Monday Meandering 5 - 18 - 2020

I actually left my neighborhood this week.  I had an appt and I went to the local Target this week.  Last Thursday my iron died. OMG!  This is not the time to have an iron go out. We did a quick check of Consumer Reports and then proceeded to find one of the recommended irons at Target which I ordered for pick up.  I had it home before lunch the next day and brought some burritos from Taco Bell too.  

So, this iron seemed really weird when I started to use it:  It didn't have heat selection, an off button or a clean button. I was thrilled to get it going so I could finish what I'd been working on but I was not enthused with it. I decided to read the directions.  Ok, should have done that first.  There is a light that shows when it heats up and another light that shows it's plugged in.  Once I figured that out I let it warm up correctly and it worked fine.  Phew, I was back in business. 

Have you been "Zoom"ing?  This past weekend was suppose to be my retreat with FCQ.    Anyway the gal who is in charge suggested we spend an hour or so chatting on Zoom while working on our projects the days we would have been retreating.  It was great fun.  We got caught up with everyone, offered suggestions on projects and moved our own projects forward.  We actually met three days for about 2 hours each day.  I've also gotten my 3 quilting buddies together on Zoom too.(picture below.)  We had to cancel the in house retreat but we enjoyed our chat so much that we are meeting every other week.

Clockwise from upper left: Nancy, me, MaryBeth and Sharon Zooming. We represent Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. 

Here's a look at a few of the things I've done this week. First, I quilted a table runner.  I've got the binding ready to apply. Hopefully I'll be done with that in the next few days. (The color is pretty bad on this.  I'll get a better picture when I finish it.) 

I'm piecing along with Jacquelynne Steves Silver Lining Sew Along.  It is one 6" (finished) block every Monday until early August.  I was tickled that the first one was super easy.  I'm not known for my stick-with-it-ness on quilt alongs or BOMs! We'll see if I succeed.  I've put all the chosen fabrics in a small basket and I hope to actually make each block on Mondays.  You can still sign up for notices by going to Silver Lining Sew Along Page. If you sign up for email notifications you will receive an embroidery design every Friday.  If you are looking for something to do each week, give it a try. 

This is the "new" project I started last week.  I got the dinosaur fabric a year or so ago.  It was great to pull all the fabric for this from my stash.  Unfortunately, I'm not having as much luck pulling backings.  I know someone will enjoy the dinosaurs.  I may check with my son to see if Theo might like a dinosaur quilt.  This has been relegated to the to-be-quilted closet.  The tops are piling up in there. 

Here's how I did on my goals: 

1) Finish the new top. All done! 

2) Quilt star table runner. All done, on to binding.
3) Put together stripe blocks into a top. All done! (It went to the closet too.)
4) Update the batting spread sheet. I used a bat piece but didn't redo the spread sheet. 

Now I need to figure out some new goals.  

1) Finish binding on table runner. 

2) Make 5 blocks from last year's BOM for Country Piecemakers.

3) Quilt charity quilt for a friend.

4) Cut out a bunch of little rail fence pieces to do as leader enders.

One thing I did spend a LOT of time on was searching Newspapers.Com for info about my relatives.  It allowed free access to Ancestry subscribers for the weekend. I've been trying to get a family tree together off and on for several years.  

I was focusing on my dad's father.  We don't know a whole lot about his early life. His mother died a few years after he was born. He had siblings who were 27 years and 18 years older than him.  So I've been trying to find out more about his early life and his parents.  I haven't been particularly successful.  So I spent every evening searching newspapers from Montana from the late 1800s on. I found a fun article written about him on the 50th anniversary of his graduation from the Montana State School of Mines.  (Now, Montana Tech if I remember correctly.)  It verified quite a few things about his life that my brother, cousins and I knew from his stories. They were delighted to receive screen shots of the article. I also saw that his dad had to apply to be his guardian and post a bond of $1000 every couple of years.  He had to turn in reports regularly too. I'm wondering why?  Anybody know anything about why?  In one article it said something about an inheritance.  I'm guessing that his mother might have left him some money.  He was a miner's son, how else could he have afforded college? He and my grandmother got married before he'd graduated college. She was 19.  I've actually got her diary from the time which has been very interesting to read.  Darn I wish I had asked him more questions years ago! If anyone has any insight please let me know!  

I'm linking up to Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Design Wall Monday. You know the drill -- I'll link up with the other two when posted and I remember!   I had a lot of fun visiting blogs last week.  I hope to take some time to do it again this week.  My only problem is I have had a lot of books that have been on reserve come in recently.  And, oddly enough, I am not reading as much as I usually do!  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Happy Fourth of July

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. Pat and I decided to have dinner at the lodge of a local ski resort and then go out on the mountain to watch fire works. Which we did. Except for being in airplanes, this is the first time we've been above the fireworks. We'd see the display and hear the boom 3 to 5 seconds later. What a hoot. But, what is wrong with this picture? We were freezing. I had long pants, t shirt and sweatshirt with hood up on and still I was cold. We thought it might be 65 degrees or so. No, when we were in the car off the mountain it was 60! No wonder I was cold!

I tried a new technique today for curved piecing or making framed pictures. It was really easy to do following the directions in Stitch, Spritz and Sew: Curved Piecing as Easy as 1 - 2 - 3 by Kathy Bowers. I've had the book since last year and thought

the technique looked intriguing. It took me a while to find the YLI dissolvable thread which the book suggests to use. My practice block used the frame technique -- I put a red frame over a fussy cut conversation print. Wow! It was easy and I love the look -- maybe I'm in love with the flying pig, who knows. My bottom point on the heart isn't very sharp so in the future I may try for that. I am hoping to use this technique in my hanky challenge quilt. I have got to get going on that quilt. It won't be big but it may take a few days to get it all done.

A Tale of Two Irons

If you remember the last time I was blogging I was complaining about my iron breaking. So I went out Tuesday and bought a semi-expensive Hamilton Beach.($35 -40) It looked like it might be nice for me... until I took it out of the box. It was fairly heavy and sat up rather high on it's heel. I could see me knocking it off the ironing board without meaning too. But the kick in the pants, so to speak was when I plugged it in and used it the way I would be using it: iron a bit, sew for 10 to 20 minutes, iron, pin, cut, sew, iron... you know, the way a quilter would use it. After 15 minutes it turned itself off. According to the directions, all I needed to do was start using it again. It would heat up within 2 minutes. Um, no, it didn't heat up. I turned it off and turned it back on. Um, no, it didn't heat up. I had to unplug and plug in the friggin iron to get it to work again. NO NO NO! That just doesn't cut it for me.

So, Thursday we were heading into Scranton to a Mexican restaurant and decided to check Sears for irons. (Hey, the restaurant was in the mall parking lot... it was the closest store that carried irons.) We bought a Sunbeam ($22 or so). I tried it to make sure it worked. AH, it shuts off after 30 minutes. You hit the button to turn it on and voila~! it turned back on. Both irons say to unplug them before adding water. Pain in the ... Both said to turn off before unpluggin and unplug when finished ironing. Gosh, amazing what you can learn if you read the directions!

Pennsylvania does not ban fireworks so at 11 pm we are still hearing booms from the fireworks. As Pat says the 4th starts two weeks before and last two weeks after today. Yep. Luckily Raggs isn't that upset about the noise. He's noisily chewing on a rawhide bone.

Tomorrow I plan to start on the frame for the hanky challenge. And, I've got two quilts ready to load on Ruthie. I'm waiting for some new pantographs to come in. Time for bed now!

Happy quilting!