Monday Meandering 12 - 9 - 2019

Lots of sewing this past week and quite a bit of singing or listening to music.  This week is concert week.  Here's a preview of my music schedule: 

Monday:  Rehearsal for Spotsylvanians
Tuesday:  no formal practice but I'll be listening to several recordings of songs we're singing
Wednesday: dress rehearsal for Heritage Singers
Thursday: concert for Heritage Singers
Friday: dress rehearsal for Spotsylvanians
Saturday: concert for Spotsylvanians
Sunday: concert for Spotsylvanians

Luckily, I still have sewing time cause I'm going to need it to finish my projects.

I didn't take any photos this week.  Heck, everything I am working on is for Christmas presents. So, there won't be many product pictures for a while. 

This week I am sharing photos from previous Christmas quilts I've made. First up is Christmas Favorites by Arts to Heart. I finished this in 2016 (or so.) But I won't tell you how many years it took me to complete! It hangs in our entry way every December. 

My next quilt is a Trip Around the World made during the summer of 2017 with Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict's 12 Days of Christmas in July. I really lucked out finding all of the fabric in my stash.  And, believe me, it felt great using all of those stash fabrics.  (Hum, maybe it's time to make another TAW.) I gave this to Aimee and Ellie for Christmas that year.  (Click on the link above if you want to make one for yourself.) 

That's it for me today.  My goals are staying the same -- finish all those secret projects.  I don't think I'll be making the skirt I had planned to do as we've been able to find some other Victorian clothing to use.  The skirt will be made sometime but not under the Christmas pressure time. 

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  Check them out to see what folks are up to. I don't know about you, but I always find at least one quilt or project that tells me to make one like it when I surf the web.  I'm holding off starting anything new though. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

A Top is Done!

Here is my Trip Around the World from the 12 Days of Christmas Quilt Along. (You can find the beginning of the instructions at Confessionals of a Fabric Addict. Then just check her Blog Archive for July to see the rest of the instructions.  You will need to scroll to the bottom of each post to find the directions.)

I was able to pull all of the fabric from my stash.  And, quite a few were old pieces that needed to be used.  I was lucky to find a group of fabrics that worked well together. 

Can I just say how happy I am with this top? I really like how well the fabric created the darks and lights.  I'm thrilled I used up some very old fabrics. I even have one or two quilting designs I could use that will make it look even more Christmasy. I will need to find a backing for this one. Nothing in my stash will work. I'll probably do that next month when I'll be up in Lancaster county again. 

Did you enjoy your Eclipse watching?  I had a great time with some friends.  We shared my pair of glasses and we were all wowed by it.  Our area had about 85% cover but it was so amazing.  

Today I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Midweek Makers.  Spend some time browsing through the blogs posted.  You will get so much inspiration!  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meandering 8 - 21 - 2017

Welcome to Solar Eclipse Mania!! 

Ok, so maybe some folks are into the whole eclipse mania but we're in the penumbra section. (Yes, fancy word that means only a partial eclipse.) I have approved eclipse glasses that I'll be taking to the stitching group up at the clubhouse Monday since our eclipse time will be during our normal gathering.  So, I'll stitch a bit and watch a bit and then get back to stitching.  I'll need to figure out where I need to be to actually see it too.  Should be fun.  

On to my regularly scheduled blog.  Here's a peek at some of the projects I worked on this past week. 

The Trip Around the World is almost a top.  I've got about 5 more strips to sew and then I need to sew it together.  My granddaughter Ellie (age 3, closing in on 4) said she wants this quilt.  And yet she really wants some doll clothes for her birthday. I think I'll be making some doll clothes for her October bd. 

I used to make Streak of Lightening quilts as baby quilts.  I'd forgotten how easy they are so when I saw this blog about them I thought I'd make another one.  I used it as my leader-ender for the TAW.  Yea, I know sewing the rows was way more sewing than your typical leader-ender but I'm happy to have it done!  (You need to scroll down the blog to find the actual directions.) 

Those were the two biggies this week.  Here's how I did on the rest of my goals list. 

Aug 14, 2017

Work on Christmas TAW√

Keep hand quilting Civil War Quilt√

Quilt geese and flowers wall hanging√ started

Make backing for floral wallhanging√

Cut out a Streak of Lightening Quilt√ & main section is sewn together

Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish this 4th week of August:

August 21, 2017

Finish quilting geese and floral wallhanging

Quilt floral wallhanging

Finish Christmas TAW to top stage

Find backing for Streak of Lightening

Keep hand quilting Civil War Quilt

I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Monday Making, Moving It Forward, Main Crush Monday and Oh Scrap. (I'll link Moving It Forward when I notice it's posted.)  Enjoy some time seeing what others are working on.  There is so much inspiration on the Internet.  

We had a couple of visitors at the house over the week. 

This little frog (maybe all of 2") was on the outside of the French door. I snapped his picture as I was bringing in the dog just before bedtime.  I love how it looks like the frog is on the chair! When I opened the door he hopped on to the side so I couldn't get a picture of him from the house to the outside. 

Kona (the black dog) had her BFF visit for the weekend.  Cassie's family was going camping and it was easier for us to have her than for her to go with my son's family.  Boy does that dog shed.  She walked into the house, shook, and left yellow fur all over the dark wood floors.  EEKS!  I took both dogs out Saturday morning and furminated them. They still kept shedding though! 

Safe Solar Eclipse Watching and Happy Quilting! Bonnie 

July OMG Achieved

Grid Lock is now a top!  And, with any luck I should have it quilted and bound by the end of the month.  I'm planning on spending the next two days to get it finished.  My One Monthly Goal was to get it to top stage and I did that by last week. So I will be pushing myself to get it totally finished.  

I should have a finished A Tisket, A Tasket quilt by Monday.  I need to get the label done for it and attached.  Believe me when I say I will be really happy to get it finished. It will be hung in the guest bedroom when totally done. 

I've also been sneaking in some strip sewing for the Trip Around the World that was the Quilt Along with the 12 Days of Christmas that Sarah Craig sponsored.    I'm not whizzing through it but I now have two of the four strata sewn.  Once they are all done I'll start slicing them up and putting them together.  I'd just finished the second strata when I snapped this picture of the back. I've pressed the seams open as instructed. If you want to make one, you can go to Confessions of a Fabric Addict here to start your own version.  This is on my ironing station Pat made for me several years ago.  Tomorrow I'll sew this one into a tube.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep up but the directions are there and I plan to finish soon... ok, sometime in August if I'm lucky. 

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts linky party for finished OMGs, Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop. (I'll update with the link to Whoop Whoop when it is posted.)   Enjoy your favorite beverage and do a little Internet surfing.  Who knows, maybe you'll talk yourself into a new quilt too!  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Retreat Eye Candy!

Here are some of the projects that got worked on during retreat.  NONE of these are my projects but I sure wouldn't mind owning some of them! 

Do you remember this quilt from this post? Yes, you get to see my darling grands again but scroll down to the bottom.  There's the same quilt without borders.  Thanks go to Janice H. for suggesting the smaller pink border.  Sharon took the quilt home with her and happened to read the comments before picking out the borders.  She loved the idea and followed through with it. Janice was definitely right about this one!  I've got it to quilt it and then on it will go to Project Linus. These blocks were won at a retreat lottery several years back. 

Sharon started working on these hot chilies near the end of the retreat.  She laid them out on two different backgrounds to decide which she liked better the black or the red.  She and I both said the black as soon as we saw them together but I'm not sure I don't like the red better.  Glad it isn't my decision to make! 

MaryBeth was tickled to get this top finished -- unless she decides to put borders on it.

Sharon started and finished this cute Fourth of July wall hanging.  Directions were in  one of Quiltmaker's magazines this year. (Maybe the May June issue?) 

Michele made a tuffet for her grandmother. 

Bea put this together.  I'm not sure if it was a kit or not but I do know she started it at retreat and got it this far along. I think some borders come next. 

Dorothy was working on log cabin circles.  Don't you love her t-shirt?  There were a lot of different quilty shirts to enjoy at retreat. 

That's the end of pictures that I took at retreat.  There were a lot more projects being worked on but I just wasn't fast enough to snap pictures.  

I'll be linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Have a Whoop, Whoop? (This isn't posted yet so I'll check back tomorrow to update it.) Take some time to visit blogs and get some great inspiration! 

Small rant -- Why does Blogger make it so hard to work with pictures?!!?  I had planned to show these pictures in a different order but as I started at the top I realized I could no longer move any pictures up or down.  Grumble, grumble.  In the end it probably doesn't make any difference at all but really, I wish it worked better.  I probably should look at Word Press one of these days. I know there are a lot more things I could control with it.... Sigh. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

A Big UFO Finish!

After 8 years I've finished my queen size Trip Around the World quilt that I started in 2006.  It started with 24 fabrics, if I remember correctly.  This quilt is done in sections.  You sew one strip of each color together into a strata.  Then you "tube" it.  You carefully lay the tube out keeping all the rows even.  Then you slice up the tube into 24 sections.  Once you decide where you want to start the pattern, you separate the two fabrics and start to lay it out.  Each slice gets the next fabric down (or up for that matter) separated from the next one.  Eventually you have 24 slices that makes up one of the quadrants.  Each row is offset by one square. Repeat at least 4 times, one for each quadrant.  I actually made extra rows so my quilt is not square.  Add a border, quilt, bind and you're done.

Some interesting statistics on this quilt.  There are 2,793 2" squares in the center.  There are 177,600 stitches in the quilting. (There may be more as sometimes the computer said there were 11,840 stitches per row and sometimes it said 12,305.  I used the lower one.)   If the stitches in a row were stretched out into a straight line it would be 1,165" long.  I find these info bites pretty interesting.

I had hoped to show the quilting close up with this picture. You can click on any picture to see a larger picture.  And here's the back.  (Hum, it seems to have a bit of fullness in it.  Definitely not noticeable on the bed.) 

I used a Pellon 100% Cotton batt.  It is definitely not as heavy as the Warm and Natural 100% cotton. It may mean we'll throw a blanket on the bed during the dead of winter.  But it will be much easier to move the quilt around too.  After the photo session I put it on the bed.  It looks good except now I need to make some pillow shams.  The plain pillow cases in beige don't look good.  The blue and yellow ones look worse.  We'll need to get some new art to put over the bed because the blue and red flower just doesn't look good anymore. Oh well.  

Here's the quilt with the binding almost finished. Pat and I agreed that I should do both sides of the binding by machine.  I am a slow hand stitcher when it comes to binding and I'm decent doing the second side of the binding by machine   I was able to put 382" of binding on in a couple of hours by machine while it would have taken me days to sew it down by hand.  

And now I can make a big √on my UFO list.  I am making steady progress on my UFOs.  Yikes, I just looked at my list.  I think this is the 8th UFO I've finished this year.  WOW.  I started the year with 55 UFO's.  Three of the quilts I finished were actually listed as 1 item.  Not bad, not bad at all.  Now to decide what UFO to work on next.  Actually, I cut out a new baby quilt today to donate to the NICU at a local hospital. 

I'm linking up with TGIFF at Quokka Quilts and Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Happy Quilting All!  

It Might Be Time . . .

for a NEW quilt.  What?  I'm trying to finish quilts not start them.  Here's the story.

We've lived in our current house for 5 years.  We've redone several things to it.  We decorated the 2 bedrooms based on what was left on the walls and the carpet.  They both look decorated.  We put curtains up in the living room and dining room.  But, we hadn't done anything at all to our own bedroom.  White walls, white mini-blinds, beige carpet.  Ugh.  We hadn't even put pictures on the walls.  So first, we painted the walls. The fancy name for the paint is Mesa Taupe by Behr. Hum, that taupe doesn't look all that taupe in this picture but it really is a lovely shade of grayed brown.  

We've ordered new carpet. (Well, honestly, how long can we live with a hole in the carpet right in front of Miss Kona's bed?  She likes to lick and chew on the carpet there.  Jenny L. you are on notice if she chews a hole in the new carpet!)  And, look, we hung a picture.  This was one from my parent's house and I've always liked it.  That barely-there sunset (or sunrise?) really glows in this pic.  

New curtains were also in order.  Our bedroom faces the east -- we get morning sun full against the wall our bed is on for several hours.  We also get moonshine at night when the moon is doing its thing.  And both heavenly bodies have found the little space between the window frame and the mini-blinds.  I get a shaft of sunlight that hits me full in the face every sunny morning.  ARGH.  Pat, on the other hand, gets the moon shining on him when he's trying to sleep.  Brilliant solution was to get some drapes to put up that would cover the space between the wall and the mini-blinds.  BAM - problem solved.  And, oh how sophisticated the room looks. 

Except, now the quilt doesn't quite go with the rest of the room.  It's the yellow; the blue would be fine.  But the yellow -- blegh.  So, to finish a long story, we need a new quilt for this room.  But wait, I'm not starting any new quilts unless I really can see that they will be done in a short (6 months or less) time.  Not happening with an oversized queen. What's a quilter to do?  

To the UFO list! Well, I didn't really need to go to the UFO list as I knew I had a perfectly good quilt I can pull out and finish pretty quickly.  Take a look at it.  I last worked on it 2 years ago at the FCQ retreat. 

It will go perfectly in the newly redecorated room.  That should get me motivated enough to actually finish it up except I keep measuring it and I'm not sure about the amount of border I want to put on it. Hum, maybe I'll pull it out this weekend and remeasure and decide if I want a little border and then the big border as shown above.  I like the bedrails covered on the bed when made.  I'll also have to find a wide back to go with this.  It is a mix of batiks and regular quilting fabric.  It may jump ahead of my other big quilt that needs quilting.  

So there you have it. I don't really need to start a new quilt.  I just need to make some decisions and finish off an unfinished project.  And that will be a win-win situation.  Of course, I'll have to make some pillow shams too but I have quite a bit of fabric left from the trip around the world.  On the other hand I really don't like making pillow shams but to get the look I want, I'll have to do that. 

That's it for today.  I've got a quilt that needs to be loaded and quilted this week.  I've got some piecing projects I want to move forward.  And, now, I have a top to border.  

I'm connecting up with ****.  Evidently no where right now.  I had a Thursday link up to try but it hasn't been posted yet.  Do you have a favorite linky party?  Please share! 

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 11.8.10

Not much different from last week.  I haven't been piecing all that much so maybe one strip was added to this quilt. I really like the colors and how they resonate.  I was afraid that they would be ho-hum when I first began putting it together.  No ho-hum but I think they "sing."


Woke up earlier than normal today -- must be the time change. So wanting to get a lot done today before the hair cut I ran up to the studio to grab this picture.  Yikes, the emergency heat was on it was all of 55 or so in the room.  And, then I noticed I'd left the blinds opened.  EEEK!  I won't be doing that again when I have a quilt on the wall. 

That's not so good for color retention. I was pretty good about closing the blinds during the summer because the room would get so hot.  But now that it is cooler I haven't been as vigilant.  Sigh.  One more thing to remember: turn off sewing machine and replace dust cover, unplug iron and close the darn blinds.  


I did make one pillow case this week that I will drop off at the local quilt store for the Million Pillow Case challenge. (yeah, a yard of fabric used!) I should probably make one a week and then I would make a dent in my stash.  Even though the Million Pieces Quilt will be done this month I won't see all that much of a benefit as I bought two borders and a piece for the back. Oh, who am I kidding I should be in the used more than acquired range quite well after that one!  Check back for how well I've done on Dec. 1. 


Speaking of that quilt -- I'm done with everything except the side borders. Today I will take it off Ruthie, pin the zippers on the sides and reload it.  Then I'll have to do three passes on each border and yippee!  The quilting will be done.  It'll probably take me all day.  I am marking some of it with chalk just to keep it looking more even. 


Do you want to see some more eye candy?  Visit Judy's site to see what other bloggers have on their design walls.  


Goals for today -- finish quilting the Million Pieces Quilt, hair cut and a quick grocery shopping trip.  


Happy Quilting All 

Design Wall Monday 11.1.10

The trip around the world is still on the design wall. It is too big to see all of the design.  And, I actually have added a row or two. Who knows where I will need to take it to get a decent picture when the top is together.  With Jenny and Sophia here half the week I didn't get all that much quilting done.  But I did get a lot of snuggling and holding Sophia done.  Go see what is on everyone else's design walls by visiting Judy's site here. 

I finished the tree skirt but I won't be showing it off until I get all the threads buried.  But I did count it as finished in October.  I'm quite pleased with it.  


Did I admit to everyone I am now playing around with digital scrap booking? I've owned Photoshop Elements for a while and really didn't know enough about it to use it successfully. (I did do my banner for the blog on it...) I've taken a class on digital basics which now makes sense with the other small forays I've taken into the world of Photoshop.  Turns out my version is pretty old. (6th and now 9 is out.  How can that many happen in 2 and a half years?) And, wow, there is a ton of stuff on the web to buy for digital scrap booking.  Tonight I am going to a digi club to learn some more good stuff. 


What's Up This Week?

• Iron and sew the backing for Million Pieces Quilt. 
• Load the backing and the top onto Ruthie.
• Quilt Million Pieces Quilt.
• Bind Million Pieces Quilt.
• Pick fabric for a couple of upcoming mysteries.  (There is still time to sign up for Marge's Mysteries for Relay.  The next mystery will be November 10. It is a great way to donate to cancer research.) 

That's enough for now.  I'm off to move piles of laundry -- washer to dryer, bed to washer.  Yick not my idea of fun but it has been a while.  Then it is on to the studio. 


Happy Quilting All!  

Design Wall Monday

 It's design wall Monday and I've got two design walls to show off today. 

First is this cork board (yes it is painted red and there is a pink boa hanging from the top right corner) in my main sewing room. 


This is as far as I've gotten on the trip around the world.  The bottom two quadrants are done. The left top is barely started and the right top is more than 3/4ths done.  


I've actually put another row or two on since this picture was taken. 

In the studio where Ruthie lives is another small design wall -- I have no room for a big design wall. Anyway this is the beginning of the tree skirt I am making for Jenny.  You start by sewing 3 panels that are 6 1/4 x wof.  Of course, there is a specific order you need to sew them.  Here are 2 done although I've covered the back piece up with the second piece.  The red doesn't appear this orange in person.  And all fabric has gold on it.  It's coming along quite rapidly at this point. 


Those who have been following me over the last few posts might wonder how I've gotten so much done when I couldn't get a decent stitch on my Baby Lock.  I found the directions!  Right where I expected them to be -- my filing cabinet.  Of course, I had to go through the stuff in the drawers carefully.  And, I think the directions were in the first drawer I looked in.  Nah, was I really that lucky?  


And, yep, I was threading the upper thread incorrectly.  What a difference a little mistake could make.  These two didn't take all that long.  Tomorrow I will decide whether I will do the last panel for the tree skirt or something else.  If I conitnue I'll need to find another piece of batting to use as I ran out of what I was using. I am hoping I have some of the same brand in my collection.  Otherwise, I'm using what I can find that feels about the same!  


Since it is Design Wall Monday, visit Judy's site here to see what is on everyone's walls this week.   Happy Quilting All!