To Do Tuesday for the Week of 7/7/2020

I've been enjoying a staycation with My Guy.  I did have to work a bit yesterday and will need to put in a couple of hours today, but that should be it for the week. Though I will need to check email here and there.  We were off visiting the Scientist in Training over the weekend, but I did get in a really good afternoon of stitching time yesterday. Good enough finish checking off all the items on last week's To Do List. 

Weekly To Do List for 06/30/2020

Frolic:  Trim, start on light blue border ✔

Unity:  Step 3, make more Sawtooth Stars ✔

Mosaic Mystery: Finish and press binding ✔

It helps that I kept the list pretty simple. Still it feels good to see a check mark at the end of each line. 

So what's the plan for my staycation week?  

Weekly To Do List for 07/06/2020

Mosaic Mystery: Finish binding quilt

I've started stitching the binding to the front of the quilt. That won't take much longer to finish. Hopefully I can finish all the hand stitching to the back before next Tuesday.  

Frolic:  Finish lt. blue border, stitch together HSTs

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Frolic is all trimmed up, ready for the first light blue border. 

The border strips are all cut, now they just need to be assembled and cut to size.  Sewing the HSTs together is the current leaders and enders project. 

Unity:  Step 3, continue to make Sawtooth Stars

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

One pieced border for step 3 is done and attached.  I'm hoping to finish enough stars this week to finish off another pieced border strip. 

Storm at Sea:  Make a decision on the backing

My receipts show that I did indeed order a backing last year. I've not found it yet.  But looking on line at what I ordered, it may be too dark to use for quilt back.  It sure looks a lot darker than I remember ordering.  So I'll look for it this week.  But I may decide to piece a back out of something else or order a lighter extra wide fabric to use as the backing.  

That's my list for this week.  Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for To Do Tuesday.  

The July One Monthly Goal

We had a really nice weekend hanging out with the Scientist in Training.  We went on a few walks and stopped at our favorite gelato place for a cold treat. Not the most exciting weekend, but it was nice get out of town for a couple of days. 

On the quilting side of things, it's a new month so I've been contemplating what should be July's One Monthly Goal. 

Several projects are moving along towards completion.  The closest is the Mosaic Mystery Quilt.  

 Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

I finished trimming off the excess batting last night. 

The label is made and framed.  

The binding is ready. 

Since it's the closest to being completed, July's goal is to get  Mosaic Mystery quilt bound.  This year's Meadow Mist Designs Morewood Mystery kicked off this month with the fabric requirements. So it would be good to get last year's quilt completed and off the list before I add this year's.   

So that's the plan for July.  Linking up with Elm Street Quilts, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and Main Crush Monday. 

Week 27 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

Hope everyone in the USA had a wonderful 4th of July.  Ours was very low key, but it was enjoyable.  We are hanging out at the Scientist in Training's place this weekend. We'll head home in a bit, so I should get in a good afternoon of stitching.  How did your stitchy week go?  How often did you get to play with needle and thread the last week? 

My mojo seems to be hanging around, it was a good week in the sewing room. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days

15 minute days/June  = 23/30 days

15 minute days/July = 4/4/ days

15 minute days/2020 = 163/186

Success rate = 87.63%

We are off work the rest of this week.  No plans, other than to do some things around the house, maybe get out for a hike or two.  So I'm hoping to work in a good amount of stitching time this week. You can link up and share how well your week went at the end of the post.  

June is over and July has gotten started so it's time for a report on the stash.  

Fabric used in June  = 4.15 yards

Fabric used year to date = 29.35 yards

More fabric in than out for 2020

I gave in during the Blueprint closure and ordered several 6 yard cuts of fabric.  The put me at the more in that out point, but it's not so bad that I can't recover and end the year with more out than in.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the regular stash report.  

The basket flowers are blooming.  

The name comes from the "basket" at the base of the flower.

Fully opened they have lacy look to them.  These are one of my favorite wild flowers. 

That's it for this week. Stay cool and stitch on!  (Oh and link up below to share how your stitchy week went.)

1. Chrisknits 2. karen 3. maggie f 4. Julie in GA

5. Andree at Quilting & Learning 6. Sherrie 7. Jennifer in Indy 8. di

9. DawnyK 10. Quilting Gail 11. Amanda 12. Deana

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

Happy July 4th!

The Midyear Review for 2020 Quilting Ambitions

I finished the last of my midyear reviews with my direct reports at work yesterday.   The purpose of the midyear review is to make sure you are on track with your goals. If you are not on track, it helps to identify the obstacles or changes in priorities and adjust accordingly. Also it's a good opportunity to celebrate your successes. It's just natural for me to apply what we do at work to the quilty part of my life.  Back in December I set my 2020 Quilting Ambitions as part of Quilting Jetgirl's 2020 Planning Party.  Here's how things are going at the mid year mark.  

2020 Ambition #1:  Finish 12 Quilts in 2020

Only two finishes so far this year, as my PHD in 2020 report shows.

  

 Twinkle Stars, block Tutorial by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy and 

Stripes from the 2019 Quiltygirl Winter Quilt Along

Twinkle Stars and The Winter Quilt Along are it so far.  But only one new start so far this year.  So I'm doing much better about not chasing squirrels, which is hopefully helping me do a better job of focusing on moving the existing projects to finishes.  

Though not finishes yet, there's been really good progress on three other projects so far this year.  

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

The 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery didn't finish up until about mid January.  So it's gone from having three blocks finished to finishing and assembling the quilt center.  I've started on the borders. 

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

The Mosaic Mystery Quilt along finished up in early January as well.  It's progressed from a set of blocks on the design wall to just needing the binding.  This should be finish number three in a matter of days. Almost perfect timing as this year's Meadow Mist Designs Morewood Mystery kicked off with the fabric requirements this week.  I don't count a quilt as started until I start cutting the fabrics, so I still have time to finish this one before I actually start this year's (which was on my 2020 quilt plan as a planned new start). 

Storm at Sea, Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway),
Setting self designed

Storm at Sea just needed the last three borders at the end of last year. But I got side tracked with too many mystery quilt alongs and new projects, so Storm at Sea got put aside.  All the borders are on and it's a finished quilt top.  I'm still searching for the extra wide backing that I think was ordered. Several blog buddies have suggested checking my receipts or order records to see if I actually ordered it. That's the part of the plan next week, before I get too deep into clean up plans. (I'd so much rather stitch on my staycation).   

So in review, I'm really likely to get these three to the finished stage this year, for a total of 5 finishes.  There are two quilts that just need borders, backings and quilting to be finished this year.  I think those two are likely to make it to the finish line for a total of 7 finishes for 2020. That would tie my best year for finishes.  That may be as good as it gets this year. Which would be pretty awesome, even if it doesn't meet my goal.    

2020 Ambition #2: Host 15 Minutes to Stitch, Work in 15 minutes of stitching time 85% of days in 2020

With a full time job and a family, it's easy to let my stitching time fall victim to all the other things going on in my life.  But working in regular stretches of stitching time is crucial to maintaining some semblance of sanity in today's madness.  Hence the goal to work in just 15 minutes of stitching time most days.  Up till this year my goal was to work in that time every day, but I finally realized that was adding to the stresses I was trying to get away from. So for this year,  my goal is to stitch 85% of the time (or at least 6 days a week). Year to date, my success rate is 87.5%.  So I'm doing well on that front.

As far as hosting the weekly 15 Minutes to Stitch linky party, there have been 25 posted link ups for the 26 weeks of 2020 so far.  I missed hosting a link up the Sunday after our company decided to close all office locations and have everyone work from home due to Covid 19.  That first week of working from home was so stressful, I couldn't summon the words for a post.  Not that things have gotten any less stressful on that front, but at least we have more knowledge on prevention and treatment. Plus we've gone back to work in the office under very stringent face mask and social distancing requirements. Which is actually much easier to manage than working from home.     

Thanks to everyone who regularly links up for the 15 Minutes to Stitch with tales of stitching time or the lack there of.  Many of us have struggled with our sewing mojos this year, understandably so.  Thanks for sharing both the good and the tough in your posts.  I feel a lot less alone and so much more encouraged due to all of you. 

So that's the planned progress for 2020.  Since I work in a service organization, I always encourage my direct reports to leave a space for "unplanned contributions" in their performance agreements because you never know when a customer issue/problem will end up taking over your working life.  I think mask making definitely qualifies as an "unplanned ambition"  this year.  

There are masks for me, My Guy, the Scientist in Training, the SIT's  roommate, the SITs research group, friends, and coworkers in the mix above.  I didn't make any for the local medical community, but I hope that the ones I made and shared will help slow down the spread of the virus.  

In the supervisor training at work there was one lesson that said if an assignment doesn't match up well with the skill and motivation of the individual, it's likely they won't succeed. That's kinda where I'm at with stash management, so I've no ambition on managing that part of my sewing life. 

So overall, not a bad first half of the year.  I didn't expect to get 12 quilts finished this year, I'll be happy with what gets done. But it doesn't hurt to dream big, it pushes to do more than you think you can (at least that's the management theory anyway). Hope you've done well on your quilty ambitions for the year.  Good luck with your plans for the rest of 2020.  The end of the year will be here before you know it (I sincerly hope that 2021 is a much, much better year).  

Linking up with Quilting Gails PHD in 2020 July Status Update.