July PHD Report

July felt like a month of medical appointments.  Physical therapy twice a week and then several appointments to address the tooth pain that was keeping me up.  Even with all the disruptions, July was a pretty good month on the PHD front.  There is another finish to link up with Ms. P Designs for the July PHD report.  

This is my third finish for the year.  I had hoped to have more finishes by this point in the year.  Learning to quilt has been a slow process, but I'm getting better and a bit faster there.  Finding a long arm quilter took a bit of time, but now that I have that option, hopefully I'll make more time to get quilts ready to go out for quilting.  I would really like to make a dent in the projects hanging in the to be quilted closet.  

 

My July finish was the 2025 Guild BOM quilt, which as been renamed to "Ansley's Palette".  This quilt is a gift for one of My Girl's college buddies. This is my second quilt using the Inverted Star block and it was my first effort at being responsible for the guild's BOM program.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  

 

All the blocks are finished for Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter) and quilt assembly has been started. This should be a finished quilt top by the end of August. 

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been progressing steadily all year.  All the blue blocks are now sashed and a few more teal blocks are finished.  The hope is all the blocks are done by the end of the year.  Hard to tell at this point if that's going to happen or not.  

Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker) is the next project to be quilted with the walking foot on my sewing machine.  The backing, the batting and the top are now all prepped.  I've selected the threads to use, though I've not decided on the bobbin thread as yet.  I need to baste the layers together and decide how I'm going to quilt those hearts.  It would be nice to keep my a finish a month going into August. We'll see if that works out.  

There wasn't as much progress as I had hoped for the 2026 Guild BOM.  The block for August was finished and shown at the July meeting.  I did finish the November blocks, which are just 4 patches for one of the pieced borders. It was fast and easy to cut the strips for those. The plan was to finish the September and October blocks too.  But I didn't get that far. I did finally work out what pieces I need to cut from each fabric for those blocks. Hopefully I can get that done soon. The September block has to be ready before the next guild meeting, so it has to get done sooner rather than later.  

The final two borders were added to Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter) early in July. It's now a finished quilt top hanging in the to be quilted closet.  It's always nice to finish piecing last year's mystery before the next one comes out. 

July was a productive month. In addition to the finish, another project is prepped for quilting, another became a finished quilt top and a fourth project had all the blocks finished.  

My project progress sheet is starting to show more color, especially in the quilt blocks to finish category. I'm hoping to see more color in the quilts to finish block, probably not by the end of next month, but certainly in September.    

To Do List for the Week of 8/4/2026

We got a nice cool off for the weekend, but we are back to summer heat the rest of the week.  So the sewing room will continue to be my preferred afternoon hang out.  Last week was a good one on the sewing front,  finishing a quilt is always a nice accomplishment.  Even better, I didn't have to neglect the rest of my to do list to make that happen.  

To Do List for 7/28/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Bind quilt ✔

2.  Glowing Hearts: Prep quilt and assemble quilt sandwich - progress

3.  2026 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for remaining blocks ✔

4.  Good Fortune: Continue to assemble quilt ✔

5.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making teal blocks ✔

I didn't quit get the quilt sandwich made for Glowing Hearts, but I did well with all my other to do items. To be honest I spent a lot of my "quilting time" finishing up the binding for the 2025 Guild BOM. It was a very good use of that time.  This week will look pretty much the same but with the addition of an old UFO project to the list. 

To Do List for 08/04/2026

1.  Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker): Finish sandwiching quilt, start quilting. 

I've picked all but the bobbin thread for the quilting part.  I need to review the sandwiching videos again before I start that process. It's been a couple of months and I haven't done it enough to have any muscle memory on that task.  

2.  2026 Guild BOM: Make September's block 

All the pieces are cut for the last two blocks.  I've already started assembly of the September block. Hopefully it will go quickly and I can get started on October's block before the end of the week.  

3. Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembling quilt

Five of the seven rows are assembled, so more than half way to having that finished.  Next will come the borders, which always take longer than I think they should. 

4. Celtic Solstice (Bonnie Hunter): Work on chain blocks 

With Good Fortune moving closer to a finished quilt top, it's time to pull out the next UFO that needs the blocks finished.  Celtic Solstice is my last BH mystery that needs the blocks assembled. I pulled out the contents of the project box.  I still need to take a hard look at what pieces I need to cut.  We'll see how far I get on that this week. 

5.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to work on teal blocks

Only 15 more of the 3.5" teal blocks are needed to finish out this color.  I doubt those all get made this month. It really depends on how much other sewing I get done.  

It's a pretty doable list as most of what is required is just progress.  I have no external appointments this week, so hopefully that means it will be a good week for progress. 

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Another Finish!

It was a good week on the stitching front. It's always fun to have a finish.  My goal was to finish the 2025 Guild BOM quilt before the end of July.  I put the last stitches in the binding at about 5:10 PM last Friday, the 31st.  Not up to the wire, but close.  

I'm really happy with how this quilt turned out.  This is the second time I've made an Inverted Star quilt.  Here's the original started in  2014, finished in 2019.

The newer version is more scrappy, a consistent white one white background was used for the original version. I made the second version as the guild BOM because it was an good way to ease into being responsible for that program.  Just two block patterns and quilt assembly instructions to write.  Each month was a different color. Having to write instructions for someone else really helps you to simplify the construction process. I added the narrow blue borders as a stop between the scrappy whites in the sawtooth stars and the speckled background fabric in the new version. It just didn't look right without them.   

The first version was for one of My Girl's writing class buddies from middle school. The new version is for one of her college buddies. Ansley's Palette is the name My Girl chose for this quilt.  

The friend enjoys painting water colors and My Girl thought the quilt looked enough like a painter's palette to select that as the name. She wrote a personal message for the label that's on the quilt. My Girl has always told her friends that have quilts from us to think of them as a big hug from her whenever they curl up in one.   

This is the first quilt in 16 years that I've sent out for quilting that wasn't quilted by Trudy.  She's a hard act to follow, but the new long armer did a wonderful job. 

I picked Stars and Loops for the quilting and that worked out beautifully.  The background for each star is different, but I used a "paint spatter" print for the background for setting the quilt together. Something different than my typical white on white. But it definitely works with the quilt name My Girl picked.  

The backing is a Connecting Threads sale fabric, Mum's Garden.

The copyright says 2018, so this has been sitting in the stash for a bit.  It was picked because I wanted something light to go on the back and this was what worked best of my stash options.

I used all of the blue fabric in the narrow borders, there was none left for the binding.  I tried a few other colors, but My Girl and I decided a scrappy binding would work best. 

It's hard to see all the colors, a bit of green shows there in the middle. I managed to incorporate all the colors but black, brown and yellow.

My Girl has one more quilt picked out for me to finish for another of her college buddies. That will be my next project to send out for quilting. I have a potential backing selected, just need to see if there is enough or if it needs to be supplemented.    

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, plus Sew & Tell Monday.

Stitching Stuff: Week 31 of 2026

 

It was a very calm week. Physical therapy is finished, but now starts the round of dental appointments to address a few years of not having a dentist.  But other than those appointments, not much has competed for stitching time.  So it was a good week on that front.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 31/31 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 209/213 days
• Success rate = 98.12%

July is the first month in a bit that I've managed to stich every day.  I've missed 4 days total this year, not bad considering how much traveling happened and my not so fun year with the back, knee and tooth.  All the stitching time has made for a pretty productive year.  

How are you doing at getting to your stitching time with rest of all the stuff going in your life? 

To Do List for the Week of 7/28/2026

We were home most of this week and with the triple digits outside staying in my sewing room seemed to be the best option.  I did get a lot done, it just doesn't feel that way.  

To Do List for 7/21/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make binding and label - progress

2. Glowing Hearts: Piece batting, prep backing ✔

3. 2026 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for remaining blocks - progress

4. Good Fortune: Continue to assemble quilt ✔

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue making teal blocks ✔

Only three check marks, but there was progress on all 5 to dos from last week.  I'll take that.  The goal is progress, and that happened. It's pretty much the same list for this week.  

To Do List for 7/28/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Bind quilt

The binding strips are all cut, they just need to be joined together.  The plan is to use my time at late night sew to get the binding sewn to the quilt.  I have a lot of hand stitching to do for this to get done this month.  

2. Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker): Prep quilt top and assemble quilt sandwich. 

The quilt backing and the batting are laying on the My Girl's bed waiting for the top to be prepped.  I haven't completely figured out how I'm quilting this one.  Once the quilt sandwiching is done, I'll need to commit to something.  

3. 2026 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for remaining blocks

I did get the fabrics cut for one of the blocks and actually got that one assembled.  That leaves the last two blocks.  I finally sat down and looked at what I needed for both, so I can optimize my strip cutting. I'm getting low on fabric and I don't want to run out.  

4. Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to assemble quilt. 

The third row is under construction, just 4 left to go. This project will take a back seat until I can finish up the 2025 Guild BOM.  There will be progress I'm sure, but it probably won't be a finished quilt top by the end of the week.  

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

I need to cut some additional teal triangles because I'm running a bit low on that color.  I'm just a bit over halfway done with these blocks so I still need lots of scrappy triangles.  

If I can move each to do along a bit, it will have been a good week.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.