Monday Meandrings 7 - 6 - 2026

It was a really busy weekend for us and it will continue that way for the rest of this week.  We are having our bedroom and bathroom painted.  To facilitate that we have been clearing everything out of our walk in closets.  The painters start Tuesday and should finish by Thursday.  

My closet almost cleared out. 

I still have some stuff on one of the shelves across from this picture.  It's just stuff that I have no idea where to put. It shouldn't actually be in the closet but I don't know where I should put any of it on a permanent basis. I'll decide some day but not now! 

Here's where some of the stuff is going -- the office. Yep that clothes rack is hiding my first t shirt quilt, hubby's race shirts including the Peachtree Road race in Atlanta. 

On with my goals from last week. Boy it was a long list! 

6/29/26

✅Sew table runner together — sewn together and quilted. 

✅Quilt another section of June UFO project — done. 

✅Work on Snowman #2 - ironed the rest of pieces on #2. 

✅Start clearing out “stuff” to prep for new carpet in painting bedrooms — most of the “stuff” is out of the bedroom.

✅Sew more Veronica blocks — 2 finished and 4 blocks partially finished. 

✅Make more string blocks — done, will sew together at retreat. 

✅Enjoy 4th Of July party in neighborhood — led patriotic sing along with neighborhood singers before pot luck lunch at the clubhouse. 

Unfortunately there aren't many pictures from all of these goals. 

Last week I stitched in the ditch around each of the appliqués. This week I stitched the lines in the orange rectangles.  I've got a plan for the next step but I may not have time to do it this week but it is on the list. 

Now for this coming week - 

7/6/26

Bind table runner

Organize more block sets to sew together at retreat 

Move some stuff back to closets

Finish more Veronica blocks 

Prep Snowman #3 for hand appliquéing

Quilt another section of June UFO project 

After painting this week, new carpeting will be put in our bedroom, the guest bedroom and the office next Monday. So, of course we need to find places to put the stuff we're storing in the office. And we need to clean out a lot of stuff stored in the guest bedroom.

Here's a look at what we found in a big box in our guest bedroom. All it said was Bonnie's Wedding dress and grandma's ---. (it didn't say what!) No, I've never had my grandmother's wedding dress. No clue what was in it. So I opened it to find - furs. I think they were mink. A full coat, a stole, and the dark one can be clipped on a collar.  Did I mention I have a fur stole of my mother's too?  And, I really don't need any furs. The box also had two linen table cloths, a pair of men's pants that neither of us recognized, and my wedding dress. More things to find a place for!   

Hubby did a search on what to do with furs.  Here were the suggestions:

Donate to theater group

Try to sell item

Repurpose it as stuffed bear or other small clothing or pillow

Donate them to animal rescue group

I haven't decided what I should do with these but I know I'm not keeping them. 

I've had another week of sewing for at least 15 minutes every day. Here are the stats. 

Week ending 7/5/26:  186 days of 2026.

  186 stitching days out of 186 days. 100%

One week from Tuesday I leave on my retreat.  I need to make sure I have enough projects with me.  I'm looking forward to seeing this special group of friends next week. And, getting a lot of projects moved to tops. 

As usual, here's my list of Linky parties.  

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

 

I hope you have a quilty week ahead! The temps are not as bad as this weekend was but they are still pretty high.  I'll spend as much time as I can in my sewing room in the basement. It will be a lot cooler.  But there is a lot of stuff that will need to be put back after the painting and carpeting. Fun times ahead! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 22 - 2026

Happy Father's Day -- at least here in America. We were able to spend part of it with our son and his family. I hate to complain about the weather so I'll say we've had some wonderful days with low humidity and reasonable summer temps. We may have a lot of rain this week.  My weather saying is wait a few days it will change! Do you say that about weather where you live? 

Here's what I got done this week.  It was satisfying to move forward on all of these goals. 

6/15/26

✅Bind 1 quilt — Done.

✅Cut one quilt kit — Done. 

✅Make more ✔️Veronica blocks and ✔️✔️Hollow 9 patches — 3 blocks were made. Another two are started. All the blocks for Hollow 9 patches are finished. 

✅Baste Fall Blocks top (June ufo challenge project)— Done. 

✅Check a couple of project boxes, empty, and put away fabric if project is finished — One zippered pouch was liberated. 

Here's the finished quilt with binding. My grands helped me out with holding the quilt.  You can read more about it here. 

Before we left for our son's house I was able to finish pin basting the fall quilt.👇The blocks are old -- 10 or 12 years old. Last year I put the finished blocks into a quilt. And then I let it sit for a while. I did put it on my 2026 UFO Challenge I do with Sharon.  Its number came up for June.  

At one point I was thinking of doing some more applique blocks but decided I probably couldn't do the hand appliqué as nicely as I did the original blocks.  And, we have a quilt hanger over the fireplace where this would fit beautifully. It's about 38" square. I will be quilting it with my domestic machine and a walking foot.  My preliminary plan is to stitch around each square but in the black and gold fabric. I'll stitch in the ditch on the outside of the small gold border. I will probably do something in the middle of the black border. You might notice I'm not talking about the rust rectangles. 

Well, lazy me says stitch in the ditch and call it done. The more artistic me says, maybe some parallel lines 1" or so apart. Or a checkerboard on the diagonal.  I will probably do some parallel lines using whatever size masking tape I have to mark them. But it is going to take way more time than this last week of June!  I'll try to keep you posted on my progress. 

I have way too many projects started and am using way too many project boxes and plastic zippered bags. I did check one of the boxes and found it full of fabrics with an ocean theme. I know I've made one quilt from the fabric but there is a lot more. The quilt kit I cut was made from 5" squares of the same fabric. It will stay in the box until I make some more quilts out of it.  It's going to take a while! Plus there is another project in the box that I didn't even look at but I think it is also ocean scenes. Oh my!

Here are my goals for this week. Wait, how did I get sooooo many items on the list? 

6/22/26 

Start quilting Fall Blocks (June ufo challenge project)

Finish two more Veronica blocks that are already started

Keep checking project boxes and/or zippered pouches to free them up for other projects

Work on Snowman #2

Knit a beanie

Start table runner for retreat  

I may not get to everything but I hope I can get some of each of these projects done.  

I did sew everyday this week including spending some time this morning finishing the pin basting before we left for our son's house. I'm glad I did as we stayed later than planned and I was unmotivated* when we got home. (*I admit I fell asleep on the couch while trying to read!) 

So I was successful on sewing every day this week. 

Week ending 6/21/26:  172 days of 2026.

  172 stitching days out of 172 days. 100%

I notice I often make mistakes on the info regarding sewing every day.  Last week was a big one when I said I'd stitch 158 of 165 days.  OOPS! I'll try to proofread better but don't hold your breath! 

Now another quilt my friend Sharon quilted while here last week. 

This is her version of Cheryl Brickey's Magnificent Mystery.  You can see my top here.  It's amazing how differently they look but they are the same pattern.  I'll get around to quilting mine someday! 

Please spend some time checking out these Linky Parties.  Lots of fun pics and info about what quilters around the world are doing. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

I've got 3 more weeks to get ready for retreat with friends. We rent a house in the Shenandoah mountains and sew for 6 days. So, lots of projects need to be readied.  I generally take about 6. I think I have two or three ready so far. I think I'll check some of my projects that are sitting around waiting to be worked on. That's better than starting new projects for sure.  We also need to plan a dinner with another attendee.  I have it easy as I usually do dessert and a salad while a friend does the main dinner. Dinners are very good. We bring our own breakfasts and lunches. It is a great week to spend sewing times with good friends I don't see as often. 

How is your quilting going? Do you keep a goals list or just tackle what ever you feel like each week? I hope you get a lot of stitching done this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

November OMG Done √

Yea!  Another goal accomplished.  On November 4th I set this goal: 

"I'm going to try to get my heron wall hanging to the top stage."

It wasn't a really big goal but I really would like to get this bird done!  The kit sat for years and now it's time to finish it and hang it in the great room.  

Top is finished!  I really like it except for one weird thing.  The left side is a bit crooked. Hum,   

I must have sewn the background fabric a little wonky.  That's easy to fix, I think.  I'll mark the beginning and the end of the "wonkiness" and sew a little smaller seam.  I'll be right back.  🎵🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶

🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵

🎵🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶
🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵
🎵🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶
🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵
   🎵🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶
🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵

🎵🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎶🎵🎵🎶
🎶🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶
🎵🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎵🎶🎵🎵music to wait by.... 

It took me longer than I thought to fix it.  How does it look now? Less of an indent in the middle of the left side?  There is still some indent there but it doesn't seem as bad as the first one.  There may be some more messing with this before the quilting.  Or I may just say "It is what it is!"  What do you think?  More fussing or is it done, ready for quilting?

One thing you can't see in the pic is all of the thread hanging around the legs.  I thought I had tied and buried all of it but oops!  There it hung.  You know the BIG problem with invisible thread??? You CAN'T see it. I had a heck of a time threading my needle to bury the threads. I'll be dealing with that again this evening while I try to finish moving threads to the back, tying and burying them.  Something to keep me busy while I watch some Hallmark movies. If I can see them!  

I've got a couple of pillowcases I want to make before the end of the month.  My finishes this month haven't used much of my own fabric -- mainly binding for small quilts.  So I figure two pillowcases will help me use up some actual yardage.  Especially since I specifically bought them for charity pillowcases for Christmas.  

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts OMG November Finishes, Needle and Thread Thursday, MidWeek Makers, and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.  Take a look to see what folks are up to. (We'll see if I remember Whoop, Whoop! tomorrow.) Success!  I remembered Friday evening.  Happy weekend all! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings and November OMG

Here we are almost at the end of the year -- from now on it is a mad race to the end of 2018. Have you shopped for the December holidays? Not me.  Or maybe you're planning on making some things.  I've been working on a small sweater.  You can see the beginning here.  Notice it is for a cardigan, well, it was a cardigan.  I was having problems with it so eventually I ripped out everything and started it over as a pullover.  Here's where I'm at now.

It's knit from the neck down so it may not actually look like a sweater yet.  But as I was getting the last few rows before the separation for the sleeves done I realized the pattern isn't accurate.  The number of stitches needed after following the increase instructions is not correct.  It's off by 8 stitches.  Ugh.  I guess I'll need to add those 8 stitches so that the rest of the instructions come out correctly  It's a really old pattern that has sizes from 9 month to 50.  I've used it before and it does come out nicely.  Hopefully I can knit fast enough to get it done by Christmas. Thank goodness it is only a size 3! 

Here's what else I've been working on this past week: 

This is my friend Beth's king size quilt.  We've been getting together weekly sewing and chatting for a year or so.  She's finished the piecing and we've started quilting it. 

Now it's time to set my November One Monthly Goal.  I've decided I'm going to try to get my heron wall hanging to the top stage.  If I get it quilted and bound that will be a great bonus.  The background is together and the heron is fused down.  The only part that is stitched down is the weeds and puddles. Below is a close up of them.  I'm using Sulky's Invisible thread. 

Notice that thread handing down... I'm tying off each start and stop -- not my favorite thing to do but I've learned if you don't tie the threads off they do come loose.  Ugh.  So I will be stitching around all the pieces of the heron. Then I plan to find a batik to border it.  So, should I use a pieced border or just one fabric as the border.  I do know that I have to audition the fabric to make sure it will work with the picture.  If you have some ideas please share them with me. 

Now back to our day on Prince Edward Island.  Here's what we saw as we left for the day.  Yep two lobster claws but where was the lobster? 

I realized we'd walk by the lobster at the beginning of the day but I hadn't even noticed it.  The top of our ship is in the background.  I suspect by now the claws have been joined with the rest of the body. 

I also snapped this picture for Nancy at Wyoming Breezes.  I guess these tiny libraries are international.  She's shared quite a few Tiny Libraries as have I. 

We enjoyed our day on PEI but it was time to move on to Sydney, Halifax.  I'll share those pics on my next post. 

I'll be linking up with my regular linky parties Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving It Forward and Elm Creek Quilts for the OMG for November. Again, I'll link up the blogs that aren't available now. (hopefully!) Well what do you know I remembered fairly early on Monday morning to link the last two. Whoop! Whoop! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie