To Do Tuesday #8 of 2020

After hitting a fever of over 105 F on Monday night, My Guy decided it was time for a trip to the emergency room.  Turns out I don't have a cold, I have the flu. That's even though I got the flu shot. All I've done today is sleep.  My head hurt so bad, doing anything on the computer was pretty much off limits. But I'm going to try to get this post done before I head back to bed. 

I actually didn't feel too bad on Monday, not well enough to spend time in the sewing room, but I did pull out my embroidery and worked on it for a bit early in the day. That was before the headache started up and the fever spiked.  Still that means I checked off everything from last week's list.  
  

Weekly To Do List (02/11/2020)
1. Medallion Butterfly - Start on the corner leaves ✔
2. Mosaic Mystery - Decide on borders ✔
3. Frolic - Make 5 half blocks ✔

I'm supposed to head out for another business trip on Sunday. We'll see if that happens.  I'm still feeling really crappy, but I may be able to get in a bit of embroidery as I start to feel better.  I'm going to have to back off on my other plans for the week I think.  

Weekly To Do List (02/25/2020)

1. Medallion Butterfly - get in a few stitches while I'm sitting in the recliner. 

  I did make a little progress yesterday.  I have a feeling the headache won't let me stitch for long, but hopefully I can work in 15 minutes.  

2.  Twinkle stars - pick out the fabrics for the binding.  Depending upon when I fell better, this may or not happen.  

I'm going to leave the list at two this week.  If anything else gets done, great.  If not, that's just how it goes.  

Linking up with To Do Tuesday.  

A Bit of Progress

It wasn't a completely relaxing weekend.  My Guy and I judged at the district science fair on Saturday morning. There were some really good projects, but boy it was a long morning.  I did get to come home and stitch all Saturday afternoon.  Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday with a scratchy throat which didn't get any better and by bedtime, I had a fever and runny nose too. It's no better this morning, so I'm staying home today. Hopefully a day of bed rest will help clear this out. 

In spite of the intrusion of my non-quilting life, there's been some good progress on Frolic. 

 Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

All the setting triangles are completed and I'm back to making the full sized blocks.  Saturday night My Guy was checking up on me in the sewing room and asked who was getting Frolic.  I was thinking it might be donated to the auction for the local cat shelter the Scientist in Training and her roommate volunteer time at when they are home.  My Guy said no, it was too nice a quilt to donate.  I asked him if he wanted it for his TV watching chair.  The reply was a definite affirmative. So Frolic has a home once it's done. 

The other thing that got done this weekend was measuring how much was left of the butterfly print used in Mosaic Mystery.  There's a bit over a yard left. After playing around in EQ8, here's the plan border plan. 

Mosaic Mystery Quilt
from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

I didn't scan in my fabrics this time, I just went with what was in EQ that had the same color and tone.  Two narrow borders of the dark purple framing the butterfly print should work well. There is just enough of that print to make this work.


That's it for visible progress in the sewing room.  Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. 

Week 8 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It was a long, cold week. Montana was oh so pretty, but oh so cold. I was glad to get home to slightly warmer weather and my sewing room.  Finding time to stitch each day didn't work out so well for me.  Were you able to find those 15 minutes to stitch each day?

My week was one where the best laid plans for last week didn't pan out.  My embroidery wouldn't fit in the suitcase once I'd packed my steel toed boots and my FRC.  Turns out it wouldn't have mattered anyway, we didn't get back to the hotel till after 8 PM each night and were out the door by 6:30 AM each morning.  So there wasn't any stitching going on during my out of town trip.  So not the best week in the sewing room, but not the worst week either. 

15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
15 minute days/February = 18/22 days
15 minute days 2020 = 47/53 days
Success rate = 88.68%

I'm still on track with my goal of stitching at least 85% of the time, so my trip didn't derail me too badly.  I'm home this week, with a day off on Friday. So I have plans to make up at least the time even though I can't make up the days.   

How did you do at finding 15 minutes or more to stitch during the last week?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. Marti 4. karen

5. DawnyK 6. Meloney 7. Loulee 8. Deana

9. Angie in SoCal 10. Amanda 11. Shasta @ High Road 12. Christina's Handicrafts

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Mid-February 2020 PHD Report - Just a A Little Late

I'm a bit late on the mid-month PHD (projects half done) update for February.

I completely missed getting this prepped on the 15th.  The business trip this last week put a bit of a hitch in both my blogging and stitching schedules this month. There's been progress but it's not showing up on the PHD report.

  
No finishes, but no starts either.  So at least I'm not losing ground.  There have been some updates to the UFO/WIP list. 

I picked Twinkle Stars up at the post office this afternoon.  

I've gotten as far as removing it from the box. I like the quilting from the back. I'll show off the front once I get the binding on.  

The other update to the UFO list is that Winter Quilt Along project is quilted.  Trudy just emailed this afternoon to tell me it was finished.  

I'm hoping to have Twinkle Stars bound before the end of the month.  The Winter Quilt Along project will get finished in March.  Fingers crossed I have something to mark on the list for the February wrap up.  

Linking up with Quilting Gail for the mid-February PHD update.  

To Do Tuesday #7 of 2020

It was a really good week on the "To Do List" front.  Last week's list shows three check marks.  

Weekly To Do List (02/11/2020)
1. Winter Quilt Along: Package and ship out for quilting ✔
2. Frolic:  Make six half blocks - progress
3. Wild and Goosey:  Make an orange block ✔
4. Mosaic Mystery:  Finish sewing blocks and rows together ✔

The quarter blocks for Frolic weren't on the to do list for this week, but it just seemed smart to roll those in with the half block construction as they use left over bits from the blocks.  So progress was good, those blocks are slow going from an assembly stand point.  

I'm on the road this week, so it seems wise to go with an abbreviated "To Do List."  

Weekly To Do List (02/18/2020)
1.  Work in a few stitches on the Medallion Butterfly project.

This is where I left off last time.  If there's any down time this trip, I'll start stitching on the grape leaves in the corner.  

2.  Decide on border treatment for the Mosaic Mystery Quilt.  Usually borders are designed by creating a mock up in EQ and then playing around with the different options.  I'm hoping to use the Butterfly print as the border.

I'm not sure there is enough of it left of this pretty after the piecing was finished. The other option is to use the purple with the gold paisley pattern.

But I'm afraid the purple will be too dark.  So I'll load the fabrics into EQ and see what I can work out. 

3.  Frolic:  Finish the setting triangles (5 half blocks).  That should be doable over the weekend.  

Hopefully I'll be able to check off at least one thing from the list this week.  Linking up with Home Sewn By Us for the To Do List Tuesday.    

It's a Double Mystery

It was a laid back and relaxed weekend, which was really nice.  I had planned to take Friday off, but a few things at work conspired against me and I didn't get to take the day off.  That happens occasionally.  I'll get to take a day off later this month.  Even without the day off, there was still a good bit of stitching time this weekend.  I decided to make Sunday a nothing but sewing day as consolation for having to postpone my day off.  

Mosaic Mystery was up on the big design wall.  All the blocks have been seen together, so the quilt center is assembled. 

 Mosaic Mystery Quilt
from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

Now to figure out what I'm going to do about the borders. 

Since Mosaic Mystery could be pulled off the design wall and folded till it's time for borders, I moved the Frolic blocks over to the big design wall.  

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

All the corner blocks (quarter blocks) got made this week. I only finished a couple of the half blocks (setting triangles).  The sashing strips are being stitched as my leaders and enders project.  So though it may not look like it, there's actually a lot of progress on this project.  I'm really hoping to get this Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt finished this year.  Of the seven BH mysteries I've started only three are finished quilts.  So it would be nice to keep this one off the UFO list.  But boy all those bits and pieces take time to stitch up.  

That's it for me this week.  Linking up with the typical Monday show and tell posts.  Monday Making over at Love Laugh Quilt. And Monday Design Wall at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.  You should definitely check out both blogs.  

Week 7 of 2020: Just Stitching Stuff

It was bitterly cold much of the week.  It was really hard to get dressed and walk out to the car just to go to work.  Some weeks it would be so nice to be able to just stay home in the warm sewing room.  One of these days I'll retire and not have to head out in the cold for work. That's not happening anytime soon since the Scientist in Training is planning to go to grad school.  No matter I suppose, it was still a good week in the sewing room.   How did your stitchy week work out?  

I managed to find time every day to do something stitchy.  A few days it really was just 15 minutes, but those little intervals do add up over time.  

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/February = 14/15 days
15 minute days/2020 = 43/46 days
Success rate = 93.48%

I have a business trip next week and since I'll be checking a bag, my embroidery is going to tag along.  Not sure I'll have much time to work on it as I'm traveling with someone that I've not worked with before.  There are likely some long days next week, but I'll have it just in case there's a bit of down time in the evenings.  

How did your stitchy week work out?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. karen 4. Marti 5. Jocelyn Sharing

6. Meloney 7. Shasta @ High Road 8. DawnyK 9. Amanda 10. Loulee (Manxgirl)

11. Deana 12. Quilting Gail 13. Carol Andrews 14. Christina's Handicrafts

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To Do Tuesday #6 for 2020

Monday's always seem to drag, so I'm glad that's it's Tuesday and one day closer to Friday.  Looking back over the last week, it was a good one on the stitching front, the To Do List from last week has a few check marks.

Weekly To Do List (02/04/2020)
1. Winter Quilt Along:  prep top and backing for quilting ✔
2.  Frolic: Make six half blocks - progress
3. Wild and Goosey:  Make an orange block ✔

So two out of three checked off, with progress made on the third one.  Definitely a good week in the sewing room.  

So what's the plan for next week?  I'll be short a day as there is a business trip starting next Monday.  But I'll have Friday off with a bit of time to play in the sewing room.   

Weekly To Do List 02/11/2020
1. Winter Quilt Along: package and ship out for quilting

 Quiltygirl Winter Quilt Along

I finished cleaning up the quilt top last night.  I had to order batting as I was completely out of full sized battings.  That should be here Wednesday, so it should go out by Friday.   

2. Frolic:  Make the remaining seven half squares

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

 
I only finished two half blocks this week, but my focus was on getting Winter Quilt Along ready for quilting so it's not unexpected that there wasn't more progress here.  I'm doing all the half blocks first because there are left over pieces that can be used to make a full block. So it just seems to make sense to get those done first.  Or at least cut out and grouped, so I can use the left overs in the corner blocks or full blocks.  

3.  Wild and Goosey: Make one orange block. 

4.  Mosaic Mystery: Finish Sewing blocks and rows together.

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

The quilt top is partially assembled. This will be the next project to get moved to finished. Mosaic Mystery was started in 2019, but the mystery didn't finish till after the first of the year.  It's not on my UFO or PHD list.  But it just makes sense to keep moving on it rather than boxing it up at this point. A finish is a finish even if it's not on the list.

That's my list for next week. I won't check off all the items, but I'll make progress on all of them which feels just as good at the end of the week.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at Home Sewn by Us.  

A Bit of This and That from the Sewing Room

A day of sunshine, a day of rain made up the weekend. It was nice to have the sunshine on Saturday while we were hanging out with the Scientist in Training.  Since there were no plans for Sunday, a rainy day was just perfect for hanging out in the sewing room.  

I came home from Tulsa with a nasty headache on Saturday, so I didn't get much done in the sewing room.  That left Sunday to make some progress on the to do list and get the Winter Quilt Along backing and top prepped for quilting. 

The back is all pressed, dethreaded and ready for packing up.  I didn't quite get that far with the top. 

Quiltygirl Winter Quilt Along
Alycia Quilts

The first 6 rows have been pressed and dethreaded, so 6 rows left.  Cleaning up the back of this one is going so much faster than Twinkle Stars did.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish off the prep work tonight and get it packaged for quilting and to the post office before the end of the week. 
 
That's it for forward progress on the stitching front last week.  Twinkle Stars is on it's way back from being quilted, so I'm hoping there is time to get it bound before the month ends.  I'll be off on another business trip next Monday, but that will leave me the about a week to get the binding done before the end of the month.  Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  

Week 6 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It was a stressful week.  This year seems to be the year for the unplanned and unexpected, at work anyway.  So I was ready for the weekend.  We met up with the Scientist in Training for lunch on Saturday and had a great afternoon hanging out and catching up.  

One downside of a stressful week is the late evenings. I had one of those last week.  I ended up reading for what was left of the evening to clear my head before going to bed.  So it wasn't a perfect week, but that's going to happen occasionally.  Even so, it wasn't a bad week on the stitching front. 

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/February =  7/8 days
15 minute days/2020 = 36/39 days
Success rate = 92.31%

Hopefully this week will be a bit calmer at work.  I'll be out of the office on Friday.  Hopefully my Valentine will take me out for nice lunch and then I can stitch for good bit of the afternoon. 

How did your stitchy week work out? 

1. Chrisknits 2. Shasta @ High Road 3. karen 4. Marti

5. Meloney 6. di 7. DawnyK 8. Loulee (Manxgirl)

9. Amanda 10. Deana 11. Christina's Handicrafts

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To Do Tuesday #5 for 2020 and the February OMG

I'm not a fan of cold weather, so I'm ready for spring. But I'm not ready for it to be February already.  Didn't we just celebrate New Years?  Since it is February and a new week, it's time to put some thought into this month's One Monthly Goal,

and come up with week #5's To Do List.  Before lining out a new list I should look at what got checked off last week's list.   

Weekly To Do List (01/28/2020)
1. Twinkle Stars: Finish clean up, press, package and mail ✔
2. Frolic: Make 9 blocks from bits and pieces - progress
3. Wild and Goosey Blocks: make green and orange blocks ✔
4. Winter Quilt Along:  Piece backing ✔

So it was a pretty good week, I checked off three of the 4 items and made really good progress on the last item.  I was glad to get Twinkle Stars out the door, I'm sure everyone was tired of seeing it on the list each week.  

So what's the plan for this week? 

Weekly To Do List (02/04/2020)
1. Winter Quilt Along:  Clean up the backing fabric.  

I have a two tone backing. The white print was used on Twinkle stars, the light blue on Vintage Dresses.  The backing should go pretty fast and since we have plans to meet up with the Scientist in Training on Saturday, that's as much as I'm probably going to get done on this project this week. 

2.  Frolic:  Finish assembly of the last two half blocks I have sub-parts made for.

To make more blocks, I need to make more sub-units.  The planned layout requires six more half blocks and 11 whole blocks.  I'm going to work on finishing off the half blocks this week.   

3.  Make at least one orange, Wild and Goosey block. 

That's a pretty doable To Do List for next week.  The February One Monthly Goal is to get Winter Quilt Along prepped and shipped out for quilting.  That should be doable even though February is a short month.  

Linking up with the One Monthly Goal and the Tuesday To Do List.  

Odds n Ends Stitching

It's always hard to head back to work after a nice weekend.  It was a good weekend for stitching time, especially since I had Friday off work.  So what's going on in the sewing room?  Twinkle Stars is on it's way to Trudy for quilting.  Hoping that project will be my first finish before the end of February. 

In keeping the focus on my word for 2020, Finish, I've already moved on to the next easiest finish, the Winter Quilt Along project.  The back is pieced. The next step is to prep the top and back for quilting. 

Up on the big design wall is Mosaic Mystery.  

Mosaic Mystery Quilt
from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

This has been my leader and ender project for the last couple of weeks.  The top two and bottom two rows have been paired up and stitched. Progress has been slow, but steady. I'm hoping to have this project to finished flimsy stage by the end of the month.  

Up on the smaller design wall is Frolic. 

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I'm really happy with how my fabrics worked out. I'm not making the full sized quilt, I'm going with just 18 full sized blocks That should make a good throw sized quilt.  

So really good progress on several projects last month.  Hopefully I can keep that up in February.  Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.

Week 5 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

Yeah for three day weekends!  The company I work for allows us one day off each month if we agree to work an 8.5 hour day.  I took my monthly day off on Friday.  It was nice to have a day to rest, relax, and recharge after a busy month of performance reviews, goal setting and business travel. Even better, I got to spend most of my day in the sewing room, so I made up for my missed stitching time earlier in the week when I was in New Orleans. How did your stitching plans go for the week?  

This was my first week in 2020 where I couldn't fit in some stitching time every day. 

15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
15 minute days/January = 29/31 days
15 minute days/2020 = 30/32 days
Success rate = 93.75%

My goal for 2020 is to maintain a success rate of 85%, so I'm doing well on that front.  It's just unrealistic and requires major contortions on my part to try to maintain a 90% success rate when I'm working full time.  The point with the 15 minutes to stitch is to get me to the sewing room even when I feel too tired.  If I can get myself up the stairs, typically I can find the energy to take a few stitches in something and keep my projects moving.  

I didn't set any firm goals on stash management this year. There didn't seem to be any point as I typically can't help myself when it comes to buying fabric, with the end result I fail spectacularly with any planned fabric diet.  My focus is on using up fabric (new or stash). Since some weeks are really slow on stash usage, I'll just report monthly totals this year.  

January fabric out = 6.73 yards

The quilt back for Twinkle Stars was a good part of that total, but the Mosaic Mystery and Frolic blocks are included in that total as well.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the stash report this week. 

You can link up below and share how your efforts to find some stitchy time each week went. 

1. Julie in GA 2. Shasta @ High Road Quilter 3. Chrisknits 4. Meloney 5. karen 6. Marti

7. maggie f 8. di 9. Quilting Gail 10. DawnyK 11. katie z. 12. Jennifer in Indy

13. Amanda 14. Loulee (Manxgirl) 15. Deana 16. Christina's Handicrafts

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January Report on PHDs and UFO Challenges

My focus for 2020 is to 

up some UFOs and WIPs. My project list currently sits at 26, I'd like to whittle that down to some number below 20 before the end of the year.  To help keep me motivated, I'm playing along with Quilting Gail's PHD program,

plus both Dreamworthy Quilts and American Patchwork and Quilting's Facebook 2020 UFO challenges.  

So the PHD update is easy, there's no change from the first of January. 

Which that's not a bad thing. There are no finishes, but there's no new starts so far this year either. So I'm at least neutral as of the end of January.  

Though there aren't any finishes, there has still been progress on a few UFO/WIPs that are on the challenge lists. 

Twinkle Stars has gone from needing borders to being sent out for quilting.  

Twinkle Stars

Tutorial by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

Hopefully Twinkle Stars will show up as a finish by the end of February. 

Another project on the list, The Winter Quilt Along, went from sewn together rows to a finished quilt top. 

Quiltygirl Winter Quilt Along by Alycia Quilts

The backing fabric has been picked out, it just needs to be cut and assembled. This project should finish up not too long after Twinkle Stars is finished. Fingers crossed that by the end of February, there will be two finishes off the UFO list.  

That's the progress for January.  Linking up with the January PHD report over at Quilting Gail's and with Dreamworthy Quilts for the Monthly UFO Challenge.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Channeling the 60s?

For the first time in the seven years that I've played along with the Rainbow scrap challenge there is no new project to start in January.  Since 2012, I've started nine RSC projects and only four of them are finished projects.  In sticking with my word "Finish" for 2020, I'm going to focus my efforts there this year.  So the plan is to make some progress on the Wild and Goosey blocks that were started as last year's project.  

The green and orange combo in the photo brought to mind images of the green shag carpet and mod looking orange chairs from the 60's (thankfully we had hard wood floors in those days, I never liked the green shaggy stuff at grandma's house).  Sorry for the history detour, back to the Wild and Goosey blocks.  These blocks are little, but with 13 pieces in each 3.5" block, they aren't a quick assembly. This may end being a multi year project, it's going to take a lot of these little blocks to get even a throw sized quilt. 

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Oh Scrap.