Bonnie Lass Finish

With my new favorite Bible verse in mind - Finished is better than starting (Ecclesiastes 7:8) - I'm delighted to call Bonnie Lass a finished quilt. 

Bonnie Lass, 61" X 71"

Bonnie Lass is another Jen Kingwell pattern from her book Quilt Lovely. I chose this one because it's a great way to use scraps. I first began working on it earlier this year, in May when I went on a quilt retreat with Central Florida MQG, so it hasn't languished unfinished for too long.

Continuing to focus on using stash, I picked up my favorite pieced backing book Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young, and selected the design "Cool Columns."

For my 61" X 71" finished quilt, this backing used 3.19 yards of fabric.

To use-up batting scraps, I even pieced those! Overlapping two batting pieces, I rotary cut wavy curves and then hand-stitched to join them together. 

For a quilt design, I turned again to Esther Frenzel's IPatchandQuilt blog. 

Scrolling through numerous free motion quilting designs, I settled on Fluff Ball. This is Esther's lovely sample. 

Admittedly, the design took a while to master, and even then, I didn't execute it perfectly. 

But I'm happy with the overall look. Thread is YLI 40-weight in orange to yellow variegated colors.

The 2¼"-wide binding is nearly all of what remained of a piece that's in the back. This is truly a scrap quilt!

Bonnie Lass is quilt finish number 12 for 2024, and I'm very satisfied with that total.

All my quilt finishes can be viewed by clicking tabs at the top of my blog Home Page.

Linda

Three Day Retreat Plans

Whenever I'm going on retreat, I assess which WIPs are candidates for taking along. Over the years I've learned that it's best not to machine quilt while on retreat because there's never enough even surface space to support a quilt. I've discovered - to my dismay - that quilts I've quilted while on retreat finish distorted or wonky. My home set-up is ideal for domestic machine quilting (large tables to support a large quilt) so it's best not to mess with a good thing.

And not wanting to haul piles of stash on retreat to cut out projects, I've been cutting and cutting so I can simply sit and sew during most of retreat. 

Always on the look-out for a good scrap quilt - so I can "scarp my scraps" 😀 (lookin' at you, Char!) - I opened my copy of the book Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell, and quickly chose the design "Bonnie Lass." Entirely from my scrap bins, I cut 400 low volume neutrals, and 400 prints in all colors. I should end up with a 59" X 67" quilt.

Also, as luck would have it, Tara Faughnan (Did you know she'll be the keynote speaker at QuiltCon 2025 in Phoenix?) released a new pattern for a quilt I have admired for several years.

"Sunny" is foundation paper pieced. Honestly, when I first saw it, I liked it so much I attempted to duplicate it in EQ8. Well that was a futile attempt! Happily for me, the pattern was released last Thursday - on sale too! - and I snatched it up. 

It's felt very rewarding to dig into my almost-empty large bin of solid fat quarters, some remaining from 2022 when I won all 100 colors of Benartex Superior Solids, to cut pieces. I'm also using-up leftover chunks (bigger than scraps) of other brands of solids. I feel so frugal! 😉

I sewed these blocks during Central Florida MQG's Saturday Sew-In, and I sure like them.

I'll be taking along parts to make 34 "Sunny" blocks.

Since I'm participating in Jeni Baker's (In Color Order) Quilt Along to make a "Plus Quilt" I cut blocks to piece. I'm not following Jeni's table of block size options, but have cut all my pieces 5" X 5". I should end up with a 40½ " X 54" quilt -a nice size for a child. 

After three full days of retreat sewing (I tend to burn the midnight oil) I hope to come home with two completed quilt tops: "Bonnie Lass" and "Plus Quilt"; and make a good start on "Sunny."

As quilters do, everything for sewing time is prepped and packed - including cleaning and oiling, and putting a new needle in my Bernina 440. Now it's time to pack clothes and personal items! Ha! Don't admonish me! Priorities, right? I know you get retreat-ready the same way I do.  Linda

End of May

The end of May finds me feeling really good about my fabric use! I'm crediting going on a quilt retreat with motivating me to cut up lots of fabric - stash and scraps - to make quilt blocks and quilt tops:

• Bonnie Lass - a quilt top
• Sunny - 20 blocks made
• Plus/Arithmetic - finished quilt
• Like Totally - Seattle MQG BOM
• and 42 bindings for the modern potholder quilt, Pot Luck

So it's with a big whoop that I share my May fabric usage: 11.37 yards! I didn't buy anything. 

Here's the Bonnie Lass quilt top I finished last week after settling on an orange Christina Cameli print called "Moongate" for the setting triangles. 

The top is 61" X 71" and goes into the "needs a backing" pile.

Now I'm quilting again. 

I was asked to sandwich and quilt a top made by Selina Selinaquilts for a veteran who will travel to Washington DC in October on an Honor Flight.

All the quilting is ruler work. I'll pass it along for someone else to bind.

Now I've begun to quilt my Minimalist (Not) quilt. Should that be its name?! Maybe Minimalist (Ha!).

I've begun with with walking foot quilting to stabilize the whole thing. Next I'll focus on different sections to add ruler work and free motion quilting, strategically leaving open spaces for big stitch hand quilting.

Always inclined to have a variety of projects to work on, I'm alternating quilting by machine with hand stitching to join potholder quilt blocks. I'm about halfway done putting together the top which has involved puzzling - working out which blocks to join, and which units to inset into other parts. 

Book Recommendations

I Cheerfully Refuse by Lief Enger is about what happens to Rainy in a dystopian society, sometime in the not-too-distant future. He's a gifted bass player, and totally in love with his vibrant, engaging wife, Lark. She has invited a young man needing help, to live in their attic apartment until he gets on his feet. What no one expects is the trouble he unintentionally brings to the couple. 

Now on the run in an almost-restored sailboat called "Flower," Rainy learns that Lake Superior, it's unpredictable storms, islands and bays, along with people who are after him, make his life unsettled and desperate. Along the way, he meets unsavory people, often with their own ulterior motives. Rainy also unknowingly takes on a stow-away, a young girl who also wants to escape. They forge a bond that finds them both suffering through the experience of capture.

I found it difficult to get into this story, but as usual, once I reached chapter four or so, it became more engaging. The I Cheerfully Refuse title comes from a book referenced in the story, written by the fictitious and reclusive Molly Thorne, a favorite author of Rainy's wife, Lark.  

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

She's Not Sorry by Mary Kubica is another good thriller, this time about Meghan, an ICU nurse, and her 16 year-old daughter Sienna who live alone in a downtown Chicago apartment. Meghan walks a mile to/from the hospital where one of the patients in her care is a woman, Caitlin, who jumped from a pedestrian bridge in an apparent attempted suicide. Walking to her apartment at night, Meghan knows she's taking a risk, as many attacks on women have been happening in her neighborhood.

Meghan comes to know the woman's parents, and also learns what a terrible person Caitlin is. With so many things to be afraid of, Meghan's not sure who has sent her a message, who is following her, who she should believe, and who she should fear.

I liked trying to figure out who the She was, in the title. Linda's score: 4.2/5.0    

In all, this month I listened to, reviewed, and scored 11 audiobooks. In rank order they are:

The Lost Bookshop	Woods	Evie	4.3
God Spare the Girls	McKinney	Kelsey	4.3
Darling Girls	Hepworth	Sally	4.2
The Vacancy in Room 10	Glass	Seraphina Nova	4.2
Time After Time	Lane	Karly	4.2
All the Dangerous Things	Willingham	Stacy	4.2
She’s Not Sorry	Kubica	Mary	4.2
Bewilderment	Powers	Richard	4.1
Sipsworth	Van Booy	Simon	4.0
I Cheerfully Refuse	Enger	Lief	4.0
Expiration Dates	Serle	Rebecca	3.7

I hope you find a couple titles to add to your June reading list. Linda

Plus Quilt Finish, and Bonnie Lass

I joined Jeni Baker's Plus Quilt (AKA Arithmetic Quilt) quilt along as a reason to make a quilt to donate. Unlike many quilters I know, who make and make quilts only to give away, I selfishly keep nearly all my quilts, later selecting people I want to give them to. 

So making this was a break from my selfish quiltmaking. It's 40½" X 54".

Batting is Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton Select, the last piece of a half-roll, split with a friend. After previously quilting almost exclusively with Cotton Request (Quilter's Dream lowest loft), I have found that I prefer Request loft. When shoving around a quilt under my sewing machine needle, it's easier to maneuver a large quilt that's batted with a lighter-weight loft.

I pieced a backing that has one large plus.

Thread is 28-weight yellow Aurifil on top, and 50-weight of the same color in the bobbin. 

Quilting is an all-over design I saw on @ipatchandquilt, Esther's Instagram feed. She made a video of it. The design begins as a snail trail, but as you quilt back out of the spiral, you make three little "fingers." 

front

Sometimes I got carried away and quilted four fingers, or put the fingers on the outside of the spiral, but no matter. It was a fun design to quilt (few stops and starts), and I easily accomplished it in a day.  

back

Thank you, Peggy, for being my quilt-holder!

With an empty design wall - for a change - I almost immediately set to filling it up again, this time with scrappy blocks pieced for a Bonnie Lass quilt. I haven't yet joined the blocks, because I'm auditioning fabric for the setting triangles that are needed on all four sides.

The pattern shows a low volume print as setting triangles, but I'd rather have something more impactful. The problem is that I have very few prints that are ⅝" of a yard!

I'm limited to these three, and am leaning toward the orange one at the bottom, a Moongate print by Christina Camelli. 

Book Recommendation

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham follows a young mother, Isabelle Drake, whose infant son Mason has been missing for nearly a year. Though her husband left her six months ago, she has continued to research, study, investigate, and make public appearances with hopes of identifying the person who abducted Mason. 

A podcaster comes into Isabelle's life who seems to believe her - that she herself didn't do something to Mason. Yet over the course of two weeks with him, she second-guesses her own behavior based on a childhood experience, and watching videos of herself as she sleep-walks. As she reaches the difficult conclusion that she is responsible, she visits her parents where she learns that her childhood remembrances aren't quite accurate, and in fact, the podcaster has more involvement in solving the abduction than she first thought. 

After reading so many such who-done-it novels, I know that it's never an un-introduced character who's guilty, but this author did a good job of keeping me guessing about which character was guilty. 

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

Have a lovely, long Memorial Day weekend, my friends! Linda

Post Retreat: Prioritizing WIPs

Retreat was wonderful! Due to a date change beyond our control, we had a different configuration of members, and two guests from the Jacksonville (Florida) MQG), for a total of 15 retreats. Each of us had opportunities to get to know new people, and become better acquainted with those we already knew. 

Also, something different for us this time was sharing dining room space with three other groups: 1) a small quilt group (I knew them from Big Cypress Quilters); 2) homeschool parents and kids (we've never retreated with children around!); and, 3) a church leadership group from South Florida.

II accomplished most of what I wanted, in between taking pictures of members who had "tah-dah" moments when I snapped their picture and put it on Instagram. Go here if you'd like to see some finished quilt tops, and our great group photo. Everyone posed with a rotary cutter or scissors, "cutting" themselves or their neighbor! 

In three whole days of sewing, my only tah-dah was this completed Plus Quilt top, an easy piecing job. I'll be sandwiching, quilting, and binding it to donate to Children's Home Society of Florida.

I pieced more Sunny blocks and I love how they look! I need to make 100 more blocks!

The first blocks were foundation paper pieced through newsprint paper, so when I ran out of those, I tried Tara Faughnan's method of using regular printer paper, a dab of glue, and folding back on the lines to edge stitch (no paper to remove). I'm not sure which method I prefer, but I do have a lot of newsprint I need to use-up.

I also pieced all 98 blocks for the Bonnie Lass quilt. Setting triangles for the sides need to be cut before I can complete that top. 

Assessing where I'm at, I now have EIGHT WIPs! Good grief!

Needing to prioritize these projects, the modern potholder quilt (on the design wall) is number one on the to-do list. Binding each block is taking more time than I anticipated - 15 are bound; 26 to go.

The reason it's taking so long is that I'm piecing Pewter-color fabric into many of the bindings, so the Pewter curve appears continuous. It's tedious to do this, getting the curve right, and making it single-fold. There's been as much unsewing as sewing. 

Block made by Maureen @maydecemberquilts

But I know, in the end, this will be worth the effort. 

Top block by Jane @gonequiltinginfl
Center left block by Maureen @maydecemberquilts with my hand appliqué added
Center right block by Betty @zcabed

As for the other WIPs...

• I've been hand-quilting the 2023 "30 Days of Improv" since last fall.
• Last week I pin-basted two quilts (Minimal (Ha!)), and an Honor Flight quilt top I was asked to quilt. 
• To piece Glitter and Bonnie Lass into tops I need design wall space. One design wall is not enough!

Book Recommendations

Bewilderment by Richard Powers is about a special nine year-old boy, Robin, who's the son of astrobiologist Theo. They're both struggling through life changes since the sudden death of their mother/wife. Robin is not coping well. Several incidences at school cause school administrators to recommend psychoactive drugs. For a while, Theo copes with Robin by homeschooling him, but then turns to a friend of his wife whose experimental neurofeedback test might be just what Robin needs. 

Using recorded tests of Robin's mother, Robin's treatment gradually turned him into a changed boy who's energetic, engaged, artistic, inquisitive, and full of potential. When government control and investigation conspire to shut down the testing program, everything changes. 

Though much of the scientific and technical aspects of this story went over my head, and political perspectives were woven into the story, it was a compelling listen.

Linda's score: 4.1/5.0

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is about several young girls in child welfare. Jessica, Norah, and Alicia stayed at Wild Meadows, an English farming estate with a foster mother, Miss Fairchild. The three are now grown women whose experiences with Miss Fairchild forged their relationship of protecting one another, and made them sisters in every sense of the word.

The house at Wild Meadows has been demolished to build a McDonald's, and a child's body is unearthed. All three women must leave Melbourne and return to Port Agatha to meet with police investigators. Each of them is dealing with some life difficulty of their own making - drug use; relationship avoidance; lewd behavior - all of which are coping responses to what Miss Fairchild put them through decades ago. 

The unexpected plot twist at the end, once again proves Hepworth skill at delivering an engaging tale of wrong behavior, mistreatment, and it consequences.

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

Something Different

While on retreat I learned about the Mountain Dulcimer Club where my quilt-y friend, Anne plays her dulcimer. Intriguing! On Tuesday I skipped Big Cypress Quilters and visited. I didn't know what that instrument(s) sounded or looked like, so if you're curious like I was, take a quick look/listen. I created this 32-second YouTube clip of a regular dulcimer followed by a hammered dulcimer.

At this time, I'm not planning to join the club, but I'm considering attending a beginner class where I can borrow a dulcimer to try. For now, playing the ukulele is enough. Linda

2024 Blog Posts, and Books Read

Following Debbie's lead at A Quilter's Table where she presented her "Best of 2024" blog post (she shared some really lovely modern beauties!) I looked at the number of views of each of my 70 blog posts in 2024. These are my five most popular posts, beginning with the one that had the fifth most views.  

#5: Three Day Retreat Plans published May 2

In this post I shared my intentions of making the scrappy Bonnie Lass quilt; Tara Faughnan's foundation paper pieced design called Sunny; and a Plus Quilt. It's likely most viewers were interested in Tara's Sunny pattern which had just been released.  

#4 QuiltCon Raleigh Part 3 published March 3

Of the five blog posts I wrote about QuiltCon 2024, why Part 3 was viewed more times than the others is beyond me!

This post focused on QuiltCon entries in the handwork category, and included info about the Improv Tiny Piecing workshop I took at QuiltCon with Jo Avery of Scotland. 

#3 Modern Potholder Group Quilt published January 30

This was my first blog post about the group quilt I organized. Fifteen makers were involved in making Pot Luck, and I'm thrilled our quilt was accepted into QuiltCon Phoenix, in 2025. See quilt here.

#2 Small Things published January 7

Fabric twining AND making Confetti Pouches were the focus of this post.

#1 Confetti Pouch Exterior Tutorial published January 10

My #1 most viewed blog post, by far and away, is the tutorial for making these pouches. That's a good indication that makers still like a blog tutorial. 

Locally, I will be teaching a Confetti Pouches workshop in June 2025. 

Book Recommendation

This is my last 2024 book recommendation/review.

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris is an unexpected story as it begins, charmingly enough, with a priest riding a donkey to a remote village in rural England. Father Christopher Fairfax has been  ispatched to hold a service for, and bury the local priest who died from a fall. 

As the reader comes to believe this is a story about old England, in fact it's about old England after the apocalypse. Back in 2025 the world, as everyone knew it, came to a tragic end. Now, eight hundred years later, the church governs and sheriffs and magistrates enforce the laws. It's illegal to be interested in or collect antiquities - things like plastic drinking straws and bottles, glass jars, and the odd things that show an apple with a bite out of it. 

Father Fairfax becomes interested in the deceased priests collection of antiquities, including books that recount some of what happened 800 years ago. Soon he's embroiled in what he discovers, jeopardizing his position in the church, compounded by his interest in Lady Durston. 

I wish I could say I finished 2024 reading with a great title, but this was only okay. The ending left me wondering - wishing I knew more.   

Linda's score: 3.7/5.0

December Books

In December I listened to ten audiobooks. Those I gave a score of 4.0 and higher were:

1. The Good Father, Diane Chamberlain - 4.4
2. True Believer, Nicholas Sparks - 4.3
3. Alone in the Dark, Joanne Ryan - 4.2
4. The Liberty Scarf, Runyan, Ciesielski, and McMillan - 4.2

5. Prom Mom, Laura Lipmann - 4.1

6. Yours Truly, Abby Jimenez - 4.0

7. Pretty Dead Things, Lillian West - 4.0

All of 2024 - 102 Books

This year I listened to and wrote blog reviews for 102 books. You can find all those titles on the "Books Read" tab, at the top of my Home Page. 

All my 2024 reads are listed on that page, AND there's a link to a PDF, in case you'd like to print it.

Also, I kept a Book Bracket throughout the year. You can see that The Women by Kristin Hannah was my favorite book. 

The author Charles Martin - The Last Exchange - always comes through with a great story. 

Each book that was my favorite for the month is also shown. 

Lotsa reading options for 2025! Linda