Monday Meanderings July - 20 - 2026

It was a great week! Retreat is over and I'm exhausted.  But what fun we all had. There were 7 of us sewing in a space that was actually designed for scrapbooking.  I failed to take pictures of sewing area. So here's a verbal description.  We each had a table to set up on.  Then there were tables for an iron and for cutting mats.  Those two tables were on risers so they were at a comfortable height. There was also a snack table and an extra refrigerator. There was also a bedroom and bath downstairs.   Upstairs there was a kitchen, dining room, living room, one bedroom and access to a beautiful screen porch. The next floor had two more bedrooms and a bath room.  A nice set up for us. 

Here're my goals from last week. 

7/13/26

✅Pack up sewing projects & supplies and travel to retreat! — arrived, sewed and came home. 

✅Work on projects most are groups of blocks to make into tops — most were moved forward or finished. 

Prep Snowman #3 for hand appliquéing— started but not finished. 

I'll show my retreat projects after my goals for this week. So here they are. 

7/20/26

Knit on a new hat

Work on Snowman #2

Finish prepping Snowman #3 for hand appliquéing

Cut more blocks and sew turquoise and green baby quilt together 

Load a quilt on Ruthie and quilt it. 

I had a really successful retreat. I brought 8 projects to work on. Most were blocks needing to be put into tops.  One was a new quilt cut and ready to sew. Here are some of the projects.

Since I finished all the Veronica blocks before I left I decided to sew them into a top. Once I find backing fabric this one is ready to throw on Ruthie. 👆🏼

This economy block, along with about 7 others, was made at retreat.  Then I laid out all the blocks on my design bed.  And, then I moved blocks around.  Took photos and turned them into greyscale. And again and again.  After an hour or so I decided I needed to reevaluate the blocks.  They were a variety of fabric colors and styles. I finally decided to put these basic in their pouch and look at them once I got home.  My guess is I'll make some more blocks that are medium and then the quilt will look more balanced.  A lot of the blocks looked really dark when turned to greyscale. So I went on to something else. 

I started this quilt with the little 9 patches which are 3" in the quilt.  I actually cut out the other parts for last October's retreat. I sewed this top at retreat. Except, I didn't cut the colored border. In fact I have no idea what fabric I'll use for the border. I'm hoping to get it finished sooner, rather than later. I might have a fabric that will work. I'll keep you posted on this one. 

Next up I pulled out the blocks to make this little baby quilt. It's a 64 square quilt,

set 8 x 8. It finishes 36" square. The squares are cut 5" and finish at 4.5". Are you asking why I made these blocks 5"?  It's because I have a 9" Aaccuquilt Cube. The big square turns is 5". My other choice would have been 6" finished which seemed too big for my fabrics.  The fabric was a kit from Craftsy when they were going out of business. It all is sea motifs. Whales, clams, bottles in the sea, etc.  I may  have enough fabric left over for a second one.  I think I have yardage of one or two of these fabrics to use as backing.

This is another 36" square baby quilt.  The lozenge shape is from my 9" Companion Set. It's called a signature block. You might notice I have some holes in the design. I was going to just make some at the retreat but it took quite a long time to make the first one. So I decided to put this one away and cut the extra blocks out on the Accuquilt at home.  

Not a great picture but this is the one totally new quilt.  I used one of my Quilts for Baby books by Ursula Reikes. The Eiffel Tower fabric was free on a give away table at one of my quilt guilds.  I didn't bring both pages of the directions -- only the sewing it together part.  I still need to cut the border and apply it.  Again, I'l need to find backing for it eventually. 

And, that's my trusty Featherweight that really sewed a lot this past week.  One thing I learned is the Singer needles are not any good.  I'd changed the needle in it for the only needle I had with me, from Singer. The stitches were awful, skipped, big and poorly formed.  Luckily a friend had recently taken a Featherweight maintenance class. The instructor said the Singer needles were awful. She gave me a new needle and that Featherweight sewed like a champ for the whole retreat. Phew! 

 

On the afternoon of the last day I moved on to this top. 👇🏼  Well, it's not a top yet. It started out as blocks that had been pieced on phone books pages. I did get the blocks sewn together in rows. But then I decided I might want to take off some of the paper before I sew the rows together.  It was getting late after I got one row of the papers removed. I quit sewing, packed up my supplies and then went on to bed.  I think tearing these papers out will be great to do when I'm watching TV or at my stitching group.  So these will take a while before I get them sewn together.  

My last project did get started.  You can see one of the blocks here on last week's post. It's the watermelon Happy block.  I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the blocks I made during the week. Again, something I'll be working on over the upcoming weeks and months too.  I think all the blocks are ready to be sewn into rows and a top. 

So, yes, I made forward progress on a lot of projects.  Most need more progress to get to top stage. But WOW I was amazed how many projects I worked on and made good progress.  I have another retreat in October -- so I'll need to get another group of projects ready to finish or at least move forward for it. Who knows, I may wait 'til then to finish some of these projects. 

NEWS ALERT!

I didn't do any stitching today! In fact, I forgot all about it until a few paragraphs back! So here are the numbers. 

Week ending 7/19/26: 200 days of 2026.

 199 stitching days out of 200 days 99.5%

I'll start back up tomorrow.  At least I got reading on my Kindle done. Now it's time to remind all to check out these Linky parties.  

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

One thing I didn't mention is I took most of my tools and projects down to the sewing room when I got home. Tomorrow I'll only have to take down a few things.  Of course, then I'll need to put everything back away.  Hopefully it will all be put away by lunch. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 10 - 21 - 2024

 It was a great retreat weekend!  The weather turned a little colder than normal.  The lows were in the 30s! Yikes. Highs ranged from the low 70s to the 50s.  That was ok -- another reason to stay in a quilt.  I didn't take any walks except to the cafeteria, around the sewing room, and walking to our bedroom a couple of times each day. Most days my step counter was over 10,000 stitches.  

I didn't have a huge goal list last week. Here's what it looked like. 

10/14/24 

✅Have a great time at retreat — I had a wonderful time.

✅Make at least 4 tops from kits — finished 5 tops and got 2 others started! WOW

Quilt one of my quilts after retreat — nope.  

I brought 8 projects to work on.  One wasn't even looked at.  Two need to be finished. See below for the specific projects I worked on.

Here's what I hope to do this week. 

10/21/24

Finish Frolicking Frogs top started at retreat

Wash new fabrics 

Put two borders on 3 yd quilt started at retreat

Bake some items for the annual community craft show

Clean up some of the stuff on the cutting table

Quilt one top 

Sharon and I set up our tables and got to work right away.  She had to leave Thursday morning as her son was getting married Saturday night.  This picture shows some of our finishes before she left.

Her items are on the left: 2 3 yard quilts and a baby quilt using 2" squares. (She had sewn most of the squares together before retreat started.) My items on the right included 2 framed 9 patch quilts, a 36" baby quilt, the unfinished 3 yard quilt and a doll quilt top.  (The framed 9 patches came from the FCQ Equilters group so all I did was sew the two tops together.) The doll quilt only needed two borders sewn on. 

One of the reasons I had such successes at retreat is I precut my projects. Last year I made a big cutting booboo at the beginning of my major project and it was downhill from there. Lesson learned. So I made sure I picked easier projects and all were ready to just sew away. 

Here are pictures of some of the projects: 

I have so many of these blocks from the EQuilters.  I sewed this 4 x 4 top and a 3 x 3 top. And, there are a lot more blocks to make into more tops. 

This is a 36 x 36" baby quilt using the leftover fabric from Boxes and Bows quilt. It was a free pattern shared on this blog: https://www.sameliasmum.com/2014/11/one-block-baby-quilt-tutorial.html#google_vignette. 

Here's a closeup of the center buggies. People either see the buggies or, surprisingly, see peacocks.  More than 1 saw peacocks.  Strange, huh? 

This is another 3 yard quilt.  I was expecting it would sew up really quickly.  Um, no.  It wasn't all that fast. 

The yellow was suppose to be the next border but I didn't have enough of it left. Bummer.  So on our shopping trip to Fork Mountain Quilting I was able to find a pinky/red to use as the next border.  It ends with a bigger border of the turquoise fabric.  I need to wash the pinky fabric before I can sew it into the quilt. 

My last finished top to share is a Jelly Bean top. It takes me quite a bit of time to cut out all the pieces for this block.  But it's a snap to sew up this log cabin style quilt. For this one I used a kid's print for the center block. You can find instructions for this very easy block designed by Pat Sloan. If you want to make one check out the directions here.  

I've worked hard this week to make sure I got my 15 minutes of stitching each day.  Friday after driving home (4 hour trip!) I whipped out my knitting and spent 20 minutes working on a little hat.  I was surprised I wanted to spend more time in my studio on Saturday. Sunday afternoon we were going to watch a granddaughter's soccer game.  I spent the morning stitching and then later afternoon we went up to watch the game.  So, yes I stitched on something every day this week. 

W/ending 10/20  — 294 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/Oct = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 284/294 days
• Success rate = 96.6%

Not bad.  I've only missed 10 days this year.  I make a point to sit down and stitch on days I'm on the go a lot. Normal at home days I spend several hours sewing.  I've got a LOT of quilt tops that need quilting. So I'll be trying to get more tops quilted over the next few weeks. I have several quilts I want to stitch on my domestic machine.  I hope to pin one and get it quilted soon! 

The retreat was held at Smith Mountain Lake in south west Virginia.  I snapped this picture on my way out on Friday.  The little blue on the right of the tree is a bit of the lake. At the 4 H Center the lake view is even better.  I'm already looking forward to next year's retreat. It's a fun group of quilters. 

Please take some time to visit the following Linky parties. Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. Have fun seeing what people are working on this month. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 15 - 2024

It's been a hot, busy week. And it's going to continue this week. Two days are expected to go above 100 degrees.  Yikes.  And that doesn't include the humidity.  Air conditioning is working well and I plan to stay in it!  I did a good job last week getting my goals worked on. Look at all those check ✅ marks!

7/9/24

✅Keep working on seaside top — 10 more little pieces were sewn down.

✅Finish small bag — finished and ready to use. 

✅Cut another kit for retreat — at least 1 more done. 

✅Organize and pack up retreat supplies — mostly done. 

✅Make backing for a quilt top — ironed and 2 sections sewn together. 

I'd like to show you the Strippy Zipper Pouch Kit I used to make, yes, a pouch.  I picked up the kit for free last October at the Country Piecemaker's retreat.  I decided to give it a try.  You can buy your own version of it through AccuQuilt. Or look at the other kits that June Tailor has at the AccuQuilt site. (This kit contained the "Sew on the Line"stabilizer, a Zippity-Do-Done pre-sewn zipper, and a video link and instructions. I never looked at the video link.) 

I found the process a bit strange and it created excess bulk. On the other hand, it wasn't hard to do and the zipper was a breeze.  I'm not sure I would have bought this kit, but I'm happy to have this little pouch to use. 

One lining section done. 

Above is the front and back sections done.  The zipper is sewn to each piece. (The zipper would be down the middle if I had thought to take that picture.) Once that is done, the bottoms of each side are aligned, right sides together, and then sewn together.  Yep, through the two linings, the front and back and 4 pieces of stabilizer. The weird sides are aligned and sewn to make the corners. My machine was working really hard to get through all of the layers. Even though I used a jeans needle it broke just before I finished the last seam. It took me a couple of days to do the whole thing although I didn't spend that much time each day.  This measures about 8" x 3" x 3". 

I plan to use it this week.  Doesn't the tab look funny sticking out?  The patterns available now have the tab as a handle, parallel to the bottom.  No worries... this is going to work well for how I want to use it. 

Here's what I did off list.  Ok, honestly -- I probably only made 4 or 5 of these this week. 

These blocks are for Nancy, one of the FCQ Equilters. I have been putzing along with these; it's time to finish them. I've picked one more bright fabric to make the last one to send.  I'll get them sent out next week. 

Here's what I hope to do this week, mostly at retreat. 

7/14/24

Retreat! Make —

Forest Animals Easy Attic Windows

Baby Buggies -- Boxes and Bow (3 yd quilt, except I'll make it smaller.) 

Benny’s Quilt 2.5” squares 

Sew a Happy Block Quilt Together 

Work on a new needlework project

The top two are kits I've cut out. Benny's Quilt has the units ready to sew into blocks. The Happy Blocks have already been placed in order so I'll only have to sew them into rows and then into the quilt top.  I might get some stitching done on the new needlework project too. But I'm going to focus on the quilting projects. 

Once again, I was able to spend at least 15 minutes stitching.  Here's where I stand now. 

W/ending 7/14 — 196 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 14/14days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 189/196 days
• Success rate = 96.4%

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

That's it for now.  I hope everyone has a quilty week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meandering 7 - 17 - 2023

What a great week!  I had a wonderful, productive time at the retreat.  There were eight of us ready to quilt our hearts out.  We were paired up to make dinner one of the four nights. Breakfast and lunch were on our own. There were no quilt stores near the location so we pretty much sewed from getting up until going to bed at night with breaks for meals. Before I share retreat pictures I'll share my goals for this past week and next week. 

7/10/23

✅Finish stitching on needlepoint -- photo to come soon

✅Go to retreat and enjoy sewing and friends

✅Finish all Flower Song blocks, put the center together — didn’t sew it together yet

Make progress on ✅Two by Two, ✅String Bean, and ✅30 Something blocks

And this week's goals: 

7/17/23

Bind Moose in Winter quilt

Read a book 

Pick up the studio especially the front of the cutting table

Find backing and quilt the String Bean Blocks 

Have fun with Sharon who is visiting at the end of the week 

Here are photos of a couple of the goals I worked on at retreat.

I couldn't turn these Two by Two blocks into a top because I was missing one of the white rectangles for the last block.  But here is one of the many photos I took trying to balance the light and dark blocks through out the quilt. I think there are some more changes coming to this one. I forget which color I have left. 

I think I'll call this one Floral String Bean quilt.  It's ready to be quilted. I fussed with the Two by Two top trying to get the darks and lights evenly spaced. This one I just laid out on my bed and called it done.  I hope to get it quilted some time this week. I think I have a floral fabric that will have enough for the backing. 

This wasn't on my goal list but I threw these blocks into the car in case I ran out of things to work on.  I was able to sew them together without a lot of block moving.  I made the blocks a while ago. I used a navy blue dimple as the center string which gives it a strong geometric look to it.  Sadly, I ran out of fabric so this is the size the quilt will be. (Blocks are 7" unf. I stitched them on paper from a small phone book.) I have several left that may be put on the back.

I did make progress on the 30 Something blocks. I think all of the units are done for the center blocks which still need to be sewn together. I still have to make some of the border blocks.  Not sure when I'll get back to this one but I did make great progress on it. 

I didn't take very many photos of the retreat but here are a few two of them. 

Serenity Cottage home during our retreat. 

Bea and Dorothy sharing their lamb blocks. 

Yikes!  I really didn't take many pictures of the facilities.  If you are interested you can check out more about it and see pictures at Serenity Cottage. It was originally set up as a scrapbooking space but works as well for quilters.  I was invited to go as a replacement for someone who couldn't make it this year. I hope there is an open spot next year! 

The day before I left I stopped at a friend's house to pick out some decorator fabric she was ready to move out of her space. She makes table runners, ironing board covers and other crafty items with decorator fabrics. She had 2 big boxes for me to go through. I was picking out fabric that would be suitable to make walker bags. Virginia Star Quilters Guild will be using the fabric to make the bags. I hope we can make some kits and I can move this stuff out of my house. 

Now back to our Scandinavia trip. Last week I shared our first day in Kiel, Germany. On to the second day -- a walking tour of the city and a brewery tour.  Again, I didn't go wild taking photos but several I did take I found interesting. 

This is a statue of Peter III of Russia. He was born in Kiel and became Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (the area Kiel is in) at the age of 11. When he was 14 he became the heir apparent of Elizabeth, Empress of Russia.  At the age of 17 in 1745, he was married to Sophia. (Yikes is all I can say!) He became the Emperor of Russia on January 5, 1762 and was overthrown by his wife on July 9, 1762.  She became Catherine the Great. You can read more about him and his life on Wikipedia.  He had connections with many of the royal houses around the Baltic Sea area. This statue is in Kiel honoring him.     

I thought the the chair and hassock was interesting. Yep feet of a bird of some sort.

Most of the towns and cities we visited had lots of bicycles and lanes especially for them.  We had to keep a sharp look out for bikes whizzing by and remember to not wander into their lanes.  

We walked by many interesting buildings and areas in the city. Our next stop was at a pub. (I have no idea what the place we went to was called so I'm using the well known concept of a pub.)  It looked similar to a pub except it had big vats as we walked in. There was more apparatus in the basement that we were able to see but I don't remember much about it. 

We sat in a back area and had 3 pitchers of beer to taste and giant pretzels.  

Not being a beer fan I enjoyed the pretzel.  (And, no that wasn't my beer. I had one sip of the lightest beer and then drank water!) 

Somehow we were sitting at a table with just 2 other people, most held 8.  We realized there were a few extra pretzels left. I asked if we could take them with us and was able to take two back to the ship. I know we didn't need to bring any food to the ship but they were so very good. (I did nibble on one off and on for the rest of the days on board. But we decided to take what was left home with us. Because they were going stale we decided to make croutons with it in our air fryer. YUM!) 

By the way you only have to be 16 to drink beer in Germany. In 2020 Germany ranked third in per capita beer consumption in Europe. (Hum, I wonder how America ranks? You can check out world wide beer consumption here. Scroll down to find the per capita consumption of beer world wide. Did the results surprise you?)

One of the cool things about Kiev is that the cruise docks were within walking distance to the city. After our beer tasting we went to a big craft store thinking  maybe it was a fabric store.  It was quite amazing at how big it was and the variety of craft supplies you could find there. They had a bit of precut fabrics (probably meters not yards,) but I decided not to purchase any.  I did buy a wonderfully soft sock yarn and a wooden whale decoration that is sitting on our mantle. I'll try to remember to show you them later. 

I took several pictures of the Kiel Week logo. (artwork? I'm not sure what to call it.) I liked how some of it used elements from a quilt design. No, I don't intend to make any quilts based on the artwork. Maybe I'll utilize the color scheme someday. Notice the beautiful sail boats on the right side panel.  

Our next port of call was Estonia.  Pat's mother's family is from Lithuania so he was sorry we didn't have a stop there. But Estonia was the next country over from Lithuania. Look for our time in Tallinn, Estonia next Monday. 

I'm linking up with my regular Linky Parties:

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday 

Monday Musing

To Do Tuesday 

I'm giving myself a day or two off from quilting this week but then I hope to get right back in finishing up some quilts. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie