To Do List for the Week of 1/31/2023

January always seems to pass so slowly, while all the other months of the year tend to wiz by.  Maybe it's because I'm in recovery mode from the holidays?  At any rate, today is the last day of January. February usually speeds by. I wonder if that will be the case now that I'm retired?  

Last weekend I was in Fort Worth, TX with Grad Girl and her college roommate (the adopted blond haired daughter).  It was a fun weekend, but it did impact how much time I had to work on last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 1/24/2023

1. SAHRR: Make first border, plan second border - progress

2. RSC Wild and Goosey: Make one block - no progress

3. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders project  ✔

So just one check mark, but I can claim good progress on the SAHRR. This week should be better as there are no plans to head any place. My Guy woke up sick yesterday. He tested negative for Covid, but he doesn't seem sick enough for it to be the flu.  But he's got something that's causing a fever, congestion and a cough. We've gone into divided house mode, which means I'm not doing my usual decluttering activities this morning. So it may be a nothing but sewing day.  We'll see how that goes.  At any rate, here's the plan for this week. 

To Do List for 1/31/2023

1. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish first and second borders

All the HSTs are sewn and trimmed so the spool blocks should come together much faster. The plan for the friendship star border has been worked out.  I'll start on those blocks as I'm finishing the first border.  Hopefully, I'll be all caught up when the new prompt comes out on Monday. 

2.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish at least one bright blue block

There was no progress on this last week. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for February is pink.  I'm not using pink in my quilt, so I'm going to stick with making blue blocks this month. I need a number of them for my proposed layout.   

3.  Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to make blocks as leaders and enders. 

Block 2 is currently under construction.  It is slow going, but at least it hasn't come to a full stop. 

4. Unity (Bonnie Hunter): Prep for quilting. 

I've kept the list pretty sparse on the stitching front so I can get this quilt prepped and sent out for quilting.  It's way past time to get it moving.  

That's my list for this week.  Linking up with Carol who blogs at the Quilt Schmidt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 4 of 2023

I've commented before how the first month of the year always seems to go slowly compared to the rest of the year, but January is just about over.  We'll move into the second month of 2023 in just a couple of days.   But back to now, Week 4 of the year went pretty smoothly on the stitching front. I didn't get in as much time as I had hoped each day, but I did get in my 15 minutes most days this week.

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 25/28 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 25/28 days
• Success rate = 89.29%

I missed Friday due to plans with Grad Girl.  We met up in Fort Worth, TX to go to a concert. We spent Saturday at an art festival and paid a visit to the Water Garden late in the afternoon.  It was a low key, but fun day.  We'll both be heading to our respective abodes after lunch today.  

How did your stitchy week work out?  

1. Gretchen 2. maggie f 3. Julie in GA 4. Ivani 5. Karen 6. DonnaleeQ

7. Marti 8. Celine 9. Quilting Gail 10. Lyndsey 11. katie z. 12. Janice

13. Susan in TN 14. Carol Andrews 15. Shasta @ High Road 16. DawnyK 17. kris@SewSunshine

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Stay at Home Round Robin: Prompt 1 Spool Blocks

It's been a weird week. It's amazing what can pop up that derails your day and consequently any stitching plans you might have had. My stitching week is also short a few days this week due to the planned meet up with Grad Girl this weekend.  All of that to say I didn't get as far as I'd hoped on the first prompt for the Stay at Home Round Robin. But there was some progress.  

First step was to add coping steps to bring the center up to 12" by 18".  

The math works out to 3" finished spool blocks.  Assembling all those 1.5" HSTS takes time, so does trimming.  But I did get far enough to make almost enough blocks for one border. 

The corner blocks are modified spool blocks. Those were constructed first to ensure I got all the HSTS turned the right direction.  Here's the plan drafted in EQ. 

So I'll have to play catch up next week. Most of the HSTS are made so block assembly should go much faster.  

Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for the SAHRR Prompt #1.  

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 1/24/2023

It was pretty productive week in the sewing room. The last couple of weeks I've been trying to work on just a couple of projects at at time till I finish whatever the to do is for them that week. That seems to be working well for me. 

To Do List for Week of 1/17/2023

1. Melodic Mystery: Finish the sashing for Jan clue ✔ 

2. Diatom: Cut fabrics and assemble first block ✔ 

3. SAHRR: Draft plan for first border ✔ 

4. Chilhowie: Work on as leaders and enders ✔ 

5. Unity: clean up and press before sending our for quilting - no progress 

Check marks on four out of five isn't a bad week.  My Guy was home on Monday due to the holiday. That messed up my sense of time, I thought Tuesday was Monday, so when Friday got here, I wasn't where I had planned to be.  Unity is going to take a while to prep and it will take over my cutting table. Since I've started two new quilt alongs that have a schedule, it just didn't work with the plans for the week.  I'll get back to it at some point.  

I'm meeting up with Grad Girl and my "adopted" blond headed daughter (GG's college roommate) in Texas for a girls weekend. So there won't be as much time to stitch this week.  I'm going to pare the list back a bit.  Thankfully I'm caught up on Melodic Mystery and Diatom till early February.  

To Do List for Week of 1/24/2023

1. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Make first border, plan second border. 

Spool blocks are the prompt for this first border. I've worked out my color scheme, I need 24 blocks and I'm limiting the colors to green and purple for this first round.  Other than the background fabric, I was able to cut all the triangles for the HSTs from my scrap bin.  I'll need a few more greens, but I've got enough to get started.  

2.  RSC Wild and Goosey blocks (Bonnie Hunter): Make at least one

This was my last Rainbow Scrap project back in 2019. I've not worked on it since January of 2020.  The plan is to make a few blocks each month in an effort to get this project moving along.  I can only use bright blues, dark blues would blend too much with the black. This pattern is from Bonnie's Addicted to Scraps book. It was also published in the 2013 May/June issue of Quiltmaker. 

3.  Chilhowi (Bonnie Hunter) - Continue to make blocks as leader and ender project.  

Block #2 is in the process of being assembled.  It will be slow going to finish the other 7 blocks for my version, but at least it's still moving.

That's my list for the week.  Linking up with Carol over at the Quilt Schmidt: For the Love of Fabric for this week's To Do Tuesday.   

Another Week: Another Project

The last few years I've really limited my new projects to just two mystery quilt alongs so I could focus on my UFO list. I struggled to get into the sewing room last year, discipline isn't the same as being motivated.  So this year I've loosened my new project belt and have added a second new project for 2023 in hopes that my motivation carries over to finishing off some of my older UFOs.  Yvonne (who blogs as Quilting Jetgirl) is hosting a quilt along for her pattern Diatom. I fell in love with her all blue throw version of the quilt. I'm minus a couch quilt since Grad Girl said she needed something from home to cuddle under since she'll be so far away.  That's my reasoning for a starting a new project (yes there are definitely other quilts in my quilt closet that could do the job, but none of them are the right color).  

The first block came out two weeks ago, but I didn't finish it till yesterday. 

The fabrics all came from the stash and I'm so happy they work well together.  This is a big block, 24" finished.  I did a better job of getting block 2 started. All it needs is the top and bottom setting strips sewn on and it will be finished. I forgot to take any photos of it during construction, so I'll have to show the finished block later.   

It's good that the second diatom block is almost finished as the first prompt for the SAHRR is out over at Home Sewn by Us.  I've already played around in Electric Quilt and have my plan for round one.  My Guy has approved the plan and the colors. Getting the blocks started will be this afternoon's sewing room fun.  

Linking up with the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  Happy stitching this week.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 3 of 2023

It was sunny and 61 F on Tuesday, so I went for a long walk. It was raining and 40 F today, so I stayed in the sewing room most of the day.  I'm really ready for more of the 60 plus temps, but it sounds like we'll have to wait a few more weeks for that.  Till then, it should be easy to get my stitching time in each week. 

My routine seems to be developing again after all the interruptions due to the holiday and then getting sick.  It was another excellent week on the stitching front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 19/21 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 19/21 days
• Success rate = 90.48%

So far so good on finding time to stitch.  

The sewing room needs a lot of attention. My plan when I retired last year was to spend Sunday mornings cleaning, decluttering and organizing my sewing space.  Last weekend was the first Sunday anything along those lines actually happened.  I started my clean up in the southeast corner.  The first order of business was to get a handle on all the scraps. 

 

I have one drawer, two bags and one small blue bin of scraps that need to be pressed, trimmed and sorted by color.  I got a late start last week, but still managed to empty the little blue bin in front of the two sacks. 

It doesn't look like much, but there's a lot of  2" and 2.5" strips those piles.  All the strips got sorted into the proper box by size and color.

 

That is a drop in the bucket, but at least the process is started. The plan is to tackle more scraps later this morning.  It may take a few weeks, but it will be nice to empty both sacks. Then I won't have to keep moving those around when I want to get to something else. 

How did your stitching week work out?  Did you stitch, organize, or do something else entirely?   

1. Gretchen 2. Ivani 3. Julie in GA 4. Karen 5. Michelle 6. Colletta's Kitchen Sink

7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Frederique 9. Susan in TN 10. DonnaleeQ 11. Quilting Gail 12. maggie f

13. Andre at Quilting and Learning 14. Lyndsey 15. Janice 16. Carol Andrews 17. Celine 18. Amanda

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Week 57 Photo Challenge: People with Food

It's supposed to be a wet and cold weekend, perfect excuse to spend the day in the sewing room.  Before I go do that, I need to check out what we all did for the photo challenge this week. It's not an especially hard prompt, just one you have really think about to get a good picture. 

I'm not sure any of us really did that well this week, but at least the food looks good. 

I took several sets of photos and finally decided that one of my favorite snacks was the best option. 

Kate: A Fist Full of Popcorn

Microwave popcorn has a nice crunch and is lower calorie than my favorite chips. I don't usually eat it by the fist full, I'm more of a one piece at a time make it last eater.  

My Guy's picture was taken during the prep of one of our favorite dinners, black been flautas. 

My Guy: Dinner

The filling is both colorful and yummy. 

Grad Girl completes the trend of just showing the hands holding the food. Though her photo is definitely sweeter. 

Grad Girl: Birthday Cake

She made a strawberry cream birthday cake for one of the other graduate students in her group.  She normally bakes treats for their group meeting and the student with with the birthday had requested she make something with strawberries. It looks yummy.  

The next photo prompt will require some thinking and prep work to set up for.

We've already been talking about what to do on this one. Should be interesting.

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 1/17/2023

It was a good week on the stitching front. No fever for 24 hours as of Sunday morning, so we were able to get mostly back to normal in terms of living arrangements.  Thankfully staying on 2 separate floors seems to have been effective, My Guy never did test positive for Covid. 

Other than the low grade fever, I felt pretty good most of the week and made some good progress on my To Do List. 

Weekly To Do List for 1/10/2023

1. Melodic Mystery: Finish half blocks for Jan clue ✔

2. Chilhowie: Finish first block and clue 2 ✔

3. Diatom: Press fabrics ✔

4. SAHRR: Make center block ✔

5. Rhododendron: Leaders and enders ✔ 

I managed 5 for 5 last week. I finished last week's To Do list a bit early and made a start on this week's list. 

Weekly To Do List for 1/17/2023

1. Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish sashing pieces for Jan clue

The half blocks were finished early in the week. Last week's to do list was finished early on Monday, so I started this week's list by tackling the the last part of the January clue. I have the short sashing pieces assembled and started assembling the long sashing pieces.  It shouldn't take much to get those finished.  

2.  Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Cut fabrics and assemble first block

I often get asked to identify the fabrics I'm using. It's not something I typically pay attention to.  I'm going to try to remember to photograph the selvages of any yardage for future reference. So much of my stash is old, I doubt any of these are still available, but at least I now have a record.  

3. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Draft plan for first border.  The next prompt doesn't come out till next Monday, so I won't be able to do much on this project till then. 

4. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter):  Leaders and enders project

I'm pretty happy with my first block, but boy that orange is really bright. We'll see how it looks when I've finished my small quilt of 9 blocks.  I've finished all the Rhododendron blocks. It's hard to assemble a quilt as a leader and ender project, so I'm going to switch Chilhowie to be the new L&E.  I'll bring Rhododendron back in the rotation once Unity and the Macaron Mystery  quilts are out for quilting. 

5. Unity (Bonnie Hunter): Prep for quilting. I've put this off so many times, but if I want to move ahead on finishing off other projects it's time to bite the bullet and get it cleaned up, pressed and sent out.  

That's my list for this week. Hopefully I'll be as productive this week as last week.  If I can stay current with the new projects, I'll be doing really well.  

Linking up with To Do Tuesday hosted by Carol who blogs at the Quilt Schmidt: For the Love of Fabric.

A New Project: The Stay at Home Round Robin

It was a miserable weekend outside, so it was definitely time to hide in the sewing room. My goal this weekend was to finish the center block for the Stay at Home Round Robin which starts today. You can find all the details over at Quilting Gail's kick off post.  I've watched this quilt along the past couple of years and it looks like such fun. We'll see if I can keep up with the prompts.  

I started with two options for my center block. 

A flower or

a couple of birds.  I decided on the birds. My Guy has been asking for a new recliner quilt. He's an avid bird watcher, so it just made sense to go that route.  

After raiding the stash, I came up with a gray to use as my neutral. The pieced parts of the borders will be pulled from my scrap bins, but I'm going to limit the color palette to blues, greens, teals and purples.  So to start, I raided the scrap bins for the center block. Here's for the fabric pull for the top bird. 

Here's for the pull for the lower bird.

I'm pretty happy with how those choices worked. 

The inspiration for the upper bird is an Indigo Bunting and an Mountain Bluebird is the model for the lower bird. The pattern used was "Feathers" by Margot Languedoc Designs from The Pattern Basket.  My Guy thinks it came out well.  So I'm off to a good start.  

Linking with Quilting Gail for the SAHRR center block kick off. Also linking up to the normal Monday linky parties for the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 2 of 2023

January always seems to get off to a slow start.  I don't know if it's the sudden stop after all the holiday running around, or if it's just so cold everyone just slows down some.  Or maybe because the year started on a Sunday so we actually have 2 full weeks of the new year under our belts so far.  It's the end of the second week, time to sit back and see how much sewing room time you managed to fit in.

I'm on track with my goals for 2023, the second week of the year was a good one in the sewing room. 

• 15 minutes days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 12/14 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 12/14 days
• Success rate = 85.71%

This is the first time I've managed a full week of stitching time since early November.  My goal is to stitch 75% of the time, so I'm on track with that.  It was easy to stitch this week, I'm mostly over the bout of Covid that struck last week. 

I finally felt well enough to finish dealing with the Christmas stuff that didn't make it home right after the holiday.  We had one suitcase of new clothes that just would not fit in the car the first time. In that was one of my favorite gifts.  I asked for fun long sleeved T-shirts for Christmas as now that I'm not working, I wear those more than anything around the house.  Grad Girl found some t-shirts and then added the fun. 

It's hard to pick a favorite, but the sewing machine on the dark blue is probably mine.  The scientific glassware on the green is fun and I've soft spot for yellow roses.  I don't know how she found time to get those finished while she was dealing with finals and such. The sewing machine shirt captures my red pin cushion and my yellow handled scissors.  She did such a good job with the three of them.  

So mine was a good week. How was your stitching week?  

1. Janice 2. Gretchen 3. CathieJ 4. Julie in GA 5. maggie f 6. Karen

7. Colletta's Kitchen Sink 8. Shasta @ High Road 9. Marti 10. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 11. DonnaleeQ Butterflies 12. Quilting Gail

13. Celine 14. Frederique 15. Lyndsey 16. Chris in Canada 17. Carol Andrews

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Week 56 Photo Challenge: Something Patriotic

The stuffy head and cough are still hanging around, but I finally lost the low grade fever on Thursday.  I've not left the house due to the fever, but I'm mostly back to my normal routine. I even felt well enough to do some yoga on Thursday.  I'll take a Covid test later today to see if I can end my banishment to the second floor of the house. My Guy has been symptom free, so we're hoping he missed out on getting infected. 

This week's photo challenge seemed pretty straight forward. 

I tried for cute with my photo. 

Kate: Gnomes

These guys came home with me after my May visit to see Grad Girl.  They were supposed to decorate my office for the 4th of July, but I completely forgot about them so they languished in the closet till I pulled them out for a photo shoot.  

My Guy's photo most closely matches this week's theme.

 

My Guy: Faded Glory

He found this on one of his rides.  It's hard to tell, but the background is one of the local cemeteries.  

Grad Girl has had a busy week, but still found time to snap a photo. 

Grad Girl: Red, White and Blue

She definitely nailed the color scheme. 

I selected the card for this week's challenge.  

It should be interesting to see what we come up.   

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 1/10/2023

My plans for the week got derailed, pretty significantly.  I'm feeling much better, but I still have a low grade fever, so that means more quarantining and avoiding My Guy.  Having Covid definitely made it harder to manage my To Do List for last week.  

To Do List for 1/3/2023

1. Diatom: Select fabrics ✔

2. SAHRR: Decide on center block ✔

3. Unity: Prep for quilt for quilting - No progress

4. Melodic Mystery: Finish Dec. Start Jan clues ✔

5. Chilhowie: Finish Clue 2, Work on 3, 4, 5, 6, 7- progress

6. Rhododendron: Leaders and Enders ✔

I lost two days of stitching time, four check marks and progress on a fifth to do isn't a shabby week in the sewing room.  I'm hoping to be mostly back to normal this week. The challenge for the to do list is how to manage 4 ongoing projects?  I don't want to loose momentum on the two mystery quilt alongs, but I'm starting two new quilt alongs this month.  I can string piece with the best of them, but it's hard to see a lot of visible progress when you are trying to work on four at once. I'm going to break down the steps and focus on one project at a time rather than trying to make progress on all of them at once.  

To Do List for 1/10/2023

1. Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish half blocks for Jan clue

The December clue blocks are still up on the design wall, but the half blocks for the Jan clue are spread out over at the sewing machine. 

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter 2022 Mystery) : Finish first block & clue 2

I wanted to finish one block so I could see how my fabric choices worked out. The top and bottom borders aren't oriented correctly. I'll fix that next time I work on it. All the pieces for clue 2 are cut, I just need to assemble those.  After that I'll probably work on the pieces needed to assemble each block.  But that will be part of next week's list.  

3. Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl):  Press fabrics

 

I had to do a bit of stash diving to come up with four fabrics that had enough, but not too much yardage.  I'm planning to keep this quilt to replace the couch quilt that Grad Girl stole when she moved to Texas. I loved Yvonne's blue version, so I'm going to stick with that color family for mine.  

4: SAHRR: Make center block

I've decided on this gray as the neutral for the project. Last week I posted my two potential center blocks.  I'm going to be making the birds, My Guy liked that one best. The plan is to go scrappy, but limit the palette to the cool tones (blue, green, purple, teal). 

5. Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter 2021 Mystery): Leaders and enders.

 

I'm still making the hour glass components for the last block B.  It's slow progress, but it keeps the project advancing.  

That's my list for this week.  You can check out other to do lists over at Carol's Quilt Schmidt: For the Love of Fabric. 

Best Laid Plans?

My week definitely didn't go as planned.  Grad Girl made it safely back to Texas on Wednesday. That's about the only thing that went as planned.  By the time I got home from sending her off, I wasn't feeling great. Thankfully, other than Thursday which was miserable, Covid hasn't been much worse than a bad cold. But I am ready to quit blowing my nose and hiding from My Guy.  He tested again this morning before heading to work, thankfully he's still negative. 

Yesterday was the first day I really felt like doing much in the sewing room. I made some good progress on the Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) December clue. 

Six of the 9 blocks are up on the design wall. The last three are in progress at the sewing machine.

 

Hopefully I can finish this clue off today.  I'm going to need to work out a strategy to handle four in progress quilts at once.  I don't want to loose momentum on the two 2022 mystery quilts, but Diatom has already started and the SAHRR will start up in less than a week.  Hopefully I can work out a plan today.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts for the first week of January 2023.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 1 of 2023

How was your first week of 2023 on the stitching front?  

My first week was complicated with a case of Covid.  The first 2 days were not fun, but I've managed at least 15 minutes the subsequent days.  

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7
• 15 minute days/Jan = 5/7
• 15 minute days/2023 = 5/7
• Success rate = 71.43%

So I didn't get the strongest start on the stitching front. Hopefully next week will be better.  

Since Grad Girl reads my blog regularly, I want to wish her a very happy birthday.  

We celebrated her birthday before she headed back to Texas. This is first time we've not been able to do something on the day of, the timing just didn't work out this year.  But she has plans with friends, so she won't be on her own.  

How did your first week of 2023 go in the sewing room?  Did you get going on your goals or stall out?  

1. Gretchen 2. Janice 3. Ivani 4. Julie in GA 5. maggie f 6. Michelle 7. Colletta's Kitchen Sink 8. Shasta @ High Road

9. Karen 10. DonnaleeQ 11. Marti 12. Frederique 13. Quilting Gail 14. Andre at Quilting and Learning 15. Amanda 16. Susan in TN

17. Celine 18. Lyndsey 19. DawnyK from Dec'22 20. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 21. Carol Andrews 22. Dq

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Week 55 Photo Challenge: An Insect

This is the end of the first week in 2023.  My year hasn't gotten off to the best start. As Grad Girl said I finally lost the Covid avoidance game. Thankfully both My Guy and Grad Girl tested negative this morning.  Since Grad Girl won't be home for a while, I've transferred to her second floor bedroom and bathroom till I test negative in hopes of not passing this along to My Guy. 

Even with me being quarantined, we were able to complete this week's photo challenge. 

 

Normally this wouldn't be a hard challenge, but it is the first week of January.  It's been a cold winter so far, so insects are a bit scarce.  Even so, we all came up with a photo. 

Considering I'm not supposed to be out and about, I really had to improvise. 

Kate: Jeweled Ladybug

I raided my jewelry box for the ladybug and borrowed the artificial flower arrangement in Grad Girls room for my effort. So my subject matter is 100% artificial this week. I still like the result. 

My Guy is out and about a lot, even in the cold weather. He did both bird counts this year, one in the extreme cold and the second in the rain. So even though he's been out and about, his photo isn't what you would normally think of as an insect. 

My Guy: Evergreen cocoon

It's definitely an insect, but it's in suspended animation for the winter.  By spring this will be an Evergreen Bag Worm moth. My Guy tells me they are quite ugly.

I'm not sure where Grad Girl took her photo, but it's probably the closest to the prompt this week. 

Grad Girl: Ladybug

Her photo is of an real ladybug, but she may be a bit desiccated.  I like the texture and contrast in this photo.  

So that was our effort for this week.  My Guy picked the card for this week's photo challenge. 

 

I have an idea for this one. My Guy is already dragging out props for his photo.  Grad Gril went "Ugh".  Seems she'll have to think on it some. I hope you'll come back next week to see what we all came up with.