Monday Meandering 11 - 15 - 2021

It has been a great week or two.  A week and a half ago Pat and I went down to our beach house in Nags Head.  He had some windows to replace and I was going to count silverware.(It's amazing how much silverware vanishes when tenants are at the house.)  And, we were going shopping.  I came down a day later than he did as I had things to do at home and I was going to visit Sharon after Nags Head.  

By Friday all the windows were done.  I'd pulled out my sewing machine and had stitched a bit. But our main activity was to get new furniture for the great room.  So off we went to a local furniture store that actually had furniture in stock. (Thank goodness!)  It didn't take us all that long to pick out a sofa, love seat, barrel chair, two end tables, and two new lamp shades.  It helps that there weren't a thousand choices and everything pretty much gave off the beachy feel. Everything was delivered the next day. (Our saleslady said that ordered furniture was scheduled out 14 months!) 

Our house allows dogs.  I started the dog quilt long before we owned the house. We decided it looked good with the previous furniture so it was finished and hung.  Not so much now.  I actually have a pattern and fabric picked out that might work with the new look.  Someday I might even make it. Heck I might even pull it out and see if it would work -- it has under the ocean theme! We've had a couple of mishaps with dogs and both times dogs pulled up berber style carpet through their crates. Our plan now is to change to a non-looped carpet and see if that protects it better. If we continue to have damage we might have to stop accepting dogs. We no longer have out own dogs. Time will tell. 

Lots of progress was made on the goals, but, not everything was done.  Here's the scoop.

11/8/2021

✅Enjoy sewing with Sharon

✅Finish sashing 16 patch stars

✅Border glorified 9 patch and oops friendship stars didn’t get bordered

✅Finish all the turquoise blocks and nope, not sewn together

✅Sew some string blocks

Sew more ombré log cabin blocks — nothing done on this either

Here's this week's list: 

11/15/2021

Quilt Jenny's quilt

Border friendship stars

Sew ombré blocks together

Clear off the right side of design wall 

Figure out turquoise blocks

Keep making string blocks

I was happy I worked on almost everything listed on the goals list.  As usual, Sharon and I had fun. I came home Thursday ready to sit around and not do all that much.  But by Saturday I was back working in the studio.  Sharon inspired me to clean up some of the mess on my cutting table.  (Of course, what I did was get an empty plastic bin and put lots of scraps in it.)  The fat quarters strewn about were put in my storage system mostly based on colors. 

Then I went back to work on my to do list. All the turquoise blocks were made but I ran into problems trying to figure out a layout.  Here's my first layout.  I had planned to alternate dark strips on the outside of the blocks with light strip blocks. 

Um, this didn't do anything for me.  I love the fabrics but they just don't work this way. I decided to see what it would look like in greyscale.  Hum...

Do you know about using grey scale? On my iPhone or Mac I can choose to make it black and white.  It really looks horrible without the color but does show what reads dark and what reads light. Of note is the one 2nd row, 1st block.  It's really light compared to the rest of them. I took a close look at the pattern (a Villa Rosa Designs postcard pattern called Voyager. Click on the link to see their version.) They didn't alternate light and dark blocks.  In fact most of the blocks are more medium to dark and are scattered around rather than placed purposely. So everything got moved again.

Oops, that really light one (and maybe the wrong color) sticks out still. This is better but the second row needs to be dispersed so the whole row doesn't look light.  My plan now is to make some decisions about placement and possibly changing some of the blocks that stick out.  Definitely the one that looks light pink. (It's really light purple and blue....) 

Here's the plan for the lightest block.  I've put an alternate fabric on the bottom left to get an idea.  I've already used one strip of this in the quilt so it will work and make this one blend in better.  I may end up doing a double swap because I'm not thrilled with how yellow green it looks in a sea of turquoise.  Nothing will happen really soon on this one.  But I've made forward progress.  

I'll keep you posted on this quilt although I might let it rest a bit before I get back to it.  There are always other quilts I can work on. 

This has been a long post so I'll finish off now and let you get back to your own sewing. I'm linking up to these parties. 

Oh Scrap! 

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday

That's it for me.  I'm so late getting this post written.  Hopefully I'll get back on my normal schedule soon.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

 

   

Monday Meanderings 11 - 8 - 2021

Last week I was busy with non quilting stuff. We went down to the beach house to check on it and make some repairs. Although I did check off all my goals some were only partial completions. 

11/1/2021

✅Make the rest of the turquoise blocks; sew into top — more made but not all

✅Finish quilting Dinosaur quilt 

✅Sash the 16 patch stars — first step sashing done — see pic below

✅Make some string blocks 

✅Do a bit of shopping  I hit a small outlet mall

Here's one row of the 16 patch stars with the start of sashing. I’ll be working on the long sashing pieces next. Then I’ll either find a border or possibly use the blue as a small border.

11/8/2021

Enjoy sewing with Sharon

Finish sashing 16 patch stars

Border glorified 9 patch and friendship stars. See picture below. 

Finish all the turquoise blocks and sew together

Sew some string blocks

Sew more ombré log cabin blocks 

Two fun tops — Glorified 9 Patch and Friendship Stars. Yes I’m planning on using the same border fabric for both of these tops.  Why not, it looks terrific with both of them. 

I’ll be sewing with Sharon until Thursday morning when I’ll head home.  I  have several tops ready to be quilted. I wonder if I should have listed quilting a top or two?

This is short as I’m writing it on my IPad and it is very clunky compared to my laptop.  

Up next are my normal linky parties .

Oh Scrap

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday

Enjoy your surfing!

HappyQuilting All! Bonnie

Friday Finish

I’ve been trying to finish some smaller tops, especially at the end of the month when I need to show more finishes so I can count the fabric in my stashbusting statistics.  Here's the latest.

Some of blocks were from my FCQ E Quilter turn many years ago.  I made more blocks and added the plain yellow blocks to make it into a reasonable size. I really like this chunky churn dash block.  I tend to make each block as if it were a little quilt.  I coordinate the fabrics and often put something cute in the center. I used my favorite Fern Gully quilting design on it.  I like how it gives texture but doesn’t really conflict with the quilt. 

Here’s the back. You can really see the texture that Fern Gully makes. 

Hindsight says I should have put the extra solid fabric on the bottom since  I didn’t have quite enough of the tree fabric.  I’m tickled to be finished with this little lap quilt.  I’ll donate to Virginia Star quilt guild. My guess is it will go to seniors.  Hum, interesting concept of  a senior making a quilt for a senior.  

I’ve been working on a bunch of different projects over the last few days.  It means a lot is getting done but not any finishes yet.  Hopefully I’ll have something to show on my next blog.

I’m linking to these link parties:

Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant

Have fun surfing the Internet. There are so many wonderful blogs with lots of great ideas. 

Happy quilting all. Bonnie

Monday Meanderings 11 - 1 - 2021

I've been down in my studio for most of every day over the week.  And, I've gotten quite a bit of "stuff" done and finished.  I'll share at least one finish on Friday.  

Although a lot of things were completed that weren't on the goal list, almost everything on list was accomplished.  

10/25/2021

✅Bind zebra quilt

✅Continue sewing turquoise blocks together

✅Quilt another top 

Cut out new quilt --

I realized it made much more sense to finish some of the tops I'm working on rather than cutting out a new quilt! 

✅Make the October Table Runner in green 

✅Cut sashing for 16 patch stars 

Here's a pic of the Zebra quilt still on Ruthie. The strips of fabric on the sides were ideas for binding.  Instead I used some of the backing fabric. This will be a cozy kid's quilt with the flannel backing and binding. 

And this coming week -- 

11/1/2021

Make the rest of the turquoise blocks; sew into top

Finish quilting Dinosaur quilt 

Sash the 16 patch stars

Make some string blocks 

Do a bit of shopping (not fabric shopping!) 

Here's why I'm not doing any fabric shopping this week.  I hit one of JoAnn Fabrics sales and bought enough fabric for 3 backings. The second one down has already been seamed and loaded on Ruthie. Hopefully I'll finish the dinosaur quilt this week. I hope to get at least one more of my tops quilted this month plus another Zebra panel and whatever customer quilts come in (I have 3 already. Hopefully, that will be all.)  

Backing fabrics. 

That's it for me today.  I'll be linking up with the following parties.  I hope you can spend some time checking out these blogs.

Oh Scrap

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Last Table Scraps Challenge Runner

Do you ever wait to the very last minute to finish a project?  You know, the one you are sewing binding on on Christmas Eve?  Well that was me this week when I decided I was going to make an October runner in bright and light greens.  I knew I wanted to use an Accuquilt die.  I knew I wasn't going to make it huge. I even had a fabric I liked for the back (and actually used on the front too.) 

On the left is what I first came up with. I cut out rectangles and played with them. I finally came up with what is shown below. Thursday I threw it on Ruthie and quilted two rows on it. That night I hand stitched the binding to the back. Today it was time for pictures...but it has been pouring rain nearly the whole day.  I decided I'd take pictures in the "sun" room sans sun.  And, surprise! It worked pretty well. 

And the back. Oops, that color is so wrong!  The back is the same fabric as between the turquoise strips.

I'm not planning on making any more table runners this year.  I think the Rainbow Scrap Challenge leaves the last two months without a color so quilters can sew their blocks into tops and tops into quilts.  I still have one block on my RSC friendship stars to sew.  And then, it's on to sewing a top. 

Last week a couple of friends went with me to Material Girls Quilt Boutique in La Plata, Maryland.  I was picking up my Bernina after her spa treatment.  After shopping and a nice lunch we were ready to take the leisurely country drive back to our neighborhood. (About 70 minutes or so away.)  We were surprised to see the Scarecrow Festival in La Plata.  On various streets there were displays.  I snapped pictures of two of them. 

The silly scarecrow.

And the scary. 

It might have been fun to drive up and down the streets to see more but it was time to head home. 

This past Monday I was lucky enough to catch the peak of fall foliage in our neighborhood.  Doesn't this just say fall is here?

I haven't driven by this scene since Monday, but I suspect it is no longer this pretty.  Other trees are looking mostly dull yellow for the most part. Is fall still showing beautiful colors where you live? 

Here are links to my favorite late week parties: 

Midweek Makers

Needle and Thread Thursdays

Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant

Table Scraps Challenge October Linky Party

That's enough for now!  I'm ready to sew a label on a quilt and have another finish.  I probably won't show it until next Friday.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 -25 - 2021

It's time to see what a great week I had last week.  I made progress on every goal I made last week. 

10/18/2021

✅Embroider 3 more shirts — all done and mailed and forgot to take pictures. 

✅Bind pink pig quilt — finished and given to Va Star quilt guild. 

✅Try to quilt unicorn zebra panel, bind, & give to guild by Wednesday — finished quilting but not by Wednesday.

✅Make FCQ Equilters blocks — 11 done and more to come.

✅Continue sewing turquoise blocks together — 3 more done.

✅Road trip to pick up sewing machine — she’s back and purring along.

First up -- Ruthie was a champ sewing away with no issues.  I'm hoping she'll be doing well so I can get some more tops quilted. 

I've got 5 blocks done of 40 on my turquoise .  Hum, I'm thinking these might need to be sashed.  I'll make up my mind after I get all the blocks done. 

Below are the blocks that Pam asked for from the FCQ Equilters.  So far here are all that I've made. It turns out I don't have many of the style of florals Pam wanted us to use.  I've pulled a bunch more florals so I'll be making more of this very easy 8.5" block. The yellow inset piece may be a bit too strong compared to the cream or white.  I'll probably make some more so she'll have enough to throw a bunch in together. Pam did mention she might put a thin white sashing between the blocks. (By the way, you might notice a friendship star block shining through the white.  I didn't want to take those blocks down to put up these flower blocks.  So, yes that is the star block underneath the solid white I put up!)

Hum, probably could have left a bigger space, but you get the idea. I'm happy to be able to cut into a lot of floral fat quarters. 

Here's this week's goals. 

10/25/2021

Bind zebra quilt

Continue sewing turquoise blocks together

Quilt another top 

Cut out new quilt

Make the October Table Runner in green

Cut sashing for 16 patch stars

Nothing too hard.  I'd like to get a few more smaller tops quilted but it depends on whether I have any backing.  

Here it is the last week in October and I've just now figured my fabric stats for Sept. I pretty much broke even -- I used a half yard more than I brought in. 

2021	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Sept	6.375	87.250	6.875	112.500	25.250

 

Believe me October is not going to be a pretty sight! (Unless you like lots of new fabric!) 

I'm linking up to my regular parties: 

Oh Scrap! 

Monday Making

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

Hope you can do some blog hopping this week. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

There's a Finish!

 Yes I have a finish but it is pretty small.  

This quilt measures 33" x 33" 

Made and quilted by Bonnie (that's me!) 

Quilting Design Curley by My Creative Stitches 

Thread So Fine purple 

Because my Bernina with the walking foot was having a spa week I attached the binding to the front of the quilt using my Featherweight and stitched the back by hand. (Generally I stitch the binding to the back and then pull to the front and stitch by machine using a walking foot.) 

It's a smaller version of "Overnight Sensation" from Fabric Cafe's Easy Does It 3 Yard Quilts.  Needless to say it probably took me longer to pick the fabric than it did to sew the quilt together.  

Ruthie was on her best behavior and quilted the 4 rows with no problems. 

This has already been turned into the Virginia Star guild and will be going to the NICU at Mary Washington Hospital. 

You can also see some of the Halloween decorations we've put out this year. The pumpkins and the tea light covers are machine embroidery designs from Embroidery Garden. Pumpkins are here; tea light covers are here.

Here's my last finish this week. I stamped this cute birthday card for Ellie's birthday.  Hum, that green doesn't quite look the way I thought it did. Hopefully the color changed with the photo. 

I am still working on my goals this week so I'm cutting this short and getting on with some stitching. Here are my regular late week linky parties. Let's go surfing! 

Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? 

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant

That's it for this week. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie