Stitching Stuff: Week 4 of 2023

I've commented before how the first month of the year always seems to go slowly compared to the rest of the year, but January is just about over.  We'll move into the second month of 2023 in just a couple of days.   But back to now, Week 4 of the year went pretty smoothly on the stitching front. I didn't get in as much time as I had hoped each day, but I did get in my 15 minutes most days this week.

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 25/28 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 25/28 days
• Success rate = 89.29%

I missed Friday due to plans with Grad Girl.  We met up in Fort Worth, TX to go to a concert. We spent Saturday at an art festival and paid a visit to the Water Garden late in the afternoon.  It was a low key, but fun day.  We'll both be heading to our respective abodes after lunch today.  

How did your stitchy week work out?  

Stay at Home Round Robin: Prompt 1 Spool Blocks

It's been a weird week. It's amazing what can pop up that derails your day and consequently any stitching plans you might have had. My stitching week is also short a few days this week due to the planned meet up with Grad Girl this weekend.  All of that to say I didn't get as far as I'd hoped on the first prompt for the Stay at Home Round Robin. But there was some progress.  

First step was to add coping steps to bring the center up to 12" by 18".  

The math works out to 3" finished spool blocks.  Assembling all those 1.5" HSTS takes time, so does trimming.  But I did get far enough to make almost enough blocks for one border. 

The corner blocks are modified spool blocks. Those were constructed first to ensure I got all the HSTS turned the right direction.  Here's the plan drafted in EQ. 

So I'll have to play catch up next week. Most of the HSTS are made so block assembly should go much faster.  

Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for the SAHRR Prompt #1.  

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 1/24/2023

It was pretty productive week in the sewing room. The last couple of weeks I've been trying to work on just a couple of projects at at time till I finish whatever the to do is for them that week. That seems to be working well for me. 

To Do List for Week of 1/17/2023

1. Melodic Mystery: Finish the sashing for Jan clue ✔ 

2. Diatom: Cut fabrics and assemble first block ✔ 

3. SAHRR: Draft plan for first border ✔ 

4. Chilhowie: Work on as leaders and enders ✔ 

5. Unity: clean up and press before sending our for quilting - no progress 

Check marks on four out of five isn't a bad week.  My Guy was home on Monday due to the holiday. That messed up my sense of time, I thought Tuesday was Monday, so when Friday got here, I wasn't where I had planned to be.  Unity is going to take a while to prep and it will take over my cutting table. Since I've started two new quilt alongs that have a schedule, it just didn't work with the plans for the week.  I'll get back to it at some point.  

I'm meeting up with Grad Girl and my "adopted" blond headed daughter (GG's college roommate) in Texas for a girls weekend. So there won't be as much time to stitch this week.  I'm going to pare the list back a bit.  Thankfully I'm caught up on Melodic Mystery and Diatom till early February.  

To Do List for Week of 1/24/2023

1. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Make first border, plan second border. 

Spool blocks are the prompt for this first border. I've worked out my color scheme, I need 24 blocks and I'm limiting the colors to green and purple for this first round.  Other than the background fabric, I was able to cut all the triangles for the HSTs from my scrap bin.  I'll need a few more greens, but I've got enough to get started.  

2.  RSC Wild and Goosey blocks (Bonnie Hunter): Make at least one

This was my last Rainbow Scrap project back in 2019. I've not worked on it since January of 2020.  The plan is to make a few blocks each month in an effort to get this project moving along.  I can only use bright blues, dark blues would blend too much with the black. This pattern is from Bonnie's Addicted to Scraps book. It was also published in the 2013 May/June issue of Quiltmaker. 

3.  Chilhowi (Bonnie Hunter) - Continue to make blocks as leader and ender project.  

Block #2 is in the process of being assembled.  It will be slow going to finish the other 7 blocks for my version, but at least it's still moving.

That's my list for the week.  Linking up with Carol over at the Quilt Schmidt: For the Love of Fabric for this week's To Do Tuesday.   

Another Week: Another Project

The last few years I've really limited my new projects to just two mystery quilt alongs so I could focus on my UFO list. I struggled to get into the sewing room last year, discipline isn't the same as being motivated.  So this year I've loosened my new project belt and have added a second new project for 2023 in hopes that my motivation carries over to finishing off some of my older UFOs.  Yvonne (who blogs as Quilting Jetgirl) is hosting a quilt along for her pattern Diatom. I fell in love with her all blue throw version of the quilt. I'm minus a couch quilt since Grad Girl said she needed something from home to cuddle under since she'll be so far away.  That's my reasoning for a starting a new project (yes there are definitely other quilts in my quilt closet that could do the job, but none of them are the right color).  

The first block came out two weeks ago, but I didn't finish it till yesterday. 

The fabrics all came from the stash and I'm so happy they work well together.  This is a big block, 24" finished.  I did a better job of getting block 2 started. All it needs is the top and bottom setting strips sewn on and it will be finished. I forgot to take any photos of it during construction, so I'll have to show the finished block later.   

It's good that the second diatom block is almost finished as the first prompt for the SAHRR is out over at Home Sewn by Us.  I've already played around in Electric Quilt and have my plan for round one.  My Guy has approved the plan and the colors. Getting the blocks started will be this afternoon's sewing room fun.  

Linking up with the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  Happy stitching this week.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 3 of 2023

It was sunny and 61 F on Tuesday, so I went for a long walk. It was raining and 40 F today, so I stayed in the sewing room most of the day.  I'm really ready for more of the 60 plus temps, but it sounds like we'll have to wait a few more weeks for that.  Till then, it should be easy to get my stitching time in each week. 

My routine seems to be developing again after all the interruptions due to the holiday and then getting sick.  It was another excellent week on the stitching front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 19/21 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 19/21 days
• Success rate = 90.48%

So far so good on finding time to stitch.  

The sewing room needs a lot of attention. My plan when I retired last year was to spend Sunday mornings cleaning, decluttering and organizing my sewing space.  Last weekend was the first Sunday anything along those lines actually happened.  I started my clean up in the southeast corner.  The first order of business was to get a handle on all the scraps. 

 

I have one drawer, two bags and one small blue bin of scraps that need to be pressed, trimmed and sorted by color.  I got a late start last week, but still managed to empty the little blue bin in front of the two sacks. 

It doesn't look like much, but there's a lot of  2" and 2.5" strips those piles.  All the strips got sorted into the proper box by size and color.

 

That is a drop in the bucket, but at least the process is started. The plan is to tackle more scraps later this morning.  It may take a few weeks, but it will be nice to empty both sacks. Then I won't have to keep moving those around when I want to get to something else. 

How did your stitching week work out?  Did you stitch, organize, or do something else entirely?   

1. Gretchen 2. Ivani 3. Julie in GA 4. Karen 5. Michelle 6. Colletta's Kitchen Sink

7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Frederique 9. Susan in TN 10. DonnaleeQ 11. Quilting Gail 12. maggie f

13. Andre at Quilting and Learning 14. Lyndsey 15. Janice 16. Carol Andrews 17. Celine 18. Amanda

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