Monday Meanderings 10 - 23 - 2023

Yikes! Our temps are suppose to go into the high 30s tonight. I guess I can finally say that it feels like fall.  It has been a busy week but I also got a lot of quilty stuff done.  

Here's my goal list from last week. 

10/16/23

✅Plan the Christmas present quilt and start sewing it together — I actually got some sewing done on this one -- no more planning, just sewing. 

✅Continue trimming units and making blocks for the Malted Mystery — not finished yet.

✅Bind a quilt or two — one done, one 3/4s done.

✅Work on Grands’ Christmas ornaments — 3 wool ornaments have the main designs sewn on.  Once the 4th one has the elements sewn on, it’ll be time for details.  

👎🏼Straighten up the cutting table (I may forget this one!)  I keep working on this but I’ve spread too much out across the front. Sigh  — nothing done — or at least I don’t remember putting anything away! 

✅Make a couple of placemats — 4 done and turned in. 

✅Guild meeting 10/18/23 & ✅World Singing Day 10/21/23.— I had fun at both events. 

I can't share many of the pictures as they are Christmas gifts. But I can share some more placemats. I turned these 4 in to the guild at the meeting last week. All were done as quilt as you go.  The rose one used Pat Sloan's String Bean block. The Pinwheel was an orphan block that worked pretty well as a placemat.  I quilted the block on my domestic machine and then added the side pieces to make it a bit larger. 

This space one was started with an odd size in the middle and I added strips log cabin style. (Different sizes but very similar style to the String Bean mat.) My favorite is the string mat.  It took a bit more time too. I started in the bottom right corner with a triangle and added various size strips as I went along.  It was a bit time consuming but when all the strips were sewn in place all I had to do was trim and bind it.  I'll probably do this style again as it helps use up some of the strings I have hanging around. 

Below is the beginning of the space mat. I didn't crop the picture very tightly so you can see the batting, backing and, oops, my wool mat in the background.  I used the sew and flip method to create the placemat on the batting and backing. Once I get to the edge of the batting, I cut strips with widths that would finish off the front so it matched the batting. (I carefully trimmed the front so no extra was hanging over.) Then I turned under about a 1/4" of the backing and turned that over the edge to the front to form a binding. I machine stitched around the placemat and that was it.    

On the string mat I actually had a piece of binding made that matched and was big enough so I applied regular binding to the red mat.  I think when I do more string mats I might not put the backing on while I do the sew and flip.  It would make the back look a little neater even though I would need to add some in-the-ditch quilting stitches to hold the front to the back.

At the guild meeting I turned in 3 quilts for donating to various organizations we as a guild contribute to:

Baby quilt will go to the NICU at one of our local hospitals. 

Granny Squares Quilt 

This quilt was made from blocks from the FCQ Equilters for my turn in 2018. I know I started making it sometime in 2019. You can visit past pictures of it here, and here.  I still have more blocks from this group. And, I honestly think I made another quilt with some of these blocks and donated it. (I don't keep a record what I donate but I should! Do you record your donation quilts? Or keep an ongoing record of quilts made?) 

I call this quilt the Big Pinwheel Quilt. The blocks started as large flying geese blocks for a retreat block drawing. Except I used homespuns and cottons. Oops. I was suppose to use batiks. I found the flying geese blocks too big so cut them in half and made pinwheels. Worked great. 

Granny Squares and Pinwheel quilts will be going to Valor Ranch.  (Read more about their work with wounded veterans and their families.) 

I'm hoping to get the following things worked on this week. 

10/23/23

Finish trimming units and make blocks for Malted Mystery

Work on Grands’ Christmas ornaments

Continue sewing Christmas present quilt together

Sew some rows from Ombré log cabin together

Have fun with grands this weekend

Finish binding two quilts

Phew.  It's getting late and I need to get some sleep before another busy week starts.  Here's my favorite Linky parties. I hope you can check them out. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Sew and Tell

To Do Tuesday 

I hope you all have a wonderfully quilty week. 

Happy Quilting. Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 4 - 27 - 2020

Have you had a week where you go completely off the rails?   Yea, me too.  And it was this week.  I had a list of goals I wanted to work on. Sunday afternoon rolled around and I realized I really didn't finish ANY of them.  Let's just take a look at the list. 

A few pinwheels made.

This week, along with mask making, I'm focusing on:
1) Making all pinwheel blocks and sewing the top together. I still need three more blocks, so no, not sewn together. 

2) Sewing all the churn dash blocks into a top. I sewed one more row together. Yawn.

3) Loading on Ruthie president's quilt for my local guild. The back is loaded. √ 

4) Updating my spread sheets on UFOs and batting pieces.  This is my maybe goal. All the other ones I really want to keep up with. Did not even look at this one. 


I did spend some of every day in the studio.  I finished several more masks and got them over to a neighbor's house for the ambulance group.  But did I really do anything else? I have been cutting out masks in groups of ten and sewing them as leader enders, so maybe it was that.  And, I did cut out some squares to make into 3.5" half square triangles. Three got sewn and trimmed. And, several more pinwheels are either done or in process. 

Saturday I wasn't all that interested in sewing but I did get a little done.  I spent several hours looking at fabric to buy on line.  I even got the items into my cart. And, then, I changed my mind.  I'll eventually move the items back to my wish list.  I just didn't see a lot of need to actually buy more fabric.  Maybe next month.  But, right now, I'm being strong and not buying.  On the other hand, I should probably check out my thread supply for both the long arm and domestic machines.  I've been running through thread like crazy...or so it seems. 

So, now I'm facing Monday hoping I can get re-enthused about what I am working on.  

Probably the highlight of the week was a drive by birthday celebration Sunday afternoon.  We live in a 55+ community with lots of active people.  We do seem to be doing a good job of social distancing.... So, birthdays are celebrated by decorated cars and lots of honking.  We only found out about this one when we took a walk.  So we walked in front of the cars to wish Terry a happy birthday. 

It's hard to tell but the cars are lined up all the way to the end of the street. Glenda (left) and Dee are walking with a big birthday banner.  (It keeps getting recycled with a new name put on for each celebration.) 






Here's a close up of the sign in front of Terry and Wanda's house. Hum, that pole looks like it is a perfect gauge for keeping social distancing. 

There's Terry talking to Marty.  Love the sign Marty made.  

So, my response is, man, we are easily entertained these days!  But it was a nice thing to do. 

My one other achievement this week, done after the birthday celebration, was to load a king size backing for a quilt I'm doing for my guild.  I much prefer smaller ones but hopefully this one won't take forever.  (Yea, I know, it probably will because I'll only do a few rows a day so I can continue the other projects and make masks too!) 

No new list of goals with the exception of #3 above.  The new #3: Quilt the president's quilt. 

I'm linking up with my regular parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday. Join me in surfing the web to see what is new.  (Hum, if I remember I did spend a lot of Monday surfing the web and I wrote the blog Monday instead of the night before...) 

Happy Quilting All and Stay Safe.  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 4 - 13 - 2020

Hello!  Monday has rolled around again.  We're still staying home.  And I'm making progress on UFOs.  Whoopee! 

Last week I was finishing up the Scrappy Majestic Mountains. The top is done and I've moved on to a variation on a pinwheel block.  I had six leftover blocks from various times I've made these pinwheels. Visit here, a couple here, and scroll down here to see some Sharon made.  I separated out the red, white and blue ones and have started to make additional ones to fill in.   

Using two contrasting fabrics you start with a 14" block that eventually gives you two 11.25" blocks.  An odd size however I have never tried to mix this block in with other types of blocks. And, it goes pretty fast.  Well, unless you don't put right sides together before you start sewing.  FACE PALM!  And, worse, I had already started the cutting process before I realized everything was wrong.  I did a bit of ripping and am ready to sew these correctly. 



I'm almost done with the baby girl Happy Blocks.  (Remember you can find the pattern for it at MaryQuilts.)  This one is a bright, cheerful quilt.  And, I almost always make quilts for boys rather than girls.  It was fun to use those bright pretty pinks from a charm pack.  Eventually I'll do something from the blues and greens in that pack but not for a while.  

Pat helped me lay this one out.  Most of the colors are strong and it was distracting to have them spread out randomly.  He suggested order. It worked well. I'll sew the rows together this week. I think I have a backing for this particular top so it might be quilted soon! 

I've also started sewing the red, white and blue churn dash blocks together.  They make great leader/enders while working on other things.  I'll take the top row off and then lay out another row.  I have these blocks pinned together in rows so it's easy to take the top row one off, move up the bottom one and keep laying out blocks. 

I have a huge design wall.  And, here's what it looks like at this moment.  The far right side is a mess but I can get three different quilts up there although the Happy Blocks when seen together will come down to get all the pinwheel blocks up. 

Last week I didn't set hard and fast goals. I have still been making masks.  Our neighborhood mask sewers have been giving away masks to our neighbors who ask for them.  We live in a 55+ neighborhood so most of us are being extremely careful.  I need to make more masks so I can give at least 10 to Life Care.  

My Top Three Goals 4/13 to 4/19:

1) Keep up with mask requests and give 10 a week to Life Care.

2) Finish Happy Quilt top and quilt it.

3) Make more pinwheel blocks so I can make a QOV approved size top. 

4) Keep sewing churn dash rows together. (I know, I said three goals but honestly, this is just a leader ender!)

I'm ready to move down to the studio so before I go I'm linking to Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  It should be fun to surf the web and see quilts and masks in progress. 

Happy Quilting and Stay Safe.  Bonnie 

  

June OMG - Completed

I'm done with everything for my June One Monthly Goal You can see the first two finishes here. 

This is pinwheel #3. You can see the pieced backing here. I bound it in the same  polka dots as the backing and binding on #4. 

And, #4.  I had run out of any possible fabric to use on the back of this one.  It's 44 x 56" or so.  With a 60% off coupon from JoAnn Fabrics in my hand, I went to see what I could find.  I haven't been shopping all that much at JoAnns recently because I'm trying to use up fabric rather than purchase new fabric.(Well, that and that giant addition of fabric I made in May!)   Let me tell you I was shocked to see the prices on the "calico" wall.  You know what I mean -- the wall that has 3 or so long shelves with less impressive fabric?  Not so many old fashioned calicos were there.  More up-to-date looking fabric but it was all priced at either $7.99 a yard or $9.99 a yard.  YIKES.  In the end my 3 yards of fabrics cost me just under $13.  I liked the cute polka dot on the mottled blue and it = looked good with the top.  

I used a new quilting design that I love!  It is called Malachite.  I had seen it on someone else's blog so went to look at it on Urban Elements' page.  I bought it although it is bigger than I normally use.  I was very happy with how this turned out.  In fact, up close you can't really see the rows. 

I really wanted to get all four of these finished this month but the last week or so I've been goofing off more than sewing.  Today I made an all out effort to bind both quilts.  And, yep, I used up nearly all of the cute polka dots getting these two finished.  It was late in the day so the bottom photo isn't as bright as it should be.

All four pinwheel quilts hanging on the long arm. One thing I need to let you know.  Most of these blocks were already done.  I think I made 2 for the child quilt.  The saddest part is I haven't used all up all of the blocks.  I'll wait a while and do another couple to try to clear these out of my UFO list. 

Today I'll be sharing with Elm Street Quilt and Needle and Thread Thursday. 

Here's some of the day lilies that have begun blooming in the yard.  When we had the landscaping done last winter I really wanted to have different colors of lilies instead of the standard orange.  We've got a lovely mix of colors.  It will be wonderful to see them in a couple of years when they fill out more. 

This red one would probably make a great natural dye. My fingers came away red when I plucked off a dying flower.  And it didn't wash out.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 6 - 26 - 2017

I decided to try a different outdoor location for my photo shoot this afternoon. Hum, I'm not sure this works as well as I thought it would.  The quilt, on top of a sheet, is sitting on the grass in the backyard.  I took the photo standing on the deck above it.  Yep, keystoning going on here, but overall a brighter picture than the ones I take in the studio. 

And here's the back of the quilt: I happened to have a length of blue with white stars that I added a big of light grey to.  I found an old piece of gold Marbles that wasn't particularly wide but was quite long.  I'm thinking it might have been used for a border at some time.  I was happy to be able to use it for the binding. 

And quilt #2 -- navy blue and beige pinwheels. 

And, the back this one which was one length of fabric. A friend gave me the fabric a while ago when she found out I make QOV quilts.  This one will go to a nursing home since it is so small -- about 36" square.  I was tickled to find some red and black check for the binding. 

For those who read of my dilemma last week, I still haven't found the flower wall hanging -- neither the back or flowers, leaves and stems that are already to be sewn on!  Argh.  I may start panicking one day soon.  I've looked in all the places I thought I might have put it! Do I want to mention I also can't find my fine line chalk pencil too? EEKS! 

Here's the goals from last week.  Not bad. 

June19, 2017

Hand quilt on Civil War Quilt√

Quilt another pinwheel quilt (#3)√

Bind pinwheel quilt #2√ (and maybe #3) No, not yet

Start appliqueing flower wall hanging UGH Can’t find

Make some fabric boxes√

And for this coming week --

June 26, 2017

Bind pinwheel quilt (#3)

Keep hand quilting on Civil War Quilt

Make some fabric boxes

Lay out UFO Grid Lock and start sewing into a top

Make backing for pinwheel quilt #4 and quilt it

I'm linking up with my favorite Monday linky parties: Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and Moving It Forward.  Take some time to visit a few of the posts.  I am always so inspired after looking at several posts.  On the other hand I also seem to have a longer list of what I'd like to do some day.  

Happy Quilting All, Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 12 - 2017

Here's the first of the pinwheel quilts quilted: 

I used a beige So Fine thread from Superior threads and one of my favorite edge to edge designs: Ginger Snap by April Moon.   I didn't have a lot of excess backing fabric so I wanted a design that was fairly flat across the top.  This one filled that requirement plus it isn't all that dense unless I choose to make it so.  Once I got it going it didn't take all that long to finish. I hope to bind it this week. 

Nancy this one's for you: 

This is a free little library at Sophie's bus stop.  (Embarrassing to admit but I didn't even notice it when we waited for the bus in the morning!)  I looked over some of the books but didn't take one.  I wonder if Sophie and Natalie ever look at the books.  Sophie's a big reader; Natalie doesn't find it as interesting. 

This week was really busy with a lot of time spent on the road.  So, I didn't succeed with all of my goals.  I was happy to make some more progress on the pinwheel quilt though. Here's how I did last week: 

June 5, 2017

Add the borders to table topper hum, maybe this week

Enjoy spending time with grands√

Clean up front of cutting table nope, didn’t happen!

Find backing for one pinwheel quilt√

Make blocks for one more pinwheel top√

And here are my goals for this week:

June 12, 2017

Add the borders to table topper

Quilt another pinwheel quilt

Make backing for 2 pinwheel quilts

Put binding on pinwheel quilt

Make some fabric boxes

I'm linking up with the regular linky parties:  Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  (I'll add the other two links on Monday.  What, am I ahead of the game here?  Yep -- I'm done with my post Sunday night. Amazing!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie