Happy Halloween with a Bit of Stitching Stuff

Happy Halloween!  It's been a while since Grad Girl did the dress up and trick or treat. I miss those activities now. She used to carve a pumpkin with My Guy, but she's too far away this year. She organized a pumpkin carving party with the other graduate students. She did well with her carving. 

My Guy will carve his pumpkin this after noon.  We are prepared to hand out candy tonight, we'll enjoy seeing the neighborhood kids all dressed up. 

I did spend some quality time in the sewing room on Sunday.  I finished the last grocery sack. 

Pattern is free download from The Fat Quarter Shop

 

I finished two other sacks for My Guy last month, but he said he really needed one more to be able to carry what he normally buys each week.  With the addition of this one, he has three bags to use for groceries. Hopefully that will be enough.  That's probably the last grocery sack I'm going to make for a bit.  I've made a total of seven this year. It was something fun and different that got me back into stitching.  Plus these used some older fabric left overs that were just sitting in the stash. So a win, win in my book.    

Linking up with Monday Design Wall, as well as with Quilting and Patchwork.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 42 of 2022

 

It's been a rough week for me. The company I work for has been undergoing major restructuring over the last year. As part of that process my position was eliminated this week. It wasn't a complete surprise, I've been around long enough to read the tea leaves.  Even so, it hurts a bit and it will take me some time to adjust. My Guy has been really supportive. He's encouraging me to take some time and decide what I really want to do. I can retire, but not sure I'm ready for that. I'm lucky, there are many options for me to choose from. I'm going to follow My Guy's suggestion and take some time to figure out what's next.    

It was really stressful early in the week and the sewing room just didn't appeal.  So this week's metrics aren't so hot. 

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 18/29 days
• 15 minute days/2022 = 158/302 days
• Success rate = 52.32%

Getting into the sewing room every day still hasn't become the habit it was.  I'm OK with that.  My stitching time has been slowly increasing since August. My success rate was only 32% in August (but that was up from 0% in July). I should finish October with a success rate of over 60% for the month. So I'm slowly getting back on track.

In spite of the dry conditions and the sudden freeze, we did finally get some beautiful fall foliage in parts of town.

One bright spot in the current situation, I've had more time to get out with my camera and walk.  

So how did your stitchy week work out?  

  

1. Gretchen 2. Karen 3. Ivani 4. Julie in GA 5. maggie f

6. DonnaleeQ 7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Quilting Gail 9. amanda 10. Stitching Loving Nana :)

11. Frederique 12. Andre at Quilting and Learning 13. DawnyK 14. Andre at Quilting and Learning

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of 10/25/22

Life was very crazy yesterday and I just didn't have a chance to post my To Do list for this week. Thankfully things have calmed down significantly today, so I'm hoping to get this post drafted.  Last week went pretty well. 

To Do List for Week of 10/18/2022 

1. Unity: prep backing for quilting - no progress

2. Macaron Mystery: continue adding borders ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Work on clues 1 and 2 ✔

4. Grocery sack: continue assembly ✔

5. Rhododendron Mystery: assemble blocks as leaders enders ✔

Four out of five is a pretty good week, I'll definitely take that. I didn't do anything about the backing for Unity. Hopefully I can make time this weekend to do some vacuuming of the sewing room so I can at least get the backing pressed and packaged without picking up too many loose threads.

To Do list for 10/25/2022

My list for this week is going to be exactly the same. 

1.  Unity: prep backing for quilting

2. Macaron Mystery: Continue adding borders

The last two strips for the middle border have been cut to size. 

3. Grocery sack: Finish grocery sack

The handles are all that's left to do much stitching on.  It should be a doable finish for this week. 

4. Melodic Mystery: continue making clue 1 and 2 blocks

I'm hoping to at least get clue 1 done by the end of the month. 

5. Rhododendron Mystery: Assemble as leaders and enders

This will be slow going, but I'm OK with that.  

So that's my list for this week.  Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday (on Wednesday).  

Design Floor Monday

We've hit the windy part of autumn here in Oklahoma, so it was definitely a good weekend to just stay in and sew.  I contemplated cleaning up the sewing room a bit, it needs to be decluttered badly, but sitting at the sewing machine was really what I needed.   

Pinning and stitching borders always takes longer than you think it should. I only managed to get two of the next border strips attached.  This quilt is too big for the design wall, so I had to utilize the design floor to get a progress picture. 

Macaron Mystery: Meadow Mist Designs 2021 Mystery Quilt

If I get to sew next weekend, hopefully Macaron will be a finished quilt top by the end of the month. It will feel good to have a project hit a majour milestone. 

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, and Patchwork and Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 41 of 2022

 

It always seems like the last three months of the year just speed by.  There is still one full week plus in October, but Halloween is closing in fast.  I'm still struggling with seasonal allergies, it seems the hard freeze wasn't hard enough.  Consequently I didn't have the best week in the sewing room.

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 14/22 days
• 15 minute days/2022 = 154/295 days
• Success rate = 52.20%

I still touched sewing room stuff more than not last week. I'm going to call that a successful week.  Hopefully, I'll get better on the consistency front in the next few weeks. If I don't, I'm on track to have my worst year since I started tracking my stitching time.  Maybe avoiding a new low will motivate me to do better at finding time to stitch.  

How did your stitchy week work out? 

1. Gretchen 2. Julie in GA 3. Ivani 4. Karen 5. maggie f

6. Frederique 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 9. Shasta @ High Road 10. Andre at Quilting and Learning

11. Quilting Gail 12. Amanda 13. Carol @ Quilt Schmilt

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of 10/18/2022

Stitching time was a bit limited last week, but luckily the To Do List was pretty easy. 

To Do List for 10/11/2022

1. Unity: Finish assembling backing ✔

2. Macaron Mystery: Continue adding borders ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Cut fabrics, start on clues 1 and 2 ✔

Three out of three is a good week. My goal for the rest of the year is to just make progress on a few active projects.  No pressure, no firm deadlines.  As long as things are progressing, I'm going to be happy.  

The list this week is longer, but still focused on making progress on the projects, no pressure to get to a certain stage on any of them. 

To Do List for 10/18/2022

1. Unity: Press and prep backing for quilting. 

I need to vacuum the sewing room good so I don't pick up any stray threads during the clean up process.  That won't happen till this weekend.  

2. Mosaic Mystery: Continue adding borders

Turns out the first border was completed, I just haven't photographed the project since it was added.  Unfortunately, I forget to photograph the top before I pinned on the next border strip. 

3. Melodic Mystery: Continue working on clue 1 and 2

I really like this color combination. This is going to be a fun project to work on.  

4. Grocery sack: Continue assembly.

Turns out 2 grocery sacks isn't enough for the amount of groceries My Guy brings home each week. So he put in a request for a third sack.  I used up most of the science fabric, so I pulled out this wildflower print that's been in the stash forever along with this green.  This shouldn't take long to finish.  

5. Rhododendron Mystery: Assemble units and blocks as leaders and enders.

Tackling this as a leader and ender project will help move it along. I won't finish it before this year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery kicks off, but it will at least be farther along.  

So that's the plan for this week. We have no plans for the weekend, so I should be able to make some progress on every item.  If not that's OK. 

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.  

Still Sorting Out the Stitching Suff

It was a very nice weekend at home.  My sanity benefitted greatly from not leave the house the entire weekend. Being a hermit for a bit felt so nice. We've been on the move most of the summer and early fall with family stuff and special events. The holidays are coming up, so things are going to stay busy, but hopefully we won't be going as much on the weekends till we hit Thanksgiving.  

I'm slowly sorting out what's what in the sewing room. The sewing room was minus my presence for more than 9 weeks, so figuring out where I was on what project has been going on in the background.  There were a few spare parts piled on one side of my sewing machine.  

Those are subunits for the 2021 Bonnie Hunter Rhododendron Mystery quilt. There were a stack of blocks sitting on the cutting table, so those went up on the design wall. 

There are enough half square units for 2 more cross blocks and enough hourglass blocks for another block B. Next step was to check if I had a plan to finish this project or not.  Opening Electric Quilt (which I wasn't able to do on my old computer), I found my final layout.  It needs just two more of the blocks with the yellow cross in the center, but five more of the blocks with the hourglass units.  Other subunits need to be cut to assemble the blocks.  It would be nice to have this one mostly assembled before Bonnie starts this year's mystery.

Next step is to decide what I'm going to keep on the active list for the rest of the year. It won't be long and it will be time to decide on the strategy for next year.   

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Quilt and Patchwork.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 40 of 2022

I'm a little late posting this week.  Seasonal allergies have really taken a toll on my get up and go this week.  I went to bed early last night and slept late this morning.  Unfortunately I'll struggle on this front till we get our first freeze.  Just feeling crappy affected my stitching time this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 10/15 days
• 15 minute days/2022 = 150/288
• Success rate = 52.08%

So not the best week on the stitching front. We got our flu shots this week and decided to get the new Covid booster at the same time. By the next evening I had a nasty headache and chills. So that didn't help my stitching efforts either as I went straight to bed when we got home from work.  The flu is predicted to be bad this year and there are new Covid variants that can evade most of the antiviral treatments. The vaccines don't ensure you can't get get either, but I know from experience with the flu shot, it does help lessen the severity if you do catch it.  

On the fun news front, Grad Girl decided she needed a roommate after all. 

Meet Queenie (because she walked out of the pet crate into the apartment like she ruled all she could see).  

She's mastered her role as an embroidery support cat.  Grad Girl is still teaching her not to jump onto the dining room table and to not chew on the electrical cords.  GG has a set of cord protectors coming on Monday.

Did you have a good week or a so so week on the stitching front?  Please link up and share below. 

1. Ivani 2. Julie in GA 3. Gretchen 4. katie z.

5. Frederique 6. DonnaleeQ 7. maggie f 8. Andre

9. Amanda 10. Quilting Gail

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of 10/11/2022

Last week was busy, between Mom's birthday party and Grad Girl's visit.  Grad Girl has to head back to Texas this morning, but we had a chance to just hang out together yesterday.  All the family activities cut into my stitching time, but I still made progress on the To Do List. 

To Do List for 10/3/2022

1. Finish the last 2 grocery sacks ✔

2. Start on Melodic Mystery - progress

3. Continue assembling backing for Unity ✔

Two out of three with progress on the third is still a good week. The goal is progress and that's happening.  So what is the plan for this week? 

To Do List for 10/11/2022

1. Finish assembling backing for Unity

The center strip is stitched together.  It needs to be trimmed to the proper length and sewn to the two large fabric pieces.  That should be doable this week. 

2. Continue adding borders to the Macaron Mystery 

One border strip had been added back in June.  I'm assuming the second border strip is sewn together and cut to size, but I'm not sure where it is.  So there is a scavenger hunt in my future.  

3. Cut fabrics and start assembling clues for Melodic Mystery

The light pink fabric has been washed and pressed.  Clue 4 has been printed out.  The plan is to cut the fabrics needed for Clue 3.  That should be doable. I'm looking forward to starting something new.  I'm hoping that will keep me going to the sewing room so I can make progress on a few older projects as well.    

Linking up with To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your to do this this week.   

A Bit of This and That

It was a busy weekend. My Mom celebrates her 80th birthday this week, so we had a party for her on Sunday.  It was especially nice since Grad Girl was able to come home for it. So mom had all her kids and grandkids there. Thankfully she was feeling better after a rough week and we all had a great time. 

Since the weekend was spent with family, there wasn't a lot of stitching time this weekend, but there was a bit of progress in the sewing room during the weekdays.  All the pieces needed for Unity are cut out and ready for assembly. 

The two large panel and pieces for the 10" strip for the middle of the backing are ready to stitch together.  

The only other progress this week was tweaking the fabric pull for the Melodic Mystery. 

The dark burgundy is the background, light pink is fabric A, medium pink is fabric B and the green floral is fabric C.  The light pink works so much better than the beige that was in the first fabric pull. I need to pre-wash the light pink, but that should happen today.  It would be nice if I could make a start on this mystery quilt today.  

So nothing exciting, but at least there was progress.  I'll take that. Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Quilting & Patchwork.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 39 of 2022

How is it Sunday already?  This week went really fast. There were stressful things this week and good things this week. My Mother was in the emergency room twice this week. Thankfully they were able to change her medication and she's home doing much better as of yesterday.  The other good thing this week is that Grad Girl is home for fall break.  We weren't sure we'd get to see her till Thanksgiving, but she was able to sneak in a quick trip home.  She'll have to head back on Tuesday, but we'll enjoy her while she's home. 

My stitching week wasn't perfect, but it wasn't bad either. 

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/October = 6/8 days
• 15 minute days/2022 = 146/281 days
• Success rate = 51.96%

Not as good as last week, but I'm learning to give myself grace when I just don't make it upstairs to sew.  There are too many other factors that play into my ability to work in those 15 minutes.  

Thank you to all that linked up last week. I look forward to seeing what everyone was able to get done this week.  Please link up below and share how much stitching time you got in last week.  

1. Frederique 2. Gretchen 3. Ivani

4. maggie f 5. Julie in GA 6. DonnaleeQ

7. Amanda 8. Quilting Gail

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To Do Tuesday for the week of 10/4/22

It was a good week on the stitching front. It's been a long time since I've had one of those. my To Do List wasn't very challenging, but it did help get me back into the sewing room this week. 

To Do List for 9/27/22

1. Finish 2 Grocery Sacks ✔

2. Pull fabrics for Melodic Mystery ✔

3. Finish backing for Unity - progress

Two completed with progress on the third is a really good week. Especially for my first To Do List in almost three months. So what's the plan for this week?

To Do List for 10/3/2022

1. Finish the grocery sacks

This one just needs the outside and inside stitched together at the top and the top stitching completed. The handles for the second bag still need to be top stitched. 

2. Start on Melodic Mystery Clue 1

My rule for mystery quilt alongs is that the fabric has to come from the stash. Usually I try to use up older fabrics and left overs.  The background is a very deep burgundy.  I'm still waffling a bit on fabric A, I'd really prefer a very light pink, but I don't have one in my stash.  Clue 1 uses fabric A, so I need to nail that down before I can get started.  

3. Work on backing for Unity 

The backing fabric still needs to be pressed. I made a start on that last night. Hopefully I'll finish that tonight so I can cut the panels and strip that I need.  

That's my list for this week.  I'm keeping it simple.  My goal is to get back into the sewing room and make a bit a of progress. Linking up with Texas Quilt Girl for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your to do list this week.  

What's Been Going on in the Sewing Room

It's been months since I've spent much time at all in my sewing room. I did reasonably well this last week at climbing the stairs to do a bit of stitching.  Part of the time in my sewing room has been spent regrouping and deciding what to tackle first, second, and third. 

I've been working on grocery sacks for Grad Girl, her roommates she left behind in Stillwater and My Guy.  I decided to finish these before tackling any of my other UFOs.  Grad Girl's bag was finished before Labor Day so it could make the trip to Texas with me.  

These bags are fully lined, so they are reversible.  

I really like the test tube fabric in this bag.  Grad Girl loves it.  

Three other bags were finished this weekend. The first is for one of the Grad Girl's roommates in Stillwater. 

I've had the green fabric with the pink roses for years. 

The other two grocery bags completed this weekend are for My Guy. 

The math fabric was left over from a graduation quilt and the gray interior has been in the stash for awhile. I really like how the last one turned out. 

The fabrics in this one are left overs from Grad Girls chemistry quilt I made a few years ago.  There are two grocery bags left to finish. They just need the handles attached and the final top stitching added.  Those will probably get done this week.  Then I'll need to sort out where to start on my UFO projects. 

If you are interested in the pattern you can find it here, it's a free download at the Fat Quarter Shop.     

Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall, and Patchwork and Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 38 of 2022

It's starting to feel like fall here.  We are wearing jackets when we leave for work, but remove them in the afternoon.  It's been really dry here this year, so it's doubtful we'll get a much in the way of pretty fall colors.  More than likely the leaves will just turn brown and fall off with the first of the windy days.  

I doubt it's due to the change in seasons, but it was easier to get in some stitching time this week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 14/30 days
• 15 minute days/2022 = 141/274 days
• Success rate = 51.46%

This is a really good week considering how little stitching I was able to work in earlier in the year. The last time my report showed 6 out of 7 days was last March. Hopefully that means my stitching mojo is back.  

How is your stitching mojo going?  

1. Julie in GA 2. maggie f 3. Gretchen 4. Frederique

5. Meloney 6. Ivani 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

9. Amanda 10. DawnyK - September 11. Shasta @ High Road 12. Quilting Gail

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