Stitching Stuff: Week 45 of 2026

 

How are you adjusting to the time change?  The early sunset seems to have sapped my evening energy.  But that's not new. I started the 15 minute stitching time challenge because I remember driving home in the dark after work and just having no energy to carry me to the sewing room.  It was easier in the summer. I must be at least partially solar powered.  Now that I'm retired it's not so bad as I can get into my sewing room before it gets dark.  So it's no surprise that time change didn't play too much havoc with my sewing time.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 304/311 days
• Success rate = 97.75%

It was another good week on the stitching front. I never manage to make as much progress on my to do list as I think I will. Thankfully I still have some time to work on what I haven't gotten to this week. 

How are you doing at getting in some sewing time each week?  

October PHD Report

October ended with a rainy day, very autumn like weather.  Something we didn't get much of till after mid-month.  It really seemed like we had an endless summer, so I find myself very surprised to be in November and realizing there are just 2 months left in the year.  

With the start of a new month, it's time to review what actually got done the previous month.  So it's time for the October PHD Report sponsored by Ms. P Designs.  My October report has a finish on it. 

My 4th finish, Squared Away (SoScrappy) was started in 2018 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge sew along that year.  It took me forever to figure out what do do with the blocks.  I'm happy with how it came together. It's a gift for one of My Girl's college buddies.  

 In addition to the finish this month, progress was made on several other projects.  Celtic Solstice, the 2013 Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, has moved from an incomplete set of blocks in August to quilt top just needing the final two borders.

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) was started in 2019 as another Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  I've been working on these blocks steadily for about 3 years now as my leaders project.  The teal blocks are all sashed.  That just leaves me to finish all the purple blocks and sash those. I may have to bump these blocks up to a priority project to get all the blocks finished by the end of the year.  

Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker) is quilted. It just needs to be trimmed, a label made and bound.  This project will probably be my last finish for 2026. 

The 2026 Guild Block of the Month project is coming to an end.  The instructions for quilt assembly go to the guild in November.  I gave everyone the December block back in January as it was a lot of flying geese.  One of the flying geese borders was on by the end of October.  There's been more progress since then. 

All the September blocks are finally finished for the Marigold Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs).  Just in time for the November clue to come out. All the pieces for the October blocks were cut before the end of the month. I've finished some of the October blocks since, but I'll still be playing catch up in November. 

  

The progress graph shows a lot more color in the middle section, but there are also lots more bars that go all the way across the chart in the top section. 

I'm hoping to add a bit more color before the end of the year. At least one more finish and hopefully at least two more projects to finished quilt top.  This year has definitely been better than last year in terms of finished quilts. I'll take that.  

To Do List for the Week of 10/2/2026

Just a bit under 2 months left in 2026.  It's the time of year that if you haven't reached your goals, you have to decide what part of them can you actually make progress with.  The holidays will be busy with the seasonal stuff we do with and for our families.  I'm trying to keep an attitude of what gets done, gets done, what doesn't can wait till next year.  

That last week in October went way too fast, but I still did really well at working through what was on my to do list.  

To Do List for 10/27/2026

1. 2026 Guild BOM: Work on assembly ✔

2. Glowing Hearts: Finish quilting borders ✔

3. Marigold Mystery: Finish Sept, start Oct blocks ✔

4. Celtic Solstice: Continue making blocks for pieced border ✔

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue making purple blocks ✔

It's been a while since I've managed to check off everything on my list.  You have to go back to August for the last fully checked off list.  So it was definitely a good week. I'm hoping for another good week.  I'm close to finishing one quilt and getting two other projects to finished quilt tops. 

To Do List for 11/03/2026

1. 2026 Guild BOM: Finish borders

The pieced borders have been added to the top and bottom.  The narrow purple border has been added. All that's left is the dark blue border.  So this should become a finished quilt top before the end of the week.  Once this is ready for this month's guild meeting, the BOM for next year will be my priority.  

2. Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker): Make label and binding

I've got a start on the label. It definitely needs more work, but it's getting there.  Hopefully I can get the quilt sandwich trimmed this week too.    

3. Marigold Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish Oct blocks

All the square in a square blocks are finished and I've gotten started on the uneven 9 patch blocks for October.  Hopefully I can get caught up this week, because the November clue comes out this Thursday.   

4. Celtic Solstice (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembling pieced borders

 

I finished making the triangle in a square blocks last weekend, there were only 4 left when I sat down at the machine on Sunday.  The first pieced border is almost assembled. I'll focus more on this project once the guild BOM is a completed quilt top.  

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter):  Continue making purple blocks

Not sure how many are left to make, probably around 12.  The goal is to get the 3" purple blocks made this month and get them all sashed next month.  The project will probably have to move up in priority to make that happen.    

That's my list for this week.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

The Quilting Part

The first day of November was overcast and chilly.  Not cold, just chilly enough to want a sweater most of the morning. Today looks to be much the same, though based on the forecast we have a chance of severe storms this evening.  Definitely a day to get my sewing machine time in during the afternoon. 

I spent part of my sewing time yesterday getting end of the month photos of where all my projects are.  I was finally able to get a full on shot of the completely quilted Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker).  

I haven't taken the time to trim off the excess batting, that should happen this week. It is hard to see the quilting unless you blow up the picture a bit.  I decided to quilt just a couple of sets of double lines in the border, like a frame. It's pretty similar to what I did in the sashing, though that was single lines.  I also basted around the outside edge to make trimming and adding the binding a bit easier. The border was quilted with teal thread. I considered using the same yellow I used in the blocks, but just liked the teal better.  

I've started making the label. After consultation with My Girl, we took inspiration from an old Janis Joplin song and decided to call my version "Pieces of My Hearts".  The binding still needs to be cut and sewn. The same dark blue used in the sashing will be the binding. This should be close to finished by the end of the week.  

This is the third quilt I've used my walking foot to quilt.  I learned a few tricks with this one that should make the next one go a bit faster.  Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, as well as, Sew & Tell Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 44 of 2026

 

Halloween and time change on the same night doesn't seem fair, even if we do gain an hour of sleep.  Maybe the little ones with sugar over doses before bed will sleep them off with that extra hour, but I doubt it.  It will take us a few weeks to reset our internal clocks.  It's also the first day of November.  Which I'm equally not prepared to acknowledge.  So let's dwell on last week shall we? 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 30/31 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 297/304
• Success rate = 97.70%

There was a lot of progress in October, even with me missing one day.  It may not be as good this month and next with the holidays. I'm OK with that.  I'll still make some progress, but it's easy to temper expectations around the holidays.  To many other things to get done.  I'm hoping to keep my success rate above 90, but we'll see how that goes.  

How are you doing on your 2026 goals.  Will you reach them this month or have you given up on most of them as lost causes?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Melissa G 3. maggief 4. Karen

5. Frédérique 6. Deb in Canada 7. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 8. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

9. Jennifer in Indy 10. Bonnie in Va 11. Quilting Gail

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