Monday Meanderings 3 - 3 - 2025

Last week I attended the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show.  I didn't have a lot of time because Pat, Sunny, and I were going to the beach house after the show.  (We did the same thing last year but no Sunny yet.)They spent time walking around the parking lot and sitting in the car.  I spent about an hour and a half at the show and saw a surprising number of the quilts and did just a little shopping. Okay, also one big shopping. I've been buying rolls of Pellon 80/20 batting from I Sew Desire Quilts.  This year was my third purchase. I now have a roll 90" by 30 yards.  It's 50% bigger than my former rolls. My first roll took two years to use up. The second roll is almost finished after a year.  Hopefully this bigger, third roll will last a year to two years. Except I am trying to turn more tops into quilts so ... who knows how long it will last. 

Afterwards we drove to Nags Head, NC to do a little work on our rental house. Some locks were changed, some baseboards were washed, some screens replaced and some spots painted.  A little shopping took place.  And Sunny went on a walk on the beach with us.  It was a beautiful day although not really warm. 

The above explains why I didn't do very well on my goals this week. Sigh. Here's what I was suppose to work on. (Remember I only had 3 1/2 days at home!) 

2/24/25

✅Finish knitting current sock and start its partner — Done. 2nd one barely started

Bind the R,W,B quilt

✅Go to MidAtlantic Quilt Show — Enjoyed the time I had! 

Make blocks for FCQ EQuilter of the month 

Here's the sock and the beginning of its mate. 

See my original sock I finished last March. ⬇️ Yep, it looked ridiculous.  I ripped it out and started over. Hopefully it won't take too long to finish the 2nd sock.  It's been so cold here this winter I've been wearing my hand knitted wool socks a lot. 

Here's what I hope to get done this week. I probably should think up a few more items but I haven't a clue at this point so I may add some off list project(s).

3/3/25

Bind the R,W,B quilt

Quilt another top 

Make blocks for FCQ EQuilter of the month

Cut a new kit out

Work on the March UFO challenge 

With JoAnn going out of business I've decided to try another source for backing fabrics. I recently purchased a bolt (15 yards) of fabric from Marshall Dry Goods. I chose a basic purple because I have several tops that this will work for backing and possibly the binding. I originally planned just to buy several lengths of fabric for some different colored tops. I was having a hard time making up my mind and thought I'd try a bolt. Bolt prices are less than by the yard fabs but no free shipping option for buying a lot.  As it turns out by the bolt plus shipping is cheaper than the fabric purchased by the yard. 

I plan to cut a couple of backing lengths from the bolt and then prewash it.  I'm pretty sure that one of the tops that the purple will work with will be my next top loaded on Ruthie. Check in next week! 

I took some picts of some of the quilts hanging at Mid-Atlantic.  I'll share a couple of them this week and if I remember, more will be shared over the next few weeks. First up is Lady Bug.  I specifically shot this quilt for my daughter-in-love. She loves bugs and was thrilled when I shared it with her.  Enlarge the picture to read all the interesting facts. Unfortunately, I was so excited to get the picture I forgot to photograph the maker's statement. Enjoy Lady Bugs and all the facts shared. Aimee said she nailed all the facts. 

Next is Midnight Compass by Laurie Mutalipassi.  Here's her card telling about her quilt. 

And her wonderful quilt. 

Look for more quilts in the upcoming weeks. 

I was able to keep up my 15 minutes of stitching every day.  I am lucky to be able to knit in the car so driving home I was able to start an easy hat. Here are the stats.

W/ending 3/2/25. 61 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/Feb = 28/28
• 15 minute days/Mar = 2/2
• 15 minute days/2024 = 61/61 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm linking with these parties. Come join the fun by checking them out. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Happy quilting All! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 18 - 2024

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in style. Did you?  See below for pictures of the high tea for the ladies upstairs and other food for the men in the basement rec room hosted by Rochelle and Darren. But first let's look at goals.

3/10/2024

✅Knit socks -- the first sock is done.     

✅Finish last border of Malted Mystery -- Malted Mystery is a finished top!

✅✅Load and quilt two of my quilts -- two done! 

✅Start cleaning off cutting area 2 -- a large group of fabric was put away and my sewing buddy could even tell the difference! 

Yep, it was definitely a good week for me. 

First sock with wool from Germany is finished. The label is Superba Bamboo Superwash. It 50% virgin wool, 25% polyamide, and 25% viscose.  I had to do a little research to find out polyamide refers to several different forms of fibers made from strings of polyamide monomers, in other words a fiber made with petroleum. Most of us know of it through nylon.  In yarn it provides elasticity and silkiness. (If you have yoga pants they probably have polyamide in them.) The vicose in this yarn is bamboo based. (Or that is my conjecture.) Viscose is made from the cellulose material of bamboo. This material is dissolved in a chemical solution to produce a pulpy viscous substance, which is then spun into fibres that can then be made into threads. (This info came from https://goodonyou.eco/category/made-from/. It  promotes choosing fashions that are sustainable.)  OKAY! Way more than you wanted to know but it is pretty interesting.  On to the picture!

I love the color and the softness.  The design of the sock is tolerated. Who really wants to reknit the whole foot of the sock? Not me. So I'll make a note on the pattern to not use it again. That is unless the second sock comes out looking better, I might have made some mistakes... I'll keep you posted. 

Here's my finished Malted Mystery top. 

The very dark borders is purple. It has a small design in it but you sure can't see it in these purples.  I really like my finish since that dark purple doesn't look as intense in person. It has been hung in the to-be-quilted closet. 

First top quilted this week: 16 patch with stars.  The 16 patches came from the FCQ Equilters years ago. (This may be the second top I made from them...) Quilting design is Fanfare. I "think" this is a navy or red So Fine. 

I'm calling this one Old Zigzag.  I do not remember when I made it. I know it is at least 8 years old because I didn't make it since we've lived here. The HSTs are 2" finished. (I think I might have been a bit crazy when I made this. Or I had a really big leader ender project going on.) Quilting design is Random Clams. This thread is a grey Omni. 

I should have taken a before and after picture of cutting area 2. The left side of the table top is clear to the cutting mat! I still need to do something with the stuff all over the rest of the mat.  I'll try working on it again this week. 

Here's what I've got planned for this week. 

3/18/2024

Finish another loom hat

Bind Spider Web quilt

Bind 16 patch r,w,b quilt

Bind Zigzag quilt

Work on needlepoint scissors case

So, back to high tea... Rochelle, our pianist for the Spotsylanians community chorus, invites the whole chorus to come to high tea at her house on St. Patrick's Day. She goes all out to feed and entertain us. I didn't get pictures before the tea began but here are a few pictures from the during the event. 

She has a collection of different tea pots, plates, cups and saucers.  She has a multitude of tiered serving dishes to put sandwiches, scones and cookies on. And all sorts of additional dishes for serving clotted cream, jam, an sugar and cream.  It was a beautiful with 3 separate tables available.  I have had high tea at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and several times on cruise ships. Rochelle's was as wonderful.  The company was fun (especially since we don't have a lot of chatting time during rehearsals.) 

Lemon balls and fresh strawberries.

And, honestly, this group will sing anywhere. So here some of us are singing Irish songs. (I was taking the pictures so I'm not shown.) 

People were definitely wearing the green....

The men are invited to spend time in the basement recreation room and their spread included chicken wings and brownies.  Probably more food but I didn't notice as I only went down after the party had been over for at least an hour.  Usually there is cigar smoking for those who enjoy it but they are invited outdoors.  I don't know if there was whisky this year or not. 

I volunteered to help clean up and started in washing all the tea cups, silverware and some of the smaller glass containers for the Vanilla Bean Yogurt/Lemon Lime Curd/Blueberries. Maddie was drying and continued washing when it was time for us to leave. I'd say we all had a great time. I'm hoping she continues this tradition.  

It was another great stitching week. Everyday I spent at least 15 minutes in my studio, many days it was much longer.  My success rate is increasing.... will it creep up to, say, 99% this week? 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
     
• 15 minute days/March = 17/17 days 
• 15 minute days/2024 = 76/77days
• Success rate = 98.7%

I'm ready to call it a night. so Please take a look at these Linky parties. 

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 12 - 21 - 2020

Not much is getting done on the piecing and quilting side but I am making some progress on Christmas preparations.  Here's what I hoped to get done last week. . . 

12/14/2020

Finish Christmas ornaments✔️

Wrap presents✔️ Most that have arrived and those I needed to pass on Sunday were done.

Finish adding coping strips ✔️ - 2 columns are sewn together - 1 to go 

Make scarf to go with doll hat✔️I had to find the right clothes for my Kit doll to do a glamor shot to show off the scarf & hat I made as a Christmas present for one of my grands. In hindsight I would have made the scarf a bit wider and less long. 

Write & Mail Christmas cards✔️

And now, goals for the last full week of 2020 . . . 

12/21/2020

T Shirt Quilt - add the coping strips to the last column, get vertical sashing strips on

Make blocks for FCQ Equilter

Try to finish hand quilting on very old Christmas quilt

Make more blocks for 2019 BOM quilt 

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Are you having delays receiving mail and packages from all the major delivery services? We are. As most people have this year, we ordered most presents online. Some presents were ordered early, others not so early.  We've got a list and are checking it twice multiple times to make sure everything we ordered comes in.  So far way too many items haven't arrived. 

But enough arrived to allow us a quick meet up with our son to pass along some of the presents for his family.  The ten of us are tentatively planning an outdoor get together after Christmas to swap and open Christmas presents.  Hopefully, later in the week but it will all depend on the weather.  It would be pretty uncomfortable to sit outside at 40 degrees and rain. 

I finished these socks a few weeks ago but didn't get a picture of them until recently.  These were in the group of presents passed off to Kevin.  (I'm not admitting who is getting them...) But I really love the color.  

I'm ready to get my day going.  I have some last minute local shopping to do. And, then on to the items on the goals list.  I'd really like to get the T shirt quilt together (sans borders) so I can put some other blocks up that I'd like to get to top stage soon. 

Linking up to my regular parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday.  I'll really try to remember to link up on Tuesday -- I noticed I failed to last week.  Sigh! Yea!  I remembered to link up to To Do Tuesday! 

Wishing all who celebrate a Happy Christmas Holiday.  

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Stitching and Traveling

We've come down to our beach house in Nags Head, NC to see how it held up after Hurricane Matthew.  Thankfully it is fine.  We haven't been down here since the end of May because the house has been rented almost the entire summer all the way through October.  It's beautiful weather here this week. 

We went out to dinner at the Black Pelican last night.  Pat took this photo of the beach road -- well what was the beach road and the sand dune before Matthew came to visit two weeks ago. We were here about the same time last year and took nearly the same picture then.  And, yes, dinner was great as always.

                                  

Pat is definitely a morning person and I am definitely a night owl.  He went out to the beach to get these pictures of sunrise this morning.  He captured some spectacular pictures this year. 

And a few minutes later...

I often set up a little sewing area and try to get some piecing done.  Here's what I'm working on this time. I started this in a Stack N Whack class in early September.  I did this block before I left home to make sure the sizes I was cutting were correct.  Today, I finished cutting and then started making the blocks.  I was working around the house also so didn't get as much done as I should have but tomorrow morning I'll try to get a few more blocks done before we do a little shopping.  (Yep, there is a outlet mall not even a mile away...) 

I've also finished one sock.  This yarn is hand dyed burgundy but it sure doesn't look it in the picture. The picture shows some of the variation in the yarn but, honestly, this is a deep burgundy without much variation actually showing.   The yarn is wonderful to work with.  Since this picture was taken I've already gotten about 2" done on the new cuff. 

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday. I'll link up with Whoop Whoop on Friday.  Take some time to check out some inspiration across the internet. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

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Do You Have an Sewing Nest?

Many quilters have a wonderful U shape desk set-up which allows them to cut, sew and iron by just turning in a twirly chair.  It puts all your tools right where you use them making it convenient and generally gives you more time to actually sew. I've dubbed it the "sewing nest." 

On the other hand, I've always had a separate ironing board and I've purposely chosen to put it a bit farther away than where I sew.  And, now, I feel somewhat encouraged (vindicated?).  Have you been reading the headlines about "sitting disease?"  Yikes.  A new report from Annals of Internal Medicine reports average people spend more than half of their waking time sitting.   And, the more sedentary you are the more likely you will die earlier than someone who is moving. You know you have way too much fabric so you need to be around for a long, long time! You can read a bit about the study in this post on Harvard Health Blog.

With the elimination of our "sewing nest" we could be prime examples of making sure we exercise just a little bit every 30 minutes or so. Here's a typical sewing process for me.  I will prep the next step for my project (and sometimes more than one project) standing at the ironing board.  I then walk across the studio, sit down and sew all the seams plus my leader/ender.  I stand up, walk back across the room and do my ironing and prep the next units for sewing, go back across the room and sew. It goes on all day (or however long I have for my sewing.)  In addition, my studio is upstairs and lunch is downstairs, I always get some walking and movement into my studio time.  

From this research all sorts of trends have started including the stand up desk. Well, it might be a trend now but evidently Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president, used a stand up desk.  Some folks have attached a desk to a treadmill to walk and work at the same time. (Yikes, I'd probably sprain an ankle doing that or at the very least have way more typos than I do now.) I'm evaluating my non-sewing time to see how I can be more active.  

The take-away from this post is to look at your sewing time and see if you can add some more motion to it.  I pride myself on not being much of a tv watcher but instead of watching, I'm generally poking on the computer or reading a book either on a tablet, iPhone or a real book.  So maybe I'm not doing as well as I think I am.  Check out this article from the Washington Post about the health hazards of sitting. As much as I complain about getting up at 7 am 4 times a week to hit the Y, I am sure it is very good for me!  Now, I just need to cut back my night-owl tendencies. 

Here's my latest finish after sitting for too many hours! I wish I had knit a nice long cuff done in knit, pearl rather than an inch or so and then the stockinette stitch for so much of the sock.  These will probably be slouch socks. But, I love the colors and they are DONE! 

I also received a squishy in the mail today.  Irma sent her blocks to me for my turn with FCQ Equilters.  She had Nov/Dec blocks which I mailed to her yesterday.  I'm Jan/Feb so she is really on top of things since January isn't even over yet.  Thanks Irma.  

Both of these blocks are going with UFOs I uncovered when I was working on the first 15 Minute Spiff Up post.  The little candy corn blocks will go with the Halloween blocks to be made up into a wall hanging.  The Happy Blocks will be joining my other happy blocks to make some more quilts for the NICU at a local hospital.  

That's it for today.  I want to get a quilt on and off Ruthie so I can then do one of my quilts which will take a couple of days.  Let me know how you are putting some more motion in your quilting time. 

Happy Quilting Folks.