Monday Meanderings 12 - 15 - 2025

Phew! What a week! And, now the weather has turned super cold. When we walked Sunny around 6:30 pm tonight the 'feels like' temperature was 0º. It was actually 19º but the wind was really blowing. Luckily she did her business really fast. We aren't used to this much cold weather and certainly not in December.  I'm looking forward to the forecasted 58º coming (hopefully) Wednesday. 

Now it's time to see how I did on my goals this busy concert week. 

12/8/25

✅✅✅Sing three concerts, ✅✅2 rehearsals and ✅enjoy one party — a great week of music and friends. 

✅✅Finish binding framed 9 patch quilts — both done! 

✅Make November’s Cali-Co block — done just one more to do.

✅Make another R,W,B block for Equilter — done.

No pictures from our concerts. We had great audiences for all the concerts. It was a real challenge for the Spotsylvanians concerts as our director was sick and couldn't come. Luckily our assistant conductor took over and did a really great job. No rehearsals for about a month.  Hum, what will I do instead of those rehearsals?  Probably work on cleaning up the studio and sewing. 

Here's the November Cali-Co block. Only one more block before I can start to put the blocks together. 

 Last week I shared a paper pieced block that I couldn't sew together because one piece was too small.  I thought it was a problem with the pattern but a friend suggested I check to see if all the papers were printed at the same percentage.  I looked at one of the middle sections and realized the printing on the back was substantially smaller than the other three. I reprinted it at 100% and 97% (the computer came up with that number.) I believe all of the other papers were printed at 97%. There wasn't much visible difference. Here's the final result. The only draw back is the block measures 12" rather than 12.5".  I told my friend and she was willing to work with it. I am going to send her 1.5" strips of the same white in case she wants to frame it up to the right size. 

Here are all the blocks I've made so far.  She asked us not to send them to her until January as she was going to see her kids over Christmas.  So, who knows whether I'll keep making blocks for her.  I've enjoyed the ones I've made so far. 

Here's what I'm planning to do this week.  I still have some Christmas shopping to do so I haven't listed a whole lot of goals. 

12/15/25

Baste Tall Trees and start quilting it

Quilt customer quilt

Finish December clue for Magnificent Mystery 

Make last block for Cali-co mystery. 

I may not actually finish the Magnificent Mystery clue this week but I'm going to give it a try.  The first part is to make 120 half square triangles.  Um, that may take a while. I've got the first 60 HSTs cut by my Accuquilt. Once I get them made I'll cut and sew the rest. After they are made, they will be used to make another unit. Here's what the cut pieces look like ready to sew. It's going to require a lot of time to get all of these done. Sixty HSTs in stacks of ten ready to put under the needle. 

I was successful with my 15 minutes of stitching every day. It helped to think ahead during the concert days. 

W/ending 12/14/25. 348 days of 2025

• 15 minute days/December 7/7
• 15 minute days/2025 = 346/348 days
• Success rate = 99.4%

Not a bad number -- I should be able to continue this through the end of the year. Yikes -- I just realized there are only 16 days until the beginning of the New Year. Wow! Time has been flying by.  It's time to start listing UFOs to finish next year and quilts I want to make.  Do you set year long goals? 

Please take a look at these Linky Parties to see what quilters are working on across the Internet. 

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap!

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 5 - 20 - 2024

Did you read that date on the headline?  May 20th?  Is it just me or is the calendar flipping by a lot faster than I think it should? On the other hand I always have my goals to keep me motivated on my sewing so maybe that is what makes the days go so fast. Here's what was on last week's list. 

5/13/24

✅Quilt Jenny’s quilt — Done, ready to return to her. 

✅Put border on pinwheel top — finished, now to think of backing.

✔️Make another basket block or two — finished a bunch of HSTs but need to cut out basket pieces. 

✅Cut, ✅layout, and ✅start stitching the stars quilt top for Va Star Quilt Guild — almost finished with center portion.

✅Sew misc blocks — RSC, FCQ Equilters— finished a lot of blocks but probably need a few more Equilter blocks.

Here's the quilt Jenny asked me to quilt for her.  She loves designs by Elizabeth Hartman.  In fact the last three quilts I quilted for her were Elizabeth's designs.  Anyway, this one is a baby quilt for a neighbor.  Here's the last row or so of cats. Did I mention she likes bright colors? The pattern is called Quick and Easy Swirls available at My Creative Stitches. May I repeat that it really is a fast and easy design to stitch out?  

By the way the blue on the orange kitty's nose is blue painter tape I use to mark my rows for the computer. 

One of the things I worked a lot on wasn't even on my list.  Here's the finished Bow Tie quilt. I believe it was the April UFO challenge. I'm happy to have it to top stage. Although I might put a border on it.  What do you think? Border or no border? 

After I got it all together I decided I should have moved a block or two to get it away from a similar color.  Oh well.  It's 42.5 x 60.5".  I'll have to buy backing for it. Although I won't do it until I look through my collection of fabrics just in case. 

Here's the layout for the stars quilt top from the blocks donated to Va Star Guild.  For the most part they are beautifully done.  Although I realized as I was sewing them with the "sashing" they aren't all 12.5".  I faked it so they should come out ok.  Here's the picture I took to make sure I sewed the pieces in the right places. (Um, I didn't. I had to take one piece off of two of the blocks and resew them in the right places.) If you want to see more about this project you can look at my Feb. 15th post. The pattern I'm using ends up being square.  I'm trying to decide if I'd (or the guild) would rather it be rectangular.  It might be used as a raffle quilt for us or it might be donated to a charity so they can use it as a fund raiser.  Do you like square quilts or rectangular quilts? 

Now here's what I want to work on this week.

5/20/24 

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Finish the inside of the star quilt for VSQ

Plan something for May UFO challenge blocks another set of large flying geese blocks 

Cut out a quilt using the scattered forest animal print 

Pull out a block set and plan a top 

Stitching Time! I've been stitching every day this week.  Most days it was in my studio quilting but one or two might have been knitting days. I've got a couple more hats done to donate. 

W/ending 5/19 140 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/April =  19/19 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 133/140 days
• Success rate = 95.5%

I've share almost all of the Costa Rica trip.  I was going to combined the last two days but I think that is way too much in one blog. So I'll write a bit about our last day in Monteverde this week and next week I'll finish off our trip.  

Our last full day in Monteverde was windy — 35 mph winds whipping around when we woke up.  The whole family went to breakfast together before splitting up for different activities.  We went with our son and his family to Monteverde Butterfly Garden.  A tour guide started us indoors where they had a multitude of different live insects.  Aimee was willing to hold just about anything. She knows her bugs and likes them.  Here she is with a large cockroach.  Despite what people think about cockroaches they are very clean. 

Side note if you have kids or grands 3rd through 6th or 7th grade here's a book recommendation.  Shoebag by M. E. Kerr (also known as Mary James.) Shoebag is a cockroach who like all cockroaches are named after the place they are born.  He lives with his parents, Drainboard and Under the Toaster in a Boston apartment. Shoebag is transformed into a, gasp, person and somehow is adopted by a family.  I haven't read it in years but I remember enjoying it as did the kids who checked it out. That's where I learned that cockroaches are really pretty clean insects. 

She wanted to hold the tarantula but was told they are too fragile. Next up was the first butterfly garden.  We saw a multitude of beautiful butterflies. Bright blue Morpho butterflies were all over the enclosure.  Ellie was hoping to pick one up but no, didn’t happen.  This picture shows one with her hand giving a sense of size.  These were pretty big compared to some butterflies. 

We toured 3 different butterfly habitats.  Here’s Teddy in one of them. (I was trying to get a good picture of Ted I could use as a background on my iPhone.) 

I took a couple of picture of flowers while we were in Costa Rica.  Up first is Red Ginger (pink version..)👇

Flower 2 👇 Brazil’s White Angel Trumpet. These are pink version.  All parts of the plant are considered poisonous. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugmansia suaveolens

Flower 3 Noble Dendrobiumis is one of the most widespread ornamental members of the orchid family. These were growing on a tree in the compound in Monteverde. 

And the last flower is a Lollipop plant. I'm pretty sure this was in one of the butterfly gardens.  

I'll have the exciting trip home next week. In the meantime I'm linking up with my normal Linky Parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap,  Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings. I hope you can take some time to go check out these Linky Parties.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie  

Merry Christmas a Day Late!

Our Christmas was quiet with just the two of us.  We had passed on some of the presents for our son's family and he gave us most of ours.  I have to say I was tickled with my presents as was Pat with his.  We both spent time in our happy places during the day.  I was down in my studio and he was in his workshop.  I'm pretty sure he was finding room for his new tools and I was using my new Accuquilt dies. 

I got two new dies this year.  (Shush -- don't tell anyone I still haven't used one I got last year for Christmas.) The left one is Blazing Star by Eleanor Burns.  EEEK!  It is a complicated die because you have to have some fabric right side up and some right side down. And, the directions are ok but not great.  However, there is a booklet you can buy and a free video. The right side is an Ohio Star.  Both are 12" Blocks on Board -- every piece you need is on the die.  I am happy to have some specific dies for 12" blocks.  (Does this picture look odd to you?  I keep taking shots right over what I want to show and then I don't really like how they look.  Sigh.)

My time in my studio was spent finding fabric for, cutting and making the blocks.  I made the Ohio Star first.  Very easy to follow the given directions, cut, and make the block.  I think it took longer to figure out fabrics than it did to cut it out.  I'm thinking I'll make a bunch with different patriotic fabrics.  Maybe make a quilt for TAPS, assuming they have the camp this year. 

The Blazing Star was not super easy to make.  I was trying to follow the directions which had to be downloaded from the web site. (Usually the directions are included with the packaging.) So I started following the directions trying to be careful with the right side up and right side down.  Needless to say several pieces of fabric were sacrificed to mistakes.  I finally decided to watch the video.  It helped quite a bit but kept referencing the booklet that I didn't have and there was no digital download from what I could tell. (I didn't look really carefully.) Finally, I succeeded cutting out the pieces although I don't think the colors are where I originally wanted them.  The best part is the sewing was pretty easy.  Most of the points won't be cut off when I use it. 

Hindsight I would have tried to have more contrast on the front star.  But it will make a fine table runner with two more blocks. 

Just for fun I thought I would share this lesson in lighting.  Have you heard experts talk about the appearance of different colored lighting.  Take a look at our poor Christmas tree.  Yes, it is artificial and the lights were on it when purchased. However, at some point this season all of the lights in the second section from the top quit. Pat spent an hour or so trying to find the problem to no avail.  So he came up with an alternative.  He put the only other strand of lights he could find on the tree.  Yep, colored lights.  What shows up a lot are the blue lights.  And they make the tree look a totally different color than the white lights.  It's hard to see in this picture but the tree looks a lush green with the blue lights and a washed out sage green with the white lights.  We don't put up this tree very often; recently we've been using a smaller tree on a table.  This year it seemed the right thing to do.  Maybe I should look for some white lights on sale to replace the colored lights? 

Tomorrow we're having a mini, outdoor celebration with our kids and grands.  We'll swap whatever presents came in on time, chat a bit and then head home.  We hope  I-95 won't be bumper to bumper with people coming home from their visits.  In the best of times we can get to our son's house in about an hour, or a daughter's in over an hour.  We've traveled for double the time or more at the worst of times.  We're looking forward to seeing everyone but the traffic... eh not too happy about that. 

I'm off for some more sewing and then present wrapping.  In the meantime I'll be linking up with these Linky Parties: Ha!  None of my normal linky parties are up and running, either already closed or didn't hold a linky party. I did find Finished or Not Friday held at Anja Quilts.  Hope you'll spend a few minutes over there today.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie