Monday Meanderings 11 - 3 - 2025

November has officially begun which means there are only 2 months of 2025 left.  Do you think 2025 has been whizzing by like I do?  It also means I need to start figuring out Christmas presents for the family.  The grands have gotten older and seem to prefer gift cards.  It sure makes my life easier.  But I still like to have little gifts to go with so they have a few things to open.  

In the mean time, let's see what's been happening on my goals last week. 

10/27/25

✅Baste Halloween top and quilt on domestic machine — finished! Click on this link to read all about it. 

✅Continue making Benny blocks — more blocks and parts finished. 

✅Sew section 5 of Tall Tree and keep working on skirt sections — both items are done! 

✅Continue working on Benny top — see second goal. OOPS -  didn’t notice I had listed it twice. Unfortunately I didn't get twice as much done on it! 

Not a lot of photos this week.  You can see the Halloween quilt I finished by clicking on the link above.  

Since I figured the number of pieces I would need for Benny quilt wrong I decided to cut some more novelty pieces to go into it. I may be cutting more as I only went through a small number of my novelty fabrics.  

Here's the first skirt section of the Tall Tree pattern.  I realized it would take a lot longer to make than the other sections. It made sense to start on these 3 sections as I finish the big ones.  Two more to go of the tree skirt. 

Here's what's planned for this week. 

11/3/25

Finish Tall Tree sections 6 & 7 and 2nd skirt section

Continue making Benny blocks 

Baste small top for quilting on domestic machine

Make more Economy blocks

15 Minutes of Stitching was another successful week. 

W/ending 11/2/25. 306 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/October 30/31
• 15 minute days/2024 = 305/306 days
• Success rate = 99.67%

Here's a reminder to check out these Linky Parties.  You never know what great ideas you will find.  

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 3 - 2020

Welcome August!  If you are counting days 'til Christmas there are 144 days. (Really?) And, there are 93 days to the election.  Have you figured out how you are going to vote?  We were very pleased with the election we voted in  during the pandemic.  We were able to request our ballots on line.  Once we filled it out we could return it to the local Office of Elections.  It was only 2 miles or so away from our house.  Very easy to get the ballot through the mail, fill it out, and return it in person. We'll be repeating that experience in November. 

On to my goals from last week.  Here's what I was working on. 

Goals 7-27

Quilt Customer Quilt ✔️

Bind Pirate Quilt ✔️

Bind Braid Shuffle Quilt ✔️

Finish blocks for Silver Lining QAL ✔️

Set the airplane blocks from last year’s Rainbow Scrap

Here's a peek at the 2 quilts I bound last week. 

We are going to get some some rain and winds from Isaias. Once the weather dries up I'll get full photos of these two quilts to share. 

Once the customer picks up her quilt I'll try to post a picture of it. It turned out really well. The Silver Lining QAL blocks are all done.  I've started sewing the blocks together.  Hopefully the top will be done by next week. 

Once again the poor propeller blocks have not been put on the design wall. No doubt I'll bring them out once the Silver Lining tops is finished. I'm also still working on the dog blocks and have made some progress.  At least I'm not threatening to put them back in a box for another decade! 

Here's next week's goals. 

8/3/2020

Finish Sewing Silver Lining Blocks into top

Quilt customer quilt (another one.) 

Plan dog top and make fillers as needed

Visit new quilt store opening 8/3! 

Propeller blocks! 

Yes, we have a new quilt store opening soon.  We've been without a local store for about a year.  I'm hoping to do some shopping soon! 

Wait, I did do some shopping last week.  I belong to the group Sew Its For Sale, a group on Groups.IO.  People list fabrics, patterns, books and notions for sale, generally discounted compared to current prices.  Someone had a group of purple fabrics available. I fell for them. Voila! New to me purples! These will show up in my July fabric statistics. And I've already used a piece from one of them. 

Remember when I was painting a quilt block? You can read a little bit about it here. I finally finished it. Pat put the final coating on it and made a hanger for it. Now it is hanging on the wall of our deck. It's 24" square. Much smaller than blocks on barns but definitely a fine size for our deck. 

I'm looking forward to spending some more time in the studio this week. I'm really hoping I can figure out those dog blocks.  They've been waiting since the mid 90s.  I think that is long enough! 

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Design Wall Monday. I'm sure there must be something new I'd like to try! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie  

Monday Meandering and OMG Success!

Here we are at the last weekend of February and I've actually finished my One Monthly Goals for the month with a half a week left.  My goals (yep, I gave myself two goals) and I finished both of them already.  First was finishing my entry in Country Piecemaker's Calendar Challenge.  Christmas Memories along with all of our Calendar Challenge quilts will be hung at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival this coming weekend. If you are going to Hampton Roads for the show see if you can find our Calendar Quilts.  I saw all of them when I turned mine in.  Here's mine just before I turned it in.

I chose to honor my great aunt Dora. Aunt Dora loved hand crafted items.  From as long as I can remember she would make family members beautifully Christmas ornaments, often from kits from Herrschners.  One year she must have raided her costume jewelry because all of our ornaments were strung beads with gold and silver trimmings.  Those ornaments have glowed on our trees ever since.  Aunt Dora continued making ornaments well into her 90s.  A wonderful crafty legacy for her family. 

Taking inspiration from a paper Christmas napkin, I paper pieced the tree sections.  They were hand appliqued to the backing.   I realized I could actually attached items to the scene using an invisible thread and my machine for the gifts and window. Decorating the tree was all done by hand.  

My second goal was to finish my Valentines Day table runner.  I used a feathered heart in each heart and then outline stitched each square.  I'm not sure why this picture makes the background look yellow -- it's definitely white.

Here is a close up of one heart.  I used Kona White to bind it.  I don't think I'm going to use Kona for binding again.  I had a hard time getting nice corners with it. I'll use something else next time a bind a quilt. 

I did really well on my weekly goals this past week. I actually worked on each project. 

February 18, 2019

Bind Valentines table runner√

Border first Granny blocks quilt√

Make more quarter square triangles√ 

Work on dog tumbler top√

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt√

Here's what's up this week.  Not as much sewing but I've got several things planned. 

February 25, 2019

Quilt Granny Blocks Quilt

Bind red, white and blue 16 patch

Sew the quarter square triangles quilts together 

Go to QOV sew-in 

Attend genealogy gathering 

Attend Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show 

It's going to be a great week.  I'm hoping I can finish two quilts before the end of the month.  One needs the binding and other need quilting and binding. Time will tell if I succeed!

I'm linking up with my regular Monday linky parties and Elm Street Quilts for the February Finish link up. You can visit Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward Monday. (I'll link up the other parties as they become available -- if I remember!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 10 - 22 - 2018 and PEI

Busy week -- I've been trying to get two posts up each week.  Sure didn't happen this week.  So here's what I've been working on recently.  I spent one day wrestling a big king size backing -- I needed to add a few more inches to the backing.  The next day I loaded it (with Pat's help) on Ruthie.  Then I got the design figured out and started quilting it.  I got 3 of the 14 rows done.  It takes Ruthie about 30 minutes to quilt out a row.  I must say, I love the electronics on her! 

I spent a lot of time on embroidering the Halloween shirts for Natalie and Sophie this week. I probably should have picked a different design for Sophie.  Her's had 34 different stops; half had thread color changes.  If you aren't familiar with appliqué style embroidery the first stitching line is designed to give you a base line so you can then put a piece of fabric on it.  The second stitching line stitches the fabric down.  Then you remove the hoop and trim the fabric close to the line.  This design had 8 different fabrics added.  Hind sight -- I would have picked a different design to save some time!  But Sophie liked it.

And here's Natalie's. It only had 6 fabric placements and 21 total stops. She too likes her shirt.  I figure someday they will both grow out of these cute shirts but until they tell me that I'm still going to make them. 

I also gave up on the pattern for Theo's v neck cardigan I showed last week.  I finally realized I had no idea what the directions wanted me to do.  So I reviewed the old pattern and decided to go with the pullover sweater.  Much easier.  All the stitches got ripped out and the new sweater is started.  Hopefully this new design will go much faster without any more pulling out all my stitches! 

I did fairly well with my goals this week. 

October 15, 2018

Work on customer’s king size quilt - fix backing, load and begin quilting√

Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces Nope, nothing

Knit on Theo’s sweater√ started a new sweater — pullover! 

Pick out and embroider Sophie and Natalie’s Halloween shirts √

Put out Halloween decorations… √

And this week --- much the same hopefully with more forward progress. 

October 22, 2018

Continue working on customer quilt — 11 more rows to do! 

Pick out designs and embroider Ellie’s and Theo’s Halloween shirts 

Try again — Get the backing for the heron picture done, layout the bird pieces

Knit on Theo’s sweater 

Here's the next grouping of photos from our time on Prince Edwards Island.  Lucy Maud Montgomery lived in PEI as a child and young adult.  As an adult she wrote Anne of Green Gables. The Green Gable Homestead is the house and some of the surrounding land that was the setting for the Anne stories.  It was fun to see the short video of her life and see her aunt and uncle's home that was the bases for Green Gable home in her novels.  

Here I am standing at the back of the house.  I realized there is a ladder on the roof.  I didn't hear anything about why there would be a ladder on the roof.  Anybody know?  

I had to take a picture of this quilt.  We didn't have a guided tour so I have no idea if it is original to the house or perhaps a quilt from the time. It was a beautiful sunny day so many of my pictures were washed out.  

On the way back to the harbor we made a quick stop at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company.  I bought some blueberry preserves and some tea.  It was fun to see this statue of a Scottish piper.  He represents one of the many Scotts who moved to the Maritime Provinces. Most of the areas we visited were settled by English, French or Scotch.  In some places we visited, such as Quebec, the French were predominant.  Everywhere we toured there was discussions about where folks from the different countries settled. 

Also, at the Preserve Company was a neat gourd display at .  Hum, I wonder if I could use some of this in an appliqué project....?

I have more to share from PEI so my next post will continue our time there. 

I'm linking up with my regular, wonderful linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward. It's time to see what others are working on.  (Yep, I'll need to link these up tomorrow morning!)  Thursday afternoon --  Well CARP!  I meant to come back and link up these places and I forgot all about it. I just linked up to Moving It Forward.  All the other linky parties are closed.  So much for getting this written Sunday night.... Sigh. See you next week. B

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 9 - 17 - 2018

What a week.... I was trying to get some piecing done and get ready for Florence.  But in the end Florence didn't come but some refugees from North Carolina:  my quilting buddy Sharon, her hubby and her dad.  It was great to see them but not under these circumstances.  Sharon and I did get a little sewing in while they were here.  

After Florence started to move on, Dale kept an eye on the roads and they left as soon as they could get through on the roads.  Her dad's house didn't have any flooding and he had electricity so they are staying there for the time being.  Dale has been posting updates on their house.  Flood water is closing in on them but hope is that it won't breech the house.  Luckily Sharon's studio is on the top floor of the house.  This whole thing has not been a nice welcome to their home.  They moved in about 3 weeks ago. I'm hoping she gets to come to retreat in about 2 weeks.  Fingers crossed.   

Here in Northern Virginia we are just now getting rains from Florence.  But not all that bad for us.  And, our house in Nags Head probably has no damage. We're awaiting a report from our property managers.  

On to sewing report.  I was able to enlarge the Potato Chip purse by just a little.   And get it completely sewn.  YEA!  A finish for September.  Not much is getting done this month for various reasons. Here's where you can buy the pattern if interested. You can also see lots of them made up on Pinterest.

Next up is preparing for a class with Lisa Ellis.  We're doing something called Wacky Portrait. Scroll to the bottom to see the sample.  I have quite a bit of work to get ready for it plus I'm doing a mini demo on making labels at guild meeting that night.  I'll definitely have my hands full this week! 

Here's how I did on my goals last week.

September 10, 2018 

Reviewing UFOs and updating spreadsheet More needs to be done…

Prep for class in mid Sept√ at least started

Figure out how to enlarge purse pattern & get started on it√ done 

Knit on sock√

Make a pillowcase oops — I did buy some new cuff fabric!

And here's what I hope to do this week.... hope being the key word here.

September 17, 2018

Prep class for this week! 

Knit on Sock 

Start sweater for Theo

Prep for mini demo on labels 

Make a pillowcase? 

As usual I'm linking up with these great Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving it Forward.  You know the drill -- take some time to see what folks are working on.  Also you can still visit bloggers who are participating in the Meet and Greet.  Here's the link to all the bloggers. 

And don't forget you can sign up for the Great Grand Prize below.

This link has been giving me grief today.  If it doesn't link please let me know.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie

Design Wall Monday 3-10-2014

Mondays keep coming up faster and faster.  I have good intentions to post more than one blog posting a week but I haven't had much success recently.  Hum, I wonder if I would have better luck if it went on my weekly goals? 

Lots of things to show today but no finishes yet.  Of course, I am getting closer and closer to some though! 

I brought this quilt out again.  I had 16 blocks done when I decided I wanted it a bit bigger.  Away it went for a hibernation. When I decided it was ready to wake up I put it up on the design wall and realized I had 2 blocks where units were turned the wrong way.  Bummer, except I was so happy to catch it before the blocks are together.  The other benefit of that is I can mix in some of my newer fabrics and move the blocks around so the last 4 blocks aren't the only ones with the newer fabrics in them.  

Oh my!  The stocking looks really bright.  Way different from the first block of Christmas Traditions! Take a look at it here. Hum, I may need to make a few changes on that block.  I'll see what I pick for the rest of the blocks before I take apart the reindeer one.  I have letters to put on the bright green top.  They are now ready to apply and stitch down.  So, maybe I'll start another block soon.  There are several pieced blocks that would be quick to do.  I do like piecing a lot.

I've done pretty well on my goals for last week.  One of the projects I was happy to get done was finishing the quilting on the shaded 9 patch.  It came off the long arm but I put it aside for several days.  Yesterday I finally got the edges trimmed. Earlier in the week the binding was made.  Now it's time to get that binding sewn on.  And when that's done I'll have plenty of hand work between hand stitching down the binding and tying off all the threads left after way too many stops and starts!  There is a reason I try not to do too complicated quilting!  I hate tying off those threads.  Hopefully I'll be focused and get this quilt totally done during March.  I need a couple of finishes!  

Hum, a 50% completion rate isn't all that good when I look at my goals list.  It looked much better to me when I was figuring out how much I got done.  Time to step it up here! 

Week of March 3, 2014

Finish quilting Split 9 Patch quilt√

Make√ and apply binding to split 9 patch

Quilt a baby quilt or two √

Start next Christmas Favorites block√

Make turquoise Color Challenge block

Send block directions to Bee quilters√

Mail out blocks to Janet

Cut out blocks for Polka Dot Challenge

Week of March 10, 2014

Mail out blocks to Janet

Cut out blocks for Polka Dot Challenge

Quilt a baby quilt

Apply binding to split 9 patch

Celebrate our birthdays with a movie and dinner

Keep working on Mystery Quilt

Applique the words on the Christmas Favorites Block

Make baby chicks blocks for FCQEquilters

Make turquoise Color Challenge block

Shaded 9 patch trimmed and awaiting its binding.

I'll be linking up with Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times.  Take a look at what is happening in quilting studios across the internet! 

Happy Quilting All!