To Do Tuesday for 09/22/2020

 The weeks continue to just fly by.  It will be October in just over a week.  Definitely time to get moving on any stitching goals that are still hanging out there. I've never been much of a list maker, other than the grocery list.  But there's a good deal of research that shows making a good list can really help with productivity. The weekly list seems to be helping me on that front. All of last week's to do's are all checked off.    

Weekly To Do List for 09/15/2020

• Red, White & Blue Stars: Find red/white sashing fabric/wash ✔
• Morewood Mystery:  Continue to sew Clue 3 blocks ✔
• Unity: Continue to make HSTs and blocks for Step 4 ✔
• 2019 Christmas Mystery: Prep top for quilting ✔

I'm learning to be more realistic about what goes on the to do list. More than anything, that's the reason all the items on the lists for the last three weeks have been full of check marks.  Let's see if I can make it four weeks with a completed To Do List. 

Weekly To Do List for 09/22/2020

2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt: Package and ship out for quilting

The hardest step is done, finding a box that fits.  Actually all that's left is to write the deposit check, seal up the box, write and attach the address label.  The next hardest step is finding time to stop by the post office to get it shipped.  My meeting schedule has to be open enough to let me leave the site for lunch. This week isn't too bad on that front, so it shouldn't be too hard. Plus I'm taking Friday off this week, so I should have time then if not before. 

Morewood Mystery: Finish clue 3 HSTs

All that is left of step 3 is to finish stitching, cutting and trimming these 6 and mark then stitch 4 more of the violet/white square pairs.  That should be fairly easy to accomplish this week.  Clue 4 comes out next Thursday. It would be nice to have this one done before then. 

Red, White & Blue Stars: Decide on the sashing fabric

Last week's to do was to find the sashing fabric purchased for this project.  That's done, but then I decided maybe it wasn't the right print.  A quick trip to the LQS yielded three other options for a total of four.  That was slimmed down to three, but I'm not thrilled by any of them. So there was really no other option than to order one more.  That should be here Thursday.  Fingers crossed that the last one fits the vision, I'd really like to get this quilt off the UFO list this year.  

Unity:  Continue to stitch HSTs and blocks for step 4 

The goal here is to just keep this project moving.  I'd really like to have a finished quilt top by the end of the year. To do that, I'd have to stop before I reach the last clue. The goal at this point is to get to clue 7 and assess if I think it's done at that point.  

That's my list for this week.  You can find more weekly To Do's over at Home Sewn by Us on the To Do Tuesday linky party.  

Just Odds and Ends Sewing

 There was good progress this week, but it's the kind of progress that's not very photogenic.  For example, the payment for quilting on Storm at Sea got mailed last week, so I should see it back here ready to trim and bind by the end of the week.  Along the same lines, I finished the final pressing and clean up of the 2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt.  

2019 Christmas Mystery designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

The top is now all folded up and boxed up for shipment to Trudy for quilting.  Not exciting photographically, but it's pretty exciting getting one more quilt that much closer to being finished. 

Unity is up on the big design wall.  

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

The second step 4 border is attached. I had to cut more triangles before continuing with block assembly.  So this project doesn't look much different than it did last week.  

The only other progress has been on getting the quilt label ready for Storm at Sea. 

I asked My Guy to help with the name for the quilt, he said the quilt reminded him of a quiet stream or river.  I may tweak the name and the label a bit before it get's printed, but this is close to final. 

That's it for my quilty activities for the last week.  Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Monday Making.

Stitching Stuff: Week 38 of 2020

 The weather has been nice, cool in the mornings, warm in the afternoons. It's a good time of year for yard work, which is the plan for this morning. I'm hoping for a full afternoon in the sewing room to get a good start on my stitching time for week 39.  Today will hopefully be a lot more than 15 minutes, which is my goal during the work week.  

A two day sinus headache took a bite out of my stitching time this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/September = 17/19 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 233/263
• Success rate = 88.59%

So not a bad week, just not a perfect week on the stitching front. The big focus this week was on figuring out the path forward on my oldest UFO.  I found the sashing fabric in my stash, but now I'm not sure it works as it's not quite the same red as the border fabric.  

But it seems to blend just fine with the blocks and the border when I lay them it out with the border fabric and the blocks.  

I tried some red X's on white.  It looks fine, it just doesn't match my vision for the sashing.  

My plan was to stick with just reds for the sashing and border, but maybe that's not the best option. So I tried print with small red and blue stars. 

Then tried a print with larger red and blue starts. Of the two I like the larger stars.  Of the 4, I like the two red and white prints best. So I may have to pin those up on the design wall this week and think on it a bit. This is the reason the quilt isn't finished, I could never settle on a setting, so it kept getting put away.  Hopefully, that won't happen this time.  

So how did you do this week at finding time to stitch this week?

 

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. Shasta @ High Road 4. Meloney

5. karen 6. Sherrie 7. DawnyK 8. Quilting Gail

9. Amanda 10. Deana

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of 9/15/2020

 It seems that all I did was blink and it's already the middle of September. The year always seems to speed up as it goes along.  Even though it seems like last week passed at warp speed, the To Do List got done.  

Weekly To Do List for 09/08/2020

• Frolic: Piece backing ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Continue making clue 3 blocks ✔
• Unity: Continue making HSTs and clue 4 blocks ✔
• 2019 Christmas Mystery: Prep back for quilting ✔

After almost a year of making To Do Lists, I've learned that for some projects the goal is to just keep it moving. In that case, I don't need to write the to do item as it has to be finished, just that I'm going to work on it during the week.  It's a lot more satisfying to check off that I did work on it then stress that the step isn't done.  

So what's the plan for this week? 

Weekly To Do List for 09/15/2020

2019 Christmas Mystery: Prep top for quilting

 2019 Christmas Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

I'm not dreading pressing and dethreading this quilt as much as I did Storm at Sea. For one it's a much smaller quilt and second, the main fabrics don't ravel as much as some of the fabrics used in SAS.  This shouldn't take more than a couple of hours versus the couple of days it took for SAS.  I'd like to have the Christmas Mystery quilt ready to ship out for quilting as soon as SAS is ready to be shipped back.  That should be possible. 

Morewood Mystery:  Keep stitching on clue 3 blocks

Morewood Mystery by Meadow Mist Designs

Clue 3 includes two sizes of HSTs. I finished the larger blue HSTs over the weekend. I'm about half way finished with the smaller violet HSTs.  I till have almost two weeks to finish these off before the next clue comes out. That's definitely doable.  

Unity: Continue making HSTs and blocks for clue 4

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

The second border strip is all pieced, but it needs to be sewn to the top.  That should happen this week. Just two more border strips to make to finish off step 4.  

Red, White and Blue Stars:  Find red&white sashing fabric

Red, White and Blue Stars: Setting self designed

RWB Stars is my oldest UFO.  The blocks were started as part of class on constructing Lone Star blocks that I took way back in 2005.  I finished making all the blocks in July of 2018, but I couldn't decide on a layout.  What's pictured is my last stab at a layout. I'll probably play with a few options on the corner stones and borders, but the sashing will definitely be the blue with a red/white print.  I've purchased the red on white print fabric, but need to locate it in the fabric stash. Hopefully I'll have better luck locating this fabric than I did locating the wide backing I'd already purchased for Storm at Sea.  It would nice to get this project to finished flimsy by the end of the year. I think that's doable. To get it completely finished may be pushing it a bit as there are 4 other quilts in front of it. 

That is the plan for this week.  Linking up with Roseanne at Home Sewn by Us for To Do Tuesday. 

More Mystery Sewing

We spent the better part of Sunday on garden clean up. The garden looks much better, but I'm moving really slowly this morning.  Hopefully once I'm up and around, the stiffness will dissipate.  There was sewing room time in there too, just not as much as there usually is over the weekend.  Even so, there's been some really good progress on several projects.  

Daisy Chain is now a finished flimsy. 

 Daisy Chain Mystery
2019 Little Bunny Quilts Mystery
by Alison of Honey, Bunny & Doll Design

I like the tan and black borders.  So now I need to find some backing fabric so I can get this quilt ready to go out for quilting once the three in front of it are finished. This is quilt top finish number 7 for 2020.  So I'm making good progress on moving projects along.  

I finished all the larger HSTs for clue 3 from the Morewood Mystery, but I still need to finish the smaller HSTs. 

Morewood Mystery by Meadow Mist Designs

Clue 4 doesn't come out for another week and a half, so I've got time to get those all finished up.  Hopefully this week will be as productive as last week was.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.