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?  

To Do List for the Week of 10/27/2026

This is the last to do list for October.  I'm not panicking, but feeling a bit uncomfortable that the end of the year seems to be spiraling in on us faster than I'm ready for.  It's time to start thinking about Christmas and I just don't want too.  Maybe it would help if it felt like fall. We still need to run the air conditioning in the afternoons it's so warm.  

The warmer weather hasn't kept me out of the sewing room, there was pretty good progress on the to do list.

To Do List for 10/20/2026

1. 2026 Guild BOM: Work on assembly ✔

2. Glowing Hearts: Continue quilting ✔

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

4. Marigold Mystery: Finish Sept, start Oct blocks - progress

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue working on teal/purple blocks ✔

There was progress on each to do last week. Maybe not as much progress as I'd like, but each project is closer to the next milestone.  This week's list is pretty much the same as last week's.  

To Do List for 10/27/2026

1. 2026 Guild BOM: Work on assembly

The center, first pieced border and sashing the blocks went pretty fast.  Half the final white border has been sewn on.  But I still need to to sew the flying geese together for the final pieced border and then there is a purple and a blue border to add. I'm hoping to get most of that done this week.  We'll see how it goes.  

2. Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker): Finish quilting border

The heart blocks are all quilted and so is the dark blue sashing.  It's just straight lines, but it seems to work with the quilting in the hearts. I think I'm going to do the same for the border.  If I keep it simple, the quilting will go faster.  I never intended to do so much on the heart blocks, but they look good, so it was worth it. With all the work I've put into this project, I've decided not to donate it.  I'll keep this one as a potential gift for someone.  

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

Just one more Ohio Star block to finish and September will be done.  I still need to cut the fabric for the third October block. There hasn't been as much progress on these blocks as my focus has been on the projects closer to being finished and the BOM as it has a deadline.  

4. Celtic Solstice (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks for pieced border

Only need to sew 12 more of the triangle in a square blocks and then it's border assembly time.  

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

All the teal blocks are sashed.  All that's left is to finish the purple blocks.  I printed the last paper piecing templates needed to finish the blocks. It's less than 16 more than 12 that I've got left to make.  The goal is to have the purple blocks finished and sashed before the end of the year.  It's doable, but I'll probably have to bump the blocks up in priority to get there.  

October has been a pretty productive month, though some weeks it certainly doesn't seem like it.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

The Fourth Finish

Do you ever sit at your computer at the beginning of the week and think, "What happened to last week"?  We had guild meeting on Tuesday and I spent a chunk of Tuesday morning rewriting the instructions for the November BOM block. I decided the instructions weren't very clear, so more diagrams were needed.  I've not heard from anyone, so I'm hoping that means the instructions were OK. Late night sewing was canceled for various reasons, so no big evening of productivity.  Progress was made, but it still feels like an off week.   

The big accomplishment was completing the binding on my fourth finish for the year.  

Squared Away was started in 2018 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge BOM hosted by Mari at the Academic Quilter and Angela at Soscrappy.  The blocks were finished that November, but sat in a project box waiting for me to decide what color sashing to use to set them together.  Finally in 2024, I decided that black would work and finished the quilt top before the end of that year.  It sat in the "to be quilted" closet till My Girl asked if there were any quilts she could gift as graduation gifts to her best college buddies.  This one is going to one of her undergrad buddies for Christmas this year.  

It's hard to see from the big photo, but the outside border is black with a silver curly design with lots of little colored dots, it works really well with all the blocks.  The quilting was done at one of our local quilt shops. The quilting thread is silver and the curly stitching works well with that outside border.  

The binding is the same fabric from the border.  This picture shows the printed design much better.  

The backing is an extra wide black and white paisley.  It works really well with the colorful front.  

Squared Away is my fourth quilt finish for 2026, the second one that was quilted professionally, but by someone different than the last one. So now I've got some options for local quilting. Hopefully that means I'll get more of those tops in the "to be quilted" closet finished next year.  Most all the local longarm quilters are busy working on orders for Christmas, so I don't plan on sending anything out till January.  But that doesn't mean I won't start prepping one now.  I have 2 more graduation quilts to finish before May and 2 more that need to be done by December next year.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, as well as Sell & Tell Monday.  I'll also link up with Favorite Quilt Finish when it gets posted.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 43 of 2026

 

It was a good week.  My allergies have been hit or miss the last couple of weeks.  A  very painful sinus headache kept me pretty subdued on Wednesday.  Even so, I still managed to get in a bit of stitching time each day. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 23/24 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 283/390 days
• Success rate = 97.64%

Over all, 2026 has been a pretty good year on the stitching front.  Though it doesn't seem like I've gotten all that much done.  I've spent some time looking at where projects stand and trying to decide what's my target for the rest of this year.  With the holidays coming up, it's always so hard to judge just how much one can actually get done.  

Are you moving things along or are you feeling stalled out?  

1. Gretchen 2. Melissa G 3. Julie in GA

4. Frédérique 5. Deb in Canada 6. Karen

7. Bonnie in Va 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 9. Quilting Gail

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