Monday Meandering 12 - 2 - 2019

Busy days this past week and it looks like that busy-ness will continue this week. 

Things that have been on my ironing station this week: 

Doll wedding dress needs some big seams and the back closure.  

And something that was on the embroidery machine Sunday. 

Second Mendhi shirt half embroidered -- it's finished now but I'll get a decent picture when the sun is out. 

Grammy and Theo selfie.

Tuesday I spent in Northern Virginia with Theo.  Luckily he was really good.  No whining, no crying and no fussing at all, including going down for a nap.  Amazing. I, on the other hand, was crying over the traffic on the way home!  Ok, not really but I would have liked to! Evidently the I 95 corridor is the most congested in the nation.  And, boy howdy, it sure was Tuesday evening.  It took an hour to get to Kevin's house and 2 1/2 hours to get home.  (Ok, it might have been 2 1/4 hours as I stopped to buy dinner.)  

Overall I've been able to check off ✔ a few items on my secret list.  Some are partially done.  I expect to be checking off a few more this week.  Of course, I do have an addendum to the list.  But those items won't be worked on until the original list is finished or almost finished.  If you guess that I'll be in my studio every free moment this week you are absolutely right. 

Here are the linky parties I will try to link up with!  Busy times means I don't always think about getting back to link up.  Sigh.  Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday should be hosting quilty Linky Parties this week.  Check the links (once they are up of course) and see what new ideas you an find!

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie   

Monday Meanderings 9 - 30 - 2019 & Stashbusting!

Can I just say I'm pretty surprised I haven't posted my stashbusting statistics since MAY!  I could have sworn I figured them out over the last few months -- but no, I can't find them.  Nothing was posted on my blog and the Excel spreadsheet was missing the last four months too. So here they are. Please note I haven't bought any fabric for 2 full months.  Unbelievable! I can assure you some fabric will come home in October. Here is the report for June, July August and September.  

2019	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	4.00	35.80	5.375	41.750	6.670
July	6.00	41.80	5.875	47.625	6.545
Aug	0.00	41.80	0.750	48.375	7.295
Sept	0.00	41.80	0.875	49.250	8.170

For the last few weeks I've been trying to get three charity quilts quilted for Faithful Circle Quilters in Maryland.  I'll be seeing a couple of gals from there this coming weekend and want to pass off at least some of the quilts.  And, yes, I did succeed in getting three done. One was done in mid-August before surgery.  The other two were finished last week. Here's the last one. Pattern is Whisper by My Creative Stitches; thread is So Fine 414 -- a cranberry red.

Thursday afternoon we realized it was Theo's birthday party on Saturday. EEK! We hadn't done anything for bd presents.  A quick trip to the store scored us a great book about construction vehicles that were like dinosaurs.  We checked with Aimee to make sure he didn't already own the book. Victory! It combined his two favorite things. Pat picked one of his wooden toys to give him and I embroidered a dinosaur on a sweatshirt I had on hand. I forgot to take any pictures of the sweatshirt. Bummer.  But Kevin sent us one the next day.  It hasn't been sweatshirt weather at all and doesn't look like it will be anytime soon... but Theo must have liked the shirt with his favorite dino on it. (The design is one from Funky Dinosaurs by Designs by Juju.)

Since the embroidery unit was out I decided to embroider my studio sweatshirt. I'd been planning to for a long time. Last night I woke in the middle of the night and realized the design wouldn't show because of the hoodie. I'm thinking of cutting off the hoodie and putting a ribbing on or some sort of binding.  The design is Quilt Clothesline from Embroidery Library.  The threads are a multitude of different colors and brands -- Mettler Polysheen, Arc, Isacord.  I try to use only poly threads since most of what I do will see plenty of washings. I still need to take the topping off and trim the stabilizer on the back.  I'll be doing that at the stitching group today. And decide about the hoodie.  Let me know if you have some suggestions too.  

This weekend is retreat!  I figured out today that I've had 9 wonderful retreats with this group of women.  We really have a great time. I look forward to it and plan my projects months in advance. This year I'm a little behind on the planning part.  I've got 3 more blocks to cut out for my last project.  As I've said many a time I do best with easy projects that are all ready to sew.  Need I say I'm looking forward to it?  

Here's what I wanted to get done before retreat. 

Quilt two charity quilts for Faithful Circle Quilters

Cut and package 2 more quilt kits to take on retreat ... Almost done...

Clean up the cutting table so I can use all of it again ... Started, really it is

I won't guarantee the cutting table will be all cleaned up before I go but I have made a decent dent in it.  I'm trying to put away scraps and fabrics left on it for the last 6 months or so.  (What was I thinking? Just leaving fabrics out.  Sigh.) I know when I figure out what I want to do over the next month or so it will be actually finishing some of the quilt tops.  Hum, that would help the fabric usage stats a bit.  I'll decide next week. 

Here's where I'm linking up:  Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Moving It Forward, and What I Made Monday.   I took several breaks over the last week and enjoyed reading blogs from the Monday linky parties.  I'm probably not going to get to as many as I did last week -- I don't anticipate spending lots of computer time this week.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering

What a week!  We've just finished our two Spotsylvanians concerts.  Nice crowds who were very appreciative of our efforts.  Needless to say that took a chunk of my time this week. But so much fun to do.  I'm hoping I can participate during the spring season that starts late in January. 

What I succeeded on finishing also was 4 embroidered Christmas shirts for the grands.  At Thanksgiving I asked the three girls what design they wanted on their shirts.  (And I kept notes so I wouldn't forget!)  Theo's mom suggested his and he was delighted with it.  Here are all four shirts finished and ready to give to the kids.  All designs are by JuJu Designs.  

They all liked them but Theo was the only one I could actually get a picture of him in it. 

As the Christmas holiday grows closer less sewing will be getting done.  I did actually load part of the backing for my Jamestown Landing quilt.  I'm hoping to finish getting the backing on and then get the rest of the quilt loaded this week.  If I am really lucky I might get a few rows stitched out but I'm not holding my breath. 

We have Ellie spending the night tonight so we can go celebrate her birthday tomorrow.  It was late October but we couldn't attend her celebration.  We'll be visiting Build-A-Bear. Hey, I got a few gift cards when we did our other grands' bds there. So I figured this would be a great use for them.

So here's how the goals went this week.  Not bad considering all I had scheduled.  

December 10, 2018

Work on counted cross stitched ornament √ 

Embroider grand’s Christmas shirts√

Finish Angel ornaments oops did a bit more but…must finish this! 

Attend 2 rehearsals and 2 performances for the Spotsylvanians √

Eye Appointment√ and Hair Cut! (oops hair cut is this coming week) 

Have the family over for pizza√

Bind a charity quilt Half done…

And this coming week I'm going to .... 

December 17, 2018

Finish up the Angel ornaments (again! Sigh.) 

Work on Counted Cross Stitch ornament 

Wrap Christmas presents

Load Jamestown Landing and start quilting 

Buy the last of the Christmas Presents 

Enjoy Ellie’s sleepover shopping trip

Hair Cut

I am having more issues trying to get your comments emailed to my account.  I thought I had reset it so it would work, but no.  I'll look at it again this week and see if I can straighten it out.  I will get an answer to your comments but it's taking me longer than usual. 

Visit the linky parties listed to see what folks have been doing this past week. 

Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. I just noticed Main Crush Monday didn't post last week.  And, I didn't remember to check it either.... We'll see whether I remember this week.  It might be a busy, busy week! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie  

Monday Meanderings 10 - 29 - 2018

One king-sized quilt quilted!  I finished my customer's Redskins quilt this week. It has about 189,000+ stitches in it and nearly 7 hours of quilting (by the computer) not including the time it took to load it, roll the quilt up and basting it.  I'm happy to have this quilt finished.  I'm going to throw on one of the charity quilts I'm doing for Country Piecemakers next.  Then I have another king size quilt to do.  Once that is finished I can quilt my Jamestown Landing!  That is great motivation to getting these big quilts finished.  

I also was able to make a block for a clubhouse quilter who is moving out of the area.  My block is at 12 o'clock. I didn't get a picture of my block... silly me!  I used some new dies I have for my Go.  I used the drunkard's path along with some triangle dies.  There was a nice assortment of blocks to send off with our neighbor. 

One of the things on my to do list was begin working on the heron picture. It was a kit I purchased the summer of 2015. It was the row by row pattern for Lib's Place in Rice, Virginia. Check out the other designs to go with this lovely heron. (Scroll down to see the quilts.)  It looks like these patterns are still available and kits too.  I'm just making the one heron.  He will be bordered to make the finished pieced a bit bigger.  I have a small wall between a door and a window where I hang wall hangings.  


I notice I also have a problem with my background.  I may peel off the heron and unstitch where the first and second background pieces meet.  I think that one is causing the whole thing to list slightly to the left at the top.  Fun times figuring this out!

I also had some visitors today.  Well, Theo got his picture made but Kevin didn't.  They had a burst water pipe at home and had to move to a hotel for a couple of days until the place dries out and repairs are made -- hopefully they can return by Monday.  Kevin was happy to drive down and I got to play with Theo. Boy howdy, that boy is tiring.  He never stops going.  We played with our Brio train, we threw a soft pumpkin around, he ate raisins and more raisins, and we took a walk.  Pat missed out because he had a barbershop concert. Hopefully Kevin enjoyed some time with his mom! 

I did great on my goals this past week.  I didn't have many listed because I knew it would take a couple of days to get the customer's quilt loaded and quilted. And we had a full day rehearsal on Saturday.  I'm tickled every item on the list got checked off! 

October 22, 2018

Continue working on customer quilt — 11 more rows to do! √

Pick out designs and embroider Ellie’s and Theo’s Halloween shirts √

Try again — Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces√

Knit on Theo’s sweater √

October 29, 2018

Load and quilt charity quilt

Bind the monkey quilt

Knit on Theo’s sweater…. it’ll be on here until it’s finished! 

Order backing for Jamestown Landing

Buy fabric to border the heron piece

Here's a couple of pictures I snapped in Charlottetown, PEI.  I was taken by this big mural on the side of a building. (Sorry, I have no idea whether it was a private home or a business.  We had walked downtown after our bus tour around the island.)  

I thought it was just an interesting mural and maybe there was a quilt shop with it.  But no.  We found this sign that went with it... 

It was part of a story walk.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to walk to any other locations.  But it seemed like a fun way to interact with children.  Try clicking on the pictures to enlarge them.  Do you know what a skulk is? I didn't really read the sign -- just photographed it.  I was charmed by the story unfolding on this sign once I read it at home.  I would have liked to see some of the other locations. 

I've got a few more photos from Charlottetown and PEI.  Keep checking back as I will continue to post photos from our Canadian travels along with my quilting info. 

Today I'm linking up with my favorite early week linky parties.  Honestly, I'll try to remember to link up when they go live.  Last week it didn't even cross my mind until Thursday when most of them were closed.  I'm going to link up with Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. Ok, 2 out of 4 isn't too bad. (Writing note to self to remind me to link with the other two blogs!) 

Happy quilting all! Bonnie

Monday Meandering 9 - 24 - 2018

Boy did that week past quickly.  The highlight of my week was the Wacky Family Portrait class with Lisa Ellis.  Lisa is a great teacher and was so helpful to all of us. I chose to do pictures of all 4 of my grands.  So, much of the time I was perfecting each tracing and duplicating it on a fusible.  I also got all 16 pictures (4 of each grand) fused on to fabric.  I was only able to get the one of Theo actually cut out and ready to fuse to the backing fabric. Nope, I'm not fusing it to the background fabric until I can lay out all 16 background fabrics [yep, all different...] and decide where I'm placing all the pictures.
'
First up is the photo and drawing of Theo and then Ellie. 

I left off Theo's hands because I was hoping the arms would go off the background.  See below for more info on that. 

One of the things Lisa suggests is to simplify the picture.  That's why I'm not including the long hair down Ellie's face.  I sure wouldn't want to cut out that piece! And the dolls won't be included.  I may have to fuss with her arms a bit but I'll see how it goes. 

And here is one of Theo's "wacky" pictures. I will be going back to the drawing and copying his little hands and adding them. Hum, I wonder if I need to add the shorts.... he looks really long waisted here!  I will probably cut off some of each sleeve to make it work.  Aimee, his mom, thought it was terrific. (I do too!) 

Here's one of Lisa's samples: 

How fun is this!  She also has a different, easy way to finish the piece.  I'm looking forward to finishing this wall hanging.  It's so much fun to do! Below is  the little one Karen put together of her brother and his wife.  Except the picture is their engagement picture from years ago!  

There were several more "pictures" that I would have liked to snap photos of but just didn't get to it.  

So besides that how did I do on my goals this week? Not bad.  Didn't get them all done but I did get many of them done.

September 17, 2018

Prep class for this week!√

Knit on Sock √

Start sweater for Theo√

Prep for mini demo on labels√

Make a pillowcase?nah, didn’t happen, again! 

September 24, 2018

Cut a quilt for retreat 

Finish up sock

Knit on Theo’s sweater 

Make a pillowcase (well, it could happen, maybe) 

That's it for me today. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 23 - 2017

All of my sewing this past week has been focused on the birthday party we went to on Saturday. We were celebrating Theo's and Ellie's birthdays.  Theo had to wait since mid September and Ellie celebrated a few days early.  I doubt Theo minded!  

I took very few pictures for some reason.  But once Theo had eaten cake (read that as got cake all over him...) he was hanging out in a diaper.  Kevin grabbed his Halloween shirt and covered him up -- just to keep him a little warmer. He cleaned up pretty well, didn't he?   

On the other hand, Rapunzel didn't get all that dirty eating cake (or dinner for that matter.) She'd been playing outside all afternoon so her cute little off to the side braid was a mess by this time. 

She and her 2 friends along with her 2 cousins played upstairs for a bit.  It was amazing how much noise 5 girls could make!  But I was happy to see that she was able to dress her baby doll in this outfit.  Thank goodness for Velcro™!  These fairly simple doll clothes took me two days to make.  Of course, I didn't devote sustained time on them so maybe 8 hours all-together  

Ellie loves to play with my Ginny doll when she visits.  So far she can't dress the doll herself.  Heck, Velcro™ wasn't invented . . .  oops, actually it was invented in 1955.  Ok, so it wasn't widely distributed until much later.  My Grandma Ruth made me numerous doll dresses for all sorts of different dolls.  I particularly like my Ginny doll for the grands because she's small and child-like.  Did you have a Ginny doll growing up?  (Do you have any doll clothes patterns for her?) One of these days I'll share her with you and some of her clothes.  

As I was putting my purse away at Kevin's house I noticed a rubber duck.  I've shared several of ducks here and here. I had to take a picture and share.  Nancy, here'ssssss Elvis!

We had a good time at the birthdays celebration.  Good food and fun to see all of the grands at one time.  However, with the Halloween and birthday sewing done I can now start back on my quilting projects.  You'll notice I didn't get that stray kite block done yet.  I did get it cut out though!  So a tiny bit of progress was made. 

Most of my goals were achieved. 

October 16, 2017

Finish 2^nd skirt√

Embroider 2 more shirts√

Make 2 baby doll outfits√ I ran out of time so 1 was done

Make last kite block didn’t even try to do this

Finish binding the trip around the world quilt √ (I'll share it later.) 

Here's what I'm hoping to get done this week. 

October 23, 2017

Make last kite block and sew blocks into top

Make and mail FCQ Equilter pinwheel blocks

Pick a charity top and quilt it

Clean the front side of the cutting table

I'd be happy if I got all of these projects done even though the list seems pretty short to me.  On the other hand I have an ebook that needs to be returned in 2 days and I'm only about 40% finished.  I'm planning on doing some reading too! 

I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  Take some time to see what folks around the web are doing these days.  Enjoy. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie