Monday Meanderings 3 - 2 - 2026

I'm so happy we are out of the deep freeze. Monday snow is expected and high temps may be 39º. Then the next few days will have chances of rain. But wait, there's more. Thursday it is suppose to hit 74º, followed by 80º on Friday.  I know spring is around the corner but honestly I don't think I want 80º yet!  Our summers are too hot and humid to start in March! 

I've had a really quilty week and got lots done. Here's what was finished or moved forward.

2/23/26

✅✅Bind two quilts — both finished.

✅Quilt one of my quits — just a small quilt but quilted and bound.

✅Set last 2 UFO blocks on point — done.

✅Knit on hat— finished! (Picture to come soon.) 

✅Make B blocks of Magnificent Mystery quilt — all are sewn but still need to be ironed.

✅Sew up more dash blocks — two more done. 

Here's a picture of my 2 finished quilts. The one on the left is from More Quilts for Baby Easy As ABC by Ursula Reikes. (I love all of Ursula's baby quilt books.) I often  change patterns to fit the fabric I have on hand. This time it was to use the Mickey fabric. The quilt is about 35" square. The quilting design is Ginger Snap by Apricot Moon. 

The one on the right is a half log cabin from a booklet by Sharyn Squire Craig.  Here's the whole quilt. The logs are 2" wide.  I used Quick and Easy Swirls by My Creative Stitches for the quilting. I was tickled when I found a binding already made that worked well with it.  

I haven't taken pictures of any other projects from last week.  Oops! I did get a picture of my entire design wall which shows some of those ongoing projects. 

Here are the projects from top to bottom.  Some 16 patch blocks, Dash blocks, an A and B block from Magnificent Mystery. Moving to the right blue bricks, top right is the February UFO challenge blocks and the rest are small bits and pieces, including a doll quilt. 

And this week I want to work on these projects. 

3/2/26

Bind bottom of grey sweatshirt

Start sewing blue bricks together

Plan rest of design for February UFO blocks and start sewing together

Finish knitting sock currently on the needles 

Keep working on the Magnificent Mystery blocks and rows.

Look at the March UFO project to figure out what needs to be done

As you might have guessed I've had another 100% week of sewing 15 minutes a day. And, yes, most days it was way more than 15 minutes! 

Week ending 3/1/26;  60 days of 2026.

60 days out of 60 days.  100%

Here's a close up of the doll quilt shown above. 

I started this and then let it sit as a top while I decided how I would quilt it. I finally stitched in the ditch with my Bernina.  Then it sat some more while I tried to decide on a binding.  I only had a few pieces of the blue left from when I first made it. I didn't have any of the yellow left. I didn't want to use the light fabric. But, while I was finding more blues for the brick quilt I found a couple more pieces of blue although they had lots of cuts taken out already. The main thing was I was able to make the binding that matched the little quilt. (And make a brick or two.) 

Do you like to get inspiration for your quilts? Visit lots of blogs across the Internet by starting with these Linky parties. You can find all sorts of ideas for your quilting! 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Friday Finishes! 8 - 23

Are you in shock?  I am!  But it's dawned on me that I haven't shared many of my quilts that have been finished this year.  So I thought I'd start showing some on Fridays.  

First up is a Happy Quilt. (I started using Mary's pattern (who shares lots of quilt patterns at MaryQuilts.com. Scroll down the right hand side until you come to Happy Quilts. There are several from which to choose.)  I have donated this one to my guild for community outreach. 

I used a red and white pillow ticking for the binding.  Many of these blocks came from my FCQ Equilters several years ago.  The quilting design is called Squiggle Wiggle from MyCreativeStitches.net. 

I also finished the doll quilt I shared here and gave it to my local guild.  Scroll toward the bottom.  I forgot to measure it or take pictures until I was about to turn it in.  I took a quick picture on the floor so I could share it.

When I find other leftover little blocks I think I'll make some more doll quilts. They are fast and easy -- or at least this one was.  

Next up -- I finished recording my fabric usage statistics for June and July.  And, I'm really jazzed with the results!  (Which may save me once August is done and my big fabric acquisition numbers get added in!) 

2024	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	1.75	41.5	20.5	87.875	46.375
July	5.00	46.5	9.0	96.85	50.35

Would you look at that? I've used 50 yards more than I've brought in during 2024! Yee Haw!  🎉🎉🎉  Hopefully I'll get August done early in September. (Don't hold your breath! It's looking like it will be a busy month.) 

I'm linking up with the following Linky parties: Take some time to see what quilters across the world are working on: Midweek Makers,  Needle and Thread Thursday, and Finished or Not Fridays. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings -- 7 - 22 - 2024

It's been a week.  We flew off to Michigan on Monday to attend a memorial service for Pat's brother-in-law.  Although the reason for the gathering of the clan* wasn't a happy one, it was wonderful seeing his sister, our nieces and nephews and even some great nieces and nephews.  It had been a very long time since we visited in Northern Michigan.  *His family isn't Scottish but it seemed the right word to describe all the relatives who gathered.  Roger was an amazing man who made an impact on many people especially his step children, his children, and the people who knew him through AA. The visitation really was a wonderful sharing of stories about him.  I'll share some pictures of our time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan later in this post.  

We got back to our house in Virginia around 12:30 on Thursday. I finished packing a little suitcase and loading the car and was off to retreat around 2:00. About two and a half hours later I was at retreat. I had about 3 full days with my quilting buddies. I got a tremendous amount of sewing done which surprised me.  I some how got a second wind Thursday evening which helped me make a lot of progress.  Do you want to see it?  Let's look at my goals list for last week. 

7/14/24

Retreat! Make —

✅Forest Animals Easy Attic Windows —still need to put on inner and outer border.

✅Baby Buggies Boxes and Bow (3 yd quilt) — need to add borders.

✅Benny’s Quilt 2.5” square — finished

✅Sew a Happy Block Quilt Together — done. 

✅Work on a new needlework project — barely started. 

Those check marks really piled up.  Here's some photos of where the sewing projects are now. 

This is ready to put on the inner and outer border. The cute animal print was on a freebie table at one of the guild meetings I attended this spring. The rest of the fabric was in my stash. Bonus! 

OOPS!  I noticed this mistake when I was working with the photo.  It's easily fixed. This is a 3 Yard Quilt from Fabric Cafe called Boxes and Bows.  It was free earlier this year but isn't now.  I decided to make it smaller -- so it would be acceptable for our local NICU.  I plan to do an inner and outer border on this one also. 

This pattern is called Benny's Quilt from Michelle's Romantic Tangle. Here's the link directly to Benny's quilt pattern.  As you might guess all of these fabrics were in my stash.  This used a lot of 2.5" squares but I've already cut more so it did make a dent but that didn't last for long! I used a very pale bluish-green left over from another quilt. I think it might looked better if I had used white. (Hum, maybe I'll make another one with white fabric.) It's going into the to-be-quilted closet. 

I found this quilt in a ziplock bag with a note saying all I needed to do was sew it together. That wasn't quite true as I moved some blocks around.  (I wish I'd noticed how many dark blocks were in the top row!) It to is moving to the to-be-quilted closet. 

This wasn't on my list but I found the purple and white squares sewn into 4 patches. I hunted around until I found enough for the center section of this doll quilt. Then found the purple calico with some bright green in it. A quilt was born! I was trying to decide how I could take a pic of this little quilt when I remembered I had some tape in my box of stuff.  I taped it to my Elna which worked really well.  This machine is at least 40 years old and was recently serviced and is working like a champ.  My only complaint is it was hard to get an accurate 1/4" measurement. It has a foot holder that allows snapping on different feet. Amazon to the rescue!  Last night I ordered two different feet so hopefully I'll have an accurate 1/4" foot soon. 

See what I mean?  I got a lot of sewing done.  I have learned to cut out kits before I leave. This time I even cut the borders but decided it would be much easier to put them on at home where I had enough flat surface to work on. I'll be starting making kits for a week long retreat in October. For now,  let's see what I plan to do this week. 

7/22/24

Fix Boxes and Bows baby quilt and add borders

Quilt customer quilt

Put borders on forest animals quilt

Finish current hat being knitted 

Spend 15 min a day cleaning cutting table 

Hopefully I'll get all of these items done this week. Although, I really need to spend some time reading as I have had several books on reserve show up with little time to read. 

My trip caused just a little problem with my 15 minutes of stitching.  There was only 1 day I couldn't stitch. (Well, I could have but I was so tired from the all day memorial, funeral mass, family dinner, and driving back to Marquette to catch our flight that I didn't even try.) Here are my numbers.

W/ending 7/21 — 203 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 20/21days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 195/203 days
• Success rate = 96%

Well bummer! My percentage of time dropped by .4%.  I will hopefully be making it up over the next few months. 

Here's a short narrative of our trip to Munising, Michigan. First, it isn't particularly easy to get to and from. Pat did the research and decided Richmond, VA to Chicago, IL with a change of planes to get to Marquette, the closest airport, was the best way to go and we could get back fairly early on Thursday. 

A Lego man at the Richmond Airport. It used over 40,000 pieces.  We had no problems making our connections in Chicago nor renting a car in Marquette. The drive to Munising was less than an hour.  We checked in to the hotel and went to visit Pat's sister. We met up with a niece, great nephew, and one of Roger's brothers to have dinner at a funny little outdoor restaurant with wonderful wood fired pizzas. Food was great, company was wonderful, weather turned on us.  We were sitting outside with what looked like a corrugated tin roof and some tarps. Um, not such a great idea when the rain came in. 

We eventually decided it wasn't going to let up so the guys went to get cars. The ladies tried to get closer to an area that wasn't quite so full of water. I took off my tennis shoes and socks and waded through ankle deep water to get to the car. (I really didn't have a lot of shoe options if my tennies got soaked!) 

Tuesday we did some prep work at the local Catholic church as Pat, a niece, and nephew were going to be providing various parts of the music.  Afterwards I asked if I could go to the local quilt store, Miss Good Stitch. I came prepared with some fabric samples and the measurements of the Ombre Log Cabin quilt. I found a 108" backing fabric that hopefully will go with the quilt. The fabric is a pink ombre with gold dots on it. I think it is by the same designer who did the fabric in the Log Cabin quilt. I picked up a Villa Rosa design and another piece of fabric. I said I was supporting a small fabric store... but it was really about me liking their fabric.  I haven't compared the pinks yet but my guess is I will use it whether it is a great match or not. 

Munising has a population of less than 2,000 people.  But they had at least two of these businesses! 

It is a tourist town both in summer and winter so I guess they both can make a go of it in such a small town.

As mentioned earlier, Wednesday was a long day.  However, it was wonderful to see so many of Pat's family.  We met many members of Roger's side of the family for the first time. After the family dinner, Pat and I drove back to Marquette and saw Lake Superior. We went to bed early. 

Our flight left at 6:30ish on Thursday morning! Marquette is a really small airport with only two gates.  Our flights into Chicago and Richmond were both early.  YEA! 

Um, what? I had seen one just outside the airport in Marquette when we arrived but it wasn't there at 5:00 am when we came back. This one was at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Evidently you can leave your excess cannabis in the box so you don't have it with you when you go into a state that doesn't allow it. Ok then. 

We were so very thankful we weren't flying on Friday.  Thank goodness we were trying to get me back home so I could attend some of the retreat. I felt sorry for all the passengers who couldn't fly Friday. 

I didn't take many pictures at the retreat. But I do have a cute one to share later. I'm ready to go to bed and I still have to link up with the following Linky parties. 

Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  I'll be back Monday to link the other two.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Mail Call!

Here's the quilt I received from the latest Doll Quilt Swap I participated in:

 You can't really see the wonderful embroidery Sandy did on this... try clicking on it to see if it will enlarge.  Sandy lives on a cattle station in NSW, Australia.  We had several emails going back and forth to get to know each other better.  It was a lot of fun to learn about each other's life.  Of course, the biggest job for me was to figure out where she lives.  It is a really small town and far from the beaten path, so to speak. 




She also sent a couple of stuffed animals representative of the animals in the area.  And, really neat fabric that shows many of the animals native to Australia.  Way too cool! You can see a bit of the fabric behind the animals.


You can visit Sandy's blog ShiraleeStitches.




Just in case you think I am not multi-dimensional -- Here's my patio tomato plant with a tomato nearly ready to pick. I was afraid we'd only have these few tomatoes but figured out there are several little ones just starting out.  Yum!  I love tomatoes.  

Today I hope to finish the spring quilt I showed last post.  Heck, it's the end of the month and I only have one doll quilt as a finish. So if I can get that quilt done at least it will give me a little more of a finish.  (Hum, seems like I bought a bit of fabric this month too....) 

I'm off for a long walk with the dog.  It's not too hot out yet and I'd like to get some exercise without going over to the Y today.  Poor Raggs will come back panting but he'll sleep the rest of the day!  Happy Quilting All!