Thursday, October 31, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
To Do List for the Week of 10/29/2024
It was so nice to be home all weekend. The sewing room got a bit of a clean up and I got my project boxes reorganized. My to do list for the week was pretty short and simple. But some weeks you just need that.
To Do List for 10/22/2024
1. String Lights: Finish borders, cut and piece backing ✔
2. Chocolate Marshmallows: Start assembly ✔
3. Wild and Goosey: Continue making blocks ✔
4. Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders/enders ✔
So 4 out 4 this week. It's been awhile since I've been able to check off all my to do items. I did keep the list simple and that helps a lot. I'm going to stick with simple for this week's to do list.
To Do List for 10/29/2024
1. String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs): Package and mail out for quilting
The top is now pressed and de-threaded. Those dark threads do show through the light background, so they had to go. As much as I hate prepping quilts for quilting, String Lights needs to be finished up quickly. I need it before Christmas. Fingers crossed if it goes out this week, it should be back in time for me to finish it.
2. Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts): Continue Assembly
3. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks
The orange blocks are almost done, just a few scraps needed to finish the last one. I'm considering how to assemble this project. It would work well if I start with the center yellow blocks and then add the others as borders, like a medallion quilt. Not my normal assembly method, but it might make sense for this project. I'm thinking once I have a color completed to start sashing those blocks.
4. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders.
I'm working on the next set of 10 yellow blocks. Still lots more 4-patches to make for this scrappy quilt.
Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday. Good luck with your to do list this week.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Following the Quilt Plan
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Stitching Stuff: Week 43 of 2024
This is the first weekend I've been home for the entire weekend since mid-September. Our girl's weekend was lots of fun, the drive home from it wasn't. That's the only day I struggled to get in my 15 minutes, but I still managed to make that happen before I went to bed after our long drive back.
- 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
- 15 minute days/Oct = 26/26 days
- 15 minute days/2024 = 300/300 days
- Success rate = 100%
1. Gretchen 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. Deb in Canada | 5. DonnaleeQ 6. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 7. Quilting Gail 8. Elana | 9. Bonnie in Va 10. Frédérique |
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Thursday, October 24, 2024
Photo Play: September Summary
With all the traveling lately, I'm way behind on looking at my photos. I definitely have not been as engaged with my photo play activities lately. When I opened my photo files to look at what was there, I wasn't sure they'd be much of anything in them. But I found a few interesting shots to share.
Photos were taken with either a Canon 70D DLSR or my I-Phone 12. The DSLR shots used either a Tamron 18-400 telephoto or a Sigma 105 mm macro lens.
We stayed in a loft in downtown Independence, Mo when we attended My Guy's sister's wedding. This sunset was just spectacular. Downtown Independence has lots and lots of churches. You can see the spires from several in this shot. (I-Phone 12)
The loft we were staying at had some interesting decor. I was playing around with my aperture settings when I took this shot. I liked the light reflecting off the gold and the contrast with the very dark background.(Canon 70D, Tamron 18-400 Telephoto)
The roses were still blooming at the end of September. The early morning sun really brings out the pink of the petals. Maybe not a knock out of a photo, but it's hard not to include at least one flower in my post. (Canon 70D, Tamron 18-400 telephoto)
We were in Eureka Springs, AR for the last few days of September. It was a fun trip and the camera came out to play a few times. The rental we were staying in had these fascinating lace curtains. (Canon 70D, Sigma 105 mm macro)
It's been dry in both Oklahoma and Arkansas, so the leaves have mostly been turning brown and falling off. Typically we don't see peak fall colors till the end of October. But there were some leaves in the process of changing colors. You can see the full range from green to brown in this shot. (Canon 70D, Tamron 18-400 telephoto)
We ate lunch at the Mud Street Cafe on our first day in Eureka Springs. Our table was made of beer bottle caps. I thought it was a fun way to recycle the caps. (I-Phone 12)
My favorite photos from last month are the abstract gold and black photo of reflections and the close up of the lace curtains. I think those are the most interesting of the set.
I'm definitely not doing as much photography as I did at the beginning of the year. But at least I stuck with it longer than I did last year. So that's something anyway. I need to get back to my book learning part of photography, but it seems I so much rather spend time in the sewing room. There has been good progress there this year. Even in retirement, you can't do everything.
If you've read this far, thank you for hanging out for a non-quilty post. Feedback is always welcome. Is there one photo that strikes your fancy or one that you think maybe shouldn't have made the cut?
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Our Girl's Weekend
My sister and I left Oklahoma for Texas on Thursday and got back home Monday night. That left us Friday, Saturday and Sunday for lots of crafty stuff. I found a great rental to use for our retreat.
The dining room table was big enough for 3 sewing machines. Just mine and my sister's are set up in the photo. We were able to use the center island for cutting and pressing. It was a very user friendly set up.
Grad Girl had stuff going on for most of Friday, so she wasn't able to take off as she'd planned. But she joined us by early evening with a new to her sewing machine.
It's a Singer Start. It's pretty basic, but that's pretty much what she wanted, basic. Grad Girl had never wound a bobbin or threaded a machine. We started with those basics. Learning to control the speed with the foot pedal was probably the hardest thing for her to get used to. That's a practice makes perfect thing.
She really wanted to make a pin cushion. I have a pattern that I really wanted to make, Meadow Mist Design's Cathedral Window Pincushions. So we went to Joann's bought some fabric and made a couple of pin cushions.
This probably wasn't the easiest pattern to start Grad Girl off with, but she really enjoyed it and liked the challenge. Learning to top stitch while trying to master the foot pedal was challenging, but she got better as we went along. Neither pin cushion is perfect, but that's OK, we had a blast making them. I had once thought to make a quilt using Cathedral Window blocks. Making one block may be enough to fulfill that need.
I found a rental that allowed cats, so Queenie came to spend the weekend with us.
She's not had the chance to be a sewing room kitty and decided that anything hanging off the ironing board was a toy. She especially liked my yellow measuring tape when I was measuring borders for String Lights.
I delivered Grad Girl's quilt and she got a photo of both her Shadow Demons.
Both Grad Girl and Queenie tested out the "nap on the couch" worthiness of the quilt. I think it passed that test.
That was our girl's weekend. It was a lot of fun and we decided we definitely need to do another one in the next year or two. Linking up with Monday Design Wall (just a little late).
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
To Do List for the Week of 10/22/2024
It's a long drive from College Station to home. I didn't get in till after 9 PM list night. That's late at my age. Traffic is never fun, but all the road work made it so much worse. It was worth it, Grad Girl, one of her friends, my sister and I all had a fun girl's weekend. I'll post about that separately. On the progress front, I ended up not doing much that was on the to do list.
To Do List for 10/15/2024
1. String Lights: Finish added borders - progress
2. Chocolate Marshmallows: Cut fabrics, start assembly - progress
3. Squared Away: Cut fabrics for sashing and borders ✔
4. Wild and Goosey: Continue making blocks - no progress
5. Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔
Only two check marks, with progress on two others. It really wasn't a bad week. We ended up running around town and just hanging out more than I expected during our girls weekend. It was still fun, so I'm not disappointed with last week's effort. Now that I'm home, it's time to figure out what to do in the sewing room this week.
To Do List for 10/22/2024
1. String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish borders, cut and piece backing
The first two borders are attached. Just one more border to add. That should be easy enough to finish. I'd like to get the backing made this week as well. Hopefully I can get that far.
2. Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts): Start assembly
All the sashing strips, corner stones and border strips are cut. All I need to do is start assembly.
3. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks
I'm still hoping to finish up all the orange blocks before the end of the month. Red is the next color I'm going to tackle. I did cut a few more red scraps last week before I left in hopes that I'd actually get that far during our girl's weekend.
4. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as the leaders and enders.
That's my list for this week. Much simpler than last week. My plan is to concentrate on getting String Lights ready to go out for quilting. Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Stitching Stuff: Week 42
We are in the middle of our girl's weekend. I spent most of the week getting ready to sew all weekend. So it's been another good week on the stitching front.
- 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
- 15 minute days/Oct = 19/19 days
- 15 minute days/2024 = 293/293 days
- Success rate = 100%
1. Gretchen 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. Karen | 5. Quilting Gail 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Bonnie in Va 8. Frédérique | 9. Carol Andrews 10. Andrée at Quilting & Learning |
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Tuesday, October 15, 2024
To Do List for the Week of 10/15/2024
We've reached the mid point of October. This month is certainly speeding along. I'm not going to think about it for now and just appreciate how much progress there was on my to do list.
To Do List for 10/8/2024
1. String Lights: Make backing - changed direction
2. Marble Mystery: Finish October clue ✔
3. Guild BOM: Finish October block ✔
4. Chocolate Marshmallows: Start assembly - progress
5. Squared Away: Decide on layout, pick setting fabrics - progress
6. Wild and Goosey: Finish orange blocks - progress
7. SS Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔
Only three check marks, but there was progress on another three. Grad Girl wasn't completely happy with String Lights, so we made a change in direction on that project. It was still a good week in spite of not checking off all the items on the list.
I'm excited for this week, but have a lot to do in preparation. My sister, Grad Girl, one of Grad Girl's chemistry buddies and I are having a crafting retreat this weekend. Grad Girl's big exam is on Friday. She probably won't do much on Friday afternoon, she'll be ready for a really long nap. But we'll have the rest of the weekend to hang out and just do fun stuff.
To Do List for 10/15/2024
1. String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish adding borders
Grad Girl asked for another quilt gift for a one of her mentors who is leaving in December. String Lights is one of my to be finished projects from last year. Grad Girl thought it needed borders, I had considered adding them, but had planned to donate this quilt so wasn't going to mess with it. At any rate, I've got the first border on and the strips for the next two cut and ready to assemble.
2. Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts): Finish cutting sashing and border strips. Start assembly.
Last week's list said to start assembly, but I had completely skipped the cut fabric step. I'm working with limited leftovers for this quilt so I'm having to go slow and make sure I have enough of my first choice fabrics for the sashing and borders. I started with the left over strips from the blocks so I can stretch the yardage. There is enough fabric to finish the quilt with the layout I have planned, but I may have to use second choices in some cases. Fingers crossed it all works out with my first choices.
3. Squared Away (So Scrappy): Cut fabrics for sashing and borders
I haven't figured out the block placement yet, but I have selected the fabrics to use for the sashing and borders. The plan is to use some 2" scraps to cut various corner stones for the sashing. I'm not sure I'll get this far over the weekend, but it would be nice to have something else ready if I run into problems with my other projects.
4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks
I need to print some additional paper patterns and cut some more black triangles for the flying geese so I have enough for the weekend. Hopefully I can finish off orange this weekend and start on another color.
5. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders.
I probably need to cut a few more squares from my scrap strips, but thankfully this one is pretty easy to prep for a trip.
So that's my to do list for the week. I did reach a milestone this last week. I've made progress on every quilt on my quilt plan this year. I don't think that's ever happened before. So it's been a good year on the progress front, even though my finishes aren't where I had hoped. Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.
Monday, October 14, 2024
Last Dance with Diatom
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Stitching Stuff: Week 41 of 2024
It's been busy around here since about mid September. We've not had a full weekend at home since then. We were gone for the wedding and then 2 weekends for vacation. I've done a good job and having things that can be hand stitched when we're on the road, but it does slow down progress in my sewing room. At least I've been able to work in my stitching time each day.
- 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
- 15 minute days/Oct = 12/12 days
- 15 minute days/2024 = 286/286 days
- Success rate = 100%
Being away for the weekends has really impacted my scrap and fabric organization activities for September and October. I have nothing to report on either front.
Did you manage to get in a bit of stitching time this week?
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Wednesday, October 9, 2024
2024 Quilting Ambitions: 3rd Quarter Check In
I'm about 2/3 of the way through the third tub refill. We were gone for three weekends in September, so I didn't have as much time this last quarter to push towards an empty bin. I've found so many fun fabrics as I've worked through these bins; so many ideas for new quilts.
It's much easier to see what I have now. There is still a bit of space, but that's going to fill up quickly. Some additional reorganization opened up a bit more space. I didn't use all the wire cubes that I ordered, so I did some reorganizing on the left side of the fabric closet.
I'm really bad about forgetting to take before photos, so this is a partial before photo on the left. The bins that show on the corner of the wire cabinet were over in the corner of the shelf. The fat quarter boxes got moved to another location in the sewing room and I added some of the left over wire cubes. The fat quarter bundles and any other precuts, were moved to the corner. It's a much more effective use of the space now.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
To Do Tuesday for the Week of 10/8/2024
We got home late Saturday afternoon from vacation. So I had Sunday and Monday to work on the non-hand stitching part of my to do list. With that in mind, I didn't do too badly with on the list for last week.
To Do list For 10/01/2024
1. Diatom: Finish hand stitching binding ✔
2. Guild BOM: Start October block ✔
3. Marble Mystery: Start October clue ✔
4. Chocolate Marshmallows: Decide layout, start assembly - progress
5. Wild and Goosey: Finish orange blocks - progress
6. Sensational Summery Scrap quilt: Continue as leaders/enders ✔
Considering we were on vacation last week, I'm pretty happy with the progress on the to do list. Of course, it wasn't a very ambitious list. Though getting in another finish is always exciting. It's going to be a busy week, lots going on, so I'm going to keep this week's list simple too.
To Do List for 10/8/2024
1. String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs): Make backing
I finished this quilt top last July as part of the promotions for Cheryl's book "Just Two Charm Packs". It's on my quilt plan as a to be quilted this year. I have the backing fabric picked out, so it's just a matter of getting it cut and sewn.
2. Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish October clue
I finished stitching the hour glass blocks just before dinner last night. They still need to be pressed and trimmed. There's one more set of blocks to assemble for this month, but those are pretty simple. It shouldn't be too difficult to finish off this month's clue before next Tuesday.
3. Guild BOM: Finish October block
I've got about half the pieces cut for this month's block. It won't take long to assemble once they are all cut.
4. Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts): Start assembly.
I'm still playing with the blocks on the design wall. I didn't really think about how all my different backgrounds were going to play with each other, so it's hard to come up something that looks balanced.
5. Squared Away (So Scrappy): Decide on layout, pick setting fabric
Squared Away was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt along back in 2018. This one is on my to be assembled list for this year. It's another project that has been sitting on the UFO list because I couldn't figure out how to set it. But, it's time has come, I'm going to at least have a plan to move forward with.
6. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish the orange blocks
Only three more orange blocks needed for the planned layout. That should be doable this week.
7. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leader and enders.
So that's the plan for this week. It seems like a long list, but not all of it requires time at the sewing machine. Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.
Monday, October 7, 2024
Finish Five
My Guy had lots of vacation time, so he took off last week and we headed to Eureka Springs, AR. We had much bigger plans for vacation this year, but then a family wedding and a potential refinery project hijacked the dates we had planned to go. We've been to Eureka Springs several times. We did a lot of shopping, hiking, and eating out. I took two quilts to bind and finished one of them.
My version of Rhododendron, the Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery quilt, is finished. I've named my version Azaleas since I used purple rather than the suggested pink.
I used the dark purple, along with a floral print for the backing.
Trudy did a fun floral design for the quilting.
The binding is the same purple Batik used for the border. I'm happy with my version. No immediate plans for this quilt, it will probably be given as a gift at some point.
Five finishes so far for this year, four of which were UFOs. My list still shows 20 UFOs that need to be finished. I'm hoping for at least one more finish this year. There are 5 quilt tops waiting for quilting, hopefully I'll get off to a good start with finishes next year.
Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.