Stitching Stuff: Week 21 of 2026

 

It's been a wet and chilly week.  We needed the rain and I'm not going to complain about a bit of cool weather. We'll hit summer pretty quickly, so I enjoyed it while it was here.  I had to see the orthopedist this week, my knees took a beating while my back was out of commission and my right leg has been very, very unhappy.  We'll be working on that in addition to my back issues in PT in a couple of weeks.  All that to say, I didn't have the best week in the sewing room.  The stairs were outright painful early in the week.   

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 22/23 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 141/143 days
• Success rate = 98.60%

It was never my plan to end the year with a 100% success rate. If I can keep it over 90%, I'll be really happy. I'm still on track there.   

How did your stitching time work out this week? 

To Do List for the Week of 5/19/2026

The to do list post is a bit late this week. I had an early morning appointment yesterday, followed by our gym workout, then a trip to Wally World as we call it.  It was time for lunch by the time we got home. When I did get back to the computer in the afternoon, I needed to make sure the guild block of the month instructions were ready to go as yesterday was meeting day.  I just didn't get around to writing a blog post.  

I did pretty well with last week's to do list.  

To Do list for 5/12/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make backing - progress

2. Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔  

3. Lupine and Laughter: Work on A blocks ✔

4. Wild and Goosey: Continue sashing blue blocks ✔

Check marks on three out of 4 items and progress on the 4th is a pretty good week.  We'll see how this week goes, I have more appointments then I normally do. 

To Do List for 5/19/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: make backing

The 2025 BOM is a big quilt, it needs almost 6 yards of backing fabric.  I found this older Connecting Threads fabric in my stash. I have 7 yards of it.  So that should work. I've started cutting the pieces for the backing, it should be assembled before next week.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilting

The plan is to use the walking foot to quilt straight lines along the diagonals of the quilt.  I've finished all the lines along one diagonal. I'll start on the lines from the other diagonal today.  

3. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Continue working on block A 

I've added one block to the wall since Monday, so no photo.  Hopefully, I'll have time to sew this weekend and can get all these blocks done.  

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

This has been slow moving as I'm sashing the blocks as my leaders and enders project. Only 2 blocks completely sashed. I may have to make this a full task and start using the purple blocks as my leaders project.  

That's my list for this week. Pretty much the same as last week.  The 2025 BOM and Chilhowie should drop off in a couple of weeks.  Then I'll have to figure out what projects come next.  

Linking up the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Back to the Lupine and Laughter Mystery

My sewing room mojo was a bit sparse this last weekend.   I ended up reading most of Sunday afternoon. But I did finally make it up to the sewing room for a couple of hours before dinner. 

Other than the 2025 Guild BOM, the Bonnie Hunter Lupine and Laughter Mystery  is the only quilt started last year or for that matter this year, that's not a finished quilt top.  I've been working on what Bonnie calls the alternate blocks.  

Six blocks finished over the last couple of weeks. What looks like black is actually a very dark purple.  I'm making my version half sized.  So I only need 6 more of these blocks.  So half way there. I have cut most of the pieces for the main block, but haven't started assembling those yet. I'll get these done, then start on those.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts and Sew & Tell Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 20 of 2026

 

It's been a pretty calm week on both the weather and the home front. My back is mostly healed, bending doesn't hurt like it did. The doctor didn't see anything that needed immediate follow up in my X-rays. Though he did recommend PT. We'll see what happens there, he wasn't sure insurance would approve it at this point.  

It was a good week on the stitching front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 16/16 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 135/136 days
• Success rate = 99.26%

Another good week in the sewing room. I even spent a day decluttering my fabric piles and going through my project boxes.  I also retired the pincushion I've been using since 2022/2023.  

 

The center of the pincushion was starting to wear just a little thin. It's hard to see how thin the center is from the photo, but you can definitely see the discoloration.  I had a spare in one of my "extras" drawer.  

This pincushion was part of a set that my sister gave me for Christmas several years ago.  The fabric is a heavier decorating fabric rather than cotton. Hopefully it will last longer than three and a half years.  

Have you had the bandwidth for a bit of stitching this week?  

1. Kathy S. 2. Frédérique 3. maggie f

4. Julie in GA 5. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 6. Quilting Gail

7. Bonnie in Va 8. Marsha's Spot

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

To Do List for the Week of 5/12/2026

My back has been slowly getting better. Bending is still problematic, but otherwise I'm mostly pain free.  My therapy has included cycling, walking and sewing.  Movement is the best thing for the back and with all the walking between rooms I did working on Chilowie, I moved a lot!  It's a blessing that the sewing room was one of the places I could go and not hurt. That was really good for last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 5/5/2026

1.  Old Town: Work on borders ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Sandwich quilt and start marking ✔

3.  Lupine and Laughter: Work on A blocks ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Finish blue blocks, start sashing ✔

It was a good week, 4 for 4 on the to do list. Fingers crossed I can do as well with this week's list. 

To Do List for 5/12/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make backing

My Girl has asked me to finish this quilt for one of her college buddies.  This one is a bit big for me to quilt on my sewing machine. Plus, having some professionally quilted will help me make a dent in the number of to be quilted projects.  I found a reasonable backing fabric in the stash.  So I need to get some measurements and get started on sewing the back up.  It also needs a different name. My Girl is usually pretty good at coming up with good names for the quilts that go to her friends.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilting 

I'm using painters tape to mark my lines. The first two lines were not perfect. I may or may not go back to fix them. I'll see how noticeable the wobbles are once all the quilting is done.  At least I got started. It's slow going at the moment. I'm hoping it gets faster with more practice.  

3. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Work on A blocks

I was reading the pattern last night to get started on what I thought was block B.  My block IDs are switched from Bonnie's.  That's OK, as long as I know which is which.  I've started on the "framing blocks" for the first block.  That purple may be way to dark for the rest of the quilt, but it's what I've cut, so we'll see how it develops as the blocks come together. 

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

Only 1 block sashed so far, 63 left.  This makes a great leader and ender project.  

Another short list.  But it is in line with my strategy was for the year.  I wanted to keep the list to 4 to 5 to dos during second and third quarter.  The focus will be on getting quilts to finished over the next few months.  

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.