Monday Meanderings 7 - 20 - 2020

A surprise tonight -- I finally decided to figure out how much fabric I used in June. (Yep I'm really late with this!)  It took a bit of adding and multiplication to get the final number.  And, yep, I was surprised.  I used more fabric than I brought in...and I brought in plenty. Here's the data: 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	9.000	45.750	12.375	46.875	1.125

It's now official -- I've used more fabric than I've purchased this year.  Most of the yardage was wide backs which means I have more than enough backings for a while. I'm not planning on buying any fabric the rest of this month.  I can be strong! (maybe)

I did pretty well on my goals this week: 

Quilt the Pirate quilt✔️ quilted Pictures after it's bound and I have a photo shoot

Make another Christmas paper pieced block✔️ one more Snowman  (purple brimmed hat.)

So here are the  finished blocks.  I ended up making one too many polar bears.  So the question is should I make a 3rd snowman and 1 or 2 penguins.  If I make 3 of each animals I'll not use the the extra left facing polar bear.  These are paper pieced designs from Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Mary Hertel.  Hum, maybe I should add a reindeer too. what do you think? Mary has some other penguins in her Etsy shop. I think I'll be shopping this week.

Work on painted block✔️ almost finished no pictures yet.

Pull out UFO of dog blocks and make the center of the top… yikes. Need extra blocks...first one is done. ✔️  Here are the blocks I've got.  These blocks are from a swap ages ago (as in the mid 1990s through Prodigy -- one of the first commercial internet service provider for customers.) The blocks had to be multiples of 3". These are the ones I received. Most of them still have the tag listing the maker, location and email address. (I wonder how many addresses would still be good?) The black dog with the red bow is mine. I just threw these on my design wall to get an idea of what I need to bring it up to a decent size. What do you think?  I'm thinking I need to make more; maybe throw out the middle one in the top row.  

I have a slew of dog patterns I can add to these and Mary Hertel has a lot of faces of different breeds. But what about adding some four patches, 9 patches or flying geese?  Here's the dog I finished this week. I forget which book I found this in but it's the same dog as the blue and pink floral one in the upper left above.  I need to add a piece at the top or bottom to make it the same size as the other one. I think I might try some machine appliquéd dogs too.  I bet they would go MUCH faster. 

As much as I "like" the idea of paper piecing I'm not that good at it.  I end up having to take out those tiny stitches and recut fabric pieces all the time.  

That was last week's goal list.  On to this week's list: 

W/O 7-20

Quilt another personal quilt

Make more blocks: dogs, Winter paper pieced, CP 

Finish Painting Wood Block 

Set the airplane blocks from last year’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I find that some weeks I am raring to work in the studio.  Some weeks I putz around and don't get much done.  Hopefully this week I'll be getting a lot done.  

Pat got a package in the mail from my cousin last week.  We were both tickled with his new mask.  Marilyn's been making some really nice custom masks.  I'm not sure I need a USC mask but I graduated from USC too.  

I'm linking up to my regular Monday linky parties: 

Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and Main Crush Monday.  I plan on spending some extra time with these linky parties this week. I didn't last week and I'm sure I missed important happenings in studios! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 22 - 2020

Saturday morning I looked at my goals and realized I had succeeded in finishing only one of them. It really isn't a big deal if I hadn't finished them this week but I really wanted to be able to check some more items off the list.  I spent Saturday and Sunday sticking to only those goals. 

You may wonder why I was unable to get many goals done in the 5 days of the week.  Surprise!  I had a customer bring me a cute baby quilt that she wanted me to quilt and bind, the faster the better. Once my quilt was off Ruthie the long arm I spent the rest of the week finishing up her quilt.  (I forgot to ask if it would be ok to post it here so until I make sure that's ok you won't be able to see it.) 

By Saturday I had decided I wanted to make some more masks for my son.  He drives into DC two or three days a week and I figured he needed enough that he didn't need to wash them every couple of days.  So, Sunday afternoon I made these two.  I think they are conservative enough to look proper for business wear. 

I did finish Carousel and take pictures but I'm going to hold off until Thursday to post about it.  Both hubby and I LOVE it.   Right after its photo shoot hubby hung it in our entry hall. 

These blocks were started before Stay-At-Home began.  I lost interest.  They are for one of my FCQ Equilters.  A few weeks ago I took the finished blocks and some of the pieces and made a few more.  Hum, these don't look very bright in the picture.  They aren't this dull in person. This is Brick Yard from Missouri Star.  They will be going into the mail this week. 




This next quilt I finished last month and forgot to share pictures.  It was made from  some leftover quarter square triangles.  Nothing spectacular but someone will enjoy having it. I was happy to use up some older fabric too. 

And here is the backing.  I used some leftover wide back fabric and a piece of tan Kona. I was really excited to use a new long arm pattern.  It's called Sound Wave.  Very simple waves. Here's the back where the pattern shows much better.  It was designed by Jessica Schick and sold by Urban Elementz. I'm looking forward to using it a lot in the future. 

Here's the info on all of last week's goals and then what I hope to work on this week.

W/O 6/15/2020

Finish Carousel quilt on long arm.✔️

Cut binding and apply it to Carousel.✔️

Finish the Sawtooth Stars blocks✔️

Put the border on Bright Boxes - nothing done.

Set the airplane blocks from last year’s SOS - nothing done.

W/O 6/22/2020

Border the Bright Boxes.

Quilt and bind Ninja Stars quilt.

Make individual blocks for FCQ Equilter, Silver Lining QAL, and last years CP BOM.

Pull out another UFO to work on.

There you go -- another week has passed.  I spent quite a bit of time blog hopping.  If you want to this week please check out these linky parties:  Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday and Main Crush Monday. 

I leave you with my friend JR playing the bag pipes at one of our drive-by birthday parties.  One of the gal's friend bought the yarn sign which was really fun.  

Yep, he also is Santa Claus during the Christmas Season.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

March Stash Busting or Not

I thought I was doing a good job on not building my stash this month.  But then I remembered I bought quite a few pieces of fabric on a shopping trip to Richmond on Mar. 3.  Blue Crab Quilt shop was having a going out of business then so a group of us went down to take advantage of the good prices.  We hit a few other shops too, where I also bought fabric and thread.  Sigh. 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Mar	7.125	25.375	6.00	14.625	10.750

So I am still bringing in more fabric than I am using. But so far this month I've bought no fabric at all.  

As well as everyone else, I've been making masks.  Unfortunately, masks don't take all that much fabric. And, I'm using muslin for backing and ties.  Luckily I have a lot of it from different people's stashes I was given.  So, yes, I'm using small amounts of my own fabric, and making a dent in the other stashes.  I did not add those into my fabric acquisition numbers over the years so I am not deducting them either.  Hopefully, I will get a few of my own projects quilted and bound this month.

I started with 8 blocks/parts of blocks left over from a baby quilt I made in 1997.  Scrappy  Mountain Majesties is a Bonnie Hunter pattern available on Quiltville.com. It's been on my UFO list for ages.

I added 9 blocks and dropped a bunch to get this 3 x 4 layout.  The blocks are taller than they are wide.  The 3 x 3 setting seemed an odd size. So I made 15 blocks. Yep, that works. Once I find a backing fabric, get it quilted and bound I'll be able to mark it off my UFO. 

Not every juncture is wonderful.  Some look like the top one at the right.  And some look like the bottom one which looks pretty darn good to me!  There will be no border.  This goes directly into my closet with other tops needing to be quilted.  This one is small -- it'll probably only need a 1.25 yards for the backing.  But do I have that much fabric just hanging around? Maybe, I need to do a really good search.

I've started putting together the red, white and blue blocks I showed here. Hum, I just reread what I wrote.  I forgot all about putting sashing in.  I've already sewn the top row together with no sashing.  Oh well.  Hopefully it will look good when finished.  Tomorrow I'll check my measurements and make sure these blocks will be the right size for QOVs. 

I'm still making masks, but I'm sewing on my UFOs too.  I hope to be able to continue to donate 10 to 15 masks a week to good causes but still make some forward progress on my own projects.  

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday,  Can I Get a hoop Whoop, Beauties 76, Midweek Makers, and To Do Tuesday. I'm doing some surfing over the next few days.  won't you join me? 

Stay Safe and Happy Quilting!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 4 - 6 - 2020

Are you getting your projects done?  I'm not.  In fact I got only a couple of blocks done this whole week.  But I was sewing every day.   What I have been doing is making more masks.  Studying lot of mask patterns. And trying to speed up my production. 

I did two more house blocks and sent them of to the quilter who is putting them together. I put cats in both windows. 






Here are the ones I sent out to my son and his family. This group should keep them covered up for a while. Both Kevin and Aimee are still having to go to work for some days during the week. 

These masks are on their way to my brother in California. I figure he and his wife can share them with her sisters and mom.  

This week I'll be working on masks to give to Life Care transport.  They need masks too.  I'll be making some masks for my daughter and her family too.  

Have you been watching your roots grow out?  Or how about that great haircut falling apart?  I was supposed to get my hair cut on Wed. 3/18.  Yep, that's a good 3 weeks ago and it was long then.  It finally was driving me crazy so I asked hubby to trim the back of it.  He cut it straight across the back and did a great job.  The good news is my earlier haircut is holding up pretty well on the sides.  And, luckily I haven't dyed my hair in years so I'm not watching unwanted roots coming out! I'm sure my hair is going to be getting more home cutting over the next few weeks or months? I hope it can keep looking decent.  Or I'm may be taking my scissors to the sides too.   

And last I'm sharing what we found on our walk one day this week. It sums up what I wish for all of you too.  

My goals have totally fallen apart because I'm spending most of my time on masks for a while.  I'm hoping I can sneak in some personal sewing between the masks.... all I need to do is cut a few pieces and then I can use them as leader/enders.  Not a bad idea. 

I'm linking up with my regular parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  I'll be spending some time surfing the internet this week.  I didn't take much time to do that last week.  But this time I definitely will be!  Join me.

What are you doing this week?  

Stay safe and happy quilting!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 23 - 2020

Have you been keeping up with all the info about making face masks for medical staff? I saved a couple of sites that gave directions.  And, I made one to see what it was like.  I downloaded the directions and pattern for the Fu Face Mask. This is a free pattern site for all sorts of patterns. The Fu Face Mask is designed to tie on and uses 2 pieces of fabric for the mask.  From the research I've done no home made masks made with woven cotton fabric will protect COMPLETELY from viruses.  However, it can be useful in some situations.  Apparently it is above 50% effective.  So, if the alternative choice is no mask, this is a reasonable alternative.  I have an email into my local hospital to see if they need any cloth masks and if so what type they would prefer.  


My bear is around 15" or so.  I made the large mask which is big even on me.  

I rewrote the instructions so I didn't have to print pages and pages of instructions. Please go to the above link if you would like instructions and the pattern. 

Until I know whether there is a need in my community I am not planning on making these.  I'll keep you posted.  

So in other news, Pat and I took a drive Saturday.  One of the enjoyable parts of the drive was to see the cherry blossom trees in full bloom near our house. Unfortunately the weather was lousy.

I have started working on my Talking Turkey wall quilt.  Years ago I took a class with Bonnie Hunter.  I decided I would only do a 9 block wallhanging.  When they were done I put them together.  I let the blocks age for several years until last week when I decided it was time to put the border on and get the top finished. 

Without sashing.

I was texting my in house retreat buddies about working on this quilt and that I needed to decide on the border.  Sharon posted a picture of her finished quilt. (same size as mine, basically.)  Um, they didn't look the same at all.

I pulled out the book and realized there is sashing between the blocks that really adds to the design. Can you say let 'er rip?

With sashing.

Here it is in the process of sashing. 

Don't those little 9 patches look great?  All the blocks are sewn  together.  But the rows are not sewn yet.  I still need to add one more row around the outside edge to finish off the 9 patches.  I like the look with the 9 patches.  That's tomorrow's plan.  Unfortunately, it may get too big to hang above our fireplace.  It would really look good up there so I'm going to try to make it work.  I'll keep you posted! 

Last week I mentioned I would be doing a UFO give away.  Sorry to admit, but I've changed my mind.  I am trying to stay home and not interact with anyone/anything that could put me at risk.  Well, duh, how would I get something sent if I can't weigh it and buy stamps.  So, when this pandemic calms down I'll reconsider offering a UFO give away.  

I had 3 items as goals last week.  Obviously I've made great progress on Talking Turkey.  So it will stay on the list.  Hopefully I'll get it done early in the week so I can then do the next few. 

1. Talking Turkey to top stage.

2. Pull out a charity quilt top from the Virginia Star Quilters and quilt it. I did actually pull this from the closet but that's all I did. It is staying on the list. 

3. Start trimming and sewing into a top the star blocks from my last FCQE Quilters turn. Again, not much progress so it's staying on the list. 

That's it for today.  I'm linking up with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and Main Crush Monday.  Take some time to see what folks have been working on. 

Stay safe and quilt on! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie