Monday Meanderings 10 - 28 - 2024

Did this week go by fast for you?  I think it zoomed by way too fast for me. I didn't do well on getting my goals done. But that's ok . . .  there's always another week! Here's what I did get done.

10/21/24

Finish Frolicking Frogs top started at retreat — need the borders still, may have to buy more of what I was planning on using. 

✅Wash new fabrics — three new fabs were washed.  One was even used on the 3 yard quilt below!

Put two borders on 3 yd quilt started at retreat — half of one border done. 

✅Bake some items for the annual craft show — finished, delivered and sold! 

Clean up some of the stuff on the cutting table — a few items cut but not very many 

I didn't even remember to take photographs of any goal items.  

And here is what I hope to get done this week. We'll see how much I actually get done. 

10/28/24

Quilt a baby quilt on Ruthie

Finish Quilting lonestar on domestic machine

Finish a Christmas ornament 

Put borders on 3 yard quilt

Finish Frolicking Frogs top started at retreat

Oh did you notice I'm quilting on my domestic machine? I finished a lone star top in 2022.  It sat for a while until I got a backing for it.  And it sat some more until I decided it was time to quilt it.  I didn't want to put it on Ruthie the long arm and do an overall pattern.  So yesterday I pinned it so I could start quilting it on the Bernina.  I consulted with my friend Sharon who does almost all her quilting on her Bernina.  She sent me several good ideas.  The only thing I knew was I was going to stitch in the ditch on all the sections of the lone star.  Here is what it looked like after pin basting. 

Today, I stitched all the sections of the lone star.  I figured out how to do each quarter at one time. Then I did some echo quilting in the triangle sections.  I started one of the squares.  But it was dinner time so nothing else got done.  The plan is to do two rows of stitching on the little red border.  I'm going to try to do freehand stars in the flag border.  I'll need to do a lot of practice to make sure I can make decent freehand stars.  Hopefully this will get done this week, maybe even before the end of October. 

Here are some goodies from the retreat. The pinkish fabric and 30 degree ruler I purchased at a local quilt store.  The rotating cutting mat I won in a drawing along with a new rotary handle (not pictured.) The gold stripe fabric was on a give away table.  I'm running low on yellows and oranges so I snagged this yellow.  I'm not sure when I'll use it but I'm sure I will.  I didn't photograph a wide back I purchased. It's navy blue and I hope to use it as backing for several smaller tops. 

I've continued to successfully spend at least 15 minutes of stitching every day this past week.  

W/ending 10/27  — 301 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/Oct = 7/7
• 15 minute days/2024 = 291/301 days
• Success rate = 96.6%

Our community craft group decorated lids for Christmas cookie containers last week. A local gal is a Stamping Up demonstrator and did a wonderful job coming up with the lids. It's hard to tell but these are put on metal containers like you might get with a take out meal.  

Now I have to decide who will be getting cookies from me this year.  (The one on the left is mine.) 

I'm linking up with Life in Pieces' Stitching Stuff, Quilting is More Fun than Housework's Oh Scrap, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts' Design Wall Monday, and Songbird Designs' Monday Musing.  Hope you have some time to see what folks are working on these days. 

I hope every one has a great week.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

                                                                          

                                         

To Do Tuesday

Did you notice I skipped Monday this week?  I had some plans to do a short Happy 4th blog, even picked out the artwork.  But, nope, didn't happen.  So it's To Do Tuesday instead.  

So let's start with last week's goals list.  It was a great week actually. 

6/27/2022

✅Make backing for Cheese and Crackers quilt -- Check below to see the yellow backing at the top of the photo. 

✅Quilt and bind Cheese and Crackers -- Here's a peek at the quilting.

✅Finish making the dog toys -- Something like 28 toys are done.

✅Make 3 more blocks for Irma -- Ready to put in the mail.

✅Sew cupcakes block together -- Done, and it doesn't look much differently from last week's picture. 

Here's what I'm working on this week.

7/4/22

Work on July’s UFO challenge Migrating Geese

Start on Picnic Time small wall hanging 

Make blocks for FCQ Officers, more red Spider Webs 

Quilt something… decision to be made during the week

Here's the new challenge piece.  Several years ago I purchased a Technique Sheet (TS) from Studio 180. The sheets are printed in color and then laminated. The TS  shows how to make the geese and gives sizes for various widths of the strips. I made 5 long strips 9.5" wide. All the geese strips are completed.  I bought a wide back from Connecting Threads to use as the sashing, borders and backing.  After hours of making sure I would have enough fabric for the backing if I cut a hunk off for the sashing and borders, I started cutting.  

As you can tell I used some of my homespuns.  All the plaids I used made a dent but unfortunately I still have some left. Sigh.  I might need another project of homespuns one of these days. (Cheese and Crackers made a dent in my 30's and fabrics but another project or two also will be needed to use them up.) 

I admit there was shopping going on the last week of June.  I was hoping both packages would come in after July so I wouldn't have to count them in during June.  One is being counted on my June stash busting numbers and one will be in the July numbers.  But here's what I got.  First the June add ins.  

I've been getting emails from Craft Town fabrics for years.  In fact I've bought from them before but not for several years.  When they offered a great price on a rainbow box of Mettler Silk Finish threads I was totally hooked.  See the box below.  Don't they make you want to sew something in a beautiful bright color?  

I figured I could add some fabric for the same shipping charge, so I did. Plus they often have All or Nothing fabric or fabric at lower costs starting at $3.99.  These are older fabrics but definitely quilt store quality.  I decided to check the All or Nothing selection. Hum, there were several that appealed to me.  I ended up with 2 prints and 3 neutrals. Here's my haul. 

I hadn't bought novelty fabric for a while so I decided to get the popsicles and sheep just for something new.  Actually the popsicles is a full yard and will be used for the basis of a new quilt -- possibly a 3 yard quilt.  The sheep will probably be the centers a child quilt but not sure what as it is only 3/8th of a yard.  The other 3 neutrals will work well as background fabrics when I use a variety of backgrounds. (note -- Craft Town has $5.00 shipping up to $49.99 in July. And, no I don't get compensated for sharing this, just call me The Enabler!) So I thought I was set for awhile. 

Except, Connecting Threads was having a 20% off sale and I fell for a fat quarter bundle of red fabrics.  So, again, I checked shipping and decided to add a one yard piece of wide backing.  I have had great luck using wide backing for piecing.  I was "planning" on getting some white I had purchased before.  It was a little surprise when I got the package. That lovely grey fabric was what was suppose to be white. Note to self: double check your order before submitting it! Sigh. I haven't decided how I plan on using it.  I will check my tops and see if there is any that would fit on it. Or it might become a background fabric for some project.  Lots of possibilities. 

The reds are going to be used on more spider web blocks.  The reds in my stash don't seem right to me so this influx of reds will be put to work soon. 

It seems like I had a whole lot to let everyone know about today.  But, I'm done now.  Well, except the plug for the Linky parties.  Here are links to the parties I'm participating in today. Please use these as launching pads to visit quilters on the Internet. 

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday

Midweek Makers 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 12 - 7 - 2020

I'm making great progress on the T shirt quilt, ordering some Christmas presents, and Zooming with a group of quilters who were "going" to go on a retreat this weekend.  Our retreat scheduled in May was rescheduled for the first weekend in December.  But it was canceled a month or two ago. So some of us met off and on for Zoom sessions during the weekend.  It's always great to go to Zoom meetings with my guild in Maryland -- I don't get up there more than once a year or so even without Covid.  We enjoyed sewing and chatting via Zoom.  Not as good as in person but better than nothing. 

Here's my goals from last week.  Yep, I put too many goals on my list.  (Or maybe I was distracted!)  Here's what I listed and what I got done. 

11/30/2020

Quilt 1 of my quilts - Nope, didn't happen.

Finish final cutting on t shirt quilt✔️

Here it is:  all the shirts have been backed and trimmed to their final size.  I received the medium grey Kona for the sashing.  You can see my first "coping" strip attached to the shirt in the 3rd column, 3rd shirt down.  I decided I'd split the coping strips between both sides of the shirt except if the resulting strip would be less than 1".  I did the math wrong on this first one so I took off one strip.  I'm going to change the strip to the other side so that the bottom 3 shirts will line up on the right side. I need to do some more math (correctly, I hope!) and then start cutting and sewing these strips on.  I have a logo on a hat to put on a piece of a t shirt.  It will go in the 1st column because that column is way shorter than the other two. I'll be busy for a while on this quilt. 

Begin Grands’ 2020 Ornaments I looked at 1 pattern. Does that count? 

Pick backing and quilt farm quilt✔️ And, I got the binding done too, I need to label it and mail it. 

Get back to work on purple basket✔️ I sewed a few more strips on the piece but it was minimal. 

It was not the best week but I feel good about what I did get done.  Now here's what the plan is for this week.

12/7/2020

Sew label on farm quilt

Sew coping strips on all t shirts, put the hat logo on a t shirt

Get grand kids ornaments done

Order some more presents

Knit on a doll hat

I did finish the second sock that I was knitting.  Don't tell anyone  -- it's a Christmas present.  When we Zoomed in the evening I was  knitting instead of working on quilts.  I tend to make more errors at night so knitting was a lot easier to do.

On to my "Stashbusting" statistics.  Except almost no stashbusting happened in my house in November. 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Nov	17.375	89.50	.375	86.875	-2.65

Yep, I did bring in 17.375 yards of fabric.  I purchased a grouping of novelty fabrics from a gal on SewItsForSale.groups.IO that was over 16 yards.  (The cute Dalmatian fabric I showed in the Nesting block last week was included in it. So I am already trying to make a dent in what I got.) Plus some fabric for the farm quilt was purchased. *I don't count fabric used until I have finished the quilt. So the farm quilt will count this month. Hopefully, I'll figure out another one to quilt and bind this month. 

Instead of working much on my own projects during November I quilted 3 quilts for Virginia Star Quilters.  The quilts will be given to Hope House later this month.  It shouldn't take me two or three days per quilt but that's about what it did.  You can see the quilts on my previous three posts. 

Have you been blog surfing lately?  You might want to visit these linky parties to get you started: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. (Hopefully this week I'll remember to link up with To Do Tuesday!) 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Design Wall Going to the Dogs

What can I say.  The dog blocks are taking over.  Next up, making the 3 block units.  I'll probably get that done next week. I have to have it done by the 3rd weekend of March. (Yep, about 2 weeks from now!) 

So, I am admitting now that I'm NOT succeeding on the goal to have this as a top this week.  I've been goofing off a lot this week.  Here's a peek at my haul from our trip to Richmond on Tuesday (one of my goof offs!). Here are new fabrics purchased Thursday at the quilt show and now from the road trip.   This isn't all, it's what I had upstairs when I took this picture.) 

The bottom four pieces are batik fat quarters.  There were some dark ones already put with the other fabrics.  They are going to be part of a sampler quilt. I'll share more about these once I get more than 4 blocks done. 

The bottom green, purple and dark blue are dimples that were on sale at Quilters Corner in Midlothian.  I bought these just because I liked them.  Although, the bottom green didn't look so olive as it does in the pic. The upper green is a solid that will go with a dinosaur fabric I bought last year. The lighter blue also goes with the dinosaur fabric.  I keep buying fabric that I can make charity quilts from.  This time I didn't have enough go with fabrics.  So now I don't have any excuses!  Stay tune -- one of these days you'll be seeing a dinosaur quilt with orange, green and blue go with fabrics! 

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, and Finished or Not Friday.  I'll link up to the other two when the blogs are up and I have a minute or two.  I haven' posted a non-Monday blog in a long time. I'd like to post more blogs each week. How about if I strive for 1 extra a week? We'll see whether I can have any success with that.  Spend some time reading what's going on all over the quilter's part of the internet this weekend. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 3 - 2020

Another month has snuck in.  Even with the extra day last month it did seem to go fast.  I know last week zoomed by!  

Thursday I attended the Mid Atlantic Quilt show with a group of quilting buddies.  We drive down in the morning and come back in the evening.  We don't have a lot of time at the show as it's 2 hours each way if we don't run into traffic. I was tickled to finally get a picture of my music challenge quilt while it was hanging at the show. 

Here's my artist statement for "Let's Sing."

My 2020 Challenge piece was inspired by the song I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing by B. Backer, B. Davis, R. Cook and R. Greenaway. The song started out as a jingle for a television commercial for Coca Cola in 1971 but was quickly released with non-commercial lyrics. 

Choral, or group, singing offers a variety of physical and mental benefits to the singer such as stess reduction, improved mood and lowering blood pressure. This joyous song offers hope and love that encompasses all. 

I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony) as sung by The New Seekers. 

I'd like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees
And snow white turtle doves

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms
And keep it company

I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills
For peace through out the land
(That's the song I hear)

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony

Source: Lyric Find 

So 

My thanks go to my friends Sharon, Beth and Marlyn for being my sounding boards during the making of this quilt.  

I was happy to see it hanging with all of the quilts from Country Piecemakers.  

I spent more time shopping at the quilt show than actually viewing the quilts.  My general impression was there were more challenge quilts than quilts actually entered in the show.  The prize winners were amazing. I've taken pics of several quilts that "spoke" to me.  I'll try to remember to share them over the next couple of posts. 

My purchases ranged from a roll of cotton/poly batting from Pellon, to a wide back, six fat quarters of batik fabric, some cork fabric and a pattern for a candle mat with some bunnies on it.  My guess is I'll use the bunnies on something other than a candle mat as that is a bit too fussy for me.  (On the other hand, it might just be another addition to my pattern collection.)

Since it is now March I thought I'd share my stashbusting, um, stash building with you. Here's the sad news if I look at it from the point of wanting to USE my stash. I've added several yards of patriotic fabric, several other one yard pieces, and two different pieces of wide back to the collection.  Half of one was used as the backing on my patriotic quilt going to TAPS.  I definitely need to control my urge to buy fabric for a few months and concentrate on finishing some pieces! 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Jan	13.25	18.250	8.625	8.625	-9.625

I've decided it's time I listed a few quilting and other goals each week to help me keep focused.  I find if I've listed my goals I can make sure I get them done or at least further along the path to finishes. 

March 2, 2020
Finish doggie blocks and sew into top
Cut out and stitch table runner to donate to FCQ quilt show
Finish green fingerless mitts
Go to Richmond to visit some quilt shops 
Make next FCQ Equilter blocks 

That list may be way more than I can get done this week but I'll give it a try. 

Although I've shared lots of photos from our trip, we did have an interesting event after we left Panama, but no photos.  Our last port was Costa Rica staying for one day.  Except the seas were running around 15 feet. (rocking and a rolling!)  So when we got to the dock in Costa Rica the ship was bobbing up and down like crazy.  Unlike many ports we had gone to this one was not protected at all.  Unfortunately, it just wasn't safe to disembark.  We were disappointed!  It meant we had 3 straight sea days as we headed back to Florida. Two days at sea was relaxing.  By the third day I was ready to go somewhere again! And the rough seas were with us for the next day or so.  I am not the best sailor in rough water! 

We were on Holland American line and I give them kudos for refunding our excursion fees within two hours (probably less but that's when we noticed it on our account) of leaving Costa Rica.  A bit later in the day our port taxes were returned.  

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  I'm hoping to spend some serious blog hopping time this week. (Along with getting all of my goals done!)  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 4 - 15 - 2019

Happy Tax Day to all of my USA readers.  Ok, so most people don't think this day is a happy occasion but we were well pleased with this year's tax return.  

I realized I have yet to announce my March stashbusting report.  It wasn't horrible but I didn't do all that much "busting."

2019	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
March	4.250	11.080	2.500	15.250	4.170

Yea, the only reason it's still showing I'm using fabric is from previous month's usage. Bleh.  Hopefully this month I'll have a big finish or two that will make a great big dent. 

Or not, since I did some online shopping last week.  Sigh.  How do you turn down the chance to buy quilt shop quality fabric for $2.91 a yard.  I'll wait.  Reread that statement.  Yep, you can't buy fabric at this quality that cheaply usually.  But Thousands of Bolts had a sale last week.  

I actually took a look at the fabric because I need a backing for the friendship stars I showed last week.  There were pages of fabric to go through -- most I wasn't interested in. I found a red with white polka dots that might work so I ordered 3 yards. I looked again and added 3 more fabrics that would work as either pillowcases or quilts.  Um, I wasn't sure whether I had any fabric to go with the new fabrics so I checked again, used the site's Color Matcher and came up with a green that goes with most of the prints. In the end, I purchased 7 yards of fabric and the total cost including Priority Mail was under $30.  Not too shabby.  I'm pretty sure I placed my order on late Monday night and it was in my hands by Thursday mid day.  AMAZING.  (No, I am not being compensated for these comments.  I was just blown away by the price, quality and the service.) 

Here are my purchases -- first the cute prints and then with the the other two fabs. 

 

It's so much fun to get new fabric and start a new project.  I'm guessing one of these prints will become a new quilt pretty soon.  I tend to make mostly "boy" quilts or gender neutral quilts.  I haven't taken the red fabric to the studio to see if it actually works with the friendship stars quilt tops.  Even if it doesn't there will be something it will work with. (Like the cute bunny fabric to the left.) 

So with all that shopping going on you might wonder if there was any quilting or  piecing going on.  Um, not as much as there should be.  Sigh.  Here's the goals report. 

April 8, 2019

Load & begin quilting Mystery of Powhatan quilt Nope

Begin sashing granny blocks for larger quilt√

Finish border on snowflake quilt√ well, I would have except I ran out of the last border print. 

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt√ 

Plan aqua pillow shams nope, didn’t even look at the fabric

And for this coming week... I've got several day things that will cut into my quilting time. But here's what I'm going to try to do. 

April 15, 2019

Load and quilt Mystery of Powhatan quilt

Hand quilt on old Christmas quilt

Continue sashing granny blocks for larger quilt

Finish border on snowflake quilt

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, and Moving It Forward. Have fun checking what folks are working on around the internet. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Stash Enhancement -- Oops!

Bernie, my main sewing machine, went in for a spa day:  clean, lube, and repair of the automatic threader. (Boy, am I looking forward to having that back!) I take her to the Blue Crab Quilt Co. in Richmond.  So it's an hour trip each way.  I could take look at the sale items couldn't I?? Of course. 

So a couple of new fabrics came home with me.

The top is a great white on white with star fish -- ooh already in my Jamestown Landing!  Blue was just I can always use go-with blues.  The next two Halloween fabrics are because I got a wild hair to make a quilt to lay across the couch during Halloween.  I think I have some blocks already made but I haven't checked recently. 

Remember when I mentioned we were redoing our shower?  Well, take a look at the pic below.  Does a quilter live here or what? 

Pat chose the grate and the tiles. He's a great hubby.   The shower is great and I get a big kick out of the "quilty" look when I use it. 

Tomorrow I am the guest blogger at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Sarah's Hands 2 Help.  Stop by Sarah's blog to see what I have to say about using "Opportunity Blocks." 

I'm linking up with  Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finished of Not Friday. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 3 - 12 - 2018

I've been making steady progress on my Jamestown Landing quilt.  Mostly I've been making broken dishes units.  But I have made a few more blocks.  Here they are on the design wall.

Hum, there are a lot of the more green than turquoise pieces.  I won't be putting rows or bigger squares together now since I really want to mix up the fabrics a lot.  At the class I lost count of how many half triangle squares I'd made.  I keep making some but who knows whether I need lots more or 5 more.  I do know I will make some pillow shams so I'll need extra blocks.  I haven't been working on the string blocks at all.  I think I need 100 more of those.  I prefer the blocks that look more white with less beiges in them.  Me thinks I'll be making more of those then I need too. 

My OMG is showing progress.  In fact, when I looked at it last night I realized I probably have enough of the blocks done.  I've even got a few extra of those blocks ready to put into a doll quilt.  

Although this week was busy I did squeeze in a little shopping time.  Yes, I enhanced my stash a bit.  Although all purchases except one were for specific quilts.  I'm a fan of Kona solid fabrics these days.  So when they were on sale at JoAnn stores and there was a 25% off all purchases I went over to pick some up.  Royal, red and white. (No this isn't the color scheme of a new quilt!)  The multi-color fabric was really hard to find this year.  In fact, this doesn't have quite the colors I was hoping for.  I wanted more primary colors but this will do.  Hum, don't know when I'll get to either of these projects.  One may get cut out and go with me to the retreat in May. 

The Alabama T shirt quilt I'm making for a customer is now to the point I can make real progress on. I've got the design planned.  It's time to execute it.  First up is trimming the shirts to a bit bigger than needed and adding the stabilizer.  I would love to get that done this week.  

I'm linking up to my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  Go get a cup of tea (or coffee, just not my thing!) and spend some time seeing what is going on across the internet. 

Happy Quilting! Bonnie