To Do List for the Week of 03/25/2025

This year seems to be moving ahead at light speed, when usually the first few months of the year usually seem to go more slowly. This is the last to do list for March.  I'm not ready for April. It's coming regardless, so no point in bemoaning. At least I did pretty well at getting last week's to do list checked off.  

To Do List for 03/18/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR: Finish borders ✔

2.  Guild BOM: Start May blocks ✔

3.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making blue blocks ✔

4.  Summery Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Last week's list was pretty short. My focus was on getting the 2025 SAHRR to finished quilt top and that happened.  So it was a really good week.  

The problem with finishing a project you've been focused on to the exclusion of the other stuff in your sewing room is then deciding what you pull out to work on in it's place. I may have a plan, we'll see how it goes with this week's list. 

To Do List for 03/25/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish May blocks

My version of the guild BOM is scrappy. I got lucky and found a number of 1.5" white on white strips in my scrap bins to use for the sawtooth star border blocks.  Made it much quicker to cut all the pieces I need for May's blocks.  

2. 2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail):  Trim backing

I found a wide backing at the local quilt shop, they have a 25% off sale on Saturday.  So I'll pick that up  then and get it trimmed up to fit the quilt. 

3.  On Ringo Lake (Bonnie Hunter): Make 2 blocks, start quilt assembly

I just need to make 8 of the corner units to have enough to finish off the 2 blocks.  I've got the final layout worked out. I still need to cut the sashing strips and corner stones. I'm hoping to make some progress on assembly before the week is done. 

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blue blocks

I've made good progress on the blue set of blocks. I should probably count and see where I'm at.  

5. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders

I'm close on the number of 4-patch blocks needed to finish the quilt.  I decided to start assembling the parts of the quilt, the center requires 9 16 patch blocks made from the 4 patch blocks.  If I need more 4 patches of either color, I'll make them as I go along. I don't want to make more than I need, so this seems to be the best approach to keep moving towards a finish on this one.  

It's a bit longer of a list, but with no due dates on anything, I can relax and make progress on each item.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

2025 SAHRR: A Finished Quilt Top

It seems my modus operandi these days is to take my projects with deadlines down to the wire.  The quilt parade link up for the 2025 SAHRR kicks off today over at Quilting Gail.  I finished the last borders on my version yesterday just before lunch. 

This has become one of my favorite quilt alongs.  Coming up with a block to meet the prompt and making it fit in the dimensions for that border is part of the challenge and the fun. It's also improved my piecing skills on small blocks.  

This is my third year participating in the SAHRR.  The previous two years I made quilts for My Guy and Grad Girl.  Grad Girl had asked me to make a quilt for her current roommate. Green is the roommate's favorite color so we started there. 

The green and blue Batik in the middle was the inspiration for pulling in the blue and the darker green. I had a light grey in the stash to use as the background.  After 6 rounds or prompts this was my finished quilt top. 

 

I was pretty happy with how all the rounds came out, but it felt unfinished.  Playing around in EQ, adding a simple border didn't help.  So I decided it need one more pieced border before I added a simple unpieced border to finish it out.  Here's my finished quilt top. 

The finished quilt top is 75" X 79", larger then my previous efforts.  But the quilt needed that last border to balance out that 4th border of just the green and blue.  I'm happy with how it came out.  Now to find a backing and and get it quilted so it can be delivered to the roommate before Grad Girl graduates this summer.  

Thank you Gail, Kathleen, Anja, Wendy, Brenda and Emily for another fun SAHRR.  

I'm also linking up with my usual Monday linky parties, Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 12 of 2025

 

It's been a busy week in the sewing room.  The weather has been up and down. Warm and windy one day, cold and calm the next.  But that's just March. The sewing room has been the best place to ride out Mother Nature's mercurial moods.  So it was a good week on the stitching front.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/March = 22/22 days
• 15 minute days/2025 =  76/81 days
• Success rate = 93.83% 

I'm hoping to finish March out by sewing every day this month. I didn't manage that for January or February.  Having a success rate in the mid 90's is really good when you consider I've had some years where it's been in the mid 50's.  The important thing is projects are moving along in the sewing room. Though I may need to take day out and do a bit of cleaning this next week, especially a good vacuuming. 

How are you doing with your sewing goals as the end of first quarter approaches?  

To Do List for the Week of 03/18/2025

Even with lots of stitching time, I'm finding it hard to get to every item on my to do list.  Mostly because I still have a couple of projects with deadlines, the SAHRR and the guild BOM. I probably should have stuck to a shorter list for last week.  

To Do List for 3/11/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish April Blocks ✔

2.  SAHRR: Start on finial borders ✔

3.  Chocolate Marshmallows: Make backing - no progress

4.  On Ringo Lake: Cut pieces for last block - no progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making blue blocks ✔

6.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Four out of six isn't a bad week, especially since I made really good progress on my two deadline projects.  I'm going to need to keep up on the BOM blocks as I'm the coordinator this year.  I realized that I'll need to have a finished quilt top for the December meeting.  I'd best get a bit ahead so I can make that happen. This week's list will be a bit shorter.  

To Do List for 3/18/2025

1. SAHRR (Quilting Gail):  Finish Borders

The link up for the parade of quilts is next Monday, so I really need to finish piecing all the blocks and get the borders assembled and attached.  This will be my priority project. I only have 2 more sets of hourglass blocks to make and trim. From that point the block assembly goes much faster.  

2. 2025 Guild BOM: Start May blocks

This may seem really early to start that month's blocks, but I have to have them ready for the April Meeting.  So far I've been completing my blocks the day before or day of the meeting. That's cutting it a bit close, so I'm going to work on getting a bit ahead.  

3.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blue blocks

4.  Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders

I'm going to keep it simple this week so I can get the SAHRR to finished quilt top. If I finish the list early, I'll work on a backing for the SAHRR. It needs to be finished by July, so I need to get it out for quilting pretty quickly. 

Normally I link up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday, but she doesn't have a post up as yet. If one goes up later, I'll link up.  

A Lot of Stitching, Not Much to Show

It was a quiet weekend once we got past the high winds of Friday.  We have elevated fire danger for most of this week.  It was so bad Friday, I did take the time to gather all our important documents and pack them so I could grab them and go if we had to evacuate. We live at the edge of town with open fields to the south and west, so it's not improbable that we might need to evacuate. Thankfully the winds this week are our typical March "breezes", hopefully the infrastructure is built to tolerate those.  

There was a good bit of stitching this weekend, but I can't show you much of it.  I've been working the Guild BOM blocks, but I can't post those until after I reveal them at the guild meeting tomorrow.  I've also been working on the blocks for the last border of the Stay at Home Round Robin project, but don't really have much to show there either.  The only other project that's up on the design wall is the yellow blocks for Wild and Goosey. 

These will finish at 7" in the quilt.  The yellow blocks form the center of the quilt.  The plan is to sash them with more black once I get to the point of assembling the quilt.  I wanted to wait till I had all the 3.5" units of a given color before I started assembling them into larger blocks.  That way I can distribute the colors better. 

With all the yellow ones finished, I moved back to working on the blue blocks.  

I need 64 of the blue for the planned layout. Based on the current block count, a little over a third of the way there. There's still  two weeks left in March. Hopefully I can get a bit closer to half way before the end of the month.  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.