Monday Meanderings 6 - 2 - 2026

We enjoyed some beautiful weather over the last week or so.  Temps in the low 70s and low humidity.  It's been lovely. Unfortunately the first week of June shows temps going up to the 90s with humidity. Bummer.  I tend not to bake (cookies, brownies) when the temp hits 80+.  We have a kitchen that opens into the living room.  Heating the oven heats the main part of the house. It doesn't make for comfortable tv watching or reading in the evening. 

So, my goal list doesn't have a bunch of ✅ this week. I didn't realize how long it would take me to make the 2 pillow shams I finished.  Here's what got finished and what was left out!

5/25/26

✅Stitch on Snowman #2 — made some progress. 

✅✅Make pillow shams for Ombré Log Cabin quilt — 2 done but they need a little more work to look better. 

✅Knit 2 kids size beanies — finished one and started and finished #2. 

Make some hollow 9 patches — nothing done. 

Trim Bargello quilt — Didn’t trim; need to buy binding first. 

Quilt one of my quilts — didn’t happen! 

We've had the Ombre Log Cabin quilt on our bed for about a month. It looked funny with pillow "shams" that were just white pillowcases.  So I decided it was time to make shams.  Unfortunately, I need to stitch about an 1 inch inside the edges of the sham so it stands up (hopefully).  Right now, this works but the shams are a bit floppy.    

I finished 2 beanies and found another one finished in my knitting bag.  We were asked to use bright colors and make kid friendly hats.  I generally give them to a friend of mine who turns them in every couple of weeks.  Hopefully I'll see her tomorrow at our weekly stitching meeting and she'll be able to turn them in. 

I use a pattern that allows me to knit the hat flat and then seam up the back. I find it easy to knit and doesn't take long to do the finishing work.  I've been making these stripe hats with two rows of color followed by 2 rows of the white. It sure helps to use up the little bits of yarn left from making other hats.  I decided to skip the pompoms on top as I worry about them falling apart too soon. I'll see how many more I can get done before the summer program passing out school clothes. 

Here's what I will be working on this week.  

6/2/2026

Quilt two of my quilts

Make some hollow 9 patches

Knit more kid-size beanies 

Stitch on Snowman #2

Cut one quilt kit

My June UFO project is a fall top. All I wrote was Fall Blocks Top.  Hum, I sure hope it will be obvious when I check for it in my quilt closet! 

I had another successful week stitching. 

Week ending 5/31/26:  151 days of 2026.

  151 stitching days out of 151 days. 100%

I did not attend the estate sale again this week.  For the most part I forgot all about it.  So no new things to share.  

We went out to dinner and a concert this weekend.  We left way too early so after dinner we went to a deli/bakery to have a piece of carrot cake. It's our favorite cake.  Here's the cake: 

Here's the review: not as good as my home made carrot cake or the one we get from our local Publix! The sad part is it cost nearly $8.00! And, yes, we shared our dessert! The concert was by another community chorus.  It was interesting music choices.  And, that's all I'll say. 

As usual I'm linking up with these parties. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Not much else is going on this week until Saturday.  The Spotsylvanians will be singing the national anthem at the Fred Nats minor league baseball game. This is the fourth year we've done it. It's always a fun event. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 7 - 25

Another week has zoomed by. I didn't think I'd done very much on my list but looking over it I did have some some successes. I also got a book read.  Here's my less than complete goals list from last week. 

6/30/25
✅Quilt one of my quilts — Done! 
Make trip around the world quilt(?)—nope. Don’t have enough of the chosen fabrics to make a TAW. 
✅Cut out popsicle quilt — done. Ready and waiting for retreat to sew it. 
✅Finish knitting a hat — done. And I made pompoms for it and the previous hat. 
Start on July’s UFO — didn’t even look at it.

This is a soccer quilt I made at last fall's retreat. You can see it here after the border was put on.  I used Lynne's Soccer Ball pants. The pattern is from More Quilts for Babies Easy as ABC  by Ursula Reikes. I own all three of her books and I keep turning to them for quick easy quilts. They are also easy to add or take a rows or columns. (ThriftBooks.com has some of her books at a really reasonable price if you are interested.) Here's a close up of the quilting.

Below are two blocks for the popsicle quilt blocks I cut out this week. I'm using the same pattern, Pretty Please, as I used on the music quilt earlier this summer. You can see that finished quilt here. It is available as a down load purchase from Fabric Cafe. Yes, it is another 3 yard quilt. 

I also finished knitting the current hat for From the Heart.  I used a lighter yellow yarn and a periwinkle and made it in the child size.  When the knitting was done I made pompoms for the two hats.  The pink is a really cool self striping hat. I'm hoping Michaels, that has purchased JoAnn's intellectual property rights, will be selling these self striping yarns soon. 

When I looked at the Trip Around the World I thought I could make a small baby quilt with 5 fat quarters. After doing a lot of calculations I realized five  fat quarters wouldn't make a 36" quilt. So that project is shelved for the time being.  Here's what I cut out instead of the Trip Around the World.  

I wish I could remember who offered these free directions. I read a lot of blogs and this came from one of the blogs. Sigh. Maybe whoever passed it on to me will see this post and let us know.  Good news. Vicki and an annonymous commenter both came up with the correct blog. Check out The Colorful Fabricholic's charity patterns. I see some other ones I might want to make.  Thanks Jan for offering these free patterns for charity work.

Here's what I've cut out so far. I'll be cutting the sashing pieces this week. I think I'm going to use a cream color.  The white of the design wall seems a bit stark so that reinforces my color choice and I have a yard of it. I sure hope I have enough for this smaller size. 

 

Here's a closeup of some of the blocks.  I'm calling this one Dinos and Friends. I have a bunch of Dino fabrics that I've cut up.  Plus a bunch of friends - Snowmen, cats, dogs, even geckos along with some filler colors.  It should be fun to sew together. I may work on it before retreat and finish it at retreat.  Time will tell. 

I've cut back on how much I'm putting on my next goal's list because of a large customer quilt.

7/7/25
Load and quilt customer’s quilt -- this is my priority
Cut sashing for child quilt 
Make FCQ EQuilter blocks
Put some fabric away/ clean up a bit 

I've kept up my 15 minutes of stitching. 

W/ending 7/6/25. 187 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/June = 30/30 
• 15 minute days/July = 6/6
• 15 minute days/2024 = 187/187 days
• Success rate = 100%

Some days it was an all day sewing day. Somedays it was 15 minutes to an hour of knitting.  But I've done really well keeping up on stitching. I hope to continue. 

I hope you have time to visit some of these Linky Parties.  You can see what quilters around the world are up to.  Hum, maybe like me, you'll get way too many great ideas.  

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing 

I'm done. I need a good night's sleep to get all these things done this week! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings -- 4 - 21 - 25

It's been a week. Thanks for all the kind remarks at the passing of our nephew. We decided we would drive to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to be with the family during the memorial service.  We don't have a kennel to leave Sunny at so she went with us. We left upper 70 degree temps to hit snow swirling as we drove north in Michigan and feels like temps of 18 13 degrees one day. (Or it may have been several days but I only screen shot one day.) 

We drove over the Mackinac Bridge.  I was a bit nervous about traveling over the bridge with the wind blowing so hard.  But that's the only way we could get to the UP so across we went.  I was very happy to learn that the bridge wasn't closed because of the high winds. Slab vehicles had a 25 mph limit while cars could go 35mph.  It was a reasonable speed even though the wind was bad. I actually enjoyed seeing some of Lake Michigan. 

Mackinac Island is home to the famous Grand Hotel.  It's the big white building above. Many years ago we enjoyed visiting the island although we haven't been since. 

We arrived in town Tuesday afternoon.  It's a small town in which several nieces and nephews still live. Wednesday was the Celebration of Life. Our nephew lived in the town for 45 years or so. His friends, co-workers, and family filled the location of the event.  It was a lovely celebration of a wonderful life. Except he died way too young. 

Sunny wasn't happy having to be crated the whole day. (Might I say incarcerated?) We came back a couple of times to feed and walk her.  She was ready to play by the time we got back to the hotel at the end of the day and we were exhausted. 

Early Thursday morning we packed up and drove two days to get home. Needless to say Sunny wasn't happy being in the car all day for 2 days. We didn't expect horrendous traffic but we kept running into it. 

This was about 20 minutes from home. There are 6 lanes of traffic here with cars and trucks every where.  

We were happy to get home but were glad we were able to give some support to our family.  It's going to be a hard year for his mother, wife and two grown children. 

Needless to say I had a much smaller goals list this past week.  I succeeded to a small degree. 

4/14/25

✅Knit 2 hats — 1 hat almost done. 

✅✅Read 2 books — 2 Grace Burrows books finished. 

✅Quilt a top on Ruthie — top quilted. 

Make more Equilters 9 patches — 2 are cut and laid out but no sewing done.

Surprisingly I was able to keep up my 15 minutes of stitching every day. I was knitting every day. Including the day I forgot all about it until 10:30 pm and spent 20 minutes knitting in bed! I'll share the bright yellow hat when I get it finished. 

W/ending 4/20/25. 110 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Apr = 20/20
• 15 minute days/2024 = 110/110 days
• Success rate = 100%

Late Sunday afternoon I was able to baste a small top that I want to quilt on my Bernina.  I had planned to pin baste but decided to use Sulky KK 2000 spray adhesive instead. I'm hoping to start the quilting this week. (Heck, I hope to start and finish the quilting this week.) 

Since KK 2000 is a temporary spray I may add some pins in case I can't get it finished this week.  Did I mention how old this is? I'm guessing it is 10+ years old. I considered hand quilting it but never wanted to start it. This year I added it to my monthly UFO challenge list and it came up this month. Hopefully I'll get it to binding stage this month. 

Here's my goal list for this week.

4/21/25

Make Cali-Co quilt along April Block

Quilt Orange Peel on domestic machine

Finish another hat

Make 2 more Equilters 9 patches

I'm linking up with the following parties: 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 4 - 7 - 2025

This week seems to have flown by.  I wasn't as focused on my stitching as usual.  But I did continue my stitching streak. Let's start with my goals...

3/31/25

Start on April UFO — pulled it out but haven’t started. 

✅Cut out a new quilt — finished.

✅Quilt a top — half done.

✅Order more backing fabrics — done should arrive this week.

✅Start another knit hat — half done.

Here's photo evidence of several of my goals!

Nine Patch from Even More Quilts for Baby by Ursula Reines. I'm adding 2 rows to make it rectangular. I have the doggy squares and the two colors for the 9 patches cut out. Inner and outer border will be cut when the inside is done. (Hum, I may have taken this photo before I actually cut the fabrics.) 

This quilt was started on Jan 1, 2023 as Merry Mayhem's New Year's Day Mystery.  I picked a bunch of different floral fat quarters for the bricks. I don't remember exactly when I finished it but I remember I didn't like it all that well. It has sat long enough and is a great quilt to use some of the bolt of purple fabric. I've decided I rather like it now. I thought about using a quick, easy edge to edge pattern to finish it but these cute butterflies grabbed my attention. I'm very happy with how it looks. This is "Diana" edge to edge by My Creative Stitches.  There is a good possibility I'll keep this one. 

The group that I donate hats to has a large amount of supplies you can use to make items for them. My friend was going by the location and I asked her to get me some yarn for more hats.  She found this terrific ombre, self striping yarn. It's been so much fun to see how it stripes.  I'm guessing I'll have some left over so I see at least one more hat with white stripes and this pink ombre.  I forgot that I normally knit these hats flat and then sew up the back seam.  OOPS -- I knit it in the round. Luckily I have some double pointed needles to finish this off. (Did you know your Apple Watch will give you "steps" credit for knitting? Yep, it does.)

Now for this coming week's goals. Hopefully I'll make it through all of them and more... 

4/7/25

Finish quilting and bind quilt 

Baste top for quilting on domestic machine (Apr UFO) 

Finish knitting on hat

Make April Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in red 

Start on FCQ Equilter blocks for Apr/May

I am still at 100% on 15 Minutes to Stitch. (I actually set a timer for 15 minutes and knitted to make sure I got my 15 minutes done a couple of times!) 

W/ending 4/6/25. 96 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Mar = 1/1
• 15 minute days/Apr = 6/6
• 15 minute days/2024 = 96/96 days
• Success rate = 100%

And something new for 2025.  I decided to keep my fabric statistics monthly but report on them quarterly.  You might guess that I didn't actually figure out my fabric usage each month... I did pretty well writing down what I bought or acquired each month, but I had to go back to other written records to see which quilts I finished each month and then figure out how much fabric I used.  Was I surprised at the results! 

2025	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Jan	3.750	3.75	9.875	9.875	6.125
Feb	15.000	18.75	6.50	16.375	-2.375
Mar	0.750	19.50	28.50	44.875	25.376

I'm a thrilled I finished enough quilts to absorb that 15 yard bolt of fabric. I have one more top to quilt with the purple fabric. I'll only have 4 yard-piece left. I might see if I can find some fabrics to go with it and use it to make a top. (Don't hold your breath on that happening any time soon!) 

Between warm weather and a bit of rain the cherry tree I showed last week has lost most of its blooms and is looking green from the new leaves. I enjoy seeing all the different colors of green leaves turn in the spring. I'm not much of a gardener but I have plans to plant some cosmos seeds a friend gave me.  Maybe I can get it done this week.  

I'm linking up with these parties: 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings   

On a personal note: I have been horrified with this administration's decision to destroy our government. There is a big difference between chaotically and arbitrarily closing down departments and offices and looking at each department/office and what is done there and whether they have enough people to continue to provide citizens information and support. Having lived in Maryland and now living in Virginia I know fellow citizens may have lost their jobs or are afraid they will be next to go. I personally have 3 family members who work for the federal government. Needless to say I worry on a regular basis for them. Luckily they all appear to be in required jobs, for now.  

There have been a large number of lawsuits filed against this administration. Apparently the administration no longer believes in the rule of law.  I don't want to see my nation turn its back on our allies, our neighbors, our institutions that make America such a wonderful and unique country.  If you feel the same it is time for us to reach out to our Senators and Representatives and let them know it is time to stand up for our country. It's time to speak out against what has been done and what is yet to come. I don't want to live with a king, a dictator -- I want to live in a democracy.

Happy Quilting -- yet I'm not as happy quilting as I used to be. I'm worried. Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 2 - 24 - 2024

 

Here's last week's snowy walk -- Sunny and Pat.  It was such a fine snow that even after all day there wasn't much.  For the most part it was easy to sweep away.  On the other hand it was really cold for most of the week.  But this week there's a warm up coming.  I'm hoping it actually does warm up -- it might be in the 60s this week.  Hope springs eternal! 

Now on to the goals from last week.  Not my best week but I did make progress on several projects. And, one off list project. 

2/17/25

Make blocks for FCQ EQuilter of the month — Not started. 

✅Quilt rwb top — Done! 

✅Bind flannel quilt — Finished! 

✅Sew border on ’22 McConnell mystery top — still need the top and bottom borders

Quilt another top? — Nothing done. 

Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pictures this week.  But here is the '22 BOM mystery quilt by Sherri McConnell. I worked on this at the end of the weekend and ran out of time to add the top and bottom borders.  

After a lot of thinking on what to use as a border and how big it would be I decided to use the same fabric and size as the sashing.  I'll get the top and bottom borders on this week and then it will be stashed in the to-be-quilted closet. 

Moving right along - here's this week's goals list. I decided to trim it back since I haven't been able to get all of the goals done recently. 

2/24/25

Finish knitting current sock and start its partner

Bind the R,W,B quilt

Go to Mid Atlantic Quilt Show

Make blocks for FCQ EQuilter of the month 

Here's what else I worked on this week even though they weren't on my goals list. 

First I finished the last 2 potato chip blocks and sewed them together. Except, I didn't think to get a picture of it. It's in the same closet! 

I'm still knitting hats with left over yarns to give to charities. The blue-green was just a little ball of leftover yarn.  When the hat was done I had a ball about the size of a walnut.  My friend made the cute pompom on top. She started with the leftover blue-green and added the white.  We thought it was funny the way the blue green was only on the bottom of the pompom.  Someone will enjoy the hat especially when it is so cold outside. 

My next off list activity was cleaning off the shelf on my long arm.  While Ruthie was stitching away on the R,W,B quilt I spent time cleaning up this mess. 

I folded and put away fabrics. I cut up some scraps and put them with same sizes -- things like 2", 2.5" squares and 2.5" strips -- you get the idea. Then there were a bunch of orphan blocks.  Surprisingly, those got stashed in the box called -- Orphan Blocks! Some papers were tossed and a few were added to a bulletin board.  When all was done it looked like this: 

Now, if I could just be as diligent with the front of the cutting table.  I keep trying but I haven't made a long lasting dent.  Maybe during the next big quilt Ruthie works on I can get the front end of the cutting table cleared off.  Don't hold your breath! 

I've maintained my 15 minutes to stitch all week. Here's the details:

W/ending 2/24/25. 55 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Feb = 23/23
• 15 minute days/2024 = 55/55 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm linking up with the following parties. Please take a look at them to find links to bloggers across the world. 

15 Minutes to Stitch

Oh Scrap!

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

I'm looking forward to going to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival.  Hopefully I can take some pictures to share. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie