Monday Meanderings/ October OMG 10 - 4 - 2020

 It's time to announce my next One Monthly Goal. 

My Goal for October, 2020 is to finish 4 quilts.  

Three tops are already made and one needs to be started. 

All four need to be quilted. 

Since last week I have finished one more of the tops that need to be quilted.  I'm hoping to make good progress on the last one this week. I've already made  the backing for one of them and I have a wide backing for the other three quilts. So hopefully I can get these 4 tops quilted soon. 

Here's the next Happy Blocks Quilt I've finished. 

This top is the I pulled from the to-be-quilted-closet. It should be a wild quilt when done as I picked a bright green backing fabric that has some of the bright green from the stripes in it. 

Although I'm giving myself the whole month to finish all of these quilts I really would like to have them done in the next week or two.  

I'm linking with my regular Monday blogs: Oh Scrap, Monday Making,  Design Wall Monday and Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal October. I'm looking forward to see what quilters are working on these days.  I find the most interesting projects. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

OMG Completed!

 

 My Goal for September, 2020 is 

to trim all the rebuilt log cabin blocks

and 

to sew them into a top.

And, yep I succeeded! I shared this photo yesterday.

Here's the whole quilt top pinned to my design wall. It is 69 1/2" x 90". 

Although I am tickled to get this quilt done after working on it on and off for many years, it will be moving into the to-be-quilted closet for a while. I imagine it won't be coming out until next year. 

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilt's One Monthly Goal September Finish Link-Up and Needle and Thread Thursday.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge and One Monthly Goal

This year I've gone wild with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I'm not sure why I am making 3 different block sets but I am.  Since I rarely post about the blocks I thought I'd drag them all out and show all of what I am making for the RSC.  

First up a single block each month.  This is called Bright Block by Ravenna87.  (I'm sorry to admit I have no idea where I got this from.) It's not very exciting yet but wait til I get some sashing and the flying geese border.  It is really cute. 

Next up is a Propeller Block.  I used one that Jan at The Colorful Fabricholic gave directions for.  And, if you click on Newer Posts at the bottom of the post it will take you to her next post where she shows several ways you can lay out the block.  I started the first two months by making 4 of the blocks but for some unknown reason I went to 3 for March. I may go back to making 4 blocks just so I have lots of blocks to play with when I'm ready to make a quilt or 3. By the way, that top left block is actually a dark green with light green swirls in it. It may not make it to any of the final quilts.

My last set of blocks is based on Stash Statement by Kelly Young.  You can see the pattern I'm using here. It's been a lot of fun to make these blocks -- I'm making them oversized and then trimming to the size needed. 

In these pictures I'm trying to get an idea on the color of background fabric I want to use.  I will probably make the quilt smaller than the one Kelly features.  I like the fabric on the left but I don't have enough.  The fabric on the right is too dull for these pretties.  And below is a definite NO! in my mind.  I may have a hard time using that fabric for anything. 

One of these days I'll take the blocks to a quilt store and audition fabric for the backing. I could actually being making the rows each month and be well on the way to a finish by the end of the year. 

Before I lose my opportunity to link up to the One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts here's my goal for April.  

You may be asking yourself what I'm going to be working on -- Pillow Shams. Not my favorite activity but our bed and Sea Glass will look so much better with turquoise pillow shams instead of boring white pillow cases.  My plan is to set Ruthie to quilting designs on the center rectangle and then finish off the shams. I'm tired of all the white in the bedroom so I'm pretty darn sure I will finish these this month with no problems!  

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts' April Goal Setting Linky Party and SOScrappy's Scrap Happy Saturday.  (Hum, interesting how my pillow shams work right in with the Aqua at RSC this month.)  I'm ready to finish my goals for this week so I'm heading down to the studio.  I need to sew! 

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

One Monthly Goal Success!

I succeeded on my January OMG! 

60+ blocks later I have enough blocks to make a twin size quilt for the guest bedroom. These blocks have 21 pieces in them.  And, in case you are wondering, I will not be making this same quilt for the second twin bed in the room!

I was able to make or finish over 30 log cabin blocks this month.  And then, since I was on a roll, I went ahead and rebuilt them.  If you are interested in how to do this check out Elaine's blog Elaine Adair Pieces. You can find her directions under Tutorial - Scrappy Rebuilt Log Cabin. I think these blocks are going to take a short recess and then I'll get busy on making them into a quilt.  I still need to trim them all to the same size and then work on layouts.  

Each block has 21 pieces in it.  Needless to say, I ran out of fabric and was begging off of the gals at retreat.  Sharon is represented by several fabrics and Nancy found one piece in her stuff.  Thanks friends.  

So the sad part about this is I some how twisted 4 blocks the wrong way so they can't be used on the front -- but maybe on the back.  

That's it for me today.  Go see what the rest of the gang finished at Elm Street quilts.  Also check out Needle and Thread Thursday and Midweek Makers.

Now to decide what is going to be my next One Monthly Goal! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings and November OMG

Here we are almost at the end of the year -- from now on it is a mad race to the end of 2018. Have you shopped for the December holidays? Not me.  Or maybe you're planning on making some things.  I've been working on a small sweater.  You can see the beginning here.  Notice it is for a cardigan, well, it was a cardigan.  I was having problems with it so eventually I ripped out everything and started it over as a pullover.  Here's where I'm at now.

It's knit from the neck down so it may not actually look like a sweater yet.  But as I was getting the last few rows before the separation for the sleeves done I realized the pattern isn't accurate.  The number of stitches needed after following the increase instructions is not correct.  It's off by 8 stitches.  Ugh.  I guess I'll need to add those 8 stitches so that the rest of the instructions come out correctly  It's a really old pattern that has sizes from 9 month to 50.  I've used it before and it does come out nicely.  Hopefully I can knit fast enough to get it done by Christmas. Thank goodness it is only a size 3! 

Here's what else I've been working on this past week: 

This is my friend Beth's king size quilt.  We've been getting together weekly sewing and chatting for a year or so.  She's finished the piecing and we've started quilting it. 

Now it's time to set my November One Monthly Goal.  I've decided I'm going to try to get my heron wall hanging to the top stage.  If I get it quilted and bound that will be a great bonus.  The background is together and the heron is fused down.  The only part that is stitched down is the weeds and puddles. Below is a close up of them.  I'm using Sulky's Invisible thread. 

Notice that thread handing down... I'm tying off each start and stop -- not my favorite thing to do but I've learned if you don't tie the threads off they do come loose.  Ugh.  So I will be stitching around all the pieces of the heron. Then I plan to find a batik to border it.  So, should I use a pieced border or just one fabric as the border.  I do know that I have to audition the fabric to make sure it will work with the picture.  If you have some ideas please share them with me. 

Now back to our day on Prince Edward Island.  Here's what we saw as we left for the day.  Yep two lobster claws but where was the lobster? 

I realized we'd walk by the lobster at the beginning of the day but I hadn't even noticed it.  The top of our ship is in the background.  I suspect by now the claws have been joined with the rest of the body. 

I also snapped this picture for Nancy at Wyoming Breezes.  I guess these tiny libraries are international.  She's shared quite a few Tiny Libraries as have I. 

We enjoyed our day on PEI but it was time to move on to Sydney, Halifax.  I'll share those pics on my next post. 

I'll be linking up with my regular linky parties Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving It Forward and Elm Creek Quilts for the OMG for November. Again, I'll link up the blogs that aren't available now. (hopefully!) Well what do you know I remembered fairly early on Monday morning to link the last two. Whoop! Whoop! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Stashbusting Stats and OMG

Up first is my September Stashbusting report.  I got so little done in September but I also didn't go too wild buying fabric.  And, I realized I hadn't deducted the lotto blocks for retreat in August so I added in mine AND the ones Sharon made using my fabrics while she was here. 

2018	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Sept	6.000	54.625	4.125	73.750	19.125

I am definitely ok with this report as I didn't go wild buying fabric. The biggest amount of fabric was a purse kit I bought 5 or so years ago and never made. I don't think I had added the fabric to the in column at the time so I added it now. 

Next up is establishing my One Monthly Goal with Elm Street Quilts.  I knew I was going to be really busy with non quilty things in September so I didn't even state a goal.  This month there will be some more traveling but I'm hoping I can make some progress on this goal.  

Make the center top of my Pirate quilt. 

 

Here's my planning so far: 

I showed the block up close here.  I decided I didn't like two colors for the twisted look and made it only one color.  The pirate fabric is from an odd bunch of little pieces I bought at a quilt store years ago.  They were about 9 x 12" or at least close to it. There were a lot of duplicates so there will be lots of duplicates in the quilt.  I also wanted more blocks.  I searched out "pirate" embroidery and found "A Pirate's Life" by Designs by Juju. Here's the parrot stitching out. 

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have this top DONE!  It's my annual fall retreat weekend.  I've packed the car except for the sewing machine.  I still need to grab one thing I thought would be helpful and then I'm heading out the door.  (Well, I need to get dressed and have breakfast...)

My last share today is a couple of more pictures from our trip.  These are all in Quebec.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you where in Quebec but I bet it wouldn't be hard to find these streets.  (They were close together too.) 

Pat took this one -- that's me standing by the window on the left. 

Then I took these gates.  I was surprised by the depth or faux 3 dimensions I saw on the curved gate on the right.  I thought it a good example of how you can create depth in a quilt.  

The design two sections to the left is the same yet having a light background makes it difficult to see the dimension you see in the first one.  And, no, these aren't really gates but that seems the easiest description. Next post I'll show what was near this and what all the tourists were taking pictures of. (That won't happen until after Sunday....) 

I'm going to link up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Midweek Makers.  Take some time to see what folks have been showing on the Internet.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie -- ready to get going to retreat.  

Moving Forward! Goal Met

I've met my One Monthly Goal at the last minute.  I wanted to get all 42 blocks finished and put together.  About an hour ago I finished that. 

Here's a photo while I was pinning the last row on. 

And, the finished inside of the top.  There is a small border and a string pieced border still to come.  

June starts tomorrow and I'll have to come up with another goal.  Hum, maybe it's time to grab a ufo to finish.  I have a bit of time to make that decision.  I'm heading back to the studio to see if I can finish that Looney Tunes small quilt.  I need to trim it and add the binding.  There's a chance I could finish it tonight!  

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts and Needle and Thread Thursday.  I'm looking forward to spending some time seeing finished goals and inspiring projects. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

April OMG Finished

Yes!  I did finish my April OMG at least a week before the deadline.  My goal was to finish my customer's Alabama T-Shirt quilt.  I finished it over the weekend and my customer picked it up Tuesday.  She was thrilled.  I sent her this photo of it the day I let her know it was done.  She immediately posted it to her Facebook account and started getting all sorts of comments about it.  Her Alabama fans love it.  I have to admit I enjoyed these clever  t-shirts.  

I admit I didn't take as many pictures at the beginning as I did at the end.  Here's some of the process I went through.   First up I measured all the elements that were to go into the quilt.  These are mostly backs, but sleeves and small front icons were also included.  Deconstruction was mostly done with my rotary cutter and sometimes scissors.  One thing I was careful with was the shirts with large designs on the back.  I made sure they didn't get cut inadvertently.  I cut them bigger than I needed them to give me some room to change my mind.  

And between cutting, I was thinking.  I measured every element and recorded it based on the smallest it could go.  Once that was done I grabbed graph paper, pencil, and most importantly, an eraser.  I did the paper copy at least twice.  Then I wrote a big note to remind myself when I cut to add the seam allowances! 

Once the plan was figured out it was time to actually construct the top.  I recut to about the needed size and then added the woven stabilizer.  Then I recut to the correct size.  (Yea, three times handling the shirts was a little ridiculous.  Now that I've figured out how to go about this I'd probably only do a rough cut, stabilize and then a final cut.) Below it is beginning to take shape. Nope, the grey as filler doesn't look as good as black...

It was a challenge to get all the rows to end up the same length.  A little tighter seam here, a bigger piece of filler there and they all fit in. Here's the backing fabric. My customer found this houndstooth fabric that matches the hat.  How cool is that?  Except, it was directional.  Once I realized that it was easy to match the design while seaming it.  Lots of fabric! 

I used Classic Stipple by Apricot Moon.  Batting was Pellon 60/40 cotton poly.  I knew the quilt would be heavy so I wanted to lighten it a little using the higher content poly.  

Below is one of my favorite shirts. The top part says something about the schedule.  Read the part in black.  As a fan of University of Southern California football I understand that sentiment.  In fact one of my friends got married on a big game day (USC vs. Notre Dame at home.)  Needless to say a LOT of the guests were gathered round a big television at the reception site. 

Here are a couple of other shots of the quilt.  Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and rainy which made it hard to get a good picture of it.  Plus it is something like 65 by 75" and remember me saying heavy?  That too.

If you look at the right edge you can see that I used the houndstooth to do the binding.  The original plan was for the black but when I saw the houndstooth... well it just seemed right to me. 

I told my customer I'd have it done by May 1st and I succeeded.  I sometimes take my time making quilts or have other items sneak up that must be done.  So I was very happy to have this one finished in advance. I did not label this quilt but now I'm thinking I might want to get some of the printed labels that also have washing instructions to add to the quilt.  What do you think?  Would you add a small label with the quilt maker's info along with washing instructions?  

This post is proudly being linked with One Monthly Goal April Finish linky party, Midweek Makers, and Needle and Thread Thursday. (I'll be back to link up to tomorrow's linky party.)  Enjoy some time browsing the internet in between your sewing time.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie  

One Monthly Goal Success!

What a great month December has been for us!  My last post was 3 weeks ago -- Friday, December 8th.  The weather was gray and threatening snow.  Here are some highlights...

Spotsylvanians' dress rehearsal . . . a canceled Saturday night concert due to icing . . . a packed house for the Sunday matinee including our kids and grands . . . pizza at the house for the 10 of us after the show . . . finally, throwing everyone out of the house by 7:30 because we were going on vacation! (There was a big reason why my goal's list showed wrapping presents in late November!) 

First stop was a hotel near the airport so we wouldn't have to fight traffic in the morning.  A flight to Miami and another hotel.  Finally Tuesday we got on a ship and headed to the eastern Caribbean. 

 The view from our balcony arriving at Cozumel, Mexico. 

The tourists on a tour of Cozumel. (This is the only picture of both of us on the trip -- except a few selfies.)

Mexican dancing. 

I've got quite a few more pictures of our 10 day cruise but it's time to get back to quilting.  I'll share more pictures over the next several posts.  

I'm tickled to say I finished my OMG for December.  I was pretty careful picking the hand appliqué -- there wasn't a lot to do and it was portable!  Here's the apples and the pears all done. Hum, it looks a bit wonky to me.  I think the left pear may fall over before I get it in the quilt!  No picture of the bird but he's got his body and wing finished. Now to figure out the setting.  Then on to the borders that will have appliqué vines and flowers on them. 

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.  I'm looking forward to getting back into checking blogs for inspiration and to keep up with my quilting friends.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie  

Rinse, Repeat OMG

Do you remember old shampoo that said wash, rinse and repeat?  That's what I feel like this is.  A rinse and a repeat of my September One Monthly Goal.  That goal just didn't get done because I didn't count the pieces correctly and ran out of them after 10 blocks while I was on retreat, at the end of the month.  Sigh.  Here's 9 of them that did get done. 

I must say I really like how it is turning out even if I didn't get the 20 blocks all made, bordered and a complete top during September.  My OMG for October is to get this quilt to top stage.  If I'm really lucky I'll get it quilted and bound during the month but I'm not offering up that as my goal.  I'm ready for another success! 

Happily, I can report that Ruthie, the long arm, is repaired and quilting like a champ.  I've finished another row of quilting with 3 more to go.  Darn this holly design is really dense as it is taking 25+ minutes to stitch each row.  But I must say it looks terrific on the Christmas trip around the world.  My preference is for looser quilting but I am thrilled with the results so far.  

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal October Link-Up and Mid-Week Makers.  Take some time to see what folks are working on around the Internet.  

That's it for me.  I've got to get downstairs to finish quilting my Trip Around the World today. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 2 - 2017

Post Retreat! 

Retreat was -- fun, fabulous, well organized, tiring and yet also relaxing!  Just a few thoughts on Country Piecemaker's retreat near Harrisonburg, Va.  I've been going to this retreat for 7 years and they keep getting better and better.  Since I've moved an hour and a half away I don't make it to guild meetings often.  But I so enjoyed seeing everyone and sewing with friends.  Sharon has been coming to it for 6 years.  (They have always taken outside folks and when Sharon first started they had spaces to fill.) We have a couple of ladies from Ohio and one from Connecticut.  

I didn't take too many pictures but I will share what I have over the next few days.  Here are some of the things I worked on over the four days. 

A reindeer ornament. Some how seeing this as a picture I'm thinking, "a bell for a tongue???" Hum, looking at the pattern picture I may have sewn the bell on too tight.  When I first did the piecing I made a mistake which I didn't notice until after I turned him.  Oh well.  So, he looks more like a bull than a reindeer! You can see him made up the way he is suppose to look here.

My big project was an epic failure.  Here's a reminder of what the block looked like.  I had planned to make 19 more of these blocks, put them together, and put two borders on.  Well, er, um ... I didn't count correctly.  I needed 8 of the navy blue pieces for each block.  Somehow I only cut enough of the pieces to make 10 blocks all together.  No one has ever said I can do math.  Evidently, I can't count either.  I have half the blocks done.  It's an epic failure because it was suppose to be my One Monthly Goal.  Um, no, didn't get it finished.  I was wondering if something would go wrong when I planned to make this at retreat during the last 3 days of September.  Oh well, I'll be deciding my next monthly goal in the next few days. 

Below is my back-up project -- I evidently counted just fine with this project.  It went together fast and accurately. (Phew, glad something got totally done!) 

And a closeup:

I'll be sharing more about retreat and pictures this week.  I am fairly shocked to know I didn't take very many pictures at all.  I guess I was too busy chatting and sewing. 

Needless to say I have mostly failures this week when I look at the goals. I'm not stressing over any of it as I did have one big success and that was having fun at retreat! 

Sept 25, 2017

Finish quilting Trip Around the World not yet,

Make and add binding to TAW well, not yet

Piece 2 baby quilts um, 1 finished, 1 fail

Finish snowman mini quilt√ except for hand sewingthebinding down

Finish reindeer ornament√ except for hot gluing the lights on

Have a GREAT time at retreat! √√√√√ Victory!

October 2, 2017

Cut out & piece star quilt

Finish quilting TAW (assuming Ruthie is fixed!) 

Prep fabrics for weekend class

Enjoy classes in Maryland 

I have a busy week so some of these goals may not happen based on whether the long arm is fixed in time.  If not, I should be able to get the Ninja Star quilt top finished. (Assuming I don't goof off too much!) 

I'm connecting with my regular linky parties: Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Oh Scrap, Moving It Forward.  I'm looking forward to cruising the blogs to see what other folks are doing.  

That's it for me today. 
Happy Quilting!  Bonnie