Stitching Stuff: Week 24 of 2026

 

Nothing else "broke" this week. The shoulder is back to normal. I started PT for my back and knee, so I've been a bit sore the past couple of days, but a good soreness.  The only bummer is the medication I'm on for my knee is making my stomach very unhappy. I've got 2 more months of it before we decide if it's going away or not. Getting older can be so not fun.  

But the being retired part of being old is going well.  I made good use of my retirement time to get back into the sewing room while everything is mostly feeling good. I more than met my 15 minute/day goal for the week.

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 13/13 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 162/164 days
• Success rate = 98.78% 

So it's been a good week on the productivity front.  Hopefully that continues this week. 

Queenie, My Girl's kitty, has decided her person shouldn't be leaving the house for work.  

Queenie has starting sitting on My Girl's shirt during the getting ready to go morning routine.  I'm not sure how My Girl got past that "I mean business" face, but I do know she made it to work Friday. 

How are things going in your sewing room this week?  

  

Week 155 Photo Challenge: Bees/Butterflies in Wildflowers

Our weekly photo challenge has become a more monthly thing as the cards in the latest pack are a lot more challenging. Our last post was back in early May. So here we are in early June with our latest efforts.  Thankfully this time the card we pulled was well matched to the season. 

At least My Guy and I had access to lots of wildflowers. My Girl not so much. So she sat out this challenge.  The spring rains brought lots of wildflowers, but at the same time with all the rain, catching bees or butterflies on said flowers was more of a challenge.  

Kate: Bees and Black Eyed Susans

The Black Eyed Susan were really thick this year. There were lots of honey bees buzzing about, but not as many bumble bees as we typically see.   

My Guy ranged a little farther from the house and found a huge plot of Queen's Ann Lace with a few critters buzzing about. 

The butterfly is a Gray Hairstreak.  My Guy passed along that those little appendages on the wing move almost constantly, so predators tend to attack the back of the butterfly first.  

The next challenge card sticks to the insect world, but the challenge is not photograph the insect but their home. 

Cobwebs are in season it seams. I certainly vacuum up a number of them this time of year.   Hopefully all of us can find something for this challenge.  

To Do List for the Week of 6/8/2026

My weekend wasn't as productive as normal, but I certainly made up for it during the week.  I finished the to do list and a bit more.  

To Do List for 6/2/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM:  Prep back for quilting ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔

3.  Lupine and Laughter: Continue working on main blocks ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue sashing blue blocks ✔

A good week on the progress front.  I'm hoping for the same with this week's to do list. 

To Do List for 6/9/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Prep quilt top for quilting

The backing is pressed and de-threaded.  The quilt top isn't going to go quickly.  I suspect it will take me most of next weekend to get it prepped.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilting

The cross hatching is done.  After a consultation with my late night sewing buddies, I'm going to move on to quilting the borders this week.  I'm hoping to have a completed quilt soon. 

3. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembling quilt

Having two late night sewing sessions really helped move the main blocks along for this quilt.  I'm going to cut the border strips so those are ready to sew.  This should be a finished quilt top before the end of the month.  

4. Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks 

Working on this project wasn't in last week's list.  But after making such good progress on Lupine, I needed some block construction to work in between assembling the rows for the other project.  After yesterday's photo of the black and purple blocks, I thought these were done. Nope, still need to make another 4 blocks.  But that's not too bad. There should be progress on main blocks this week too. 

5. Wild and Goosy (Bonnie Hunter): Continue sashing blue blocks  

 

These blocks are my current leaders and enders project. So it's been slow going.  There will be 16 sashed blocks once all of the flying geese units have been sashed, so not quite halfway there.

Fingers crossed this week is as good as last week on the progress front.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Making Progress on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Backlog

It was a pretty productive week, which resulted in a not so hot weekend.  One of our local quilt shops has a late night sew one night a week. This week the shop decided to host two late night sewing sessions. It's usually a pretty fun session with lots of stories, laughter and valuable quilt making feedback. The only problem is the sewing set up isn't the best from an ergonomic standpoint for me. One late night isn't an issue, but apparently that second 6 hour session wasn't such a good idea. I woke up early Friday with a shoulder that was absolutely on fire. Which meant limited sewing time for most of the weekend. 

Such is life these days. But moving on. With two late night sewing sessions, I finished all the blocks for Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery), but completely forgot to take a picture of them while there were up on the shop's design wall.  

The first two rows are assembled and are pinned together for stitching  Assembling the third row is in progress. The Lupine blocks should be all sewn together this week.  Not sure all the borders will be done, but hopefully those will at least be started this week.  Lupine and Laughter should be a finished quilt top before the end of the month.

Since Lupine was progressing so well, I took a look at my UFO list to decide what set of blocks to finish up next. And decided next up was going to be Good Fortune, the 2018 Bonnie Hunter mystery. Last week I cut all the fabrics needed to finish up the blocks.  The alternate block is simpler, so I started with finishing up the 4 patches needed to make the remaining blocks. 

And made some progress on assembling a few of those alternate blocks. 

I need to check my block counts again, this may be all the alternate blocks I need.  If so, next comes finishing up the main blocks. 

Since my progress has been so good and I couldn't really sew this weekend, I was looking in my project boxes to decide what's next.  Of the 14 Bonnie Hunter mysteries I've started, 7 are completed quilts and 4 are quilt tops.  That leaves just 3 that need to be moved to quilt tops.  With Lupine and Good Fortune moving along, I decided to tackle the last unfinished mystery, Celtic Solstice (2013 mystery) next.  

I played around in Electric Quilt and decided how big to make the quilt top.  About the half blocks needed for the planned quilt top are  made.  Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I'll start cutting pieces needed to finish these blocks.  

The 2022 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Chilhowie, is my current home machine quilting project.  It should be a completed quilt by the end of the month.  Slowly but surely, my BH mystery backlog is getting closer to finished quilts. 

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts and Sew & Tell Monday.

Stitching Stuff: Week 23 of 2026

We've had rain and a couple of hot, humid days this week. Perfect stitching weather.  Hot and humid is even less fun than being out in the rain. Playing in the sewing room was definitely the preferred activity this week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 30/31 days
• 15 minute days/June = 6/6 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 155/157 days
• Success rate = 98.73%

June is off to a good start on the stitching front.  I'm making good progress on my to do list and on my goals for the year.  It's a nice place to be just before we hit the halfway point in the year.  

How are you doing with your stitching goals?  

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

4. maggie f 5. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 6. Bonnie in Va

7. Quilting Gail 8. Dreamworthy Quilts 9. Marsha's Spot

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