Monday Meanderings 10 - 23 - 2017

All of my sewing this past week has been focused on the birthday party we went to on Saturday. We were celebrating Theo's and Ellie's birthdays.  Theo had to wait since mid September and Ellie celebrated a few days early.  I doubt Theo minded!  

I took very few pictures for some reason.  But once Theo had eaten cake (read that as got cake all over him...) he was hanging out in a diaper.  Kevin grabbed his Halloween shirt and covered him up -- just to keep him a little warmer. He cleaned up pretty well, didn't he?   

On the other hand, Rapunzel didn't get all that dirty eating cake (or dinner for that matter.) She'd been playing outside all afternoon so her cute little off to the side braid was a mess by this time. 

She and her 2 friends along with her 2 cousins played upstairs for a bit.  It was amazing how much noise 5 girls could make!  But I was happy to see that she was able to dress her baby doll in this outfit.  Thank goodness for Velcro™!  These fairly simple doll clothes took me two days to make.  Of course, I didn't devote sustained time on them so maybe 8 hours all-together  

Ellie loves to play with my Ginny doll when she visits.  So far she can't dress the doll herself.  Heck, Velcro™ wasn't invented . . .  oops, actually it was invented in 1955.  Ok, so it wasn't widely distributed until much later.  My Grandma Ruth made me numerous doll dresses for all sorts of different dolls.  I particularly like my Ginny doll for the grands because she's small and child-like.  Did you have a Ginny doll growing up?  (Do you have any doll clothes patterns for her?) One of these days I'll share her with you and some of her clothes.  

As I was putting my purse away at Kevin's house I noticed a rubber duck.  I've shared several of ducks here and here. I had to take a picture and share.  Nancy, here'ssssss Elvis!

We had a good time at the birthdays celebration.  Good food and fun to see all of the grands at one time.  However, with the Halloween and birthday sewing done I can now start back on my quilting projects.  You'll notice I didn't get that stray kite block done yet.  I did get it cut out though!  So a tiny bit of progress was made. 

Most of my goals were achieved. 

October 16, 2017

Finish 2^nd skirt√

Embroider 2 more shirts√

Make 2 baby doll outfits√ I ran out of time so 1 was done

Make last kite block didn’t even try to do this

Finish binding the trip around the world quilt √ (I'll share it later.) 

Here's what I'm hoping to get done this week. 

October 23, 2017

Make last kite block and sew blocks into top

Make and mail FCQ Equilter pinwheel blocks

Pick a charity top and quilt it

Clean the front side of the cutting table

I'd be happy if I got all of these projects done even though the list seems pretty short to me.  On the other hand I have an ebook that needs to be returned in 2 days and I'm only about 40% finished.  I'm planning on doing some reading too! 

I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  Take some time to see what folks around the web are doing these days.  Enjoy. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Another Finish!

Flowers and Geese was finished yesterday evening when I stitched the last of the binding and the label down.  Phew, I just made it at the end of the month. (Yep, getting a finish in at the end of the month is quite motivating to me!) 

This pattern is from the Accuquilt website.  The pattern download is free.  I started it in May, 2016 that I blogged about here. I've been working on it off and on since then.  The top was done at the end of October, 2016 but I was waiting for ideas to quilt it.  I actually bought two different designs for the long arm.  The first one I would have been placing an individual design into each goose. EEK -- lots of work and a whole lot of threads to be tied off and buried.  Then, I found a great design that would work on a whole line of geese like I had.  It took me a while to get the sizes right on the computer but in the end it worked great. Next I quilted in the ditch around each of the major sections.  Last, I moved to the Bernina to stitch around all of the flowers and leaves. 

I used the same purple in the flying geese as the binding. It's so nice to check items off my goal lists. √

I was up in Maryland on grammy duty for part of this week.  I don't often see quilts I've given away after they've been used for awhile but this one was hanging on a display ladder.  I made this one for Natalie 5 years ago.  At the time I was a member of Quiltmaker's Scrap Squad.  We were encouraged to take a design and make it ours.  The original of this was a red, white and blue quilt with stars on it.  I used the colors of the nursery and added owls. You can't quite see it but I also added a counting element: first branch there was 1 owl, 2 on the next and so forth to five owls.  I really enjoyed making this quilt.  

This is for Nancy who blogs at Wyoming Breezes. (On August 28th, Nancy posted about some other little ducks she found in her neighborhood.)  Here's a little nurse duck I found on the bathroom shelf at my daughter's house.  It was wet so I suspect it goes into the bathtub to be played with.  I'll eventually share all of mine that I was given by a student when I was teaching.  

I haven't had a chance to get back to the studio since before I left earlier this week but I'm looking forward to spending most of tomorrow sewing to my heart's content. 

I'm linking up with the following linky parties: Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Finished or Not Friday. Take some time to look around at the various links.  They really will motivate you! 

That's it for me today!  I'm off to make a salad to take to a pot luck tonight.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Visible Progress

Much of what I've been working on in the studio over the last week has been boring -- to do and to show.  Yesterday I made great progress and actually sewed something that can be shown.  Not terribly exciting but at least something! 

I did mention it wouldn't be all that exciting.  This is the center background of the wall hanging I hopefully will work on at retreat next week.  Hum ...  I may make a little change or two.  I don't particularly like the brighter square in the center and the two darker squares on the diagonal in the bottom right.  I'll check to see if the flowers might go over that bright square before moving it. 


I've also gotten all the squares done for the stars quilt which is my major project during retreat.  Using my Accuquilt Go (with only one 4.5" square die) I was finally able to get over 425 squares cut.  All the squares (with extras), the star points, extra fabrics and the layout plan are all tucked away in a project box ready to be loaded into my car.  Yea!  Now to get all the wallhanging pieces organized too. 

My, doesn't that look so nicely organized?  Believe me, the minute I start working on it next weekend it will become a total mess.  

The next picture up is Fred with Ethel and another female friend visiting our bird feeder. The ducks have become constant visitors around our back yard.  They check the ground around the feeder regularly.  I recently refilled the feeder and knocked out some crunchy bits that were clogging the feeder.  They should have been finding lots of goodies.  

Fred actually was down the stairs that lead to the basement and my studio.  So I can look up from sewing and see what's happening.  When I got up to take pictures he waddled back up the stairs. 

You can't see the 3rd duck behind Fred.  It's been fun to watch their antics.  Hopefully we will only have a few ducks visit because having lots of ducks would not be pleasant.  

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Take some time to visit some of the blogs to see what is going on with quilters around the world. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 


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Stash busting Report April

Ok, not exactly stash busting but only a little stash growing was going on last month. 

2017	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
April	4.875	27.750	4.5	36.250	8.5

So I did bring in more fabric than I used last month but it was only a small amount more -- 3/8th of a yard.  Not bad. May will probably be a bad month for busting fabric but a great one for bringing in more gorgeous fabrics -- I'm heading to Lancaster, PA for retreat in a couple of weeks and we plan to do some shopping. 

I've made ridiculously great progress on my ugly fabric challenge.  In fact all I have left to do is hand sew the binding down.  Um, er, do I dare admit I made a big mistake in my planning?  I thought (for several weeks evidently) that today - the first Saturday of the month - was the Country Piecemakers guild meeting.  I was furiously working away on the bunnies and flowers, the borders, the quilting and the binding.  In fact, all that is left to do is sew down the binding on the back side.  I was checking out what else was going on at the guild meeting when I realized, oh no!, the meeting is next Saturday, the second Saturday of the month like it always is. Sigh.  I'm ready early -- well after the hand sewing that will be done Monday.  Here's a look at what's coming.  I'll probably share photos of the finished wallhanging Monday, May 15.  

The good news is I'll have time to work on the other items on my goal list this week.  Retreat is less than 2 weeks away and I have several things to finish doing for it -- like cut the rest of the blocks for the quilt I plan to put together at it!  

I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?.

I'll end with introducing you to Fred. 

Yep, Fred is a duck.  He and Ethel have been hanging around the back of the houses on our street.  We first saw them on Easter Sunday when the granddaughters went chasing after them.  Since then we've seen them several times a week as they graze under the various bird feeders for some tasty tidbits. One of our neighbors named them Fred and Ethel after the characters on I Love Lucy. Recently Fred's been bringing some friends with them. No Fred, keep this bounty to yourselves. Don't invite all your friends and relatives.  I don't want the yard filled with, well, er, um... duck poop.   He's standing at the top of the stairs that lead down to my basement studio so I can see him from my sewing machine.  We'll see how long we welcome them into the yard if they really start bringing all their friends and neighbors.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie