Monday Meanderings 5 -- 6 -- 2024

It's a late start on my blog this week.  It was a really full tiring weekend so I went to bed early instead of writing it Sunday night like I usually do.  Surprisingly I did get all my goals accomplished this week. So here's last week's goals. 

4/29/24

✅Bind quilt — done!

✅Sew sashing on pinwheels, sew quilt top — done trying to decide about borders 

✅Make more bow tie blocks — Many finished with more cut, ready to sew

✅Knit more hats — another 2 or 3 done 

✅✅Sing at Spotsylvanians rehearsal and 2 spring concerts — LOTS of singing done this week

I've changed the layout of the bowties this week.

Will you look at that? I'm missing a block in the second to last row. Never noticed until I looked at the picture on the blog. My goal is a 7 x 10 setting. So quite a few more to make. 

Here's what I'm planning to do this week.

5/6/24

Finish Ombré log cabin top

Keep making bow tie blocks

Continue processing scraps/fabrics on cutting table … fold and replace or cut into usable sizes 

Attend ‘Annie’ in Maryland where 2 grands are performing

I hope to figure out and do whatever is needed to finish the Ombre top. I decided I didn't like how big it was and I took it apart to remove one diagonal row. It's been sitting in a back room waiting for me to start on it again.  This is the week.  It should be a fairly easy fix and then I'll sew the two sections together.  (Or at least I hope it is easy.) 

Week ending 5/5:

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/April =  2/2 days 
• 15 minute days/May =   5/5
• 15 minute days/2024 = 119/126 days
• Success rate = 94.44%

Not a bad week considering how busy I was.  Most of the stitching is knitting on hats.  Although I did finish several bow tie blocks too. 

I realized I haven't been keeping up with my fabric usage versus fabric coming in.  I finally finished March statistics.  Yea! More fabric used than brought in.  Don't think I'll have such good results for April, but I might be surprised. 

2024	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Mar	2.5	8.75	13.125	39.50	30.75

I'm posting this late so will only share one picture from the Costa Rica trip.  This is the house we stayed in while in Monteverde.  The other two houses looked pretty much the same.  It was a nice set up in a lovely setting. 

I'm going to link up with Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. 

And here's one last photo -- me, and the rest of the sopranos singing our  hearts out at our concert.

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 22 -2023

What a week!  I'm exhausted but I really wanted to write my normal Monday post. I did surprisingly well on my goals list so I'm sharing that first. 

5/15/23

✅Quilt two tops — done and done! 

✅Make blocks for BOM for guild —  finished & turned in quite a few different blocks at the meeting.

✅Start fusing & trimming tee shirts for a quilt — 1 column of shirts done. 

👎🏼Put border on the UFO — um, no, didn’t happen

Here are sneak peeks of the two tops I quilted this week. 

Hum, you might notice that these quilts use the same blocks.  They are called Happy Blocks and you can get simple directions here. Mary gives 3 different directions. I tend to change the inside block size and then make the outside blocks fit.  

And here are some blocks I made for the guild raffle quilt. 

Here's what I want to get done this week.

5/22/23

Mail two packages of blocks out

Finish fusing & trimming tee shirts for a quilt

Put border on APQ UFO for May

Trim and bind 2 quilts 

Hum, I sure hope I get all of these things done. But a high priority is to bind 2 quilts. 

Every Monday I head up to our community's club house to join a group of stitchers.  There is a variety of stitching going on along with lots of talking and laughing. I work on whatever strikes my fancy or I want to get done.  Many of the gals make hats using a circular frame.  When I realized I have 4 boxes of miscellaneous yarn I decided I'd borrow a frame and try to make one. (Or more.) (I'm looking at you Alycia!) 

Um, it really isn't a weird cactus.  I had some leftover fuzzy yarn so I decided to try it.  A friend made the pompom and another one trimmed it up. Some little girl is going to love this hat and her mom will probably hate that the fuzzy pieces fall out!  The frame that was available was more for a baby or toddler so that's the size I'm making. I've already made two more that I'll eventually photograph and share. I've asked another friend to be on the lookout for a frame or frames while she does her thrift shopping. I'm happy to be making a dent in my yarn. 

These will go to From the Heart Stitchers in Fredericksburg/King George. Here's a little about them. "Our mission is to serve our community by preserving and promoting fiber arts, creating a spirit of fellowship and love among our volunteers and board members, and producing handmade items which bring comfort, love and solace to others."  

The other big activity this weekend was a dress rehearsal and concert by the Spotsylvanians. Dress rehearsal went well except some crazy problems with the sound system. We were exhausted when we finally got home.  Call time on Saturday was 3:15 as the concert was beginning at 5.  This semester we were only doing one concert rather than an evening and a matinee the next day.  We sang a wide variety of music from  traditional Madrigal, pop music, spirituals, and a several songs from Disney.  We even sang a song in Norwegian!  (Think Frozen.) This was the 20th anniversary of the group so it was quite festive. Two other choral groups joined us.  We finished at 7:30! I was exhausted and I expect the audience was too. The highlight of the night might have been the heavy down pour during the second half which made its own music on the roof and dripped on the altos. Exciting! Like true professionals they moved out of the way and didn't skip a note! 

The group celebrated with a wonderful dinner and party at a local restaurant. (We were all starving by the time we got there!) There were several presentations and surprises before dancing and karaoke began.  Hubby and I were so very surprised and pleased when we were given a remembrance for our 50th wedding anniversary that we will be celebrating in June. (Boy did that time go by fast!) I thought you might like to see us with our acrylic reminder.

We were totally exhausted when we got home. (Again!) Sunday was quieter but I did start and finish a small quilt. 

I'm linking up with my favorite beginning of the week parties:

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday

I'll come back tomorrow to link up what ever blogs are available. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 13 - 2021

Lots of sewing has been going on this week.  I've been quilting and piecing a lot.  There was singing happening this week too.  Pat and I were caroling with the Spotsylvanians, a community singing group on Saturday.  It was outdoors with a pavilion. We sang about 2 songs and it started dripping.  And then it rained. 

That's hubby on the left. 

Eventually we moved off the steps to under the roof and skies opened up and poured.  We finally had to sing a cappella and protect the keyboard.  It was great fun to sing again.  Hopefully we'll be singing with the group in the spring. 

It was a great week for getting goals done.  Here's what happened last week.

12/6/2021

✅Update batting pieces Excel list -- started over with a new list

✅Make more ombre log cabin blocks -- several blocks cut out a few finished

✅Quilt small quilt of mine ( or maybe charity quilt) -- Two charity quilts were finished

✅Work on winter wall hanging -- The vertical sashing is done. The horizontal is just a leftover piece to see how it looks. (I like it!) 

These  blocks came from Mary Hertel's paper piecing book Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. 

✅Keep making string blocks -- only 12 more left to do. 

I also added some of the sashing to the fall animal quilts I showed last week. 

Again, the verticals are stitched on and the horizontals are loose.  By the way everyone was right last week about the brown fabric working well with the rest of the fabric.  A new question.  Should I use the gold fabric for the cornerstones?  Or should I use the orange that's surrounding the animal print?  Let me know your opinions on this one.  

Now on to this week's goals list. I also need to think about quilting a couple of my own quilts this month. But here's this week's list. 

12/13/2021

Make more ombre log cabin blocks

Finish sewing winter wall hanging together

Keep making string blocks 

Make a new “To Be Quilted” list 

Finish sewing the autumn quilt together

Send Christmas cards out

On Friday I'm hoping to share pics of the two quilts I quilted last week for my local guild.  They will be donated to a charity this month.  

I'm linking up with my favorite early week parties: 

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

Have a great week everyone.

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 4 - 19 - 2021

Monday is a good day to evaluate what got done last week and to decide what to do during this coming week.  Unfortunately my evaluation for last week would be, at best, a C if we were talking grades.  

Let's look at what I said I wanted to do. (I really did want to do them but even amid great plans sometimes things happen that mess up the plan.)

4/12/2021

 1) Sew Happy Blocks together Looked at them, laid one out but no sewing...

 2) Border Doggy Tumbler Didn't even look at this one! 

 3) Make new easy quilt✅ Made a new one (photo to come ) and

 4) Quilt and bind one of my quilts✅ Quilted it, binding to come

 5) Work on April table runner Planned a little of it! I know what I want to do I just need to do it.  

So, yea, not a whole lot got done on the list. Hold on, there is a reason not as much got done from the list. I was asked to quilt a patriotic quilt for a veteran.  (I'm saying it that way because the Virginia Star Quilters give quilts to veterans through various organizations. I'm not sure which group is getting this one.)  I was told to pick a design that was easy and loose.  I picked a nice pattern with stars and some flourishes.  Except it wasn't nice and easy.  It took forever to stitch across the quilt. Ruthie didn't like working on it and gave me fits.  It took a couple of days but it is done. I need to take some pictures to share and give it back to the guild.  I made a note not to use that pattern again.  I own several really nice, easy patterns to use on quilts for vets. 

Here's my plan for this coming week. 

4/19/2021

 1) Make April table runner

 2) Bind Space Charms quilt

 3) Finish making R, W, B blocks, start sewing together 

That's a shorter list than normal but making the table runner may take up all the time. I would like to get it done before Sat. 4/24 but my guess is it will be the following week. Time will tell. 

See number 3 above?  Here's what I've done on that one so far...

I made the four patches ages ago. Back then I did pick out a pattern to try to make but I was making changes. (The block is a 4.5" square and a 4 patch with a 4 patch and a 4.5" square underneath.)  First my 4 patches used 2.5" squares instead of 3.5" squares. I used multiple prints for the reds, blues and white 4 patches. I was "supposedly" making all the blocks the same.  Except, when I picked up working on this project after a couple of weeks off I was messing up sewing the initial blocks together.  After ripping and sewing and a little more ripping, I made a color copy of the quilt pattern to lay out the blocks. It is not an easy job. I may cut the picture of the rows apart and put one next to each row. I've still got 4 rows left. The pattern called for 3 differing blocks but I think I can do a nice quilt with the one block.  I'll keep you posted. 

I had a lovely day in Richmond today attending the Virginians Drive In Rehearsal.  The Virginians are a barbershop chorus to which Pat belongs.  Every other week a group of members meet at a church parking lot and sing from their cars using microphones and a radio set up that gives them the sound of the group singing in real time.  It was pretty cool.  It was such a nice day many of the folks stood outside to sing. I chose to sit in the car and truth be told I was singing along for most of the time.  I didn't get very far on the book I'd planned to read. We took the slow way home and stopped at a favorite barbecue place on the way back. 

It's time to link up to the terrific parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. Take some time to go "surfing."  It gets me into trouble all the time.  (i.e. I'll be buying a cool pattern I saw on a blog last week.) 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie