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.  

To Do Tuesday For the Week of 3/26/2024

It was a good week.  I've gotten a handle on the leg issues, physical therapy and anti-inflammatories are keeping the pain at bay. I do have to be careful on the stairs, getting in and out of the car and changing direction when walking.  But that's not been too hard to manage.  So I was able to spend a lot of time in the sewing room, which means really good progress on last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 3/19/2024

1.  Stay at Home Round Robin: Finish border # 6 ✔

2.  Guild BOM: Finish March block ✔

3.  Malted Mystery: Finish Feb, start Mar clues ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Make purple blocks ✔

5.  Indigo Way: Continue making blocks as leaders and enders ✔

For the first time in several weeks, all the to do list is checked off. Definitely a good week.  

The first quarter of 2024 has been dedicated to three quilt alongs with deadlines.  Two of those are quilt tops now and the focus UFO is also finished.  That creates a couple of slots on the in progress list.  Rather than finish off the two new quilt tops, I'm going to pull out some older projects and work on moving those to finished first.    

To Do List for 3/26/2024

1. Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish quilt top

The February clue is finally finished and the March clue has been started.  Just three more pieced border strips and a final border of the dark blue is all that is left to do.  I should be able to get that finished this week.  

2. 2023 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Assemble quilt back

I considered finishing this year's SAHRR first, but last year's already has backing fabric selected. I need to think on options for this year's quilt top.  I'd like to get this one finished before Father's Day as this quilt is intended for My Guy.  

3. Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter): Add next to last border

This quilt just needs two borders and it will be a finished quilt top. Once that's done it can go hang in the closet till I figure out a backing fabric.  

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

There's been good progress with the purple blocks this month.  I'm hoping to finish a total of 8 before it's time to switch colors for April. 

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

Almost finished with the last two A blocks.  Just one full B block and  four setting pieced B setting triangles left to make after that.  

This is the last to do list for March, next week's list will be the first one for April.  I'm hoping to focus on finishes for the next few weeks. We'll see how that goes.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday. 

The 2024 SAHRR Quilt Top

I don't usually post twice in one day, but today is the last day to link up with the quilt parade for the 2024 Stay At Home Round Robin over at Quilting Gail's.  The last border strip was added late yesterday afternoon. Last year I didn't finish the 2023 SAHRR quilt top till June. I'm very happy to have a finished quilt top before the end of March this year. 

The prompt for border #6 was a letter or a number.  I decided to go with an hourglass block, which looks like the letter X.  

 

My end blocks for each row are partial hourglass blocks, but they look like V's. So two letters represented in that last border.  

I'm really happy with how this year's SAHRR worked out. 

The intent was to make an orange and black quilt for Grad Girl (Oklahoma State school colors), but that ended up becoming a Halloween quilt. She's thrilled with the outcome, that's the most important point. I also made a small dent in my Halloween fabrics.  The finished quilt top is 66" x 69".  So a nice cuddle on the couch size.  The inspiration for the quilt center is Queenie, Grad Girl's kitty cat. 

Now I need to raid the stash for a backing fabric and I'll need to get Grad Girl's input on a name.  The plan is to finish it up before Halloween so she can enjoy it sooner rather than later.  

Linking up with the SAHRR Quilt Parade, Patchwork & Quilts and Design Wall Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 12 of 2024

It looks like spring outside, but it was still pretty nippy on Saturday.  We have another cool front and a chance of storms this evening. It's definitely spring in Oklahoma.  It's been windy and smokey, which means it's just more fun to stay in and play in the sewing room. Which I mostly did this week as my stitching time shows. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Mar =23/23 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 83/83 days
• Success rate = 100%

I've done well at getting in my stitching time this year.  Some days it's still hard to climb the stairs, but I usually make it to the sewing room for at least an hour each day.  All the sewing time is paying off, though it's not obvious on the blog as yet.  

How are you doing with your spring stitching?  

1. maggie f 2. Gretchen 3. Julie in GA 4. Deb in Canada

5. Frédérique 6. Quilting Gail 7. Andrée 8. Amanda

9. DonnaleeQ 10. Celine @ Espritpatch

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Week 107 Photo Challenge: Statue(s)

This week's photo challenge had both My Guy and I debating if a trip to Tulsa was necessary as we weren't sure there were many of these in town. 

We did make the trip to Tulsa, but I found my image in town on one of my rambles.  

Kate: Where the Buffalo Roam?

Oklahoma is one of the places where the buffalo used to roam. So it's not surprising that our community decided to put bison statues all over town.  This one is called "Tree of Life", it's in front of the Presbyterian Church downtown. As this street isn't really one of my habi-trails when I'm downtown, I hadn't really looked at it. It definitely has a lot of painted detail on it. I loved all the birds.  You can read more about the bison and see photos of several of the other bison statues here.  

My Guy decided Tulsa offered better opportunities and found his photo at Woodard Park.  

My Guy: Contemplation

There is a small sculpture garden in one corner of the park.  The tulips, azaleas, and dogwoods were blooming.  He took lots of photos of those in addition to the statues.  This one captured both. 

Grad Girl would have been in a good location for statues if she was home last week, but she was in New Orleans for a conference.

Grad Girl: Sun Baked

 

She had lots of options there as well.  This was her favorite from the trip.  I'm not sure where she took this one.  They certainly don't make buildings like this anymore.  

I pulled this week's card from the deck.  

My Guy definitely has an advantage this week. This is one of his specialties, he has the lens for it. I'm sure I can come up with something. Hopefully we will have a few days where I can get out and walk. It's supposed to be a wet week here.   

To Do List for the Week of 3/19/2024

It was a good week on the progress front, not such a great week for getting things checked off the to do list. 

To Do List for 3/12/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin: Finish border #6 - progress

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Finish binding ✔

3. Guild BOM: Fix February block, make March block - progress

4. Malted Mystery: Finish Feb clue, start March clue - no progress

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue making purple blocks ✔

6. Indigo Way: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Three check marks out of six, with progress on two others really isn't a bad week. I've really got too many items on my list. Hopefully my time constrained items will be finished soon and I can go back to a much shorter list. 

To Do List for 3/19/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail): Finish border #6

Just one more pieced border to assemble, but I need to make the square in a square corner stones before the last two borders will be ready to attach.  The final parade linky party over at Quilting Gail's will close this weekend. The plan is to get the last border on before that ends.  

2. Guild BOM: Finish the March block

I fixed the piecing error in the February block, cut all the pieces and started assembly for the March block.  If I work on it today, it should be ready for the guild meeting tonight. 

3.  Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish February clue, start on March clue. 

I've really stalled on this project the last few weeks.  It's the one project I just haven't gotten too. The final quilt parade is open for this quilt along and I'd like to finish the top before that closes.   

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

I've finished 4 blocks so far this month and have 2 more in the works.  I'll need a lot more purple to finish this quilt, but any progress is good.  

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

I cut enough fabric to make half the blocks. To get a 4 by 5 setting, I need 2 more A blocks, plus more B blocks and partial B blocks for the setting triangles.  I just need two hourglass blocks to finish off the A blocks.  I need to paper piece 6 or so square in a square blocks to finish the B blocks, plus more of the triangle in a square and the corner components.  So still quite a bit more to do there.  

So that's my list for the week.  I doubt everything will get checked off, but progress counts too.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday. 

Bits of This and That Stitching

I'm late posting this morning.  I had an early morning doctor's appointment to go over the MRI results on my knee.  When I mess myself up, apparently I don't do anything in halves. Both meniscus in my right knee are torn. So that will mean surgery, probably later this spring. We'll see how long I'm out of the sewing room when we get to that.  For now, I'll keep working to finish off a few projects before I end up on restrictions. 

This weekend was a mixed bag on the stitching front.  I did a bit of hand stitching on the binding for Scrappy Butterflies (A Flutter).

  

I've turned 2 corners and have two more left.  So that's good progress. 

The rest of the weekend was spent on cutting additional parts for Indigo Way and making a start on the guild March BOM block.

I'm also working on getting the last border onto the 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin project. Two border strips are assembled and attached. I was almost done with border three when I found an error. So I need to spend some time with Mr. Seam Ripper to get that project back on track.  

So nothing exciting today.  I'm hoping to have a finished quilt and quilt top by the end of the week.  We'll see how far I get.  Linking up with  Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 11 of 2024

Half way through March already, which for this part of the state means it's Spring Break.  Grad Girl is actually off at a conference this week, so we won't go see her like we did last year. 

That meant it was a good week on the stitching front.  I'm working on a finish and trying to get the last border done for the SAHRR.  This week's numbers look good.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Mar = 16/16 days
• 15 minute days 2024 = 76/76 days
• Success rate = 100%

It's definitely been a really good year for stitching time. I've only had one other year where I managed to keep up the 100% success rate into March. 

How are you doing at working in your stitching time as spring ramps up?  

1. Gretchen 2. Deb in Canada 3. Karen

4. Julie in GA 5. Shelina @ High Road Quilter 6. DonnaleeQ

7. Frédérique 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 9. Bonnie in Va

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Week 106 Photo Challenge: Lock(s)

So far we've been spared the strong storms that have slammed so many.  Hope everyone is doing well and wasn't impacted by the midweek storms.  We have family in St. Louis. They are all fine, their cars are not doing quite as well.  

When we pulled last week's card, I mentally scratched my head thinking how was I going to get an interesting photo of the chosen subject.  

I've been cleaning out the closet in Grad Girl's room and found a couple of interesting objects with locks.  After playing with both, the more challenging one to photograph won out as my photo for the week.

Kate: Reflective Lock Box

This pretty silver and clear plastic box was up in Grad Girl's closet. Clear surfaces are really reflective, so it took some doing to get a photo that didn't have a lot of distracting images dancing on the surfaces.  Grad Girl came home with this box after her stay with her  grandmother while we were looking for a house prior to our move back to Oklahoma from Texas.  It's held Pokeman cards, Game Boy cartridges, and once did time as a crime scene investigator tool box for one of Grad Girl's Halloween costumes. When I pulled it off the shelf it still contained the CSI badge I mocked up for her that Halloween.  

My Guy took a lot of photos for the challenge.  He sent me seven to pick from. 

My Guy: Tweedy

My Guy pretty much explored the whole house for his photo.  This one comes from his music room.  It's the case for one of his ukuleles.  It's a very pretty tweed, with gold accents.  He plays guitar or ukulele every morning before he heads to work. And usually plays a bit on the weekends when he can't get outside for a walk or bike ride.  

Grad Girl went with a more every day lock. 

It's the deadbolt to her apartment.  You can see Queenie just inside the door waiting for her to get home.  Grad Girl commented that the two pizza boxes by the trash can should give you a clue that it's a college student's apartment. 

I was concerned we would all struggle to find interesting subjects. Looks like that wasn't an issue.  This week's card is going to be a challenge.  

 

My Guy and I had a long conversation this morning on if we had any statues in this town.  We couldn't come up with many and looked up the definition of statue so we knew what might count.  We may well have to go out of town for this one.  That or do some deliberate sight seeing around our community.  Grad Girl works on a college campus, statues are not going to be a problem for her. 

Photo Play 2024: February Summary

I didn't do a lot of photography in February, my leg issues limited my mobility the last half of the month. But I do have a few images from earlier in the month.  

It was still mostly brown on my walks early in the month.  But even brown in the right light can be interesting.  I showed a lot of single leaf photos from my January efforts, grouped leaves seemed to be the favorite subject for February. 

It really is all about the light for these three photos.  Even all brown can be interesting under the right light.  My favorite of these three is the last one of the green leaves, the dead leaves on the ground is a close second.  

Sunrises are easier to photograph from the house, sunsets are harder, but I caught a pretty one on our way out for our Valentine's dinner. 

That's downtown off to the right.  

It snowed a couple of days before Valentine's Day. We ended up with about 3".  

The last photo is my favorite out of this set. It's a bit over exposed, which was a deliberate choice on my part.  It's a much more stark photograph, looks almost like a painting to me.  I'm getting better about using the aperture and the ISO settings to get interesting images without using Photoshop effects.  

The sunset was captured with my I Phone, all the rest of the photos were taken with the Canon 70D with a Sigma Telephoto lens.  I've gotten back to studying photography a bit. The book I'm reading now is by Henry Carroll. 

I found this when we went to Powell's City of Books last fall when we were in Portland, Oregon.  He uses photos by well known photographers to demonstrate various techniques and settings. It is available from Amazon.  It's a quick read and interesting, but I'm going to have to practice a bit before I get "great" photographs like what's in the book. 

To Do List for the Week of 03/12/2024

It certainly seems like March is moving along.  Friday is the halfway point of the month.  The end of the month marks the end of the first quarter of 2024.  There is still 3/4 of the year left, but boy does it seem like time is moving quickly.  

Thankfully I was able to make good use of the time I had last week so there was good progress on the To Do List. 

To Do List for 3/5/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin:  Finish border 5, work on border 6 ✔

2. Betty: Finish borders ✔

3. Malted Mystery:  Finish February clue - no progress

4. Wild and Goosey:  Continue making purple blocks ✔

5. Scrappy Butterflies: Print label, make binding ✔

6. Indigo Way: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Five check marks and one no progress is a really good week.  Betty is a finished quilt top. So it will drop off the list for now.  I've plenty in the sewing room to replace it with.  Here is this week's to do list.

To Do List for 3/12/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail): Finish border 6.

I've made good progress on making the blocks for the border. Just a little over half the 36 blocks needed are pieced.  The final parade starts on Monday, so I'd like to have a finished quilt top by then. 

2. Scrappy Butterflies (A Flutter): Finish the quilt

The label is printed and is ready for pinning to the back.  The binding is made.  So I just need to machine stitch it to the front and finish the hand stitching to the back.  That should be doable this week.  

3. Guild BOM: Fix February block, finish March block.

Somehow I completely missed that turned piece in the upper right of the February block. That should be a pretty quick fix.  The March block isn't too complicated, so fingers crossed it goes to together pretty quickly.  

4. Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish February clue, start March clue. 

I've gotten a bit behind on this one.  If I can finish the March clue, this project will move to the finished quilt top category on my list. 

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

Purple is such a fun color to sew with.  One block finished and a start on two others.  I'm hoping to make good progress on these this month. I don't have a lot of purple blocks finished, it's the color I've the least of. 

6. Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks as leaders and enders. 

I need to regroup at some point this week and see what component parts need to be cut.  I need to make two more A blocks for sure. I'll need more B blocks and side triangle blocks, I'm just not sure how many.  

Once the SAHRR and the Malted Mystery are quilt tops, I'm hoping my weekly to do list will shrink a bit. It's hard to make progress on six items each week.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for this week's To Do Tuesday.  

A Finished Quilt Top and More Progress on the SAHRR

The leg continues to heal, but then I had some issues with my back one evening.  A couple of days on muscle relaxants and the back is as normal as it gets these days. That did cut into my sewing time a couple of evenings, I just didn't feel much like sewing a lot.  It certainly seems I get one body part healed and something else goes out. Unfortunately a trade in just isn't in the cards, so maintenance is key from here on out.  

I made up for the lack of stitching time early in the week over the weekend. The first priority was to decide on a border for Betty (Just Two Charm Pack Quilts, Meadow Mist Designs).  After digging in my stash a bit,  I found an oldy but goodie.  

  

I forgot to get a photo before I cut off the selvage.  In 2005, we were still in Texas.  There was only a yard of this deep blue, but that was enough for the border. 

 

I liked the deep blue with the medium blue printing.  Unfortunately it reads almost black from a distance, but it does make a nice frame for the quilt. 

The quilt top is assembled.  I missed the parade for the Just Two Charm Pack Quilts quilt along. That's alright. I'm really happy with how this quilt worked out.  The blocks are made from 2.5" strips from my scrap bin. The background and sashing fabrics are left over yardage from other quilts.  The blue border is one of my older stash acquisitions.  The goal was to clear out some scraps and older yardage. This quilt certainly met that goal.  My plan is to finish it and donate it to one of the charities the local guild supports.  

The 5th border for the 2024 Stay At Home Round Robin quilt top was finally finished off this weekend. 

The prompt for border 5 was "4".  The friendship stars have 4 points.  The blocks for border #6 are under construction. The prompt for that week was letters or numbers.  The block represents a letter and placement in the border a number.  So I've got that prompt covered once I get enough blocks made to start assembling that border.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts this week.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 10 of 2024

I didn't spend as much time in the sewing room as I would have liked this week, but I did get in at least my 15 minutes every day this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Mar = 9/9 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 69/69 days
• Success rate = 100%

It was a busy week with appointments and other commitments, but I still made some good progress on a couple of projects.  Overall, I'm doing better on both stitching time and project progress than I did last year.  Incremental improvement is always  welcome.

How did you do this week at finding some time to stitch?  

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

6. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 9. Quilting Gail 10. Jennifer in Indy

11. Shelina @ High Road Quilter 12. Amanda 13. Bonnie in Va 14. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts

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Week 105 Photo Challenge: Bike(s)

It's been rainy and cold the last couple of days.  Definitely not weather conductive to getting a good photo for this week's challenge.  

Well, I should have said getting photo of a bike in motion.  We have a garage, not full of, but with a decent number of potential subjects.  It wasn't hard for me to choose a subject, but it was much harder to get a good photo.  

Kate: My Grad School Buddy

Back in grad school, many years ago now, when I wasn't in the lab and the weather was good, I was usually out on this bike.  It wasn't unusual for me to put over 200 miles a week on my black and gold Cannondale.  Hard to believe now, but I was into competitive cycling in those days and was the only woman on a small racing team sponsored by one of the shops in OKC.  I even have a few medals.  

My Guy still rides almost every weekend.  

My Guy: On the Road Again

He was out last weekend on his gravel bike riding in the near constant strong winds we have during the spring (well to be honest mostly year round).  The sky this time of year is very blue, but you can see it's still mostly brown.  My Guy has raced some, but mostly just rides for fun and fitness.  One fun fact, right after we were married we got a tandem bicycle and rode across the state of Oklahoma.  It was definitely a lesson in trust and love.  

Grad Girl continues to have lots of commitments with her lab work and she was busy last week with the graduate student recruitment weekend.  So she picked a different type of bicycle for her photo. 

 

Grad Girl: A Different Kind of Bicycle. 

I can see the seat and handle bars. Can you?  This is 2-methyl pentane 2, 2 diphenyl (I think, my organic nomenclature is a little rusty).  It's called a bicyclic compound because it has two cyclic molecules in the structure (which if you are wondering are benzene rings).  She gets the award for the most unique photo for last week's challenge. 

This week's challenge photo is another easy subject, but a difficult one to get an interesting photo of. 

I'm going to have to think about this one a bit.