Monday Meanderings 5/19/25

The week is winding down but I can't figure out what I've been doing all week. For the most part I spent the time reading, quilting, and a bit a knitting.  I did get most of my goals done which rather surprised me. I don't remember spending hours in the studio. Let's take a look.

5/12/25

✅Quilt 3 yard project — quilted a top for local quilt guild instead of the 3 yd quilt.

✅Sew May’s UFO blocks together— all rows done, need to sew them together.

✅Keep making 9 patches — a few more were made.

✅Finish knitting yellow hat — done, another started. 

✅Bind Happy Quilt — done.

✅Iron backings — several more ironed, one more left to do. 

Here's the quilt for my guild as I began quilting it. It was a jelly-roll-race style quilt. And, it was in yellow, white and black. I decided I had to use the quilt design that had bumble bees and flowers. You can see some of the flowers and the bees on the row below. 

The design is Busy Bees by My Creative Stitches. 👇🏼 Here's the design.

I made a few 9 patches this week.  Here are all the ones I have done. I've decided I'd make one of each color I make for the eQuilter to keep for myself.  They are a very good leader/ender project.

My plan going forward is to try to use both lighter and darker colors. So, I need to find some lighter blues, greens, reds and purples. It's going to be fun to go through my collection of 2.5" squares to find the usable squares. And, I'll probably cut into some of my fat quarters to augment the colors.

Here are two hats I've made fairly recently.  These still need pompoms.  I've been borrowing pompom makers from friends at our weekly stitching group.  It may be time for me to buy my own maker.  The hat on the right is child size and the yarn is actually navy blue. Sometimes I make hats flat and then sew up the seam -- like the stripe one. And sometimes I take the same pattern and make hats with a circular needle -- like the yellow one. I give the hats to From the Heart, a local charity. Their mission statement includes . . . "preserving and promoting fiber arts" . . .  as well as . . . "producing handmade items which bring comfort, love and solace to others." I have other skeins of various shades of yellow yarn and a couple of different white yarns.  I expect I'll be making more stripe hats and solid color ones in the future. I'm on the third yellow hat of this bright yellow yarn.

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

5/19/2025

Finish sewing UFO project to top

Quilt and bind 3 yd quilt project

Make more 9 patches

Quilt one of my tops 

Keep knitting hat/s

Pick a project to cut out for future retreat sewing

One thing I forgot to put on my goals list last week was making the Cali-Co Mystery block for May. Sharon and I get on FaceTime and chat while we make our block. We usually spend an afternoon together moving on to our own projects after our blocks are made. Here's my May block. The previous blocks have been made with mostly half square triangles.  This one was relatively easy with only 4 HSTs. Hum, I may change out the gold and dark purple triangles as I really prefer brighter colors.  However, I may wait until all the blocks are done before I change them.  When all 12 are done this block may look just fine. 

I've continued to get my 15 minutes of stitching done every day this week. 

W/ending 5/18/25. 138 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/May = 18/18
• 15 minute days/2024 = 138/138 days
• Success rate = 100%

Now a bit about the book I finished this week. I was reading Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict published in February.  Here's what The New York Times said about it: "a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder."  I've read quite a few of Benedict's books and this one is just as good as her others. It gives a lot of insight into the way women were viewed between the World Wars.  Surprisingly, many of the the slights women faced at that time are still happening now. It also gives a glimpse as to how authors develop their stories.  I admit I didn't figure out the who done it although I did suspect one.  

It's time to link up with various Linky Parties. Please enjoy surfing quilting blogs by going to these parties. (Hum, Oh Scrap isn't up yet. I'll check on Monday.) 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

 Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 9 - 16 - 2024

Wow!  We've forgotten how much work a dog can be.  Especially a needy dog like Sunny.  She needs to be fed 4 times a day. Every 3 days she needs a bath. We're still trying to figure out her cues for potty breaks. And, someone is walking her a couple of times a day.  Add in the trip to the vet and a trip north to watch Teddy's soccer game and introduce Sunny to the kids and grands -- she's keeping us busy. 

Soph and Sunny hanging out during the game. Sunny's working hard at growing her  hair and fur. Yep, Westies have two coats -- the bottom coat is fur and the top coat is stiffer hair. 

Here's what I tried to get accomplished this past week. And, yes, I did check a few things off but I didn't do all I thought I could get done. Sigh.

9/9/24

✅Finish one more of Joan’s blocks and mail them — finished; but not mailed.

✅Quilt customer top — done and returned.

Finish Sea Side Village — all threads tied, ready to put a facing on it. 

✅Make happy blocks and plan layout — picked all fabs for the blocks and began the layout. 

✅Cut another quilt kit— finished.  

✅Keep stitching on the ornaments — worked on one at Monday stitching.

Here's a bit of the customer's quilt I long armed this week. She chose Ginger Heart and a light blue thread.  I think I took this picture with just the first row done. She was quite happy with it. 

And here are the Happy Blocks I've been working on. I decided to make a bigger quilt and make it neutral so it can be given to a boy or a girl. 

I've been picking fabrics for additional blocks to set it 5 x 6 or 48" x 60" approximately. The blocks finish at 8". I'll get the new blocks all cut out before I leave for North Carolina Tuesday.  After making a lot of these quilts I'm finally learning that some colors look really dark and don't enhance the quilts.  I'm trying to pick lighter fabrics but not ones that look too light. (The elephant one seems too light while the top left island one seems too dark. I don't think I'm changing any of those already made!) For these I used a 4.5" center square and 2.5" strips to make 2 strips 4.5" and 2 strips 8.5". It is a really easy pattern. I'm ready to find a new super easy pattern one of these days! 

On Tuesday I'm off for a several days of quilting at Sharon's house. Here's what I hope to get done. And, yes, I'm pretty sure I have at least one or two more projects to bring but these are the ones I want to finish while I'm gone.  It's better to have too many projects than not enough. 

9/16/24

Keep stitching on the ornaments

Drive to Sharon’s for a quilting get together

Put double border on purple/floral top

Put facing on Sea Side Village 

Cut out and make happy blocks, lay out, and sew the top 

Finish the panel top

Remember that trip to watch the soccer game mentioned above?  We left the house at 9 and didn't get home until after 2. But we were exhausted (as was Sunny.) I don't think I did anything in the studio or any hand stitching that day.  So, I have another day where no sewing took place. I did finish a book or two this week. Here are my numbers. Considering my success rate is in the mid 90s percent-wise, I'm pretty happy with the results.  

W/ending 9/15  — 259 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 14/15
• 15 minute days/2024 = 249/259 days
• Success rate = 96.1%

Have you been keeping up with Material Girlfriends' website? They have been offering a free 3 yard quilt pattern every month. This month's is called Bravo. I'm enamored with it and may have to find fabric to make it this month.  I've been making a point of buying more 1 yard fabric pieces so I can use some of these cool patterns.  If you like the idea of 3 yard quilts check out their offerings.  

I mentioned finishing a book this week. I actually finished 5 with a couple being audio books that I listen to while stitching.  Being an avid reader I pay attention when folks recommend a book or I think I might like a book from the blurb that shows up in the catalog once my library gets it.  This week I read Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles who also wrote The Paris Library. It was excellent.  

Here's what Amazon says about it: 1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France (CARDS). Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild destroyed French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians.  Then she disappears."

The story moves between what is happening in WWI France and 1987 New York  where a NYPL librarian and budding writer first reads about the organization and decides to find out more about Jessie. Her story is how she uncovers more information about the CARDS and writes a book about them. 

It was a riveting book based on many of the real women who were involved with CARDS.  My only problem with it is I've read too many world war historical novels recently.  I was really ready for something light and fluffy. I've promised myself I won't read anything but light and fluffy for the next few books. We'll see how that goes! 

I'll be linking with these parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 16 - 2022

Quilting seems to have taken a backseat to reading recently. At the end of this post I've listed a few books I've really liked recently.  But now, let's see how I did on my goals. 

8/8/22

✅Finish new charity quilt to top stage -- done, need backing 

✅Sew August UFO challenge together, add borders, figure out backing -- all done backing is ready to load

Make August BOM from A Quilting Life & ✅RSC blocks -- RSC done but need to do A Quilting Life block

Quilt one of my quilts -- nope, nada, didn't do it

✅Work on grand’s Christmas ornaments -- one is almost all done, second one is in progress

Not too bad.  We also had an overnight visit from our daughter's family on their way to the beach house.  It was a win, win.  They got closer to NC and out of the horrendous DC traffic the day before they had planned to drive and Saturday's drive was much shorter. We enjoyed seeing and catching up with everyone. 

Here's the final top.  The borders were leftover from a wide back. 

And here is the quilt top with the backing I found that will go with it. Thank you Nann, who blogs at With Strings Attached, for the fabric. A surprise box of fabric arrived a year or so ago.  I've pulled fabric from it off and on. I saw this one and knew it would work well with this challenge quilt. 

And next up my goals this week. 

8/15/22

Quilt charity top for guild

Make August BOM from A Quilting Life

Quilt one of my quilts

Make a list of all finished tops and figure out backing sizes for them

Continue to clean off front of cutting table

Begin challenge piece inspired by a card

I'll also continue to work on the Christmas ornaments for the grands but I'm not listing them every week. 

Notice that clean off front end of cutting table.  I spent several hours working on cutting up bits and pieces of fabric as well as putting fabric back on the shelves. I can see the difference but I'm not sure anyone else would notice it!  But I'll try to get through more of the mess on that end of the table. I can almost see the cutting mat under the fabric. 

One of the projects I am working on was making a sample cover for a composition book. Sharon and I usually go in together to make a little gift for fellow retreaters.  We'll be going the first week of October so it's time to figure something out.  She suggested the cover and sent me a link for the directions. Here's my first attempt. 

It looks nice but it took quite a long time and that didn't include the flying geese.  The directions called for binding the edges which just added a lot of time. (You can find the free directions here.) I made this one without having a composition book around.  After I bought one (not on any school special) I realized the inside fold over that went on the covers didn't work because the covers were heavy cardboard.  We'll be changing the width of that piece so it is easier to get it on the book.  And we'll probably be buying composition books on back-to-school specials and they won't have stiff covers. We hope to use up leftover blocks to make these covers.  I think it will be a terrific way to move out some fabric. And, I'll be checking the box from Nann for some fabric too.  I have another one started but haven't been motivated to finish it yet.  We've made some changes to make it go much faster. We'll split the 25 we need between the two of us so it won't be that much work. 

Back to books.  I generally have two to three books going at a time -- generally one audio book and 2 books on Kindle or, gasp, an actual book.  Because I read so many books, I tend to keep a list of books read by year.  It helps me when I try to figure out whether I've read a book or not.  Case in point is Nine Women, One Dress by Jane Rosen. I wanted to read it before offering it up as a book club choice for Sept. I started it and then realized I'd probably read it and sure enough, in 2019 I had. (But I'm reading it again because I don't remember all of it!)   I'm also offering up Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.  They are miles apart in style and story but both are good.  I'm guessing we'll choose Nine Dresses. It's entertaining, a fast read, and our public library has multiple copies of it. Another great book I recently finished is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.  It was set in the 1950s and '60s and shines a light on how women were treated as "mere" housewives rather than serious scientists. Both libraries I use had long waiting lists for the Kindle books and audio books. (one was over 70 people for 5 Kindle books.) If it sounds interesting to you prepare to wait but it was really worth it.  What are you reading these days? 

Hopefully you are reading some blogs along with interesting books. Here's the Linky parties to check out. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

That's it for me.  I have a book I want to read now. (Ok, only after I do some blog surfing!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

  

To Do Tuesday . . .

Instead of Monday Meanderings, yesterday I had a special request.  With Mari's approval, I requested some quilts be sent to Cool Kids Campaign in North Carolina during the Hands 2 Help challenge.  You can read about it here.  

First up let's look at last week's Goals list: 

4/4/22

Put borders on Stop Tossing — made the border but haven’t cut it to size or applied it

✅Finish borders on Easy Breezy Blocks 

✅Make more Spider Web blocks (ok just 1 but at least it's progress)

✅Start putting Improv blocks together

✅Quilt top for Leashes of Valor 

And for this week: 

4/11/22

Work on a secret project

Continue on Improv top

Make more RSC blocks 

Make April block from Sherri McConnell’s BOM

Here's where I am on the Improv blocks.  I made most squares last year. Now I'm sewing them into strips. 

I am using Kelly Young's pattern "Precarious" from her first book, Stash Statement. These are the second group of squares that will need to be sewn together.  Notice those clips on all but the purple stash?  I realized I hadn't made all the squares I needed. I clipped the squares together that had the correct count and left the others unclipped until the correct number of blocks were done.  I'm still debating the grey fabric.  It seems to me I should use what I have on hand since I have more than enough of it. 

Today's blog is short and to the point.  I'm moving right on to Linky parties.  I hope you'll spend some time checking them out. 

To Do Tuesday 

Mid Week Makers 

Wednesday Wait Loss

Needle and Thread Thursday  

That secret project is calling my name.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 14 - 2022

We are almost half way through March and I'm trying to figure out where the first two weeks went to!  I know I got things done but wow!  The time sped by.  It is time to share my Goals list from last week.  It was not a great week. 

3/7/22

✅Quilt customer quilt

✅Quilt and bind Marine Looking Glass -- I need to hand stitch the binding down still. 

Make labels & sleeves for 3 quilts going to the Faithful Circle Quilters show

Make 7 more Easy Breezy blocks 

Make March block from Sherri McConnell’s BOM

ARGH!  How did this happen?  I only succeeded with 2 of 5 goals? Hum, could it be the book I was reading?  I got really into it so I let the sewing get sidetracked a bit.  In case you are wondering which book grabbed my attention it was A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd. It was identified as being fiction, mystery, thriller, and historical fiction.  I was all for it except thriller.  I don't like tense books.  But Pat had read it and thought I might like it.  Eventually, I checked it out and you know what I did... read way too much each day and finished it in a day and a half.  There were some tense moments but not that bad.  The story line is about a WW I nurse who had promised to take a message for a dying soldier to his brother.  I'll leave it at that but it did grab my interest from the beginning. 

Obviously, I let the last 3 items go for various reasons.  But, guess what? You'll see them below for this week's goals. Will I buckle down and get these all done? Or? 

3/14/22

Work on Stop Tossing mystery quilt

Make more Red Spider Web blocks 

Make 7 more Easy Breezy blocks 

Sash the Easy Breezy blocks

Make March block from Sherri McConnell’s BOM 

I was in a quandary last week. I had a group of Easy Breezy blocks that I wanted to get into a quilt rather than just holding on to the blocks any longer.  I quickly realized I needed to figure out some sashing and make more blocks.  Do you audition fabrics for your quilts?  Here's what I did. 

Sashing I -- light grey on the left and darker grey on right. Meh - didn't do anything for me. 

Sashing II -- From left to right - light grey, blue & light green. Hum.

Sashing III --  From L to R - light grey, lighter blue, & blue. for some reason I like the light blue. It seems to brighten up the blocks.  

I imagine before I cut into my nice light blue fabric and after I've made the rest of the Easy Breezy blocks I'll lay them out again to make sure the light blue goes with all the colors.  Looks like I used a lot of yellow in the blocks. I definitely need to spread all the blocks out and see what it looks like. 

Off on another tangent -- remember above and I said we're half way through March.  I haven't mentioned my stash enhancing statistics. (Not that I really want or need to enhance my stash!) But here are the gory details. 

2022	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Feb	27.00	36.5	12.50	20.75	-15.75

Yep, I went wild buying fabric. I have been trying to finish some of the tops I have hanging in the quilt closet.  If you've been reading my blog for a while you might remember my trip to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in February.  Yep that one where I bought 4 yards of wide back and 8 yards of regular fabric.  And, I bought a really cool background fabric for the Stop Tossing mystery.  When I figured the square inches of the wide backs and then converted it back into yardage and added the rest -- it was about 27 yards. (Ok, there were some fat quarters and scraps from my daughter for the red and white spider webs too.) On the other hand, I did finish two quilts.  And for a look to the future I've already quilted 2 quilts in March.  So hopefully it won't be too long before I have used more fabric than I've purchased.  

It seems to me I've been typing way more than normal.  Funny that. I didn't think I had any thing to post about today.  Anyway, it's time to get on with the day (yep, I'm even doing this later than usual!) You know the routine.  Please check out these Linky parties.  You never know when something will catch your eye and you'll have a perfect project for some special fabric in your stash. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Meanderings

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Sigh, Nothing Finished

Usually I have a finish for the Finished (or Not) Friday.  Not this week.  I'm sewing but I don't seem to have much progress to report.  But I do have some pictures! 

Big Stars are a direct response to this post by Nancy at Wyoming Breezes.  I have a quilt (ok, probably a UFO) that I made with various 4 patches.  The shoebox I stored the 2.5" squares still held quite a few 4 patches and I began sewing more together.  

A little later I got to thinking about one of the project boxes I have that was labeled 16 patches.  Upon looking in it I found at least 6 16 patches with red and white/cream squares and a few with blue and white/cream squares.  And a bunch of blue and light strips sewn together.  I realized that years ago I had requested those blocks from the FCQ Equilters and I had already made one quilt from them. Looking at the bounty of blocks I knew I would use them to make Nancy's stars.  They make huge 16" blocks so it will only take 12 and more than half of the 16 patches were done.  

On to the star points.  I took out my trusty Wing Clipper from Studio 180 and got to work.  Evidently I didn't pay attention correctly at one point. OOPS! 

I haven't decided whether I'll be working on these while I work on my Ombre Log Cabins or not.  I'm going to a retreat at the end of September and I like to have projects all cut out and ready to sew.  I may just cut out everything for the other 10 star points and finish them and the top at retreat. 

On other fronts I decided it was time to start up Ruthie and see if she will work for me.  I loaded this cute tumbler top I made with leftover doggy fabric. The first row did fine but the next one has balked.  It won't stitch.  I'll be contacting the company that did the electronics that connect the computer to the long arm and order some new cables and 2 different circuit boards. I'm hoping it will be resolved with a new cable.  Luckily there is no deadline for this little quilt. 

I've been spending a lot of time reading this last week.  The one I'm almost finished with that really struck me is The Premonition by Michael Lewis.  I'm usually not a huge fan of nonfiction but this book reads more like fiction. It is based on real people and the real beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic. In many ways it shocks me -- how inept America's response has been -- way more so than just the last administration's bumbling and denying. The American public health services have been vastly underfunded for years. The for-profit health providers (think hospitals, labs, pharmaceutical and insurance companies) really aren't benefiting people -- they are in it for money. It's a fast read and is only 300 pages (my copy. Although Amazon says it 320 pages.) It's well worth the time and has done a great job keeping my interest.  

I need to get back to sewing.  I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Finished (Or Not) Friday, and Beauties Pageant. Take some time to check them out.  

Happy Quilting All,  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 12 - 2021

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date.  No, I'm not the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland but I am definitely later than usual for my normal Monday blog post.  My excuse?  Um, er, I was reading and didn't want to stop. I haven't got much to show you either.  

First up is the set of string blocks I mailed out to my friend in FCQ Equilters.  It was so much fun to make these blocks.  I guess I got a little carried away... 20 went out in the mail.  I'm thinking I'd like to make more but I've got so much to do before I can even consider something new. 

Next is reviewing my goals for last week and listing what I want to work on this week. 

7/5/2021

Load ✅ and quilt one quilt (maybe two!) 

Knit on baby blanket ✅

Continue cutting and making Positivity blocks✅

Finish new small quilt, find backing fabric -- didn't do much on this one.

Make a few Ombré log cabin blocks✅  

I didn't get the top quilted because of technical difficulties -- the computer wasn't talking to the long arm.  This afternoon I tried once more before I planned to call the manufacturer for help.  Well, you guessed it -- it quilted the whole quilt with no problems.  So as of now one quilt is done. Refer to issue about about reading for why I didn't get every thing listed done. 

Here's this week's plan.

7/12/2021

Sew Positivity blocks together (and make the last 9 blocks)

Make a few Ombre log cabin blocks 

Quilt another quilt

Cut out customer’s quilt

Knit on baby blanket 

Not as productive as some weeks.  I did get my stash busting statistics done for June. Not as good as I had hoped but not that bad either. 

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	15.875	56.125	18.250	79.250	23.125

I brought in 3/8th of a yard more than I used.  Not bad at all! 

I mentioned I was reading a lot recently.  In the last five days I've finished 5 books.  The one I read today is called The Girl in His Shadow by Audrey Blake. This book grabbed my interest from the start to the finish.  It is not for everyone. "An exquisitely detailed journey through the harrowing field of medicine in mid-19th century London." by Tracey Enerson Wood, USA Today bestselling author. I do not know if Nann who blogs at With Strings Attached recommended it or if I noticed it on the new books page. The story line is mixed in with details  of information about medicine in the 1840s so if you are squeamish it might not be a good choice.  But if historical details fascinate you this is good historical fiction.  The medical information is accurate to the time period.  

Time for me to get on to the next book I've started.  (Honestly, I hope it isn't as good so I will actually quit reading and do some sewing!) 

Please take a look at my normal linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. Enjoy the surf! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie