Monday Meanderings 5 - 25 - 2020

Have you woken up recently and not known what day of the week it was?  Yea, me too.  It is the oddest feeling to have no clue what day it is.  Although I did figure out what  day it was,  I'm guessing this will continue to happen for a while.  

I dgot quite a bit of reading done this week.  I put ebooks on reserve and it never fails that lots of them come in at the same time.  I finally had to postpone some of them.  I'm currently listening to Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan.  It's the story of Joy Davidman who becomes C.S. Lewis's wife. It's been interesting and very different then my normal read. I need to spend some more time with it because it's due in 3 days and I'm only a third of the way through.  You know what I'll be doing while I quilt over the next few days!

Pat made us a new bird feeder recently.  It's been very popular because bigger birds attempt to eat from it.  I was pretty surprised to see about 5 starlings trying to get on it the other day.   (Click on the picture to get a larger view.) We get beautiful yellow finches on a regular basis, along with mourning doves, blue birds and even a curious hawk every once in a while. But these starlings were just being piggy. And, great news, we had our first hummingbird of the year on Saturday. 

Surprisingly earlier today a bird got caught inside the house feeder.  The right-side roof raises so we can clean it out and refill it.  Some crazy bird got in there, we suspect through the tray, as we always keep the roof down.  Pat opened the roof for the bird but he had to tip the bird out to get him to fly off.  

I did get quite a bit of quilting and piecing done this week.  
Here's what was on my goal list last week. 

1) Finish binding the table runner. √ (pictures to come) 

2) Make 5 blocks from last year's BOM for Country Piecemakers. How about 3? 

3) Quilt charity quilt for a friend.√

4) Cut out a bunch of little rail fence pieces to do as leader enders.√

These are 3 1/2" square blocks.  I loved the rainbow version that Nann made.  You can see her's here. 

I also have been working on another UFO called Braid Shuffle by Karie Patch Designs. (Scroll down to see the pattern.)  You can see a couple more braids from February 2017 here. All the blocks with the white on the sides were left over from 2017 RSC.  I decided I would make some more blue ones and try to make a small baby quilt.  I've been hitting the blue scrap bag but it isn't going down at all!  I may have to do a pink one at some point since I have some of them left too. 

I felt pretty good about getting my goals moved forward this week.  I also made a couple more masks. But the biggest surprise is I actually redid my batting pieces inventory.  I wrote about it here a week ago when I was the guest blogger on Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I've had it on my to do list for months... or so it seems to me.  I finally took one morning and actually took all the pieces out of my big plastic bin, measured any pieces that weren't marked and then entered them on my Excel spreadsheet.  It was so great to be able to find a couple of pieces on the spreadsheet without having to plow through every piece.  I made sure I moved them to the "used" section too.  

Next up are my goals for this week. 

1. Pick a top of mine to quilt and get it done. 
2. Make some more BOM from Country Piecemakers.
3. Make a bunch more braid and split rail blocks. 
4. Clean up front end of cutting table 

   I'm linking up with my regular linky parties:   

   Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Design Wall Monday.  Have fun checking the various blogs out. 

I'll leave you with a beautiful dogwood I found in the neighborhood.  We've got a different type of dogwood in our yard but I do love these pink ones.


Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Reuse!

Some people know that I am a semi-fanatic recycler.  Pat and I both make an effort to live green.  Heck, we have huge solar panels that help supply the electricity to our house.  So, what do you do when the lovely satin coat hangers you have had for ages start to fall apart?  

Well, I recovered them.  I have had one or two hangers taking up space on my cutting table for too long.  Earlier this week I decided it made sense to actually recover one, especially since I had a new knit cover ready.  I used leftover yarn and cast on 25 stitches.  I did the stocking knit stitch (pearl a row, knit a row) until it looked like it would cover the coat hanger.  But wait, these had been nicely padded coat hangers.  Yep, I could recycle some left over batting to make this a padded coat hanger. 

First I wound 2 1/2" strips around the wooden part.  I put an extra piece to cover each end.  I did that twice, I had a pretty big knit cover to get on it.  Next, I put a big piece of batting over it all to control the strips. See that hole in the batting below?  I actually got a whole punch out and made that.  I think I'd just cut a slit next time. 

Next, I whip stitched the batting down making a smoothly covered coat hanger. My, doesn't that look nice?  

Finally, I put the cover on.  I just folded it in half length-wise and width-wise to figure out where to put the hook part through.  Again, I whip stitched the knit cover which will keep it on the coat hanger.  Darn, I should have thought about the fact that this particular coat hanger has the hook covered with pink plastic. 

So, I should have left the second wrapping of strips off.  This coat hanger looks like its been taking steroids for too long.  I have quite a few wonderful coat hangers my grandmother made which I patterned this one on.  Many are falling apart so I will be knitting new covers for them.  Wait until you see the next one. Grandma used some type of foam to cover the hanger and it is still in really good shape despite the knit cover falling apart.  The great thing about these covers is they aren't slippery.  It you have a garment made of a slippery fabric it won't fall off the sides.  I can remember looking in my grandma's closets and all of her dresses were hung on these.  This is a great way to use up bits of left over yarn, batting and get some nice padded hangers. 

We had a bit of snow overnight.  The birds weren't really happy about it as I think it froze this feeder so they couldn't get to the seed. It's pretty much all melted off now. And the birds keep swooping in. 

I'm trying a new linky party today.  Click here to go to Needle and Thread Thursday.  Or the link below to find out more about it.  


I'm planning on working on a UFO today.  I hope to get the top completely sewn together.  Of course, I also need to clean off the cutting table -- it's a mess! I'll need to stay focused on this!  

Happy Quilting All! 

Mystery Day

It's Mystery Day at Mysteries for Relay on yahoo groups and I am READY! The last several mystery days I've skipped because I had so many projects hanging around. Not this one! After I finish this short post it'll be time to get ready. Hum, did I wind some extra bobbins? How long ago did I oil the machine? How old is that needle.

I actually have the answers to all those questions except the bobbin one -- but I don't think I did any bobbins recently. I know about the oiling/cleaning/new needle because I have put a bright pink sticky note on my sewing desk. I have an older desk that the machine sits down in a well (so to speak.) I have stuck the note on the piece that holds the machine so it doesn't get brushed off as I sew. I'll check those notes and do what is required. I'll be up in the studio shortly so I can begin.

These guys were tromping through our woods a couple of days ago. I'm surprised they aren't hiding ... but I guess they feel fairly safe cause no hunting is allowed in the neighborhood. (thank goodness!)

The bird feeder is back up after the summer and birds have found it -- they ate about half of the seed . Of course, a squirrel or two tried to hit it two. Were they shocked when they heard Raggs go nuts after seeing them. Hum, we may have to reconsider the feeder if he barks his head off.

Off to the studio for a fun mystery. You can join for the next mystery by clicking on the button on my sidebar. Happy Quilting All!

Bird Update

Quick Update 

A little wood pecker visited the feeder today.  Of course, there is no way I can tell if it was the one who flew into the window or not -- but I'd like to think so. 

l Spring Quilt l

Woowoo... blocks are made.  It is now on the design wall for me to figure out color placement.  I won't have the whole day tomorrow to work on it but I will get some more done.  

Y Other Odds and Ends Y

I've been working on a string x quilt from Quiltville.com.  The strings are done, the sides are sewn to the strings, the blocks are cut to the correct size.  And, tonight I pinned them in groups of 2 so I can sew them as my enders for the Spring quilt.  Do I feel organized or what?  

I hope to get more done on Spring! tomorrow -- the first day of spring! 

Happy Quilting All  Bonnie

Trespasser! Stop Thief!

I heard something while I was up in the studio... not sure what it was but came downstairs to investigate and noticed this trespasser on a chair on the balcony off the great room.

He was a pretty cool character.  He scampered off and on the chair a few times and then decided to make for the food. (aka, bird feeder.)  We've lived here for 8 months and the squirrels had not come on the balcony.  There are no stairs to the ground so this intrepid explorer had to go straight up a metal pole.  Yikes. 

You have to look carefully to find him in this picture.  Check out the upper right corner... a bit of leg and tail is showing as he goes over the hanger.  He was on top of the feeder for a moment or two but finally figured out I was inside taking photos of him. 

 

Here he is back in the safety of his tree.  Notice that nice red spot on his back?  That's the only way I can tell him from the others.  He's a brave guy but finally I yelled at all the squirrels hanging around.  I really don't want to be feeding them too.  I watched them scamper back to the tree and because I was out on the balcony creating a fuss they bounded in to the forest. One even went across the street.  Hum, an interloper!  

Of course if you go to the bay window and look out to see what is under the bird feeder.... 

My guess is the noisy one who looks like he is bossing the other squirrels is the explorer. (Upper left corner.) Hopefully he won't explore up on the balcony any more. HAH! Surely I jest!  

The last two days

have brought squishies to the house!  Yee Haw. I won a drawing at Roberta's blog and the fabrics arrived today.  One has already been added to the current scrap quilt pile.  The others are being tucked away for future Project Linus quilts.  Isn't that a neat light ... looks like a granite counter top.  

The other squishy is for a group I am in.  I'll post photos and explain it in a future post.  

 Happy quilting all... and stay warm!  Bonnie 

Sweatshirt Done!

Here's the picture of the When Pigs Fly sweatshirt I finished the other day.  This will be very cozy during these cold winter months.  And most of my decorated sweatshirts have been worn so many times they look thread bare!  But, it is hard to retire those old ones... but may be I will as I make a few new ones.  

Saturday I got quite a bit of quilting done.  I am working on one of Mysteries for Relay mystery quilts.  It has a million 1 x 1.5" blocks in it.  The blocks are strip pieced so it is taking less time then I thought it would.  I am still making blocks for the Carousel Horse quilt.  I've decided I need only 5 more blocks and then it is getting sewn together, bordered and basted.  I'm hoping to have it done some time this month.  This is a Project Linus quilt and I need to have it done before the next blanket day. 

This little bird visited the feeder on New Year's Eve day.  It was cold and really windy outside. He came and sat in the feeder for quite a while.  He looks wedged in there.  We will be traveling quite a bit over the next few weeks and I know the birds are going to be upset with us.  We fill the feeder every day so they will be hungry when we're gone for three day weekends and our one week vacation that is coming up in two weeks.  And, below the feeder the squirrels gather to eat what the birds drop.  This is one of the few places we've put our feeders that the squirrels haven't been able to get to it. 

Tomorrow laundry will be calling my name and some vacuuming (ugh.) But I hope to get all the carousel blocks finished.  And, perhaps some of the mystery quilt blocks too.  

Happy quilting all! Bonnie

Quick Notes and Then Back to the Studio

I have been trying to take a picture of the woodpecker that visits my bird feeder.  This is really a small bird feeder but the smart woodpecker has figured out he (she? -- don't know where the bird book is since the move.) can sit on the outside and still reach the seed through the cage that keeps the bigger birds out.  Man does the feeder rock and roll when the woodpecker comes for a visit. The feeder can be viewed from our great room and every time I see the woodpecker visiting I grab my camera and go to a window without the screen and try to snap the picture.  He never stays around long enough to get the picture.  Now my plan is to get him used to someone being in the room looking at him. Ha!  As if that will happen.  

I'm going to put dinner together and then go back to working on the current quilt.  It's going to be a Christmas present -- don't tell my friend who is getting this!  It will be a cozy rag quilt.  And this recipient lives where the snow falls -- quite a bit some years!  

Have a quilty Tuesday -- happy quilting.  Bonnie