Monday Meanderings 5 22 -2023

What a week!  I'm exhausted but I really wanted to write my normal Monday post. I did surprisingly well on my goals list so I'm sharing that first. 

5/15/23

✅Quilt two tops — done and done! 

✅Make blocks for BOM for guild —  finished & turned in quite a few different blocks at the meeting.

✅Start fusing & trimming tee shirts for a quilt — 1 column of shirts done. 

👎🏼Put border on the UFO — um, no, didn’t happen

Here are sneak peeks of the two tops I quilted this week. 

Hum, you might notice that these quilts use the same blocks.  They are called Happy Blocks and you can get simple directions here. Mary gives 3 different directions. I tend to change the inside block size and then make the outside blocks fit.  

And here are some blocks I made for the guild raffle quilt. 

Here's what I want to get done this week.

5/22/23

Mail two packages of blocks out

Finish fusing & trimming tee shirts for a quilt

Put border on APQ UFO for May

Trim and bind 2 quilts 

Hum, I sure hope I get all of these things done. But a high priority is to bind 2 quilts. 

Every Monday I head up to our community's club house to join a group of stitchers.  There is a variety of stitching going on along with lots of talking and laughing. I work on whatever strikes my fancy or I want to get done.  Many of the gals make hats using a circular frame.  When I realized I have 4 boxes of miscellaneous yarn I decided I'd borrow a frame and try to make one. (Or more.) (I'm looking at you Alycia!) 

Um, it really isn't a weird cactus.  I had some leftover fuzzy yarn so I decided to try it.  A friend made the pompom and another one trimmed it up. Some little girl is going to love this hat and her mom will probably hate that the fuzzy pieces fall out!  The frame that was available was more for a baby or toddler so that's the size I'm making. I've already made two more that I'll eventually photograph and share. I've asked another friend to be on the lookout for a frame or frames while she does her thrift shopping. I'm happy to be making a dent in my yarn. 

These will go to From the Heart Stitchers in Fredericksburg/King George. Here's a little about them. "Our mission is to serve our community by preserving and promoting fiber arts, creating a spirit of fellowship and love among our volunteers and board members, and producing handmade items which bring comfort, love and solace to others."  

The other big activity this weekend was a dress rehearsal and concert by the Spotsylvanians. Dress rehearsal went well except some crazy problems with the sound system. We were exhausted when we finally got home.  Call time on Saturday was 3:15 as the concert was beginning at 5.  This semester we were only doing one concert rather than an evening and a matinee the next day.  We sang a wide variety of music from  traditional Madrigal, pop music, spirituals, and a several songs from Disney.  We even sang a song in Norwegian!  (Think Frozen.) This was the 20th anniversary of the group so it was quite festive. Two other choral groups joined us.  We finished at 7:30! I was exhausted and I expect the audience was too. The highlight of the night might have been the heavy down pour during the second half which made its own music on the roof and dripped on the altos. Exciting! Like true professionals they moved out of the way and didn't skip a note! 

The group celebrated with a wonderful dinner and party at a local restaurant. (We were all starving by the time we got there!) There were several presentations and surprises before dancing and karaoke began.  Hubby and I were so very surprised and pleased when we were given a remembrance for our 50th wedding anniversary that we will be celebrating in June. (Boy did that time go by fast!) I thought you might like to see us with our acrylic reminder.

We were totally exhausted when we got home. (Again!) Sunday was quieter but I did start and finish a small quilt. 

I'm linking up with my favorite beginning of the week parties:

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday

I'll come back tomorrow to link up what ever blogs are available. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 5 - 21 -2018

Retreat is over. Exhaustion has hit.  A great amount of sewing has been done.  Lots of fellowship with friends I don't see all that often has taken place.  This post will mostly be a few pictures of what I worked on and my goals for this week. I'm pooped! 

This top was started at the beach house last weekend and finished at retreat.  The Looney Tunes character fabric was 6 fat quarters I received last year at a swap at the October retreat I go to.  It's ready for quilting and binding and YEA, I have a backing fabric for it already. It will go to one of Sarah's charities for Hands 2 Help.

Jamestown Landing saw a lot of blocks being made.  I had most of the units for the blocks made.  Here are 33 of the 42 blocks I need.  I'm pretty sure I have enough of the broken dishes blocks but I will need to make some more of the string blocks before I can finish all of the blocks.  Plus, I need to measure the bed and figure out whether I want another row to make it a bit longer.  

I actually started another small quilt but ran out of steam.  It will be easy to finish up quickly. 

Here's what happened on the goals this week: 

May 14, 2014

RETREAT FUN! Enjoy myself & sew like a demon!√

Sing at last concert maybe Couldn't make it.

Finish 2 small quilt tops √ One finished, one started

Work on Jamestown Landing√

Hand quilting on Civil War Quilt √

And this week I'm planning on taking it easy on the quilting and just relax. 

May 21, 2018

Quilt 1 customer quilt

Hand quilt on Civil War Quilt

Work on Jamestown Landing

Bind previously finished charity quilt

Rest and read a book or two

I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Moving it Forward, Main Crush Monday and Design Wall Monday.  Join me in browsing these links for some great inspiration. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

PS I had planned to write a post on my iPad while on retreat.  The photos were taken and watermarked. But when I tried to load the pictures into Blogger I couldn't figure out a way to load them directly from my iPad to the post.  Anyone know how to do that?  

Monday Meanderings 6 - 19 - 2017

It has been a full week but not all sewing.  First I got another pinwheel top quilted.  It's waiting for binding now.  I also found fabric to make another backing for the 3rd pinwheel quilt. The top fabric is an old Debbie Mumm fabric.  I had to piece it to make it wide enough. I was able to match the Uncle Sam but the sun flower and the watermelon above it didn't line up well.  I'll load it soon and get the quilting done.  

I also made one of the foldable boxes.  Still need 6 or so more but at least I got one more done.  I've got them cut out and waiting so I can't really clean off part of my cutting table until all of them are made.  (Yet, I don't need them for a few months.) 

Then I decided to try making some giant flying geese using the 4-at-a-time method.  Whoa!  Super easy and fast to make these blocks.  Finding a piece of fabric big enough without cutting into my yardage took the most time.  It took me a while to find a fat quarter that I hadn't cut into! I've been using the white off and on for a year or two.  Not much left of it now.




I spent Friday attending an educational presentation by a representative of AccuQuilt.  I've been using mine for several years but I learned quite a few useful things.  And, of course there were quilts for inspiration. Here are a couple of quilts I really liked. 

I recently bought this kite die so I took a picture of this example.  (I also have a Quiltmaker magazine showing directions for making a similar quilt.) 

I wish I could remember how this block was made! I liked the look of this and some day I'll make myself a similar one. I have no idea which dies were used on the table runner. I bet I have a ruler that I could use to make it. (Hum, maybe two different rulers.) Hum, I wonder what type of batting was used as many of the quilts were very wrinkled. On the other hand, they'd been folded and in a car for several weeks! 

Pat and I celebrated our 44th anniversary by going to the local dinner theater.  "Some Enchanted Evening" was a musical review of Rodgers and Hammerstein's light operas. We had a great time.  The food was pretty good and the cast was wonderful.  No doubt we'll plan to go again sometime.   

I was very pleased to actually get everything done on my goals list last week. 

June 12, 2017

Add the borders to table topper√

Quilt another pinwheel quilt√

Make backing for 2 pinwheel quilts √ √

Put binding on pinwheel quilt √

Make some fabric boxes √ 

Here's what I hope to do this coming week.

June19, 2017

Hand quilt on Civil War Quilt

Quilt another pinwheel quilt (#3)

Bind pinwheel quilt #2 (and maybe #3)

Start appliqueing flower wall hanging

Make some fabric boxes

I'm linking up with my normal Monday linky parties: Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. (I'll link as the blogs are posted -- or as soon as I remember afterwards!) Take a look at some of these linky parties -- there are always lots of pictures to encourage and inspire you. 

That's if for me today. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! And a Giveaway

Five years ago I started my blog.  And I've been blogging on and off ever since.  Here's what's up today.

For a while I've been receiving some wonderful 1/2 yard stacks of fabrics from Pink Castle as a gift from Kevin and Aimee. Every month I received 6 half yard pieces based on the color wheel.  You can read about it by clicking on the link above.  I liked it as a gift so much that I've continued it as a gift to myself.  I am planning on going through the one year cycle.  It's so much fun to open an envelope each month and have glorious fabric fall out.  Here's September's selection.  And, just a note, if you are looking for traditional fabric or historical fabric, this isn't the place for you.  

September fabric from Pink Castle's Stash Stack Club. 

And, now with no further ado, on to my giveaway.  I recently bought several Mighty Bright LED Sewing Machine Lights.  Here's what it says about this light on the Mighty Bright web page. 

"This one's designed with the sewing aficionado in mind. The immensely popular Sewing Machine Light is a versatile, energy-efficient and cool-to-the-touch LED light for use in sewing, embroidery, and detail-intensive projects. We listened to our avid sewing friends, and created a light to meet all your needs. Cordless? Check. Flexible? Check. Detachable? Check. The Sewing Machine Light provides bright white pinpoint illumination in hard to see work areas. Compact with an adjustable 5.5” bendable neck, it comes with a unique adhesive base can be affixed onto any sewing machine surface—providing essential lighting for poorly lit machines, especially near needle or seam ripping areas. The detachable LED light can be moved between bases (two included) for optimum lighting flexibility."

So here's the deal.  To win this light with 2 bases just leave a comment on today's post and tell me which sewing machine you own needs a new light.  I've named most of my machines so I'd be happy to hear what you've named yours.  The drawing will be next Friday, Sept. 27.  And, make sure you have left an email address for me to contact if you are an anonymous poster.  I won't mess with numbers of entries, as in post to your blog get another entry,  but feel free to spread the word.   And, to be eligible for the drawing you must live in the US, sorry international folks I don't want to have to find out if it is legal to ship these to other countries. Last requirement is you must post a comment on this post to be eligible.  **All comments must be posted by midnight, Thursday Sept 26, EST.** Just added this to make life a little easier.  

I leave you with one of my little knickknacks that hang around in the studio with me.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Gee Thanks, Hon!

36 Years Together

Pat sent me some lovely flowers in honor of our anniversary.

Hopefully I'll make a decent dinner for him. (LOL)

We decided to celebrate on Saturday night so we could enjoy ourselves without Pat having to get up at the crack of dawn the next day. (shucks, he leaves the house at 6 am...) I would share a photo of our wedding but I have no idea where any are... some things just haven't been taken out of boxes since our move last year. And, some things will NEVER be taken out of the boxes cause we don't have shelves and cabinets available!

I've been working on getting the zippers on Ruthie. I've done two and I have one more to go. Then I will head upstairs to do some piecing in the studio. And, part of that piecing will be piecing the back for the next quilt that will be going on Ruthie. Yahoo. And, this time, this one is one I am not donating. (Unless of course, the quilting totally stinks!)

Happy Quilting All!