To Do List for the Week of 07/30/2024

Summer is well and truly back. We've had heat advisories pretty much every day since late last week.  It is almost August. The first two weeks of that month are typically our hottest.  Which isn't fun to contemplate considering how hot early July was.  

Since there wasn't much to do but hide in my sewing room, there was lots of stitching time last week, which made pretty quick work of last week's to do list. 

To Do list for 7/23/2024

1.  Rhododendron: Prep back for quilting ✔

2.  Kate's Choice: Continue making blocks ✔

3.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making teal blocks ✔

4.  Indigo Way: Continue quilt assembly as leaders and enders ✔

Definitely a good week. But it was as pretty short list.  This week's list is longer as I'm at a transition point for some projects. So some will fall off the list this week as I add others on. 

To Do List for 7/30/2024

1.  Rhododendron Mystery (Bonnie Hunter): Prep quilt top for quilting

The backing was pressed and de-threaded last weekend. I don't remember there being any fabrics in that project that unraveled badly. Hopefully it will be a quick clean up.  

2.  Kate's Choice: Make last two blocks

Just two blocks left and then it will be time to focus on developing my quilting skills a bit so I can attempt to finish this project as a quilt as you go.  

3.  Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Make blocks for pieced border

After working out the borders in EQ, I need to make some blocks for cornerstones and 8 more triangle in a square blocks.  Shouldn't take me too long to finish those.

4. 2024 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Make label, binding, trim quilt

 

Trudy did her usual quilting magic.  I'm looking forward to finishing this quilt off. I've drafted a label, time to finalize that and decide on the binding.  

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish teal blocks, start orange blocks. 

I had to pull out my scrap bins and cut a few more teal triangles to have enough triangles for another 2 or 3 blocks before I switch over to making the orange blocks.  

6.  Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Determine layout, start assembly. 

All the blocks were finished exactly a year ago today.  Yvonne's layout had no sashing and no borders.  I'm going to play around a bit with different layouts to see if I like either of those options. I probably won't get as far as to start assembly this week, but as several other quilts will drop off the working list soon, it seemed wise to start prepping this one to take one of those slots.    

7. Simply Sensational Summer (SSS) Mystery (Kevin the Quilter): 

Since Indigo Way has advanced to needing borders, a new leaders and enders project was needed.  This project was started back in 2019.  It needs almost 200 blue 4 patches and almost as many yellow 4 patches.  My 2.5" strip storage bin was really full. I use a lot of blue, so pulling those strips to use for this quilt really helped create space in at least one bin.  This project isn't on my 2024 quilt plan, but I really needed to do something with all those scraps I've been processing.  Rather than start something new, it seemed prudent to pull out a UFO. 

That's my list for this week. I'll be happy if half the items get checked off.  Normally everyone links up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday, but Carol lives in Canada near where the wildfires are burning.  So there may not be a place to link this week as she's got far more important things to worry about. Update (Carol was able to post a link up, things are still looking pretty dire though) If you have a spot in your prayer list I hope you'll add her and all in that region.  

Progress on the Old and New

I'm a bit late getting a post up today.  It took a while to shake off the mental cob webs this morning for some reason. Now that my coffee cup is mostly empty, brain function seems to be restored. It was a good week for progress. I went to the guild late night sew this week and made good progress on getting Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter) assembled.  

The quilt was trimmed up over the weekend and I've started on the borders.  As is typical, my borders won't be the same as Bonnie's.  I've kept the narrow first white border, but from there my version will look a bit different.  

There was also good progress on Kate's Choice, another 3 blocks completed with a fourth almost finished. 

Only two more blocks left to complete after this set.  Then I'll have to start including "learning to quilt" time in my to do list.  Kate's Choice probably won't be done by the end of the year, but I'd like to have at least starting the quilting before then. 

So that's what's going on in my sewing room this week.  Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 30 of 2024

 

It's been another pretty chill week, inside at least. It's been pretty warm outside.  Lots of opportunities to sit and stitch this week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 27/27 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 209/209 days
• Success rate = 100%

All the stitching time is adding up, I'm starting to see good progress on moving a number of projects to finished.  That's such a good feeling.  

The Great Sewing Room Reorganization is still in process. I took some time to clean up a bit, plus dust and vacuum. Moved a few things around and found room for the boxes with the fat quarters and now have room for some more wire cubes to extend the fabric storage in the closet.  

The working scrap bin was full of scraps from the 2023 SAHRR quilt that was finished earlier this month.  Those scraps are all cut down and stored in the scrap bins now. 

There was a little progress on big scrap bag #2, but not enough that shows up in a photo.  

There was some progress on the to be pressed bin. 

The bin is just about a quarter full now.  What was pressed this last week included a couple of 4 yard pieces and those take awhile. I think the pieces left are all much smaller.  It would be fun to have this bin empty by next weekend.

That's what's been going on in my sewing room. Have you been stitching, cleaning or reorganizing?   

 

 

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

4. Quilting Gail 5. Deb in Canada 6. Bonnie in Va

7. katie z. 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 9. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts

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Week 117 Photo Challenge Water Droplets

Everyone was on the ball and had sent me their photos by last night.  This week's challenge was interesting and easy to find subject matter for. 

I got lucky on one of my early morning photography walks and found this. 

Kate: Dew Drops

Indian Blanket is one of the few wild flowers that's still blooming. It's been a hot summer. Even the Black Eyed Susans are starting to crisp and fade. 

My Guy took advantage of the dew from a completely different vantage point. 

My Guy: Filtered

This was the view from one of the side windows on the Jeep one morning when My Guy was heading to work.  When we lived in South Texas we put squeegees in each of the cars.  The dew was so heavy most spring and summer mornings that you had to clean the side windows to see to drive. It happens here too, just not as frequently as it did when we lived there.  The dew drops do paint a nice fuzzy view of the morning.  

Grad Girl found a really cool image while she was working. 

I'm not sure the big drop is actually water, or at least not all water.  I suspect there are some salts present that give it that patterned look. This flask is the solvent trap off the rotary evaporator.  The evaporator uses heat and vacuum to remove the more volatile solvents used in the reaction.  A trap is used to "trap" any condensed liquid before it gets pulled into the vacuum pump. Liquid in a vacuum pump is a bad, bad thing. Such a mundane piece of lab equipment, but a really cool photo.  

This week's challenge is going to be interesting (meaning it's one of those interpretive subjects). 

My Guy laughed when he pulled this card out of the pack. I'm going to need to think about this one.  It should be interesting to see what we all come up with.  

To Do List for the Week of 07/23/2024

We've settled back into our normal schedule for the most part.  The weather has been much nicer as it's cooler, but the mold count is way up. So I've been fighting sinus headaches and congestion for most of the week.  It slows me down a little, I tend to nap more (one of the joys of retirement, I don't have to fight the allergies and work).  Even with a few naps, last week's to do list still got finished.  

To Do List for 7/16/2024

1. Rhododendron: Make backing ✔

2. Kate's Choice: Continue making blocks ✔

3. Wild and Goosey:  Continue making teal blocks ✔

4.  Indigo Way: Continue assembly as leaders and enders ✔

To be honest it's a pretty simple list, so the bar is set pretty low.  I reviewed my quilt plan for 2024, my goal was to just have 4 to do's each week to make better progress on the projects.  My ideal to do list mix was something new, something with block piecing needed, something to assemble and something to get quilted.  My current to do list has all but something new.  And that's Ok because something new will creep back in soon. It's nice to spend part of the year really concentrating on getting a few UFOs finished. 

This week's list is pretty much the same as last week's.  

To Do List for 7/23/2024

1. Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter): Prep backing for quilting

Cleaning up the back is pretty easy.  It just really needs to be de-threaded and given a good pressing.  Before I do that I should probably vacuum my sewing room. All that scrap processing and paper piecing means I have lots of little bits of fabric and paper all over the floor. 

2. Kate's Choice: Continue making blocks

I've been working on a Snail's Trail block.  I only need 4 more blocks to finish what's planned for the layout. If I get busy this week, I should be almost finished with the blocks by the end of the month.  

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

Five teal blocks have joined the finished stack.  I should be able to get another 5 finished before the end of the month before we move on to a new color for August.  

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

Sewing the blocks into rows has been working pretty well as leaders and enders.  I will probably need a new leaders and enders for August.  Looking through my UFOs there is a project that will help me empty some of my scrap bins.  It's on my list, but now I have to find it in the project boxes.

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

The Design Wall this Week

It cooled off for the weekend, but it was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy over both days.  It was nice weather to hang out in the sewing room.  Who am I kidding, I'd say any weather is a good time to be in the sewing room, except maybe during severe thunderstorms.  

There was good progress on the stash organization.  I did spend some time on assessing my storage spaces in the sewing room, then moved a few things.  If I can mostly clear another shelf, the remaining wire cubes can be used to make room for more fabric. 

The fat quarter sets and fat quarter storage boxes need to find a new space. I'm still considering my options there.  

I did actually sew, but all that's up on the design wall is Indigo Way. 

The rows in the top half are sewn together, the rows for the bottom half are in progress. Indigo Way isn't my favorite Bonnie Hunter mystery, but I like how this one is coming together.  If it's a finished quilt top by the end of August I'll be thrilled. It's always nice to finish the piecing before before the next mystery.  I've only managed that a couple of times. So many of my UFO's are BH mysteries (6 including Indigo Way).  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 29 of 2024

 

It's been a pretty chill week.  Not much going on, which I was more than ready for.  Being chill meant another good week of stitching time.

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 20/20 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 202/202 days
• Success rate = 100%  

I'm still hanging on to my 100%.  No one can be more amazed than I am.  By far the best stitching time year I've ever had. The string has to break at some point right?  Even if it does, it's still been a great year for this metric.  

The scrap processing continued this week, but that big bag of scraps #2 is so big, it's hard to see that I've done much.  It didn't help that I pulled all the left over scraps out of the project box for the 2023 SAHRR that was finished last week and moved them to what was an empty scrap bin. 

So I'll need to deal with those leftovers before I get back to scrap bag #2.  

There was progress on the fabric to be pressed bin.  

Now there is just a single stack of fabric that's left to press. I doubt the bin is empty by the end of July, but it should definitely be empty by the end of August.  Then I can refill it and start on the next stack of fabrics.  Before then, I'm going to need to clean up the fabric closet a bit, I'm running out of room.  

How did your stitching week go?  Lots of stitching time or did vacation have you out having too much fun to stitch?  

 

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

4. Quilting Gail 5. Deb in Canada 6. Frédérique

7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 9. Bonnie in Va

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Week 116 Photo Challenge: Clouds

We all had our acts together this week and managed to get photos for the challenge:

Of course this would be the week with several cloudless days.  I was panicking by Wednesday.  Sunrise and sunset give the most dramatic view of clouds, so though I couldn't see any, I wandered out with my camera at sunrise on Wednesday and found a few high clouds.

Kate: Morning Clouds

I tried later in the week and the clouds just seemed to disappear at sunset and didn't return till mid morning. So this was my best effort for this week. 

My Guy was out and about more then I was, plus he started earlier.  He found his best shot in the afternoon. 

My Guy: Silver Lining

This strikes me as one of those photos one would use to create a meme with scripture or an inspirational quote over the photo.  What do you think?  

Grad Girl found her cloud elsewhere. 

Grad Girl: Water Vapor?  

"No, I don't know what happened" was the text that accompanied the photo. There is no scarier or frustrating phrase in research chemistry. 

The last two challenges were things you find in the sky.  It might not be as obvious that there is a link between last week's challenge and this week's. 

We just need to change the physical state of water for this week's challenge.  The text from Grad Girl after I sent her the new subject, "Oooo, I have ideas".  I bet My Guy does too. There should be some interesting photos this week.  

Photo Play: June Summary

With all the travel in late June and early July, I've had to catch up on blog reading and email. So it took me a bit to find the time to review my photos from June. 

My goal this year is to just enjoy the process of capturing the interplay of light and subject.  We've been so busy that I've not done much with my photography study, but early in June I did cover the chapter on lenses in Visual Poetry by Chris Orwig. If there is any theme for June it's what happens if you change the lens.  

The wildflowers were pretty thick in June. I love close up of flowers, so my macro came out early, but I did pull out my other lenses to see what would happen.  The following photos were all taken with a Canon 70D, some may be cropped.  

Sigma 105 mm macro lens

Black Eyed Susan

Basket Flower

Basket Flower Bud

Tamron 18-400 telephoto lens

Black Eyed Susan

Tamron 11-18 Wide Angle lens

Basket Flower (cropped)

Roses

Lensbaby Fish Eye lens (borrowed from My Guy)

Indian Blanket (cropped)

Basket Flower (cropped)

Close ups with the Fish Eye lens are not straight forward to take, but they turned out really cool. It took me a bit to figure out how to crop with a circular mask in Photoshop Elements.  The Fish Eye does capture a lot, I had a very hard time not capturing my shoes. Cropping them out was just easier.  I turned the lens up for a final shot of the sky.  It gives the best perspective on what this lens can capture. 

Definitely a different way to look at the sky.  Not a lens I'll use often, but if you want different, it's an option.  

In May, I photographed how light interacted with the zipper on my pencil bag. For June it was light and bubbles (with the Sigma 105 mm macro lens). 

I thought these turned out really cool.  Any guess as to what the subject was?  

The last photo that made my curated collection for June has been on the blog before, but I'm going to add it here as well.  This photo was taken with my I-Phone 12.

Queenie

Black cats are amazingly difficult to get a good photo of.  I like this one because it's such a good one of her face.  That was taken the weekend we were cat sitting and it's by far the best of the many I took of her that weekend.  

My photography for July has gotten off to a slow start.  I didn't take many photos when we were traveling, it was just so hot. But this week I'm back to looking for interesting things to photograph.  

Thanks for sticking with me through this non-quilting blog post. I have a hard time picking a favorite photo this month.  Several are my favorites for various reasons, the Basket Flower fish eye, the bubbles and of course Queenie.  Is there one that stands out to you?  

To Do List for the Week of 07/16/2024

Last Sunday's post noted just how out of it I felt during most of last week. Saturday allowed for a reset and I managed to get back up to speed on a number of things, including last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 07/09/2024

1.  2023 SAHRR: Finish binding  ✔ 

2.  Kates' Choice: Continue making blocks ✔

3.  Guild BOM: Finish June block, start July block ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Finish blue blocks, start teal blocks ✔

5.  Indigo Way: Finish setting triangles, start assembly ✔

I'm 5 for 5 for last week, a definite improvement over the week before.  Hopefully I can do as well on this week's list.  

To Do List for 07/16/2024

1. Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter): Make backing

I took some time a month or so ago to raid the fabric closet for backing fabrics for all my finished quilt tops.  I don't have enough of the light print, so I'll frame it with the darker purple.  Rhododendron is Bonnie Hunter's 2021 mystery quilt along.  So it's taken me a few years to get it finished. The goal is to have this project ready to go out for quilting when the 2024 SAHRR comes back from the quilter.  

2.  Kate's Choice: Continue making blocks

I finished three blocks last week and started on a fourth. More to come this week.      

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

I've gotten a good start on the teal blocks for this month. Three new blocks either finished or in the works to add to what was already in the project box.  

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

I'm sewing the blocks together as my leaders and enders. When I have a row ready to add on, I pin and sew that with the other blocks I'm working on.  So far that seems to be working. I'm going to need a new leaders and enders project soon.  

I'm hoping for another good week in the sewing room.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for another To Do Tuesday.  

Finish #2 for 2024

My handwork project during our 4th of July road trip was the binding for the 2023 Stay at Home Round Robin sponsored by Quilting Gail.  I finished the binding on Tuesday, but wasn't able to get photos till Sunday afternoon.  Here's the finished Blue Birds. 

This was my first time participating in the round robin. It was such fun and I'm really happy with how the final quilt turned out. All the blocks are made from my blue, green, purple and teal scraps. This quilt is destined to be My Guy's new TV recliner quilt.  He's been using one of my rejects, a QOV quilt that had major problems with a fabric that bleed badly when I washed it.  I'd made one for him a couple of years ago but Grad Girl begged to take that one to grad school. It really was too big for the recliner so My Guy let that one go.  (Grad Girl has threatened to take this quilt as well. Which is why this year's SAHRR has a black cat at the center and will be my next finish).  

Here's the label:

 

The bird on the left is a Mountain Blue Bird (the ones we have locally are Eastern Blue Birds).  The bird on the right is an Indigo Bunting, which are native to Oklahoma.  Most Saturdays in the spring and summer My Guy heads out to the blue bird trail just to the south of the research center to check the blue bird nests.  He photographs all types of birds on those expeditions.  So it's not surprising I picked Blue Birds as the name of this quilt.  

Trudy quilted large leafy vines over the quilt. 

It adds a very nice texture to the whole quilt.  The two birds in the center are fabric representations of a Indigo Bunting and a Blue Bird.   

The backing really fits the theme. 

Maybe the birds aren't blue, but there is plenty of teal and purple which show up on the front of the quilt.  

Finish #2 is definitely one of my favorites from the UFO list.  My Guy won't be needing this quilt for a few months. But it will be ready to go when late fall gets here.  

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