To Do Tuesday for Week of 6/30/2020

It's amazing what difference a week can make.  Things have settled down at work with personnel questions having been answered, while the number of Covid 19 cases continues to increase in the state. Work has tightened up restrictions on face to face meetings and beefed up the facial covering policy.  Not an ideal environment, but at least I feel reasonably safe at work.  It's going any place else that is concerning. Mask wearing in our community isn't practiced much.  I think part of the problem is while cases are indeed rising, the total number impacted in our community is still less than 1% of the population, with many of the earlier cases associated with two local nursing homes.  So few people know someone who has had the virus, which promotes the train of thought it's a hoax or really not that bad.  

Even with, or maybe due to, all the stuff going on in the world my sewing mojo returned last week. Consequently a lot of progress was made on last week's To Do list.  

Weekly To Do List for 06/23/2020

Frolic: assemble center ✔

Unity: Step 3, make more sawtooth stars ✔

Storm at Sea: finish borders, find backing ✔

Mosaic Mystery: Make label ✔

I didn't find the backing for Storm at Sea, but I spent a good amount of time searching for it. Now I'm not sure if it actually got ordered, so I checked that item as complete. Compared to the previous two weeks, last week was definitely a good one.  

So what's the plan for this week?  With the 4th of July holiday coming this weekend and some time off, My Guy has requested we do some things together and get out of the house for a bit.  There's the thought of doing a wild flower photography expedition this weekend and spending time with the Scientist in Training, so I'm probably not going to get as much sewing time over the weekend as usual.  So I'm paring down the To Do list accordingly. 

Weekly To Do List for 06/30/2020

Frolic: Trim, start on light blue border

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I've made some of the HSTs that were called for in the instructions for Frolic, but not enough to surround the whole quilt. So the ones that are finished will be worked into the final black border.  At least that's the plan for now. 

Mosaic Mystery: Finish and press binding

The binding just needs one seam sewn to be finished. I should be able to finish that and get the binding pressed then rolled onto an old wrapping paper tube ready to be sewn on once I get the quilt trimmed.  

Unity: Make more Sawtooth Stars for step 3

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

Just one more border star up on the design wall this week, but there are more in the works at the sewing machine.  Hopefully I'll have enough stars this week to actually have one of the four borders complete.  

That's my to do list for this week. We are taking a staycation next week.  We've got a few home improvement projects planned, but I'm hoping to work in a couple of nothing but stitching days.  Next week's to do list will definitely be more ambitious.  

Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for To Do Tuesday. 

Making Progress

It was a nice quiet weekend.  The biggest excitement was realizing that we had a line of strong storms coming in and My Guy was out for one of his longer bike rides.  Thankfully I knew the route he was taking so it didn't take me long to find him and load him up to head home.  It ended up not raining all that much, but it was lightening, which isn't safe to be out in on a bike.  

There was a lot of progress on the stitching front this weekend.  I met my June One Monthly Goal. 

The last border strip was sewn on to Storm at Sea.  Getting a photo wasn't easy, it's a big quilt.  

 Storm at Sea: Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway),
Setting self Designed

I'm really happy with how this one worked out. My Guy likes it too. Which is good as SAS is going on our bed once it's finished.  The other part of the OMG goal was to locate the extra wide backing.  I've searched and searched the sewing room, there is no trace of an extra wide backing.  Now I'm wondering if one was actually ordered. I remember looking at some options and My Guy not being thrilled with any of them.  The plan is to give the sewing room a good clean up during our staycation next week. If an extra wide backing doesn't show up during the clean up, I'll order one.  

The other milestone this weekend is that all the Frolic blocks are sewn together.  

 Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

It's really bright, but I like it. So does My Guy.  Now to get it trimmed up and add the borders.  

The last accomplishment is that I finally finished making face masks for my group at work. 

Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts 

The two green face masks are for My Guy, who asked from more masks with the t-shirt ear loops.  The Scientist in Training has also asked for a mask or two made from this pattern. She wants them made with the chemistry themed fabrics. With the case counts still climbing in our state, it seems I'm not done with the mask making just yet. 

That's it from the sewing room this week.  Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall and the June One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up. 

Week 26 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

My stitching mojo has returned and it's been a good week in the sewing room. Some of the stressful stuff going on at work has been resolved. So my energy levels are better, being stressed is such a motivation zapper. The sinus crud comes and goes, the Saharan dust cloud certainly hasn't helped that any this weekend.  How are you doing at keeping the stress at bay and finding the motivation to get into the sewing room each day? 

I was definitely back in the groove this week. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days

15 minute days/June = 20/27 days

15 minute days/2020 = 156/179

Success rate = 87.15%

It feels good to be back on track.  It will be a 4 day work week with the 4th of July holiday coming up next weekend and the week after that we have a staycation scheduled. So I'm hoping for lots of stitching time the next couple of weeks.  

How was your stitchy week?

  

1. Julie in GA 2. karen 3. Chrisknits

4. Meloney 5. Sherrie 6. Quilting Gail

7. Amanda 8. Deana 9. DawnyK

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To Do Tuesday for 6/23/2020

A check of the calendar shows that this week's to do list will take me to the end of June. The year's just about half over, so I definitely need to get moving if I'm going to make some of my 2020 goals. Checking off a few more things from my to do lists would definitely be a move in the right direction.  Unfortunately, last week's to do list is a bit anemic when it comes to check marks. 

Weekly To Do list (06/16/2020)

Frolic: Finish sashing, assemble - progress

Unity: Step 3, make some Sawtooth Stars  ✔

Storm at Sea:  Finish final blue border - progress

Mosaic Mystery: make binding and label - no progress

Just one check mark last week and for the first time in a while, an item on the list with no progress.  The last couple of weeks haven't been really good for stitching.  Hopefully I can turn that around for this week's to do list. 

Weekly To Do List (06/23/2020)

Storm at Sea: Finish the final blue border and find the extra wide backing fabric.  

 Storm at Sea - Setting self designed

I've got just one border strip to stitch on to finish the quilt top.  But I can't find that backing anywhere. So a good clean up of the sewing room is probably in order.  Finishing off this project and getting the backing ready is my One Monthly Goal for June. So time to get this one checked off the list.  

Frolic:  Finish assembly of quilt center

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

The bottom section is pinned ready for stitching. Lots of seams to match, so lots of pinning.  Once this seam is stitched all that's left is to sew the two halves together.  

Unity:  Make more Step 3 Sawtooth Stars

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

Just three more stars to make and one of the pieced sashings will be ready to stitch on. My approach with Unity is to just keep it progressing.  

Mosaic Mystery:  Print, rinse and dry the quilt label.

 

I probably need to update the completed by date to say July 2020. I doubt I manage to get the binding on this quilt by the end of this month.  

If I can make good progress on the first two items, it will have been a good week.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at Home Sewn By Us.   

Still Frolicing

The sewing mojo hasn't been real strong the last couple of weeks.  Though I did get in a solid weekend of stitching time this week.  Several projects are really close to the milestones of finished quilt or finished top. Hopefully that will help with the recovery of some of my stitchy mojo.  

Storm at Sea is really close to being a finished quilt top. 

The two side borders, plus the top border have been added.  So just one more border to pin on and stitch down. Sorry for such a lame photo, but SAS is so big it's hard to find a spot to lay it out so It can be measured, much less get a photo.  

There is obvious progress on Frolic. 

Frolic: Bonnie Hunter 2019 Mystery

Just two seams to stitch and the center will be done.  I've got a plan for the borders, so this one should keep progressing.  Frolic might just be finished before the new mystery in the fall.  

I'm still making masks for a few people at work. 

Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts 

 

That's pretty much it from the sewing room this week.  Linking up with the regular Monday show and tell blogs of Monday Design Wall and Main Crush Monday.  

Week 25 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It was a long work week, very stressful. It's been hard to maintain a positive attitude some days and I get home just completely worn out. That's not been the best conditions for maintaining the stitching mojo.  How are you doing in finding time to work in at least 15 minutes of stitching time each day? 

 

This week was at least better than last week on the stitching front. 

15 minute days/ week = 5/7 days

15 minute days/June = 13/20 days

15 minute days/2020 = 149/172

Success rate = 86.63%

I definitely need to do better next week if I want to meet this year's stitching time goal of 85%.  

The Black Eyed Susans continue to bloom. The wind was still enough yesterday to try to get some shots with my macro lens and I completely lucked into this shot. 

That made my day.  

How are things going in your sewing room.  Link up and share if you've been able to get in some stitching time each day.  

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

5. Sherrie 6. DawnyK 7. Amanda 8. Angie in SoCal

9. Deana 10. Quilting Gail

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Mid-Month PHD Progress

It's mid-month, so time to stop and reflect on the overall progress in the sewing room for the month.  I'm following along with Quilting Gail's PHD program for 2020.  

I'm not doing so well if you look at my stats for the year so far. 

Only two finishes, but thankfully only one new start.  So I've at least reduced the overall project total by one. Though it doesn't show up on the stat list, there has been some really good progress this year in addition to the two finishes. 

Mosaic Mystery is back from the talented Trudy, so it's ready for binding. 

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

I've got the label design all worked out. So there's a good chance the end of the month report will have one new finish on it. 

There's been good progress on Storm at Sea this month. 

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

It just needs the last dark blue border stitched on and it will be a finished flimsy.  So I'm hopeful of having another finish by the end of next month.  

Frolic has been up on the big design since November of last year.  

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

All the blocks are made and the quilt is mostly assembled.  Just a few more sashing strips to stitch together before tackling the final assembly.  It will still need borders, but I'm not doing the fully pieced borders Bonnie designed. So fingers crossed that this project is ready to go out for quilting by the end of next month.  

There has been progress on the one new project for 2020. 

2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

Unity Step 3 is in the works. But those tiny flying geese needed for the star blocks are going to take some time.  The good thing is I can decide not to do all the rounds and stop where ever. The current plan is to finish the twin sized version, but I may do a few substitutions here and there.  

If I can stay on track there will be 3 more finishes over the next 3 months.  So  a very good chance there will be at least 5 finishes this year. That's better than last year, so I'm pretty happy with how the quilty year has gone so far.  

To Do Tuesday for 6/16/2020

Last week wasn't a good one for stitching.  I'm trying to do better this week.  In spite of the sparse stitching time, there was some progress on last week's To Do List.

Weekly To Do List for 06/09/2020

Frolic: Finish last block, sashing pieces, assemble - progress

Unity: Step 3, finish one pieced border strip - progress

Storm at Sea:  Finish white border, start blue border ✔

Just one check mark for last week, but there was progress on the other two items.  So not a stellar week, but it wasn't a complete bust either.  What's the plan for this week?  

Weekly To Do List for 06/16/2020

Mosaic Mystery: Make binding and label. 

Mosaic Mystery is back from the quilter.  Getting the binding made and the label printed this week should set me up for a finish before the end of the month.  

Storm at Sea:  Finish final blue border

The last of the border strips are pieced together. Now I need to measure the quilt, trim the strips to fit and stitch them on. That will take so much longer than I think it should, but hopefully I can finish that this week.  Then I really do need to find the extra wide backing I purchased for this project. 

Frolic:  Finish sashing, assemble rows, stitch halves together

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

 I just need to sew the corner squares to the sashing strips, assemble the last couple of rows and then stitch the two halves together. It will still need to be trimmed up and the borders added, but it's getting close to being a finished flimsy. 

Unity: Continue making Sawtooth Stars for step 3

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

 

The key to finishing Unity this year is to just keep making blocks. I'm not going to worry about getting a certain number done this week.  

So that's the plan for this week. Good luck with your to do list for the week.  Linking up with Home Sewn By Us for To Do Tuesday. 

A More Work, Less Play Week

Last week wasn't the greatest.  Getting home late from work, sinus headaches, housework and much needed yard work took a big bite out of my stitching time last week. The morning of yard work required allergy medicine and a 2 hour nap to fully recover from the pollen and the heat.  Even getting going at 7:30 AM it was so hot that by 10 AM I really had to quit.  

So not much progress in the sewing room. About the only visible progress was on Frolic.  The last row is assembled.  

                Frolic: Bonnie Hunter 2019 Mystery

The remaining sashing strips are sitting at the sewing machine ready for the last seam to be sewn.  

The only other stitching of note was the completion of 2 more masks. 

  Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts   

These two are for me. I didn't quite have enough to make it through a full week. Now I do.  

That's all from the sewing room this week. Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Main Crush Monday.  

Week 24 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

June is almost half over. It's not been the best month on a number of fronts. We are very lucky to all be well (mostly anyway) and employed.  But my heart hurts for those who haven't been able to stay well, those that are worried about their employment situation and those due to the color of their skin aren't treated with respect and compassion. I don't often talk about the current state of the world on this blog. This blog is one of my happy places where I can just focus on the stitchy stuff that's such a sanity saver for me.  Wouldn't it be nice if a quilt fixed all? Quilters would definitely be able to save the world if that was true. But since it's not, it's still a comfort to know there are others struggling to make their part of the world a better place. 

Stitching has been a nice reprieve from the news the last few months. Though I'm not doing so well at getting into the sewing room lately.  Have you had better luck at finding a few minutes of stitchy sanity each day? 

 

My week wasn't so hot on the stitchy front.  

15 minute days/week = 4/7 days

15 minute days/June = 8/13 days

15 minute days/2020 = 144/165 days

Success rate = 87.27%

We've gotten home from work late several times this week. That coupled with some pretty nasty sinus headaches have made it harder for me to find both the energy and the "want to" to get myself into the sewing room. I'm hoping to do much better on getting in some stitching every day this next week. 

On the happier end of the spectrum, the Black Eyed Susan's are blooming again. 

So it must be summer.

Another sign of summer is that mom and dad barn swallow have another nest of babies to feed. 

We've had barn swallows in the back yard for the last several years. We also have a mommy and daddy robin who just started feeding their newborns.  So we are greeted with lots of  hungry chirping when we step out onto the back porch.  

So how are things going in your happy stitchy place?

1. karen 2. Chris Behme 3. Meloney

4. Julie in GA 5. Sherrie 6. di

7. Quilting Gail 8. Amanda 9. Deana

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To Do Tuesday for 6/9/2020

One week of June is in the bag, three weeks left till we hit midyear.  I'm preparing for mid year reviews at work, which always prompts me to take a look at where I'm at midyear on my stitching goals.  I'll do that at the end of the month, so I've got a few more weeks to work on my big goal for the year. 

So that will be the focus of my Tuesday To Do lists for June.  How did the first week go?  

Weekly To Do List for 06/02/2020

Frolic:  Assemble dark blue block, assemble dark blue row - progress

Unity:  Finish step 2, start step 3 ✔

Storm at Sea:  Add next white border - progress

One item checked off and progress on the other two is a good week in my book. Fingers crossed I can do even better with this week's list. 

Weekly To Do List for 06/09/2020

Storm at Sea: Finish the white border and last blue border

Storm at Sea, self designed

That should move Storm at Sea to the finished flimsy column.  I still need to find the  backing fabric. That will probably be on next week's to do list.  

Frolic: Finish last block, sashing pieces and assemble

2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

That should be doable this week.  Then all that's left is the pieced borders.  So not a finish this month, but maybe in July?  

Unity:  Work on step 3, finish one pieced border strip

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

I've got a good pile of parts and pieces made for the sawtooth stars blocks, so one pieced border strip should be doable. This will be my leaders and enders project while I concentrate on the other two projects.  

That's my plan for the next week. You can see more Tuesday To Dos over at Home Sewn by Us.  

Borders, Blocks and Other Stuff

The Scientist in Training headed back to campus to start her summer research program yesterday afternoon. The house seemed pretty empty after she left.  She'll be back for Father's Day, which really isn't that far off.  But it's going to take me a bit to get used to her not being here.  

The weather has gone from cool and rainy to hot and humid over the last week.  I'm guessing the mold levels are pretty high, as my sinuses haven't been very happy this week.  It wasn't the most productive week ever in the sewing room, but there was some good progress on several fronts.  Three of the four white borders are attached to Storm at Sea.

                                         Storm at Sea:  Quilt self designed

This quilt has gotten so big, it's hard to get a photo of the whole thing.  

There was also some progress on getting Frolic assembled.

                                         Frolic: Bonnie Hunter 2019 Mystery

The last block is almost finished. I'll need to cut more sashing pieces to finish the assembly.  Hopefully Frolic will be ready for borders by next weekend.  

Not much to show on Unity, the flying geese in the step 3 sawtooth stars take some time to make.  Though I did get one star assembled. 

I need over 30 of these little stars for the step 3 border. That's a lot of flying geese.  

Lastly, there was more stitching on face masks.

I really like this bright periodic table fabric. It's probably my favorite of out of all the masks from this weekend. 

                                     Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts                                                           

That's the last of my science/chemistry themed masks. These are all going to work to share with people who haven't had good luck with the surgical masks the company has made available.  I'm hoping the t-shirt loops will be easier on peoples ears. My Guy has really liked his masks made from this pattern.  

That's pretty much my week of stitching.  Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall and Main Crush Monday.    

Week 23 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

I'm writing this post in the new Blogger just to see how it works. So far so good.  I was able get the 15 Minutes to Stitch button in place.  And figured out how to get to the HTML view  to add the weekly link up.  So far so good.  The proof will be if everyone can link up to share how their stitchy week went. 

It was a so/so week for me.  Sinus headaches laid me low a couple of nights, so it wasn't a stellar week. 

15 minute days/week = 5/7 days

15 minute days/May = 25/31 days

15 minute days/June = 4/6 days

15 minute days/2020 = 140/158 days

Success rate = 88.61%

The goal for 2020 was to maintain a success rate over 85%. So far, so good on that effort.  Hopefully you did really well this week. Mr Linky is set up at the end of the post for you to share how your stitchy week went.  Fingers crossed it works with the new Blogger. 

Since the calendar has moved over to a new month. It's also time for a stash report. 

Fabric used in May = 2.93 yards

Fabric used year to date = 25.20 yards

Fabric in for 2020 = 7 yards

Net fabric used  = 18.20 yards

More out than in is always a good outcome on the stash management front. Linking up with Quiltpiantcreate for the stash report.  

I had two fun squishy packages show up this week. The first was from The Joyful Quilter's Barn Quilt mug rug from the Paula Budinger Creating a Quilty Legacy Blog Hop.  

 

The block really is square, it's just my wonky photography that makes it look like it's not.  The bold colors and strong graphics really work, it looks just like a barn quilt. Not sure where I'm going to use it as yet. Thank you Joyful!!

The second squishy package  was from Chris who blogs at Chrisknitssews.  

Inside was a lovely zippered pouch.  Thank you Chris!  It's almost too pretty to use. At the moment it's sitting on my sewing table where I can admire it. I've not decided on a use for it yet.  

Overall, it's been a good week. I'm hoping now that we seem to have reached full summer heat here, the sinus headaches will fade.  Fingers crossed on that front.  Please link up below and share how you've been doing on finding time to stitch.  

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

5. Sherrie 6. Loulee 7. Angie in SoCal 8. katie z.

9. Amanda 10. Quilting Gail 11. DawnyK 12. Deana

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June One Monthly Goal

We are off work today.  The Scientist in Training heads back to college on Sunday.  Classes are all on line, but she has undergraduate research to do this summer, so she needs to head back to campus.  Only the graduate students will be around, so a much reduced presence on campus.  Her undergraduate advisor has already put in place some pretty stringent social distancing and lab cleaning procedures for the research group.  

I'm hoping to get in some time in the sewing room. Not to sew, but to clean up a bit.  It's necessary if I'm going to meet my June One Monthly Goal. 

The plan for June is to finish getting the borders on Storm at Sea.

The current plan is for one more white border and a final dark blue border. 

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

That will make it large enough for our bed.  My Guy has been asking me to finish this one up as he's tired of struggling with the current quilt which just barely covers the mattress. You have to get it on just right or the mattress shows on one side or the other. 

The reason I need to clean up the sewing room is that I need to find the extra wide backing fabric already ordered for this quilt. That's part two of the OMG.  The plan is to have a finished flimsy with a washed, hopefully pressed, backing ready for the final preparation steps by the end of June.  The borders are definitely doable. Finding the backing is going to be a challenge!  

Half a PHD Maybe?

It's a new month, one the end of which will mark the half way point in 2020.  Let's not jump there just yet.  It's probably much less depressing to back up a bit and review how well my PHD program is going.  

If you look at my PHD tracking, it doesn't look so hot. 

Only two finishes so far. On the other hand, just one new start. So I'm not adding to the UFO list and there was some really good progress in May. 

Mosaic Mystery is being quilted by the very talented Trudy. 

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

There's a good chance that this quilt will be bound and finished by the end of the month.  That would put me on track to finish half a PHD by the end of the year.

Storm at Sea was pulled off the to be finished pile to fill the now empty slot in active project list. 

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

It just needs two more borders to be a finished flimsy.  The border strips have been cut for the next white border.  The plan is to get Storm at Sea to the finished flimsy stage by the end of June.  I've purchased a wide backing for this quilt, so I won't have to piece the back. But I do need to find that backing fabric. It's somewhere in the sewing room, I'm just not sure where.  

Frolic is still up on the big design wall. 

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

The last block is in the assembly stages. I'll need to piece a few more sashing strips to finish assembly.  I'm not going to use Bonnie's border design as I don't have even half the number of HSTs needed for that layout.  But I've worked out a partially pieced border that uses the HSTs that are finished. That should put this project on track to be a finished flimsy by the end of July.

That puts me on track to have half a PHD completed by the end of July.  Can I finish another 6 quilts by December?  Not likely.  There are two more quilts on the list that just need borders and backings.  So those are likely to get done this year. That would put me at 8 finishes for the year, which would be a record for me.  

You can check out all the other PHD hopefuls over at Quilting Gail's end of the month link up.