Mr, October

Happy Halloween 

My plan for Mr. October was to make him the center of a Halloween quilt using some blocks I have had around for several years.  Sometime in September or earlier I had traced all the bones and other elements on to fusible. I cut them out. And I finally decided on a background.  

He went with me to retreat where I sewed everything down on the orange.  I scrounged fabric for his hat band and for the "land" he is on.  I borrowed a stripe piece of fabric from Boni who had just bound a quilt with it.  OMG -- it worked perfectly even though it wasn't actually just Halloween colors. Then I tried laying out a bunch of Halloween blocks. Um, no, that looked horrible. On to new ideas.  

Fast forward a few weeks and I finally put him all together, quilted, and bound him. He'll be hanging upstairs for the rest of this week when I'll put up my November stuff. If you love him and want your own Mr. October here's the link for the pattern. Check out the other freebies Carol has on her site. (Sorry to say, she is no longer blogging.) 

I'm posting my goals on to Tuesday.  Instead, I want to share a little bit of Halloween fun in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia.  Remember we were down there looking for the otter statues?  We were amazed at all the Halloween decorations some of the downtown businesses put up.  Have fun checking them out. 

That's Theo (now wanting to be called Teddy) going to check out the spiders.  We think the web might glow in the dark.  Hum, I wonder when I can figure out if it does or not? 

There were also scarecrows and potted flowers along with other decorations.  It really is an interesting town. It was chartered as a city in 1728 but it was also "found" by Capt. John Smith in 1608 while charting the Chesapeake Bay.  Many of the downtown buildings are quite old, the oldest being from 1737.  George Washington's boyhood home is close by. Mary Washington University is also here.  Ok, enough of the info on the city. (Yes, it is actually it's own city and not part of any county.) This area of Virginia has a lot of history to offer up. 

I'm ready to call it a post.  Maybe next week I'll get back to my normal posting for Monday, done the night before. I hope you take some time to visit some of the blogs listed on these Linky parties. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday   

Here's hoping you have a fun Halloween.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings

Another finish! 

And a great big One Monthly Goal Score. I had planned to just get this to top stage.  But, I did that so early in the month that I kept going.  I finished the binding about 10 on Sunday night.  (please note, I usually don't get things done well in advance but I did this time!) 

Butterfly close up. I used metallic thread on the "curl."

Close up of the quilting in progress. There were a lot of thread ends to tie off and bury. This is already hanging in the great room.

Do you know about Sew It's for Sale?  It is a yahoo group dedicated to the selling and buying of sewing related items.  You can check it out and join here. I've bought several items over the past year.  And, I've sold a few things too.  You contact the seller directly and make arrangements.  Sometimes the sellers list really reasonable prices and sometimes you think, "Um, no.  Too expensive." Below is my most recent purchase. 

These three fabrics are KPKids by South Seas Imports. I think they are 10+ years old but will work well with kids quilts.  A bit over 4 yards. Total cost including shipping was $18.  Not a bad deal although sometimes prices are even lower.  I'm not sure what I'll be using this for but they will become either a quilt or a pillowcase (and maybe both!)  Do you buy or sell fabric or other sewing related items  online?  What group do you use and do you like it? 

Last week's goals -- not a bad completion rate. 

August 21, 2017

Finish quilting geese and floral wallhanging√

Quilt floral wallhanging√ completely finished

Finish Christmas TAW to top stage√

Find backing for Streak of Lightening oops!

Keep hand quilting Civil War Quilt√ someday I’ll finish this!

And this week's goals: 

August 28, 2017

Spend a couple of days with the grands

Keep hand quilting Civil War Quilt

Bind geese & floral wallhanging

Make some fabric boxes

Find backing for Streak of Lightening & quilt it

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with my favorite Monday linky parties: Monday Making, Moving It Forward, Main Crush Monday and Oh Scrap. And because I've finished my OMG I'll be linking to Elm Street Quilts finished linky party. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Stashbusting June - 2017

Woohee!  Can I say I am jazzed?  Yes ma'am.  I have had a really good month using fabric this month. 

2017	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	3.00	52.875	14.5	59.750	6.875

One of the reasons I've done so well this month is because I only bought fabric that I actually needed to finish a project.  That three yards was used as a backing right after I got it home.  Pretty much the whole piece was used up by the time I bound two of the pinwheel quilts. 

Truth to be told -- I have already bought way too much fabric for July and it is only the 1st day.  On the other hand I have plans for all three hunks of fabric.  But I'm not sure I'll use them during July or not.  Check back at the beginning of August to see if I can use some of this fabric this month.  

LOOK what I found! Yep, this is the lost floral wall hanging.  It was in a project box that said A Ticket, A Tasket.  Um, I guess I did put it there cause there wasn't much in there except some binding fabric. The quilt is ready for quilting (with fabric I bought today.) Hopefully it will be done by the end of the month. 

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Show Off Saturday, Oh Scrap (when available) and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Where is it?

Do you lose quilt projects?  Do you panic or assume it will show up?  I've misplaced this project: 

It will be a flowered wall hanging -- if I can find where I stashed it after retreat.  (FYI it still looks like this!)  This is the background.  Somewhere I have all the flowers and stems cut out along with a bunch of green blocks for the border.  It came home from retreat but who knows where I put it.

I don't panic I just assume I'll find it at some point.  I have a history of finding things -- not when I want to but when they want me to... or so I feel. Until I can find this project nothing is getting done on it even though it is on my Goal list this week. SIGH. 

So on to other accomplishments.  My third pinwheel quilt has been quilted.  And this quilting design may become my new favorite. I like light quilting on my quilts.  And this has the right feel to me.  It was fast, easy and provides interesting texture.  It is called Modernish #3 from Urban Elements.  I used a light blue Omni thread on the front and back and a left over piece of Warm and Natural batting.  

This is an older project that, fool that I am, is being hand quilted.  I ran an 11 month BOM for my guild around the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  All the blocks were actually used during the time period.  I used reproduction fabrics.  And I provided a little history of the block if I could find some.  Here's my introduction and the first block.   If you are interested in checking out all of the blocks, open each month in 2012 and look for 1800's Block of the Month.  I believe there were no blocks posted in July or December. 

I was looking for a hand project to work on a couple of weeks ago and pulled this out. The center is done so I've been working on the blocks.  If I remember correctly, I've finished 2 and I'm in the midst of block 3.  I've set myself a challenge to see if I can have it finished in time to enter it in the 2018 Faithful Circle Quilters show. That sounds like it might be ages from now but the entries are due in February? Or something like that. And, for some reason they want the quilts finished.  What finished, completely?  

Have you been checking out the linky parties?  Here's where I'm linking today (or in one case, tomorrow.)  Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Works in Progress Wednesdays, and Needle and Thread Thursday. (When available.) 

I'm off to put some binding on the pinwheel quilt(s). 

Happy Quilting All,  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 8 - 2017

Another week zoomed by!  On the other hand, for 5 days I had my nose to the grindstone to finish off my bunny quilt in time to take it to Country Piecemaker's guild meeting at the end of the week.  Except, um, er, the meeting is this coming Saturday. 

So I took a break and continued to get my projects ready for retreat next week.  Here's one I'll be working on.  The first one is Sharon's.  She is way ahead of me in getting ready.  But she works almost full time out of the house and only has the weekends to prep.

She's making hers at 2/3rds size because it will fit where she wants to hang it better.  I'm making mine at the given size.  This is from the pattern Calendar Quils by Kim Schaefer.  

Here are my fabric picks.  The bottom row of greens is the border.  The yellows, pink/purple and oranges are the flowers while the three greens with the flower colors would be the stem and leaves.  Question: Should I change the pink/purple flower to a red or rust color? (Sharon pretty much followed the color suggestions in the photo.) I want this to look bright and springy so it may make some sense to leave the pink with purple in.  Would it help if I made the orangy colors into blues?  It would be the center flower.  Yeah, I'm indecisive for some reason. 

Somewhere, out of the picture I have the center squares for the background. I still need the bee, ladybug and butterfly.  Luckily all the designs have been traced onto paper backed adhesive.  Hopefully today I'll get them cut out so I can start ironing it on the fabric and then cut them out again.  

On to my goals this past week.  I nailed them with the exception of knitting.

May 1, 2017

Make the bunny wall hanging√ hand stitching the binding down is left

Continue cutting fabric from Sharon √

Make some more zippered pouches √

Knit on Jenny’s scarf nope, didn’t do it    

And this week I'll be focusing on: 

May 8, 2017

Make 2 more pouches

Finish binding on bunny wall hanging

Cut more fabric for Stunning Stars (Sharon's fabric & mine as needed)

Choose fabric for “May” wallhanging, fuse and cut

Knit on Jenny’s scarf

That's it for me.  Don't forget to check out these linky parties where I'll be connecting:  Monday Making, Moving It Forward and Main Crush Monday. (It will be posted tomorrow so come back!)  Take the time to see what's happening around the internet. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

SaveSave