To Do List for the Week of 07/23/2024

We've settled back into our normal schedule for the most part.  The weather has been much nicer as it's cooler, but the mold count is way up. So I've been fighting sinus headaches and congestion for most of the week.  It slows me down a little, I tend to nap more (one of the joys of retirement, I don't have to fight the allergies and work).  Even with a few naps, last week's to do list still got finished.  

To Do List for 7/16/2024

1. Rhododendron: Make backing ✔

2. Kate's Choice: Continue making blocks ✔

3. Wild and Goosey:  Continue making teal blocks ✔

4.  Indigo Way: Continue assembly as leaders and enders ✔

To be honest it's a pretty simple list, so the bar is set pretty low.  I reviewed my quilt plan for 2024, my goal was to just have 4 to do's each week to make better progress on the projects.  My ideal to do list mix was something new, something with block piecing needed, something to assemble and something to get quilted.  My current to do list has all but something new.  And that's Ok because something new will creep back in soon. It's nice to spend part of the year really concentrating on getting a few UFOs finished. 

This week's list is pretty much the same as last week's.  

To Do List for 7/23/2024

1. Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter): Prep backing for quilting

Cleaning up the back is pretty easy.  It just really needs to be de-threaded and given a good pressing.  Before I do that I should probably vacuum my sewing room. All that scrap processing and paper piecing means I have lots of little bits of fabric and paper all over the floor. 

2. Kate's Choice: Continue making blocks

I've been working on a Snail's Trail block.  I only need 4 more blocks to finish what's planned for the layout. If I get busy this week, I should be almost finished with the blocks by the end of the month.  

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

Five teal blocks have joined the finished stack.  I should be able to get another 5 finished before the end of the month before we move on to a new color for August.  

4.  Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilt assembly as leaders and enders project. 

Sewing the blocks into rows has been working pretty well as leaders and enders.  I will probably need a new leaders and enders for August.  Looking through my UFOs there is a project that will help me empty some of my scrap bins.  It's on my list, but now I have to find it in the project boxes.

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

The Design Wall this Week

It cooled off for the weekend, but it was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy over both days.  It was nice weather to hang out in the sewing room.  Who am I kidding, I'd say any weather is a good time to be in the sewing room, except maybe during severe thunderstorms.  

There was good progress on the stash organization.  I did spend some time on assessing my storage spaces in the sewing room, then moved a few things.  If I can mostly clear another shelf, the remaining wire cubes can be used to make room for more fabric. 

The fat quarter sets and fat quarter storage boxes need to find a new space. I'm still considering my options there.  

I did actually sew, but all that's up on the design wall is Indigo Way. 

The rows in the top half are sewn together, the rows for the bottom half are in progress. Indigo Way isn't my favorite Bonnie Hunter mystery, but I like how this one is coming together.  If it's a finished quilt top by the end of August I'll be thrilled. It's always nice to finish the piecing before before the next mystery.  I've only managed that a couple of times. So many of my UFO's are BH mysteries (6 including Indigo Way).  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 29 of 2024

 

It's been a pretty chill week.  Not much going on, which I was more than ready for.  Being chill meant another good week of stitching time.

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 20/20 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 202/202 days
• Success rate = 100%  

I'm still hanging on to my 100%.  No one can be more amazed than I am.  By far the best stitching time year I've ever had. The string has to break at some point right?  Even if it does, it's still been a great year for this metric.  

The scrap processing continued this week, but that big bag of scraps #2 is so big, it's hard to see that I've done much.  It didn't help that I pulled all the left over scraps out of the project box for the 2023 SAHRR that was finished last week and moved them to what was an empty scrap bin. 

So I'll need to deal with those leftovers before I get back to scrap bag #2.  

There was progress on the fabric to be pressed bin.  

Now there is just a single stack of fabric that's left to press. I doubt the bin is empty by the end of July, but it should definitely be empty by the end of August.  Then I can refill it and start on the next stack of fabrics.  Before then, I'm going to need to clean up the fabric closet a bit, I'm running out of room.  

How did your stitching week go?  Lots of stitching time or did vacation have you out having too much fun to stitch?  

 

1. Julie in GA 2. maggie f 3. DonnaleeQ

4. Quilting Gail 5. Deb in Canada 6. Frédérique

7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 9. Bonnie in Va

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

Week 116 Photo Challenge: Clouds

We all had our acts together this week and managed to get photos for the challenge:

Of course this would be the week with several cloudless days.  I was panicking by Wednesday.  Sunrise and sunset give the most dramatic view of clouds, so though I couldn't see any, I wandered out with my camera at sunrise on Wednesday and found a few high clouds.

Kate: Morning Clouds

I tried later in the week and the clouds just seemed to disappear at sunset and didn't return till mid morning. So this was my best effort for this week. 

My Guy was out and about more then I was, plus he started earlier.  He found his best shot in the afternoon. 

My Guy: Silver Lining

This strikes me as one of those photos one would use to create a meme with scripture or an inspirational quote over the photo.  What do you think?  

Grad Girl found her cloud elsewhere. 

Grad Girl: Water Vapor?  

"No, I don't know what happened" was the text that accompanied the photo. There is no scarier or frustrating phrase in research chemistry. 

The last two challenges were things you find in the sky.  It might not be as obvious that there is a link between last week's challenge and this week's. 

We just need to change the physical state of water for this week's challenge.  The text from Grad Girl after I sent her the new subject, "Oooo, I have ideas".  I bet My Guy does too. There should be some interesting photos this week.  

Photo Play: June Summary

With all the travel in late June and early July, I've had to catch up on blog reading and email. So it took me a bit to find the time to review my photos from June. 

My goal this year is to just enjoy the process of capturing the interplay of light and subject.  We've been so busy that I've not done much with my photography study, but early in June I did cover the chapter on lenses in Visual Poetry by Chris Orwig. If there is any theme for June it's what happens if you change the lens.  

The wildflowers were pretty thick in June. I love close up of flowers, so my macro came out early, but I did pull out my other lenses to see what would happen.  The following photos were all taken with a Canon 70D, some may be cropped.  

Sigma 105 mm macro lens

Black Eyed Susan

Basket Flower

Basket Flower Bud

Tamron 18-400 telephoto lens

Black Eyed Susan

Tamron 11-18 Wide Angle lens

Basket Flower (cropped)

Roses

Lensbaby Fish Eye lens (borrowed from My Guy)

Indian Blanket (cropped)

Basket Flower (cropped)

Close ups with the Fish Eye lens are not straight forward to take, but they turned out really cool. It took me a bit to figure out how to crop with a circular mask in Photoshop Elements.  The Fish Eye does capture a lot, I had a very hard time not capturing my shoes. Cropping them out was just easier.  I turned the lens up for a final shot of the sky.  It gives the best perspective on what this lens can capture. 

Definitely a different way to look at the sky.  Not a lens I'll use often, but if you want different, it's an option.  

In May, I photographed how light interacted with the zipper on my pencil bag. For June it was light and bubbles (with the Sigma 105 mm macro lens). 

I thought these turned out really cool.  Any guess as to what the subject was?  

The last photo that made my curated collection for June has been on the blog before, but I'm going to add it here as well.  This photo was taken with my I-Phone 12.

Queenie

Black cats are amazingly difficult to get a good photo of.  I like this one because it's such a good one of her face.  That was taken the weekend we were cat sitting and it's by far the best of the many I took of her that weekend.  

My photography for July has gotten off to a slow start.  I didn't take many photos when we were traveling, it was just so hot. But this week I'm back to looking for interesting things to photograph.  

Thanks for sticking with me through this non-quilting blog post. I have a hard time picking a favorite photo this month.  Several are my favorites for various reasons, the Basket Flower fish eye, the bubbles and of course Queenie.  Is there one that stands out to you?