September 2025 PHD Report

It's been a busy summer. August and September were especially busy.  August was so busy I didn't have time to put together a PHD report.  Thankfully things have slowed down enough for me to put together a September PHD report and link up with Ms. P Designs.  

No changes to the PHD report.  It's not all bad, at least there aren't any new starts. That will change in October. I will be starting two new projects. Those were planned for at the beginning of the year, so no surprise there. 

Even though the PHD report shows no changes, there was some decent progress on some of my works in progress. 

There's been some good progress on Kate's Choice the last couple of months.  

Back in July, all but one row of blocks was quilted. Since then I completed quilting all the blocks and moved on to assembling the first row back in August.  There wasn't any progress on this in September. I had to switch my priority to the 2025 Guild BOM blocks.  I hope to get back to this project before the end of the year.    

There was some good progress on my long running travel embroidery project.  

I hadn't worked on this project since last December.  It's over half finished now, with just one corner of blocks left to stitch.  I won't finish it this year.  Maybe next year?  

Progress on Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been sporadic the last couple of months.  

 

 

I haven't put all the blocks up on the wall since December of last year.  A lot more is done than I expected. The upper half, minus one 3.5" blue block, is completed. A finish for next year? Maybe. I've still got lots of the cool colored blocks to make.   

The Old Town (Bonnie Hunter) blocks see a lot of progress during my late night/open sew time at the quilt shop. 

I was hoping to have this to the finished quilt top stage before the next mystery came out. Just 7 blocks left to make. I've started cutting the pieces for the pieced sashing strips.  I'm still doubtful it will be a finished quilt top, but it will be close.   

After my panic in September when I realized the guild meeting was the next day and I hadn't started the block for October.  I decided it would be wise to finish off all the 2025 Guild BOM blocks.  

The blocks for January through September are up on the design wall, minus some of the sawtooth stars as they wouldn't fit. This is not my final layout, I'll decide that once all the blocks are done. I have November's block finished and have started piecing December's.  I'm hoping to start assembly on this quilt in October. I also need to make a start on the blocks for 2026.  I'm definitely going to work ahead for next year's BOM.  

It's not really a quilt project, but I've been making donation blocks for the guild. 

So far I've turned in 20 blocks, but I only have pictures of one set. The donation blocks are the Bonnie Hunter leaders and enders project she suggested in July.  It's been a nice way to use up some scrap yardage that's just been sitting in the stash.  

Just as there's been no changes in my PHD tracker, the same holds for my project tracking graphic. 

I'm really hoping to move some projects closer to finished before the end of year. Getting backings made would be a good place to start.  Kate's Choice is the closest to being completed. Once I get to a comfortable place with the Guild BOM projects, I'll focus on getting that done. Maybe it will happen this year?  

To Do List for the Week of 9/30/2025

Is it really the last day in September?  That just doesn't seem possible.  It was a fast moving summer. If this year stays true to the past, the last three months will go equally fast. There's nothing I can do on that front, so best to look at how I did with last week's to do list.  

To Do List for 9/23/2025

1. 2025 BOM: Finish November and start December - progress

2. Magnificent Mystery: Start September clue - no progress

3. Old Town: Continue piecing blocks at late night sew ✔

4. Wild and Goose: Continue making green blocks ✔

5. Guild Donation blocks: Make as many as possible  ✔

Not a bad week, only one item with no progress. The 2025 Guild BOM is really my first priority and I'm spending a lot of time working on it. Those guild meetings are going to creep up on me if I don't pay attention.  

To Do List for 9/30/2025

1. 2025 BOM: Finish November and December blocks

The November Inverted Star block is finished, along with two of the sawtooth stars, so three of those left to stitch.  All the background pieces are cut for the December sawtooth stars. Most of the pieces for the Inverted Star are cut. I've started making the HSTs for December. So it should be doable to finish those up this week.  

2. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter); Continue piecing blocks at late night sew. 

My pile of finished blocks, blocks under construction and remaining parts.  I haven't cut the pieces for the pieced sashing.  I'm hoping to get to that today. My goal is to get this to a finished quilt top before this year's mystery comes out.  

3. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue working on green blocks

The current layout calls for 12 sets of 4 blocks. I'm just a little over half way there.  

4. 2026 Guild BOM: Press and cut fabrics for Jan block 

December will be here before I know it. The complete layout along with coloring diagram, yardage requirements and the first block have to be ready for the December guild meeting.  So I best get busy on that. I have the instructions written for January and February, but the plan is to work ahead as this year I will need to write a new set of instructions for each block of the month.  So I should also get busy on March instructions. 

That's my list for this week.  I'm hoping to make good progress on each item this week. Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 39 of 2025

It's been a pretty good week. The only wrinkle was a broken connector on the Outback that caused some scary lights to show up on the dashboard. Reading the manual, the potential issues were pretty scary and making a trip to Tulsa to the dealership didn't seem wise. Thankfully our normal in town mechanic recommended another shop that could handle electrical issues.  They got the parts and we are back in business. We aren't used to sharing one car, but the advantage is I ended up spending a lot of time at open sew at the quilt shop because why go home after lunch, only to turn around in 4 hours to pick him up from work.  That definitely helped on the stitching time front this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 18/27 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 230/270 days
• Success rate = 85.19%

It's the first time in a while that I've managed to stitch every day of a week. Hopefully this is a trend that I can keep going till the end of the year. 

I've not done much on the fabric organization or scrap fronts. I have been pulling scraps from my bins and bags of scraps for the 2025 Guild BOM.  The fabrics are pulled for the December block, not to just get them cut and the block made

Grad Girl is settling into her new routine in Houston.  So is Queenie. 

She likes to nap in the afternoon sun coming through the patio doors.  My Guy and I think she looks like a mini Chewbacca in this photo with red tint to her fur and her face from that angle.  At any rate, this cutie is doing fine, though she's not a fan of her person's leaving to go to work each day and she's back to waiting for shared nap time on the couch during the weekend. 

How did your stitchy week go?  

  

Week 146 Photo Challenge: The Beauty of Winter

It's been two months and a day since my last photo challenge post.  There's a lot of reasons for that.  Most of them are related to moving Grad Girl out of Texas in July and then back to Texas in September.  The biggest reason is that the challenge wasn't an easy one to photograph in the middle of summer. 

Our point of view for the photos we each ended up should be viewed through the lens of looking for winter in summer.  If you can judge our efforts in that light, you might not think the photos are so odd.  

I was the last to get my photo. My brain was blank, it wasn't until a week or so ago that my gray matter created any type of image. 

Kate: Staying Warm in Style

There's not much better on a cold winter morning or evening, then to be covered up with a quilt, drinking something hot, making plans for your next quilt. 

My Guy sent me three photos. One we decided not to use was the blower cleaning off the sidewalk after he finished mowing on one of our 90+ days.  If you keep that in mind, you can see why his photo works. 

My Guy: Real Snow

 

When you've just finished mowing the lawn in the middle of summer, winter and snow sound really, really nice.   

During July, Grad Girl was job hunting and interviewing.  August was finding an apartment and getting ready to move again.  Needless to say, she wasn't all that focused on photography. She did get to spend some time at the quilt shop sewing her first quilt.  

Grad Girl: Waiting for Christmas

Heading back to Texas to start a job, these Christmas fabrics reminded her that she'd have some time off to celebrate with the family in just a few months. 

Not the most memorable photos.  None of us are very happy with our efforts, but at least we made a good effort for what was a very difficult subject for summer.  

So what's up next? 

We can all work with this one.  Hopefully that means the week 147 post will happen next Saturday!  

Photo Play 2025: June Summary

I've been taking photographs, but just haven't had time to review them.  My last Photo Play post was written in June. We moved Grad Girl out of College Station in July, then she found a job in August and we started the process of moving her back to Texas. Now it's almost the end of September and I'm just now having time to really get back to my photography.  It's quite possible I won't have much to post for July and August. There is still time for me to get the camera out before September ends.  

My June photos are all from walks, either here in Oklahoma or in Texas.  The following photos were taken either with a Canon 70D DLSR or and I-Phone 12.  The photos shot in Texas with the DLSR were captured with a Tamron 18-400 mm telephoto. The Oklahoma DLSR photos are from a Sigma 105 mm macro lens.  

We found a very cool park in College Station with wonderful nature trails and wildflowers.  

Dandelion Seed Head

Dragon fly

Dewdrops and a Grasshopper

Wild Mushrooms

Dayflowers

Rock Rose

The rest of the photos were taken in Oklahoma during a walk around our neighborhood. 

Mushroom (Yes it was a very wet spring here)

Clover

Indian Blanket

Indian Blanket

It's hard to pick a favorite, but the back lit Rock Rose is probably it from this set of photos. I'm fond of the dragon fly photo too, those are hard to capture.  The last photo of the Indian Blanket is up there too, I like the pop of yellow and orange against that sea of green. 

I'm betting there aren't many photos from July and August.  Hopefully I'll have time to review those files sometime before the end of the month.  I'll need to get busy to salvage my photography efforts for September. My Guy and Grad Girl have photos for our last challenge card. Me? I've had plans, but need to actually set up the shots and take them!