Monday Meanderings - 12 - 30 - 2024

Welcome to the last few days of 2024.  I'm a big user of my library's ebooks. Since I check out books frequently,  I'm already getting used to the year as 2025. And in just a day or two it will be 2025.  Will you be staying up to welcome it in on Tuesday night?  I doubt if I will. I might if I find something interesting to watch on tv that will motivate me to stay up.  

I promised I'd share the ornaments I made for my grands once Christmas was over. Here's one picture of them.  Yes, I really staged them. 

Everyone thought they were very cute.  I was happy to have them done. I'm starting to think (only think) about what I want to do for them next year. Maybe some machine embroidery instead of all the hand work.  

Here's what I did toward finishing my goals this past week. 

12/23/24

✅Bind bow tie quilt — done!

✅Enjoy the family together on Christmas — we had a great time. 

Put borders on fall quilt — not even started.

Pick fabric for New Years Day Mystery — I decided to save directions then decide if I want to make it later. 

✅Quilt and bind pinwheel windmill quilt — Quilted and first side of binding sewn down. 

✅Pick 12 projects for the UFO challenge — 9 piecing projects and 3 quilting projects are on my list. 

Not a bad week considering Christmas was in the middle of it. Luckily I only had to do a little food prep.  And, I made a point of hitting my studio on Wednesday morning before we went to our son's house.  

Here's the windmill quilt while it was being quilted.  

Generally, I'm not a fan of variegated threads but this one worked so well on this quilt that I used it.  It is a YLI 100% cotton thread called Havana Market, 40 weight. It did lint a lot but I really like the colors on this one.  You can see the whole top here.  Below is the backing I used.  I tend to use excess backing for my binding which worked well on this quilt.  I used Fern Gully quilting design to give a lot of texture.  (The first side of the binding is sewn on the back. Sometime this week I'll flip it to the front and machine stitch it down. 

Here's what I'll be doing this week.

12/30/24

Finish bind pinwheel quilt

Put borders on fall quilt 

Enjoy the Rose Bowl Parade 

Work on UFO Challenge project

Spend 15 minutes a day cleaning up especially the front of my cutting table

I've been making a point of using up small dribs and drabs of thread on spools. One of these was used up; the pink is still available. I'd sure like to get it and one other used before the new year. 

Sometime after the new year I'll make a report on my thread spool usage this year. 

I had another 7 days of success making sure I'm stitching for 15 minutes every day. 

W/ending 12/29 — 364 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week Dec = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 353/364 days
• Success rate = 96.97%

I'll be doing this again in 2025.  I like the idea of having a bit of stitching going on every day.  If you are interested in joining this program go visit Kate at Life in Pieces. I think the main part of joining is to report your numbers every week. Pretty easy.  I need to ask Pat to make me another spread sheet to mark off my stitching days. 

I'm linking with the following parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musing.  

Here's another closed up pic of the little penguin ornaments. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 14 2020

It was a good week for getting things done for me. You'll see by looking at my goals list. I didn't finish everything but I made superb progress. 

First up -- last weeks goals. 

12/7/2020

Sew label on farm quilt✔️ See my post here. 

Sew coping strips on all t shirts 2/3 done 

Get grand kids ornaments done 2 out of 4 done

          Here are some samples...

First try.  Oops the stabilizer didn't tear out like it should have. 

Here are two finished (but I forgot the hangers...)And several more ready to be made. 

And the back needed a date. 

(and back to the rest of the goals....) 

Order some more presents✔️

Knit on a doll hat✔️

And this week it's more about finishing Christmas things. And, if I decide to go wild, I will play with one of the quilts currently waiting to be finished. I really need to finish a quilt or two this month!  

12/14/2020

Finish Christmas ornaments

Wrap presents

Finish adding coping strips on t shirt quilt (I'm really hoping to have the top done except for the borders.) 

Make scarf to go with doll hat

Write & mail Christmas cards

I'm hoping I will have some play time too.  

And now, a Public Service Announcement! 

While putting the date on the back of my Gingerbread Men I used a Frixon pen to draw a line on the back of the felt.  On the first one it was a very small line. It came off completely when ironed. I kept marking the line on each of the felts I used. Unfortunately, the bright cinnamon felt must have been a different fiber content. You can see the lines on the picture below. The red Frixon left a light line. (Note to self, use a different pen and don't make the line too long!)  I usually only use Frixon pens where any residual line wouldn't make a difference but obviously I totally forgot! 

And, now it's time for me to finish this up! But first, here are the linky parties.  Give them a look and see what's going on around the internet. Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and on Tuesday -- To Do Tuesday. (I'll link up all the others after they post.) 

By the way, do you realize it is only 14 days til Christmas.  WHAAATTTTT? 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 30 - 2019

Now I can share pictures of some of the secret projects I was working on over the last two months or so.  First up the t shirt quilt for Brian.  

He gave me a stack of shirts from his days in youth recreation programs. The sizes were all different -- from about a size 5 to adult.  Most were from his hometown's parks and rec program.  I let them age for a couple of years.  OK I was procrastinating.  Part of the time I was looking for fabric that would work with the shirts. I finally found this black with multicolored dots on it. 

You can see a little of the quilting in this one.  Brian's sport is soccer and most of these shirts were for soccer teams when he was a kid.  I found a great soccer ball quilting design and used it. Lynne's Soccer Ball is available at Intelligent Quilting. (PS it's on sale now!) 

I also found a great soccer print for the backing of the quilt. You should be able to click on it and it will enlarge which might show the quilting design better.  (Fabric came from JoAnns.) 

I was tickled with Brian as he had no idea I actually had been working on it.  He was surprised that so many of his numbers were "10".  He spent quite a bit of time checking it out.  His mom was there too and she really liked it too. 

Luckily this isn't the last quilt of 2019.  Here's one that just needs it's binding put on. This space quilt will be the last finish of 2019. I'll share more of it after I get that done and have time for a photo shoot. 

Space Quilt - 2019. Omni thread, Fern Gully quilting design.

Every year I make ornaments for the grands.  This year I decided I would see what was available in embroidered designs.  I also was given some metallic threads that a friend couldn't get to run nicely on her machine so I decided to try them with this star design.  This is Nordic Christmas Ornament - Star from Embroidery Library. Here's the front. 

And now the back. I really like that I could embroider their names and dates on the back.  On the other hand I made quite a few errors getting to four finished ornaments.  Maybe I'll do embroidered ornaments for next year -- in July! 

I'm saving a few of the items for my next post.  I made more of my presents this year than I normally do.  Hopefully I got pictures of all of them too. But I was so happy to mess around in my studio working on quilts a couple of days after Christmas. 

I'm linking up here: Oh Scrap, Monday Makings, and Design Wall Monday. I'm looking forward to a leisurely scroll through the end of the year web sites. 

Happy New Year and Happy Quilting  Bonnie 

Design Wall Monday 12-30-13

How can we be so close to saying good bye to 2013?  It was only 109 posts ago that we welcomed it.  Sigh.  Not much quilting going on this past week but yesterday I started back in the studio with the goal of finishing one more quilt before the end of the month. 

This is what I am trying to finish before midnight tomorrow!  I still need to actually sew those mitered corners.  I have Susan Cleveland's book, Marvelous Miters.  It is my go to book for how to miter corners quickly and easily.  Except, it took forever to make the borders for this one, or so it seemed. Today I'll sew the corners. Piece the backing and get it loaded on Ruthie.  Then if I still am motivated, I'll start quilting it.  It will get an all over design that has lots of curves on it. 

Here are the finished ornaments I made for the girls.  I learned as I finished each one.  May need to rethink how long a hanger I need for future ornaments. 

My kids know me so well.  They gave me quilt books for Christmas.  I requested the log cabin one.  Wow!  I want to make several of the ones in it. Argh, it will take me forever to do any from there but I really like the look.  I'm hoping to do the one Aimee picked out sometime.  I really need to finish a few UFO's before I start anything new. Jenny hit the nail on the head with In the Studio.  I always need new ideas for what to quilt on my quilts.  I've taken a Craftsy class with Angela Walters so this will reinforce that and add to it. Fun!  

I did remarkably well on my goals this past week.  Perhaps because it was stuff I absolutely had to do! 

Week of December 23, 2013

Clean house√

Make whatever food can be done in advance√

Finish T Shirts√

Finish secret project√

Do final prep for anything needing to be done by Christmas√

Sing Christmas Eve service√

Enjoy time with all the kids here!√

Visit Ginter Gardens√

Make borders for red, white and blue X block quilt√

Sew backing for X block quilt oops, not yet!

And, for the last few days of the year I'm not quite as focused except on the X Block quilt.

Week of December 30, 2013

Sew backing for X block quilt

Load and quilt X Block quilt

Bind X Block quilt

Clean and put away stuff in the studio

Try my new Sizzix cutter

Make FCQEquilter blocks

Get back to working on A Tisket, A Tasket

Finish baby quilt

Set up new Mac Power Book YIPPEE!

I've been a modern grammy long before selfie became a word!  I've been taking selfies with the grands since the first grand.  And here we are Grammy and Ellie.  I'm not so thriled with the wrinkles on Grammy's face but I do like this picture of us.  Hum, maybe this should be printed and framed. 

Time to get up to the studio.  Please take some time this week to visit Patchwork Times to see what folks are up to in their studios. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Old Ornaments

I am blessed to own several ornaments that were on my mother's Christmas tree when she was a girl.  I'm pretty sure this was on Mom's tree.  I had a santa that was on my grandfather's tree but I'm not sure which one it is!  It was a santa sitting on a log.  And, for some reason I have two of them!  Both look old although one is a fairly recent acquisition!  So, I'm not sharing a picture of that one.  

I've also acquired a few unusual ornaments from various places we've lived.  So check out this next ornament.  Have you figured out what it is?  Take a guess..... 

Santa's got a little dimension and is painted on ... (a little trumpet fanfare please,) an okra.  Yes, a dried okra.  I'm not sure why he hasn't drawn vermin or bugs, but he hasn't.  

No quilting today.  But I have just about finished making 35 Christmas cards.  Now to finish signing, addressing and mailing them.  

Tomorrow's plans:  back to the quilt studio after church, grocery store and maybe lunch out.  I did finish the wall hanging for our bedroom.  In fact, Pat got i hung today so I'll post a picture tomorrow.    In fact he hung something else I will show off tomorrow.  Have a great evening.

Happy quilting!  Bonnie