Week 123 Photo Challenge: Sleeping

All three of us enjoy this photo challenge.  It's been such fun to see what we each come up with.  But some week's are more of a challenge to find a photo then others. This week was that way for me and My Guy.  

 

This isn't an object, it's an activity.  It would be easy to take photos of each of us sleeping, but to be honest those probably aren't the most interesting subjects.  I struggled all week with getting a photo. In fact you can tell from mine that inspiration didn't strike till this morning. 

 

Kate: I Should Be Sleeping

Actually, I tried this earlier in the week with my I-Phone and that didn't work.  It's amazingly hard to get a good photo in total darkness. I had to go to the kitchen to turn on the lights there to adjust my camera settings to avoid waking up My Guy.  Yes, I did go back to sleep for a bit after this photo.  I'm at the age where sleeping thru the night doesn't happen all that often anymore.

My Guy went with a similar theme, but ended up with a very different photo. 

My Guy: Shhh-the Neighbors are Sleeping

 

Can you see the stars in the sky over the sleepy neighborhood?  Thankfully the worst noise we get during the day and night is the high school kid with the souped up Jeep who guns it as he leaves the house.  Thankfully, we can't hear him in the bedroom.  

You could say that Grad Girl had it much easier this week. 

Unlike sleeping old people, sleeping kitties are cute. Though a black cat can be extremely difficult to photograph. Queenie likes to nap in Grad Girl's closet on the pile of blankets/quilts.  It's out of the way and dark, a great place for a kitty looking for an uninterrupted nap.  

All in all, I don't think we did so bad with last week's subject.  Next week's subject will probably be challenging for all of us. 

 

I have some thoughts. We'll have to see if any of them actually become photos.  

August 2024 PHD Report

With all the hot, hot days in August, the sewing room was the nicest place to hang out most days.  Consequently there was a lot of progress on the various projects.  Now that we've moved into September it's time to link up with P Designs USA for the August PHD Report.

Another finish added to the chart with no new starts. That's definitely a good month.  So I'm up to three finishes for 2024.  The latest finish was my 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) project. 

 

This quilt, named The Shadow Demon, is destined to live at my daughter's apartment and be snuggled by her black cat, Queenie.  It was such a fun project to make and turned out better than I expected.  Grad Girl is thrilled with it and that's the best thank you there is.  It's also nice to finish one of the quilts that was started this year.  

Just one finish, but there was good progress on a number of other projects in August.  

A few more orange blocks filled in the center of Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter). 

It takes so long to get all the blocks up on the design wall, I'm just going to stick with summary shots of all the blocks of the color I've been working on. Since September is dark neutrals, I'm going to continue with the orange this month as all my blocks have black in them.  Still a long way to go before all the blocks are finished, but I'm happy with the progress so far with this project. I'll probably need another year or two to get all the blocks done. We'll have to see what next year's quilt plan looks like, it could become a primary project to finish next year.  

Not a lot of progress on the new leaders and enders project, The Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter). 

I've been alternating making yellow and blue 4 patch blocks.  So far one blue and one yellow set of 10 have been added to the project box.  

It's definitely been a year for catching up on Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts. Back in February all the blocks for the 2022 mystery, Chilhowie, were finished as a leaders and enders project.  It went back into the project box as I was in the middle of several other quilt alongs. In August, Chilhowie came back onto the active list as my next quilt top to finish. 

The sashing is finished and I've started on the borders.  Chilhowie won't be finished with all the pieced borders Bonnie used.  My plan for the left over blocks is to use them on the back.  

Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl) became a finished quilt top during the month. It's next on the list to be finished.

The backing fabric has been washed. Hopefully, the backing will be pressed and cut soon.  

The 2023 Bonnie Hunter mystery, Indigo Way, became a finished quilt top during August. 

I'm not sure it will become a finished quilt before the end of the year. But I am thrilled to have it to the finished quilt top stage before the next mystery comes out.  

The August block for the Guild's 2024 BOM was finally cut out and pieced. 

Just two more blocks and then the setting pieces left to make, so just three more months of clues left.  

The project tracker is definitely showing more color/longer bars. 

One more finished quilt and two more finished quilt tops are the primary reasons.  I had hoped for more finishes this year, but it helps to see the progress in other areas.  There should be one more finish in September and hopefully another one in October. That would get me to five this year, so better than the last couple of years for sure.  

To Do List for the Week of 09/03/2024

Is it really September?  Seems like it was the beginning of May just yesterday.  Now summer's end is looming. It will be a quick march to the end of the year.  But I should slow down and just take it a day at a time.  

Looking back at last week, the to do list was pretty simple.  

To Do List for 08/27/2024

1.  Diatom: Piece backing, prep for quilting ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Finish sashing, start borders  ✔

3.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

4.  Simply Sensational Mystery: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

The hardest item on it was getting the backing for Diatom finished up.  Next week's list is going to be a bit longer.  

To Do List for 09/03/2024

1.  Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Prep top for quilting

The backing is assembled, pressed and de-threaded.  So if I can get the top done quickly it can go out for quilting quickly.  it would nice if it comes back before my girl's weekend with Grad Girl.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Finish pieced first border, start on second border

Still have a bit left to do on that first pieced border.  The next two borders will be strip borders.  Those will go faster, but never as fast as I think they should.  

3.  Jewel Box Blocks (Cynthia Brunz Designs): Finish blocks

Cynthia who hosts the Quilting is More Fun than Housework blog has posted the next block drive for Many Hands and Many Hearts.  The blocks are black and white with bright blue, greens and purples.  My scrap bins are pretty full, so this seemed like a great opportunity to pull out a few scraps and make a few blocks for charity.  The white and black fabrics are left overs from other quilts. Using those will make some more space in the fabric closet.  So a win/win for everyone.  So far I have 8 cut out and ready to piece. 

4.  Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Cut background fabric and start assembly of for the September clue.

After much dithering, I finally decided this is the fabric pull for the mystery.  I had contemplated doing red, white and blue, but Grad Girl pointed out that I had just finished  RWB project.  I really like purple and I like monochromatic quilts.  Hopefully these will all play well with each other.  

5.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making orange blocks.

It would be fun to finish off all the orange blocks I need this month.  Doubt that happens, but I have a few weeks to see how much progress I can make.  

6.  Simply Sensational Summer  Scrap Mystery (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders. 

This has been a wonderful scrap buster and easy leaders and enders project.  Still have a ways to go, but I'm enjoying making the 4 patches.  

That's my to list for this week. Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Finishing Up and Starting Out

Labor Day weekend has been a bit cooler, but it's still been pretty humid.  My Guy took Friday off and we've been out and about a bit.  No big plans for today, we'll probably just chill around the house. It's supposed to be nice today, so maybe an after dinner walk will happen.  

There's been a few good hours spent in the sewing room this holiday weekend.  Most of the progress has been on the 2022 Bonnie Hunter mystery, Chilhowie.

The sashing is all finished and the first pieced border has been started.  I've dropped the teal from the pieced border.  I like the cleaner feel of just the orange flying geese with the off white backgrounds.  I'm not finishing with the second pieced border in the pattern, I'll go with simple borders for the finish.  The plan is to use the border blocks when I piece the backing.  Not sure I can finish the borders this week, but there should be good progress towards getting this project to finished quilt top.  

I've not started a new project since February. But this Thursday the first construction clue for the Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is released.  The fabric requirements and cutting instructions have already been released.  But I've been fine tuning my fabric choices and finally decided on these. 

I prefer to cut my fabric as I go. Less likely to loose a few pieces that way.  I'm a little short on my background fabric, so I probably will cut all of those pieces at once to avoid refreshing the edge each time I unfold and cut.  I'm still on the fence with fabric C, wondering if it's different enough from the background. Based on the gray scale it should work. 

The background touches all the fabrics, but only A and B touch each other.  I have both darker and lighter options for C, but they tend to be the same tone as the darker and lighter fabrics already selected.  Both A and B are left overs from previous projects. The background, C and D have been in the stash for awhile.  These should work just fine.  

That's what's up on the design wall now and what's coming to the design wall in the coming weeks.  Linking up Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 35 of 2024

 

We finally got a break in the heat this weekend.  Friday was still pretty sultry, but by evening you could feel a cooler breeze blowing. It was chilly enough Saturday for a sweater when we went out for breakfast.  It will heat up again, but I'm going to enjoy the chill for as long as we have it.  

The heat has been a really good reason to hang out in my sewing room. Makes it easier to keep up with my 15 minute stitching commitment. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 day
• 15 minute days/Aug = 31/31 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 244/244 days
• Success rate = 100%

It's been fun and definitely motivating to maintain the 100% success rate through August.  I'm curious to see how I fare on that front in September.  

My stash reorganization has stalled just a bit.  I've not done much on either the scrap processing or the fabric pressing fronts. So no photos on either effort this week.  

How did your stitchy week work out?  

  

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

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Deb in Canada 7. Quilting Gail 8. Bonnie in Va

9. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 10. Carol @ Quilt Schmilt

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Week 122 Photo Challenge: Shallow Depth of Field

This week's challenge was another photography technique. 

These can be harder as the subject is wide open. Anything can be a photo, so you have to self edit. At any rate, before I get to the pictures, I should probably define "depth of field".  The distance between the closet and farthest objects in a photo that is acceptably sharp is the depth of field. So a shallow depth of field is one where only a part of the photo is in sharp focus.  

I took lots of photos this week, but only one set really fit the challenge requirements. 

Kate: It Only Takes One

These are bottles of beer My Guy brewed.  I titled this one "It Only Takes One" because for me, just one will have me losing my focus.  I'm a very sleepy drunk. 

My Guy focused on nature for his photo this week. 

My Guy: Echinacea

The purple cone flowers have succumbed to the summer heat.  But I'm pretty sure My Guy is planning to harvest the seed heads from these.  His depth of field is pretty narrow compared to my photo.  

Grad Girl wasn't sure how she was going to handle this week's challenge.  She only uses her Android phone, so it's a lot harder to control the aperture.

Grad Girl: Liquid Gold

She did pretty well with just her phone.  This is the product from one of her reactions.  It's on the roto vap to pull off the excess solvent which leaves her with a purer material.  She's been having some issues getting her conditions just right, so when she nails it, the resulting product is precious as gold. 

We all hit our marks with last week's photos.  This week should be interesting. 

Grad Girl will definitely have an advantage this week, Queenie likes to sleep a lot. She's definitely cuter than any of us when she is asleep! 

To Do List for the Week of 8/27/2024

Summer is still in full force here, though we have a chance for cooler temperatures starting this weekend with increased chances for rain. Of course there will be rain, it's Labor Day. It always seems to rain here for that holiday weekend.  We have no special plans for the holiday, but My Guy is taking a couple of days off, so I'm sure we'll end up doing something fun. So I should probably take that into account for this week's To Do List.  Before jumping there, I should review how it went with last week's list.  

To Do List for 08/20/2024

1.  Diatom: Finish borders, find backing fabric ✔

2.  Guild BOM: Make August block ✔

3.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

4.  Chilhowie: Start on quilt assembly ✔

5.  Sensational Summer Scrap quilt: Continue as leaders/enders  ✔

Having a shorter list does make it easier to check off all the items. It was definitely a good week on the progress front.  I've made good progress on my 2024 quilt plan. Most of what's left is assembling quilts, making backs and sending out for quilting.  At least that's the case till the end of year mystery quilt alongs get started.  This week following the quilt plan means a shorter list. 

To Do List for 08/27/2024

1.  Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Piece backing, prep for quilting 

The quilt top is assembled and I found a beautiful blue hounds tooth print for the backing.  I need to wash the fabric before I can get started on piecing it.  I'm hoping to have this quilt ready to go out for quilting by the time Rhododendron comes back.  

2.  Chilhowie Mystery (Bonnie Hunter): Finish sashing, start borders

The second horizontal row of sashing is at the sewing machine waiting to be stitched together.  Only two more sashing sections will be needed for the third row of blocks.  Then it will be on to the first pieced border.  I won't be doing the second pieced border.  Those blocks will get used on the back. Borders always take longer than I think they should so assembly probably won't be complete till sometime in September.  

3. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making orange blocks

Just 4 blocks completed in August, but that just leaves 10 left to make.  If Angela holds to what she said at the beginning of this month, next month is supposed to be blacks and browns.  Since each of my blocks has black in it, I will probably just continue with orange for September.  It would be nice to finish all the blocks for this color.  Yellow is the only color that is complete.  

4.  Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders. 

I'm back to playing with the yellow 4 patches.  I've been working on assembling more 2 patches.  More variation is needed before I start making the next round of 4 patches.  

A short and simple list for this week. We all need weeks like that every once in a while.  Good luck with your to do list.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday. 

What's Off and Back On the Design Wall

It's been a so-so year for finishes but a pretty good year for progress on many projects. Just three finishes so far this year, but double that number of projects have moved from a collections of pieces or blocks to finished quilt tops. The latest one to get the final borders added is the 2023 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Indigo Way.

My borders don't look like Bonnie's, but I rarely keep to her plan at that point.  It's a pretty busy quilt, but the dark blue border calms it all down, so the finished top works for me. I'm excited to have last year's BH mystery to the quilt top stage before this year's mystery kicks off.  I doubt this quilt is quilted before the next mystery kicks off. I have older projects that are on the to be quilted list ahead of this one.  

The last half of this year could be described as the "catch up on BH mystery quilts" time.  Rhododendron  (BH 2021) is out for quilting. Indigo Way is now a finished quilt top and the sashings for Chilhowie (BH 2022) are currently under construction.  

The first row of blocks are stitched together.  Two of the blocks from the second row are over at the sewing machine waiting for the sashing pieces to be stitched to each.  This project should also reach finished quilt top stage before much longer.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 34 of 2024

It's the last Sunday in August.  Why does it seem like time speeds up as we get closer to the end of the year?  It seems the August went so quickly.  There is still one full week left, so it's not completely gone, but boy is it close! 

It was another good week to find time to stitch.   

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 24/24 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 237/237 days
• Success rate = 100%

It's been such successful year on the stitching time front.  We'll see how long I can keep the 100%.  It has been really motivating keep this streak going.  How long will it last?  Hopefully for at least one more week.  

I didn't do so hot on with my scrap and stash reorganization this week.  My shoulders were bothering me last weekend, so not a lot got done.  No scrap processing at all and just a bit on the fabric pressing front.  

Approximately one third of the bin has been emptied.  That's not bad, some of the pieces have been bigger than I expected.  There have been several 4 yard cuts.  I've also rediscovered my large floral print collection.  I've found a couple of quilt patterns that would really highlight some of these large prints. Once the UFO list gets a bit shorter, I'll give a few of those a try.  It's a shame to keep such pretties piled in the fabric closet.  

Did you find time to stitch this week? 

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

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 7. Quilting Gail 8. Bonnie in Va

9. Deb in Canada 10. Carol Andrews

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Week 121 Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds

I hadn't planned to write photo challenge post this morning. Grad Girl is getting ready for her preliminary exam, so she's been really busy and working long days.  Getting a photograph isn't her priority.  She didn't think she'd have one for this week,  but she texted me one for this challenge after I'd gone to bed.

Before posting the photos, let's discuss the rule of thirds as it relates to photography.  Basically it's one way to set up the composition of your photos.  The photo frame is divided into 9 equal rectangles. 

To follow the rule, the important elements within a frame should be placed at the intersection points (red dots) of the grid. If you want more details there are numerous photography sites that discuss it (here's a link to just one of the many).  The rule of thirds is probably the most common rule, but rules are meant to be broken, some of the best photographs don't adhere to it at all. With that brief intro, I'll let you decide how well we each did meeting the challenge. 

We had some very beautifully lit mornings this week due to the few transient rain storms, I tried hard to find a workable subject one of those mornings. 

Kate:  Last of the Season

There are still a few roses blooming, pretty amazing considering just  hot it has been. The point of the rule of thirds is to avoid placing the subject in the exact middle of the frame. This shot has the subject centered on the two upper focus points in the grid.  

My Guy also took advantage of the cool light due to clouds and rain. 

My Guy: Silhouette

Oklahoma does have some spectacular sunrises and sunsets. All the drama in this shot lies along the left line of the grid.

Grad Girl has had one heck of a week. School started this week, so that adds to her normal lab load, she has to teach as well.  She found her shot on the way home last night. 

Grad Girl: Froggy 

As hot and dry as it's been in Texas it's amazing to see one of these out and about.  But I guess the apartment complex has a sprinkler system to water the grass, so its probably a great place for a frog to hang out in August.  Of the three photos, this one is probably the best representation of the rule of thirds.  What do you think?  

My Guy drew this week's challenge. 

Another photography technique.  In some ways these technique challenge cards are harder than cards that direct you to a subject.  It should be interesting to see what we come up with for this week.  

To Do List for the Week of 8/20/2024

It's been another hot week, so the sewing room was my favorite place to be. My shoulder issues did require me to minimize my time early in the week, but by the end of the week, I could sew for more than my 15 minutes each day. That made it much easier to tackle the to do list.   

To Do List for 08/13/2024

1.  2024 SAHRR: Finish binding ✔

2.  Indigo Way: Add last border ✔

3.  Diatom: Finish sashing, start borders ✔

4.  Guild BOM: Make August block - progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

6.  Sensational Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Five out of six check marks with progress on the sixth is a really good week.  Even better the week included a quilt finish and a quilt top finish.  It's always a good week when projects hit those two milestones.  With two quilts off the active list, this week's list is a bit shorter.  

To Do List for 08/20/2024

1. Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Finish borders, find backing fabric

 

The sashing is done and the first narrow border has been added. I'm adding a 3" wide border of the darkest fabric.  The strips are cut, so it shouldn't take to long to move this project to finished quilt top.  This quilt is a wedding gift for one of Grad Girl's chemistry buddies, so it will be next to be quilted.  Hopefully a review of the stash yields a pretty backing.  This one should be ready to go out when Rhododendron comes back from being quilted. At least that's the plan.  

2. Guild BOM:  Make August block

 

 All the pieces are cut, they just need to be assembled.  I won't have it ready for the guild meeting this week, but that's OK.  I'll catch up for next month. 

3.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making orange blocks.

I did finally count how many orange blocks had been made.  A total of 18 blocks are made, 14 left to finish.  I won't get those all done this month.  

4.  Chilhowie Mystery (Bonnie Hunter):  Start on quilt assembly

All the blocks for the 2022 Bonnie Hunter mystery were finished back in February.  I was working on several new projects at the beginning of the year. So once the blocks were done, they got put away in a project box.  Now that Indigo Way is a quilt top, it's time to pull out another partially completed BH mystery and see about getting it finished up. 

5.  Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders. 

 

Early in the week, a set of 10 yellow 4-patches were added to the project box. Now it's back to making blue 2-patch blocks for another set of 10 blue 4-patch blocks.  

A bit shorter of a list for this week. Even though it's short, if I check them all off several projects will move along to the next stage. I was hoping for more finishes, but progress on the projects has been going well this year.  I'm hoping I can keep that up till the end of the year. 

Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your to do list for the week.   

Two for Two

The plan for the later half of the year was to finish a quilt a month.  As of August, I'm 2 for 2.  The 2023 Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) was finished in July. This month the 2024 SAHRR (Quilting Gail) is a finished quilt. 

The binding was finished last Tuesday, but it I wasn't able to get photos till this weekend.  This quilt is for Grad Girl. Of course the inspiration for the quilt was Grad Girl's kitty, Queenie. I had planned for a black and orange quilt (Oklahoma State colors), but had not planned to make it a Halloween quilt.  But those were the fabrics Grad Girl liked, so that's how it went together.  

Queenie certainly doesn't have orange eyes, but she's very black.  In a dark room she's startled Grad Girl and her roommate more than once, earning herself the nickname of "Shadow Demon".  So of course the quilt absolutely has to have the same name.  

Trudy Lindemann did the quilting with swirls and stars, which works so well with the Halloween fabrics.  Of course I'm sure you can see the close resemblance between my center block and Queenie. 

The back of the quilt is pieced using a couple of Halloween fabrics.

  

The orange print has spiders on it (not one of Grad Girl's favorite things, but hopefully it won't wig her out too badly).  The center fabric also has black kitties on it. You can see that clearly in this close up of the backing.

My Guy said the haunted house on this fabric reminds him of the one on the Scooby Doo intro.  Which was one of Grad Girl's absolute favorite cartoons when she was little. 

Shadow Demon turned out much better than I expected. It was such a fun quilt to make. Grad Gril is really excited for it to make it's way to her couch. That won't happen till October, but she should have it in time for Halloween.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  Also linking up with Favorite Finish over at Quilting Jetgirl.