Monday Meanderings 10 - 26 - 2026

It's been a busy week of sewing, ironing and reading... yep, I spent some time reading along with the sewing.  

Here's my goals list from last week. 

10/19/26

✅Sew borders on paper pieced pastels top — border on. 

✅Finish Halloween stitchery — all quilting done; just needs binding. 

Quilt a small quilt of mine — a backing is loaded but nothing else done! 

✅Cut pieces for Marigold Oct Clue — 5 of 15 4” blocks are done, the rest are cut out ready for sewing. 

✅Wash, ✅dry, and ✅ iron new fabrics — all marked, folded and stored with same colors. 

I did a fairly decent job of getting my goals accomplished.  Here are some pics. For the fall stitchery I decided to stitch some diagonal lines.  It dawned on me after I quilted it I did the lines in the same direction of the leaves falling off the tree with a bit of wind. It seemed to take forever as each start and stop had to be tied off after stitching.  But it is all stitched now. On to the binding!

Here are the new fabrics I bought at Fork Mountain Quilting in Rocky Mount, Va. during retreat. 

The purple and orange (which is more peach in real life) are for backings of small tops. The white with grey dots is for a background some day. The darker orange and green are for a new project. I've started it but have put it aside for the time being.  I'll share it eventually. 

And here are a few small pieces I picked up on the free table.  I haven't acquired much kids' fabrics recently so I thought these would do well especially because they were free.  I generally make Happy Blocks (visit https://maryquilts.com/happy-blocks-from-charms/ for directions.  Check out Mary's other simple directions for other designs.)  These will make several blocks each. Sorry for the weird photo. I may have enlarged them too much or some thing else weird happened. Eventually I'll use these in a kid's quilt. 

Here are the goals for this week...

10/26 

Quilt large flying geese top

Trim and bind Halloween stitchery

Sew 10 Marigold mystery Oct blocks

Bind second blue quilt from 9/28

Finish one brick top

I've sewn several columns for the brick quilt.  I haven't decided how big I want it yet.  I've been sewing the bricks with squares as my leader ender for a long while. I think I've gone crazy with how many I have to make into quilts.  Here's what I've laid out so far. 

Any suggestions about color placement? I've just been making color columns but need to figure out what order to place them.  I'm not sure it makes much of a difference but any suggestions would be appreciated.  

I've continued the stitching every day.  Here are the numbers.

Week ending 10/25/26: 298 days of 2026.

 296 stitching days out of 298 days 99.3%

I also figured out my fabric usage statistics for the end of the third quarter. I kept forgetting to list them.  So here's what happened during July, August and September along with the rest of this year. I'm very happy to be using more fabric than what I'm bringing into the stash! 

2026	Fabric In Quarter	Fabric In Year to date	Fabric Out  Quarter	Fabric Out Year to Date	Total In or Out Year
1st Quarter	27.250	27.250	33.500	6.250	6.250
2nd Quarter	16.625	43.875	19.200	52.750	8.875
3rd Quarter	14.750	58.625	25.450	78.20	19.750

Before we know, it will be Election Day.  I've already early voted  and I hope you have too. However, if you are planning to vote on Election Day here are some suggestions from Joyce Vance who writes Civil Discourse on Substack and wrote Giving Up Is Unforgivable.

• "If you’re going to vote on Election Day, make sure you know where your polling place is located. Some locations may have changed. Confirm the hours at your polling place and the ID requirements.

• Be prepared for long lines, delays, and other unexpected developments. Keep your cell phone handy, along with an Election Protection hotline number or website, so you can report anything unusual. 

• Remember to stay in line if the polls close while you’re waiting to vote—as long as you’re in line, you’re entitled to cast your ballot.''

  
  

  I forgot my Linky parties....please visit if you have the time. 

  
  

  Stitching Time, Oh Scrap, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings

  
  

  Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering -- 8 - 31 - 2026

I sure did the first thing on my goal list this past week.  Sharon and I had a great time together.  She got a lot done and pushed me to finish the August clue for Marigold Mystery.  I'm glad she did -- I was going to wait to do some at home.  But, the next clue comes out this week and sometime we'll get together over FaceTime and sew up the clue while we chat.  It's a great way for us to stay in touch.  

Here's the whole list of what got done. 

8/24

✅Enjoy in house retreat at Sharon’s — we had a great time. 

✅Make Marigold Mystery blocks — all of the first clue blocks are done. 

Start sewing idiom challenge top — no sewing done but several things were done that moved the project ahead. 

✅Finish sewing string quilt together — done. 

Bind sea creatures quilt — still need to hand sew binding down. And ✅fall appliqué quilt -- done and hanging.

Here are a few of my Marigold blocks.  You can see some of the fabrics I'm using here. Since I am using a big hunk of orange I'm trying to make blocks that will go with the orange but not be too dark. If you wonder where the purple is coming from, look at the bottom center of the picture of all the fabrics.  There is definitely some purple in it.  The first clue included 5 sawtooth stars and 4 Dutchman puzzles. I had two of the stars done from when Sharon and I had FaceTimed together.  That means I made 7 blocks at her house. 

I did get the string blocks sewn into a quilt but I didn't remember to take a picture until after it clouded up so I couldn't get a decent picture.  Additionally I finished sewing the binding on the fall applique and it is already hanging in the great room.  But it was too dark to get a decent picture.  After I write my blog I'll try to get started on the sea life quilt. 

I also spent some time today adding to my Idiom Challenge piece.  I've chosen colors for the items. I've done a bit more drawing of elements.  I hope to actually do some sewing this week.  It's due on 9/16.  It will be hanging at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo in Fredericksburg Sept 24 through 26, 2026. (I'm also going to be working as a class assistant on the 24th.) 

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

8/31/26

Start sewing on idiom quilt

Cut one kit for Oct retreat

Lay out potato chip blocks and possibly sew together

Finish binding on sea life

Get one of my tops loaded and quilted 

That seems like a lot considering I really need to get going on the idiom challenge quilt. Hopefully I'll get some different things moved forward too. 

Despite two days of travel I was able to continue stitching for 15 minutes a day. Saturday evening after driving for 5 or so hours home I wasn't sure I really wanted to do any stitching.  But after relaxing for a while I set a timer for 20 minutes and proceeded to knit on a wash cloth.  Not quite mindless knitting but pretty easy. Most days Sharon and I spent 6 to 7 hours in her studio sewing, chatting, and having fun. 

Week ending 8/30/26: 242 days of 2026.

 241 stitching days out of 242 days 99.6% 

One thing we did do is visit a couple of stores for fabric.  Did I need to buy any? Not exactly.  Did I buy some? YEP.  Here's most of my new fabric with a wide back I bought several weeks ago. Darn -- this isn't a great picture. The orange and blue are 3 yard pieces for backings. The weird looking brown is actually a 1/2 yard piece of brown dimples. (I figure it will go with Marigold mystery fabrics.) The fabric underneath them is actually a light blue-green design on a wide backing. You might be able to see them better if you enlarge the picture. I'm hoping to use some of these backings this week. 

And my best purchase was this, dare I say, hideous green with green spots/circles on it.  It yelled frog to me! (oops! I general use my blog URL on my pictures. Evidently I used the notation I use on the pictures name instead for some unknown reason.)  Isn't that going to make a great frog? I'm looking forward to making Ms. Frog. 

I meant to take a picture of one of the New Bern bears but didn't think about it until we were shopping.  This bear was out side of the Academy sports shop.  Driving to the next fabric store I must have seen 8 to 10 other bears, but this was easiest to snap a picture. 

One thing I "found" when I was putting away these fat quarters was an old Halloween stitchery I finished several years ago.  It's time to make it a small wall quilt/picture.  Here's the stitchery with 3 suggested borders. The one on the right seems wrong for the black and white stitchery.  Below is a closeup of the two blacks I'm auditioning.  I think the border would be about 2" cut or about 1.5" with the binding. I still need to trim the stitchery too.  My thought is to get this finished and possibly use it this October.  What looks like a shadow behind the piece is actually the excess fabric of the suggested borders.  See the close up below showing the two on the left. 

The one on the top is a herringbone design that was used as the border and binding of the autumn applique quilt. 

The one underneath has black with various shades of grey with it.  I'm leaning toward the black and grey one... gives a bit more interest to the piece.  Of course, I'll need to check that there is enough of it to also do the binding. If time permits I might work on it this week. 

Please check out these blogs.  It's fun to see what other quilters are working on. Heck, maybe you'll see some great inspirations. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

We had a slight respite from the super hot and humid days last weekend.  And much of this week.  But if the weather forecast is accurate, we're in for really hot and humid week. Five days in the 90's and one day hitting 100°. And that's without taking the humidity into consideration.  So where will I be the most comfortable? You're right if you said my basement studio.  It is so much cooler down there AND I have my own ac/heater too if I get too hot.  So I should get a lot done this coming week.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 -- 11 -- 2026

Do you ever have weeks where you have a lot of great plans but kind of peter out in the actual doing of said plans? That was me this week. I was more interested in reading then stitching so much time was spent on that pastime.  I succeeded in reading 3 of the 4 books that came in last week.  The other one I have a bit more time but I doubt if I'll finish it before it is due.  I'll probably put it back on hold, but maybe not. Time will tell. 

I did pretty well on my goals last week.  Take a look. 

5/4/26

✅Quilt Cats in Pajamas — done. 

✅Finish Quilting Trip Around the World for Nancy — done and returned. 

✅Work on UFO Challenge for May — progress is being made.

✅Trim Dash blocks — done.

✔️Cut one quilt kit — started. 

My daughter asked me to quilt an Elizabeth Hartman quilt for her.  We had a pretty long time line so I agreed. It was my priority this week. Unfortunately she lives in Maryland so it is a trip to get to her place or vice versa. I think we're going to pick a quilt store between the two of us, meet there, turn over the quilt, and go for lunch. But that's happening next week. In the meantime enjoy Cats in Pajamas. 

Jen loves Elizabeth's patterns and has made many of them.  She also likes bright fabrics.  The kitten on the bottom left -- her grey face is drawings of cats.  Too cute. You can see the quilting design better on the photo below. It is Rhapsody Edge-to-Edge (Paw Prints.) (Another great design from My Creative Stitches.) And, yep it is a wonderfully colorful backing.  I show another picture of it further down. 

 

I didn't take all that many pictures of what I was working on this week.  So let's go straight to goals for this week. 

5/11/26

Quilt customer’s quilt

Add border to rainbow rail top

Work on UFO Challenge for May

Start sewing dash blocks together

2 concerts and 1 rehearsal

I decided to lighten up on what I hope to do this week as several days I am tied up with other things.  

I succeeded with stitching every day this week. Yea! 

Week ending 5/10/26:  130 days of 2026.

  130 stitching days out of 130 days. 100%

A group I knit kids' hats for sent out a call for a lot of them for back to a school event in July. So I've decided I'll focus on that when I'm doing handwork for a few weeks. I'm hoping to keep stitching a little on Mr. Snowman #2. We'll see if I succeed with that one. 

I did actually go backing shopping this week.  We no longer have a quilt store in our town so I hit up Hobby Lobby for it.  Not my favorite source but it was that or Michaels.  Next time I'll probably see what Michaels offers.  I found fabric for both quilts. It's going to be a week or two before I'll be able to quilt either of the quilts though.  Here's what I got. Nothing special. The top is for a baby quilt and the bottom is for a scrap quilt.  I'll have left over fabric from both of them so they may star in their own quilt one day. 

By the way, I negotiated some of Jen's backing fabric to go with a rainbow colored top I've had done for a year or so.  She's quite generous so I carefully cut enough fabric for the borders on the quilt below.  Doesn't it look great? I hope to get it sewn on this week. (Of course it'll sit in the to-be-quilted closet for a while after the border is on.) 

Have some fun this week reading blogs from around the world.  Check out links at these Linky parties. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Here's hoping you have a quilty week.  

Happy Quilting! Bonnie