To DoTuesday for the Week of 11/24/2020

There wasn't much blogging going on last week.  My schedule was just that nuts. Thankfully this week it's much calmer.  Though I didn't post last week, there was a to do list and I actually didn't do too bad. Thankfully I had the weekend to play catch up on those to dos.  

To Do List for 11/17/2020

• Red, White and Blue Stars: Continue adding borders ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Work on November Clue ✔
• Unity: Add next border, make flying geese - progress 
• Grassy Creek:  Pick fabrics ✔

Check marks on three out four of is pretty good. And there was good progress on the fourth one. It was a good weekend for stitching time. I'm off all this week and it will just be the three of us. My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner will be a chocolate cream pie. So I'm off the hook for a lot of the cooking, which means there should be some good stitching time this week.  

To Do List for 11/24/2020

Daisy Chain: De-thread, press, pack and ship

The back is made, cleaned up, pressed and packaged. Now I just need to do the same to the quilt top. Daisy Chain will probably be my last finish this year.   

Red, White and Blue Stars: Add last border

Red, White and Blue Stars, Setting self designed

The skinny middle border is done. All that's left for this to be a finished quilt top is the last border. I have the backing fabric picked out and that should get made before the end of the year. But I doubt I get much farther than that. This project will probably be my first finish for 2021.  

Morewood Mystery: Finish November clue

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

I'm more that half way finished with the petal blocks and just started on the HSTs. I'd like to get this clue finished before Friday. So I can spend the weekend working on the first clue for new Bonnie Hunter mystery. 

Grassy Creek:  Start Clue 1

The Scientist in Training helped me finalize the fabric pull for Grassy Creek. She really liked this combo better than the fabric pull using the cooler fabrics. I usually don't go with Bonnie's color scheme or stitch with this warm of a color palette, but 2020 is a weird year. Seems fitting that the last project for the year isn't my typical style either. 

Unity: Finish Step 5 border, work on flying geese

2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

Only one more border strip to attach.  But there's still a lot of flying geese to make before step 5 is finished. Those will be my leaders and enders for the next week. 

Good luck with your to do list for the week. Fingers crossed I can make good progress on this week's list.  Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for Tuesday To Do. 

A Finish and a Start

It's been two weeks since my last design wall post.  Last week was just nuts, I worked on Sunday and had to go in to work early on Monday. There just wasn't the mental bandwidth to do much posting last week. Thankfully I'm off all this week. I'm hoping to get in some good stitching time and catch up on emails and blog reading.  

Before the work madness got geared up, the label and binding for 2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt was finished.  

2019 Christmas Mystery, designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)
Started: October 13, 2019, Finished: November 8, 2020

This quilt was started last October. It was the third annual Christmas quilt along offered by the local quilt shop. I didn't do the first one, but did the 2018 version and then last year did this one. The theme for this year's mystery didn't thrill me, so that made it easy to keep with my plan to just start three quilts this year.   

Trudy used gold thread and did a swirly holly thing as the motif. 

This Christmas light block shows off the quilting.  

I'm not sure where this one is going. I kept last year's version to use this year.  This one may go live with my sister. She usually decorates her kitchen with gingerbread men, so this quilt would fit right in.  

That's the finish, now for the start.  Well it's not actually a start, yet. Bonnie Hunter posted the fabric requirements for this year's mystery, Grassy Creek, at the end of last month. I don't usually get serious about fabric selection till the week before the mystery starts. That was last week, so I opened the fabric closet and started playing.  

I'm a cool color person and most of my quilts reflect that preference. Bonnie's color choices this year are decidedly warm.  I don't have a lot of stash in those colors, but I was able to pull together collection that matches her color palette fairly well. 

If I go this route, I'd change out the lighter yellow green for the darker green I used in this second color palette. 

The gray and whites are the same between the two color palettes. All of those fabrics are left overs from previous projects. The red and orange in the first palette are left overs. The dark and light purples in the second color palette are left overs from previous projects.  The first color palette is better balanced across the tonal ranges, the second is less so as the pink and light purple read about the same color density in black and white.  

I have till Friday to figure out the color palette.  So it may be one of these two or I may tweak on it all week and come up with something completely different.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. Happy stitching this week.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 47 of 2020

It was one of those weeks for me.  Deadlines unfortunately are real things and I spent a lot of time this last week working to meet mine. That cut into my stitching (and blogging) time this last week.  How about you?  Was this an excellent week for you or did life have other plans for your stitching time? You can link up at the bottom of the post to share how the stitching went this week.  

I stayed late at work several nights last week and went in early a couple of days to stay on top of looming deadlines.  That cut into my stitching time this week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 17/21 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 291/326 days
• Success rate = 89.26%

So not a perfect week.  A couple days all I managed to fit in was 15 minutes. This was a week that I really needed those 15 minutes of sanity when I could get them in.  Thankfully I'm off all this week, though I'm on call Wednesday if they need a supervisor on site.

One of the things on the to do list for this next week is to make some Christmas themed face masks.  I ordered some fun novelty Christmas fabrics from Spoonflower when they had their half off fat quarters sale last month. 

I think my favorite is the elves (gnomes?)   The characters on the Nutcracker fabric may be too big for a mask. I may have to cut off a few legs. 

That was my stitchy week. I'm hoping for a lot more stitching time this week.  My Guy and the Scientist in Training have put their heads together on Thanksgiving dinner. It will just be the three of us this year. And we are thankful we can do that much this year. The SIT has been especially careful about contact with others so she could come home this week. Campus is closed for the whole week, which is nice. She'll have a chance to recoup a bit before she ends back for dead week and finals.   

How was your stitching week?  

Stitching Stuff: Week 46 of 2020

November is half gone, Thanksgiving is a little over a week away. This time of year the days seem to pass so much faster.  I find it harder to keep up with my stitching time as the daylight hours get shorter. How about you, do you find it easier or harder to work in some regular stitching time? 

I bucked my normal seasonal trend and had a pretty good week on the stitching front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 12/14 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 286/319 days
• Success rate = 89.66%

It will be a challenge this next week to work in some stitching time as a major project is due at work and end of year performance reviews need to be completed by Thursday. So there may be a few late nights.  At least I have a week of vacation to look forward to once this week is done.  

How about you?  How are you doing at finding time to stitch?  

1. Julie in GA 2. karen 3. Chrisknits

4. Meloney 5. DawnyK 6. Deana

7. Quilting Gail 8. Shasta @ High Road

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of 11/10/2020

Last week was one of those weeks.  It was hard to focus on much and even the sewing room was not enough of a distraction.  This week is going to be better, just busy. My meeting calendar is pretty packed for the next 2 weeks.  Even with the distractions last week, there was still some good progress on the To Do List.  

To Do List for 11/2/2020

• Christmas Mystery Quilt:  bind ✔
• Daisy Chain: Find a backing fabric ✔
• Red, White &Blue Stars: Add first border - progress
• Unity: Finish Step 4, start step 5 ✔

Definitely a good week on the progress front. Finishing a quilt is always a mood boost. So what's the plan for this week?  

To Do List for 11/10/2020

Daisy Chain:  Make back, prep for quilting

I've worked out the dimensions for the back in the my quilt notebook.  This will be a very simple back to piece, just sewing two lengths of fabric together.  The hardest part is getting the pieces measured and cut accurately.  The plan is to have Daisy Chain ready to ship out for quilting when Frolic comes back.

Red, White & Blue Stars:  Continue to work on adding borders

 Red, White and Blue Stars, Setting self designed

Two border strips are attached and the next two are cut and ready to add. Hopefully I'll get the first and second borders done this week. The plan is for three borders, but I doubt I get all three done this week. Adding borders always takes longer than I think it should.  

Morewood Mystery:  Make more blocks for November clue

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

November's clue uses pieces from previous clues to make larger units, plus there are more HSTs to make.  I won't get to the HSTs this week. That's OK, I have the whole month to complete this clue.

Unity:  Add next border and make Clue 5 blocks

The next border is a narrow strip of background fabric, so that should go on relatively quickly. The next round of the quilt uses flying geese made from the green, yellow and black fabrics.  I've made a start on the green.  But have a ways to go on getting this clue all finished.  

I've come to appreciate putting together a to do list each week.  Being deliberate about what projects I work on has been a big help in getting projects finished.  Thanks Roseanne for introducing me to the power of a good list.  And thank you for hosting the To Do Tuesday linky party to let us share our successful and not so successful weeks.