Week 22 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

The weather has been gorgeous this weekend. Much needed after a week of the wet stuff.  Unfortunately the week of wet triggered my allergies, I've not felt 100% the last few days.  That has negatively affected my sewing room time.  How about you, has it been easy or hard to work in a few minutes of stitching time each day?  

My stitching week wasn't so hot. 

15 minute days/week = 4/7 days

15 minute days/May = 24/30 days

15 minute days/2020 = 135/151

Success rate = 89.40%

Some weeks are just that way. I'm still on track to meet my goal of stitching 85% of time.  Hopefully this week will be much better on the stitching front.  

My Guy brought home some hydrangea for me last week.  It's one of my favorite flowers.  

Love the purple and yellow/green blooms.  They really brighten up the kitchen table.  

So how did your stitchy week work out? 

1. Chrisknits 2. karen 3. maggie f 4. Sherrie

5. katie z. 6. Loulee (Manxgirl) 7. amanda 8. Quilting Gail

9. Angie in SoCal 10. Deana

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May One Monthly Goal

The month of May went really fast.  Hard to believe we'll be in June by Monday.  As I was contemplating what June's One Monthly Goal should be, I realized I never posted the completion of May's One Monthly Goal.  

The goal for May was to get the Mosaic Mystery quilt prepped and sent out for quilting.  

Mosaic Mystery Quilt
from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

The top and backing were finished in April.  But both needed a final press and clean up before getting packed up for quilting.  

The problem with using a dark fabric with a light background is you have to take care of all the dark threads on the back.  Thankfully the dark purple didn't fray as much as the other fabrics did, but it still took an afternoon to clean up potential threads that might show through after it was quilted.  

I found a box big enough, but not too big and packed it up.  It got mailed out last Saturday and it arrived at it's destination on Thursday.  Hopefully it will be back here ready to bind before the end of June.  I've already got the label designed. 

But I've not test printed it yet, so this may not be the final label design.  I'm looking forward to getting another finish in the near future.  

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the May One Monthly Goal Finish.  Now to figure out what's the OMG for June.  

To Do List for 05/26/2020

We had a really quiet Memorial Day weekend.  The four days off were nice. We hung out a lot. My Guy and the Scientist in Training played in the kitchen while I got to hang out in the sewing room.  Consequently last week's to do list was mostly completed.  

Weekly To Do List for 05/19/2020

Mosaic Mystery: Mail top and back ✔

Frolic: Make 1 light blue block ✔

Unity: Finish step 2

Storm at Sea: Add 2" white 2.5" blue border ✔

Not a shabby sewing week.  When I pulled out the Storm at Sea top I found that the white border was already in place. The last photo of the top didn't show it, so I just moved on to the next border for last week's to do list.  

No four day weekend this week.  What do I think is doable for this week? 

Weekly To Do List for 05/26/2020

Frolic: Assemble next row and make last light blue block

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I'll need to make more sashing strips in addition to the blue block. But those should go pretty fast.  

Storm at Sea: Add 3" white border

It was a pleasant surprise to find that the quilt top was one step farther along than I thought.  This quilt has a lot more borders than I would normally do, but I promised My Guy this quilt would definitely be long enough to cover the mattress. It was almost there after the addition of the border this week. 

Storm at Sea
Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

Unity:  Finish step 2, start step 3

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

I just need to finish cutting and attaching the plain sashing strips to finish off step 2.  That's very doable.  I've already got the pieces cut for the flying geese in the next step.  So those should be easy to start slipping in while I'm working on other projects this week. 

Those are my sewing room to do's for this week.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at Home Sewn By Us.   

Back to Stormy Stitching

Hope you've been able to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend.  We didn't make any big plans for the weekend, spending most of it at home, doing this and that. I did get in a good afternoon of stitching yesterday, so there's a bit of progress here and there. 

Unity step 2 is almost finished. 

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

All the borders but the bottom square in a square border are sewn together.  I'm hoping to completely finish step 2 today.  

Now that Mosaic Mystery is off to be quilted, I can start working on the next quilt on the to be finished list. 

Storm at Sea is number 2 on the to be finished list.  When I pulled it off the pile I discovered it's actually farther along than I remembered.  Only three borders left to add rather than four. I got a good start on the next blue border.  

I'm also still making a few masks. I needed one more to have enough to make it through a work week and I'm making a few for friends.  

Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts

The flower one is for me, the OSU one is for a friend.  I hope to get a few more made today.  The plan is for a nothing but sewing day. I've not had one of those for a while. 

That's the progress for this week. Linking up with Monday Making, and Monday Design Wall.  

Week 21 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

We got an early start to the holiday weekend, we took a vacation day on Friday.  We made the trip to Tulsa, did a bit of grocery shopping, picked up lunch and had a picnic in the park.  It was the first time in 9 weeks that My Guy had ventured anywhere beyond our city limits.  The plan for the rest of the weekend has been a little housework, a little laundry and a good bit of stitching time.  Have you been able to get in your 15 minutes of stitching time each day during this holiday?  

I did much better this week at finding time to stitch.  

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/May = 20/23 days
15 minute days/2020 = 131/144 days
Success rate = 90.97%

So I've been doing well on finding time to stitch this year even though last week was less than stellar.  I'm hoping for a nothing but stitching day tomorrow.  How about you? Have you been able to work in some good stitching time this week?  You can scroll to the bottom of the post for the weekly link up if flowers aren't your thing.  

We picked the Tulsa Rose Garden for our picnic in the park on Friday.  Unfortunately, the garden endured a very serious mite infection about 3 years ago. The garden is slowly recovering.  There's more than just roses there too. I grabbed the wrong camera on my way out the the door. My oldest camera doesn't focus very well close up, but I still got some nice photos. 

Since it is a rose garden, we'll start with one.  Love the fade from dark to light pink.  

The water lilies in the fountain were beautiful.  My photo doesn't do them justice.  

The pansies were so pretty.  Purple and yellow has long been a favorite color combination.  

Old fashioned roses aren't as complex as the more modern versions, but just as pretty. 

Hydrangea is one of my favorites, the garden had some of the biggest bushes of them I'd ever seen.  

No idea what the following flowers are, but they were certainly showy. 

This is my favorite photo from the park, it looks more like a painting than a photo. 

And reminds me that you can still take great photos even if you grabbed the camera with the crappy focus, it just takes a bit more time to get the shots you want.  

Have a wonderful Sunday!  

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

5. Sherrie 6. Loulee (Manxgirl) 7. Quilting Gail 8. Amanda

9. Shasta @ High Road 10. DawnyK

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To Do List for 05/19/2020

This is my second week back at the office.  The company did a phased in approach to bringing everyone back, this week all but people with child care issues or those with health complications are back in the office.  It's almost back to normal, except for the face masks and the requirement for virtual meetings.  

Wish I could say my stitching time was normal last week. It wasn't and progress on the the To Do list suffered.  

To Do List for 05/12/2020
Mosaic Mystery:  Prep top for quilting ✔
Frolic: Make 1 light blue block - progress
Unity: Finish step 2 - progress
Face masks: make 3 - no progress

Only one check mark, but there was progress on two of the other projects. Even better the check mark was on the project that's closest to being a finished quilt.  So last week was successful even though I didn't get a lot done.  Here's the list for this week. 

To Do List for 05/19/2020

Mosaic Mystery: Package and mail 

I found a box that will work last night. Now I just need to finish packing it up and then get it to the post office.  That will finish up my May One Monthly Goal.  

Frolic: Make 1 light blue block

The black squares got cut last week and the blue/light blue HSTs were sewn together last week. Hopefully I can finish this one off in short order. Then there is just one more block to sew together before finishing assembling the top.  It would be nice to finish Frolic before the next Bonnie Hunter mystery this winter. 

Unity: Finish Step 2

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

All the flying geese needed for the last pieced border in step 2 are made and I've started sewing those into strips.  The square in a square blocks still need to be finished before I can add those last border strips.  My slow progress on step 2 doesn't bode well for finishing this project off anytime soon.  Oh well, it's been fun to play with something new.

Storm at Sea: Add 2" white border

Storm at Sea
Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

That's the border shown in grey in the EQ diagram. I probably also need to find the extra wide backing fabric for this project and get it washed so it's ready to go.  Just four borders left on this project, but borders always take so much longer than you think.  

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

One of Those Weeks

For some reason, last week just didn't go very well in the sewing room. Mainly because I didn't speed much time there.  What time spent with needle and thread was spent doing embroidery.  I did make some progress on that front.  

Half the butterfly is finished, so now I can move the hoop to start on the second half.  

There was no change in Unity.

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

Step 2 is still in progress. I'm hoping the rest of the steps don't take so long or else this is going to one long term project!

I did finish one more Frolic block, so there's slow progress on that project.  The big achievement for the weekend was getting the Mosaic Mystery top prepped for quilting. 

Now I just need to find a box and package this up along with the batting then ship it to Trudy.  

Since the second week of May wasn't so hot, there's not much progress to report on my efforts to earn a PHD in 2020.  My report looks exactly as it did at the end of April. 

Hopefully by Mid June, Mosaic Mystery will be finished and the Storm at Sea quilt will bewell on it's way to being finished.  

That's is for my week.  You can check out Monday Design Wall and Monday Making to see posts with lots more progress.  

Week 20 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It's been a busy weekend. The Scientist in Training and I did an eradicate the dog hair blitz on her apartment this weekend.  Her roommate trained a service dog the last two semesters. And while Gus was a really sweet dog, both My Guy and I are allergic to animal dander. Before we can stay with the SIT when we go visit this summer, the apartment need to be deep cleaned.  So I took the carpet cleaner and we scrubbed the sleeper sofa and the carpets. Between the allergic response and being sore from the carpet cleaning, I wasn't feeling the greatest, so slept in this morning.  So my apologies for not getting the stitching time linky party up and going earlier this morning. 

This week was one full of side tracks and extra activities, so my stitching efforts fell just a bit short this week. 

15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
15 minute days/May = 13/16 days
15 minute days /2020 = 124/137 days
Success rate = 90.51%

I'm still well over my goal of 85% for 2020, so I'm not going to be upset about taking the time to spend with the SIT and getting so sucked into a book that I end up reading through my stitching time.  There are just weeks that are going to be that way. 

How was your stitchy week?  

1. maggie f 2. Julie in GA 3. karen 4. Sherrie 5. Meloney

6. DawnyK 7. Chrisknits 8. Loulee (Manxgirl) 9. Quilting Gail 10. Angie in SoCal

11. amanda 12. Andree at Quilting & Learning 13. Deana

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To Do List for 05/12/2020

It's already been a long week and it's just Tuesday!  I was back at the office yesterday for the first time in about 7 weeks.  It didn't seem weird, I thought it would. I've worked there so long it was like putting on a very well used and comfortable pair of shoes.

On the other hand, checking off the weekly to do list hasn't been as easy.  

Weekly To Do List for 05/05/2020
Mosaic Mystery:  Prep top for quilting- No progress
Frolic: Make 1 light blue block ✔
Unity: Finish Step 2 - Progress 
Face masks:  make 5 ✔

Not a bad week all in all.  Progress on three projects isn't at all shabby.  But no progress on prepping Mosaic Mystery.  I just really wanted to sew this weekend, prepping the top just didn't appeal at all.  So we'll see if I have more of a just get it done attitude this week.  

Weekly To Do List for 05/12/2020
Mosaic Mystery:  Prep top for quilting, package for shipping

Frolic: Make 1 light blue block

I need to cut some more black squares and then I'll have all the bits and pieces needed to assemble this block.  

Unity: Finish Step 2

This has been on m to do list for the last three weeks. I've made a lot of progress, I just need to finish making the square in a square blocks and all the pieces for step 2 will be done.  Hopefully I'll actually get this step done this week. 

Face masks: Make 2 more.

I finished 5 masks last week, but that total include 2 for the Scientist in Training. One was a tester to determine if the smaller size was better for me. The smaller size wasn't a good fit for me, but it fit the SIT perfectly.  So she asked for one more out of chemistry fabric.  Now we have matching masks, but I still need two more to have enough to make it through the work week. I've got both patterns figured out well enough that it's not to hard to stitch one up while working on other projects.  

That's the plan for this week.  Hopefully it will go better than last week's plan.  Linking up with Home Sewn By Us for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your weekly to dos.  

Return to Office Stitching

Hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day.  Ours was very, very relaxed. My Guy made a wonderful spaghetti dinner and the Scientist in Training took me out for ice cream.  Otherwise, they left me alone to hang out in my sewing room.  It was a pretty nice day.  

Today I have to put on real clothes (no T-shirts or yoga pants) and spend the day in my office at work. I've not been there in six weeks.  I doubt much has changed, but it will probably feel weird to be back. We'll be operating under a new normal with face masks as the newest addition to our personal protective equipment.  Part of my stitching time was devoted to bumping up our face mask collection so we have enough for a week.  

The top mask is My Guy's Hawaiian shirt face mask.  In the summer he wears Hawaiian shirts on casual Friday, so he wanted an equally loud mask to go with those.  The red plaid mask is mine and the black shaped mask is for the SIT.  There are a couple more in the works that didn't make the shot. Hopefully those will be finished today. 

There was some good progress on Unity Step 2. 

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

I'm massively behind on the clues. That's OK, I'm really enjoying all the stitching and watching something new develop on the design wall.

That's my progress for the last week.  Hope you've made good progress on your design wall projects.  Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall and Main Crush Monday.  

Week 19 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

I head back to the office tomorrow after seven weeks of working from home.  It's going to be weird.  The last time I was out of the office for that long was when the Scientist in Training was born!  I've been working from home, so the biggest change will be in my view and my access to the refrigerator. (Being farther away is not a bad thing!) Getting in my 15 minutes of stitching time a day shouldn't change much at all.  How about you, are you going to struggle more with finding those 15 minutes to stitch once you go back to the office? 

My stitching week went pretty smoothly.  

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days

15 minute days/May = 9/9 days

15 minute days/2020 = 120/130 days

Success rate = 92.31%

I ended up working late two nights last week, I still managed to get in my 15 minutes of stitching time by working on the butterfly panel.  

The bottom wing just needs to be detailed in black then I can move the hoop to the other wing.  

There was also some progress in the sewing room, I'll have more on that in tomorrow's post.  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.  If you want to share how you did at finding time to stitch you can link up below.   

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. Meloney

4. Sherrie 5. DawnyK 6. Quilting Gail

7. Amanda 8. Deana

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To Do List for 5/5/2020

It wasn't a bad week on the stitching front, but it certainly wasn't one of my best.  My prime sewing time is the weekends and though we aren't going any place, a good piece of my normal stitching time was replaced by a couple of much needed long naps. So not many things got checked off the to do list from last week. 

Weekly To Do List (04/28/2020)
Mosaic Mystery: Prep backing for quilting ✔
Frolic: Make 2 light blue blocks, assemble rows - Progress
Unity: Finish step 2 - Progress

Just one item checked off the list, but there was progress on the other two to dos.  So it wasn't an awful week, just not a really good one. Hopefully next weekend will be better and I'll make better progress on this week's to do list. 

Weekly To Do List (05/05/2020)
Mosaic Mystery - clean up back, press, package for quilting

My least favorite part of finishing up a quilt. It will likely take a full afternoon to remove all the loose threads.  

Frolic: Finish 1 light blue block, start on the second.  

Lots of pieces to one of these blocks.  I'm happy to be down to the final three.  

Unity: Finish clue 2.  

I've got the flying geese for clue 2 almost finished, but I'm lagging a bit on the square in square that's needed for the second border. Clue 6 came out yesterday.  Making bunches of HSTs is not one of my favorites. That's the nice thing about being behind, I can decide to do something different if I don't like a given step. We'll see, I've got to get past clue 2 first. 

Face masks:  Make 5

My Guy needs two more face masks and I need three more to have enough for a clean one each day at work.  We don't have to wear them all the time, just when we can't be 6 feet from someone, like in the hallways.  These don't take all that long, but they aren't my favorite thing to sew. At least they use up some of the leftover stash.

That's my to do list for the week. Hopefully, I'll get more done on it than I did on last week's list.  Happy stitching and stay well. Linking up with all the other to do lists at To Do Tuesday over at Home Sewn By Us. 

This N That

It was a very slow paced weekend, with laundry, household chores and naps on the agenda.  The work from home set up just isn't as ergonomic as my office set up and my back has been very unhappy.  So much so that I've not been sleeping very well.  So the naps were very necessary, but I didn't get as much done in the sewing room as a consequence.

The big accomplishment for the weekend was getting the backing for Mosaic Mystery all pressed, dethreaded and ready for shipping. 

The quilt top is on the agenda for the same treatment next weekend. 

Then there was a stitching detour to make a couple more masks. 

My Guy goes back to the office today as part of phase 1 of the return to office plan.  I don't go back till next Monday.  He needed two more face masks so he'd have one for each work day.  Since I'm almost out of elastic and need to make myself three more masks before then, I tried a pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts that uses T-shirt strips as the earpieces.  My Guy isn't a fan of the face mask itself, but said the ear pieces work just fine. So I'm going to try the top mask design with the t-shirt earpieces next.  (Our company is providing surgical masks, so we aren't required to bring our own, but we can if we prefer. My Guy tried one of the surgical masks when he was in last week and much prefers the home made ones). 

There was some progress on Unity as well. 

2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

The first border of step 2 has been sewn on and I've got a good start on the second border.  It will probably take me all this week to finish off this step.  I'm way behind but that's fine, I'm enjoying the process.  

That was my week of stitching stuff.  Linking up with Monday Making, the Monday Design Wall and Main Crush Monday.   

Week 18 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It was a long week, working from home has its own challenges. Plus work was just really busy this week. That cut into my stitching time more than usual. How are you doing at fitting in at least 15 minutes of stitching time each day during this time of working from home and social distancing? 

It wasn't a bad week, it just wasn't a great week on the stitching front.  

15 minute days/week = 7/7days

15 minute days/April = 29/30 days

15 minute days/May = 2/2 days

15 minute days/2020 = 113/123 days

Success rate = 91.87%

A couple of evenings, my sewing time was just 15 minutes as I did have to work late a few nights. But I'm doing well with my consistency at finding time to sew even if I don't have as much time for stitching as I'd like.  

Since we've changed over the calendar to a new month, it's time for an update on the stash report.  

Fabric used in April = 6.85 yards

Fabric used year to date = 22.27 yards

Fabric in for 2020 = 2.5 yards

So how did a few yards sneak into my stash? In my effort to support small businesses, I ended up ordering a few fat quarters from the Spoonflower sale last month.  Aren't these  really cool chemistry fabrics? 

Not sure where I'm going to use these, but they were too fun to pass up.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the regular stash report. I'm definitely using up some of the stash. Now if I can just keep the purchases to a minimum the year should end with much more out than in.  

There was a bit of progress on my slow stitching project this week too. 

I moved the hoop so I could get to the lower wing.  Hopefully I'll get an evening next week to make some additional progress.  Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday. 

A bit of fabric in, a bit out and some slow stitching, not a bad April on the stitching front.  How did your stitchy week work out?

1. Chrisknits 2. Marti 3. karen 4. Meloney 5. Jennifer in Indy

6. Sherrie 7. di 8. DawnyK 9. Deana 10. Loulee (Manxgirl)

11. Amanda 12. Quilting Gail 13. Carol Andrews 14. Andree at Quilting & Learning

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