Monday Meanderings 8 - 18 - 2024

I've spent a lot of time in the studio this week. Part of the time I was reading but most of the time I was working on a project that was off list.  I used a cute alphabet fabric that was enough to make two baby quilts.  That was the easy part.  Then I cut strips to make Pat Sloan's String Bean quilt pattern. It took me forever! I know I have enough strips done for one quilt and I hope I have enough for the second one. I'm making a few quilt kits as I'm visiting Sharon in September and I have a retreat in October.  I figure it is better to start early so I have enough kits ready to go.  

Surprisingly, I was able to get just about everything done on my list too. 

8/12/24

✅Bind quilt — done! 

✅Sew snowballs — all snowballs done but some may need to be changed.

✅Keep working on seaside top — more stitching down and tying off done.

✅Finish knitting hat — knitting is done, time to sew it together. 

✅Put more fabric away — Some done, more to be put away.

✅Make a placemat or two — two basic placemats finished.

Here are the current snowballs.  I'm going to set it 6 x 6 so I made 18 more blocks. When I was done I realized I might have to redo a couple as they are too dark. 

I'm sure I'm going to replace number 3 on the 6th row.  It's black cats on dark purple... it reads black.  I'll find something else to replace it.  I haven't done all the moving around to get colors in the right place so that will happen this week.  Here's one of my favorite blocks: 

I've had this biker chicks fabric for a while -- I'm glad to be able to use some of it.  I laugh every time I look at it. 

Here's what I'll be working on this week. 

8/19/24

Cut a 3 yard quilt kit 

Arrange and sew snowball blocks 

Start a new quilt using a horizontal panel

Keep working on seaside top

Begin grands’ Christmas ornaments

I recently found the cutest kit to make some baby penguins in wool felt for my grands' ornaments.  I hope to get all four done in the next few months.  They are really small which should mean they'll sew up quickly.  I'll keep you informed. 

Here's a quilt I finished a few months ago.  I only took one decent picture of it as I didn't think about it until the sun was going down. These blocks were my rainbow challenge blocks from 2022.  It currently hangs in the family room.  I often make quilts around 42" square to hang on this holder.  I used Quick and Easy Swirls Edge to Edge quilting design by My Creative Stitches.  My thread is a white So Fine from Superior Threads.  I used my Accuquilt 9" Cube and Angles Companion Set.  

It's been another great week for stitching time.  Here are the stats!

W/ending 8/18 — 231 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 18/12 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 222/231 days
• Success rate = 96% 

Behind the scenes I've been trying toMon figure out my fabric acquisitions and usage statistics.  I am trying to get both June and July numbers done.  For some reason, I'm having more fun making blocks and working to finish my tops so I haven't figured out how much I've used for those two months. Hopefully I'll finish the stats sometime this week and post them by Friday. (Ok, I know I'm not always great on follow through so don't be surprised if I report on Monday next!) 

There's only one thing left to do now -- sharing the Linky parties I participate in.  Enjoy reading Life in Pieces, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  

It's going to be a great week weather-wise. Let's hope it's just as good in the studio! 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 8 - 12 - 2024

Debby, the hurricane, has passed by us.  Although our general region had huge amounts of rain, we saw less than 3".  Unfortunately we could have used more.  Humidity was awful for several days but this past weekend has been cooler and less humid.  I actually didn't go outside from Saturday early morning. I'll be out early for my walk tomorrow around 7:30 -- am! Have I mentioned I'm not a morning person?   

Luckily, I did get most of my goals completed this week.  I was wondering if I would miss my last goal by Saturday afternoon.  But I loaded up a quilt then and quilted it on Sunday. Here's what I was working on this past week. 

8/5/24

✅Bind Melodic Mystery — done. 

✅Prep magenta backing — done

✅Quilt and 👎🏼bind one of my quilts — quilting is done but not the binding. 

✅Sew snowball blocks then evaluate whether more blocks are needed — some done, more needed

✅Keep working on seaside top — more finished, but lots more to do 

First up is Flower Song, the top I quilted this weekend.  Here's a picture of it as I started it. I didn't remember that I used this same pattern on the last top I quilted.  

The quilting design is called Sunshine by Melony Caldwell available at Urban Elements.  I used lavender So Fine.  The fabric that I listed on my goals list to be made into a backing is the one I used for this quilt.  I had a different top planned but I really like the new one for this quilt. It is the same fabric as the top border but is magenta with colorful spots.  I'll be using it for the binding also. 

Here's a snap of my design wall -- it's full of blocks and too many odd things hanging from it! I should take a look at the stuff on the right and see if I can put some of it away. 

From left to right: snowballs, half log cabins, bowties, and junk of all sorts! But let's take a better look at the three projects up there. 

I decided that most of these blocks were animals or living beings so the rest of the blocks are going to be animals, bugs, and more living beings. I'm aiming for 36 blocks which would give me a 36" x 36" top -- perfect for a NICU quilt. I've got another 9 or 10 blocks cut and ready to sew.  Hopefully this will be a top by next week.  

I've cleared all of other Rainbow Scrap Challenge bowties off the wall.  These are the orange, blues and turquoise blocks.  It looks to me that most of these blocks look like turquoise more than blue.  I may add some more blues eventually.  But that will wait until all the colors have been called. 

Here are 8 blocks of half log cabin blocks.  I don't know how I'm going to set them but this is an idea. I have at least 18 more blocks ready to sew, with another smaller number already finished.  I have no idea what size I'll make the top in the end.  But I'm having fun making the blocks.  I've precut the strips to the necessary size and then I pick the pieces for each block and clip them together.  That makes it really easy to use these as leader enders. I know, that just sounds weird but it's working for me. 

This week I plan to try to get these goals done. 

8/12/24

Bind Flower Song quilt 

Sew snowballs, maybe sew top together

Keep working on seaside top

Finish knitting hat

Put more fabric away

Make a placemat or two 

Take some time to visit the following Linky parties.  It's fun to see what everyone is working on. (And, yes I get way too many ideas from checking these out!)  Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.  

Here's my info on 15 minutes to stitch.  

W/ending 8/11 — 224 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 11/12 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 215/224 days
• Success rate = 96% (rounded up from 95.98%) 

I found myself engrossed in my most recent book. In fact, I was reading it while Ruthie was quilting away.  I started it Saturday morning and I'm over 75% done as I write this Sunday night. I'm hoping I can finish it tonight without staying up half the night.  Oh, what's the name you ask?  It's The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel. It is based on a true story of a young French woman who learns to be an expert forger in order to save lives of the many Jewish children left alone after their parents are arrested by the Nazis*. It's gripping reading and not surprising, has 4 1/2 stars on Amazon.  I've read quite a few historical fiction books this summer and found them very interesting. *From reading the author's notes about this book I realize the main characters are actually from her imagination.  However there were many people who through forging documents allowed children to escape to Switzerland.  I thought this was a new book however it was published in 2020.  It's still well worth the read. 

It's time to get back to my reading! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings -- 8 - 5 - 2024

What a week I had. I'm calling it the week of fabric acquisition.  Yea, I really needed more fabric.  Don't you?  I've been trying to not go wild buying fabric so I tend to just buy backing fabric. But there was a quilter's estate sale on Friday and I decided to go with a friend, chauffeured by Pat.  More about it later... 

Here's what I got done on my goals. 

7/29/24

✅Quilt one of my quilts — done!

✅Remove borders and replace with smaller borders of Forest Animals Easy Attic Windows quilt — done. 

✅Start another knit hat — started. 

✅Make RSC blocks for July and ✅ FCQ Equilter blocks — Most RSC blocks are done, all the FCQ Equilter blocks are ready to mail, and the last RSC block for July is ready to sew. 

Make more Kid’s snowball blocks, make into top as part of UFO Challenge — 9 blocks are ready to sew but nothing else was completed. 

Here are the snowball blocks that I am starting with: 

I realized that most of them are animals and I decided to pull as many animal prints I could find to go with them. Below are 9 more blocks ready to sew. I'll be sewing them this week. I may decide to sash them.  What do you think? Do you sash snowball blocks? I will probably need more than the ones I've planned to get it to a decent size for a kid.  Wait a minute... there are way more cat fabrics than dog fabric. I may have to find some more doggy fabric to use! 

These pieces are ready to sew into my RSC bowties.  Orange for August. And, two of these oranges are from the fabric acquisition trip! 

I thought I would show all of the sea glass blocks I finished this week with the group from last week.  I'm hoping these work with the ones others send. I think most of the aqua/turquoise ones will work but some of the gold ones may be too dark.  

Next week I'm trying to finish all of these. 

8/5/24

Bind Melodic Mystery

Prep magenta backing

Quilt and bind one of my quilts

Sew snowball blocks then evaluate whether more blocks are needed

Keep working on seaside top

So, about that fabric acquisition trip... 

This was the fabric available the second day.  (I borrowed this pic from a guild email, so thanks either Boni or Nancy T, and Bea who sent it out to the guild.) My gang made it fairly early on the first day. I had planned what I was looking for: backings, yellow, and orange.  I was able to get 2 pieces big enough for backing, and a few yellows and orange.  But I went a bit crazy grabbing dog fabrics, Laurel Burch pieces, an Eric Carle piece, and a patriotic snowmen panel.  Here are some pics: 

Mostly dog fabrics.

Yellows, oranges and Laurel Burch fabrics.

Blue for a backing and Patriotic Santa panel.

My fabric weighed in at 5 pounds -- $3.00 a pound = $15 for all the fabric shown. I measured it all and it came to approximately 19 yards. I think they rounded down when figuring the price. I might have found more if I realized I wasn't spending all that much!  On the other hand, I'm not sure where I'm going to store all of this new stuff. 

And just because I didn't find a lot of backing fabric pieces I hit up another good sale at JoAnns.  I think both of these fabrics came out about $4.50 a yard not including tax. The magenta will be a backing and the green stripe will be the binding on my Melodic Mystery quilt. They were both Fabric Traditions products. I've already cut the green for the binding and hope to get it on this week. 

As I was prepping my 15 Minutes of Stitching, I realized I had to make a decision about my day shopping Friday. Was that part of my stitching concept?  Or was I going to stick with either stitching of working with my fabric?  I decided to go with the 2nd idea -- I need to be working in my studio or actually stitching on something.  So I missed one of the stitching days this week. But I'm really pleased with how much I'm working in my studio and/or stitching. (I really need to "do the dishes" as Bonnie Hunter says. That means dealing with the bits and pieces left over from cutting quilts or blocks out.)

W/ending 8/4 — 217 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 31/31days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 3/4 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 208/217 days
• Success rate = 95.8% 

I'm linking up with my regular parties: Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Design Wall Monday, and Monday Musings.

That's it for me.  I'm looking forward to a cooler week and lots of stitching time. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

August 2024 Mysteries and Sew Alongs

While I was researching mysteries and quilt alongs I found a You Tube video from Quilted Forest for their Summer Mystery Quilt 2024.  There are weekly videos that are all available now. While watching the 6 videos for this year’s Summer Mystery, I realized they’ve been doing them at various times of the year since 2021. So there are a lot from which to choose. You can screen shot the directions for each section or take notes. (That’s what she said on the video!) But it would be easier if you join the Quilted Forest Friends Facebook Page and download the directions from the Files. I really liked this year’s Summer Mystery.  The video sample was done in Halloween fabrics. Too cute! And I loved the fact that she appeared to make the entire clue in the time the video played. Of course, I realize it would take us way longer to do each clue. Take a look and see if the quilt strikes your fancy. You can find the videos by typing in ‘Quilted Forest Mystery Quilt Summer 2024” in the You Tube search box, then choose Clue 1.  Make sure it says Summer Mystery 2024.  

You can also take a look at their other offerings. They have quite a few other mysteries along with series on using 2.5" strips and one on 5" squares.  I watched their latest one on 2.5" strips and wanted to share it. Here's a link to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quMc-xutLK4.   If for some reason that doesn't come up just type in Quilted Forest Tutorials and look for the one called Simple Block Using Partial Seam and 2.5" Strips. I'm pretty sure I'm going to try one of these soon.  

The Fat Quarter Shop recently announced the Home Town Holiday Sampler Quilt and Stitch Along. This starts in September. It uses Lori Holt’s instructions called Home Town Holiday Sampler that is available as a downloadable pattern. I’m not sure it the cross stitch version is included. https://blog.fatquartershop.com/announcing-home-town-holiday-sampler-quilt-and-stitch-along/ $

Star of Wonder Mystery Quilt and Cross Stitch Along started at the Fat Quarter Shop at the beginning of July. Here’s the link to the blog post about the Stitch Along: https://blog.fatquartershop.com/stitch-and-sew-star-of-wonder-with-us/. And here’s the link to the downloadable directions: https://www.fatquartershop.com/sew-alongs/star-of-wonder?sscid=71k8_tdnex.  The last instructions were posted on July 30. Do you want to see a picture of Sara's?  She blogs at My Sewing Room and shared a wonderful version that's almost done.  You can see it here.  I may have to give this one a try. What's nice about the Fat Quarter Shop is they have a lot of free patterns and mysteries and sew alongs.  From what I've noticed they leave them up on their site for a long time. 

Hopefully you will find a project that will tickle your fancy.  My head is spinning with ideas to use the block shared by Quilted Forest. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 7 - 29 - 2024

Are you keeping up with the Olympics?  If truth be told, I haven't been watching.  But Sunday night I've been watching the swimmers and the gymnasts.  There have been some great competitions.  

My big question now is how did I do with my goals this past week?  Not bad at all. 

7/22/24

✅Finish Boxes and Bows baby quilt to top stage - done but forgot the pic!

✅Quilt customer quilt - finished.

✅Put inner and outer borders on forest animals quilt - did but ...

✅Finish current hat being knitted - finished and turned in.

Spend 15 min a day cleaning cutting table - √√√√√ 5 days out of 7.

Um, it is just too much border! I'll be taking the gold border off and recutting it down to about 3". (I think the borders were cut 5.5".) The pictures of this quilt in the book looked fine with the wide border but I think this gold just over powers the center.  I may take it to stitching group tomorrow to rip it off. 

My time cleaning up was actually only done for two days. I kept setting a timer for 15 minutes so I did get an hour and 15 minutes done.  I counted that as 5 days.  Although I know I cut some fabrics and then put the excess away, I don't think the space looks much better. I need to keep working on that but I'm not putting it on the list right now. Hopefully I'll do at least 15 minutes every day or so this coming week. 

I'll try to get a picture of Boxes and Bows baby quilt to share next week. And now, here are this week's goals...

7/29/24

Quilt one of my quilts 

Remove Forest Animals Easy Attic Windows borders & replace with smaller ones

Start another knit hat

Make RSC blocks for July and FCQ Equilter blocks

Make more kid’s snowball blocks, make into top as part of UFO Challenge

Here are a few of the FCQ Equilter blocks for MaryBeth.  She asked for blocks of a sea glass color.  I'm thinking many of these aren't quite as light as they should be. The dark corners are navy blue while the opposite corners are white.   The sample quilt she showed us looked amazing. I've got more to make up but I don't have many of the lighter colors she wants. I'll be doing another stash dive to see what I can find. Hopefully there will be some more lighter blues and greens to balance all the golds. 

I'll send all of these when they are all done only because I'm hoping she gets other darker versions of the colors and my darker ones will look good with them. 

I've been neglecting the UFO Challenge recently. I've been more focused on getting quilts done and keeping up with other things.  Today I realized that the July quilt is a snowball block and would be pretty easy to do this week. I need to make about 9 blocks and then sew all of them together.  I have a die to cut the snowballs and corners with so at least the cutting should go fairly fast. Deciding the fabric to use will take longer! 

I'm back to stitching every day this week.  Several days there was a lot of stitching going on and others just barely the minimum.  Here are my numbers. I'm hoping to stay in the 90% for the whole year.  

W/ending 7/29 — 210 days in to 2024. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 27/28days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 202/210 days
• Success rate = 96.2%

Did you know as of 7/29 we are more than 57% through 2024?  I was surprised to read that but I guess I shouldn't have been! 

I'm linking with Stitching Stuff at Life in Pieces, Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, and Monday Musings at Songbird Designs. Take a look at the various bloggers who link up at these parties. 

Not much else is happening around here. We've had a break in the weather for a few days -- only in the 60s at night. This coming week will be a mix of high 80s through mid 90s. (That doesn't sound all that good actually.) At least the air conditioner works well and takes a lot of the humidity out.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie