It's a Finish!

 A new finish.  It was done a few weeks ago but pictures were finally taken last week.  And, we decided to gift it to friends of Pat's from his barbershop group.  It arrived yesterday.

It's hard to see but the fabric in the center of the stars is owls.  I am happy to report all fabric came from stash. On the other hand, this is directly related to me buying the bright green at JoAnns when not many Kona colors were available in late spring. Once I got home I started thinking about what I would do with the fabric! You can see two choices here. Below is a closeup of one of the stars. 

And the back of the quilt....

The quilting design is Fern Gully.  It has become my new favorite. I like the way that design gives texture but doesn't detract from the quilt design.  I wish I had 3 or four designs that do that.  

Many thanks to my quilt holder.  He does a great job even when I take too long. Here's his response to my request to "Turn around." 

In other happenings this week I received a USPS medium flat rate box full of novelty fabrics.  Yep, I made another purchase from Sew Its For Sale.  And it was a great one.  Here are the darker of the fabrics waiting for their spin in the washing machine. Yes, I do wash every fabric that comes in.  I love the feel of the unwashed fabrics but I figure it is wiser to wash out whatever chemicals are used in the making of the fabric before they are stored.  

It is always fun to receive mail with a variety of new to me fabrics.  (One had 1997 date on the selvedge. But it looked like something I could definitely put to use.)  I am still in the process of folding it and marking amount of fabric, cost and date acquired.  I tried matching up a couple of the pieces with fabric on hand.  I can see some more sawtooth stars like the owl quilt in my future.  It's a fast and easy quilt since I have the AccuQuilt dies for 9" stars. 

I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Beauties Pageant 105, and Finished or Not Fridays. I'm looking forward to see what's being worked on these days. 

Public Service Announcement:  Folks, the corona virus is rampaging across the country.  Yes, we are close to a vaccine.  But, no, we don't want to risk more people getting sick and dying. I plan on staying home over the next few many weeks.  Our family has decided to not have a family Thanksgiving dinner.  Maybe it will be a Zoom gathering.  We had thought about an outdoor meeting at a park but considering how fast the numbers are rising -- nope, I am not going to do that either. Virginia hasn't gone to lock down but that's what Pat and I plan to do pretty much. We are tired of the restrictions.  But we also don't want more people dying, so we will be hunkering down in our house. (Honestly, we've been doing that for a while as we've only been going out for groceries and a few hobby related shopping trips.)  Take care of yourselves.     

Happy Quilting All. Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 11 - 9 - 2020

Aren't you glad all the election ads are over?  And way to go Americans for getting out and voting.  Whether you voted on Tuesday or early you participated in the most important part of our life: democracy.  Everyone can vote, and boy howdy, did we.  So give yourself a big pat on the back. 

As I mentioned last week I'm moving my goals back to Monday but will be linking up with To Do Tuesday once it becomes available.  Hopefully I will remember to do that each week! 

So much better news on the goals front this week.  I succeed on most of my goals. 

11/3/2020

Design t shirt quilt ✔️and begin cutting and stabilizing (didn't get this started..)

Finish sewing snowball blocks together✔️

Get going on baby quilt✔️

Finish adding “stuff” to landscape quilt ✔️I think I'm done but will check in a week or so whether it needs anything else.  Sharon reports it takes a long time to quilt it as everything needs to be stitched....ugh.

Here's the snowball blocks all sashed. (I've already removed it from the design wall and hid it away in the to-be-quilted closet.  I'm not sure whether I'll add a border or not.  Usually I don't but I thought I would audition some in a few weeks.  I find it interesting that the corners that used light colors look so different to the darker corners.  I may have to do one where the sashing and the corners are the same. What do you think? 

The baby quilt has been started.  Next up I need to sash the blocks -- the best part is I have the fabric (from stash!) and fabric for the cornerstones. After that it is borders which I'll need to shop my stash or a store. It isn't going to be very big -- maybe 40" square. No pictures yet.

And here's what's being worked on this week:

11/9/2020

Cut & stabilize T Shirts; share pics auditioning sashing fabrics with customer

Sash baby quilt; find borders and backing (either stash or store) 

Start another basket - purple 

Vacuum studio floor; clean off surfaces

I've let my floor go for way too many weeks.  It's time to get all the threads off. And, if I'm going to do the floor than the furniture surfaces need to be straightened up and cleaned off too.  

What I forgot to add to my list last week was make the next set of blocks for FCQ Equilter.  Now, honestly, these shouldn't have taken 2 days but, yes, yes they did take 2 days.  I  kept making mistakes. Bummer.  

It turns out Sharon had actually finished hers yesterday.  She and I were texting about them and I couldn't figure out why it didn't sound like what I was doing.  She texted a picture.  Nope, I wasn't doing the right block.  Well, actually the block was the same but the color way was different.  THANK goodness we were communicating.  The pattern comes from Missouri Star Quilting so if you want to make some you can follow along with Jenny.  When I started Saturday, I chose to just search for Bear's Paw.  I came up with a whole different color way. White was actually used as the paws.  The triangles were made from jelly rolls.  What a difference that made in the look.  So Sat's effort was scrapped and Sunday's finally got done. (Hey, I was also enjoying some time just reading!) I've finally decided I'll save whatever pieces I can from my Sat efforts but I suspect most will be hitting the trash. (yes, I made lots of mistakes!) 

Today I'm linking up with 4 linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday and To Do Tuesday. (I'll be back tomorrow and Tuesday to link up the last two parties.) And, I hope to spend more time surfing than I have recently.  How about you? 

I leave you with this crazy azalea currently blooming in a house down the street from us.  I can't blame the azalea all that much.  We had freezing weather for a several days a few weeks back. And then temps popped back up.  We've been enjoying temps in the mid 70s for about a week.  No wonder it thought spring had come!  I saw several other flowers blooming when I took my walk today. It was 76 degrees and low humidity. And it's continuing for several more days.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

To Do Tuesday!

Once again, I'm late to the party!  I was hoping to get my goals posted yesterday but, yea, that didn't happen, again.  So this will be my last post on goals separate from my normal Monday post.  I'll put all my goals there like I used to do. But, I'll be linking that post up with To Do Tuesday so we can see what's going on with goals across the internet. Now, the big issue will I remember this decision next week when I write my normal Monday post?  Ah the joys of getting older!

Here's what I wanted to do this past week.

10/27/2020

Continue to work on Cheese and Cracker nope

Quilt and bind one of my quilts✔️

Plan and begin cutting baby quilt✔️ design done 

Make more trees for landscape quilt  nope

Start another basket in purple (it's going to be a different style.) I didn’t even think of this one 

Not the best results but if I had said continue to work on the snowball quilt I would have had another dark check mark! I'm not sure why I said Cheese and Cracker when I had 42 snowball blocks all over the design wall and I couldn't lay out the C&C blocks.  Sigh. Maybe this coming week will be better. So here goes this week. 

11/3/2020

Design t shirt quilt and begin cutting and stabilizing 

Finish sewing snowball blocks together

Get going on baby quilt

Finish adding “stuff” to landscape quilt 

That doesn't sound like all that much -- we'll see whether I actually get everything on there done. (And, it'll have to be done by Sunday night when I normally write my Monday blog.) 

Did you wear your pearls in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsberg yesterday?  She was such an advocate for women.  I knew I wasn't going anywhere yesterday so didn't pull them out.  But while watching tv last night I grabbed a couple of strings and added the wine glass for interest... and maybe a small sip or two.  (Hubby came out of a Zoom meeting soon after I took the picture and downed the glass knowing I most likely wouldn't have drunk it anyway.) 

Yes, I have several strands of pearls some given to me and some inherited from my mom.  Mom always called the blue irregular shape pearl Biwa pearls. In the picture above they are the darker strand.  You can read about Biwa pearls here. I learned a lot about them. I don't know if any of my pearls are Mikimoto pearls but they could be.  Part of the reason Mom and I both had lots of pearls is my dad was in the Navy.  He had many tours of duty on ships that visited Japan.  Thus we received pearl jewelry over several years. My first pearls are small and short which fit me perfectly as a preteen to teen. Now I like the bigger and longer pearls.  When we were going places I used to wear pearls fairly frequently.  Now, they can grace the table with a glass of wine.  If you have pearls, do you still wear them?  

Back to actually quilting so hear are my normal linkups: To Do Tuesday and Midweek Makers. Go have some fun seeing what folks are working on this week! 

Happy Quilting All, Bonnie 

Monday Meandering Plus

Yea! It's November.  Tomorrow is Election Day.  Please VOTE!  There has been a wonderful turn out for early voting -- thanks to everyone who took this option.  Please be patient with getting results.  Because of the overwhelming number of ballots that have been turned in it is doubtful that we will have the outcome of the election on Tuesday night.  Be PATIENT.  Keep quilting! 

First up I'm sharing my October statistics.  What a month.  I don't normally have double digit fabric numbers both coming in and going out.  Getting 5 quilts finished last month is amazing.  (Don't worry I doubt if I'll keep up that pace!) 

2020	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Oct	13.250	72.125	16.750	86.50	14.375

This month I was worring that I had bought more fabric than I used.  Much of the fabric purchased early in the month went to backings.  Close to the end of the month I bought some solids, one for a T shirt quilt I am making for a customer but the other pieces are on speculation. But I did continue to use more than I brought in during October. 

Now my November OMG. 

 

My Goal for November, 2020 is to prep 15 t shirts by cutting, stabilizing and beginning to sew sashing on.  

Ok that's the goal I'm admitting to the world, but I would really like to get the top done and quilted.  (Don't hold your breath... but wouldn't that be wonderful?)  I've just measured the quilts and the widths vary in size by 8" or so. I will need to talk this over with the customer as some shirts don't have enough fabric to all be cut the same width so the sashing in between will be different widths.  Luckily only one has important info on the back so that shouldn't be too hard to incorporate.  I need to spend some time with a pencil and my quad ruled paper. 

That's my plan for this month.  Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll post my goals for the week. (First I need to figure out what those goals are!) 

I'm linking up with my regular Monday parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday.  Let's surf! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

October OMG Success!

Remember my October OMG? (No of course you don't)  Here is what I published: 

My Goal for October, 2020 is to finish 4 quilts.  

Three tops are already made and one needs to be started. 

All four need to be quilted. 

I'm happy to report I finished all of them and in record time! These were part of the group of quilts I was sending to Washington fire victims.  All went to students at the local school district. 

No glamor photos for these quilts.  I was trying to get them shipped asap. The first three were going to triplet boys in kindergarten!

Marilyn, my cousin, sent me pictures of what she did to help with the distribution of the quilts.  She tied them into rolls and put a little stamped note on each one.  

All 14 laid out.  The orange and lime green one was made by my friend Sharon. 

Here's Donna's quilt ready to be rolled up.  It's so great to have quilty friends who frequently make quilts to give away. 

The rolling, tying, and adding a sweet message is done.  Thank you Marilyn for adding such a great message, "Anything is possible."  Plus driving the 90 minutes each way to deliver them. 

Ready to go! 

It was a busy time to get my 4 quilts done but all was done by mid-October.  It's satisfying to know we all may have added a moment of joy for these students.  

Here is the linky parties I am joining today: Elm Street Quilts' OMG Finish, Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts, and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  It's fun for me to link up with different parties.  I need some surfing time this week! I hope you can take the time to see what's going on in Blogland too. 

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 

Monday Meandering 10 - 26 - 2020

Around September 20th I decided I wanted to donate some quilts to either Oregon or Washington to go to people who had lost their houses in the fires.  My cousin Marilyn lives in Washington so I asked her if she knew anyone who was organizing quilt collections.

Within a few days she came up with a school district in Bridgeport, Wa. You can read more about the devastating fire there here. The article said 17 structures were destroyed.  Marilyn is friends with a sister of one of the principals in the Bridgeport School District.  The principal was happy to be able to receive quilts for the students whose families lost their homes.  We emailed back and forth and finally found out there were 14 students in the school district who lost their homes.  They were in grades kindergarten (triplet boys) up to 11th grade. My task was set.   

I always have extra quilts hanging around in my quilt closet or on quilt racks around the house so I knew I could probably come up with enough quilts. I was also in contact with two of my quilting friends around that time. They each donated a quilt to the effort.  I only needed 12 more. I was able to find 8 quilts that were completely done and ready to go.  My plan was to quilt one top and make 3 similar but slightly different Happy Quilts for the triplets.  If you've been reading my blog over the last few weeks you probably have seen my pictures of the 3 Happy Quilts.  The centers of these Happy Blocks were from charm packs from a kit from Craftsy (or maybe Blueprint after the name changed.) Having been an elementary media specialist I knew it was best to have similar quilts for the triplets. Here are the three. The major difference was the color of the alternating blocks. 

And here are some of the other quilts that went to Washington.

Evidently I didn't have pictures of all the quilts. I did get some pictures of quilts in the process of getting organized.  This was a group of quilts that "made the cut" so to speak.  I found out I had a lot more quilts available with pinks and purples than quilts without pink and purple.  

Below is a bird's eye view of the first group of quilts.  I was surprised that I couldn't find pictures of several of these quilts full on.  The R,W, & B quilt was going to go to TAPS this year but it was canceled.  This seemed a good cause to send it to rather than hold it for next year.  The green and purple one is a flannel quilt my friend Marlyn and I made together.  

And here is one of the boxes ready for the quilts to be "squished" to fit in.  I sent 12 quilts in 2 boxes weighing a little over 22 pounds.   

I was relieved when Marilyn let me know she received them.  She delivered them to the principal over the weekend.  Today, the students should be getting their quilts. I'm looking forward to hearing back from the school district when the kids all get their quilts.  It's been a lot of work but it feels great to have done something to help, even though it is such a small thing. 

I'm linking up with my favorite linky parties: Oh Scrap, Monday Making, and Design Wall Monday. Join me for a little surfing! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie