Friday Finishes! 8 - 23

Are you in shock?  I am!  But it's dawned on me that I haven't shared many of my quilts that have been finished this year.  So I thought I'd start showing some on Fridays.  

First up is a Happy Quilt. (I started using Mary's pattern (who shares lots of quilt patterns at MaryQuilts.com. Scroll down the right hand side until you come to Happy Quilts. There are several from which to choose.)  I have donated this one to my guild for community outreach. 

I used a red and white pillow ticking for the binding.  Many of these blocks came from my FCQ Equilters several years ago.  The quilting design is called Squiggle Wiggle from MyCreativeStitches.net. 

I also finished the doll quilt I shared here and gave it to my local guild.  Scroll toward the bottom.  I forgot to measure it or take pictures until I was about to turn it in.  I took a quick picture on the floor so I could share it.

When I find other leftover little blocks I think I'll make some more doll quilts. They are fast and easy -- or at least this one was.  

Next up -- I finished recording my fabric usage statistics for June and July.  And, I'm really jazzed with the results!  (Which may save me once August is done and my big fabric acquisition numbers get added in!) 

2024	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
June	1.75	41.5	20.5	87.875	46.375
July	5.00	46.5	9.0	96.85	50.35

Would you look at that? I've used 50 yards more than I've brought in during 2024! Yee Haw!  🎉🎉🎉  Hopefully I'll get August done early in September. (Don't hold your breath! It's looking like it will be a busy month.) 

I'm linking up with the following Linky parties: Take some time to see what quilters across the world are working on: Midweek Makers,  Needle and Thread Thursday, and Finished or Not Fridays. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie

Last Month's Finish!

I try like crazy to use more fabric than I bring in every month.  Wait!  I forgot to post my stash busting stats for last month.  So, I'll start with that first. I bought a whole lot of fabric from Connecting Threads -- mostly wide backs on sale.  So, yep a large amount of fabric came in during September. 

2022	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Sept	19.25	91	14.5	103.75	12.75

But quite a bit of fabric went out too. As Nann, who blogs at With Strings Attached  suggested I save my scraps up over a few months and then weigh them and covert that to yardage -- which happened in September to the tune of 5 yards worth of scraps. I also made 12 composition book covers that came to approximately 2 1/4 yards of fabric.  And, last but not least, the quilt shown below, Voyager. 

It was a beautiful day Friday so we planned an outing after our neighborhood chorus's rehearsal. It was my first time singing in at least 3 weeks.  We both decided to mask up so we wouldn't get Covid (again) nor possibly spread Covid (me.) I'm better but I do tire more easily.  

After singing we went for a quick bite to eat and then went to a new park near downtown Fredericksburg.  It was a great day to be out by the Rappahannock River.  The new park has a great playground for kids and it looked like it had stairs leading down to the river and a small dock. I pulled out Voyager and started taking pictures.  I always take way more than I need so I can eliminate ones that I don't like.  

For some reason there is temporary fencing between the play area and the river.  It might be to keep kids from wandering down and falling into the river.  It seemed a pretty steep hill.  

The title, Voyager, is the name of the Villa Rosa Design I used.  (You know those designs -- the ones that are a colored postcard?)  I only have a few but I really like the ones I have but haven't made others. Hum, something else to think about when next I want to start a quilt. I used some batik strips along with some other fabrics in turquoise in this one.  

It's hard to see the quilting on this one.  The pattern is called Curly.  I chose to quilt it with the length of the quilt loaded parallel to the bars on the long arm.  I used a light turquoise So Fine thread from Superior Threads. 

Part of the reason we chose to go to this particular park is because Fredericksburg has a promotion called Otter-ly Amazing Fredericksburg. It was designed to bring attention to downtown Fredericksburg and highlight the Rappahannock River as a healthy ecosystem.  You can read more about it in the Free Lance Star.

Selling a game about Fredericksburg, its history, and its downtown raised enough money to create otter statues that were placed throughout the downtown area.  Needless to say we needed to visit at least one of the bronze statues.  Parking is tight in downtown so we thought the new park would be easier to get in and out of. 

Here's an otter and her pups.  

The statue isn't very large. I am assuming they are life-size.  Notice the fish in front. A pair of local artists made the statues. I imagine we'll take the time to walk the downtown area at some point and see the rest of the statues. 

I'm linking up with the following Linky parties: 

*Can I Get a Whoop Whoop*

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

*I am delighted to see Sarah who blogs at Confessions of a Fabric Addict  has returned to blogging.  Waving at you Sarah -- sorry it took me a month or so to see you've come back.  We've missed you!*

That's it for me today.  I haven't made much progress on my goals list this week so I think I'll try to get one or two more done now. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

  

Monday Meanderings and Statistics 9 - 26 - 2022

Hum, the fourth Monday of September and I am just now sharing my stashbusting statistics for August. Pitiful, isn't it? I think the main issue is I didn't want to figure out fabric usage for my spring sampler quilt.  So I came up with the amount for a 6.5" square and added 25% for seams or appliqué.  It's probably correct for some of the blocks and too little or too much for a few.  But at least I'm moving forward!  It was a decent month when I realized I only brought in a half yard. Whoop! Whoop! Here are the numbers: 

2022	Fabric  In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Aug	0.5	71.75	6.5	89.25	17.5

Fan-tas-tic! I had that big addition of fabric this month and it's nice to have a 17.5 yard cushion.  Plus I did finish quilting a top today. So there will be some fabric used this month, even if it isn't going to be a lot. 

Not the best week for goals but I did succeed on some. Here's what I was aiming for this past week. 

9/19/22

✅Quilt and bind turquoise quilt — it is quilted but binding will be this week

✅Finish card challenge — and on display at Virginia Star’s booth at Virginia State Fair

Make 3 or more composition book covers √ Just 1 finished.

Make Sept BOM from A Quilting Life — oops again - maybe this week it’ll get done

Here's the turquoise quilt on Ruthie, the long arm... 

And for this week I'll be trying to do: 

9/26/22

Trim and bind turquoise quilt

Finish last 3 composition book covers

Make Sept BOM from A Quilting Life

Get projects ready for next week’s retreat

Go to Virginia State fair; man VaStar booth

Several of this week's goals are must do activities.  I've already started some work preparing projects for the retreat.  I'm trying to decide how many I want to take for 4 nights and about 4+ days. It's longer than usual and I'm guessing my stamina isn't what it used to be but I also don't want to run out of projects to work on. Decisions, decisions.

I'm ready to finish my current book. I don't know why all sorts of ebooks I've put on hold at the library are coming in at the same time.  Good grief. I've had to postpone several and they keep coming in even though many were listed to come at many weeks later than I actually was notified they were ready.  I haven't spent as much time reading in the last two weeks so hopefully I'll actually get all of them read before the due dates.  

Here's my favorite Monday Linky parties.  You know the drill -- spend the time visiting some and go forth into the Internet to read lots of blogs. You never know when you'll see a particularly fabulous quilt that inspires you to make one similar! I'll be back to link up the rest once they are available. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday 

Thanks for all the get well wishes for Pat. He's feeling much better but still has drippy sinus.  I plan to test soon before I go to my chorus rehearsal.  Hopefully I'll continue to test negative for Covid. 

Here's a visitor to the backyard this morning.  This is a juvenile mourning dove from what I can tell. He sat at the top of the steps from the studio to the backyard for 5 or 10 minutes all puffed up.  I wonder if he is friends with the squirrel who visited a few weeks ago.

Happy Quilting all! Bonnie 

 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 27-2022

 Welcome to the last week of June. On Friday, we'll be half way through 2022.  Does that shock you too? Time just keeps flying by.  The weather here is now mostly hot and humid which means it is great for quilting. My studio is in the basement so it feels wonderful to be down there where it is really cool.  And, bonus, my main sewing machine looks out of French doors and the outside.  Generally my room has a lot of light as long as it is sunny out. Needless to say, I love it down there.  I spent quite a bit of time down there this past week.  And look at what I achieved! 

6/20/22

✅Finish quilting June UFO -- Done using my domestic machine! 

✅Bind June UFO -- Finished on Sunday. 

✅Bind 2021’s RSC quilt Friendship Stars -- Done! 

✅Work on the Cupcake blocks -- All blocks are finished.

Here are the cupcake blocks ready to be sewn into a quilt top. These blocks are big.  I believe they are 13.5" finished.  I was able to use dies from my Accuquilt 9" cube to cut the fabrics.  I kept running out of fabric as I was making the blocks.  So other fabrics were introduced.  What do you think?  Do all these fabrics work together? My guess is some little person is going to love this when it is finished. Who doesn't like cupcakes?  

Yes, it's been a very good week. Between getting the above items finished I also was able to work on some individual blocks.  

Moving right ahead -- here's what I hope to get done this week.

6/27/2022

Make backing for Cheese and Crackers quilt

Quilt and bind Cheese and Crackers

Finish making the dog toys

Make 3 more blocks for Irma 

Sew cupcakes block together 

For the first time in many weeks we aren't planning to go anywhere.  I translate that into more sewing time.  I'm hoping to get Cheese and Crackers completely finished by the end of June.  (I've been going a bit wild buying fabric in June -- mostly the backing for the C & C quilt.) So if I can finish one more quilt I'll be really happy and hopefully show some great fabric usage. 

Speaking of fabric usage here it is the end of June and I haven't listed my stash busting statistics for May. WHAT?  I forgot all about actually listing them here but I had actually figured it out.  Not the best but I did use more than I bought. Hopefully June will show much more fabric usage. 

2022	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
May	0.75	50.375	2.25	55.00	4.625

More Norfolk photos. On our second day we spent the whole day learning about some of the US Navy history in Norfolk.  First we went to Hampton Roads Naval Museum.  From the water it is called Nauticus. It was full of exhibits on ships although not specifically US Navy ships. 

We didn't spend a whole lot of time in that part of the museum as we also wanted to visit the USS Wisconsin, a battleship docked next to the museum.  

The Wisconsin was launched December 7, 1943, exactly 2 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is huge. This picture was taken from the bow towards the stern of the ship. You can see the 6 forward guns. Notice the buildings to the right of the ship.  I think they are apartments or condominiums.  Would you like to have a view of this ship out your living room window?  

The Wisconsin served as a training ship after the Korean War.  She was dry-docked in 1958. But, that was not the end of the Wisconsin. She was recommissioned in late 1988 and many upgrades of the most advanced weaponry were installed.  She saw battle during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. She was decommissioned in the fall of 1991.  You can read more about her here. Pat and I spent quite a bit of time on the ship.  Three below decks, the main deck, and a couple of upper decks are open to the public. We walked through all of it! 

Stern of USS Wisconsin.

After our time on the battleship, we went through the section on US Naval history and ships.  We were running out of time and our feet were hurting so we left to find lunch before our afternoon activities.  More on Norfolk will be coming in the next few days. 

I'm linking up to my normal parties.  I hope you visit them and use them to surf the many quilting blogs people are sharing there. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Meandering

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

I'll be linking up with the other two parties once they are posted. (Hopefully I actually remembered to link up!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 2 - 2021

We are at the beginning of the 8th month of the year.  Surprisingly, it's been going pretty fast for me.  Pat and I do get out and about some these days but we aren't going wild yet.  We've done a few meals out and we continue to shop. I've been going to our community stitching group and went to one guild meeting. We are going to our gym four times a week but we are careful to stay 6 feet away from others working out. Our granddaughter is coming for a few days in August so anywhere we go over the next few weeks we'll both mask up.  We sure don't want her to get sick after she's been with us. Although I doubt we'll mask up for working out.  It just doesn't work that well! 

I have one set of blocks I can share today.  These will be going to Covered in Love.  You can read more about it at Kat's blog. The drive is going on through the end of August. Here's the info on the drive itself with a link to the information. I like committing to block drives as it is an easy way for me to move fabric from my stash and it goes to a good cause. Maybe I'll make some more blocks before mailing them this month.

Next up is my stashbusting statistics. UGH. No stashbusting happened this month.  Part of it is due to I am using a different way of recording wide backs as I buy new ones.  I started out just recording them as regular width fabric. And when I used them I only counted them as regular width. Nope, not so good a plan. Then I decided I'd count them as twice as many yards. So 1 yard would equal 2 yards when I recorded them. It got "sticky" when I tried to figure out how to record that I'd used the fabric.  Sigh. So today as I added 3 yards of wide back fabric to my stash I decided I'd record them as square inches.  You can see the note I added under my report. Hopefully this will be easier to figure out.  I'll have my Positivity quilt done later this week and I'll see how it goes when I record it. (It should go a long way to helping use up some fabric this month.) As you can see I've bought way too much fabric this month. A lot of it is backing fabric. I also decided to buy a yard of white on white wide back called Cobblestone from Connecting Threads. It is really nice fabric. I won't be using it for backing, it'll be used for piecing.

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
July	24.75*	80.875	11.250	90.5	9.625

* Wide backs are now added or subtracted by total width x total height divided by 1440.  I figured a “normal” yard of fabric was appx 1440 sq inches and have been using that for years.  (36” long by 40” wide equals 1440 square inches.)

Let's get on to goals. I think I might not be putting enough items on my goal lists these days. I was able to do everything on my list from last week. 

7/26/2021

✅Finish and Quilt July Table Runner (see it here.) 

✅Bind two quilts (pictures coming soon.) 

✅Continue to knit on baby blanket

✅Work on customer quilt

✅Work on blue basket again (I'm not making great progress but I am slowly working on it!)  

8/2/2021

Embroider dolphin on swim suit cover up

Quilt and Bind Positivity quilt

Knit on baby blanket

Work on blue basket again  

Load and quilt a charity quilt

Keep making ombre log cabin blocks

OK then. I may have gone overboard on my goals for this week.  But I do need to work on every thing I've listed.  Perhaps I'll succeed with most of them. (Notice several are open ended: knit of the blanket and work on the blue basket. So, if I do even a little bit I can check it off as done.  Oh the games we play with our own minds!) 

That's it for today... here's my Monday linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and To Do Tuesday. Hope you have some time to visit some of these parties.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

To Do Tuesday and September Stashbusting

Just ask my hubby -- I have a terrible sense of time.  I probably shocked him yesterday when I was ready a few minutes early when we went shopping. I'm trying to explain why I'm late posting my weekly goals.  And, really late on my September stashbusting report!  Sigh.  

On to my goals from last week: 

10/19/2020

Update long arm computer and attend Zoom class ✔️

Start stitching Cheese and Crackers together✔️

Buy baby quilt fabric & start sewing ✔️ Purchased but not started.

Make 8 to 10 snowball blocks and decide on sashing and cornerstones✔️ blocks done but still deciding the cornerstones.

Embroider grandkids’ Halloween shirts — only 2 as the older girls aren’t interested✔️ and I didn’t remember to take pictures. Boo!  

Here's how the snowball blocks are going to be laid out.  I've got white sashing laid out horizontally.  Shoot, I want to put setting squares in but I jut realized that means I have to put everything together as short strips  -no long sashing strip anywhere.  Bummer.

Hum, it seems to me that I might need to move a couple of blocks.  The 2 dark blocks in the 4th row need to be separated. Anything else strike you that might need to be move around?  What color setting squares would suggest?  I'm guessing dark but don't know what yet.  

Here's what's up for this week:

10/27/2020

Continue to work on Cheese and Crackers

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Plan and begin cutting baby quilt 

Make more trees for landscape quilt 

Start another basket in purple (it's going to be a different style.) 

I've been forgetting to announce my stashbusting for September.  I actually figured it all out a while ago.  Needless to say I was happy with it! 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Sept	4.500	58.875	6.125	69.750	10.875

I'm not doing as well this month though! Sigh. I'm hoping I still use more fabric than I bring in but it's going to be close. 

Time to get back to working on these goals!  Take some time to visit To Do Tuesday and Midweek Makers this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie