Friday, July 17, 2020

Mid July PHD Progress

Hard to believe that we've already passed the middle of July and it's just a couple more weeks till the brutal heat of August will be blasting us. Not that July's heat has been fun, the humidity has made it like breathing molasses when outside. It's definitely been a month for staying indoors and hanging out in the sewing room. That's been good for making progress on my 2020 PHD. 


Finally there's been a change in the PHD report.


Mosaic Mystery (Farfalla) became my third finish for 2020.  

Farfalla (Mosaic Mystery Quilt)  from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

So I'm a quarter of the way through my 2020 PHD program.  Not an amazing amount of progress considering we are half way through the year.  But any progress is good, so I'm encouraged.  

The other part of the earning your quilty PHD is to finish any new starts.  There's only been one of those this year. 

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

Progress on Unity has been slow, but it's been steady.  I'm still working on step 3, but am almost halfway through it.

I'm not a one project at a time quilter, I like working on several. But this year I am trying to limit active projects to just three or four at the sewing machine in hopes of moving more quilts to the finish line. One of the other active projects is Storm at Sea.  The quilt top is finished and the missing backing was solved by purchasing a new one. 

  
The plan this weekend is to get this washed, pressed, trimmed up and packaged to send out for quilting. I'll tackle the clean up and pressing of the quilt top next weekend.  That's going to be a chore because it's such a big quilt and of course it's got a white background, so loose thread clean up is going to be important.  

I've also been working on finishing off Frolic, the 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  


The last set of borders are under construction. I'm hoping to have a finished quilt top by the end of the month. 

Since there was a finish this month, I've dusted off another UFO to start moving it towards the finish line.  Since the 2019 Christmas Mystery quilt just needs borders, it was an easy one to pull off the pile. But figuring out what to use for the borders has been a challenge. I really want to use what's in my Christmas stash, but I wasn't finding anything that worked for me. This was the best I could come up with. 

2019 Christmas Mystery 
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

I don't actually have these fabrics, I pulled fabrics out of EQ palette that matched in tone what I had or thought worked better.  What kept tripping me up was that second border.  What if I take that out? 


I like that much better.  Eliminating the second border is definitely the right direction.  Now to play with what's in the stash to see what works best.    

7 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

it has been so hot and humid here too - I will be ready for September to arrive! the only time of day I don't mind going outside is first thing in the morning or after dark on the porch!

Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

I like all of your projects. I like the Christmas quilt without the white, but with the red border! YourUnity quilt is the prettiest one out there! Just love those colors. Hugs

Sandra Walker said...

'like breathing molasses' oh I hear you! Such an apt expression for what we've been having for some time and continuing on until at least early next week, maybe longer. You're doing well with your PhD! I enjoyed seeing that Christmas one again, and good idea on eliminating that second border!

Katie Z. said...

I love the colors you chose for your Unity quilt. They remind me of sunflowers!

I am sorely tempted to start the new mystery, but since we are in the position of needing to homeschool next year (our school’s lack of planning is it going to cut it for us), I will have even less sewing time than lately, so I think I should wait.

the heat and humidity are oppressive here too. We have meat chickens, so I’m outside a long time keeping them watered and catching the, when they escape the fence! I will be glad when it cools off.

Susie H said...

That "air like molasses" cracked me up. Living here in the Midwest I totally understand. We're contemplating growing gills the air is so thick & moist! Your quilts are beautiful and I think I've already told you that your Unity quilt is the prettiest one I've seen. Congratulations on finishing the Mosaic Mystery. Always feels so good to cross a UFO off the list!

AnnieO said...

Congratulations on your finished quilt! Always cause for celebrating. We’ve been having a cool summer so far, usually August and September are hottest. Your sewing and quilting plans will fill the hours indoors :)

Jennifer said...

Lots of great progress! I really like the new Storm at Sea back.