To Do Tuesday on Friday for the Week of 4/23/2024

It's been a couple of weeks since my last to do list.  We were traveling for one week and once we got home, prep for knee surgery made it a lot harder to do the stairs.  So I've been sticking with hand work pretty much exclusively the last 3 weeks.  Since that's the only thing that was on my "allowed" activity list, it didn't seem worth it to do a new to do list.  By Wednesday, I was pretty bored with hand stitching and just restless. The knee is fully weight bearing, meaning nothing is going to fall apart if I walk on it.  But the knee and the rest of my lower leg hurt continuously no matter if I'm sitting, standing or walking. A new distraction was needed. 

So I Googled how to go up and down the stairs after knee surgery. It requires crutches. (Yes the knee is weight bearing, but it hurts like heck to go up stairs without assistance).  I practiced going up to the first landing (4 steps) and back down to see if it was feasible.  Once I mastered that, it was time to try for the whole staircase.  I made it to the sewing room and actually turned on the sewing machine and sewed a few seams. Using the foot pedal is a bit strange, but it's not painful.  It seems surgery took more out of me then I expected, it's tiring to sew for very long.  But now that I've made it to the sewing room, it makes sense to put a list together.  

To Do List for 4/23/2024

1. Butterfly Medallion:  Continue as back up project if the stairs seem to much. 

The first half the butterfly is finished. I've moved the hoop to do the center body and part of the remaining wing.  I may not get much more done on this if I'm able to spend a lot of time in my sewing room. But till I'm walking normally, I'll keep it on my to do list. 

2. Rhododendron: Work on adding last border. 

The strips are cut and assembled, but I need to cut them to size.  They may be more of a challenge as I'll need to measure the quilt top to do that.  Laying the top out on the floor and measuring that way is probably not going to happen because I'm just not that mobile yet.  We'll see how far I get with this.  Maybe My Guy will help me get those measurements.  

3. Guild BOM: Cut out pieces for April block.  

Even if I don't get it assembled, the May block will be out soon and then I can finish both off together. 

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue to make purple blocks for April

I finished off one block on Wednesday and have 2 more in the works.  If I can finish those off by the end of the month, I'll be in good shape to start in on May's color. 

5. Indigo Way: Continue as leaders and enders

I need to cut a few more component pieces to finish off the B blocks that are left to make. 

That's my to do list for the rest of this week.  It is tiring to sew, the foot pedal isn't totally comfortable to use right now. If I make any progress on projects 2 through 5, I'll be happy.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric.  

Just Hand Stitching

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted a Monday post on just stitching stuff.  The eclipse trip, along with prep and recover from knee surgery has limited my sewing room time.  So my stitching efforts have been focused on my long term travel project.  My goal was one full thread of stitching time each day while we were on the road. The first top wing of the butterfly was finished off last week.  

Since I had to go off my anti-inflammatory before surgery, it was really uncomfortable to manage the stairs, so I kept to the hand stitching all of last week.  The hoop got moved to allow for stitching on the bottom half of the wing. 

So the plan for today is to finish off this half of the butterfly.  I'm hoping to cut back on the pain medication today so that I'm not sleeping so much (I slept 6 hours during the day yesterday).  We'll have to see how that works out.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts, plus Slow Stitching Sunday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 16 of 2024

I've been a bit scarce on the blogging front this week.  There hasn't been much to post.  I had to stop the anti-inflammatories a week before surgery and it hurt to move without the medication. So other than handwork, there wasn't much stitching stuff going on with me.  Surgery was on Friday. Whatever they gave me during surgery worked till Saturday morning.  When it wore off, my whole lower leg hurts now.  I started the pain medication about noon yesterday.  If you see any errors below, that may be a factor.  

I only made it up to the sewing room one day last week, but I kept up with the handwork the rest of the time. I even managed to get my 15 minutes of stitching time before we left for the hospital on Friday. Of course I couldn't have breakfast or even more of downer, any coffee. I definitely needed something to take my mind off that.   

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Apr = 20/20 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 111/111 days
• Success rate = 100%

So I've managed to keep my 100% stat for most of April.  The short term goal is see if I can finish April with that metric.  We'll see how that goes.  

How did you do at working in some stitching time this week?  

1. Gretchen 2. Frédérique 3. Julie in GA 4. maggie f 5. Karen

6. Deb in Canada 7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. DonnaleeQ 9. Quilting Gail 10. Bonnie in Va

11. amanda 12. Dq 13. Andrée

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Week 108 and 109 Photo Challenge: Birds and Frozen

It's been almost 4 weeks since I posted about the family photo challenge.  Both Grad Girl and I struggled with the photo challenge for week 108.  

My knee problems were limiting my mobility, so it was hard to get out to walk.  As Grad Girl was a bit time strapped due to lab work, we extended this challenge for another week.  During our trip to Texas, we visited the Monument Hill/Kriesche Brewery historic site.  My Guy hiked the trails, I found a bench to hang out on finally found my bird shot. 

Kate: Soaring

This is one of the black vultures that were riding the updrafts from the valley below.  There were four of them just hanging out and riding the winds.  It's not the best picture, but it's the best I could manage with my lens. 

My Guy definitely had a advantage with this challenge, it's one of his preferred subjects to photograph.  He didn't disappoint.  

My Guy: Northern Flicker

This Northern Flicker's coloration allows him to blend in with the bark of the tree so well. My Guy has incredible eyes when he's on the look out for the birds.  Northern Flickers are woodpeckers. They can be found throughout the continental  US, while their breeding grounds include all of Canada up into Alaska. 

Grad Girl is managing two concurrent projects, one of which is new.  So she's been putting in a lot of lab time.  Consequently, she had to get inventive. 

Grad Girl: Queenie's Birdie

Queenie does love her toy birds, especially her red ones. This one at least still has it's feathers. She's pretty good at plucking them all out over time.  

We finally drew a new challenge card after we got home from Texas. 

My Guy said once it was drawn that it was definitely the wrong season for this card.  Which just means we have to look a bit harder for subject matter.  I didn't have to think to hard to find my photo. 

Kate: Yummy Frozen Stuff

I love ice cream. But these ice cream sandwiches are all that hang out in our freezer as it's easier to control intake.  It's amazing how quickly a gallon of ice cream disappears from the fridge.  

My Guy struggled with this week's photo, but he still came out with a cool image of a common item.  

My Guy: Cube

Ice cubes have such interesting textures. This photo illustrates that well. 

Grad Girl pulled her image from her lab work (as that's about the only place she's been the last week). 

Grad Girl: Filter Freeze

 

One of the solvents she uses in her reactions freezes as it evaporates and it builds up on the edge of the filter funnel. She finds such cool subjects in her lab. Chemistry is indeed fun.  

I pulled the card for this week.

This is one subject that is definitely open to interpretation. It should be interesting to see what we all come up with this week. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 15 of 2024

I'm a bit late posting this morning. I'm a bit dragged out from all the travel.  We spent all of last week in Texas. The big draw was the eclipse on Monday, but we stayed a few extra days to spend some time with Grad Girl.  I shared one of my photos earlier this week. My Guy used his DSLR and a filter.  Here are some of his shots. 

As you can see in the photos, the cloud cover cleared just before totality, but was back before the eclipse ended.  

As we were on the road all of last week, my stitching time was all hand stitching.  Some mornings I only had time to stitch one full length of thread, but that still met my 15 minutes goal. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Apr = 13/13 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 104/104 days
• Success rate = 100%

So I'm still at 100%.  We'll see if I can keep it up through Friday when I have surgery.  It's been pretty motivating to see if I can keep the 100% through April.  

How are you doing with working in a bit of stitching time each day? 

1. DonnaleeQ 2. Frédérique 3. Deb in Canada

4. Shelina @ High Road Quilter 5. Quilting Gail 6. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts

7. Bonnie in Va 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of 4/9/2024

The big thing that wasn't on my to do list for last week was to watch the eclipse. We ventured down to Texas so we could see totality.  My Guy had the special filters and such for his camera, I didn't get that motivated. Even so,  I did get a cool photo during totality.  

We'd had mostly cloudy skies all morning, but we got lucky and the sun was in a clear patch for almost all of totality.  This photo was taken with my cell phone with no filters.  My Guy had his DSLR set up with a tripod and special filters. He's not looked at his photos yet, but I'll post a few sometime this week once he's had a chance to sort through them.  I'm sure the got a few cool ones.  

Since we did travel for the eclipse, I didn't get as much done on my to do list as I had hoped. 

To Do List for 4/2/2024

1. 2023 SAHRR: Fabric requirements, start assembly - progress

2. Rhododendron: Work on last 2 borders ✔

3. Wild and Goosey: Work on purple blocks ✔

4. Indigo Way: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Even though I didn't get as much done as I wanted, three check marks and progress on the fourth is still a good week.  

The plan for this week will need to take some travel time into consideration.  But I'll still have sewing room time after we get home to move a few things forward.  

To Do List for 4/9/2024

1. Butterfly Medallion:  Continue to embroider while on the road. 

I've made some good headway on the next butterfly.  There should be a bit more progress before we get home.  

2.  2023 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Cut fabric, assemble backing

I worked out the fabric requirements and cutting measurements, but didn't get any farther. I doubt this gets sent out before I have surgery.  I've got a number of things that have to be done before I'm out of commission for a few weeks, so sewing room time is likely to be limited.  

3.  Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter): Finish last border

The next to last border is attached and I'm working on sewing together the strips for the last border.  

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making purple blocks

I won't get as many made this month as last month, but any progress will cut down on what has to be made to finish this up next year.  

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

Still working on making the component for the remaining blocks.  

I'm to to the point that whatever I can get done before surgery gets done. What doesn't will have to wait till I'm mobile again. Fingers crossed that doesn't take too long to happen. 

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

Eclipsing

 

No stitching to show off today.  We're eclipsing. Fingers crossed we get some clearing around noon so we can enjoy the show. If not, I'm going to have one very disappointed My Guy. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 14 of 2024

It was a busy week on the non-quilting front.  The biggest accomplishment outside of the sewing room was getting our taxes completed and sent off.  For once we finished early, normally I'm scrambling to get it sent in the day it's due. 

Even though it was a busy week, sewing room time wasn't too hard to find. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Mar = 31/31 days
• 15 minute days/Apr = 6/6 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 97/97 days
• Success rate = 100%

So far so good on finding time to stitch each day this year.  It will be a challenge to maintain that with what else is on the schedule later this month.  My goal is 70%, but it's been fun to challenge myself.  Stitching every day has paid off, there has been good progress on a number of fronts.  

How are you doing at working in stitching to your schedule this year?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Gretchen's Little Corner 3. Karen 4. DonnaleeQ

5. Frédérique 6. Bonnie in Va 7. Amanda 8. Deb in Canada

9. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 10. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts

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2024 Quilting Ambitions 1st Quarter Check In

With the end of March comes the end of the first quarter of 2024.  Hard to believe we've hit that milestone already.  It's a good time to check how well I'm doing at meeting my ambitions for 2024.  Quilting Jetgirl has a first quarter linky party to remind us to do just that.  

Here's where I'm at with my ambitions for 2024. 

1. Make Quilts. My ambition wasn't just to finish quilts, I also wanted to focus on making progress with all the quilts on my quilt plan for this year.  

Here's what my progress metric looked like at the beginning of the year. 

Here's what it looked at at the end of March. 

One finished quilt, three others moved to finished quilt tops, and the all the blocks finished on another project. I'm definitely on track with this ambition for 2024.  Fingers crossed I can work those quilt tops into finished quilts before the end of the year.  

2. Learn to quilt.  No progress on this goal as yet.  I was focused on the quilt alongs during the first quarter.  I'm hoping to get moving on this ambition once I've recovered from knee surgery.  

3. 15 Minutes to Stitch (Stitching Stuff).  My one stated ambition was to stitch 15 minutes a day at least 75% of the time. I'm at 100% currently.  That won't last, especially since I have knee surgery in a couple of weeks.  I'll have to switch to hand work for a bit, but I've got some room to drop and still meet my goal of 75%.  

I finally figured out a graph that can help track my success/failure with my 15 minute stitching time.  My worst year for getting in my stitching time was 2014, my best year was 2018. We'll see how comparing my current progress with the worst and best performance works for 2024.    

The other ambition, which wasn't clearly stated at the beginning of the year, is to have the linky party posted each week.  So far I'm at 13 linky parties for 13 weeks.

4. Stash Organization. I've not done much on this front. As I said earlier, my focus for first quarter has been on the quilt alongs.  No progress at all on my scraps, in fact I've gone backwards with my scrap bin where I put all my "in progress scraps". 

So I have some trimming to do there to get it back to empty. 

The "to be pressed tub" is full again. I washed a lot of Halloween fabrics for potential use in the SAHRR, so those all got added to the tub. So it's back to completely full status. 

The only place that I've made progress is the fabric closet. Earlier this year I ordered some wire cubes to extend the wire rack at the back of the closet.  

All the fabrics that were just piled on top of the rack have been moved into empty drawers in Grad Girl's room. That fabric will all need to be repressed and folded to conform to the other yardage in the closet.  I still have some wire cubes left, I'm hoping to clean up the right side of the closet and use them there to further expand the fabric storage.  We'll see how that works.  

In summery, ambitions #1 and #3 are going well.  I've got work to do on ambitions #2 and #4.  Knee surgery will definitely impact second quarter progress, but hopefully not too badly.   

March 2024 PHD Report

First quarter is over and we are already a few days into the 2nd quarter of 2024.  Since March is over, it's time to look my progress towards a PHD and link up with P Designs USA for the March PHD report. This month the report shows a finish for the first time this year. 

 

Still a long way to go to reach PHD status. But it's nice having the first finish in March versus waiting till September. 

A Flutter was sent for quilting in February.  This quilt was started in 2013, it was my second Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.  It took almost 11 years to finish it, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. It was worth the wait. There is no pattern for this quilt. The butterfly blocks were paper pieced using a block found in Electric Quilt and the setting is a modified Irish Chain worked out in EQ.  I've loved these blocks since I started them, so this quilt is staying with me.  

Just one finish, no starts, but lots of progress on other projects in March. 

Purple was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for March. I need a lot more purple blocks for my version of Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter). The RSC color for April is yellow. I have all the yellow blocks I need for my version of the quilt, so I'm going to keep making purple blocks in April.  

Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter) is back on the active list, barely.  I was able to get the next to last border strips cut and assembled, but only two actually sewn to the quilt. Still that counts as good progress.  This one is close to being a finished quilt top.  Fingers crossed I can make that happen before my knee surgery later this month. 

Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is now a finished quilt top.  It's the last of my "deadline" sewing till the next mystery starts up in July.  It was a fun mystery and one of my favorites in terms of the final design. Now to find a backing fabric for it, prep it and send it out for quilting. Hopefully that will happen before the end of the year.  

Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter) is my current leaders and enders project. All the A blocks are finished. All that's left is to make the one B block and the 4 setting triangles.  I've had to go back and make the subunits for those blocks.  It's going to be slow going for the next bit. Even so, I'm happy with how much progress I've made on Indigo.  Usually it takes me quite a bit longer to be this close to quilt assembly.

The Just Two Charm Pack Quilts quilt along (Meadow Mist Designs) ended in early March.  My version of Betty became a quilt top just before the quilt parade ended (I was the last one to link up).  This was such a fun project. My blue and purple 2.5" strip bin isn't quite as full as it was. A few odds and ends from the stash got used up too.  There are a couple of other quilts I'd like to make from this book.  I need to finish a few more UFOs before I start anymore scrappy quilts.  

 

The 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) ended this month too.  I finished border 6 in barely enough time to link up with the quilt parade.  I was the last one to link up for the parade. (See a theme emerging here?)  I'm so thrilled with how this year's SAHRR worked out.  Now to figure out the backing and get it send out for quilting.  Fingers crossed it gets finished before Halloween this year.  

The April block for this year's guild BOM needs to be finished, but I was caught up as of the end of March.  I'm wishing now that I'd gone with a lighter gray, the one I picked is way too dark.  Fingers crossed it works out OK.  There's not much of it in the quilt, so hopefully it won't look too bad.  

One finished quilt and three finished quilt tops isn't bad for the end of third month of 2024.  My progress tracker shows longer bars in a few places. 

What I manage to get done in the next couple of weeks will determine what the  report looks like at the end of April.  I'll have surgery on my knee later this month. That's probably going to curtail my progress for a few weeks. Fingers crossed that I'm back in shape and ready to go for May.  

To Do Tuesday for the Week of April 2, 2024

It's definitely spring in Oklahoma. We spent about half an hour in the storm shelter last night in response to tornado warnings.  The news is reporting damage in one of the smaller towns to the south and east of us. We experienced some pretty strong winds and a bit of hail, but we never lost power. Still I'll have to do a walk around to check for lost shingles, the winds did get pretty high.  

The storms meant no evening stitching, which meant I didn't quite get to everything on my to do list for last week.  

To Do List for 3/26/2024

1. Malted Mystery: Finish quilt top ✔ 

2. 2023 SAHRR: Assemble quilt back - no progress

3. Rhododendron: Add next to last border - progress

4. Wild and Goosey: Make purple blocks ✔

5. Indigo Way: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

I didn't get to everything on the list, but still made good progress on several projects.  We've got a lot going on this next week, so I'm not sure how much stitching time I'm going to get in.  We have plans for the eclipse (My Guy has a minor in astronomy, so of course we have a plan for that event). So I'm not going to be very ambitious with next week's list. 

To Do List for 4/2/2024

1. 2023 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Work out fabric requirements, start assembly

The backing fabric has been selected, but I'm not sure I have enough. So I may need to find additional fabrics and figure out an assembly plan. The goal is have this one ready to send out for quilting before I have surgery.  

2. Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter): Work on last 2 borders

I made a good start on the second to last border.  I need to measure again before cutting the top and bottom strips. Then just one more border to add.  Very close to a finished quilt top. 

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

Seven blocks were finished in March.  The RSC color for April is yellow, but I have all the yellow blocks needed for the planned layout. So I'll stick with purple for one more month as many more blocks of this color are needed.  

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

All the block A blocks are finished.  I've had to cut more parts for the block B and the 4 setting triangles that are left to make. So there's a good deal of subparts that have to assembled before I can make the rest of the blocks.

Now that all the quilt alongs are over, I'm back to a much more manageable to do list.  Hopefully that means a few more finishes before the end of the year.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.   

Another Mystery Comes to an End

Did you have a family celebration for Easter?  We didn't this year, we mostly just hung out at home for the weekend.  I spent the afternoon in the sewing room working to finish the last border for the Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs).  

 

The dark blue used in the border looks black, it's just hard to photograph it accurately under the lighting conditions in my sewing room.  This is one of my favorite Meadow Mist Designs mystery designs from Cheryl.  It kept me guessing. I wondered where we going to use those blocks in the last border.   

This is my third finished quilt top for the year.  The mystery started in July of last year, with the last clue posted in March.  This may be the first time I've actually finished assembling a mystery quilt the month the clue was issued. Being retired definitely has improved my ability to keep up.  

Malted Mystery is my last "deadline" project. The plan for the next few months is to concentrate on finishing off the five quilt tops that are now hanging in the closet. Several of those will be going out for quilting, but there are two I want to try quilting myself.  I'll be linking up with the Malted Mystery quilt parade. Also linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 13 of 2024

Do you have Easter Egg hunts planned for today?  That was such a big deal with my mother in law when she was alive.  The grand kids always looked forward too the hunt after lunch.  Now our chick is way to big for egg hunts, but she still really likes those marshmallow bunnies and chicks.

As far as the stitching week, I managed to make it to the sewing room every day. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Mar = 30/30 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 90/90 days
• Success rate = 100%

Some days this week I just barely managed to work in my 15 minutes. The ranchers burn the fields this time of year here in Oklahoma and several days the smoke in the air was just overwhelming.  Those days it's hard to feel much like stitching.  The field burning should end soon, thankfully.  

How did you do this week at working in some stitching time?  

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

4. Quilting Gail 5. Janice 6. Bonnie in Va

7. DawnyK 8. Frédérique 9. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts

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First Finish for 2024: A Flutter

I've been trying to shift my perspective to appreciate progress at least as much as finishes. I'm still working on making that shift.  But the truth is, the goal for every project is to get it finished. This one has been on the "to be finished list" for quite awhile.  

The blocks were started as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge sponsored by SoScrappy (Angela has done an amazing job of keeping this going for so many years).  My first post on this project presented this mock up as my RSC project for 2013.

The first block wasn't actually started until 03/26/2013.  I started with a trial block and then made the first one for the quilt.  The second block wasn't finished until January of 2014.  The last block was finished in March of 2015.  Then the blocks sat waiting for me to decide on a setting.  Finally in July of 2021 the final look was decided and I got busy on construction.  So almost 11 years from the construction of the first block, Scrappy Butterflies became the finished quilt, A Flutter, on 3/18/2024.

I'm happy with how it came together, maybe not so much with how long it took. But I do love it. It's currently on my couch and I've already snuggled under it a few times.  

Trudy quilted big swirls to look like wind. 

The same blue as the final border was used as the binding. The label was also framed in that blue fabric.  I didn't have enough of the blue/white stripe for the backing, so I added in a strip of a blue bonnet fabric that's been in the stash for awhile. 

A Flutter was my 4th oldest UFO. It definitely feels good to get this one off the UFO list and onto my couch were I can enjoy all the colors.  

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday over at Alycia Quilts and with Favorite Finish over at Quilting JetGirl.