2024 Quilting Ambitions: 3rd Quarter Check In

With the end of September, also comes the end of the third quarter of 2024.  Just three months left in the year!  It's a good time to look over what the plan was for this year to see if there are any goals that need some attention. Quilting Jetgirl has a 2024 3rd Quarter Goal review linky party to encourage us to do just that.   

Progress on my ambitions this year has been a mixed bag.  Here's the progress to date. 

1. Make quilts.  The focus for this year wasn't just on finishes, moving quilts along in the process was also a goal. The plan at the beginning of the year looked like this:

In my original 2024 ambitions post, I stated my goal was to move the bar closer to finished quilt for each project on the list. There was definitely progress on that front so far this year.  

  

Only four projects on my list have bars at the same spot as the original graph. I still have 3 months to move those bars a bit. Probably won't move all of them, but I know there will be progress on at least one more.  Not bad performance for three quarters of the year. 

2. Learn to Quilt:  The plan is to try quilt as you go on a set of blocks to ease my way into the learning process.  I finished all the blocks in  August. 

Diann, who blogs at Little Penguin Quilts, has been working on a quilt as you go project this year.  I can't find the exact posts, but she alerted me to Hobbs 80/20 Fusible batting. I didn't really want to use pins, but don't have any place to safely use the adhesive spray technique.  The fusible batting sounded like a good solution, so that got ordered.  

I've been reading the various books I have on quilting technique, but haven't actually done any quilting yet.  I have some quilt sandwiches made up, the plan is at some point before the end of the year is use those to figure out my machine settings and do a bit of practicing.  So it's been slow progress on this ambition, but at least there's been some progress.  

3.  15 Minutes to Stitch:  The goal is to stitch at least 15 minutes a day, plus host a linky party so others can share how they are doing at finding time to stitch.  My goal was to stitch at least 75% of the days in 2024.  I'm blowing this goal out of the water this year! 

At the end of September, I was still at 100%.  I've spent at least 15 minutes with needle and thread every day so far this year. My best year prior to this was a 92.9% success rate.  I'm on track to beat that. Can I keep 100% for the whole year?  Unlikely, but I'm motivated to try.  

The second part of this goal is to post a linky party every week. So far there's been 39, one of each week from January thru September. Usually I miss posting at least once each year. Hopefully I can keep my 100% metric here too. 

4. Stash Organization:  It's a mixed bag on that front for this quarter.  

Scrap Organization: Almost no progress on this front during the third quarter. There's been no progress on the #2 big scrap bag.  And I've gone backwards on the new scraps in the working scrap bin. I've finished quilts, but haven't done anything with the left overs. 

I really need to get back to the scrap trimming during the 4th quarter.  I've done a bit to empty the scrap bins over the last month or so, so there should be some room for what's in the working scrap bin at least. Any of the 2.5 strips of all those blues from Diatom can go directly onto the pile for the Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt that is my current leader and ender project.   

I did better on the fabric pressing and refolding this quarter. 

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the third tub refill.  We were gone for three weekends in September, so I didn't have as much time this last quarter to push towards an empty bin. I've found so many fun fabrics as I've worked through these bins; so many ideas for new quilts.  

The fabric closet has been reorganized a bit.  The addition of the wire cubes on top of the wire rack has give me more space for storing fabric. Though all the extra storage is just about full. 

It's much easier to see what I have now. There is still a bit of space, but that's going to fill up quickly.  Some additional reorganization opened up a bit more space. I didn't use all the wire cubes that I ordered, so I did some reorganizing on the left side of the fabric closet.  

I'm really bad about forgetting to take before photos, so this is a partial before photo on the left. The bins that show on the corner of the wire cabinet were over in the corner of the shelf. The fat quarter boxes got moved to another location in the sewing room and I added some of the left over wire cubes. The fat quarter bundles and any other precuts, were moved to the corner. It's a much more effective use of the space now.  

5. Stretch Goal: Consider if pattern editing/creation is something I want to do?  Rather than go this route, I had the opportunity to utilize my technical skills and decided that was a better fit for me at the moment.  So not a fail, I just decided to go in a different direction.  

This year has been a productive one on several fronts.  I never get to all the things on my lists, but I'm happy with the progress so far.  Fourth quarter is going to be challenging. Lots going on, but hopefully that won't derail me too badly.  

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 10/8/2024

We got home late Saturday afternoon from vacation. So I had Sunday and Monday to work on the non-hand stitching part of my to do list.  With that in mind, I didn't do too badly with on the list for last week. 

To Do list For 10/01/2024

1.  Diatom: Finish hand stitching binding ✔

2.  Guild BOM: Start October block ✔

3.  Marble Mystery: Start October clue ✔

4.  Chocolate Marshmallows: Decide layout, start assembly - progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Finish orange blocks - progress

6.  Sensational Summery Scrap quilt: Continue as leaders/enders ✔

Considering we were on vacation last week, I'm pretty happy with the progress on the to do list.  Of course, it wasn't a very ambitious list. Though getting in another finish is always exciting.  It's going to be a busy week, lots going on, so I'm going to keep this week's list simple too.  

To Do List for 10/8/2024

1.  String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs): Make backing

  

I finished this quilt top last July as part of the promotions for Cheryl's book "Just Two Charm Packs".  It's on my quilt plan as a to be quilted this year.  I have the backing fabric picked out, so it's just a matter of getting it cut and sewn.  

2.  Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish October clue

I finished stitching the hour glass blocks just before dinner last night. They still need to be pressed and trimmed. There's one more set of blocks to assemble for this month, but those are pretty simple.  It shouldn't be too difficult to finish off this month's clue before next Tuesday. 

3.  Guild BOM: Finish October block

I've got about half the pieces cut for this month's block.  It won't take long to assemble once they are all cut. 

4.  Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts):  Start assembly.

I'm still playing with the blocks on the design wall. I didn't really think about how all my different backgrounds were going to play with each other, so it's hard to come up something that looks balanced.  

5. Squared Away (So Scrappy): Decide on layout, pick setting fabric

Squared Away was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt along back in 2018.  This one is on my to be assembled list for this year.  It's another project that has been sitting on the UFO list because I couldn't figure out how to set it.  But, it's time has come, I'm going to at least have a plan to move forward with. 

6. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish the orange blocks

Only three more orange blocks needed for the planned layout. That should be doable this week.

7. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leader and enders.

So that's the plan for this week. It seems like a long list, but not all of it requires time at the sewing machine.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.

Finish Five

My Guy had lots of vacation time, so he took off last week and we headed to Eureka Springs, AR.  We had much bigger plans for vacation this year, but then a family wedding and a potential refinery project hijacked the dates we had planned to go.  We've been to Eureka Springs several times. We did a lot of shopping, hiking, and eating out.  I took two quilts to bind and finished one of them. 

My version of Rhododendron, the Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery quilt, is finished.  I've named my version Azaleas since I used purple rather than the suggested pink.  

I used the dark purple, along with a floral print for the backing.

Trudy did a fun floral design for the quilting. 

The binding is the same purple Batik used for the border.  I'm happy with my version. No immediate plans for this quilt, it will probably be given as a gift at some point.   

Five finishes so far for this year, four of which were UFOs.  My list still shows 20 UFOs that need to be finished.  I'm hoping for at least one more finish this year.  There are 5 quilt tops waiting for quilting, hopefully I'll get off to a good start with finishes next year.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 40 of 2024

 

Most of this week has been spent on the road and away from home.  My Guy took a week off work and we went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas for a much needed vacation.  We had bigger plans for vacation earlier this year, but a family wedding and a potential refinery project left a very small window to fit in a vacation.  It was still a fun week. We shopped, hung out at a few coffee shops, hiked and ate at all of our favorite places. I took some hand stitching to work on.  That's usually easy to pick up and work on for at least 15 minutes.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 30/30 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 5/5 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 279/279 days
• Success rate = 100%

Maintaining the 100% has become a family affair. One day of vacation we got back to the rental late. As we were getting ready for bed, My Guy asked if I had gotten my 15 minutes in.  I had stitched while he was out for his early morning walk, so he hadn't seen me work on anything.  It's nice to have family support, he's definitely a keeper.  

As we weren't home, there wasn't any scrap processing or fabric pressing. So nothing to share on that front.  How did you do at fitting in some stitching time this last week?      

1. Gretchen 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. Karen

5. Frédérique 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Jennifer in Indy 8. Quilting Gail

9. Deb in Canada 10. Bonnie in Va

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September 2024 PHD Report

September was just a weird month for some reason.  I guess because, though it has cooled off some, it was still pretty warm. Didn't feel like autumn at all.  At any rate, the higher temps made the sewing room the place to be so I got a lot of stitching done this month. So there is plenty to report for the September PHD Report linky party over at P Designs USA. Here's my PHD report for the last month.  

The report shows a new start.  But that start was planned at the beginning of the year.  At least that one won't count against my PHD for this year, the clues won't end till next year.  There is a finish to balance out the new start.  Rhododendron Trails (Azaleas) was the 2021 Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  

I just barely finished the quilt before the end of the month and managed to get this photo of the quilt laid out on a bed. This is my sixth finish out of 12 Bonnie Hunter mystery starts.  So I still have lots of BH quilts on my UFO list to finish.  I'm sure some of those will make next year's PHD list. It does feel good to have one off the list.  

In addition to the one finish, there was lots of progress on other projects this month.  

There was good progress on the orange blocks needed for my version of Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter)

  

Seven sets of 4 blocks have been completed. Just need one more set of 4 to have what's needed for my version of the quilt.  

It's been slow progress on the Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt (Kevin the Quilter).

One set each of 10 yellow and blue blocks were finished in September. It is my leader and enders project, so progress is slow, but it's been steady. I finished a set of 10 of each last month.  Slow progress is better than no progress. 

Another Bonnie Hunter mystery finally reached the finished quilt top stage.  

Chilhowie is the 2022 Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt.  I'm pretty happy with how it came out, that final teal border really helps calm down all that orange.  It joins Indigo Way in the to be quilted closet.  This one probably won't be quilted till next year. I'm hoping by next year I'll have enough skills to quilt the smaller quilts like this.  

Trudy finished the quilting on Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl) and sent it back. 

I started hand stitching down the binding on the last day of the month. The PHD report should have one more finish added next month.  

The September block for the Guild BOM was finished.  

I've stayed caught up with this block of the month.  The instructions for the October block have already been published.  It's another 12" block, so it should go together quickly. The finishing instructions in November are going to require a lot more effort. 

The new start is the 2024 Meadow Mist Designs Mystery quilt along, Marble Mystery. 

The September clue was the 9-patches and the flying geese.  Those are done, plus I have all the fabrics cut ready to piece the rest of the clues.  The October clue comes out tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing what's next.  

September was a productive month.  One finish, one being bound, and one finished quilt top.  So definitely not a bad month. I'm hopeful to have another quilt ready to go out for quilting before the middle of the month so there will be finishes for both October and November.  We'll see if that happens.  It's doubtful I'll achieve a PHD this year. That's OK, I'm really happy with all the progress on so many projects this year.  I can try again next year.