Monday Meanderings 2 - 24 - 2020

Lots of stitching got done this week.  Nearly everyday I spent time in the studio.  Be prepared for some peeks at what I got done. 

First up a flannel monkey quilt that I made with my friend Marlyn.  I didn't get a pic of it finished but here it is on Ruthie.  I used Modernish 3 by Barbara Becker.  It's available from Urban Elementz.  We started and finished it in 8 days! Lucky for Marlyn all the fabrics were from her stash.  I found a bunch of flannel in my fabrics so we've started another one.  But, we won't be that fast. 

Next up is the Challenge quilt from Faithful Circle Quilters.  Participants were given a bag of fabric and were told to make a quilt.  The finished quilts will be donated to the charity of our choice after being shown in FCQ's show this April.  My bag had a big piece of dog fabric (3 yards if I remember correctly), a 1/2 yard of big elephants, a slew of partially used solid fat quarters in browns, blacks and cream.  There were two metallic fabrics and a couple of multicolored geometric pieces.  I am focusing on the dog fabrics and the go with browns and cream.  Here's what I've done so far. 

 This is considered one block.  It will finish at 16" in the quilt.  I'm planning on setting it 3 x 4 which will end up 48 x 64".  If I have enough left of the dog fabric I might try to make it larger.  But I suspect I will run through all of the doggy fabric and all the go-with fabrics.  I've already been cutting up some of my solids that will work.  (Hey, I'm always up for using up older fabric!)  Half of the larger pieces have been cut horizontal so that the smaller blocks will be either on top of the bigger piece or underneath it.  It should work well to highlight the dog fabric.  It needs to be completed before the gals come for the In House Retreat in March.  The gals from Columbia can take it up to FCQ along with the quilts I'm entering in the show. 

I've also been knitting like a fiend.  One of the gals in the stitching group at our clubhouse mentioned there was a need for fingerless mitts for chemo patients.  She shared the pattern and I've been knitting up some leftover yarn that works fine for these.  First up the first pair I made. (This is a more mellow color than what the pic shows.)  I took these on vacation to finish but couldn't figure out where I'd put them.  I finally decided I must have left them on the ship.  No, I had them hiding beside my dresser out of view.  

I've made two other pairs since these.  Here's fourth pain on my needles now.  (And, no these aren't really teal -- they are kelly green!) This is such an easy pattern to make up.  I usually can finish a pair in 4 nights of watching TV for 2 hours a night.  I like the idea of using the yarn I have on hand for a good cause.  One pair I made the ribbing of the cuff and fingers a different color but decided that didn't work so well.  (plus I pretty much ran out of the extra color and had to make the second one slightly different.) 

I plan to stop working on these after I finish the green pair because I still have a 20 year old quilt I'm hand quilting.  I would LOVE to get that thing done.  I haven't touched it for quite a while but I "think" I'm getting close to the end.  

When last I left my "travelog" we were in Panama sightseeing around the Panama Canal and Lake Gatùn.  Here is a collection of animals I photographed in Panama and Cartegena, Columbia.  When the tour bus returned to the cruise dock we were let off quite a distance from the ship.  We had to go through a little forested area and a shop to be able to walk back to our ship.  I was complaining about having to walk so far until I saw these peacocks. 

I decided this was pretty cool and took several pictures of the various animals there. These parrots were especially beautiful. 

And, how about a flock of flamingos? 

The next three pictures were taken while on our tour after we went through the Panama Canal.  First up is a sloth that was lazing away in a tree in a nature walk at the Panama Canal Expansion Visitor Center. Yes, I took this picture.  Since they don't move much I was able to get a pretty decent picture of him (her?) 

There were beautiful butterflies flitting around too.  When they landed on a leaf or branch they closed their wings so they pretty much blended in with the tree.  But when they were flying around their beautiful vivid blue on top of the wings showed. I tried to talk one into posing but he just wasn't interested in it! 

Next we took a small boat tour around a cove on Gatùn Lake.  And, golly gee!  We sighted another sloth. Our guide said one was a two toed and the other a three toed.  Ok, I admit, I can't see the toes on either of these guys.  

As we motored around the lake our guide was watching for other interesting animals to share with us.  We did see an alligator but he was pretty hard to see and my picture barely got him.  We also saw several monkeys cavorting in the trees.  Here's the "best" shot I could get on any of them! 

Yep, he's got his back to us sitting in the tree.  After we finished the boat tour of the lake we took a walk in the rainforest.  I took quite a lot of pictures but nearly all of them were trees or vegetation and I have no idea why I took the pictures.  I'll save you from the tree pictures!

I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  I'm hoping I can spend a bit more time browsing the internet this week.  I'm looking forward to going to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, Va on Thursday.  Since our local quilt shop went out of business, I've got a pent up desire to buy some things.  (um, did I mention I bought some solid red and solid blue cottons for a QOV and a hunk of flannel for a backing of the next flannel quilt?)  It is not going to be a pretty month when I report my fabric use statistics in March.  Sigh.  But, when I try to grab go with fabrics for some of my fabrics I just don't have all that much.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 2 - 17 - 2020

This was a very productive week on many fronts.

First off is the Valentine's Day "card" I made for my hubby -- a carrot cake (yum) with an attempt to make it pretty.  The colored sugar I was using wasn't fine enough to easily go through the doily I was using to make the design.  Oh well, I tried. 

I also finished piecing Diamond Chain blocks and have started sewing them into rows.  Here's the link to the Missouri Star You Tube video showing how to make the blocks. I've been working on these off and on for several months.  In the picture the bottom row has been sewn together. 

I'm hoping to get two quilts quilted this week.  One is a flannel quilt my friend Marlyn and I made from some cute monkey flannel she had.  The other is a table runner I made last year or so.  I'm hoping to get more of my finished tops quilted this year.  The only issue with that is I just don't have a lot of backing fabric hanging around to use.  I'm hoping to piece some fabric together but I'll probably end up buying more backing fabric.   Sigh.

On to the Panama Canal portion of our vacation.  Our cruise ship was going through just the first lock of the Canal to give passengers the experience.  I woke up early to see what was going on -- probably around 6 am.  It was gorgeous at that time.  A tug came along side.  I believe this is when the pilot boarded the ship and a narrator who explained what we were seeing.   

In the distance you can see the Atlantic Bridge that spans the waters of the Atlantic ocean as it leads into the Panama Canal. 

You can see a few other people were on their verandas watching the action.  I took a slew of pictures but will only show you a few of them.  

Prior to passing through the locks we watched and listened to movies and presentations about the locks and the history.  From 1881 when the French first attempted to build the canal until it was completed in 1914 over 25,000 workers lost their lives.  Many of the deaths were attributed to malaria and yellow fever.  Eventually, Dr. Gorgas, a U.S. army doctor, identified the spread of those diseases to mosquitos and began the successful campaign to control mosquitos. 

As each ship heads into a lock  locomotives, called mules, are attached to control its progress through the canal.  There are two fore and two aft on each side of the ship. 

Below you can see a mule at the front and the track that undulates with the land rising with the lock. 

This picture was taken looking straight down from our balcony.  From left to right you can see the deck of the balcony, the balcony rail, part of the black hull, a little water and then the side of the lock.  There is not all that much room between the ship and the lock.  Needless to say, I was not hanging over the balcony railing very long to take this picture


We exited the lock at Lake Gatun.  Many of the passengers had excursions to see more about Panama and the canal.  Only those of us who had excursions were able to disembark.  While we took our tour, the ship went back through the Panama Canal to Colon, Panama where we would meet up with the ship once it docked.  

I was lucky to get this picture of the ship as it started it's journey back through Gatun lock. Although it was cloudy the weather was comfortable for our tour of the Rainforest, Gatun Lake and Live the Experience Panama Canal. 

First up was a drive over the new Agua Clara Locks.  Then we went to the Panama Canal Expansion Visitor Center.  These new locks created a new line of traffic that allowed bigger ships to use the canal.  The new locks opened in June of 2016.  They were built with holding tanks that conserved some of the water that was used to raise and lower the ships.  

We enjoyed a movie, a snack, the view of the locks and a nature walk.  I'll be sharing what we saw on the nature walk and the rest of the excursion for the next blog.  I hope you are enjoying my vacation vicariously.  We had a great time, that's for sure. 

I'm linking up with my normal Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  Take some time to check out what folks are working on this week. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 1 - 27 - 2020

After a great sewing weekend with Sharon I made it home safely after the 5 hour drive.  I was home by 2:30 totally exhausted.  I was sound a sleep on the couch by 3:30 -- and didn't wake up until 5! 


I'm still sharing things I made for the grand's Christmas presents.  Here's one of the big presents for Ellie and her doll.  (Her name escapes me at the moment...)  For the last year Ellie has been asking me for a wedding dress for her doll.  EEK! A WEDDING dress??  Yep.  And I made it for her! Here are a few pictures... 

Dress in process.  (My spray bottle made a great dress form!) 

Finished wedding dress in the wardrobe Pat made for Ellie. 

Here's the wardrobe loaded up Christmas afternoon.  I'm sure she's hung a lot more clothes in there now. 

For some reason, this year I made way more than I usually do for the grands.  One of the things I made was a sports bag tag for Sophie and Natalie.  

Front of the baseball tag for Sophie's new sports bag.

Bag Tag Gone Wrong.  Notice where the tag is suppose to be sliced open to put the clip in. The sad thing is it didn't show up on the instructions with the cut area to the side.... it was perfectly lined up for the top.  My guess is the embroidery design was changed after the directions were written. Sigh. Needless to say I made another one.  These are made with marine vinyl.  

I wanted to share more photos from our vacation.  We were on an cruise that stopped at Aruba; Curaçao; Cartagena, Columbia; Panama Canal and Costa Rica.  The only stop we didn't have an excursion was Aruba.  We left the ship and walked around town a bit.  This was what we saw as we were leaving the dock. Looks good to me! 

One thing we saw was this National Archeological Museum of Aruba.  It was interesting to see how people lived on the island through history.  I'm not sure what the blue horse was all about but I had to get a picture.  The museum was housed in the green building.  It was bigger than that building hints at. 

We ended up at a bar that had WiFi.  (Unlike other cruises we've been on this one did not offer free WiFi -- even though we did have a suite. Sigh.)  We enjoyed ourselves just watching the main street.  Unfortunately, I don't like beer so I had soda water, which I do like.  Lots of bubbles but no sugar or caffeine.

I'll continue to share photos of the trip over the next few posts.  Knowing me and the fact I'm trying to get a top quilted before January is gone AND I have a challenge quilt that must be done by Feb 8th I'll probably only post on Mondays.  I'd like to get back in the habit of posting twice or three times a week but don't hold your breath.  

I'm linking with my favorite Monday Linky Parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. (Design Wall Monday will be added once it goes live AND I remember to do it!) 

I'm calling it quits tonight.  Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Yearly Statistics & More Travel Pics

It wasn't a stash busting year.  Sigh! On the other hand it wasn't terrible either. 

2017	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Nov	25.875	118.625	6.125	108.125	10.50
Dec	0	118.625	0	108.125	10.50

It dawned on me recently that I forgot to post the November debacle, er, statistics.  I overdid it at JoAnn's Black Friday sale.  I ended up buying a lot of fabric to use for pillowcases for Country Piecemakers.  Between that and my two trips to Lancaster I had a lot of fabric coming in this year. Thinking back, I might have used a half yard or so more on doll clothes during December. 

But I did get a lot of fabric used.  Frankly, I was surprised to see how much was used. Here's a review since 2010 when I began keeping statistics. It was my 2nd best for using fabric.  *FYI - I only count fabric used when it is complete -- a finished quilt, doll dress, pillowcase.  When an item is finished then it is counted as used.  I'm not terribly upset with my purchases.  I suspect I will have quite a few finishes this year as I hope to get some of the tops I have hanging around completed as well as a lot of pillowcases made and donated. 2017 was my 2nd best in terms of fabric out and in.

Year	Fabric In	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
2010	65.00	70.250	13.000
2011	186.5	72.00	114.500
2012	113.545	108.970	4.575
2013	100.71	103.015	2.305
2014	108.25	79.75	28.500
2015	66.205	77.150	10.945
2016	83.375	55.375	28.00
2017	118.625	108.125	10.50

Now, a few more photos from vacation. We were in Guatemala where we had just seen the banana trees growing in my last post. We were on our way to Quirigua Archaeological site. It had no monumental buildings but it has quite a few interesting stelas and zoomorfas.  (Stelas are tall sculptures where the history of the time was carved.  Zoomorfos are squat, frog-shaped sculptures also used to tell the history.) 

An estela close up. Most of the estelas and zoomorfos dated to the 700s.  

 Both history and a calendar were included on these estelas.

Zoomorfo. It turns out that zoomorfo is the Spanish for the word for zoomorph. One definition I found at Wikipedia was: "Attributing animal form or other animal characteristics to anything other than an animal; similar to but broader than anthropomorphism."

Another zoomorfo. Notice the red on the left side -- evidently the stones were painted red originally. 

This is part of the Acropolis. The Mayan civilization here didn't last long and some speculate this particular city might have been destroyed by an earthquake thus the buildings were no longer standing. 

Pat chose to climb these steep steps, while I didn't.  You can see that the steps are higher than what we are used to.  Mist and rain periodically came up during the day so these were also slippery. 

This bride and groom were having pictures taken which the tourists took pictures of.  Note the figure on the top with a yellow ball cap?  That's Pat checking it out. (All of these pictures can be clicked to see a larger version of them.)

Closer up of the wedding picture.  I'm not sure I'd be spreading out a long veil (or train?) over all that moss! 

As we rode back to Santo Tomas de Castilla, we saw plenty of big rigs, smaller trucks and lots of motorbikes.  I couldn't catch a picture of the woman riding with an infant in a pouch on her back but I did capture this family. It was not unusual to see motorbikes with children riding on them with a parent. Sometimes we saw a rider (or two) with a big package tied on to the back. 

Our ship was docked at an active shipping port.  Pat and I spent some time watching the loading of the ship docked in front of us. It was receiving mounds of brown something that was being dumped into the hold of the ship.  A fellow passenger told us that it was soil being shipped to Russia where they extract minerals from it.  Pat and I thought it might have been from coconuts -- the outer husk.  In doing a little research I couldn't verify either idea.  US is the top receiver of goods from Guatamala and their top export is fruits and nuts. 

The oddest thing we ran into during our travels we first experienced in Guatemala: a bathroom thing.  At Quirigua Archaeological site no toilet paper was put in the toilets.  There was a plastic lined trash can next to the toilet to dispose of the toilet paper.  We found this to be fairly common at many of our ports once we were away from the tourist area. 

That's it for me today.  I'm linking with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Oh Scrap when it becomes available.  I hope you'll join me in viewing what folks are doing in their studios these days.  Right now, I'm going down to the studio to load a quilt onto Ruthie 2. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie