Monday Meanderings 1 - 16 - 2017

It's hard for me as a retiree to realize (remember?) that today is a national holiday in honor of a great man -- Martin Luther King.  He help change America for the better.  I hope his ideas continue and expand across our country.  Here's a King quote that really resounds with me.  And, it isn't too bad when applied to our quilting.

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

With that said I'm moving on to what I've done this past week. I did get a baby quilt loaded on Ruthie and quilted.  I used Tangled Yarn edge to edge design and Connecting Threads' Essential Pro thread. I don't use much of Essential Pro any more but the color was perfect.  I love how it turned out.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the finished quilt before I donated it through Country Piecemakers to St. Francis Hospital's Nicu. 

Almost finished!  I added a black binding to finish the whole quilt off. 

And here's a closeup of Tangled Yarn.  I really like this pattern.  It covers the area but isn't very dense.  I prefer less dense quilting and this fits the bill. 

The jungle print was left over from at least one other quilt, maybe two. I can't remember if this used it all up or not.  You may see it again in some quilt down the line if it didn't.

I also embroidered my sweatshirt that I had been wanting to do.  I used Snow Baroque - Snowflake from Urban Threads. It only used three colors and I was very happy I had the perfect colors of purple along with white to do this. I had to lower my stitching speed to stop the thread breakage though.  I was using rayon thread and I think poly would have been stronger.  Even though it was way over an hour of just stitching time, I do like the end result. 

  On to my weekly goals. Last week I got so much done.  I'm hoping I am as focused this week and get lots of my projects worked on. Look at that! Every single thing has been checked off on my list last week. 

January 9^th, 2017

Load and quilt one baby quilt √

Knit on my UFO sweater √

Embroider my sweatshirt√

Prep backing for RWB Gems quilt√

Cut out one baby quilt using the Go Cube√

January 16, 2017

Load and quilt customer quilt

Knit on UFO sweater

Start emptying boxes in the unfinished basement & put things in new closet shelves

Put together pinwheel quilt

Load RWB Gems quilt

Not a bad list actually. If I can get most of those things done by next week I'm going to be doing a Snoopy dance for sure! 

I'm linking up with my regulars: Monday Making and Main Crush Monday. You know the drill grab the cup of tea (ok, most people will grab coffee) and spend some time surfing the web for wonderful quilt inspiration. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Online Shopping Tips

I like to add to my stash every once in a while -- just to bring in something new even though I don't necessarily need it.  And, I like to support my local quilt store.  For instance, as I was finishing a quilt last year I went to my local quilt shop and paid $12.99 a yard for fabric that was going on the back of a quilt.  What was I thinking?  Well, what I was thinking was I had a couple of yards of fabric for the center and some to add to the center top and center bottom to make it long enough.  I just needed some fabric on the sides to make up the correct width.  My only thought was to get the fabric that matched the top and bottom addition.  As I was leaving with fabric in hand I realized what I had done.  Luckily, I have some of it left so it will see the front of some project. 

Online shopping lets me have almost immediate gratification, ok, 4 or 5 day later gratification.  But don't you love getting fabric squishies in the mail?  Yea, I do too.  So my recent shopping has been online at sales.  Oh yea -- I like getting fabric in the 4, 5 and 6 dollar range.  So here's my most recent purchase.  

Ok, you may think it is weird but honestly is was $5.65 a yard (and that includes the postage).  Here's the scoop.  I keep up with Craftsy and Connecting Threads when they offer their kits or precuts on sale.  I skip the 20 to 30% off offerings and hone in on 40 to 50% items.  The fabric shown above was from a Craftsy kit.  It had 19 pieces totaling 7.875 yards.  You can tell from above that it had a lot of variety.  The pattern as a download was included in the cost but I didn't even think to download it.  I really only wanted the fabric.  

So here are a couple of tips when trying to grab bargains. 

1) Wait for the really big sales.  Most of the time both online stores have discounted items in the clearance area.  But keep checking to try to get the 40 to 50% off items.  

2) Know what you are shopping for, or why.  I knew all I wanted to do was add some fun newer fabric to my stash.  Heck I've been quilting for over 30 years and some of the stash looks like it has been with me all that time! 

3) Remember postage adds to the cost. 

4) Think about the size of each fabric piece you most likely will get.  7.875 yards broken into 19 pieces means I didn't get any huge pieces of fabric -- some were fat quarters, some 1/3 yards all the way up to 3/4 yard. I hadn't thought about that when I ordered so I was surprised. But, thinking of how I sew I realized that will work fine for me although I would have liked a few bigger pieces. 

5) Think about looking at the precuts and kit offerings in catalogs long before they go on sale.  I've decided to mark items I particularly like and then check back a few months later to see if they have gone on sale. I do this mostly with Connecting Threads.

6) Go to some blog that has a link to Craftsy and use that to get into your account.  They get a little something (not a whole lot) and you lose nothing.  I didn't think about this until recently. But it dawned on me that it would be a small bonus for a blogger I follow and like and would not hurt me in the least.  If I think hard on this I will probably pick a blogger who offers a lot of free tutorials rather than sells her patterns.  

So those are my tips for online shopping.  Do you buy kits to take apart for the fabric?  Please, make sure you leave some for me though if you do!  

I'm linking up with Midweek Makers and Let's Be Social.  Take some time to see all the gorgeous things folks are making. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 1 - 9 - 2017

Yea for a week with lots of studio time!  Several days last week were spent in the studio and I have some proof!  One of my goals last week was to play with my Accuquilt Go 9" Cube.  Here are some blocks I made.

This was suppose to be Turnstile but I didn't follow directions well.  I can't decide if I want to keep it as it is or  take it apart and make it correctly.  It will depend on what I decide to do with my blocks.  

The Cube dies will make a lot more designs but I tend to make easier blocks so these appealed to me. I spent a few hours last night playing with these blocks in EQ 7 so hopefully I'll have a good plan by the end of the week. Yep, I'm starting something new.  But it should be a quick and easy quilt that will use fabric in my stash.  I'll keep you posted. 

Let's get straight to my goals for this past week.  On some goals I was amazingly successful but not at all on others!  Here's the scoop:

January 2, 2017

Try the 9” cube Go dies √

Clear off cutting table Actually it’s messier now…

Pull out Gems – Red, White and Blue quilt and finish putting the rows together√

Load charity quilt that Sharon and I made√ and I quilted it!

Embroider snowflake on my sweatshirt I picked thread but that’s as far as I got

Plan or choose a seasonal wall hanging Didn’t look at this at all

Here's what I want to get done this week: 

January 9^th, 2017

Load and quilt one baby quilt

Knit on my UFO sweater

Embroider my sweatshirt

Prep backing for RWB Gems quilt

Cut out one baby quilt using the Go Cube

That's it for me today.  I'm linking with my normal Monday Linky Parties: Main Crush Monday and Monday Making.  Hope you have a few moments to browse these amazing blogs.  I know I'm going to squeeze in some time to look. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

2016 Thread Report and OMG Goal Setting

First up the thread report.  YUCK! That's it 6 spools of thread and one prewound bobbin.  Not a particularly good year for thread usage.  I sure didn't piece or quilt as much as I usually do.  

Take a look at my previous year's totals to really get an idea of how pitifully I did this year.  

Year	Spools Used Up
2016	7
2015	27
2014	30
2013	17
2012	22

I do have several small Mettler embroidery thread spools nearly used up but not quite yet.  Here's hoping that I get a lot more spools of thread used up this year which would mean a lot more sewing done too! 

One Monthly Goal

I've given a lot of thought to my OMG for January.  I've decided it is time to finish off the R, W, and B project.  (I'll have to look up the official name.) But I've called it that for the last 4 months or so.  So, I plan to finish piecing it (which is my goal for this week), quilting, and binding it.  This should be a doable plan. I'm looking forward to finishing off a few projects this year.  Hum, I think I could also call this a finished UFO on my year long goals. Bonus!  

I'm linking up with OMG January Goal Setting at Elm Street Quilts.  If you need motivation for some reason this monthly event keeps me focused on the project I select.  I succeeded in finishing my goals 11 out of 12 months in 2016.  Of course, I try to pick "doable" projects. I'm also linking up with Mid Week Makers. Spend some time over the next few days to see what folks are doing in their studios.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

SaveSave

Monday Meandering 1 - 2 -- 2017

It's Rose Parade Day -- and I'm watching it while I try to get this written. At one time we lived in Pasadena where Pat was a member of the Tournament of Roses Association.  We maintained his membership for years but finally gave it up as we knew we wouldn't move back there.  But really it's fun to watch the parade each year and then later watch the Rose Bowl football game.  And we are routing for our alma mater, University of Southern California.  Go Trojans!  


Needless to say I should be doing hand work as I watch but that will wait for the game tonight.  Here's a few things I've been working on recently. 

These blocks are going to New Zealand where one of the members of FCQ EQuilters lives.  We are all former members of Faithful Circle Quilters in Maryland.  We each choose a block and the other gals make some and send them to us during our two month time.  I love making the blocks but, honestly, I don't need any more blocks. We've been adding members so we don't get blocks every year now.  I tend to keep mine for a while before I make them into quilts.  A lot of the blocks end up in quilts for charities. With the bigger group I don't have to make lots of additional blocks to get these quilts done. 





Cassie came to spend the New Year's holiday with us as Kevin and Aimee and the kids were off to the beach in Delaware. 

On to my weekly goal lists. I didn't do all that well on getting things done last week. 

December 26, 2016

Continue quilting Christmas Favorites√√

Blog about year-long goals for 2017√√

Knit on sweater never touched it

Clear off cutting table oops, a little was done but not enough!

And this week I have plans to get much more done. We'll see 

January 2, 2017

Try the 9” cube Go dies

Clear off cutting table

Pull out Gems – Red, White and Blue quilt and finish putting the rows together

Load charity quilt that Sharon and I made

Embroider snowflake on my sweatshirt

Plan or choose a seasonal wall hanging

That's it for me.  I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday and Monday Making.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie