Monday Meanderings 3 - 20 - 2023

I wish I had put read 4 books on my goal list last week.  Yep...I did spend a bunch of time reading this past week.  And my finished (or even worked on) list shows it.  I did jump off list for one little sewing spree.  But I'll share that later. 

Here's last week's list. 

3/13/2023

✅Add border to sea life quilt -- Finished, put in the to-be-quilted closet.

✅Make more FCQ Equilter blocks (picture below) -- all done.

✅Work on Rainbow Scrap blocks (picture below) -- one done. 

Start working on APQ UFO Challenge #11 -- I "thought" about it once."

Cut out another 3 yard quilt -- I actually drew out a pattern and figured if I had enough fabric to do this quilt. Don't know when I'll actually cut it out.

Eh, I really wasn't very motivated by the end of the week.  And, honestly, I am forcing myself to even think about the UFO challenge quilt. Here is this week's list. (Note - I tell a little more about the challenge quilt below.) 

3/20/2023

Finish pink and start green RSC blocks 

Design UFO Challenge #11, rough cut shirts 

Baste baby quilt and start quilting 

Cut out another quilt

First up the pics of what I did get done.

These are for the FCQ Equilter, Nancy. I didn't measure the blocks but I think they are 4.5 x 12.5".  I was FaceTiming with Sharon while we were each working on these blocks.  I was going to do 6 but somehow cut out 7 so I evened them up to 8.  It'll be fun to see what Nancy does with the blocks.

Here's the one (yes 1) RSC block I've done for February.  I like the block idea but honestly it's time consuming to make and have it turn out well.  I am thinking of just making 1 per month and then put sashing between and possibly borders and call it either a baby quilt of a wheel chair quilt.  I'm having an issue cutting these with the Accuquilt cutter.  I think I might have had one piece of fabric the wrong way. Most of the time the fabric needs to go length of fabric to prevent it from stretching the fabric. Additionally,  I am going to think about fixing the issue at the top center below.  (Of course that doesn't mean I'll actually fix it.)

My squirrel project came about from picking up a packet from my quilt guild on Wednesday.  Along with various sizes of quilts, walkers bags, dog beds and other miscellaneous items we make, we are making NICU Hearts. These are small hearts made out of flannel that moms of babies in the NICU can wear next to their skin for a day. Then the hearts are put in the isolette with the baby.  Evidently it helps the baby bond with its mom. I'm excited to work on this project but I really want to use my own flannel.  I have a LOT of it. One draw back, it uses a 4" Accuquilt heart die, which I don't have.  But a friend does so I hope to borrow hers and then keep a pile at the ready to work on for a while. 

Above is the heart sewn, right sides together.  I've left a space to turn it on the right. Below is 5 of the 11 little hearts that came from the guild. 

The pink one with the flowers was my first one.  I used a decorative stitch to make it a bit cuter.  However, one of my friends mentioned the NICU she gives to doesn't want anything but a regular stitch keeping them together.  Evidently the extra stitching can bother the baby.  I'll ask our charity chair to check with the local hospital to see if that is an issue when she delivers items to them.  

In case you didn't realize it the March APQ UFO Challenge for March for me is make a tee shirt quilt from my son's tee shirts.  He gave me two bags.  I separated them into college rowing shirts and running and biking shirts post college. EH. There are a lot of shirts. Hubby and I made some decisions about how to arrange them. I'm probably going to make this a two sided quilt with the running and biking shirts on the front and the college shirts on the back.  It may be so heavy that no one will be able to crawl out from under it when done!  I need to take time to measure all the shirts and decide how to put them together. Then comes the rough cutting and fusing interfacing on.  I'll also need to buy some fabric to go with the shirts.  I only want to get to the point of having the shirts interfaced along with the layout design this month. I have the rest of the year to actually make it.  Pictures will come after I get the front of the top done. (By the time that is done you will have totally forgotten about the project!) 

I'm done for this post.  Please remember to check out more quilters' blogs by going to these Linky parties. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Musing 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

I'll be back to link up the other parties as they become available.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 1 - 23 - 2023

We lived through the week with the grands! And, boy were we worn out afterwards.  We came home Friday afternoon. The travelers got home late that afternoon and picked the grands up at a friend's home.  We were glad we didn't wait to see them as our daughter-in-law came home with Covid.  Between a 24 hour bug that hit the two kids and DIL before they left, and son feeling horrible the first day or two in Key West it wasn't a very relaxing vacation for them. 

I was able to spend part of two days piecing. We also were able to visit with some old friends in the Northern Virginia area. Barb and I went to high school together; in fact we met the first day our freshmen year. For many years Pat and I lived in the greater Los Angeles area. Eventually we moved to the east and finally settled in Virginia closer to Barb and Jay. We're thinking of planning a trip together at some point. 

The above was a bit of information about why I didn't get all my goals done this past week even though I spent most of Sat and Sunday in my studio. Here's what I wanted to accomplish last week. I'm happy with what I did get done plus I worked off list a bit too. 

1/16/23

✅Finish a few RSC blue blocks - three done.

✅Do the January Melodic Mystery clue —  all done. Ready to put it together with the last clue. 

Make a few blocks for Flower Song — didn’t get to this.

Finish Traffic Jam top with 2” blocks — center part is done, working on border.

✅Enjoy the Grands — it was fun but boy we were tired when we got home! 

Here's how I left Traffic Jam Sunday night. I've got several seams to do to get the rows together and I need to make another sashing row.  Then it's just making 9 patches for the border which I'll do as a leader ender.  The end is in sight. 

I also got 3 of the 4 rows together of the Moose quilt.  I'm not sure why I worked on it so diligently because it wasn't even on the goals list last week.  There is only one more row to figure out and sew on.  I'll evaluate whether it needs a border later. (I was thinking a navy blue border would work but of course I don't have any navy blue fabric.)  The fourth row will echo the top row with the dark brown across the two smaller photos and the dark brown running parallel to the bigger picture in the center. At least that is the plan. We'll see how it actually comes out. (Hopefully it'll be a top by the end of the week with a border to be determined.) 

Now let's see what I hope to do this coming week. 

1/23/23

Work on red spider web blocks

Make blocks for Sharon, Cindy

Finish moose top

Finish Traffic jam with 2” squares

Quilt on hearts top

I need to really focus on the spider web blocks as the guild has a red quilt challenge I'd like to enter it in.  It needs to be done by mid February.  

I think I have enough blocks made it's just a matter of sewing them together, quilting and binding it.  (Just a little bit to do...) Here's a grouping of them from February. 

Hum, I should probably find some backing fabric for this now rather than waiting until it is done and ready to quilt. 

The last picture I want to share is a small quilt I'm pin basting in preparation to hand big stitch quilt it.  I made the appliqué heart blocks in about 1994.  We had moved to the Baltimore area and the first year there I worked at a wonderful quilt store.  I took a class to learn how to appliqué a bunch of different ways.  Fast forward many years and I finally made it into a top.  Now I'm ready to get it finished. It's a little less than 23" square so I'm hoping it goes quickly. Any suggestions on where I should quilt it? I have to see what color pearl cotton I have although my guess is I only have larger sizes in colors and only black in the right size thread. Maybe. I need to look. 

I actually figured out my December fabric usage today  but I think I'll wait to share as this is already pretty long.  So, with no further ado, I'm linking with the following parties.  Please spend some time surfing the web using these parties as a starting point. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Sew & Tell 

To Do Tuesday

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 2 - 8 - 2016

Hear's what's on the design wall today. (Well, after I took this quilt off and put this one up!) 

This is the other section of an antique quilt I was hired to finish.  As you can see it wasn't made with a lot of precision but surprisingly the first one I did turned out nicely.  You can see it here. (I forgot to take a picture of it after it was finished. What?) I'm using this green as the blue I wanted to use was badly faded.  No way was I going to be able to get enough fabric to make these borders from that fabric. I have some pink for the back -- all of this fabric came from the family.  A lot of it is 36" wide so I'll have to do some piecing. 

Here's my thoughts on the borders.  It is a pretty narrow quilt 34" or so wide by about 60" long.  I am thinking of using 4 or 5" borders on the sides and 3" or so on the top and bottom to make it a bit wider.  Any strong reason why I shouldn't use different size borders?  I'd love to get these borders added and then get it on Ruthie to long arm.  I think I'll use the Baptist fan design again since it is a traditional pattern and did a great job with the other quilt.  

Here's some heart eye candy.  I was at a sewing day a week ago and Dorothy was working on these hearts. (Design is from Designs by JuJu.) She used her embroidery software to put all of them in one design and then used only white thread.  At the end she slipped a piece of felt under the hoop and stitched the final outside edge.  She then cut them out and added hangers. 

I didn't do all that well on my goals last week.  Or maybe I had too many goals!  I did enjoy a great book last week -- The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George.  It had languished on my Kindle app for too long before I decided I really needed to get it read before it was due back.  If you are a book lover you'll enjoy all the literary references.  

February 1, 2016

Finish quilting 2 customer quilts (one from last week and a new one.) √one done; one started loading

Put borders on two antique 9 patches Um, no, didn’t happen

Pick the next OMG√

Quilt one of my quilts√ Yea!

Clean off cutting table √ somewhat at least I have room to work

Cut out next charity challenge quilt√ started 

I've got several days this week that I can't devote to my quilting so my goals list includes some of those. 

February 8, 2016

Finish quilting customer quilt

Add borders to antique lap quilt

Put borders on 2 antique 9 patches

Work on QOV quilts with guild

Bake for tea group at my house

I'm linking up with Monday Makings and Main Crush Monday. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Mystery 12 Blocks

I've finished the 16 blocks of Mystery 12. I'm not going to be able to put it together for a couple of weeks. Rats. Here is my pile of blocks -- there are many different ways they can be laid out. I'm looking forward to having time to play with them. But, they won't be worked on until I get another set of blocks sewn together.

Remember this blog? http://institcheswithbonnie.blogspot.com/2010/01/help-wanted.html

I've gotten LOTS of comments on the layout choices. Hopefully I will get that into a quilt over the next month or so. After I get those into a top I have NYE 2009 mystery to quilt. And, I have a pineapple quilt to quilt for a customer! Wow! That has to take precedent in February.

I was at Milford Valley Quilt Guild tonight. We got to see the Accu Quilt Go operate. One of the cool things Noreene showed us was the applique designs. She made this darling towel by cutting the fabric with something like Wonder Under already fused on into hearts. Then, a quick zig zag stitch or machine buttonhole finishes this off. How cute is that!

We've got hearts on our minds. Diann Becker designed this block to teach machine applique at our next meeting. Again, fusible web and machine embroidery makes this a quick block. I'm going to make one of these blocks -- now which fabric should I use??? Decisions, decisions! I'll share mine with you when I get to it.

I am also planning a couple of valentine postcards... shush don't want the people who will be receiving them to know about it yet. So, before I spill the beans, I'll wish you happy quilting.

Heart Top Done

With Valentine's Day closing in, it is time to retire Mr. Snowman.  He was a round robin finished in 1998.  He was started in February, 1996 to commemorate the Blizzard of '96.  29" of snow fell beginning on January 7th. This round robin was organized on Prodigy -- if I remember correctly.  

Now a word from our sponsor -- labels.  "Yes, ma'am.  Don't you love that you remember all that snowy detail?  The only reason you do is that great label you made for Mr. Snowman.  And, everyone who worked on it added a comment  telling you what part they did.  And, smart you, you even mentioned it hung in the Faithful Circle Quilters' show.  So when doing labels think about adding more detail -- wasn't it nice to have all that info on this one!!"

Yes, yes.  It is better to have more details. 

 

I guess I will try to do better than name, date, maker and recipient in the future! 

Here is the finished top for the Mystery Hearts.  I LOVE it.  I have had the heart border for ages and haven't wanted to cut into it for anything.  But it just sings with this quilt.  And, remember this is a "free" quilt.  Everything came from stash.  And, I am hoping the batting will be a bit from used batts rather than cutting into a piece I have recently bought.  Now, do I want to add some beading to it??? 

I have goofed off on the computer way too long so will end now.  I'm thinking of the label I should make for this.  And, when Mr. Snowman comes down I'll try to add a pic of the label. The quilt was really called Baby It's Cold Out Here.  

Stay tuned for more quilting adventures! Bonnie 

New Years Eve Day

I was all ready to go to the Wednesday Quilters even though we have snow on the streets and driveway.   And, it is still snowing.  I am showered, dressed and ready to go.  (well, hadn't made my lunch yet but that wouldn't have taken long.)  The phone rang.  No Wed. quilting today.  It makes sense but I was going to give it a try.  Now, I have a day stretching out in front of me and a few decisions to make.  What to do? What to do?  . . . 

Here is a photo of the carousel horse. Yuck. This photo doesn't make it look very good does it?  It is better in person.  Plus, I took this in the evening when the light gets weird. I need to make about 20 more blocks to go with these to make it a reasonable size.  So I will stash dive again and see what I can find.  I have been using up odd pieces of fabrics with this.  I purchased the pink stripe and the blue (both around the center block).  The pink will also be the border.  I have lots of the dark green left.  We'll see what happens when I get more blocks done.  I don't want to sew it together until all blocks are put together.  

And, hearts ... remember Valentine's Day isn't that far off!   These are fun, easy hearts to make.  Get the direction's from my friend Marge, at Delaware Quilts.  They are called Scrappy Hearts.   Marge also runs Mysteries for Relay.  You can access that yahoo group by the button in my sidebar.  So all you mystery lovers here is another choice for mystery quilt directions.  

Snow continues to fall.  Or as of right now -- blow sideways.  Guess I shouldn't have been planning a day out when I really didn't need to be out and about.  It's upstairs to the studio for another round of quilting.   (after the towels finish spinning that is!) 

Happy Quilting All.  And, may 2009 find you well.  Bonnie