Monday Meanderings -- 8 - 10 - 2026

Late, I'm late for a very important date.  Yep, I did not get my blog written last night. Yesterday was the busiest day I've had in a very long time.  First up I gathered two friends from our quilt guild and off we went to the Gathering of the Guilds. (GoG)  Unfortunately it was an hour away.  We had a great time and some of us won some of the prizes/lotto blocks.  (Me - it was me who won 12 poppy lotto blocks... story and pictures below.) After getting home hubby and I went to a going away party for some friends. We're very sad to see them leave but they are in their 90s and are going to live near one of their children -- in Nevada! Boo hiss.  But we wished them well and will miss them. I was exhausted by the time we got home. So, here I am Monday morning ready to write this week's blog.  Let's get on to it -- goals first. 

8/3/26

✅Sew down binding on table runner — finished.

✔️Draw out plan for Idiom Challenge, stitch rain and puddles on background — frog planned. Didn’t get much done on rain or puddles as I'm still making decisions. 

✅Stitch ears of bunny on Snowman 2 — done.

✔️Pick fabric for Marigold mystery — I have some ideas but not final color plans yet. 

✅Start making 6” blocks for Aug UFO Challenge — one block done several more needed. 

Here's the finished table runner.  It was a quilt-as-you-go project that a friend started.  She got fed up with it and gave it to me to finish or .... 11 years later I got it out to finish it.  There was a little grumbling and irritation while working on it. I understand why she got it out of her life.  I like it but haven't decided if I will keep it or donate it to the Virginia Quilt Museum for their store.  What do you think? Is it worthy or not?  I don't really need it.  And, it is pretty . . . 

Next up is the finished Eiffel Tower quilt.  Much of the fabric for this project was free to me. Whoopee!  The pattern is from one of Ursula Reikes baby books, except I added a row, if I remember correctly.  I got the binding done since last you saw it here.  This will be going to my local guild's community outreach program. 

And here is my beginning plans on Frog Choker -- my idiom challenge project. Well bummer. I have no idea why there are all those weird lines on this pic.  Last week I found a site showing how to draw a frog.  I decided I would draw at least one frog a day and would then use one of them as my frog pattern.  So far, this is the winner. I may change the eyes to make them a little more cartoonish.  But I'm happy with it for the most part. You can just see the blue-grey grunge background fabric on the upper left. Luckily progress is being made and it isn't due until  mid-September's guild meeting. I'll need all that time to decide and finish this one. 

I don't think I explained our idiom challenge. The guild is sponsoring it and anyone can pick an idiom and make a quilt that represents that to them.  I chose "Frog Choker." It is an old Southern saying referencing a heavy rain which is enough to choke a frog.  Pat was driving us home one day when the skies opened up with a heavy downpour.  He called it a frog choker. Voilá -- a perfect idiom.  Our idiom quilts can be any size and will be exhibited at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Fredericksburg, September 24 - 26.  I have time to really plan this out and do my very best on it. And, for once, I'm not being literal about a challenge.  Do you think it would work if I put a choker necklace on my frog too? 

So here's this week's goals. I think there are too many items but at least it will remind me what I could be working on! 

8/10/26

Make progress on Idiom challenge 

Find border fabric and put on Hen & Her Chicks top

Empty two project boxes

Finish string quilt top

Quilt 2 quilts one for me, one for quilt guild

Continue making 6” blocks for Aug UFO Challenge

I'm still succeeding at my 15 Minutes to Stitch. 

Week ending 8/2/26: 221 days of 2026.

 220 stitching days out of 214 days 99.5%

I thought I would share the poppy blocks I made for the GoG.  They are pretty and were really easy.  The pattern instructions were sent out multiple times. I couldn't open the one that was in the newsletter but someone had sent a note about them with a link which I accessed. 

EXCEPT, no, this wasn't the block that most people used.  Okay then.  I won 12 blocks so it may be very interesting mixing these different blocks.  I think I got 2 of them 👆but most were like this one 👇.

It's time for me to get on with my Monday.  I hope you enjoy spending some time with quilters across the world by looking at these Linky parties.  Have fun! 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

That's it for me today.  It's time to get going on this goal list. Plus, maybe draw another frog? I think she needs to look more cutesy.  I'll let you know how that goes next week.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Retreat Photos and More of Canada

Here are some results from retreat last weekend.  None of these projects are mine.  

Up first is a quick project Sharon did from a jelly roll.  The instructions came from a Missouri Star video tutorial.  Um, I just don't remember what it is called.  If you know the name let me know and I'll add it to this post.  Sharon said it was super easy though. 

Nancy bought a kit that she worked on pretty much the whole weekend.  But she had the top done by Sunday morning.  I "think" it was a Moda kit and pattern.  You can't tell but the trees are 3 dimensional.  Really cool.  (I think this photo makes the colors seem a bit brighter than they are in person.)  

We had a demo on a bargello quilt using ombre fabric.  Here's Bea's quilt.  Yes, it is that easy that she started and finished it during the retreat.  (We saw the technique at 10:30 on Friday morning. I think Bea was done by Saturday afternoon.) 

And here's another one but I didn't get who was working on it. 

If you look closely you'll notice the strips have just two seams running across the fabric.   A focus fabric is inserted into the ombre fabric. The fabric is tubed and then cut into various widths.  All you do is lay the fabric tube out next to the area you are adding to and cut it. Much easier than sewing strata forever!  Timeless Treasures has a lot of nice ombre fabric out now. 

I didn't take too many photos at retreat so I thought I would throw in a few more pictures from Quebec.  The longer it takes me to post these pictures the more likely I am to get the locations wrong.  I apologize if I either don't have info on the locations or name the wrong place. (After saying that I will admit to going on line and verifying the park and the river!) 

This is looking out from Battlefields Park over the Saint Lawrence River.  It was a cool, cloudy day but there were still a few sailboats out.  On the other hand, I was glad to be in a bus!  The gardens all around the city were beautiful.  This was also at Battlefield Park where we had a short stop. 

This one struck my fancy as I think they were ornamental cabbage along with some petunias(?). 

On the drive back to catch a bus back to our ship our guide pointed out this tree.  Evidently after one battle a lot of cannon balls were left in the city.  This tree made the best of it by growing around one.  

That's it from me today.  I'm going to link up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop.  

I'm hoping I'll have more quilting pictures of mine by Monday!  But I know I'll have more pictures from our trip then! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

August OMG -- Finished!

Yes, just in time I've finished my August OMG.  My stated goal was to incorporate most of the pieces into a bargello top. In hindsight that sounds a bit weird.  What it meant to me is I had quite a few left over strata for my bargello.  I wanted to make the top longer.  I actually did that plus I made it 3 strips wider also.  I wasn't going to add a border but I had a nice pink that definitely went with the other pinks.  Needless to say if I had wanted to go out and buy a matching fabric I probably couldn't because most of these fabrics were 15 years old or so. 

Here's the finished top.  

I'm sure the peaks and valleys could have been a bit more interesting but I'm thrilled to be finished with the top.  Hopefully I'll finish quilting and binding it sometime before the end of this year.  It is time to be done with this UFO! 

And a closeup: 

Hum, this top, right side seems to sway in a bit.  Hopefully I can alleviate the issue by better ironing.  I added 7 more horizontal rows to the original 12 rows. If I had been smart I would have added them before I sewed the top section together.  It worked by sewing the bottom section together and then adding it to the top section.  I believe this will end up about 41" square.  

Even though these are old fabrics/colors I still like it.  It will be hung on the rack over the fireplace for a month or so each year.  

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop and Needle and Thread Thursday.  Enjoy browsing some blogs to see what folks are working on these days. 

Slight confession here:  I actually finished the top yesterday mid-day but I didn't actually blog about it until 10pm on 8/31.  Yikes, only 2 hours before the deadline.  But it did get done as did the post. Whoop! Whoop! 

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 & OMG 8 - 6 - 2018

Great week for goals!  I finished all of them and got on to other things I wanted to finish.  Here's the stripe project on last week's goals.  I'm ready to find backing for it and get it quilted.  

Next is my decision on my August One Monthly Goal.  It has taken a long time for me to decided to just finish this quilt.  I started it in the ... um, er, the early 2000's??? I can't even remember.  I know I took a class at Faithful Circle Quilters in Maryland but I  didn't get very far.  Fast forward to February 2017.  Sharon and I took a class with a FCQ guild member to make a smaller (29 x 24") bargello quilt.  I never finished it because I wanted mine bigger.  And, I wasn't sure what to do nor did I really want to figure it out.  So now a million 20 years later I need to get this done and OFF my UFO list.  Note the pinks, burgundies and blues... even the colors are old! (Although, I still like them but they sure don't match my current living room where the finished quilt will hang part of the year!) 

This is the section I finished at the class. (The pieces still have the size tags on them!)  Here's what I have left with which I can play.

I guess part of my problem is I want it longer not just wider.  That takes a big of effort to figure it out.  

My One Monthly Goal for August is 

Incorporate most of the pieces into a bargello top.

Ok, that's my public declaration. I'm not sure what I'll do to get it to a top using most of the pieces but I'll at least try.  I'm pretty sure I have a whole strata still available for use.  Time will tell. 

Here's a peak at another little knitting project I'm working on.... Have you figured out what this is... no, not a mouse.  Oh, no, not a dog or a bunny. Ok, I'll tell you. He's going to be a bear. (Or maybe it'll be a she bear. I haven't decided yet.) Hopefully tomorrow I'll get more pieces together.  I've got arms, legs, ears and a body already knit and ready to add to the head.  It may take me all week to do this one, assuming I actually do work on him/her.  I'll share the book I used for this when he's done. 

On to the goals! 

July 30, 2018

Put borders on Stripe top√

Keep making string borders for Jamestown Landing√

Make 2 pillowcases√

Pick OMG for August√

Sew blocks and rows for 7 ½” squares within strips√

(Don't you love check √ marks after items on a to do list?) 

Because I really did zip through most of these items I decided to make this week's a little longer. 

August 6,2018

Bind 16 patch quilt

Bind strippy quilt

Finish knit bear

Quilt framed 7 ½” blocks

Figure out next step on bargello (and begin!) 

Cut our 2 pillowcases

Keep making string borders for Jamestown Landing

Hum, #3 up there is finish the bear... I guess I'd better work on him more than just during my normal Monday afternoon stitching group.

Here are the linky parties I'm joining this week: Elm Street Quilts August OMG, Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward. (I'll link up with the other two parties after they are posted AND when I remember.) 

I'm looking forward to a quilty week.  I've been on a roll and I sure want to continue that forward motion! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

A Finish!

Here it is -- a finished quilt. The blocks were lotto blocks from a retreat several years ago.  Sharon and I combined ours.  She put the quilt together and added borders.  I quilted it and did the binding. It is being donated through our Maryland guild. Because it is a twin size I don't know if it will go to Project Linus or some other organization.  Sorry I don't have a full on picture -- we just don't have a lot of places that I can get far enough away.  And, it's rained so much recently the backyard is soggy. 

I'm heading up to Sharon's house for a weekend of sewing.  Saturday we're taking a bargello class.  I have my strata from the 199?s that has now been ironed.  I may be taking some of the strips apart and redoing them as the strips are slightly gathered.  Ugh.  Look for future pictures and info on this.  

We decided we were going to make a quilt together using red, white and blue orphan blocks.  For years I've been making all sorts of blocks in red, white, and blue so I could make a quilt out of them.  It's time to actually do that.  Sharon was all in favor of doing it together.  I texted her this picture of my blocks which, by the way, is only a partial collection. Turns out she doesn't have a lot of orphan blocks and thus she has only 1 block to give.  Oh well. I have enough for at least one quilt and maybe two.  I'd love to get these out of the UFO container and into a finished quilt. I also grabbed a bunch of units -- half square triangles mostly.  These should all play nicely together. (I don't think the triangle log cabin block is going to make it into this quilt. It is leftover from one of the first quilted items I made.  I made a jacket with the triangle log cabins in about 1982 or 83!  Yikes! I've been quilting a long time.) 

That's it for me today.  I need to get breakfast, get dressed, packed and on the road. I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday. I hope to have some time later today to look some blogs to see what folks are working on.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 1 - 23 - 2017

Does this happen to you? OOPS!  This is suppose to be 2 pinwheel blocks.  Unfortunately I didn't notice it until I'd sewn the row together.  

And, yes, I did get the center of this top together.  It is another baby quilt that will go to a NICU.  I used the 9" Qube half square triangle die to make this.  When I make baby quilts I generally like them to be no wider than 1 width of fabric.  So 9 x 4 = 36.  I've got about 4 to 5" of border I can add.  Below I'm auditioning some of the fabric.  I do have a big piece of the print available.  But it is directional.  I probably have enough of the yellow, green, or red to use as a border.  

Any suggestions on it?  Unfortunately, I took these photos in the late afternoon.  And, today it is poring rain so there's no chance for better photographs.   I'm beginning to think I might put the extra print fabric on the back. Send me your ideas.  The border will probably be about 2" on each side.  It won't be finished this week because I'm heading up to take a class at Faithful Circle Quilters in Maryland so Sharon and I are having a sewing weekend at her house.

                               

Here's my prep work for the Bargello class we are taking from one of the members.  

No, I did not sew all of these strips together this past week.  This is a UFO.  The best I can remember is it was started in a class in the mid to late 1990's but I can't pinpoint it any better than that until I talk with Sharon. She didn't take the class because she moved away for several years.  I've got four width of fabric strata sewn and some cuts already made.  Why I didn't finish this is beyond me.  Although I was working full time so that may have been part of the reason.  

It's going to be really challenging to re-iron all of the strips that have been cut.  The plan with bargellos is to have two identical strata and press the seams opposite -- one set of seams go up and the other goes down.  Then when you sew them together all the seams nest really well.  I'll be ironing these in between other things this week. 

I did really well on my goals this past week.  I was really energized and spent a lot of time in my studio.  

January 16, 2017

Load and quilt customer quilt√

Knit on UFO sweater√

Start emptying boxes & put things in new closet shelves √

Put together pinwheel quilt√

Load RWB Gems quilt√ quilting is started

And here is what I'm going to be working on this week.

January 22, 2017

Finish quilting RWB Gems Quilt

Bind black and bright colored quilt

Prep for the bargello class and attend it

Finish bargello top except borders

Gather all red, white and blue orphan blocks

Knit on sweater

This is a pretty daunting list, especially finish the bargello top since I won't have all that much time after the class to do that.  But I really hope to get to all of these projects.  

I'm linking up with the regular blogs: Monday Making and Main Crush Monday.  I'm going to spend a bit of time visiting various blogs this morning and then head down to the long arm. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie