Small Finish

I’m trying something new tonight — writing and publishing this post from my iPad. Generally I use my laptop but thought I give this a try.   This quilt was quilted and bound in October.  I finally took the pictures this week. It’s even a different location then I’ve tried before. 

This quilt is about 36” x 42”. The squares are 6”.

The quilting design is Ginger Flower by Apricot Moon. I used a white Superior So Fine thread.  

The backing is from Connecting Threads.  I’ve been really pleased with the backings I’ve bought from CT recently.  I’ll probably buy more early next year so I can continue to finish my collection of tops.  

That's it from me tonight.  I’m linking up with these parties.

Needle and Thread Thursday

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

PS — I don’t like using the iPad for writing my blogs.  Next post will be from the laptop again.

Monday MeanderingsTo 11 - 7 - 2022 Or To Do Tuesday

I am totally flaking out getting my blog posted on a regular day.  Sigh.  But here it comes late on a Monday morning. Um, it's coming to you Tuesday morning.  It was a great week for sewing. Up first is my goals for this past week.  It was a pretty good week with one squirrel. 

10/31/22

✅Finish Traffic Jam to top stage -- done! 

✅Work on different Halloween blocks -- several made (see below...) 

✅Work on Oct Melodic Melody mystery clue -- HSTs need trimming

Border Oct UFO Challenge tops -- Ugh, didn't get to this again! 

Order backing for Oct. UFO top —found another backing in my stash!

 

Traffic Jam is a great way to use a lot of 2.5" squares.  Here's the link to the pattern at Pat Sloan's web site. If this doesn't work go to Pat's free patterns page and scroll down to find Traffic Jam.  I like that she shows it with various colors of background fabric.  I chose to make it smaller by only making four blocks -- it will probably go to a child when done. 

Here are the extra Halloween blocks.  I have a slew of 6" blocks but they don't really play well together when lined up.  My thought is to make a bright center of 6" blocks and then add the others as a border.  I think it will work. Here are the center blocks I've made. I had fun figuring out easy blocks that would brighten up the center of the quilt. The eyes, the legs and the purple ghost on the bottom right were all part of my bounty from Equilter's group several years ago. The rest are new ones I made. Did I mention I have a LOT of Halloween fabrics?  

The above is as far as I got on Monday.  Fast forward to Tuesday. I was able to go to the stitching group in the community.  We always have some fun conversations and get a bit of stitching done.  Generally, that's where I've been working on the kids' Christmas ornaments the most.  I started quite a while ago but I only have 2 of the 4 mostly done. The third is started but I haven't even traced the 4th one.  They are a lot of fun but I won't be showing them until after Christmas.  Luckily they generally go fairly fast -- except the one I'm working on now that has a ton of beads on it. Better get sewing. Yikes ... Christmas is only 6 and a half weeks away. Are you making Christmas presents this year?  

Now for my plans this week. I'm already a day short so I'm cutting back my plans somewhat.  HA! It looks longer than usual but most are pretty easy and fluid. We'll see what gets done. 

11/7/22

Make Nov BOM from Quilting Life 

Finish quilting customer quilt (Last week's squirrel project)

Remove papers from string blocks 

Work on Halloween blocks 

Trim melodic Mystery HSTs

Work on grands' Christmas ornaments

I don't know how well I'll do with all of these.  I've got lots of things happening taking up my sewing time.  But at least I'll have a list of where I'll spend my time if I have much of it! 

VOTE

We voted a couple of weeks ago. I'll be happy when the political ads are off the airwaves.  

Let's see which Linky parties I'll link up with today. 

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

MidWeek Makers

Wednesday Wait Loss 

I'll be back to link up to the two Wednesday blogs. 

Remember to vote!

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

To Do Tuesday

Another week has rolled by and surprise, surprise -- I'm doing my goals post on a Tuesday again.  But, oh it's been a good week!  Here was the plan for last week.

10/24/22

✅Finish quilting and bind quilt

✅Finish binding previous quilt

✅Make October BOM from A Quilting Life

✅Work on Halloween quilt

Border Oct UFO Challenge Quilt

Sew borders on Traffic Jam 

Yes, I did get a lot done.  I can't share the top two finishes yet since I haven't taken photos of them. Maybe I'll get organized and get some pictures taken so I can share them -- sometime. On to what I want to accomplish this week.  It's another longer list but I'm optimistic and there isn't too much going on this week. 

10/31/22

Finish Traffic Jam to top stage

Work on different Halloween blocks (UFO Nov Challenge)

Work on Oct Melodic Melody mystery clue 

Border Oct UFO Challenge top

Order backing for Oct. UFO top 

While at the retreat at the beginning of October I finished stitching all the elements of Mr. October down.  I found this picture which was to remind me how to use some of the extra Halloween blocks I had and to make Mr. October a bit bigger lengthwise. Except -- I forgot all about it. You can see Mr. October finished on this post.  

Now I need to add blocks and make a Halloween lap quilt. The Halloween blocks came up as November's APQ's UFO Challenge. I'm going to make some more blocks and then figure out how to lay them out.  There's a good likelihood I actually have a backing for this one.  Time will tell. 

Hopefully this list won't do me in.  I have a lot of time to sew so most of them can be accomplished. (Did I just jinx myself???) 

While looking at my picture roll I found the one below.  It's from the Homestead Dairy I shared about here. Remember me raving about the ice creamy? It's worth another plug!  These lovely cows were on what looked like a barn on the other side of the parking lot. I'm sure it's all part of the Homestead Dairy.  Wouldn't they make a cute quilt? 

Wait, no I do not plan to make one.  But maybe you'd like to?  (Just call me the enabler...) 

It's time to get sewing so I'm linking up with the following Linky parties. 

To Do Tuesday

Midweek Makers 

Wednesday Wait Loss 

I'll stop by Wednesday to add the last two links.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Mr, October

Happy Halloween 

My plan for Mr. October was to make him the center of a Halloween quilt using some blocks I have had around for several years.  Sometime in September or earlier I had traced all the bones and other elements on to fusible. I cut them out. And I finally decided on a background.  

He went with me to retreat where I sewed everything down on the orange.  I scrounged fabric for his hat band and for the "land" he is on.  I borrowed a stripe piece of fabric from Boni who had just bound a quilt with it.  OMG -- it worked perfectly even though it wasn't actually just Halloween colors. Then I tried laying out a bunch of Halloween blocks. Um, no, that looked horrible. On to new ideas.  

Fast forward a few weeks and I finally put him all together, quilted, and bound him. He'll be hanging upstairs for the rest of this week when I'll put up my November stuff. If you love him and want your own Mr. October here's the link for the pattern. Check out the other freebies Carol has on her site. (Sorry to say, she is no longer blogging.) 

I'm posting my goals on to Tuesday.  Instead, I want to share a little bit of Halloween fun in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia.  Remember we were down there looking for the otter statues?  We were amazed at all the Halloween decorations some of the downtown businesses put up.  Have fun checking them out. 

That's Theo (now wanting to be called Teddy) going to check out the spiders.  We think the web might glow in the dark.  Hum, I wonder when I can figure out if it does or not? 

There were also scarecrows and potted flowers along with other decorations.  It really is an interesting town. It was chartered as a city in 1728 but it was also "found" by Capt. John Smith in 1608 while charting the Chesapeake Bay.  Many of the downtown buildings are quite old, the oldest being from 1737.  George Washington's boyhood home is close by. Mary Washington University is also here.  Ok, enough of the info on the city. (Yes, it is actually it's own city and not part of any county.) This area of Virginia has a lot of history to offer up. 

I'm ready to call it a post.  Maybe next week I'll get back to my normal posting for Monday, done the night before. I hope you take some time to visit some of the blogs listed on these Linky parties. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday   

Here's hoping you have a fun Halloween.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

To Do Tuesday!

 Yep, I ended up with no Monday Meanderings post and skipped right on to To Do Tuesday.  I will share part of Monday distractions at the end of this post. 

First up -- my very weak goals achievements from last week. I will note that it doesn't really bother me that I didn't accomplish all my goals.  I'm still getting tired from the Covid bout and my motivation levels have been lower than usual. That said I will tout my forward progress on several projects.

10/17/22

Bind Flowers and 9 Patch quilt — started not finished

Quilt and bind another quilt — more than half quilted 

✅Finish sewing Tumbling Triangles together 

Border Oct UFO Challenge Quilt — nothing done 

Make ✅Sept & October BOM from A Quilting Life -- one still to do 

✅Work on Halloween quilt — laid the first border out and a possible second border. But no sewing. 

It was a bigger list than I usually have and as I said, I did make forward progress. So what am going to do this week? 

10/24/22

Finish quilting and bind quilt

Finish binding Flowers and 9 Patch quilt

Make October BOM from A Quilting Life

Work on Halloween quilt

Border Oct UFO Challenge Quilt

Sew borders on Traffic Jam 

Oh my!  It's as long as last week's list! Although several goals are well on their way to completion.  

I messed up the binding on Flowers and 9 Patch by sewing the binding to the front of the quilt.  Normally I'd sew the second time by machine except I don't like machine sewing from the back. So I'm hand stitching that.  I was multi tasking the binding while Ruthie quilted the next quilt. All was going fine when unbeknownst to me the top thread jumped out of one of the guides. A half later I realized it. The back tension was a flat line.  So I ripped it out.  Not that hard actually because I could pull out that back thread pretty easily.  That was in the evening on Sunday. Poof -- the week was gone. 

Here's what I seemed to spend way more time on than anything else. (Nope, it wasn't on the list.) 

This is Traffic Jam, a free pattern from Pat Sloan. You can find it here. I'm switching it up a bit by using 4 blocks.  If you cut 2.5" squares and have a slew of them, this is a great pattern to use them.  The block is 12.5" square, unfinished.  Pat's quilt comes out 56" x 56".  Mine will be about 40". It's been easy to sew the 2.5" squares as leader-enders.  And, yep, this has been part of my distraction over the last few weeks.  I'm down to getting the border done. I've chosen only two rows of squares for the border rather than three shown in the pattern.  I'm making an effort to use lighter and brighter squares and I'm throwing in some cute animals and the like. (Hum, it was a dark day outside when I took this picture so you can't see the bright parrot, dogs, and lions in the 2.5" squares. Rats!) I decided I might as well put this on my list for this week because I know I'm going to work on it.

I made this walker bag and turned it into the guild outreach committee last week. The floral fabric has a definite late 80s vibe to me.  It's a decorator fabric so it is a bit heavier than quilting cotton. Unfortunately, I have about 15 yards more of the fabric I was given from an estate of a quilter. (Or at least I "think" that is where I got it.) My issue is I don't have many fabrics I can use with it.  I have one more cut out.  And I'll be scouring my stash to see if I have any other fabrics I can pair with it. Or maybe I'll check JoAnns for clearance fabrics that might go with it. I hope I can find some more velcro and grosgrain ribbon in my stash.  I liked this pattern and if you want to make some walker bags check out the pattern here. Evidently, I am the only person at guild to turn in a walker bag this year. So, I guess I'll be making some more as the need is great. 

And on to my big distraction.  We met our son and grandkids yesterday (Monday) in downtown Fredericksburg.  We thought they would enjoy tracking down all of the otter statues in the city.  The seven statues took us all over downtown. As we found one the kids marked them off on a map.  After a good hour at the playground having found the last statue, we returned to the Visitor's Center where they were given a very nice goody bag with buttons, postcards to color, and other assorted goodies.  

Two pups and two kids.  It was a beautiful day out and we all had a great time.  (Did I mention I went to work out for the first time in many weeks in the morning? And, I had Spotsylvanian rehearsal in the evening? And, I got over 10,000 steps in yesterday?  No wondered I'm so worn out today! 😁!) 

I'm linking up to the following parties.

 

To Do Tuesday

Design Wall Monday 

Midweek Makers 

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 

  

Design Wall Monday 10 - 17 - 2022

Good news first. I am feeling so much better than last week at this time.  I've stayed in my studio most days leaving Pat the upstairs.  He does not want to get Covid again.  Nor do I for that matter!  I've had several good days playing in the studio all day and will continue for several more days until I have 2 negative tests.  I'm hoping to get one tomorrow -- but I may not yet.   

On to my goals for last week.  Several days I spent more time laying around and reading and less (or no) time sewing.  You'll notice I didn't get everything done on my list but I did get other things done. (I'll admit, I spent more time off list than on list.) So here's the list and what I did get done. 

10/10/22

✅Quilt and bind a quilt (not the binding though.)

✅Continue making triangles for tumbling triangles -- all sewn and into rows.

Remove papers from string blocks -- oops nothing done. 

✅Work on grands’ Christmas ornaments -- This weeks I sewed some beads on a dolphin.

Paint wooden pumpkins -- two have the first primer coat on one side... 

Here's the top I quilted but didn't bind yet. Hopefully the binding will get done this week.  

What I did that wasn't on the list was work on a scrap quilt with 2.5" squares. I still need to make the border before it will be done.  I'm using the 2.5" blocks as my leader ender.  Hopefully I'll get it put together by next week and will be able to share it. (Hum, it's not on the list though... so a little more off list work!) 

And here's what I hope to work on this week...

10/17/22

Bind Flowers and 9 Patch quilt

Quilt and bind another quilt 

Finish sewing Tumbling Triangles together 

Border Oct UFO Challenge Quilt

Make Sept & October BOM from A Quilting Life

Work on Halloween quilt

Who knows if I'll get all of these done but I'm going to give it a try. Here is a picture of Tumbling Triangles.  I did finish all the blocks and sewed them into rows.  Hopefully I'll get all the rows sewn together.  Who knows maybe I'll sew the borders on too. This is a Studio 180 design that uses their V Block ruler. 

I may try to get two of the wooden pumpkins primed -- front, back and edges.  If I get any done I'll share pictures.  Pat cut them out of the wood with a scroll saw. My job is to paint them.  

So that's it for me today except for suggesting you check out these Linky parties and see what folks are doing all across the nation.

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie