's the link to my page with the posting. https://www.facebook.com/bonnie.stapleton.52.

And, now back to my regularly scheduled post. My goals from last week...

4/27/26

✅Finish 3 more dash block, start trimming to correct size — all dash blocks finished, none trimmed. 

✅Quilt a top — just 3 of 9 rows to finish.

✅Make some more batik blocks — 2 more started.

✅Make binding and bind Bear quilt — binding made and quilt bound. 

✅✅✅Enjoy singing two concerts and one tech rehearsal —great rehearsal and two concerts with large audiences. 

Not a lot of pictures taken of items in progress.  But I have pics of the bear quilt. The bear fabric is really old but still works well in a baby quilt. I used red Sew Fine thread and Criss Cross Applesauce. This will be going to a local hospital's NICU. (Or I think that is where it will be going.) 

And here's the back and front.

I was happily surprised I was able to maintain my 15 Minutes of Stitching all week. 

Week ending 5/3/26:  123 days of 2026.

  123 stitching days out of 123 days. 100%

And now my goals for this coming week. 

5/4/26

Finish Quilting Trip Around the World for Nancy

Stitch on Snowman #2

Quilt Cats in Pajamas 

Work on UFO Challenge for May

Trim Dash blocks

Cut one quilt kit

Here's the beginning of Nancy's quilt. I believe the pattern is Scrappy Trips by Bonnie Hunter. I haven't poked around Bonnie's blog for a long time. Wow! She has a lot of great patterns available under Free Patterns, where this one is.  If you want some ideas that's a great resource. I found patterns for quite a few quilts I've made from Bonnie's free patterns over the years. 

The story behind this quilt is I was able to do a fast quilting job for my customer/friend in December. We are in the same quilting guild and she had it ready in December and I said I'd quilt it for her and the guild.  Fast forward to April when I "found" the quilt in a bag that had been covered up with other quilts. And, I'd forgotten all about it. No clue who had made it, when I'd gotten it, why I didn't write up paperwork for it.  I asked around with no one claiming it. So I took it to the April meeting and she came over to talk to me and saw it in a bag and was tickled thinking I'd gotten it done for her. OOOPS. No -- I had no clue who it belonged to! We had a laugh and I will have it done before she brings me another quilt to do this week. It's tough losing your brain. I relate to Scare Crow in the Wizard of Oz! 

Here's my UFO Challenge project for May. This is a quilt-as-you-go bargello table runner.  A friend of mine got totally fed up with it and offered it to me to finish as she didn't want to see it again! I've let it sit for a good 10 years and decided to put it on my UFO list this year. Its number came up for May.  I added two more columns to it today and will try to get it farther along this week.  Not much is happening so I might be able to get it finished except binding soon.  Time will tell. It will be a little smaller than the pattern. 

And last, here's snowman #2.  I haven't fused on all the elements. But I did start getting the jacket hand buttonhole stitched, except you can't really see the thread. I started left of his "neck" and am going down the jacket then across the bottom. Cool thing about the jacket wool is my dad bought it for me in Hong Kong in the 1960s.  He was career Navy and his ships (he was Commodore of a squadron of destroyers at that time) went to Hong Kong. I also got some beautiful pearls at the same time. Hum. Poor Mr. Snowman looks a little blank. Hopefully I'll get more done on him this week. He can't see a thing yet. 

I'm linking up with the following parties.

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

 

As some of you know I am a big reader. Sometimes I get inundated with reserved library books that are available for my Kindle.  That happened this past week. I turned in one or two books that weren't finished so I could read Norah O'Donnell's new book, We the Women. It has been very interesting reading about women who helped shape the United States from revolutionary times to now. The book is divided into sections based on the years. I'm starting The Gilded Age 1876 - 1926. Within each time frame several lives are covered. So far it has been fascinating. It is really an eye opener how women were nearly invisible except as homemakers.  Did you know a married woman couldn't own her own property as it transferred to her husband at marriage.  I'm looking forward to reading about more of these heroic women. 

Our country has been on a real roller coaster recently.  I keep up with the news.  I'm not happy with where we are now. But I also spend time stitching to help me keep myself centered and happy.  I hope you are also.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie