Monday Meanderings 5 -- 18 -- 2026

The last concerts for the two singing groups I'm in are over. That gives me more time to quilt! Or maybe read more or ??? Has summer started with a vengeance where you live?  We had 90º today and it'll be even hotter the next 3 days. One day will be only 59º over the next 10 days. And a lot of rain is predicted. We need it so I'm hoping the forecast is accurate.   Of course the 10 day weather forecast can and does change a lot before the day actually arrives. Time will tell. I will be enjoying a lot of time in my studio in the basement. 

Here's last week's goal list.  Everything marked off! 

5/11/26

✅Quilt customer’s quilt — done and returned.

✅Add border to rainbow rail top — done.

✅Work on UFO Challenge for May — continuous process is being made.

✅Start sewing dash blocks together — 3 rows of blocks sewn together.

✅✅2 concerts and ✔️1 rehearsal— all finished. 

Check out this sweet quilt my customer made for her friend. She did a great job choosing the quilting design, Ginger Flower, and the thread color.  She chose an Omni thread, Vanilla Wafer, 3042.  It looks gold to me! But I notice there are a lot of Omni threads that look gold! The hexagons are machine appliquéd onto the blocks. 

Here's a close up of the front and the nice backing fabric. 

Last week I showed my daughter's quilt and her backing fabric as a suggested border for my rail fence quilt.  This week I returned her quilt and had lunch with her. We both drove about an hour to meet, eat, and exchange the quilt.  It was great to get together which we don't do too often. And, I was able to put some of her backing on my quilt as a border. OOOH did it turn out well! I chose to use a smaller border on the top/bottom and wider on the sides.  It definitely works well with these little 3" finished rail fence blocks. I'll be looking for a backing fabric for this one, eventually.  

This week's goal list is a bit longer as I have more time to sew. 

5/18/26

Quilt top for quilt guild

Quilt one of my baby quilts

Continue working on UFO Challenge for May 

Stitch on Snowman #2

Finish sewing dash blocks together

Look at making pillow shams to go with Ombre Log Cabin

I haven't been working on the second snowman because I needed to buy a different  floss color.  Now that I have it I can work on Mr. Snowman. Here's what he looks like after I added his scarf, hat and facial features, ready to sew.  It will take me a while to get all these items stitched down. Hum, the blue scarf is not royal blue! Once I get more done I'll take some more photos and see if I can get the color closer to reality that is a dark turquoise.  .  

Despite having all sorts of things going on I was able to stitch every day this week.  Most of it was actually sewing machine work although one day I was knitting on hats. 

15 Minutes to Stitch 

Week ending 5/17/26:  137 days of 2026.

  137 stitching days out of 137 days. 100%

Are you facing a big stash, multiple sewing machines, way too many books and patterns?  I'm trying to make some inroads on all of those things in my studio.  Except buying fabric for specific projects, mostly backing and one border, I haven't really been buying fabric. I need to really look at my books and move out the ones I don't use.  Same with patterns.  Let's see if I have any luck with that in the next couple of months.  I'll try to give little reports on successes.  For instance, I gave a dozen mason jars I used for dying fabrics 20 or so years ago to a craft group in our neighborhood who needed some more.  So a small step was taken.  It'll take a lot of small steps before I'll actually see the difference but I hope to continue and report  these small steps. 

I link up with these blogs every Monday. Check them out: Stitching Time, Oh Scrap,

Quilting Patchwork Applique, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 4 - 13 - 2026

It's been a busy week with one great breakthrough/finish. I was really tickled with one of my projects this week. Here's what's been happening. 

4/6/26

✅Quilt one of my quilts— I quilted one for my quilt guild rather than for me. 

Make more Dash blocks — several more are cut out but not sewn together. 

Sew 16 patches together — nothing sewn together but the layout is finalized. 

✅Finish 1st snowman block — done!  

✔️Prep 2nd snowman block — snowman and background ready to sew together, appliqués are traced on adhesive waiting to be ironed on to the wool, and still need to choose floss. 

Attend all day chorus rehearsal** oops next week!

This past week wasn't like my normal weeks where I've marked off a bunch of goals. But that's ok as I did get a few books read and I scrubbed several sinks and a dirty stove top! 

Here's what I did get done this week. 

This is not a quilt I made. It is a charity quilt for the Virginia Star Quilters. I am one of  the volunteer quilters.  Since I really didn't want to figure out a backing for one of my quilts I decided to quilt this one.  I chose Quick and Easy Swirls with a light blue thread. I'm happy to have this done so I can return it at our meeting next week. (Happily, I don't have to do the binding!) 

I am thrilled to be able to show you finished snowman block 1.  The block is 10.5" wide by 15.5" tall, unfinished.  I have 4 more snowmen blocks and a "title" block to do.  Luckily, the next block doesn't have as much embroidery on it. I am waiting to finish all the blocks to add the various snowflakes.   

Here's a close up of his face. 

Here's what I plan to work on this week.

4/13/26

Make more Dash blocks

Sew 16 patches together

Start stitching Snowman 2

Work on large flying geese blocks 

Attend partial day chorus rehearsal

Despite not making great progress on my goals this week I did keep up with my 15 minutes of stitching. 

Week ending 4/12/26:  102 days of 2026.

  102 stitching days out of 102 days. 100%

Sharon's here now and we're quilting. Ok, she's watching the long arm and keeping it happy until she calls on me to assist. I'm goofing off more than actually doing anything constructive, except cutting out the background for the next snowman. She (we?) have finished quilting the first of two quilts. 

The quilting design is called Sally by the Sea by My Creative Stitches.  It echoes some of the same designs in the lighter blue fabric. Luckily, I had a blue thread that looks terrific with it. 

Here are my regular Linky parties.  Please take a look at them to see what quilters are doing across the world. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

That's it for me tonight. Yes, I write these blog posts quilting  on Sunday evenings and post them when done.  Here's hoping we all have a very, quilty week!

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings -- 2 - 16 -- 2026

It's warming up!  Finally after two full weeks of temperatures below freezing we are finally hitting 32º and above.  Today's high was 44º.  But it rained all day and that means I was in my studio most of the day.  But I can't really show anything I got done!  I also took a nap. Let's see what I did get done this week. It was a great week of getting goals done. 

2/9/26

✅Mail quilt blocks MB, Joan, and Many Hands and Many Hearts — Done.

✅Begin planning on Feb UFO Challenge — started, evaluated fabrics, came up with a tentative plan.

✅Finish back stitching zippered bag and add buttons — The bag is done! 

✅Work on snowman block — definite progress on several parts. 

✅Continue knitting on hat — several more rows finished. 

✅Continue putting Magnificent Mystery blocks together — 13 A blocks are done, 1 block B. 

And I have pictures to share of many of these goals!

These blocks are from the mid 1990s. Three quilters from different parts of the US met on a chat group from the internet. I don't remember what project we were involved with.  It might have been a row robin or a secret pal block swap.   The three of us decided to make some blocks and swap them. Julianna Phillips, from Washington,  made the compass block and the hand along with a block for us to sign which I will put on the back.  I have no recollection of the blocks I made nor the ones Terri Willet, of northern Virginia, made. At the time we lived in Georgia and I remember flying up to Va to meet up with Terri to attend a national quilt show with her.  Later in the year we moved to Maryland. I have held these blocks since 1996 or so. At first I didn't think my skills were up to putting them into a quilt. Then, they spent several years in a box unchecked. Finally, this year I put them on my UFO Challenge list and it came up this month. 

I laid out the blocks similar to quilts in the book Circle of Nine Quilts by Janet Houts and Jean Ann Wright. I have tentatively decided I'll put some of them on point and then figure out the other four, probably not on point. Here are some closeups of them. This will be centerpiece of the quilt. I'm not committed to this background fabric. Or, any of the other ones I have. 

One of the side blocks. Any suggestions on fabrics to use with these blocks? I was thinking of using a turquoise. Unfortunately, I'll have to take these to a quilt store and find new fabrics.  

Next up is what's been finished on my first snowman block. I decided I needed to mark the embroidery for future stitching. Here's what I've done so far. (This is one of 6 blocks.) You can see some of the outlines where the wool will go, and the markings that will be embroidered. (See the beginning of the tree needles? I learned the Fly Stitch to make it. There's a lot more of that stitch coming on that tree.) I also did some of the embroidery on a little bird that is going to be on the left bottom.

And here is the finish on my cross stitch zip bag. I was tickled that I finished this in less than a year. Right now it is holding my supplies for my snowmen. This week I finished the back stitching and sewed on the buttons. (Check last week's pic to see the right colors. This is way off!) 

This coming week has some repeat goals and new ones. Will see how I do on them. 

2/16/2026

Work on Feb UFO Challenge blocks 

Quilt one of my tops

Work on snowman block 1

Continue knitting on hat

Make more dash blocks 

 

After a day of rain some of the snow in our front yard is melting. The back yard is still mostly covered as we don't get much sun there.  I'm hoping all the snow will be gone at the end of the week -- at least the snow in our yard.  It's going to take a lot longer for the piles of snow from streets or parking lots to melt. 

I've been doing really well on stitching every day.  Here's this week's report. 

Week ending 2/15/26  46 days days of 2026.

  46 of 46 days  100%

Let me know if you have any suggestions on the UFO Challenge blocks.  I probably won't get the top together this month but there's always next month to finish it off. 

Please take a look at these Linky parties. You never know what great ideas you can find across the internet. 

Stitching Time 

Oh Scrap

Quilting Patchwork Applique 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 1 - 30 -2023

Good Morning. (well, it may not be morning when you read this but whatever time of day it is I hope it is good!)  Let's get right to the goals from last week.

1/23/23

✅Work on red spider web blocks — need to finish sewing together — about half the rows are left to do.

Make blocks for ✅Sharon, ✅Cindy — all done.

Finish moose top — didn’t happen. I’ve put it aside until the spider web quilt is a top.

✅Finish Traffic jam with 2” blocks — further along but need to make rest of border and sew it on. 

✅Quilt on hearts top — quilting is done just need to finish hand sewing the binding.

Not too bad as I really did focus on the spider web blocks turning into a quilt. Unfortunately I needed to re-iron the center seam of nearly every block.  Sigh 

Here is the block I made for Cindy. I've always liked the hugs and kisses block. The blocks are going to a guild member who has served the guild for many, many years.  How do you pick fabrics when making a block that will be mixed with lots of others and there are no color guidelines?  I first picked a cute print and then decided this one was much calmer and would blend with lots of wilder blocks. At least, that's my thinking! 

Next up are 4 blocks I made for Sharon who is a member of the FCQ E Quilters group.  She chose Criss Cross Star block.  (It might look familiar as we also made it for the October retreat opportunity block.) Here's a link to a Lori Holt video explaining how to make it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5xEMXA3biY. If for some reason it doesn't come up type in Sew Your Stash Series 10 to find it. It ends up a 9" finished block. I still love this block.  Hum, maybe one day I'll make a quilt out of them. 

Now what is going on this week?  Check it out below. 

1/30/23

Finish the hearts top 

Finish sewing Spider web together, find or buy backing 

Dance around the studio because Ruthie’s being fixed on Thursday!

Quilt spider web 

Keep working on Traffic Jam border 

Finish Moose quilt to top stage 

I'm tickled that Ruthie will be back and working this week.  I haven't finished much in the way of quilted tops this month because she was under the weather. (so to speak!) Hopefully I'll get the Spider web quilt done by the end of the week. 

As January comes to a close we (as in hubby) starts thinking about what quilts need to be displayed in February.  Well, you got it.  Valentine's Day quilts.  So before we (as in hubby) remove the winter quilts and snowmen I took a few pictures to share.

(Hum, the top border is actually straight -- it's just hard to get it straight in the holder.) All the snowmen on the left I made. Hubby made the trees. I bought the snowmen on the right.  

I normally get this post done the day before but I was lazy last evening.  I'll be leaving right after lunch for my stitching group so I'll call this done now.  Take some time to do a little blog hopping using these Linky parties to start off. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell 

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday 

I hope you have a wonderful quilty week! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 20 - 2020

A surprise tonight -- I finally decided to figure out how much fabric I used in June. (Yep I'm really late with this!)  It took a bit of adding and multiplication to get the final number.  And, yep, I was surprised.  I used more fabric than I brought in...and I brought in plenty. Here's the data: 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	9.000	45.750	12.375	46.875	1.125

It's now official -- I've used more fabric than I've purchased this year.  Most of the yardage was wide backs which means I have more than enough backings for a while. I'm not planning on buying any fabric the rest of this month.  I can be strong! (maybe)

I did pretty well on my goals this week: 

Quilt the Pirate quilt✔️ quilted Pictures after it's bound and I have a photo shoot

Make another Christmas paper pieced block✔️ one more Snowman  (purple brimmed hat.)

So here are the  finished blocks.  I ended up making one too many polar bears.  So the question is should I make a 3rd snowman and 1 or 2 penguins.  If I make 3 of each animals I'll not use the the extra left facing polar bear.  These are paper pieced designs from Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Mary Hertel.  Hum, maybe I should add a reindeer too. what do you think? Mary has some other penguins in her Etsy shop. I think I'll be shopping this week.

Work on painted block✔️ almost finished no pictures yet.

Pull out UFO of dog blocks and make the center of the top… yikes. Need extra blocks...first one is done. ✔️  Here are the blocks I've got.  These blocks are from a swap ages ago (as in the mid 1990s through Prodigy -- one of the first commercial internet service provider for customers.) The blocks had to be multiples of 3". These are the ones I received. Most of them still have the tag listing the maker, location and email address. (I wonder how many addresses would still be good?) The black dog with the red bow is mine. I just threw these on my design wall to get an idea of what I need to bring it up to a decent size. What do you think?  I'm thinking I need to make more; maybe throw out the middle one in the top row.  

I have a slew of dog patterns I can add to these and Mary Hertel has a lot of faces of different breeds. But what about adding some four patches, 9 patches or flying geese?  Here's the dog I finished this week. I forget which book I found this in but it's the same dog as the blue and pink floral one in the upper left above.  I need to add a piece at the top or bottom to make it the same size as the other one. I think I might try some machine appliquéd dogs too.  I bet they would go MUCH faster. 

As much as I "like" the idea of paper piecing I'm not that good at it.  I end up having to take out those tiny stitches and recut fabric pieces all the time.  

That was last week's goal list.  On to this week's list: 

W/O 7-20

Quilt another personal quilt

Make more blocks: dogs, Winter paper pieced, CP 

Finish Painting Wood Block 

Set the airplane blocks from last year’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I find that some weeks I am raring to work in the studio.  Some weeks I putz around and don't get much done.  Hopefully this week I'll be getting a lot done.  

Pat got a package in the mail from my cousin last week.  We were both tickled with his new mask.  Marilyn's been making some really nice custom masks.  I'm not sure I need a USC mask but I graduated from USC too.  

I'm linking up to my regular Monday linky parties: 

Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and Main Crush Monday.  I plan on spending some extra time with these linky parties this week. I didn't last week and I'm sure I missed important happenings in studios! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie