One of "Those" Mondays!

It's after lunch, so I'm really, really late with my typical Monday morning post.  But it has been one of those Mondays where the day just started wrong and went downhill from there. Grad Girl had asked me to take care of some paperwork for her that's due today.  I realized while I was having my coffee and reviewing my to do lists that I had completely spaced it off. So rather than housework, I needed to head out before 9 to get that taken care of.  

While I was contemplating that change in plans, My Guy who had just left for work, came back. He said his car wasn't drivable.  The front driver side tire wasn't just flat, it looked like it had blown out.  He came in to grab the keys to my car as my original plans weren't to go anywhere.  Since I had to have the car, I got dressed and took him to work. I'll have to pick him up later. 

Add in the stop for gas when the fuel light came on after dropping My Guy at work, my typical morning routine was pretty much trashed at that point.  

On the brighter side, I finished off all the Diatom blocks this weekend. That means I can link up with Quilting Jetgirl's Diatom QAL final link up.   

 

I'm so happy with how these turned out.  They are up on the design wall based on the layout Quilting Jetgirl uses in the pattern. I'm not sure they are going to stay in that order, I'm going to play with that a bit before I stitch all the blocks together.  I don't normally keep the colors used by the pattern author, but I just loved the blues Yvonne used in her version.  The patterns is well written and uses larger pieces, so the blocks go together pretty easily.  I learned a new trick for making perfect flying geese with this project.  This quilt is intended to become my couch quilt to replace the one that Grad Girl took to grad school.  

That's what is up on my design wall after a weekend of stitching.  Linking up with the normal linky parties, Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  Hopefully the rest of my week goes more smoothly than today did.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 29 of 2023

I'm back on track this week with my stitching time.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 19/29 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 175/210 days
• Success rate = 83.33%

The goal for 2023 is to work in some stitching time at least 75% of the time.  So I'm doing OK with that goal, even with last week's lack of stitching time due to Grad Girl's move. 

I really expected to be stitching a lot more once I retired.  But there are still plenty of other things that still require my time. I have dedicated more time to working on my physical fitness (really needed to keep my back in line) and some time to developing my photography skills (though with the heat, I'm not doing nearly as much of that).  Of course there are still lots of chores, laundry doesn't go away when you retire. The biggest increase in stitching time has come on the weekends.  Since I can do housework during the week, my weekends are a lot clearer.  There's a walk in cards for today, then I can sew for the rest of the day.  

Have you been able to get in your stitching time this week?  

    

1. Gretchen 2. maggie f 3. Karen 4. Ivani

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Julie in GA 7. Deb in Canada 8. Amanda

9. Frédérique 10. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts 11. Quilting Gail 12. Andrée at Quilting & Learning

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Weeks 79 and 80 Photo Challenge: Religion and a Sense of Motion

July has been a busy month. We took vacation to hang with Grad Girl earlier in the month, then she and I worked on getting her moved.  This last week My Guy was in Houston for a meeting.  With all the travel and stuff going on I just didn't get a post done for weeks 79 and 80. Since we are all playing catch up we didn't draw a new card for last week. 

Week 79's card wasn't difficult, just a matter of what did you want to photograph. 

 

I ended up staging a photograph.

Kate: Rosary

The rosary belongs to My Guy (I have one, but his worked better in the photographs).  The bible was a gift from My Guy's parents. I like the interplay of light and dark in this photo. 

My Guy went classical with his photo. 

My Guy: Prayer

Sunlit stained glass is always so pretty.  We have two Catholic churches in town, both built in the 70s, but only one has the traditional stained glass windows. 

Grad Girl went in a completely different direction.    

Grad Girl: Mixing Science & Religion

There are some people who wonder how you can be a scientist and religious at the same time.  The best way I can put it, is when you know some of the rules, you are even more awestruck.   Grad Girl does a lot of science, but she noted that when she got this product it reminded her of communion wine. 

Week 79's photos were all really about the light.  The card for week 80 went in a completely different direction. 

I drew this card just before I left for Texas to help Grad Girl move.  But then didn't really think about it till I was driving home.  I tried to get some pictures from the road, but that didn't work.  Thankfully I found a photo that I'd taken during the move. 

I helped Grad Girl unpack the last day I was in Texas. Queenie was still settling into her new digs.  She finally decided after lots of sniffing about that the cat tree was safe again, so jumped up to her normal queen of the apartment perch.  She hung out at the top for a while watching what was going on outside the patio doors.  

I'm always jealous of My Guy's nature photographs, he captures some good ones, including the one for this the week 80 challenge. 

My Guy: Fly Over

He gets the bee and butterfly both in motion.  We had a bumper crop of basket flowers this year. The butterflies and bees really love them.  He had so many good photos for this week's challenge. 

Grad Girl spends most of her time in the lab these days, but she has some cool stuff going on.  

Grad Girl: Bubbling

Not sure if this was a success or a near miss, but it's definitely cool looking.  I can definitely imagine these bubbles popping and reforming.  

So that's what we came up with for the last 3 weeks.  My Guy drew the photo card for week 81. 

Should be interesting to see what we each come up with for this week.  

To Do List for the Week of 7/25/2023

There was no to do list for last week.  Grad Girl doesn't have a lot, but it's amazing how long it takes to pack and load, then unload and unpack even a small apartment.  It just didn't make sense to make a list for last week, especially since I didn't do so well on the list for the previous week. Even with another week to work on projects, I didn't check off all the items on the list.  

To Do List for 7/11/2023

1. Just Two Charm Pack Quilts blog hop: Finish assembling the quilt top. ✔

2. Wild and Goosey: Make 1 red block ✔

3. Diatom: Finish block 9, cut block 10 ✔

4. Chilhowie: Leaders and enders project ✔

5. Butterfly Medallion embroidery: travel project - no progress

Four out of 5 isn't a bad couple of weeks.  I didn't work on the embroidery project, it's a lot to haul out with all the threads that are needed.  The little hexie flower garden block (see yesterday's post) was a lot easier to pull out and stitch on when I had the energy.  

I'm on my own for most of this week, My Guy is off on a business trip.  Not that I don't sew when he's home, it's just that my evening schedule is my own when he's not home. So what's the plan for this week?

To Do List for 7/25/2023

1. Diatom (Quilting JetGirl): Finish blocks 10, 11 & 12

 

I finished block 9 before I left for Texas and made a start on block 10.  The Diatom quilt parade for this quilt along ends on Monday, July 31st. I'm hoping to have at least the blocks finished by then. Having them sewn together would be better, but I doubt I get that far.  But I'm going to give it a try.  

2. Wild & Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Cut red scraps and make one block.

I could use some red with white backgrounds to make some lighter blocks, all the ones in the pile now are really dark. 

3. Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Continue assembly of quilt top

I haven't worked on this project since February.  Melodic Mystery is  Cheryl's 2022-2023 mystery. This year's mystery has already kicked off with the fabric requirements posted earlier this month so it would be nice to get this project to the finished quilt top stage.  

4. Chilhowie Mystery (Bonnie Hunter): Continue as leaders and enders project. 

5. Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Select fabrics

I've played a little bit with what's in the stash.  I'm having a hard time deciding on a color scheme.  I want do do something a bit different.  However, I still want to like it when it's finished so it's hard to go way out of my comfort zone.  

So that's my list for this week. I have 4 finished quilt tops at this point. I have a back prepped for one of them.  The other three need backings pieced and all 4 need to be prepped for quilting.  I think that will be my focus for the next couple of months.  Other than the Malted Mystery, I'm not planning on starting any other new projects till Bonnie Hunter's 2023 mystery quilt along in November (assuming she does one this year).  Famous last words I'm sure.  

Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for this week's To Do Tuesday.  

Getting Back in the Groove

Moving Grad Girl took up most of last week.  I got back from Texas late Friday. Moving in 100 plus temperatures really takes it out of you. We didn't get to bed till midnight several nights, way past my normal bed time. Unfortunately My Guy wasn't able to take off work to come help, so it was just us girls. But we managed pretty well.  Grad Girl has some awesome grad school girl friends who came to help with the heavy lifting.  Still, I spent Saturday in recovery mode with a lot of reading and resting. 

I didn't venture into my sewing room till Sunday afternoon. The quilt top for the Just Two Charm Pack Quilts blog hop is done and photographed, no pictures till next week. That was my "have to do" for the weekend.  Then I spent some time on Diatom block 10. 

The chevron subunits are all pieced.  This will be my focus project for the rest of the month. Hopefully I can get this to pieced quilt top before the end of the month.  

The only stitching I did in Texas was a hexie project from the June guild meeting.

It's a simple hexie flower. The teacher provided the hexie cardboard and precut fabrics.  Not sure what I'm going to do with this, but it was something easy to pull out and work on when I had a bit of downtime early last week. 

That's my design wall (design couch) for last week.  Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 28 of 2023

I really didn't intend to be radio silent this week, but moving Grad Girl was a pretty all consuming task this last week.  Packing, cleaning, loading down two sets of stairs and unloading up three flights of stairs in 100+ heat was exhausting. We tried to do most of the moving early in the morning, then later in the evening.  All either of us could do after dinner was shower and go to bed most days of the move.  The move also wasn't very conductive to finding time to stitch and this week's numbers show that. 

• 15 minute days/week = 2/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 12/25 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 168/206 days
• Success rate = 81.55%

So not the best week on the stitching front, but Grad Girl's move went mostly smoothly.  No problems with my back thankfully, I was very careful about what I packed and carried. I did end up with blisters on my right hand from cleaning the carpets in the new apartment. The previous roommate had a male cat that was not neutered, so Grad Girl was concerned that her cat would not feel comfortable if we didn't do a deep clean. 

So that was my week. Hopefully yours was filled with much more stitching time than mine was.  I didn't even get to everyone's post from last week. I'll be playing catch up on my email and blog post reading most of this week.  So did you get in your stitching time this week? 

1. Karen 2. maggie f 3. katie z. 4. Gretchen

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 7. Julie in GA 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning

9. Quilting Gail 10. Frédérique 11. Celine

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Stitching Stuff: Week 27 of 2023

 

It's definitely been too hot to do much else besides stay in and stitch.  I did a lot of that this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 10/15 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 166/196 days
• Success rate = 84.69%

I only missed one day. Hopefully I can do as well this week.  

How did you do at your stitching stuff?  

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

5. Shasta @ High Road 6. Stitching Loving Nana 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

9. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts 10. Frédérique 11. Amanda 12. Quilting Gail

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To Do List for the Week of 7/11/2023

With the holiday and family plans, I didn't get much done on my To Do List from 6/27, so I skipped writing a post last week.  Even with the extra week, I didn't get everything checked off.  

To Do List for 6/27/2023

1. Just Two Charm Pack Quilts blog hop: Finish assembling rows, start assembling quilt top ✔

2. Diatom: Finish block 9, cut block 10 - progress

3. Wild & Goosey: Make 2 blue or green blocks ✔

4. Chilhowie: Leaders and enders project ✔

So there is progress even though not everything got checked off.  

I'm heading to Texas to help Grad Girl pack and move to a new apartment later this week, so I won't have the weekend to stitch. So next week's list will reflect that. 

To Do List for 7/11/2023

1.  Just Two Charm Pack Quilts blog hop (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish assembling the quilt top.  

I've cut the border strips, so all that's left is to sew the rows together and add the borders.  If I can get that done before my trip I'll be happy even if nothing else on the list gets checked off.

2. Wild & Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): 1 red block

I really wanted to add 2 blocks to my list, but I really need to go through my red scraps to add some variety to the blocks. I may get to that this week. It just depends on how far I get on the blog hop project. 

3. Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Finish block 9, but block 10

I spent Sunday unstitching the block borders. I got them partially reassembled.  For some reason block 9 is just not going together as quickly as the others did.  

4. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Leaders and enders

The hourglass blocks for block 6 are finished, so now it's time to stitch up the HSTs.  Those should go pretty quickly.  

5. Butterfly Medallion embroidery: Travel project

I took my sewing machine last time I visited Grad Girl, but the intent of this trip is to help her pack, clean the old apartment, clean the new apartment, and unpack. So there won't be as much down time as my last trip. So I'll take some handwork to do in the evenings. 

Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.  

Before I sign off today, I want to thank My Guy for sticking it out for 31 years.  It's not been perfect, but it's always been full of love.  

More Un-stitching than Stitching

Last week was a bit hit or miss in the sewing room.  Grad Girl was home for the week and we did spend some time in the sewing room hanging out, but sometimes there was more talking going on then there was stitching.  She headed back to Texas on Saturday, so my plan for Sunday was to spend my readjustment time in the sewing room.  First off I discovered that the borders for block 9 of Diatom weren't assembled properly.  After a bit of unsewing they are ready to be reassembled properly. 

I think what happened is I was looking at the borders for block 10.  At any rate that took up a good chunk of my stitching time.  

With the 4th of July holiday and associated family plans, I didn't get much done on my To Do List from the week before, so I didn't post a new one last week.  Going off the previous list, I still needed to make a blue and green Wild and Goosey block.  These blocks are paper pieced and there is a lot of trimming between stitching the next seam. 

You can see from the trimmings that I added a red one to the assembly line.  

Red is this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color. I had one red block in the drawer that had been partially assembled, so I just added it to the blue and green ones I had planned for last week.  

I did some stitching on my blog hop project, but I can't show any photos of that till the Just Two Charm Pack Quilts blog hop.  My date is Wednesday, August 2nd. That project will be a priority for me this week. I'll be out of town next week helping Grad Girl move.  I'm hoping the temperatures in Texas moderate before next week, it's really hot there.  Looking at the current forecast, it's going to be a really hot week to move.  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 26 of 2023

My apologies for the really late post today.  We didn't get home till late last night and I slept in this morning.  Grad Girl is on her way back to Texas, so we're back to an empty house again.  My stitching week was an on again/off again thing. We did a lot of running around and it was hard to work in stitching time every day.  

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 4/8 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 160/189
• Success rate = 84.66%

July hasn't gotten off to the best start, but I'm doing much better than last year.  I didn't sew a single day in July of 2022.  So success is relative.  I'm planning a nothing but sewing day today. 

I didn't get any good pictures of Grad Girl this trip, but Queenie was really photogenic. 

She finally discovered the window seat in Grad Girl's room where she can watch the birdies and squirrels in the back yard.  I won't have too much time to miss them, I'm heading to Texas the end of this week to help my girl move.  

How did you fare on the stitching front this week.  

1. Karen 2. DonnaleeQ

3. Julie in GA 4. Gretchen

5. Quilting Gail 6. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

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Weeks 77 and 78 Photo Challenges: Rocks and Opposites

Last week's post for the family photo challenge just didn't happen.  Grad Girl was traveling and so were we.  With the 4th of July holiday there was just so much going on, I decided to just post both last week's and this week's challenge together.  Week 77's challenge seemed pretty simple. 

My photo for this week is probably the least imaginative of the set.  

Kate: Trilobite

This "fossil" was a gift from my first office mate when I started working after grad school.  Bob was a really brilliant guy, but jumped from hobby to hobby.  He worked for weeks to figure out what materials would make the most realistic reproductions of the fossils he had collected when he was into paleontology.  Most of us had these on our desks by the time he moved on to his next passion. 

My Guy went with a completely different meaning of the word "rock". 

My Guy: Set It To 10

 

My Guy doesn't play electric guitar much these days, but he can, when he gets the urge, really crank it up and jam.  

Grad Girl also went with different interpretation. 

Grad Girl: We Went to Jared's

In our community, "He went to Jared's" has a completely different meaning. It's not jewelry, it's custard ice cream.  This is what they call a concrete, custard mixed with fudge sauce. My favorite is custard mixed with caramel.  If we were celebrating the end of school, Mother's Day, birthdays, this is the place we go for a special treat.   

The challenge for week 78 really had me stumped. 

I just had a hard time visualizing a photo with opposites.  I finally went to my sewing room and contemplated my options there and finally came up with an obvious subject, color. 

Kate: Classic Complementary Colors

I could have used fabric, but that's harder to come up with an interesting photo, at least it is for me. 

My Guy went with a nature theme.  

My Guy: Like Water Over Rocks

Liquid versus solid is another classic opposite.  

Grad Girl's subject matter is similar to mine. 

Grad Girl: Finished and Not

She spent a lot of her vacation time working on the embroidery on the left while we hung out in the sewing room. She hasn't had a chance to start on the new project yet.  

Grad Girl choose a new card for this week's challenge. 

 

Hmm, I wonder what we'll each come up with for this week.  

2023 Quilting Ambitions Q2 Check In

Way back in December of last year I posted about my 2023 quilting goals and linked up with Quilting Jetgirls 2023 Planning Party.  We are a little more than halfway through the year, so it's time to take a look at how those plans are going and to link up with the 2023 Q2 Check In.  

2023 Ambition #1: Finish some quilts, make progress on some quilts and start some quilts. 

I've moved a few projects along this year, but no finishes yet. Back in December this year's plan included 4 new projects, but I ended up adding a 5th.  Not much progress on the older UFOs, but there has been some good progress on projects started in 2021 and 2022.  I still have a little over 5 months to get in a few finishes.  I've done a much better job of starting new stuff than I have finishing off the old stuff so far this year. 

2023 Ambition #2: Acquire a new skill. 

My plan was to learn to quilt my own projects now that I'm retired. I've not done anything on this front as yet.  

2023 Ambition #3: Stitch 15 minutes a day and post associated linky party.

So far there have been 25 linky Stitching Stuff linky parties with an average of 12.6 link ups so far in 2023.  I've managed to stitch 85% of the days in 2023, which is much better than I did last year. My goal for 2023 is to stitch at least 75% of the time.  

2023 Ambition #4: Sewing room clean up.  

• Press, cut and sort scraps: progress
• Organize yardage: no progress

I did really well during first quarter at taking a half day on Sunday to work on the sewing room clean up.  I've not done so well at during the 2nd quarter.  Something to refocus on for July, August and September. 

So I need to refocus my efforts for the later half of the year if I'm going to achieve all my quilty goals for 2023.  

June Wrap Up: PHD in 2023

We are already half way through the first week in July.  So it's definitely time to check out how my PHD report is faring and link up with Quilting Gail for the June version of the PHD Report. I managed to stitch a bit every day last month, so several projects have progressed, but sadly there were no finishes.  

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) didn't advance much this month, but I finished a few blocks.  

 Wild and Goosey was my 2019 Rainbow Scrap Project. The goal this year is to just make a few blocks each month. Each block is only 3.5" unfinished, so it's going to take a lot to finish this project. 

Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) is still my leaders and enders project. 

I made some progress on block 6 in June.  

My Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) is finally a finished quilt top. 

I'm really happy with how this project worked out. I have three finished quilt tops that need backings and clean up before they can be quilted.  I'm hoping to get back finishing stuff later this month. 

There was steady progress on Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl) this month. 

I finished off 3 and half blocks during June.  Hopefully I can finish the final three this month and then get the quilt assembled. I really like how this project has come together. 

The priority project for June has been to finish my quit for the Meadow Mist Designs blog hop for the book, Just Two Charm Pack Quilts.  The blog hop will start on Monday July 24th, so I've got a couple of weeks to move my project to some type of finished state.  No photos till the hop starts.  But I've moved from cut pieces to assembled rows. I just need to finish the quilt assembly. 

Here's my June report: 

  

It hasn't changed at all from May.  I still have a little less than 6 months to work in a few finishes. Fingers crossed I can make that happen!

Happy Independence Day

 

Stitching Stuff: Week 25 of 2023

 

It was one very hot and humid week. If the rest of summer is going to be like this, there will be a lot of sewing room time.  For the first time all year I had a perfect month on the stitching time front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 30/30 days
• 15 minute days/July = 0/1 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 156/182 days
• Success rate = 85.71%

July didn't get off to the best start because I didn't get any stitching time in.  Grad Girl showed up yesterday and we did a lot of visiting with family. I'll get back to the sewing room once we get out of visiting mode.  

Did you get your stitching time in this week? 

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

5. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 6. Jennifer in Indy 7. Amanda 8. Quilting Gail

9. Frederique 10. Dq 11. Karen

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