To Do List for the Week of 3/24/2026

Hard to believe there is just a little over a week left in March.  It's been a good month for me on the productivity front. Even with my allergies and my back issues, I've been doing pretty well at getting my to do lists mostly checked off.  

To Do List for 3/17/2026

1. SAHRR: Work on borders ✔

2. Magnificent Mystery: Work on block assembly ✔

3. Wild and Goosey: Continue working on blue blocks ✔

Three for three is a good week.  I didn't get as far with the SAHRR as I would have liked. Hopefully it's far enough along that I can get remaining borders on before the linky party ends. That will be to do #1 for this week. 

To Do List for 3/24/2026

1. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish quilt top

 

I'm adding a partially pieced border to the completed sampler part of the quilt.  Then adding two additional strip borders to get the size up a bit.  I'm probably half way done with the square in a square blocks.  

2. Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish blocks, start quilt assembly. 

These are the pieces left to sew into blocks. I did a count last night of the number of blocks completed.  There are 3 more block A's and 3 more block B's, plus the fill in half blocks left to complete. So its getting there. I've been working on stitching one block as work has been proceeding on my priority projects each week.  I'll be glad to get this one to finished quilt top. That will be the end of my deadline sewing for first quarter. 

4. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Piece backing, start quilt prep

Chilhowie is the 2022 Bonnie Hunter mystery.  The quilt top was finished in September of 2024.  It's the smallest of my quilts to be quilted.  It will be the first quilt I try to quilt with my walking foot as a whole project.  It's small enough that it shouldn't be too hard to wrestle it on my home machine.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm hoping the quilting on this one goes faster than Kate's Choice went.  

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

So many different blues in these blocks. This week a few more scrap strips were cut into triangles to increase the amount of lighter fabrics going into these blocks.  I counted how many sets of 4 there were in this stack.  I need 4 more sets of 4 to be finished with the blue blocks.  The purple and teal block sets still need to be finished, but I'm getting closer to quilt assembly time.  Fingers crossed that happens before the end of the year.  

So that's my list for the week.  Hopefully, the allergies will stay managed and I'll figure out my fitness stuff so there are no back issues this week.  It would be nice to be back to a 3 item to do list next week.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

First Finish of 2026

Last week was very productive, but the weekend was a bit rough since my back decided it needed to let me know I'd over done it.  We had to switch fitness centers (it's a long sordid tale that I don't want to dwell on).  The new fitness center equipment is the same, but different.  Different enough that my "normal" fitness routine is using muscles and putting me in positions different from before.  My back finally cried "Stop!" late Friday night.  So I have some rethinking to do when we go work out tomorrow.  Thankfully, I felt much better yesterday.  

I finished sewing the binding on Kate's Choice.  I'm going to share a lot about how this project evolved, mainly for myself as my blog is how I keep track of both my quilting and major life stuff.  If you want to see the finished quilt and not read the whole sorry tale, just scroll to the end.   

Kate's Choice actually started off as Grandmother's Choice, a quilt along sponsored by Barbara Brackman back in 2012.  

This sounded like such a fun quilt along.  I had the perfect fabric in my stash, Decadent Victorian from Moda fabrics.  

This line came out in 2007, so it was already 5 years old when I started the quilt along.  The bright pink is Bella Rosa from RJR fabrics, also from 2007.  The dark green used in some of the blocks and the border wasn't in the original fabric pull. 

I kept up with the first few weeks of the quilt along.

 

I made the first 5 blocks and then got completely stumped on the 6th block.  Barbara was using a lot of template patterns in these blocks and that was a skill set I hadn't mastered yet (still haven't).  Plus I was working full time, a supervisory position with 11 direct reports and a 13 year old at home. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the only block that was anywhere close to 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 was the Monkey Wrench block on the top right.  I was so frustrated with this project it was sent to time out in October of 2012. 

In late 2023, I was looking over my unfinished project list trying to decide what UFOs were going to go on my PHD list for 2024.  I was retired by then and a lot more experienced with piecing (by this point I'd been through the Bonnie Hunter school of piecing via her mystery quilts). Barbara had very thoughtfully left the quilt along posts up here.  After looking over at the number of template pieced blocks, I decided to just do my own sampler pulling blocks out of the Quilt Block Bible by Rosemary Youngs. 

Since I was picking my own block, the project name was changed from Grandmother's Choice to Kate's Choice.  My plan was to use these blocks as a quilt as you go project so I'd finally learn how to use my walking foot. I finished all the blocks in August of 2024, but didn't start quilting them until April of 2025. 

A very simple square in a square quilting pattern was quilted on each block. By the end of April 2025, one row was completely quilted and I'd made a start on the second row.  I marked my quilting lines with a hera marker. That worked out pretty well. All the blocks were quilted by August of last year and the first row was assembled by the end of that month.  

Assembling that first row was not fun at all.  So the whole thing went back into time out till January of this year.  After finishing only one quilt in 2025, but with 11 quilt tops needing to be quilted, I needed to get with the program on "how to quilt stuff".  So I made getting this project done a priority. I set up my sewing week such that Wednesday and Thursday were walking foot days. It was slow, but steady progress. All the rows were assembled by mid February.  

Once the top was all assembled, I realized it really needed a border. None of the reference books I had were helpful on that front. So I made up my own process and thankfully it worked. 

The borders were quilted with a "keyboard". That seemed to be the simplest option and it worked with the square in a square quilting in the blocks. The quilt was bound in the same dark green used on the front border.  I put the last stitches into attaching the binding last Monday, April 16th.  

I'm pretty happy with how it worked out. It's a small quilt, just lap sized. But I'm Ok with that, it will be a nice quilt to use in the office to cover up my legs when I'm working on the computer during the winter.  My Guy likes the back better than the front. 

I quilted the blocks with the backs attached. If you are careful with the layout, you end up with a two sided quilt. 

This was my next to oldest UFO.  I'm thrilled to have it finished and off the UFO list. It's not perfect by any means, but I learned so much by doing the quilt as you go method. I'm no longer scared of my walking foot.  I feel more confident to quilt some of my other finished quilt tops. 

Linking up with my typical Monday linky parties; Patchwork & Quilts plus Sew & Tell Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 12 of 2026

 

My apologies for not getting this post up earlier today.  I've been dealing with some back issues this weekend. Sitting in front of the computer wasn't comfortable at all yesterday.  I slept in this morning because I was feeling a lot better.  So the post is a lot later than I planned.  Stitching time still happened, but not nearly as much as usual.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Mar = 21/21 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 80/80 days
• Success rate = 100%

I'm hoping the back issue is managed for now and that I can get in a good day of stitching.  Getting older is definitely not for sisses.  

How was your week with needle and thread? 

  

Week 152 Photo Challenge: Flowers in Bloom

The photo challenge card for week 152 was perfect for this time of year.  Maybe not easy, but definitely doable.  

All three of us were able to get photos this week without having to fudge on the parameters.  

Kate: Redbud Blooms

The cold temps early in the week pretty much killed the blooms on the Bradford Pear trees, but the Redbuds were still blooming.  Maybe the freeze didn't affect them as much as many of the trees didn't have full blooms. You can see from my photo there are still lots of buds that haven't bloomed yet. 

My Guy took his photo before the late weekend freeze.  

My Guy: Pathfinder Plum

   

He caught these plum blooms at just the right time in the day.  It's hard not to love that soft lighting.  The hard freeze pretty much killed the plum flowers too, so he timed his photo just right.  

Being a working girl has made it harder for My Girl to get photos most weeks.  She did make it work this week. 

My Girl: This is Why I Can't Have Real Flowers

If you could see the very edges of this Lego bouquet, you'd see tiny little bite marks. Queenie, her cat, enjoys flowers. Mostly to eat, not to look at. My Girl learned pretty early on, no fresh flowers in the apartment.  So she makes do with the Lego variety.  

We all enjoyed this week's challenge card as it was one of the easy ones. Next week's photo card is going to be a challenge.  

We actually have a skate park here in town. I'm sure there is one somewhere close to My Girl.  The problem is taking photos of people, particularly children, that don't know you. It makes people very uncomfortable.  So not sure where we'll each go with this. This challenge make take a few weeks.    

To Do List for the Week of 3/17/2026

March started with three quilts that needed to be finished tops before the end of the month. Those three have been my priority since January and have been on my to do list every week. I made good progress on at least one of those last week.  

To Do List for 3/10/2026

1. Scenic Waypoint: Finish block and quilt assembly ✔

2. Kate's Choice: Finish binding ✔

3. SAHRR: Work on final border blocks and quilt assembly- progress

4. Magnificent Mystery: Work on block assembly ✔

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue working on blue blocks ✔

A finished quilt and a finished quilt top.  That's probably the best week I've had all year!  This week's too do list will be a lot shorter.  Hopefully that means I make good progress on the two remaining projects with deadlines. 

To Do List for 3/17/2026

1. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Work on borders.  

All the blocks from this year's prompts have been sewn into a center panel.  The plan is to add some additional borders to get the size up a bit.  The quilt parade is a week from tomorrow, so I need to get moving on that.  

2.  Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Work on block assembly

The quilt parade for this mystery is 2 weeks from tomorrow. This project won't be my priority this week, but I kept one block in the works at the machine while I was getting Scenic Waypoint put together. The plan is to do the same this week while assembling the SAHRR. It's slow going that way, but at least it keeps the project moving. 

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

I had to stop and cut black triangles last night so I could keep making the blue blocks as my leaders project.  I also need to cut some more lighter and medium blue scraps. What's left in my triangle bag is mostly darks at this point.  

Finishing up two projects really shortens the list. Hopefully next week's list will be even shorter.  I need to get back to the guild BOM blocks.  If I get another three BOM blocks done and the instructions written, I'm good till July!  

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.