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 -- 5 - 26 - 2025

Dare I admit that I didn't get as much done this week as I had planned? I did sew a bit every day and I read every day. Both my 15 minutes to stitch is still at 100% and my daily reading on my Kindle is at 412 days in a row.  (My weekly reading is at 357 weeks in a row! That's almost 7 years!) 

Part of my negligence was lack of motivation.  And, I had an e-book I wanted to get finished before it was sucked away.  So here are the details. 

Goals for last week. 

5/19/2025

✅Finish sewing UFO project to top — blocks together, next up border.

✅Quilt and bind 3 yd project — quilting done still need binding. 

✅Make more 9 patches — a couple more done. 

Quilt one of my tops — moved to coming week. 

✅Keep knitting hat/s — finished one and made some pompoms. 

Pick a project to cut out for future retreat sewing — moved to coming week. 

I had an epiphany after I put the blocks together. My tendency is to not put borders on quilts.  Except this one needed one. First I tried a multicolored batik which echoed most of the main colors in this quilt.  Eureka! I had a brilliant idea -- make a multi-colored border repeating the colors in the blocks. This is not the final choice but most of these will be in the border.  I want to find a lighter blue and remove the one below the solid purple. I also need at least one yellow strip. If I can find a light enough green that leans toward blue I might add that also. I really think the rainbow border peps this top up a lot! 

I finished another yellow hat.  I also bought a set of pompom makers and made 3 pompoms to finish off all the hats I have made recently. I have more of that bright yellow left but I'm starting on a little softer yellow for my next hat.  A couple of years ago I made a table runner every week. The yellow one has been out for a while and I thought it would be fun to share it with the hats. 

Hum, not that many pictures of finishes this week. So let's move on to the upcoming week's goals.  Not as many as a lot is going on! 

5/26/25

Bind 3 yd project & make label

Add borders to UFO project

Quilt one of my projects

Pick a project to cut out for future retreat sewing

Sing two shows with neighborhood group

I left off attend chorus concert for one of our grands and attend the end of season  picnic for Spotsylvanians. Hopefully I'll have most of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday to get my list done. We'll see how I do! 

15 Minutes to Stitch is still at 100%. I think I'll leave out the form just know that Sunday is the 145th day of 2025. 

What I forgot to put on this past week's goals is the Spotsylvanians singing the Star Spangled Banner at the Fredericksburg Nationals. (Fred Nats as we call them.) They are the (a?) farm team of the Washington Nationals.  Here we are on the field ready to sing.  It was a beautiful evening -- just below 70° and then dipped into the low 60s.  I decided I would stand in the front row for a change...I'm right next to Scott, the first guy from the left. Hum, I just realized all of the altos are missing as is Pat. I think this photo was taken by the spouse of a soprano! 

And, because I have so little to share this week I thought I'd add another new picture of Sunny.  She's trying to get in a patriotic mood amongst the flags on a neighbor's yard.  Of course she had to see what was going on in the neighborhood and didn't look at me.  She's starting to look hairy again -- it's only been 2 weeks! Eek. 

I'm linking with these parties: 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap! 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Stop reading here if you don't want to know some of what the House of Representatives voted for in the "Big, Beautiful Bill."  Or maybe it really should be called the "Big Nasty Bill".  

A few things about the bill the House of Representatives recently passed in the early morning hours. 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says:  

Medicaid — at least $715 billion in health care will be cut.  That translates to about 8.6 million people uninsured.  

SNAP Food Benefits will be cut by $300 billion. (Note from other source — 62% of SNAP households have children who have food on the table because of SNAP. 20% of SNAP households have Veterans that rely on the same benefits.) 

Because of massive debt increases in this bill Medicare may see approximately $500 billion cut. This is caused by a law from 2010 which requires offsets to increased spending.  Although this offset could be found in other places. 

So, where is all that money going?  It is going to continue the tax break for 1% of Americans.  They are the richest people in the country and probably the world. Here’s how it breaks down:

The top 1% of earners will gain approximately $390,000 a year. (Stop and think about that. Do you make that much money in a year — handed to you from your government, no less? I never have.) 

Americans making between $17,000 and $51,000 will lose more than $700 per year on average. 

What about the poorest Americans making less than $17,000 a year? They could lose more than $1,000 a year. 

Who would want to hurt the poorest Americans who barely eek out a living now by taking more money from them? 

One last thought — how will the US of A pay for all this $$ going out?  Apparently it will add $3.8 trillion over ten years. Which means we the people will be paying for it through our taxes. And however else it reverberates through our economy such as mortgage rates.    

My information comes from various sources who are willing to write the truth. Remember that many legacy new sources are afraid of standing up to Trump. Some have been found guilty in court for lying about elections. Some have softened their news to not irritate the president. If you’ve listened to news sound bites recently you’ll notice that some elected officials are saying Medicaid won’t be touched or Medicare won’t be hurt.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office doesn’t agree with that. Learn more about this bill and contact your Senators and Representatives.

 

Monday Meanderings 5/19/25

The week is winding down but I can't figure out what I've been doing all week. For the most part I spent the time reading, quilting, and a bit a knitting.  I did get most of my goals done which rather surprised me. I don't remember spending hours in the studio. Let's take a look.

5/12/25

✅Quilt 3 yard project — quilted a top for local quilt guild instead of the 3 yd quilt.

✅Sew May’s UFO blocks together— all rows done, need to sew them together.

✅Keep making 9 patches — a few more were made.

✅Finish knitting yellow hat — done, another started. 

✅Bind Happy Quilt — done.

✅Iron backings — several more ironed, one more left to do. 

Here's the quilt for my guild as I began quilting it. It was a jelly-roll-race style quilt. And, it was in yellow, white and black. I decided I had to use the quilt design that had bumble bees and flowers. You can see some of the flowers and the bees on the row below. 

The design is Busy Bees by My Creative Stitches. 👇🏼 Here's the design.

I made a few 9 patches this week.  Here are all the ones I have done. I've decided I'd make one of each color I make for the eQuilter to keep for myself.  They are a very good leader/ender project.

My plan going forward is to try to use both lighter and darker colors. So, I need to find some lighter blues, greens, reds and purples. It's going to be fun to go through my collection of 2.5" squares to find the usable squares. And, I'll probably cut into some of my fat quarters to augment the colors.

Here are two hats I've made fairly recently.  These still need pompoms.  I've been borrowing pompom makers from friends at our weekly stitching group.  It may be time for me to buy my own maker.  The hat on the right is child size and the yarn is actually navy blue. Sometimes I make hats flat and then sew up the seam -- like the stripe one. And sometimes I take the same pattern and make hats with a circular needle -- like the yellow one. I give the hats to From the Heart, a local charity. Their mission statement includes . . . "preserving and promoting fiber arts" . . .  as well as . . . "producing handmade items which bring comfort, love and solace to others." I have other skeins of various shades of yellow yarn and a couple of different white yarns.  I expect I'll be making more stripe hats and solid color ones in the future. I'm on the third yellow hat of this bright yellow yarn.

Here's what I hope to get done this week.

5/19/2025

Finish sewing UFO project to top

Quilt and bind 3 yd quilt project

Make more 9 patches

Quilt one of my tops 

Keep knitting hat/s

Pick a project to cut out for future retreat sewing

One thing I forgot to put on my goals list last week was making the Cali-Co Mystery block for May. Sharon and I get on FaceTime and chat while we make our block. We usually spend an afternoon together moving on to our own projects after our blocks are made. Here's my May block. The previous blocks have been made with mostly half square triangles.  This one was relatively easy with only 4 HSTs. Hum, I may change out the gold and dark purple triangles as I really prefer brighter colors.  However, I may wait until all the blocks are done before I change them.  When all 12 are done this block may look just fine. 

I've continued to get my 15 minutes of stitching done every day this week. 

W/ending 5/18/25. 138 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/May = 18/18
• 15 minute days/2024 = 138/138 days
• Success rate = 100%

Now a bit about the book I finished this week. I was reading Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict published in February.  Here's what The New York Times said about it: "a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder."  I've read quite a few of Benedict's books and this one is just as good as her others. It gives a lot of insight into the way women were viewed between the World Wars.  Surprisingly, many of the the slights women faced at that time are still happening now. It also gives a glimpse as to how authors develop their stories.  I admit I didn't figure out the who done it although I did suspect one.  

It's time to link up with various Linky Parties. Please enjoy surfing quilting blogs by going to these parties. (Hum, Oh Scrap isn't up yet. I'll check on Monday.) 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing 

 Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings -- 5 - 5 - 2025

It's been a busy week!  It was spring concert week for the Spotsylvanians.  Friday was tech rehearsal. Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon were the concerts.  We had good crowds for both events. And we sounded awesome. (We had a lot of positive comments after each of them.) Here's a couple of pictures -- I think they were from Friday night. 

Spotsylvanians before Saturday night concert. 

Bonnie and Pat in the warm up room Saturday night. 

Our concert was held in a local Lutheran church whose pastor also sings with us. We began the concert with "Now Is the Month of Maying", a madrigal written in 1595 by Thomas Morley.  The church has wonderful acoustics and we took advantage of it by singing in a semi-circle around the audience. It was very cool. (I'm the first singer on the right 👆🏼.) 

Over the weekend I got the pictures ready for this blog so when I got home from the last concert I could go right to writing it. Now on to my quilting part starting with last week's goals. 

4/28/25

✅Finish knitting hat — done, need to add a pompom.

✅Bind orange peel quilt — done! 

✅Begin 3 yard quilt project — good start, just need to add borders.

✅Make more 9 patches — several more finished. 

Ok, I admit I am not sure which hat I finished -- I think it was a navy blue and white one.  I also know I started a new yellow hat.  I snapped a photo to share. It's the second hat from a big skein of yellow. 

I also made more 9 patches.  I've made duplicate of some colors for me. If I have all the fabrics out or I'm plowing through my cut 2.5" squares I might as well make some of these for me. These are the ones for the FCQ Equilter. 

And now for this week...

5/5/25

Work on 3 yard quilt project

Layout May’s UFO blocks 

Keep making 9 patches

Keep knitting on yellow hat

Quilt a top 

One thing I finished this week is some little 9 patches made with 1.5" squares. They will be part of Hens and Her Chicks from Quilts from the Heart by Karin Renaud. 

I've used these little 1.5" squares as my leader enders for a while.  I've got 52 9 patches done which is what is called for. Now I need to cut out a bunch of background pieces and bigger bright colored squares. 

Recently I spent one evening cutting some scraps into usable size squares. Here's what I got done.  Sharon calls this doing the dishes -- I think Bonnie Hunter started calling it that years ago. From the red on upper left: 2.5" square, 2" sq, 1.5" sq and 3" sq. I have a ridiculous amount of scraps that could be cut up for easier use. 

I am happy to say I succeeded getting my 15 minutes of stitching done every day.  In fact, I spent 30 minutes this morning knitting before I went to the concert. 

15 Minutes of Stitching week ending 5/4/25. 124 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Apr = 3/3
• 15 minute days/May = 4/31
• 15 minute days/2024 = 124/124 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm linking up with the following parties:

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

I leave you with this picture of Sunny enjoying the sun in her newly fenced back yard.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie