To Do List for the Week of 8/29/2023

I'm really not ready for August to be over, though I'm ready to loose the hot 100 plus temps we've had the last few weeks. Thankfully, we got a bit of a cool down this weekend and I was able to enjoy a much cooler sewing room the last couple of days.  That helped a lot with getting all the items on last week's to do list checked off. 

 

To Do List for 8/22/2023

1. Macaron Mystery: Start assembling backing ✔

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Continue making alternate blocks ✔

3. Wild and Goosey: Make 2 yellow blocks ✔

4. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders project ✔

So it was a good week. I even remembered to make the Wild & Goosey blocks last week.  After spending the first part of the year pretty much exclusively on new projects, it's been fun to come back to some of the older projects on my list.  So lesson learned.  You need enough new, fun projects to keep things interesting in the sewing room.  Long term embargos on new projects doesn't work for me. I'm really more productive in the sewing room with a good mix of old and new.  

Having said that, this week's to do list concentrates on just the older projects. 

To Do List for 8/29/2023

1. Macaron Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Continue piecing backing

After multiple rounds of unsewing, the left over blocks are finally sewn into rows to use on the back of the quilt.  Now I need to press the backing fabric so I can cut and assemble the main part of the backing.  

2. Scrappy Butterflies (self designed): Continue making border blocks, start assembling quilt top

The top border is assembled.  Rather than sew the sides as borders, I'm going to just add those blocks to the ends of the rows and sew the top together that way.  There will a couple more borders added, fingers crossed that will be on the to do list for next week.  

3. Wild & Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Make 2 aqua blocks

I made good progress on the yellow blocks in August. If I remember correctly, I'll need to cut some aqua scraps before making any blocks this month.  

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

That's the plan for this week.  Hopefully this week will be as good as last week.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.  

A Rainbow of Butterflies

I'm not ready for it to be Monday again. I don't leave the house to work these days, but Monday does mean a return to household chores and other necessary things that really have to get done.  We spent most of the weekend in Tulsa, so I didn't get in my usual weekend stitching time.  But it was nice to do something different.  We volunteered at Wild Brew, a fundraising event for George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center.  My Guy has helped rebuild Masked Bobwhite habitat in Arizona and spends a number of his Sundays driving/hiking all over the county to monitor nesting activity of Bald Eagles. The center does a lot for endangered bird species all over the country.   

Even though I didn't get in my normal stitching time, I did make good progress on my scrappy butterflies project. 

I have all the alternate blocks made and up on the design wall.  To finish out the Irish Chain pattern, I'm adding a top and bottom row of half blocks, plus half blocks at the end of each row so that all the butterflies are framed.  I've gotten started on those, but didn't get any of them up on the design wall.  With some diligence this week, those should get done and it will be on to the borders next week.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts and Oh Scrap.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 33 of 2023

This was the last full week of August. September starts in just 4 days!  I'm ready for cooler weather, but definitely not ready for it to be so far along in the year.  It just seems the last half of the year really flies compared to the first half.  So getting in my stitching time is really important the next couple of months.  I did pretty well on that front this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/August = 24/26 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 203/236 days
• Success rate = 86.02%

My goal for the year is to stitch 75% of the time. I'm definitely on track for that.  I'm not on track with my finishes.  So hopefully I've got time to get a few of those in before we hit the end of the year.  

There are so many projects I'd like to play with in 2024.  Our photo challenge for this week was "Feminine".  One of my potential subjects was some of the floral fabrics that have been in my stash for awhile.  

I've stopped buying these big florals because I'm not sure what to do with them. This is just a small sample, I have a whole stack of 1 to 2 yard pieces.  As I was pulling these out for photos and petting them a bit, I was thinking how much I'd like to play with these.  Hopefully that will motivate me to finish a few quilts so I can add in another new start for next year.  

How are doing on your stitching goals for the year?  Are you stitching enough to meet your expectations for 2023?  

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

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Frédérique 7. katie z. 8. Andrée

9. Quilting Gail 10. Deb in Canada

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Week 84 Photo Challenge: Feminine

I actually put some thought into this week's challenge, but I'm not sure my photo is any better.  Grad Girl on the other hand texted back "Oh Crap" Friday morning to my text reminding her to get me her photo for the challenge.  This week's challenge wasn't an easy one.  

It's another subject that is open to a number of interpretations.  When I searched on "feminine photos", there was a lot of pink, flowers, and lacy dresses.  I remembered a box of Victorian themed thank you cards that were purchased to use for some scrap book projects. 

 

Kate: Victorian Floral

This photo has lots of pink, lots of flowers, a bit of lace design, with a few butterflies for good measure.  It's a very old fashioned representation of feminine.  

My Guy's photo this week is another classical view of femineity. 

My Guy: Veil

  

He's definitely got the lacy part of the equation covered.  I really like the detail in this close up.  This piece was a gift from my sister just before we married.  It's prominently displayed in our china cabinet. 

Grad Girl was already at school when I sent my text.  Obviously she'd forgotten the challenge (not surprising, she is busy with the first week of the fall semester).  She went with a much more modern interpretation of the week's theme. 

Grad Girl : Women in STEMware

 

I had to laugh when this showed up as a text with the label "feminine body types".  Being honest, my figure is most like the round bottomed flask. If she'd have included a Mohr pipette that would have represented the tall thin body type.  Even with that omission, she definitely gets credit for the most interesting interpretation of last week's challenge. 

So what's up next? 

A much more common photography assignment for this week.  My Guy tends to excel with these challenges.  I'll need to do some research on my approach.

To Do List for the Week of 8/22/2023

We've had the hottest temps of the year this week.  The heat index yesterday was 120 F.  My Guy was going to go ride, but that's too warm even for him.  I've mostly been hanging out in the sewing room. It's been so warm the upstairs air conditioner is having problems keeping up, we've raised the thermostat a bit so it's not running constantly.  Which means the sewing room has been a bit warm, but with the ceiling fan on it's still inhabitable. Consequently I made good progress on last week's to do list. 

To do List for 8/15/2023

1. Unity: Finish packaging, take to post office ✔

2. Wild and Goosey: Make 2 yellow blocks - no progress

3. Melodic Mystery: Finish assembly, start borders ✔

4. Scrappy Butterflies: Continue making alternate blocks ✔

5. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Four check marks out of five is a good week. I just spaced off the Wild and Goosey blocks this week.  I was having fun playing with the new additions to the WIP list that I just forgot to make them. Hopefully I can do better with this week's list.

To Do List for 8/22/2023

1. Macaron Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Start assembling backing

There were a lot of left over subunits for this project because I changed the final layout and didn't need all the blocks. The left overs are going to be added as two rows to the back of the quilt.  I showed the backing fabric in yesterday's post. I can get the width I need out of it, but not the length. So in addition to the pieced rows of left overs, I'll need to make top and bottom filler rows from some of the left over yardage.  

2. Scrappy Butterflies (self designed): Continue making alternate blocks

Three alternate blocks were added to the design wall this week. Another 3 are under construction at the sewing machine.  The next step will to be start on the blocks for the pieced border.  I may get that far this week, but maybe not. We have plans for the weekend, so I won't get in as much stitching time as normal. Finishing all the alternate blocks would be good progress. 

3. Wild & Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Make 2 yellow blocks

Hopefully I won't forget to make those this week.  I just need 5 more yellow blocks to finish out what's needed of that color. 

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

Block 6 is finished and block 7 has been started. This has been a good leaders and enders project. It's slow going, but some progress is better than no progress. I'm really hoping to have all the blocks done and the top assembled before Bonnie's next mystery starts up in November.  

I'm down to just four items on my to do list for this week. The plan is try to keep it at that level and focus on moving finished quilt tops to finished before the end of the year.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.  

Changing Up the WIP Line Up

It was really warm this weekend. Plus the late rains this year have produced a bumper crop of ragweed, so my sinuses have not been happy.  Definitely time to stay in and stitch. It's been a good week on that front, a couple of projects hit major milestones.  Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs 2022 mystery quilt) is now a finished quilt top.

 

The colors aren't really true in the photo, the pinks are much brighter and so is the green used in the sashing and borders.  I'm happy with my color choices for this one and pleased that Melodic Mystery became a finished quilt top before this year's mystery really gets going.  This brings the number of finished quilt tops on my list to 4.  

My plan for the rest of the year is to focus on getting those tops to finished quilts.  I need to figure out the backing plan for Melodic Mystery, so it's moving off the active list for now.  I'd already found potential backing fabrics for the 2021 Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt along, the Macaron Mystery. There's not enough of any one fabric to make a back, so it will need to be pieced.  When I opened the project box I found a bunch of subunits and some left over fabric strips. 

This is the backing fabric I pulled from the stash.

The date on the selvage is 2006. It's "Eye of the Tiger" from The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection.  In 2006, Grad Girl was 7 and really into tigers. So I'm sure this fabric was added to the stash with the intent to make something for her.  Since the Macaron Mystery is mostly black and white, this will work great as the back.  I can get the width I need, but not the length from this yardage, so the plan is to use the left overs to add strips to the top and bottom.  It would be nice if I could get the back made, than both it and the top prepped for quilting by the time Unity is quilted and on it's way back.  We'll see how that goes.  

Another older project that's back in the active list is Scrappy Butterflies. It's a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project started back in 2013.  I've gone through the project box and figured out what the next steps should be.  More strips were cut and a few alternate blocks are in the works.

Fingers crossed this one makes it to finished quilt top by the end of the year.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  Stay cool and stitch.  Looks like we've got another work week of high temps. Fingers crossed we get the cool down they are predicting for next week.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 32 of 2023

Hard to believe it's week 32 of 2023 already. Just 20 more weeks left in the year!  I've got a lot to catching up to do. So far no finishes for this year.  I've made progress, but not near as much as I had hoped.  

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/August =  17/19 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 194/231 days
• Success rate = 83.98%

 

I missed getting any stitching done on Friday.  My Guy took the day off and we had a date day.  By the time we got home it really was too late to get any stitching done.  But it's been a good week even if I didn't get back to the sewing room one day.  A couple of days this week stitching time was over 4 hours.  I'll have progress to show off on Monday.  

How did your stitching go this week? 

1. Julie in GA 2. Frédérique 3. Karen

4. maggie f 5. DonnaleeQ 6. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

7. katie z. 8. Deb in Canada

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Week 83 Photo Challenge: Lazy

This week's photo card was a challenge.  

What's the difference between being relaxed/relaxing and being lazy?  The definition of lazy is unwilling to work or use energy.  But we often talk about having a lazy day where the intent is actually to relax.  You can decide if our photos really display lazy.  

I tried several approaches for this week, none of them really resonated with me.  I decided on this one.  

Kate: Lazy Afternoon

 

An iced latte and a new book are a treat.  The lazy part was spending an hour at Barnes and Nobel hanging out and reading.  Not something we do much of anymore.  Before kids (many years ago), it was our favorite lazy Saturday activity.  

My Guy had the same struggle that I did with deciding the difference between lazy and relaxation. 

My Guy: Easy Like Sunday Morning

I agree scones and coffee are really nice on a Sunday morning, but he made the scones.  But thinking back it was one of his more lazy Sunday's. It rained that morning, which meant no bike ride or birding expedition.  So compared to his normal routine, this was a lazy Sunday morning.  

Grad Girl's photo may be the best interpretation this week. 

Grad Girl: Tomorrow's Dishes

Being a chemist requires a lot of clean up. I'm pretty sure this was after she'd spent most of Friday afternoon running reactions and was just ready to get out of there for the weekend. 

Next week's challenge is another one that is open to interpretation.  

I'm going to need to think about this one for a day or two.   

To Do List for the Week of 8/15/2023

I seem to have gotten my startitis under control. And I finally tackled the project that's been filling me with dread ever since it became a finished quilt top. So definitely a good week for the to do list. 

To Do List for 8/8/2023

1. Unity: Finish prep, send out for quilting - progress

2. Wild and Goosey: Make 2 yellow blocks ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Continue assembly of quilt top ✔

4. Chilhowie: Continue as leader and enders ✔

5. Sewing room clean up: Reorganize project boxes ✔

I'm happy with the 4 check marks with progress on the 5th.  Hopefully I can do as well on this week's list. 

To Do list for 8/15/2023

1. Unity (Bonnie Hunter): Finish packaging, take to post office

Everything is boxed, I just need to write out the deposit check and then seal it all up, address it and get it to the post office. That should happen today.  Trudy is expecting it. I could have bypassed Unity and moved on to some other finishes, but if I did that, I wasn't sure I'd come back to it.  So it feels really good to get this one moving along again.  

2. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Make 2 yellow blocks

I only need 16 yellow blocks for the quilt as designed.  With the completion of these two there are 11 blocks.  If I stick to the plan of two a week, all the yellow blocks could be finished by the end of the month.  

3. Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish assembly, start borders

Just one seam left to attach the top to the bottom.  But then come the borders.  The pattern as written includes a final border of the green. But I'm thinking I may add a wider border of the dark burgundy.  That decision will be made after the green border is added.  I wasn't sure my fabrics were going to work, that green seemed like almost too much contrast. But I think it worked out well. 

4. Scrappy Butterflies (self designed): Continue making alternate blocks

 

This project was the first victim of my startitis early in the year.  The last time this project saw any progress was back in December of last year.  This is one of my older Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects (started in 2013).  The goal is just to make progress on it. If it makes it to finished quilt by the end of the year, that would be a bonus. 

5. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue as leaders and enders

I discovered that I added one of the strips to the block incorrectly, so I had to unsew that before I could finish block 6.  A stack of pinned HSTs are now by the sewing machine. Those are the start of block seven.  

That's my list for this week.  If I can make as much progress on it as I did on last week's list, it will have been a good week. Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric.  Good luck with your to do list this week.  

Decisions

The Monday post is a bit late this week for the second time in less than a month.  Let's just say the morning didn't get off to the best start, but everything has lined out since then.  

I spent most of last week working on prepping Unity (Bonnie Hunter) to send out for quilting. 

 

I ended up with quite a nest of loose threads at the end. But the quilt is pressed and folded so it can be packaged up. 

So this afternoon I need to track down a box, pull some batting and finish getting it ready to take to the post office tomorrow.  

I didn't finish the prep work till late yesterday afternoon, so there wasn't much time to work on much else, but I did get the last row of blocks for the Melodic Mystery  (Meadow Mist Designs) quilt sewn together .

The top 4 rows are sewn together. I need to add row 5 to the bottom, then I can sew the 2 halves together. The next step is to finish the border.  This project will become my focus project till I get the quilt top assembled.  I usually try to keep 3 projects on the active works in progress list, so I need to find something else to add in.  Preferably something that still needs the blocks pieced.  

Linking up with the typical Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts Monday linky parties.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 31 of 2023

It's been a pretty uneventful week around here.  We've had some really short lived, but strong storms over the last week. Heavy rain and lots of lightening.  Typically August is our dry season.  The heat is still here, so with all the rain it's like drinking air it's so humid.  I've mostly stayed in the house. You'd think I'd be hiding out in the sewing room, but I'm still trying to get Unity prepped for quilting. I can't work on it for long or else my back starts hurting.  I couldn't face it Friday, so this week wasn't quite as good on the stitching front as the last couple have been. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/August = 11/12 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 188/224 days
• Success rate = 83.93%

My goal is to stitch at least 75% of the time, so I'm doing fine on that front.  Fingers crossed Unity is off the sewing table tomorrow and I can move on to something else. 

How was your stitchy week? 

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

4. DonnaleeQ 5. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 6. Shasta @ High Road

7. Frédérique 8. Quilting Gail 9. Amanda

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Week 82 Photo Challenge: innovation

 All three of us struggled with this week's photo challenge.  I promised myself last week that I wouldn't wait till the last minute to decide on a photo.  Yet I didn't get really serious about taking a photo for this week's challenge till about 9 PM last night.  Grad Girl didn't send me her shot till almost 1 AM this morning.  She has an excuse, she's had a busy week of not only research, but new semester stuff too.  I'm busy, but I definitely have more control over what keeps me busy. 

The theme for this week is definitely one that's open to a lot of interpretation. 

If you look up the definition of innovation it reads "a new method, idea, product, etc".  All of our photos this week document something that was an innovation when it was introduced. 

Kate: Quilting Innovations

Of course my interpretation comes from the sewing room.  There are actually 3 innovations in this photo, the cutting mat, the ruler, and the rotary cutter. The combination of these three were responsible for speeding up and improving the accuracy of cutting fabrics for quilt making.  I still remember taking a class back in the mid 80's to learn how to use all three.  As part of the class we received a set of thick plastic templates that were as long as the width of fabric. I think the size varied from 1.5" to 5.5".  I know those are still in my sewing room somewhere. 

My Guy's photo comes from the world of architecture/art.  

My Guy: Once Innovative

This is the Price Tower, the only sky scraper built from architect Frank Lloyd Wright's designs.  If you aren't familiar with Mr. Wright's designs, his buildings were part of the Prairie Style movement, incorporating nature, craftmanship and simplicity.  His designs were very innovative during the early 1900's.  It's really a mini sky scraper, the scale is tiny, the bank of three elevators is a trip, literally.  It's really fun to visit.  It houses an inn and a new restaurant is opening up this week. I stayed here a couple of times when we were living in Texas, the décor is very 70's (lots of green and orange).  We've eaten at the previous restaurant that was located at the very top.  You can't beat the views of the surrounding countryside.  

Grad Girl comes in with another chemistry related photo. 

Grad Girl: More Effective, Efficient, Informative

  

This is a chromatogram, the output of an instrument (a chromatograph) that separates the components of a solution. In the time I've been a chemist, the amount of innovation that has occurred in separation science has been huge. When I started using this type of instrumentation we were still using strip chart recorders.  You would use the chromatograph to separate the components, which would be charted on the recorder as big bumps (peaks). If you wanted to measure how much was in the solution, you would then cut out the peak from the graph paper and weigh it, then compare that weight to a calibration chart to calculate the weight in that solution.  Now the computer does all the calculations for you (if it's been calibrated).  

That's it for last week. My Guy picked the card for this week.  It should be fun to see what we all come up with, but especially My Guy as he is the exact opposite of this week's challenge. 

 

My Guy said Grad Girl had the advantage this week. She took great exception to that till he clarified that it was because she has a cat.  

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 8/8/2023

This week has gotten off to a much cooler start than last week.  We had a rainy weekend in the first time in a long while. It made for a very nice, cool walk yesterday.  I'm sure it will heat back up again, we don't really see fall temperatures here till late September or early October.  Which really isn't all that far off. The end of the year will be here before we know it.  I'm trying to make sure some of those things I want to get done by the end of the year show up on my to do list.  

To Do List for 8/1/2023

1. Unity: Prep for quilting - progress

2. Wild and Goosey: Make 1 red, 1 yellow block ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Continue assembling quilt top ✔

4. Malted Mystery: start cutting fabrics - no progress

5. Chilhowie: Leaders and enders project ✔

Three out of five check marks and good progress on the fourth is not a bad week.  I wasn't able get to the Malted Mystery fabrics because Unity is spread over my pressing/cutting table. I knew that prepping that project was going to take some time, but it's taking longer than I expected.  This week's list will look pretty much like last week's list. 

To Do List for 8/8/2023

1. Unity (Bonnie Hunter): Finish prep, send out for quilting

I'm just over halfway finished with the clean up.  I've pressed and used the lint roller on this section, but still need to clip the loose threads.  I've probably got a couple more afternoons of clean up before it's ready to package up.  I'll be happy to get this one out the door.  

2.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Make 2 yellow blocks

I finished one red block from last month along with two yellow blocks for this month. The goal for Wild and Goosey is to just increase the number of blocks completed.  With what's been finished this year, it's going to take another two or three years of block making to get enough blocks for the finished quilt, unless I make it a focus project for next year.  We'll see what I get finished this year.  

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

There is still one row of blocks to assemble, but the top and bottom two rows have been stitched together.  The pattern has one narrow border of what in my version is the green. I may add another border of the dark maroon.  We'll see how it looks once it gets that far. 

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

Block 6 is almost finished. By the end of the week block 7 should be under construction.  

5. Sewing Room clean up: Reorganize project boxes

If you read yesterday's post, you know we had to move some stuff in the sewing room due to a cable box issue. I did some rearranging after that and realized I need to go through my project boxes and clear out a few and combine a few.  That will help get rid of some of the clutter.  

That's my list for this week.  You can find more to do's over at The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric on this week's To Do Tuesday linky party.  

I promised to announce the winner of the digital copy of Just Two Charm Pack Quilts today.  The random number generator picked #4. So congratulations to Cindy Smith. I'll reach out to Cindy about the prize via email. Thank you to everyone that commented on the String Lights post.  

Back to the UFO List

So far this year has been mostly all about new quilt projects. That was deliberate on my part. I'd been on a new project diet for at least three years but the focus on just UFOs had gotten a bit old.  So this year my quilt plan had 5 new quilts rather than just the two I'd been allowing myself.  I've started two of those, plus one that wasn't on the plan.  Start number 4 will be Meadow Mist Designs Malted Mystery, one of my guilty pleasures when I was focused on the UFOs. 

This weekend, I finally gritted my teeth and pulled out the UFO that I just couldn't face after it was finished.  The background fabric for that project just unravels so easily. The back of Unity was just a mess when it was finished.  Cleaning up the back before sending it out for quilting was going to be a major undertaking, so I've been dreading it for months. It was definitely time to just get it done.  

   

As of last evening, I'm about half way finished with the clean up. 

These are the threads that have been removed.  It's a pretty fluffy pile, about 6" wide and a couple inches tall. I knew this one was going to take a while, it's a large quilt.  

Not all my sewing room time has been spent on the clean up.  The cable company showed up Saturday and said one of our cable boxes was causing problems for the entire neighborhood.  Of course it had to be the one in the sewing room that's behind my filing cabinet.  So we had to move a bunch of stuff to be able to reach and unplug it. That cable box was the problem, so all of that effort wasn't in vain. But I spent part of the afternoon putting the sewing room back together after that visit. Then it was back to the quilt clean up.  Fingers crossed I can finish that up this afternoon.   

Linking up with the normal Monday parties for the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 30 of 2023

The first week of August was a warm one. It was definitely warmer in other parts of the country than here, which is hard to imagine since it was just miserable to go outside to do anything (like get the mail).  It was definitely a good week to stay in and stitch.  Which is pretty much what I did. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 21/31 days
• 15 minute days/August = 5/5 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 182/217 days
• Success rate = 83.87%

So it was a good week on the getting things done front. So far this year, I've done better at starting new projects than I have finishing old ones.  But all the stitching time has resulted in some good progress. 

There are 4 quilt tops assembled, one of those has the backing made.  Unity is being prepped for quilting.  Once I get it sent out, I'll start putting together a back for Macaron Mystery.  I'd be happy if I can move those four to the finished side of my Excel chart by the end of the year.  

How are you doing on your finishing goals this year? Is your stitching time helping or hurting?  

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

4. DonnaleeQ 5. Deb in Canada 6. Jennifer in Indy

7. Quilting Gail 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning

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Week 81 Photo Challenge: Frame Within a Frame

After several days of 100+ temps, we may hit the low 90s today.  It rained this morning and it looks like more is coming, so we'll have humidity with those temps.  Even so hopefully it won't feel quite so bad outside. The crazy summer temperatures have kept me from doing much with my photography.  Pretty much the only pictures I'm taking are for the weekly photo challenge.  This week's challenge was pretty straight forward.  

I really hadn't give any thought to this week's photo, so was left scrambling yesterday trying to come up with subject matter.  I dug around in the sewing room looking for a potential subject and ended up with a literal frame for my photo.  

Kate: Framed

Even so, I think it works. You have the frame of buttons inside the actual wood frame. The buttons filling the frame are from my Grandmother's button box (as are the buttons that make up the frame).  My sister made and gifted me the frame several years ago.  It's not currently on display as I don't have anything to go in it. I did tell Grad Girl that I'd be open to an embroidery piece featuring buttons or sewing themes that I could display in the sewing room. We'll see if she comes through on that or not.  

My Guy's photo features a more common photographic framing technique. 

My Guy: Out of the Inner Frame

The tree tops do make a nice frame for the pond.  I really like the sparkles on the water and how they highlight the bench.  It's been too hot to sit outside at just about any time of day the last few weeks.  

Grad Girl was trying for an optical illusion with her effort this week.  

Grad Girl: Just Framed

She was trying to make the geo print look like it was part of the bookcase. I think her angle is just a bit off for that to work.  Even so,  the photo has several frames in it.  One that may not be obvious is the white space off the right, they've kept that wall clear so they use a projector to show movies on the wall.  

I selected the card for this week's challenge.  

Hmmm?  I told Grad Girl she may have an edge this week.  She just laughed.  I have some ideas, hopefully I won't wait till Friday to set them up and shoot them.