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?  

To Do List for the Week on 10/20/2026

We've been enjoying the cooler weather, but apparently the cool down tripped something in the atmosphere and I've been struggling with my allergies lately.  It's not horrible, but my energy levels haven't been what they normally are, lots of napping in the afternoon to cope. That really cut into my sewing time this week, so my to do list didn't get it's normal attention.  

To Do List for 10/13/2026

1. Squared Away: Finish binding ✔

2. Glowing Hearts: Continue quilting ✔

3. Celtic Solstice: Work on borders ✔

4. Marigold Mystery: Finish Sept, cut fabrics for Oct - progress

5. Guild BOM: Start assembly ✔

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

It really wasn't a bad week, there was progress on all of my items, just not as much as I'd planned. I did finish up Squared Away, so that was definitely a high point.  This week's list will be pretty much the same as last week's, just minus Squared Away. Fingers crossed I make better progress this week. 

To Do List for 10/20/2026

1. 2026 Guild BOM: Work on Assembly

I've made pretty good progress on getting the first set of borders on the large carpenter star block.  I'm hoping the rest of the assembly goes pretty fast.  At some point I need to get serious about writing instructions and making blocks for the 2027 BOM.  

2. Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker): Continue quilting

The middle block in the last row is completely quilted and the block next to it is half quilted.  I'm hoping to finish it and the one on the other end this week, then I can start quilting in the sashing.  I have a plan for that. Still considering what to do in the borders.  

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

The cornerstones for the pieced borders are finished, but 24 triangle in a square blocks are still needed. I've dropped this project down in priority.  As much as I'd like to get is to the finished quilt stage, it needs to wait till I've got the 2026 BOM put together. It may not get there till next month.  I'm hoping it's a finished top before the next BH mystery comes out in November. 

4. Marigold Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish September, Start October blocks

Just one Ohio Star block was added last week. The square in a square blocks for the October clue are cut out, but the pieces for the other two blocks in this month's clue still need to be cut. I still have over 2 weeks to get caught up before the next clue comes out. 

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue working on teal/purple blocks

Just one teal block left to sash, but 18 purple blocks are still needed before I can start sashing those. It's definitely possible to finish all these blocks before the end of the year.  It would be nice to be ready for quilt assembly in January.  

Hopefully I'll be more energetic this week. To be fair, there has been steady progress on the projects on my list. It's all the projects that haven't made it to my list that bug me.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.   

Here and There Progress

It actually felt like autumn this weekend, we needed jackets when we went outside. Getting dressed to go out for coffee with the crew took me a few minutes, the temps really meant long sleeves were needed. It took me a minute to remember what my options were, I've been wearing my short sleeve cotton shirts for so long, I forgot what was in my closet for the other seasons. 

Part of my stitching time was spent working on hand stitching the binding for Squared Away. I've turned two corners, so just over half way done with that.  Quilting on Glowing Hearts took up three days this week, so time working on my other projects was a bit limited.  The second border did get added to Celtic Solstice (Bonnie Hunter). 

The triangle in a square blocks needed for the next pieced border are still in progress. 

Just 24 of these left to make.  The square in a square corner stones for that border are finished, but I forgot to get a photo of those.  I considered starting assembling the border strips from the blocks already done, but the 2026 BOM really needs to be done by the November Guild meeting, so it needs to take priority. So I'll keep making the blocks while assembling that project.

My priorities this week are to get Squares Away bound and make some progress on getting the 2026 BOM assembled. Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, plus Sew & Tell Monday. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 42 of 2026

 

We finally got our autumn weather.  One day we've got heat indexes of over 100 degrees and the next our highs are in the 50's.  Talk about whiplash!  I had to dig out my warm slippers and a sweater yesterday morning before sitting down at the computer. The day before I was in shorts and a sleeveless tank while catching up on blog posts.  The forecast says we'll be back in the 80's by the end of the week. But the cooler weather this weekend is prefect for finishing up a binding and some quilting. Activities where the quilt spends a lot of time on your lap.  

It wasn't a bad week on the stitching front.  We spent one day of last weekend with family celebrating Mom's birthday, so I didn't get in a full seven days of stitching time.  

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 16/17 days 
• 15 minute days/2026 = 283/290 days
• Success rate = 97.59%

I still have an "A" for my quilting time for 2026 even with the day off.  We'll have to see how the rest of the year goes. With the holidays coming up, I'll probably miss a few more days before we get to the end of the year. My goal was to exceed a 85% success rate, so I have room if the year gets too hectic.  

How is your stitching time working out? 

 

1. Frédérique 2. Gretchen 3. Julie in GA

4. maggief 5. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 6. Patricia in New Mexico the correct link :)

7. Bonnie in Va 8. Quilting Gail

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