Monday Meanderings 8 - 30 - 2021

The last Monday in August has rolled around.  It's hard to believe that we are 2/3rds through with 2021. I've been thinking of Chrismas presents and two more birthdays this year.  I've got a decent start on the ornaments I make my 4 grandchildren but I need to actually make new progress after getting one almost done.  Hum, maybe that needs to be in my goal list! 

I excelled at checking off all of my goals this week.  In fact, I did so well I made a sample block of a new project too. Sorry, no pictures of that yet. Here's last week's list. 

8/23/21

✅Finish Blue basket -- It took a long time as it kept being dropped. Here's the empty finished basket and the full basket.  I forgot to put the handle on but it's just a matter of dumping out the scraps and lifting up the loose fold over binding and sewing the handle on. Easy, but I don't want to have to dump and refill the basket... maybe this week.

✅Begin aqua table runner 

✅Work on Ombre blocks 

✅Finish knitting baby blanket  This got completely finished this week. I'll be giving it to a neighbor who gives them to a group who makes donations in our community. I really think the color is a bit brighter turquoise then what shows up here. But I'm happy it is done.  I've got at least 4 boxes of yarn and yarn bits.  I'm hoping to knit some up into projects I can give away. 

✅Mail Verdant Serenity to Ca.

Now here's what I hope to work on this week. 

8/30/21

Finish baby quilt started in June

Quilt Table Scraps Aqua table runner

Work on Ombre and RSC blocks

Quilt doggy tumbler quilt 

Finish the front of one ornament

This weeks to do list doesn't seem very long.  Hopefully I can get all of the items done on it. 

Not much else new on the home front.  I realized in early September I can get my Covid booster shot.  I want to have it by mid September as I am going on a quilt retreat the first weekend of October.  It seems the smart, easy thing to do for me and the friends I want to have fun with.

I'm linking up with my regular parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  After barely getting my own blog posted over the last two weeks I really enjoyed reading a bunch of blogs this part week. I hope you have some time to check in with these linky parties. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 10 - 2021

Happy Mother's Day  

I spent the day happily working playing in the studio.  Both of my children called so we had great chats.  It's always fun to catch up.  

Friday afternoon I drove down to the Richmond area and made a stop at Quilter's Corner. I got there just as a huge cloud unloaded rain for at least an hour and included some lightning and thunder.  I was happily searching the store for some fabric to make a new wall hanging. I found some great batik and made the purchase.  The rain had slowed quite a bit so no big deal driving out to my friend's house.  Dorothy is a certified Studio 180 teacher.  She has the most beautiful quilts hanging around her house.  It was like a personal quilt show to see what she's been making over the last few years. 

Early the next morning we went to our guild meeting (Country Piecemakers in Powhatan.)  It was a lot of fun to catch up with friends I hadn't seen since July. After the meeting Dorothy got started on giving us lots of hints and help to make a LeMoyne Star block using Deb Tucker's Rapid Fire LeMoyne Star tool.  

I should have finished one star in the appx 3 hours we were working on it but I made a major mistake -- I forgot to trim the points before I tried to sew them together.  Out came Jack to do his thing.  I did succeed in getting half a star finished.  We didn't have lunch and I was getting hangry so decided I would finish at home.  A quick fast food lunch and back on the road to home. 

Here's my finished star.  If you look carefully you'll notice the center doesn't come together as well as it should.  It's very close.  But, I'm not redoing it.  I think the next one I make will finish at 12". The one shown is 8". The previous one I made was 6.  I'm thinking of using the colors of the polka dots to make more stars.  There is a pattern that comes with the tool that uses a bunch of different size stars together. I suppose I should keep making some so I get better at matching the points. 

On to my goals this week.  Um, not quite successful there.  I really didn't count in the fact that I would be gone for a day and a half when I set these goals.  Oh well.  Here's last weeks: 

5/3/2021

Border doggy tumbler ✅

Quilt ✅and bind one of my quilts 

Start cutting-table clean up ✔️ — started but a little more to do

Put together green scrap basket ✅

Pull a UFO to work on — nothing done  

Here's a sneak peek of the bunny quilt I finished quilting.  Binding will go on this  coming week I hope. 

I finally finished the green basket for my fabric scraps.

Would someone please tell me how come the green scraps are overflowing but the others aren't?  Maybe because I use more of the other scraps. (Odd note -- I have very few green quilts.) 

I'm looking forward to my friend Sharon coming up on Friday.  We will be knee deep in talking, quilting and having fun.  Here are some of the things I hope to work on this week. 

5/10/2021

Begin red table runner 

Pull a UFO to work on

Quilt daughter Jenny’s quilt

Bind a bunny quilt 

I'm worn out so will end here with my favorite Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. I'll try again to hit up To Do Tuesday. Shame on me for forgetting!  Done!  Join the parties and let's start surfing. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 3 - 1 - 2021

Are you ready for March?  To me, February seemed to drag by and yet it's the shortest month. Go figure! The week has been very productive for me though.  I read a couple of books and got just about all my goals ticked off the list.  It's taken me a couple of days to decide what I'm going to work on over this coming week. But I finally came up with a decent list.  Let's look at last week's goals list. 

2/22/2021

Make blocks for the Anniversary top I cut out a block but didn’t work well by machine so it got sidelined.

Bind propellor quilt☑️  Will show on next post.

Keep making yellow fabric for basket☑️ Completely finished basket! 

Start a stripppy baby quilt ☑️ Top Done

Cut out & make more RWB Ohio Star blocks☑️ 1 done, 1 ready to sew 

The only finish I am sharing today is the new yellow basket. (Yellow was the RSC color for February so I decided to use it for the basket since gobs of the yellow scraps were out anyway.)

Once I make the fabric I iron on some Pellon Flex Foam  2 sided fusible. The lining fabric is on the other side. I've got enough for about 2 more baskets but after that I might just get regular Flex Foam without the fusible.  It doesn't adhere too well.  I was augmenting it with a spray adhesive.  Then I quilt all the oversized pieces.  Yep, I'm using 1" painter's tape to get my lines.  I'm not looking for perfection here -- just getting the job done keeping all the pieces together. 

You can read about how I made the red basket here.  Originally I thought it was a mistake to sew the basket together with right sides facing.  The pattern called for sewing wrong sides together and then put a binding on the seams.  Not paying attention I sewed RST and wasn't too happy about it on the red one. But I could easily add a piece on the top instead of more binding.  When I made the yellow one I decided it made a lot of sense to do it that way -- it was much faster than fussing with all the binding!  The only thing I'm not thrilled with is the handle of the dark yellow plaid.  Oh well.  It's done and now in use! 

I've been surprised about how many yellow scraps I have.  I use yellow sometimes but I didn't think I used enough to have a whole basket  of it left! 

And, now it has joined the red and purple baskets on the shelf.  

I've enjoyed being able to grab a basket and do a quick search for scraps over the last few months.  I will be starting another soon -- I just don't know whether I'll go with the RSC color that is green or perhaps opt for blue which is overflowing the bag I have it in. I'm need to move a handful of books on the left of this shelf to be able to fit the next basket.  I have another shelf with some books on it that I hope to clear to get a total of 8 baskets of scraps. 

My goal list for this week is ready to see some action on it. 

3/7/21

Make a couple masks 

Make more "Anniversary" blocks 

Quilt a charity quilt for FCQ 

Make 3 or 4 more blocks for FCQ Equilters 

Pull out the Chunky Churn Dash blocks to see if I need more blocks & make some as needed

Both Pat and I have decided it makes sense to have a few more masks each.  I bought some "nose" bridges that allow you to shape the top of the mask to your nose. I used pipe cleaners in the original ones I made.  They have held up surprisingly well although we always take them out before the mask hits the washing machine.  I'm not thrilled with making new masks but it shouldn't take all that long once I get started. 

I thought I'd share a Chunky Churn Dash block that I made today. 

Altogether now "Awwww."  I have a multitude of scraps that have dogs on them. When I saw this guy I decided he had to be in a block.  The Chunky Churn Dash blocks are a UFO from several years ago.  I have something like 30 blocks hanging around.  Approximately half are cutesy like this new one and the other group is nice but not kid oriented.  I divided the blocks and put the "nice" ones away for another time but started making cute ones and now have 20 of them.  I'll be putting them on the design wall to see whether that's enough or whether I'll add more to them or a go with block.  These blocks were on a list of projects I wanted to pull out and finish. (Hum, does that mean I'll pull out the other group and make another quilt? Time will tell!) 

One last thing.  When I was checking my library for ebooks this past week I realized they listed pages of magazines as being "new."  I wasn't thrilled as I went through the pages as I thought maybe there were new books coming in that I might have wanted to reserve or put on my wish list.  Eventually several quilting magazines showed up.  I checked out a Quiltmaker, McCall's Quilting, and Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting. These were all current issues and they had issues going back to 2018 available too.  I can read it in my laptop's browser.  I haven't tried it on my iPad.  I haven't subscribed to a quilting magazine in years.  This will be a fun option when I feel like browsing a magazine. (But, do I really need new ideas? I saw one I liked when I was checking the names and how I could read it to report on it here.) 

Although I could continue to babble on I think I'll end it here.  You know the drill -- I'm linking up with several fun linky parties.  You and I need to visit them to see what people are working on.  My line up: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

Monday Meandering 2 - 8 -2021

Another snowstorm!  We had a few inches last Sunday.  We had some more inches this Sunday.  Neither one required much work to clear but they were both fun to watch.  The grands all enjoyed some serious sledding.  I spent time in the studio during the weather events. 

First up let's see what the goals list looks like.  It's not a great picture! 

2/1/2021

Straighten cutting table, vacuum floor. Put fabric away ☑️ Some done but not finished. The Cutting table needs to be cleaned more.

Finish purple basket ☑️ Finally! See pics below

Make more RWB Ohio Star blocks☑️ 4 done.  Not sure how many I'm working toward.

Quilt one of my quilts. Didn’t do anything.

Yellow RSC blocks and/or table runner - I’ve got an idea so its a start!  

Here's my purple basket. I decided a while ago to make cloth baskets to hold my colored scraps.  This is a different pattern but it looks like it will work just fine.  

Here are the two finished ones on the shelf.  (Hum, I need to move the books as I make more of these baskets.)  I wonder what color I should do next?

It took a bit to figure out what I need to do this coming week.  The biggest news is the t shirt quilt is now a top.  I forgot to put it on the list last week but  the quilting definitely will be on this week.  I've got a couple more quilts coming in for customers soon.  It's nice to do quilts for others but I also like my sewing time for me. Here's what I'm planning to work on this week. 

2/8/2021

Quilt T Shirt Quilt

Work on Yellow table runner

Make some RSC blocks (yellow also)

Finish cleaning the cutting table 

What did look great this past month is my fabric usage.  I used more than I brought in! Whoopee!  I'm curious how you account for wide backs since I bought 4 yards this month?  Last year I decided I would add just one yard in but only count one yard used even if I got 2 smaller quilts on the width.  This year I'm trying something different.  I'm going to count each wide back yard as 2 yards.  It seems more realistic to me.  I'll see how I like it (and whether it's difficult to figure it out) this year and maybe adjust it next year. 

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Jan	8.000	8.000	10.250	2.250	2.250

That should do it for this week's goal. I'm linking up to these Linky Parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. Enjoy surfing this week. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 9 -- 28 -- 2020

Here we are at the end of September. Really? One third of 2020 is past. Last week I decided I really wanted to get my red basket done so I started on it early in the week.  And, YEA ME! I finished it.  Here's the finished basket waiting on the shelf for me to grab some red scraps from it. 

Notice the small strip of red with white speckles?  That's the handle I added. 

As a base idea I used the pattern Catch All Caddy 2 from By Annie. It was featured on the Craftsy class Sew Sturdy Home Organizers by Annie Unrein. I didn't make the basket as shown. I used the measurements and the techniques as described in the video.  I left off pockets, changed the size, added a handle, and changed the way the top was finished.  Most of the changes were on purpose.  A few were "oops!  Here's how I put this together.

You can see the "made" fabric using scraps here. 

First up was quilting all the pieces. I used Pellon Flex Foam between the lining and the made fabric.  I believe mine was fusible on both sides.  I had several left over pieces from various projects so I might have used By Annie's brand as well as the Pellon.  I chose to do a diagonal row of stitching.  This was a relatively small project so I chose to quilt on my domestic machine rather than my long arm. 

Here are all the pieces quilted, trimmed and ready to be put together. Notice the Wonder Clips ready to be used?  It was much easier to clip at various steps than to use pins. 

Remember me writing I made some changes on purpose but not all? My first change was when I cut the side pieces 1/2" smaller than the pattern called for.  Not a big deal really but I did have to trim the bottom piece to fit.  I also wasn't thinking straight when I sewed the pieces right sides together it should have been lining fabrics together.  The cute binding was suppose to be on the outside of the basket. Oops is right.  I could have made this the outside but I wanted all the scrappy fabric to be the outside. 

My plan was to simplify the basket as much as possible. So I decided a circle of fabric sewn than flipped would work just fine for the top.  Here the clips came in handy as I fitted the top. 

One side of the finished basket.  The handle is on the left side/front.  I wish I could say I made a big dent in the red scraps when this was done but, not really. 

Scraps thrown in the basket and ready to put on the shelf.  (Hum, I wonder what that bright blue fabric is?) 

My new red scrap basket has been working out well. I've grabbed it and found some scraps to use on the snowball blocks I've been making.  I've stashed a few odd ball pieces of red fabric in it easily.  

With the experience of this one I'm looking forward to making some more baskets to hold various other colors.  The one issue I have with this basket is the sides (as shown above and in the first picture above) bulge out.  It does it whether it has any thing in it or if it is stuffed full.  I like that the Flex Foam does a good job of maintaining the shape of the basket.  But it is more expensive than, say batting or other stabilizers.  I wonder if I added interfacing to the top finish it might hold it's shape a little better. 

I have a new basket pattern coming so I will try it and see if it might be easier to make.  I'll keep you posted although I don't think I'll even start it for a few more weeks. 

Are you ready to do some blog visiting?  I'm linking up with my regular Monday parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  Be sure to visit a few blogs to see what people are working on.  You might just get a new idea for your "I Want to Make" list. 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

OMG -- Another Finish

Four months of One Monthly Goal and I've got four (4!) finishes.  And every one has come from my UFO list.  Can you see the grin on my face?  Yep, I'm a happy camper quilter.   I will say most of these didn't have much in the way of finishing.  This month's only needed a border, the backing sewn together, quilted and bound.  And, best of all I pretty much knew what I wanted to do with it too.  The weather has been cloudy/rainy for the last few days so I haven't been able to do an outdoor photo shoot with this basket quilt.  But here it is hanging on my design wall. 

And, a closeup of the quilting motif inside the handles. (Remember this post where I wanted your opinions about which motif to use.  Most everybody said the top one which is what I did. Thanks for the opinions.) 

My last picture is a close up of the border quilting and the binding.  Why show that?  My main reason is to show my machine stitching on the binding.  I machine sew the binding on to the back first, then I pull it around to the front and sew that down my machine.  I find I am getting quite good at it.  It sure makes it faster for me to finish quilts.  

One issue I had with quilting this quilt is I didn't have very much excess backing on the sides.  Because my longarm is only 18" I would have needed to turn this quilt 90º to do the sides in one pass.  Um, couldn't do that because I need more backing fabric to attach it to my leaders.  What to do? What to do?  

I finally decided to take it off the longarm and use my domestic machine to stitch three straight rows in the borders.  Worked like a charm.  I used my walking foot and before I knew it the quilting was done. 

Now it is time to figure out what to work on in May.  I was just looking at my calendar and I realize I have very little to do in May.  We'll be at the beach house with friends for part of a week, and then I'll be in Maryland attending the annual FCQ retreat.  (Interpret that as 2.5 days of constant sewing and lots of quilty friends to talk to.) So I could choose something that will take a little more to do than I usually do.  After seeing this quilt (the first quilt pictured) in the show I decided to show the sincerest form of flattery and copy it!  Except, I also found my notes about what to do and it was exactly the same.  So here is the beginning of that effort. 

There are several things I figured out from this -- I need to pay attention to where the colors are.  These rail blocks were to be made from warm or cool colors.  And, I really need to make sure the blocks are horizontal/vertical on one row and vertical/horizontal on the other.  The first block is fine; the second has a problem.  I'll be paying closer attention while sewing the blocks as I construct them.  I have some mottled black I was looking at and I decided I don't really like it.  And, I don't like the 2.5" strip.  I'll be using a Kona black that I have on hand and it will be cut at 2".  I may buy backing for this as I don't have very much batik.  Read that -- I have fat quarters only.  With very little going on in May I shouldn't have any problem getting this quilt done. 


I'll be linking up with Red Letter Quilts for the OMG It's Finished Link Up, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and TGIFF!.  Take some time to see what folks have finished this week or month. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 7-28-14

Wait!  When did it get to be the end of July?  I could have sworn it was just the beginning of June! 

Here's what's on my design wall.  Now I need some opinions.  Do I set the blocks next to each other or do I sash?  And, what color do I use to sash.  I am totally out of the turquoise so that isn't an option. Um, but I have some of the lighter turquoise.  But the rest of the colors I should have enough to sash with.  And, any thoughts on borders?  This will be a wall quilt and my preferred hanging space can handle quilts up to about 36" so I probably can't do a lot of border and still be able to hang it there. I'm thinking of 1" finished sashing and then maybe the green for the binding which would act as a small border too... Please comment below and give me your opinions! 

1. I guess I am still working on one basket.  The turquoise center still needs to be stitched down. 

2. This is how I started. The colors really change the tone of the quilt.  I'm definite I want sashing now. 

3. Turquoise but that is all I have of this fabric.

4. Lots of yellow but not used in the baskets.

5. Orange and lots of it. I also have the two other oranges. 

6. Purple.. The other purples were scraps from my collection. 

7. Green more than enough to sash with. 

So help me out here.  I'm shocked surprised at what a difference the sashing makes.  Now some help on coloring.  Please leave a comment on my quandary! 
On to my goals.  Surprisingly I did a pretty good job on my goals this last week!  Woot! Woot!

Week of July 21, 2014

Make the Rainbow Color Challenge Block – red  √ sewing units together as my ender.

Finish the fish quilt (quilt and bind!)√

Get all handles on Dresden baskets√

Make backing for charity quilt √ and quilted it

Continue making star blocks from mystery√

Make a Snowman decoration at Diana’s√

Make the 3 yards, 3 baby quilts moved to this week!

Now this week -- I'll be tied up away from the studio three days so I won't be getting as much done as last week but I hope to make progress on this list.

Week of July 28, 2014

Shop Hopping!

Bind the charity quilt

Finish making star blocks from mystery

Make the 3 yards, 3 baby quilts

Tea Group and Alumni Event

Decide and work on Dresden Baskets

Work on next row by row block/s

Find and work on the Disappearing Star blocks

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times.   

That's it for today.  Happy Quilting All!