To Do Tuesday for Week of 9/28/2021

The days are long, but the weeks seem to pass by in a blink.  It's just that time of year.  I had an extra day off this week, which helped me tackle last week's To Do List.  

• Morewood Mystery: Finish quilt ✔
• Cabins and Fans: Work on second and third borders ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs for step 6 ✔
• Macaron Mystery: Make HSTs for step 3 ✔
• Scrappy Butterflies: Make Irish Chain block ✔

Five for five is definitely a good week on the stitching front. Especially when one of those check marks is for a finished quilt.  There will be a lot going on this weekend, so I won't have nearly as much time to stitch.  So I'm going to back off on this week's To Do List and focus what stitching time I have on just a few projects. 

Cabins and Fans:  Finish second border, start third border

Cabins and Fans: Self designed

Just one more strip of the second border to stitch on. The strips are cut and assembled for the third border, so I hope to make good progress on getting this project to finished flimsy stage this week. 

Macaron Mystery: Make HSTs for Step 3

It's been slow going on these HSTs. I add one square to the end of my chain piecing line.  I'll have time to catch up later, the last clue doesn't come out till March.  

Unity: Finish Step 7

I finished the last HST for step 6 and have just one more block to assemble and add to the last border for step 7.  I've already cut the pieces for step 8 so those are ready to be sewn as my leader and enders.  It would be nice if Unity was a finished quilt top by the end of the year.  

So a much shorter list for this week. I'm getting so close to finished quilt tops for both Cabins and Fans and Unity. Hopefully a few weeks of focused stitching time and I'll be able to get those sent out for quilting and maybe off the UFO list before the end of the year.  Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your to do's this week.  

Slow Stitching to a Finish

We took a day off on Friday and enjoyed a three day weekend. My Guy was still pretty sore from his bicycle accident the weekend before, so the plan was to just take it easy and hang out at home.  He was feeling much better by the end of the weekend, though he still has some really colorful bruises. 

My goal was to get laundry done and then spend a lot time in the sewing room working on some finishes.  The easiest was to finish reworking some face masks.  

These were some of the first masks I made. The elastic had worn out, so I reconstructed them with a new fabric backing and T-shirt ear loops.  The face mask making is done, at least for a bit. I may make some new Halloween ones, I have some fun novelty fabrics that would make cool masks.  

Most of my sewing room time was spent binge watching British Bake Off while sewing down the binding for the Morewood Mystery.

It was late in the evening before the last stitch was made. 

So this is the only picture I have of the finished quilt, showing that all 4 corners are stitched down.  This was my September One Monthly Goal.  It feels good to meet it with a few days to spare.  

Also linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. 

Stitching Stuff Week 39 of 2021

The year is moving right along, just 13 weeks left in 2021.  The last part of the year always moves so quickly.  When I was a kid it seemed to take forever for Halloween to come and then it was ages before it was time for the Christmas holiday.  It's exactly the opposite now.  

If there's a time to be making progress on projects, this is it.  I did OK on that front this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 21/25 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 224/268 days
• Success rate = 83.58%

It's been awhile since I've managed to stitch all days of a week.  Unfortunately, it's going to be hit or miss on that front till the end of the year.  We have two family weddings to attend, plus I have a business trip in November/December.   So I'll get done what I get done and hope that next year is better. 

Did you get in some good stitching time this week?  

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

5. Meloney 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Sherrie 8. Andree at Quilting & Learning

9. DawnyK 10. Amanda 11. Quilting Gail

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Wild Things: Week 13 Photo Challenge

We all had a much easier time with this week's photo prompt.  

A visit to the zoo wasn't required. We all found some form of "wild" animal for our photos this week.  

Calling bunnies wild doesn't really seem to work.  At any rate, this guy and a buddy are regulars, they like the rose hips from the rose bushes. 

  

You know it's fall around here when you start seeing and hearing the geese in the skies.  This is the first week My Guy only had one photograph to choose from.  He tangled with a dog last week while out on a bike ride and he fell pretty hard. Thankfully nothing is broken, but he's been moving really slowly this week. 

The Scientist in Training's wild thing this week is a Sphinx Moth (also know as a Hawk Moth or Hummingbird Moth). She was worried that it didn't really count as a wild thing, but I think rounds out the series this week.  Between the three of us we've got representatives across the animal kingdom, mammals, birds and insects.  

This week's challenge is an easy subject, but may be hard to get an interesting photo.  

There is lots of potential subject matter, but how do you get an interesting photograph?  What would you do?  

To Do Tuesday for Week of 9/21/2021

It's been a fast month.  Work is still insanely busy, but I think there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Keep your fingers crossed for me on that front.  I'm not working as late as much as I was, that's meant more time for stitching stuff at home.  That shows in the progress on last week's to do list. 

Weekly To Do List for 9/14/2021

• Morewood Mystery: Trim quilt, make label and binding ✔
• Cabin and Fans: Finish first border ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs for step 6 ✔
• Scrappy Butterflies: Make Irish Chain blocks ✔
• Macaron Mystery: Make HSTs for step 3 ✔

Those five check marks feel really good. 

I've struggled with what to put on this week's list. Working on multiple projects has always been my preference, but working on more than 4 can really dilute my efforts.  I really don't want to take anything off the list, instead I'm going to put more emphasis on the order of the list. Higher in the list get's the most attention.  There may not be a check mark by every item at the end of the week, but I'm OK with that if there is really good progress on the first two projects.  

Weekly To Do List for 9/21/2021

Morewood Mystery: Sew binding to front, hand stitch to back

   

The label and binding are both made and ready to stitch to the quilt top. If I make this my number one priority, there should be a finished quilt by next week. 

Cabins and Fans: Work on second and third borders

The strips for the second border have been cut and are partially assembled.  If I focus on this project, there might just be a finished quilt top when it's time to make up next week's list. 

Unity: Make HSTs for step 6

Only four more HSTs and step 6 will be finished.  And just two more blocks left to finish the final border for step 7.  This will continue to be my leaders and enders project this week.  

Macaron Mystery: Make HSTs for step 3

The pattern calls for 54 of these. Step 3 also includes half hourglass units.  I've been stitching one square at the end of the chain piecing.  I'll keep doing that so I don't fall too far behind on this mystery. 

Scrappy Butterflies: Make Irish Chain Blocks

Scrappy Butterflies
Block is available in EQ 8 Block Library

I only made two blocks last week, so I've not been focusing on it much.  So this project may sit for a couple of weeks till I get Cabins and Fans sent out for quilting. I'll finish the blocks that are partially assembled and call it good on this project for the week.  

That's my to do list this week.  Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.   

Working On a Finish

It's always exciting to get a quilt back from the quilter.  One more project almost finished and off the to do list.  But there's still a few steps to complete between pulling it out of the shipping box and taking that last stitch in the binding.  

One goal for this weekend was to finish those pre-binding steps so I could focus on finishing up the Morewood Mystery quilt this next week.  I remembered to do finish step1 just before I went to bed on Saturday.  I printed out the label, soaked it, and let it dry overnight. Sunday I added the borders. 

I still need to turn under and press the top and left side borders, but that won't take long.  Other than that, the label is ready to sew on with the binding. The Scientist in Training suggested the name. She thought the square in a square blocks with the HSTs, next to them looked like wrapped candies.  

Trimming off the excess batting and backing is not one of my favorite things to do. It's not hard, it's just awkward to fold and refold the quilt so it fits on the cutting table for trimming. 

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

After that it's ready for the binding.

Which at the end of Sunday was still being stitched together over at the sewing machine.

I just need to sew the two halves of the binding strips together to finish that step.  I'm hoping to get that far tonight.  After that the binding still needs to be folded in half and pressed before stitching it to the front of the quilt.  That's the goal for this week. I'm hoping to get that done and make a start on hand stitching the binding to the back. That's my favorite part of the finishing process.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 38 of 2021

 

It was a long week, but it's been a short weekend.  Just one long work day this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 14/18 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 217/261 days
• Success rate = 83.17%

This week was better than last week.  I'm all for small victories this year.  Though I'm not managing 7 days of stitching time, what I am managing is moving projects along.  I should have a completed quilt and another one ready to go out for quilting.  So even if I don't meet my goals this year, there has still been good progress.  

Are you making progress?

1. Ivani 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. karen

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Meloney 7. Sherrie 8. Andree at Quilting & Learning

9. Chrisknits 10. Andre 11. DawnyK

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Family Photo Challenge Week 12

This week's prompt was challenging.  

We don't have any one that young in the family. And being seen around a school or park where it's obvious you are taking photos of kids that are not your own could get you arrested.  So we agreed to allow some leeway in the choice of subject this week.  

I decided on a photo of a photo approach.  

This hangs in my office and has some of my favorite shots of the Scientist in Training when she went by Kiddo or Drama Teen here on the blog.  

My Guy found a Mom that didn't object to having her baby photographed. 

  The Scientist in Training had to make do with her roommate's "baby". 

This baby is 11 years old, so she just slides under the age requirement.  

That's it for last week's challenge.  My Guy picked the challenge card for this week. 

The SIT may struggle a bit on this week's challenge, but you never know, she's been pretty inventive so far.  

To Do Tuesday For Week of 9/14/2021

Last week was really good on the stitching front. I may not have stitched every day, but the weekend stitching made up for that.  Last week's to do list is all checked off. 

To Do List for the Week of 9/7/2021

• Cabins and Fans: Start making borders ✔
• Scrappy Butterflies: Make 9 patch blocks ✔
• Macaron Mystery: Start Step 3 ✔
• Unity: Make HSTS for clue 6 as leaders and enders ✔

I've been keeping my lists pretty simple as work is still pretty insane some days, even so, it still feels good to see all the check marks.  Progress will eventually end in finishes, though I'm probably going to fall very short of my goal finishing 8 quilts this year.  But any progress this year sets me up to have a higher number of finishes next year.  So what's the plan for this week? 

To Do List for the Week of 9/14/2021

Morewood Mystery: Make binding and label, trim quilt

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

Trudy did a beautiful job with the quilting.  I'm looking forward to finishing off this quilt. Fingers crossed I can get it finished by the end of the month. 

Cabins and Fans: Finish adding the first border

Cabins and Fans, self designed

The first border is black.  The two long sides have been added. Now I just need to measure the quilt and cut the top and bottom strips.  It would be nice if this project was ready to go out for quilting by the end of the month. That's probably a bit ambitious, so I'll take good progress towards that.

Scrappy Butterflies: Make more Irish Chain blocks

Scrappy Butterflies
Block is available in EQ 8 Block Library

Slowly but surely this quilt is coming along on the small design wall. Hopefully by the time I finish all the alternate setting blocks for what's up on that wall, Cabins and Fans will be a finished quilt top and I can move these blocks to the big design wall.  

Macaron Mystery: Make HSTs for clue 3

Macaron Mystery: By Meadow Mist Designs

I was going to say there wasn't a lot of progress on this project this week, but there really was. The fabric pull was finalized, the fabrics were washed and pressed, pieces cut, then the first two blocks were made.  Macaron will run till March or April of next year, so as long as I do a bit each week, I'll be able to keep up.  

Unity: Make HSTS for Step 6

Just two more blocks to stitch and the last border for step 7 will be complete.  Then I can move on too step 8. After adding Morewood back to the list to finish, I doubt it that happens this week.  

That's my list for the week. It's pretty much the same as last week's, other than adding Morewood back into the mix.  The goal is progress, but I'm excited to be so close to another finish.  I could make that happen if all my sewing time was focused on Morewood.  That's not normally how I prefer to sew, I like having multiple projects in the works each week.  

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.  

Odds and Ends Stitching

The Scientist in Training was home this weekend, she was very content to just hang out with Mom on Saturday. So I got in a fair amount of stitching time, but as we were talking and laughing, I didn't think to take a lot of in progress photos.  

I've been in mask assembly mode.  In addition to making a few new ones this weekend, I reworked a few of the older elastic ones using the pattern we all liked better. 

Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts 

Had you told me a year ago March that I'd still be making masks more than a year later, I'm not sure I would have believed you.  There are  a few more to remake and a couple of colors to add to our current collection so this round of mask making should be over by the end of the month.  

I did more fabric cutting then stitching this weekend. The border strips for Cabins and Fans were cut and assembled.  The first is stitched to the quilt top.

Cabins and Fans, self designed

The second border is pinned and ready for stitching.

Clue 3 for the Macaron Mystery came out last week, but I still wasn't thrilled with all my fabric selections.  The gray and black floral fabric just didn't seem to "go" with the rest.  

I try to pull from the stash for mystery quilts, so I was preparing to just live with the floral when I remembered a set of fabrics that had been purchased to make a black and white quilt.  Those had been kitted up and stored in one of my fabric bins. There were some very nice options in that stash.  The fabric pull for Macaron now looks like this. 

This works so much better to my mind. I cut the first pieces this weekend, which puts this project on my in progress list. It's been over 9 months since my last new start.  Playing with something completely new is going to be fun.   

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 37 of 2021

 

It was another crazy week at work.  I keep hoping it's going to calm down, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.  My stitching time this week was impacted by a couple of late evenings at the office.  

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 8/11 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 211/254
• Success rate = 83.07%

I'm still stitching the majority of the week and that may be as good as it gets for the rest of this year. 

The other fallout from the extra time at the office is that I'm not getting as much time to read blogs and follow up on comments to Life in Pieces.  

This was one of the photos that didn't make the cut for this week's photo challenge to shoot what makes you happy.  Having time in the mornings to drink my first cup of coffee and read blog posts has become a bit of a luxury the last couple of months. Getting and staying caught up continues to be a challenge.  I do appreciate all the comments, I'm following up, just really slowly.  So thank you for being patient.  

Are you keeping up with your stitching time goals?  

    

1. Julie in GA 2. Ivani 3. karen

4. Stitching Loving Nana :) 5. DonnaleeQ 6. Sherrie

7. Amanda 8. Meloney 9. DawnyK

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Family Photo Challenge: Week 11

This week's challenge was surprisingly difficult. 

It's not that we had problems coming up with photos, it was just really hard to pick just one. It was so hard, that we ended up letting someone else in the family pick this week's challenge photo for the blog. 

The Scientist in Training selected happiness is lunch with My Guy at our favorite lunch spot for my photo for this week.   

I helped My Guy decide on happiness is a bike ride for his photo this week. 

The Scientist in Training had several cool shots, but happiness is playing with chemistry was my favorite.  

 The challenge for this next week is going to take some ingenuity. 

Most of our friend's kids are grown like ours, the SIT's a college student, so finding a subject for this week will take some searching.  

To Do Tuesday for 9/7/2021

We had a nice visit with the family this weekend.  Thankfully everyone is healthy.  We celebrated 3 birthdays, so it was a fun weekend.  Between work and the family time, there wasn't a lot of stitching time last week, but there are still a few check marks on last week's list.

To Do List For Week of 8/31/2021

• Cabins and Fans: Sew halve together, start borders - progress
• Scrappy Butterflies: Continue making Irish Chain blocks ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs for step 6 ✔

Two out of three with progress on the third isn't bad for a busy week.  I'm hoping for a lot more sewing time this week.  Fingers crossed that actually happens.

To Do List for Week of 9/7/2021

Cabins and Fans: Start borders

Cabins and Fans, self designed

The two halves did get stitched together.  I'll need to trim up the edges and cut the strips for the first black border.  There will be a very narrow green border after that, with a wider black border to finish the quilt off.  

Scrappy Butterflies:  Make more Irish Chain Blocks

Scrappy Butterflies
Block is available in EQ 8 Block Library

I didn't add any blocks to the design wall this week, but there are a couple in progress over at the sewing machine. I'm still trying to decide where each butterfly block fits in the layout.  

Macaron Mystery:  Start on step 3

I was really hoping to finish a few more quilts before I started on this mystery. This will be my first new start for 2021.  I'm still wishy washy on the fabric B.  I'm not sure it goes.  I may pull something else before I make a start on cutting the blocks.  

Unity: Make HSTs for step 6 as leaders and enders

Only 4 more blocks needed to finish off the last border in step 7.  I'm not going to finish those this week, but it feels good to be so close to finishing up this step.  

That's my list for this week.  Linking up with the Texas Quilt Gal, the new hostess for To Do Tuesday.  

September One Monthly Goal: Finish the Morewood Mystery

We're 6 days into September, so it was time to put some thought into what the One Monthly Goal is for September and link up with Elm Street Quilts. 

An email came from Trudy on Friday saying that the quilted Morewood Mystery was in the mail and on it's way back to Oklahoma.  Finishing off that mystery project is the most logical candidate for this month's OMG.  

I've finished and vetted the new quilt name and label with the Scientist in Training. 

The SIT has always thought the square in a square block with the teal HSTs looks like wrapped candies.  

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

I can see that.  This quilt is destined for the bed of the SITs long term friend and new roommate.  It will be part of her Christmas gift this year.  

I'll need to print the label, trim the quilt, make the binding then sew it to the front and back. That should be doable this month. I'm looking forward to making this project finish number three for 2021.