Stitching Stuff: Week 52 of 2023

Happy last day of 2023!  It's been a very different year for me, not bad, just different. This year was definitely better than last year. Fingers crossed that 2024 is even better.  The last week was definitely not one of our best weeks, all three of us have had Covid since the day after Christmas.  Grad Girl and I are just about back to normal. This is the first time My Guy has had it, he's recovering a bit slower than we did.  I did OK on getting in my sewing time this week, but I will admit mid week I wasn't doing much more than my minimum of 15 minutes in the sewing room.  It's hard to sew when you feel crappy and are blowing your nose every 2 minutes. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Dec = 27/30 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 309/364
• Success rate = 84.89%

My goal was to stitch at least 15 minutes for 75% of the days in the year.  So I'll make that bench mark for the year.  I track by the calendar year, so I won't have my final report for 2023 till next week.  Maybe one more day will push my success rate up to 85% for the year. 

There have been a few comments and emails expressing interest in participating in the 15 Minutes to Stitch for 2024.  So I thought it would be useful to summarize some of the questions that have been asked in case you are considering, but think it's more than you want to commit to. 

1. Why 15 minutes?  

They say you can do anything for 15 minutes.  So I picked that as my starting point, I usually sew for longer once I get to my sewing room.  Set any time limit you want.  Gail's (from Quilting Gail) goal is 30 minutes per day. If 5 minutes is all you think you can commit to, then set that as your goal.  The whole point is to consciously make time for needle and thread.  

2.  Does it have to be every day? 

No.  Frederique's (from Quilting Patchwork Applique) goal is just 3 days per week cause that's what works in her schedule most of the time. As I said in #1, it's about finding time to do something you like, not stress yourself out with another item on your to do list that's already way too long. 

3. Does it have to be sewing machine time, handwork time, machine quilting?

No. It can be any or all of the above. If I do anything that moves a project along or keeps the sewing room organized, including playing in EQ to finalize a border, designing a label, cutting scraps, pressing fabrics etc, that all counts towards my 15 minutes. If you want to do more of something, make that your focus for the goal.  

4. How to track the time/do I have a tracking sheet? 

I use an Excel spreadsheet to track my sewing time.  

 I reuse the Date/Day/Activity boxes each month. I can try to put this out on Google Docs if anyone is interested in it.  Or you can use a planner or calendar. When my computer crashed last year, I I just used a simple notebook and kept my stitching time and fabric metrics that way.  I created a tracking sheet several years ago, but I decided it didn't work for me.  

 

 It's currently set up in Publisher, but I think I can export it to PDF format. If there is enough interest, I'll try that and see if I can post it to Google Docs. 

5.  No, you don't have to track time to link up. You are welcome to link up if you just want to share what you got done during the week. There is a lot of motivation to spend some time in the sewing room if you want to link up with a particular linky party.  

That's probably more info than many of you wanted. Thank you to everyone that links up most weeks. You've all been so encouraging and motivating. Wishing everyone a very happy and productive 2024!

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

5. Gretchen 6. Quilting Gail 7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Janice

9. Jennifer in Indy 10. Amanda

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Week 97 Photo Challenge: Holiday

At the request of Grad Girl, we extended this photo challenge for another week.  She'd been so busy trying to get things done before she came home for a 2 week vacation, that she just didn't get a chance to tackle the week 97 challenge. 

Considering it was the week of Christmas, we all had lots of potential photo opps. I took lots of photos, but kept coming back to this one. 

Kate: Holiday Decorations

The moon and stars ornament is one that My Guy got for Grad Girl when she was fairly young.  Grad Girl and I like the sparkly ornaments, I'm pretty sure she helped pick out the blue one, I think the gold one predates her arrival.  The tree going up was the start of the holiday season when I was growing up.  

My Guy went a less traditional route.  He debated a bit before agreeing to go with the photo he liked the best versus the one he felt was a better "Christmas" photo. 

My Guy: All You Need

We spent the holiday at my Mother's, just outside of Oklahoma City.  The downtown was ablaze with holiday lights.  The message in the lights seems to be absolutely appropriate for the season.  The reflection of the lights is so cool in this photo.  

Grad Girl tried several time to get the photo she envisioned.  This is what she finally submitted. 

Grad Gril: The Cat & The Hat

The hat was supposed to be on the cat, but Queenie just wasn't having that, hence the glare. You'd think Santa completely abandoned her with that look. She actually did quite well, with lots of treats, toys and a new carrier for the car.  

I asked Grad Girl to select this week's card and she decided to enlist Queenie's help. 

  

It took a couple of treats but Queenie finally selected the card for this week.  

This should be an interesting week on the photography front. Hope you'll come back next week to see what we all come up with.  

2024 Quilting Ambitions

Making a plan on what the next year looks like in the sewing room dates back to almost as long as I've been making quilts. When I started, Grad Girl was just 4 and I was working more than full time (lots and lots of overtime), with an hour commute each way. With not a lot of stitching time, it was important to decide what my priorities were each year. Not that I stuck to them, but I at least made the attempt. So why should 2024 be any different.  I'm going to make another list of ambitions and share them over at Quilting Jetgirl's 2024 Planning Party.  

I tend to be more accountable if I share my plans on the blog.  Here is this year's list.  

1. Make quilts.  The plan is to finish a few, move others closer to finished and start a few.  The number of finished quilt is only one metric and it's one we put so much emphasis on.  Sometimes we forget that progress counts a lot too. I can't work on one quilt at a time, just doesn't work for me, but I think I found a mix of project types that work for me.  Here's the quilt plan for 2024:

There's a mix of quilts that just need backing and prep before they can be sent out for quilting, quilts that need have the blocks all made, but need to be assembled into quilt tops, projects that need the blocks to be finished and then a set of all new projects to keep some fun going in the process. My goal is move the bar closer to finished quilt for each project on the list. I'm hoping that approach will also lead to a few finishes this year.

2. Learn to quilt. This was on my list for 2023 and I wimped out.  It's just been hard to make myself want to start.  So I definitely need a  plan for this year.  One of my UFO's, Grandmother's Choice (yes this is the Barbara Brackman block of the week from 2012), is a good candidate for quilt as you go.  

I only made 5 blocks and to be honest, I'm not in love with it. Finishing 20ish blocks would produce a decent sized donation quilt. I probably won't finish it this year, but if I can get at least one of the already completed blocks quilted, I'll have met this goal. 

3. 15 Minutes To Stitch (Stitching Stuff). I first challenged my self to stitch just 15 minutes a day back in 2011.  I've had an associated linky party off and on over the last 12 years.  I considered if it was time to end this challenge. But decided that I still need the motivation to go sew, it's all too easy being retired to say I can do it tomorrow.  There is a new button for 2024. 

 My goal is to stitch for 15 minutes at least 75% of the days in 2024.  

4. Stash Organization: The plan to do something about my scrap bags and yardage in the fabric closet was on last year's list too.  In October I finally got serious about cutting, sorting and storing scraps and pressing fabrics that have been just sitting in piles around the sewing room. These are the scraps that still need to be processed. 

I completely forgot about the drawer in my filing cabinet that had scraps in it too when I was making my goals for last year. 

The fabric closet needs lots of work too. 

Hopefully I can keep up the momentum from this year into next year and make more progress on getting my stash into ready to use state. 

5.  Stretch Goal:  Pattern creation/editing?????  I've played with the idea of creating and submitting a quilt pattern to a magazine. I've also put some thought into doing pattern editing.  After years of working overtime and the associated stress, retirement has been so nice.  Am I ready to take on deadlines and the associated stress again?  That will be up for consideration this year.  No firm goal, just something to ponder and explore for 2024.  

That's my list of ambitions for 2024.  Nothing too extreme, continued progress is all I'm after.  Good luck with your ambitions for the new year.  

Best of Life in Piece's for 2023

This year has been one of transition.  I retired late in 2022, so 2023 was the first year since I was 16 without a work schedule.  At least a work schedule outside the house. So it's been a year of adjustments and discovery as to what one does when there is not a demanding job requiring daily attention.  Spending time in the sewing room has gone up, but not as much as I thought it would. There are still days I have to remind myself to get my 15 minutes of stitching time in. I've certainly posted more this year then in the recent past.  It's a good time to go back and look at what stands out for 2023.  Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs is helping us do that with her Best of 2023 Linky party. 

This is my 9th year linking up or the Best of party. Here's my top 5 "best of" for 2023

1.  Most views (357):  Week 58 Photo Challenge: Recreation of a Movie Scene

Our family photo challenge has been going on for about 2.5 years. We don't post every week, life sometimes gets to hectic for one or all of us.  But we try to keep up with it.  I can't say this is one of my favorite posts, because Grad Girl just didn't have time to get a shot.  But My Guy came through with a classic, which turned out to be a really cool photo for the prompt. 

My Guy: Homage

It's been a fun to see what we each come up with for each challenge card.  We have enough cards for all of next year, so there will be more family challenge photos posted in 2024. 

2. Most Comments (36):  Just Two Charm Pack Quilts Blog Hop: String Lights

Cheryl Brickey (Meadow Mist Designs) is one of my favorite quilt pattern designers.  She offers a mystery quilt almost every year, so when she asked for volunteers to participate in the blog hop for her newest book, I was more than happy to stitch a project from the book. 

 

String Lights is probably one of the easiest quilts in the book, but that meant I had a good chance of at least getting a finished quilt top done before the hop started.  The fabrics came from a kit that had been in the stash for a long time, so I was happy to finally find a home for them. Plans are to move this project to finished quilt in 2024. 

3.  Stitching Stuff: 15 Minutes to Stitch, most link ups (22, Week 1)

 

Not every one who links up is working on meeting a stitching time goal, but many of the long term participants link up each week to share how they did on getting in their stitching time each week. Thank you to everyone who links up regularly and shares that having to post how often they got to the sewing room is motivating for them too. 

4. Finish I'm most proud of: Unity (Helianthus)

Helianthus is far from being one of my favorite quilts.  It's not that I don't like it, it's that I made so many mistakes in putting this one together that it was a bear to finish.  I tried so many times to fix the issues, to the point I had to take out parts of the sashing and replace it with new fabric.  It was so tempting to just bypass this quilt. But I knew if I did that, it would remain a quilt top forever.   I owe a huge thanks to Trudy who agreed to quilt it. I told her if it puckered, it puckered, do what you can with it.  It didn't come out too badly.  It's become one of our trip quilts, it was loaded into the car and used over Christmas.  So I'm glad I pushed through and got if off the UFO list. 

5. Most fun project in 2023:  Stay at Home Round Robin 2023

I've watched this quilt along sponsored by Quilting Gail from the side line for the first 2 years, but last year decided I had the time to play along.  Well that went how I expected, I did well at first but got behind.  But I was really happy with my finished quilt top.

 

I used my blue, green and teal scraps for this quilt.  It came out so much better than I expected.  I enjoyed deciding on what my version of each prompt would look like.  The 2024 SAHRR kicks off in a couple of weeks and I'm on board for that one.  I just need to get my fabrics washed and make my center block. I have a plan this year!  Still probably means I'll get behind, but that's OK, it's all for fun. 

This year was a good year, definitely better than last year.  I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but there were still some fun accomplishments during the year.    

To Do List for the Week of 12/26/2023

I'm a bit late posting this week's to do list.  We went to my family's for the holiday.  All of us came home yesterday with headaches, sore throats, and runny noses.  My Guy and Grad Girl have fevers, I don't. Up till then, the holiday had been a good one.  Fingers crossed this is a short lived virus and we'll all be back to feeling good soon.

Since I felt the best, my first back home assignment was grocery store duty. That was followed by a  run to Walgreens as afterwards we discovered that both the Tylenol and Advil were expired (by at least 6 months).  After that, I joined the rest of the family in napping the rest of the afternoon and early evening.  So no blog post yesterday.  

Progress on last week's list wasn't too bad even with the travel and family time thrown in. 

To Do List for 12/15/2023

1. Indigo Way: Continue clues 2, 3 and 4 ✔

2. Malted Mystery: Finish clue 5 - progress

3. Melodic Mystery: Start hand stitching binding ✔

4. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Three out of four check marks, with progress on the fourth isn't bad for a holiday week.  I also made some progress on the Butterfly Medallion project that wasn't on the list. It was just easier to grab that case for the trip than it was to pack up the Melodic Mystery quilt. 

Here's the plan for this week:

To Do List for 12/27/2023

1. Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue clues 2, 3 and 4, start 5 and 6

I'm almost finished with clue 2, but still have a long way to go on clues 3 and 4.  Hopefully I can make some progress on those, as well as clue 5 before the next clue comes out on Friday. 

2. Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish clue 5, start clue 6

These are the last few pieces of clue 5. Clue 7 comes out next week, so I need to get moving on clue 6 soon.   

3. Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish hand stitching binding. 

The first side is about 60% stitched down. Hopefully I'll turn the first corner today.  I'd really like to finish the binding before Sunday so this project will be the third finish for 2023. 

4. Betty (Meadow Mist Designs): Select fabrics

Cheryl is hosting a quilt along featuring the patterns in her book Just Two Charm pack Quilts.  I participated in the blog hop for the book release last year and made a version of String Lights.  There are several quilts I'd like to make from this book.  I really, really don't need a new project. But with all the scrap processing recently,  my 2.5" strip bin is overflowing.  My plan is to use my 5" and 2.5" scraps in blue, purple, green to make the blocks. I still need background, sashing and border fabrics.  Cutting starts on January 2nd, so I need to get my act together on that. 

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

I'm working on the component parts for the last block.  It would be nice if that last block is finished by the time we reach the last clue for this year's mystery.  

That's my list for this week.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday. This will be the last to do list for 2023!  

Have a Very Merry Christmas

 

Wishing you love, joy and peace during this holiday season.

Kate

My Guy

Grad Girl

(and Queenie)

Stitching Stuff: Week 51 of 2023

 

Merry Christmas Eve!  I hope all your gifts are wrapped and all the baking is done before the your family celebration tonight, tomorrow, or when ever your family does their thing.  I probably should have put the linky party on hold for a week, but I didn't think ahead. It's a hard week to both stitch and do all the pre-holiday stuff.   With the coming up holiday I expected to miss a few days. That I didn't is pretty amazing.   

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Dec = 20/23 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 302/357 days
• Success rate = 84.59%

Next Sunday will be the last linky party for 2023.  That's a bit sobering.  It's not so much that I'm not ready to let go of 2023, I'm just not ready for 2024.  

Even with all the holiday prep, I did manage to spend some time on scrap processing and fabric pressing. 

It's really hard to judge progress. As I pull out strips, it fluffs up what's left.  But the level is definitely dropping.  I won't finish processing this bag before the end of the year, but at least it's getting much closer to empty.  

I did reach a milestone with the fabric pressing. 

The top photo is what my to be pressed bin looked like on October 28th. As of December 17th, it was empty.  Turns out the last three pieces of yardage left weren't all that big: a 4.5, 3 and 2 yard pieces were all that was left.  I didn't keep a tally of the total yardage in the bin, it certainly filled out a few shelves in the fabric closet. 

Unfortunately, this bin wasn't the only pile of fabric sitting in the sewing room that needed some attention. 

This pile has been sitting over in a corner of the sewing room for I don't know how long. I've sorted through it. Found a home for the t-shirts (those were used to make the ear loops for the masks I made for the family during the pandemic) and moved the remaining pile to the bin. 

So the next time I tackle the fabric organization, this will be where I start.  

So did you manage to get any stitching time in this week?  

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

4. DonnaleeQ 5. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 6. katie z.

7. Carol Andrews

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To Do List for the Week of 12/19/2023

Less than a week till Christmas. I've got gifts to wrap and some laundry to catch up on before the holiday, but that's about it.  My Guy is off work till after New Year's.  Grad Girl will be home this weekend.  All that to say I'm not sure what this week is going to look like in terms of "at home time".  So this week's list will be a bit looser then normal.  But before I get to this week's list, here's how it went with last week's list. 

To Do List for 12/12/2023

1. Indigo Way: Continue clues 1, 2 and 3, start clue 4 ✔

2. Malted Mystery: Finish clue 5 and start clue 6 - progress

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Finish the pieced borders ✔

4. Melodic Mystery: Finish making binding, sew to quilt ✔

5. Chilhowie: Continue as leader and enders ✔

6. Fabric organization: cut/sort scraps and press fabric ✔

It was a really good week.  I'll take the 5 check marks with progress on the sixth item.  Here's this week's to do list. 

To Do List for 12/19/2023

1. Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue clues 2, 3 and 4

Clue 1 is finished (yeah!!!).  I'm moving along with all the other clues. I'm not caught up, but am doing better then I usually do at this point in the mystery.  Clue 5 will come out Friday, but with the holiday and family commitments, I won't start it till after the holiday.  

2. Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish clue 5

I'm still trying to finish November's clue for this mystery.  I've been going slow with this project so I don't make mistakes. The blocks aren't hard, but you do have to get the position of the component parts right. I'll catch up at some point.

3. Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Work on hand stitching the binding down

It probably won't be finished, but that's OK. There is still a week after the holiday to make sure it's the third finish for 2023.  

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

I'm making the last set of hourglass blocks. Those are slow going as leaders and enders. But any progress is good progress.  

That's my list for this week.  If I make any progress I'll be happy.  There will be plenty of time for sewing after the holiday.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with both your stitching and holiday goals. I know there are lots of dual to do lists this week.  

A Full Design Wall

Last week there was nothing on the design wall. This week it's pretty much full. 

The pieced borders for Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery) are finally all attached. I'm happy with how they worked out.  The plan was for two more simple borders, but I'm now thinking maybe just one. I need to play in EQ and try out some options. 

Any decisions will wait till after the holiday. I'm trying to keep up with this year's mystery, so Rhododendron is going into time out for a few weeks.  For the next week or so, I'll turn my attention to Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) which just needs to be bound. Since that would be a nice handwork project to work on while visiting over the holiday, I'm going to focus on making progress there.  

 

The binding is made it just needs to be sewn to the front.  Then I can spend the holiday week doing the hand stitching to the back.  So I should have one more finish before the end of the year.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  Next Monday is Christmas!  I'm definitely not ready for that yet.  Have a great week, wishing you lots of fun with family this week and next.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 50 of 2023

I've been scratching my head since the first week in December if I'd gotten off count with my weeks. There are only 2 weeks left in the year. Based on last week's post, this post would only be week 49.  After taking a bit of look back, I missed a week back in April and didn't catch it.  So I'm back on count with it being week 50.  

I knew as we got closer to the holiday stitching time would suffer.  It definitely did this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/Dec =  13/16 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 295/350 days
• Success rate = 84.29%

As bad as this week was, next week is likely to be worse on the stitching front. But the holiday is for the family, so I won't miss the stitching time too much.  I'll get back to regular stitching time once the holiday is over.  

Even with the missed stitching days, there was still some time for scrap processing and fabric pressing.  I hadn't looked in my working scrap bin in a few weeks. When I did I found all the left over scraps from the Macaron Mystery. So those needed to get processed before moving on. 

The yellow was a scrap from Rhododendron that got tossed in the basket some time this week.  But all the white, red and black left overs are now cut to standard sizes and sorted into the scrap bins.  

I also made some progress on Scrap Bag #1. 

The picture on the bottom looks emptier doesn't it?  

Progress was also made on getting some of the washed fabrics to the pressed and folded stage.  

Three 4-yard cuts and one 6 yard cut were pressed and folded this week.  There are just 3 cuts left in the bin. The two black fabrics are probably 6-yard cuts, but I think the blue stripe is an 8 yard cut because I bought it on sale to use as a backing fabric.  At this point it's a toss up if I'll actually get the tub emptied out by the end of the year.  It would certainly be nice to start 2024 with a completely empty tub so I can fill it up again. I have a couple of stacks of fabrics that need to be pressed sitting in various places in the sewing room. 

So how are you doing at making progress on your Christmas stitching, end of year goals or just playing in the sewing room?  

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

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

9. Laurie at Laurie's Place 10. Quilting Gail 11. Bonnie in Va

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Week 96 Photo Challenge: Balance

We've all had a busy week. Grad Girl's been working on new experiments. It was My Guy's last work week of the year. I made the trip back to my Mother's to drop off the family Christmas gifts. So all of us were a bit last minute with our photos for the week's challenge. 

I found my subject by staring off into space trying to think of a photo and realizing it was literally just sitting (floating) there.  

Kate: Balanced Birdie

This plastic birdie is perfectly balanced on the edge of the computer desk.  I don't remember where this came from. I'm pretty sure My Guy and Grad Girl bought this on one of our trips because they didn't think it would work.  So this bird has been on the corner of the desk for several years.  It's become such a part of the office that you really just don't notice it.  

My Guy had taken some photos this week, but wasn't really happy with any of them.  We were out shopping all day yesterday, so when we got home he was determined to get a better shot.  

My Guy: Duplex of Cards

How he comes up with these unique ideas is always amazing to me.  We didn't get home till after 9 PM and were already tired. He pulled this shot together in a few minutes.  

My favorite photo this week's is Grad Girl's.  

Grad Girl:  D&D Balance

Normally she takes a photo in the lab, but I'm pretty sure when I texted her to remind her to get a photo she was already home.  But she improvised.  You do wonder how she got all those odd shaped Dungeons and Dragons dice to balance on each other.  

So even with last minute photos, it wasn't a bad week.  My Guy drew this week's challenge card.  He said he was going to pull a good one for this week.  

He did!  We really do a random draw each week. The cards are shuffled and then we fan them out and one of us picks.  How he managed to pull this one the week before Christmas is really amazing.  I don't think we'll have any problems coming up with photos for next week!  

To Do List for the Week of 1212/2023

Only two Tuesdays left in 2023?  December always seems to speed by.  I'm definitely not ready for the end of the year.  My holiday to do list has just about preempted my quilting to do list, but it is that time of year.  Even so, I didn't do too badly with last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 12/5/2023

1. Indigo Way: Continue clues 1 and 2, start clue 3 ✔

2. Malted Mystery: Finish clue 5, start clue 6 - progress

3. Rhododendron: Finish pieced borders - progress

4. Melodic Mystery: Make label and binding, trim quilt - progress

5. Chilhowie: Leaders and enders project ✔

6. Fabric organization: Cut/sort scraps/press fabrics ✔

My goal is progress, so to have progress on all the items even if they aren't checked off is still a good week. 

This week's to do list is still pretty ambitious.  If I can check off a few, but make progress on rest, it will still be a good week.  

To Do List for 12/12/2023

1. Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue clues 1, 2 and 3, start clue 4

I'm almost done with clue 1, just one more set of HSTs to stitch together. Clue 2 is halfway finished. Clue 3 has been started, but I don't have any finished units yet.  

2. Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish clue 5 and start clue 6

I finally finished the first block in clue 5. I'm really enjoying the fabrics I picked for this year's mystery.  I've gotten started on the last part of clue 5.  That should go fast and then I can get started on clue 6.  

3.  Rhododendron Mystery (Bonnie Hunter): Finish the pieced borders. 

I forgot that the last two border strips also had pieced blocks.  I've got those measurements figured out, the fabric cut, now I just have to assemble them.  

4. Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish making binding, sew to quilt.  

The label is made, the binding is almost sewn together.  Hopefully this will be a finished quilt before next week. The handwork may take longer, but we'll see how it goes.   

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

I'm hoping to finish the all the blocks by the end of the year. I'll still have the sashing to piece, but getting the blocks done is the big job.  

6. Fabric organization: cut/sort scraps and press fabrics.  

That's a pretty ambitious list.  If I can make progress on all of that, even if none of it is checked off, it will be a good week.  

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

Nothing on the Design Wall

I spent a lot of time in the sewing room over the weekend, but don't seem to have much to show for it.  Here's the last round of chain piecing sitting by the machine.

The purple and yellow pieces are the last two pieced borders for Rhododendron.  The maroon strips are to bind Melodic Mystery.  The pile of light blue, red and dark blue are the most recent subunits for Indigo Way.  Only 4 more HSTs and clue 1 will be finished.  I'm about half way done with clue 2 and just barely got started on clue 3.  The teal and white block is for Malted Mystery.  I spent more time cutting fabric to proceed with next steps than anything else.  Projects are moving along, there's just nothing really photo worthy. 

My weekend morning sewing time I've dedicated to scraps and fabric organization.  Here's all the scraps that were processed yesterday. 

The oldest scrap is that 5" strip of orange/yellow batik at the end of the middle row.  That's left over from the first quilt I made for our bed.  That fabric was purchased in 2008.  The pink polka dot fabric in the middle row was used in a quilt for a coworker's 5 year old  who had brain cancer. That daughter is 17 now.  The red and blue plaid on the bottom row is the backing for my current recliner quilt finished in 2017. The green and white floral scrap in the first row was a in scrap bag I won during a blog challenge. I'm surprised at how well I remember which scraps went in which quilt.   

So nothing exciting to link up with the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  I'm going to need a very productive Monday afternoon to be able to check off a few items from my to do list.