March One Monthly Goal: Down to the Wire!

Nothing like a late night finish on the last day of the month. But the March One Monthly Goal is finished thirty minutes before the linky party closes.  

The goal for March was to finish Twinkle Stars.  At the beginning of the month Twinkle Stars had arrived back from the quilter, but it needed the label and binding made first.  The binding was made a week before I managed to pin the Scientist in Training down on the message that went on the label. 

The binding was made to match up with the narrow rainbow border in the flimsy. 

Twinkle Stars, block Tutorial by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

I turned the last corner and made good time on finishing off the last 30 inches  at about 10:15 central time.  Now Twinkle Stars is all finished. 

Twinkle Stars is a pretty large quilt and I didn't have the time to lay it out and get a good picture. The best I could do was to show all four corners are finished.  I promise a picture of the finished quilt later this week once I have a chance to get it hung up for it's glamour shots.

Linking up with the end of the month linky party over at Elm Street Quilts.    

To Do Tuesday: Finding a New Groove

We are slowly settling into the new normal of working from home.  I wouldn't want to do this long term, but we've figured out how to manage dueling video conferences, dropped networks and other computer glitches.  As all of that dust has settled, my quilty mojo has returned, I actually checked off everything on last week's to do list.  

Weekly To Do List (3/24/2020)
Twinkle Stars:  Print label, attach binding ✔
Mosaic Mystery: Add third border ✔
Frolic: Make 2 dark blue blocks, start stitching rows ✔
Butterfly Embroidery: Work on for 15 minutes ✔

Last week was definitely productive. It's been helping to pick one thing off the list to work on first, with a secondary task that can be the leader and ender project.  Once task one is done, I can move on to task two and so on.  Focusing on one thing at a time seems to be the best way for me to make good progress. We'll see how that plan works this week. 

Weekly To Do List (3/31/2020)

Twinkle Stars:  Finish the binding. 

I'm about ten inches from the turning the last corner. Then there's about thirty something inches on the last side before the binding is done.  Finishing Twinkle Stars is my March One Monthly Goal. Not sure I'm going to get all that binding stitched down today as I have to work.  Fingers crossed that I can get it finished off before bed tonight and have time to get a photo and write a post.  

Mosaic Mystery: Add the final dark purple border. 

Frolic:  Make 2 light blue blocks, continue stitching rows.

I'm short two of the light blue geese pieces, but I've started stitching the other sub-pieces together in the first of the two blocks for this week. I'll have to spend some time at the cutting table before starting on block number two. 

Unity: Pick the fabrics and make the center block

Bonnie Hunter is starting up a new quilt along, Unity.  I've been so good about sticking to my quilt plan, not adding any new projects and focusing on moving projects to finished. But this one looks like fun and with all the stress lately, having a bit of fun should be allowed.  

That's the To Do List for this week.  Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your weekly to do list. 

Weekend Progress

It was a quiet weekend, though not all of it was spent in the sewing room. The Scientist in Training didn't plan on being home for more than a week and didn't bring home all her books or clothes for the warmer weather we are starting to have. So I rode along as she drove the two hours back to her apartment to get the things she needed to ride out however long campus is closed.  

After we got home, I headed to the sewing room and finally made some good progress on last week's To Do list and March's One Monthly Goal.  I've got the binding sewn to the front of Twinkle Stars and have stitched around three corners.  

I've got two days to finish the hand stitching.  That should be doable, but I'll probably take it down to the wire with the last stitches happening on Tuesday.   

I've started stitching the Frolic blocks and sashing together.  

2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt:  Frolic

I'm happy with how it's coming together.  I still need to finish piecing 5 of the light blue blocks, but there's enough done to start getting the completed bits and pieces sewn into rows.  The blocks were starting to fall off the design wall, so I just took most of them down but for the ones being sewn together.  

The second border has been added to the Mosaic Mystery.

 Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

I just need to add a final dark purple border to have a finished flimsy.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish that next weekend.  

It was a good weekend with a lot of progress.  Hopefully this week will be as good.  Linking up with the normal Monday linky parties of Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. 

Week 13 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

Learning to work at home has been an experience. But I'm grateful that we are all together and are able to social distance. After a week and half, I think we've got our work from home spaces figured out.

Sorry there was no 15 Minutes to Stitch linky party last week. My heart and head just weren't in it last weekend, I couldn't figure out a way to even start a blog post. So rather than force it, I just let it rest.  So this week you can share how the last two weeks have gone with your stitchy efforts.  Did you get a lot done or did you lose your mojo like I did?    

It hasn't been a total bust on the stitching front for the last 2 weeks. 

15 minute days/2 weeks = 13/14 days
15 minute days/March =  26/28 days
15 minute days/2020 = 79/88 days
Success Rate = 89.77%

I haven't spent much time in the sewing room the last week. I did better working on my embroidery project while hanging out with the rest of the family.  There was some good progress on that project over the last 2 weeks. 

Hand stitching while hanging out with the family has been the best sanity stitching the last couple of weeks, so I'm definitely going to be doing more of that.  Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday over at Kathy's Quilts.    

So have you been able to take advantage of social distancing to do more stitching or have you been a bit lacking in mojo the last few weeks?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Meloney 3. maggie f 4. Chrisknits

5. Loulee 6. Marti 7. Pam@AppliquePaintbox 8. Shasta @ High Road

9. Amanda 10. Quilting Gail 11. DawnyK

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To Do Tuesday

It's been very, very different the last week. I've been working from home since last Wednesday.  The Scientist in Training has been home for spring break.  It's been good to have her hanging out with us, though all of our shopping and family outings were canceled.  I've been AWOL from the blog and the sewing room for the last week.  It's been hard to adjust to the new normal.  After spending all day working on the computer and coping with the news, we've chosen to spend the evenings and last weekend together as a family. So there wasn't a lot of progress on last week's To Do List. 

Weekly To Do List (03/17/2020)

Twinkle Stars: Print label, attach binding - progress

Mosaic Mystery: Add third border - no progress

Frolic: Make 2 dk blue blocks, start stitching rows together - progress

I'm hoping to do better this week.  Here's the plan for the next seven days.

Weekly To Do List (03/24/2020)

1. Twinkle Stars: Print label and attach binding. The SIT finally wrote out the message she wanted on the label.  I've updated the label, but need her to check it before printing it out on fabric. 

2. Mosaic Mystery: Add third border. 

3.  Frolic:  Finish off the dk blue blocks, continue assembling the rows.  

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

There was a bit of progress on getting the last two dark blue blocks made. The only visible progress on the design wall is that the sashing strip has been sewn to the upper left corner. 

4.  Butterfly Medallion:  Stitch on for 15 minutes

This was about the only stitching I got done this week. The embroidery is something that could be worked on while we all hung out in the living room.  

That's my To Do List this week. Hopefully I'll get more done this week than I have the last two.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at Home Sewn by Us.  

To Do Tuesday, A Day Late

As of this morning, My Guy and I are working from home for the next couple of weeks.  It's been a bit of a madhouse at work the last few days just trying to work out details and get people set up to work from home.  I'm very lucky to work someplace where working from home is feasible, not everyone has that option. Fingers crossed that the social distancing and associated sacrifices will slow down the virus and give the US a chance to get caught up on testing and develop more targeted strategies to mitigate the spread.  

My sewing has taken a bit of a hit over the last week. Work days have been long and I've chosen to do handwork just before bed time rather than spending time in the sewing room. So no check marks this week.  

Weekly To Do List (03/20/2020)
1.  Twinkle Stars - Make binding and label - progress
2.  Mosaic Mystery - Finish Next 2 borders - progress
3.  Frolic - Make 2 dark blue blocks and start assembly - progress

There was progress on every item, just not enough to allow me to mark one off.  Progress is the goal, so I'm good with the outcome from last week.  

So what's the plan for this week?  

Weekly To Do List (03/17/2020)
1.  Twinkle Stars - Print the label, attach binding

I'm waiting on the Scientist in Training to give me the message for her friend. Now that she's on spring break, hopefully she'll have time to engage her brain for something other than school work. 

2.  Mosaic Mystery - Add third border

 The strips for the next border are cut, assembled and the two side borders have been cut to size.  This should be a doable goal this week. 

3.  Frolic - Finish two dark blue and start the light blue blocks

The last two dark blue blocks are well on their way to being done and I've got all the pieces cut for the first of the five light blue blocks that are needed to finish the quilt top. So if I can get a few minutes in the sewing room, this one should be an easy check off.   

That's my list for this week.  You can check out what everyone else has on their to do list over at Home Sewn by Us To Do Tuesday linky party.  

Just A Bit of Stitching Stuff

I'm not really ready to head back to work this morning, so maybe it's good I'm working from home a bit this morning.  We are trying out remote access options in case we have to use them in the coming weeks.  It's been nice to take refuge in the sewing room, turn on Netflix and just get away from all the other madness on TV this weekend.

I've done more hand work this week than playing on the sewing machine.  But I managed enough to finish the binding for Twinkle Stars. 

I love the rainbow colors.  It's all ready to stitch on. Now I just need to get the Scientist in Training to give me the message for her writing buddy so I can finish the label.  She promised me that she'd have that tonight. 

The second border for Mosaic Mystery has been added. 

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

The next butterfly print border is all assembled and the two side borders are cut to size.  So there's progress, it's just been a bit slow. 

Linking up with the usual Monday show and tell linkys. You should check out what's going on over at Monday Making, Monday Design Wall and Main Crush Monday.  

Week 11 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It's been a weird week at work. Unfortunately, that's likely to continue for a few weeks till the spread of  Covid-19 slows down.  Most meetings  have been moved to remote access to limit the number of people in the same room and business travel is restricted.  We're not working from home as yet, but that may be coming.  But so far all the weirdness is not impacting my ability to work in 15 minutes of stitching time. 

This week was really good on the stitching front. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/March = 13/14 days
15 minute days/2020 = 66/74 days
Success rate = 89.19%

Having my embroidery project handy has been helpful.  I've pulled it out a couple of nights when we got home late and put in 15 minutes of stitches just before bed.  

It doesn't look like a lot of progress, embroidery for me really is slow stitching.  But it's very soothing and relaxing, so it's been nice way to end some of the more stressful work days this week.  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts' Slow Stitching Sunday.  

So how has your stitchy week gone? Are you practicing social distancing and hanging out more in your sewing room?  Link up and share how well you've done at working in 15 minutes of stress reducing stitching time.  

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

6. Quilting Gail 7. Carol Andrews 8. Angie in SoCal 9. DawnyK 10. Amanda

11. Deana 12. Shasta @ High Road Quilter 13. Loulee

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To Do Tuesday #10 in 2020

I'm not sure what happened to last week. I guess all those naps in the recliner after work didn't help with making progress on the to do list.  It wasn't a bad week, just not as productive as I would have liked.  

Weekly To Do List (03/03/2020)

1. Twinkle Stars - Make, attach, stitch binding to back - progress
2. Mosaic Mystery - Add first border ✔
3. Frolic - Make 5 dark blue blocks - progress 

Only one check mark, but there was progress on the other two to dos, so not a bad week.  

So what's the plan for this week?  

Weekly To Do List (03/10/2020)  

1.  Twinkle Stars - Make the binding and the label.

2.  Frolic - make 2 more dark blue blocks

Next Frolic Block Pieces and the Binding for Twinkle Stars 

3.  Mosaic Mystery - Finish adding next 2 borders 

Not an exciting to do list for this next week. But at least I'm moving three projects closer to the finish line.  

Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for the Weekly To Do List.  

Bindings, Blocks and Borders

It was a slow week in the sewing room.  I forget just how much the flu can drag down your energy levels. The older I get, the longer it seems to take to bounce back after being unwell.  

Thankfully there was the energy  on Saturday and Sunday to hang out in the sewing room.  The first priority is to get the binding made for Twinkle Stars.  

 Twinkle Stars Tutorial by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

It's taking a bit longer than normal because I'm trying to match up the colors in the binding strips with the colors in the narrow scrappy border.  

I'm still working on Frolic.  There's another two blocks and more sashing up on the design wall, but it's hard to tell there's been much progress. 

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Just two dark blue blocks left to assemble, then I can move on to to the last five light blue blocks.  

The dark purple borders are going on Mosaic Mystery,

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

Adding borders always takes so much longer than you think it should, but at least there's been some progress. 

Not a bad week on the stitching front.  Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall and Main Crush Monday.  

Week 10 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

Spring is slowly trying to drive out the winter weather.  It's been warmer this week. But you still don't want to leave the house without you winter coat in the mornings.  I'm feeling a lot better after having the flu the week before, but still tired.  I seem to be spending my computer and stitching time sleeping in the recliner.  I've had to struggle to get in my stitching time most evenings.  Have you been able to find some stitching time this week?  

Though it's been a struggle to stay awake long enough to get in a bit of stitching time, it's not been a bad week.  

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/March = 6/7 days
15 minute days/2020 = 59/67 days
Success rate = 88.06%

I did miss one night. The headache that came home with me wouldn't go away. So I just read for the evening before calling it an early night.  My goal is to keep my success rate over 85%, so I'm doing OK on that front.  

How are you doing at finding 15 minutes of stitching time a day?  

1. Julie in GA 2. maggie f 3. Chrisknits 4. karen 5. Marti

6. So Much Slow Stitching 7. DawnyK 8. Jennifer in Indy 9. Angie in SoCal 10. Quilting Gail

11. Loulee (Manxgirl) 12. Amanda 13. katie z. 14. Andree at Quilting & Learning 15. Christina's Handicrafts

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PHD In 2020: The March Update

This year is supposed to be the year of finishes. To help with the motivation, I've joined up with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2020. 

Unfortunately, there's not much of an update since the mid-February report.  

No finishes, but still no new starts for 2020. At least I'm not losing ground.  

There has been a bit of progress.  The excess batting and backing has been trimmed off Twinkle Stars.

A darker orange was found to replace the yellow orange in the original fabric pull for the binding. 

So now I just need to cut the binding strips and get them sewn together.  There should be a finish this month.  

Winter Quilt Along should be the next finish. I was supposed to be traveling this week, so asked Trudy not to send the quilt back till later this week.  It should be back sometime early next week.  Maybe I'll finish two quilts this month?  Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to dream a little.  

Next up to be finished is the Mosaic Mystery Quilt.  I've got the dark purple strips cut for the second border. 

But haven't started sewing them on yet.  Mosaic Mystery isn't on the UFO list, it's one of the mystery quilts started last year that didn't finish till after the start of this year.  I'd still like to get it finished off before this year's Meadow Mist Mystery starts up. I really enjoy Cheryl's mysteries, so did plan to join in with that mystery stitch along this year.  Hopefully, I'll have a few finishes before it starts so I'm not going backward.  

All good progress, just no finishes yet.  So my UFO list looks exactly as it did the middle of February. 

Hopefully by the end of March there will be some updates.  Linking up with Quilting Gail for the March 2020 PHD update and with Dreamworthy Quilts for the 2020 UFO challenge.  

To Do Tuesday #9 and the March One Monthly Goal

It's March!  I was about to ask where did February go, but I know what happened there. A week long business trip and a week with the flu ate up the end of the month.  The business trip for this week was canceled based on the recommendation of my doctor. So I'm home this week. I have one other business trip and maybe some plans for spring break.  But I should be home more this month than the last two. 

I'd been diagnosed with the flu when I laid out last week's list, so I kept it pretty short and simple. 

Weekly To Do List (02/25/2020)
1. Butterfly Medallion Embroidery - get in a few stitches ✔
2. Twinkle Stars - Pick out the fabrics for the binding ✔

I was able to check off both items on last week's list.  It's not much, but sometimes the to do list has to match the circumstances.  I'm happy to have gotten any progress out of last week.  

So what's the plan for this week?  No business trips this week, so I'll have the evenings to do a bit of stitching.  

Weekly To Do List (03/03/202
1. Twinkle Stars - Cut and assemble binding strips, finish quilt label

The Scientist in Training needs to give me a message for her friend before I can print the label on fabric. 

2. Mosaic Mystery - Add the next three borders

3.  Frolic - Finish four dark blue blocks

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

So that's the list for this week. That should be pretty doable. The last "to do" item for this post is to decide on the March One Monthly Goal. 

My goal for March is to finish Twinkle Stars.  

Twinkle Stars A Tutorial by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

All it needs now is the binding and the label.  That should be doable this month. 

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the March One Monthly Goal and with Home Sewn by Us for the Weekly to Do List.  

The Monday After - Almost Back to Normal

It wasn't a wonderful week on the stitching front, I didn't get back into the sewing room till Saturday.  But there was a bit of progress on a few projects over the weekend.  

The sashing strips for Frolic are the current leader and enders project.  A few of those, along with a couple of the darker blue blocks have been added to the collection on the design wall.  

 Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I may start assembling the rows this week as work on the rest of the blocks continues.  Just three more dark blue and five light blue blocks left, plus lots of sashing strips.  
The first round of borders for Mosaic Mystery are done.  

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

The next round will be a narrow dark purple.  That should happen this week.  


Twinkle Stars has been trimmed for binding and the fabrics selected.  The plan is to make a rainbow binding that matches up with the rainbow border.  

I'm wondering if the orange is too light. I may replace that fabric with something just a little bit darker.   The label is mostly done, I just need the Scientist in Training to give me the message she wants to add since this quilt is going to one of her writing buddies.  

So bits of progress on a few projects.  Hopefully I'll be back to normal this week and can move things along a little quicker.  Linking up the usual Monday show and tells over at LoveLaughQuilt's Monday Making and Small Quilts and Doll Quilts' Monday Design Wall.  

Week 9 of 2020: Stitching, Stash, and Slow Stitching Stuff

I'm about 70% back to normal after a week of having the flu.  I'm still coughing to the point my chest is sore and my energy levels haven't returned to normal yet. But I'm doing much better than I was for most of the week.  Hopefully your stitching efforts this week were much more productive than mine.  

I didn't really feel really bad till Monday night when the high fever kicked in. Hand stitching was doable most of the week, except for the one day that my head hurt so bad, not much of anything got done.  Still, it wasn't as bad on the stitching front as it could have been.

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/February = 24/29 days
15 minute days/2020 =  53/60 days
Success rate = 88.33%

My stitching time goal is to stay over 85%, so far so good on that front. You can scroll to the bottom of the post to link up and share how you did at fitting in a bit of sewing time last week or you can read on for the stash and slow stitching reports.  

I'm tracking my stash usage, but only post on how that's going on a monthly basis. 

February = 6.29 yards out
2020 =  13.02 yards out
Nothing in for 2020

I'm happy with the stash management effort to date.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  

Even though I didn't do a lot of stitching each day, there was enough effort put out to finish off the grape leaf motif that starts the next row of stitching in the medallion project I've been working on.  

Now I'm ready to start on another butterfly.  I'm going to try to work on this embroidery project at least once or twice a week.  I made some changes to the area around my recliner that makes it easier to pull this project out when I want something for my hands to do.  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday. 

How was your stitchy week?  You can link up below to share how well you did at getting in a few minutes to stitch each day. 

1. Julie in GA 2. Marti 3. karen 4. Chrisknits 5. di 6. Angie in SoCal

7. Quilting & Learning - What a Combo! 8. DawnyK 9. Loulee (Manxgirl) 10. Meloney 11. Amanda 12. Quilting Gail

13. Carol Andrews 14. Deana 15. Shasta @ High Road 16. Christina's Handicrafts

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