October 2025 PHD Report

Hard to believe there are just two months left in 2025.  It's been a busy year in and out of the sewing room.  The summer was mostly out, I'm hoping fall and winter are mostly in.  Since October is over it's time to assess where I'm at on my PHD report and link up with the October PHD report over at Ms. P Designs.  

My PHD report isn't looking great this year. Only one finish back in May. There was one new start in October, the Meadow Mist Designs 2026 Mystery quilt along. That one has been on the quilt plan all year, so it wasn't a surprise.  I keep saying that I need to focus on finishes, but I've been more focused on my Guild sewing projects which have pretty hard deadlines.  There is some comfort in knowing I've made good progress on some of my UFOs, even if they haven't moved to finished quilts yet. 

The Butterfly Medallion embroidery project saw lots of progress while we were on vacation last month. 

 I've made a start on the 4th diagonal row. The greenery at one end is all finished and I made a start on the next butterfly.  I'm sure this project will see more progress as the holidays are coming up.  

The green blocks needed for the corners of Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) have been the focus for several months. 

The plan is to have really dark green blocks in the corners with lighter/brighter green blocks in the next diagonal row.  I've been focusing on finishing up the dark green blocks recently. I didn't make very much progress in October, just two more of the 3.5" blocks.  Hopefully I'll do better in November.  

Another six blocks were added to Old Town, the 2024 Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  

Just two blocks left to make.  There will be pieced sashing between the blocks and those are all almost assembled.  The goal is to get this project to finished quilt top before the first clue for the 2025 mystery comes out. Since Bonnie is putting the first clue out a bit earlier than typical, I'll be cutting it close.  

The 2025 Guild BOM is coming to an close. The December block to be shown at the November meeting is done.  I've started assembling the rows, minus the December block. 

I've decided to add in the December block and just show it as part of the finished quilt top at the November meeting. That's just 2 weeks off, so I need to get busy!  

The new project this month is the Magnificent Mystery from Meadow Mist Designs. The clue with all the cutting instructions came out in August, the piecing clues didn't start until September. 

I finally cut the pieces for the September and October clues.  The November clue will come out this Thursday, so I'm a behind by a good bit. Hopefully I can get caught up pretty quickly. This mystery will run into April or May of next year, so it's not a project that has to be completed this year.  

My project tracker doesn't show a lot of progress, but there's been some since the last update in June. 

The blocks that were finished for the 2025 Guild BOM and the start of the new mystery quilt along are the only updates. My focus the next month will be finishing up the 2025 Guild BOM and getting started on the 2026 Guild BOM.  So it's looking like finishes won't be in the cards for this year. 

To Do List for the Week of 11/04/2025

How are you dealing with the week days post time change (for those that live in the US where you fall back this time of year)?  I was awake at 4 this morning, I've been getting up a bit after 5 the last week to mesh with Grad Girl's schedule.  So I was right on time.

Other than dealing with Houston and Dallas traffic, the drive home yesterday was uneventful. It was just long.  I'm already missing my girl and the cat. We'll see them for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'll get my hugs and pets in then.  

I didn't post a To Do List last week, partly because of computer issues and partly just not being on my regular schedule.  My last to do list is from October.  

To Do List for 10/21/2025

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Continue to assemble quilt top ✔   

2. 2026 Guild BOM: Start first block - progress

3. Old Town: Finish block assembly ✔

4. Magnificent Mystery: Cut fabrics, start Sept/Oct clues - progress 

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue assembly of green blocks ✔

Not bad progress for a couple of weeks.  I did struggle a bit while I was in Texas.  Though Grad Girl has a craft room, it's not fully set up.  We did a couple of runs to pick up some supplies, but it still wasn't an ideal set up.  Even so I did get in some good afternoons of stitching time.  

Now that I'm home, there are chores to catch up on. But I am hoping to get back to my regular stitching time pretty quickly.  This week's list will look pretty much the same as last week's. 

To Do List for 11/4/2025

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Continue quilt top assembly

Other than adding in the December block, which I'm still contemplating doing, all the sashing pieces are added and as much as possible is stitched together. Next step is to work on stitching the pieced sawtooth star borders together.  

2.  2026 Guild BOM: Start first block

Before I left for Texas, all the fabrics were pressed. I just need to start cutting the pieces for the first block.  Hopefully that will happen this week.  

3.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Finish sashing pieces, start assembly

The blocks are finally finished. All that's left is to finish the sashing pieces and assembly of the quilt can start. That's the plan for late night sew this week. 

4. Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Start Sept/Oct clues

 

The fabrics were pressed and the pieces cut for the September and October clues before I left for Texas. I just never got around to starting the assembly process since I was focused on getting Old Town moved along. This should also see some progress during late night sew. 

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

I didn't get much done on this project while I was in Texas, so I'm hoping to hit it strong in November and get all the green blocks finished.  

6.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Pick fabrics for the 2025 mystery.  

Bonnie posted the fabric requirements for this year's mystery on 10/24. A bit earlier than usual.  Purple, pink and ice blue with neutrals.  Do I stick with her colors or go rouge?  I'm pretty sure I'm going to start with 75% of the blocks, I prefer a rectangular versus square quilt.  It's always fun picking fabrics for a new project.  

That's my list for this week.  You can see the other lists over at To Do Tuesday hosted by The Quilt Schmilt.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 44 of 2025

 

The blog has been pretty much radio silent this week. First off, I've been visiting Grad Girl for the week and though I've been sewing, she doesn't have a design wall and Queenie pretty much pounces on anything I put down on the bed to photograph. But probably the more scary reason is the computer went wonky on Monday. It's still not running properly, most of the time I've been able to get to my email and read blogs, but not all the time.  I've been backing up files and emailing critical files to myself so if it crashes again, I'm not completely cut off from files I need, like the guild BOM finishing instructions.  I'm posting late this morning because I couldn't get to the blog last night. My computer is probably going to get a spa day once I'm home.  

Since the computer was wonky and Grad Girl was working during the week, it wasn't hard to get in my stitching time this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 31/31/days
• 15 minute days/2025 =265/305 days
• Success rate = 86.69%

It was a good week and a good end to October.  I don't know if I can get back to over 90% by the end of the year, but I'm hoping to get close. 

No stash management, other than I pulled some fabrics for Grad Girl to make some Christmas gifts. 

Did you get a chance to stitch this week? 

1. Julie in GA 2. Melissa G 3. DonnaleeQ 4. Deb in Canada

5. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 6. Gretchen 7. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 8. Jennifer in Indy

9. Amanda 10. Carol @ Quilt Schmilt 11. Marsha's Spot

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Happy Halloween

 

Photo Play: September 2025

 After dealing with computer problems this week, I was glad to be able to sit down and go through my September photos. Not sure what the issue was with the computer but it finally recovered after a hard shut down and reboot. First thing I did after the reboot was to back up everything to an external drive and email myself some files (mainly guild BOM instructions) that would be disappointing if I didn't have access too.  

September was another busy month.  The first week of the month we moved Grad Girl (still need to come up with her new blog moniker).  That took a week and then I stayed with her the first week of her new job to help out.  Half the month was gone before I got home.  So there wasn't much on the photography front for September. But My Guy and I took advantage of being in downtown Houston after dropping off Grad Girl for her first day of work to visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  I didn't think to take my DSLR, but my I-Phone 12 got a good work out during our tour of the Cockrell Butterfly Center.  

Owl Butterfly

 

Blue Morpho Butterfly (brilliant blue when their wings are open)

Postman Butterfly

Tiger Butterfly

Variable Longwing Butterfly

Doris Longwing Butterfly

Tiger Longwing Butterfly

Clipper Butterfly

Butterflies are a lot like flowers, you can't just photograph one. I have lots more photos of butterflies, but these are well framed photos, probably as good as I could do with the DLSR.  Some of the shots have been cropped a bit, but overall, the I-Phone took some good shots. 

I did pull out the DLSR one morning to capture the morning sunshine coming into the office (Canon 70D DLSR with a Tamron 18-400 telephoto lens)

I'm not sure it's a great photo, but I wanted to try to capture the light and shadow of the rising sun outside the office window. It was the shadows of the leaves that first caught my attention.  I'm considering this shot an interesting experiment. I still need to tweak a few variables to get a great shot, but it wasn't a complete miss. 

Of all the butterfly photos, I like the blue Clipper butterfly shot the best. It's currently displayed on the computer display as the background.  Do you have a favorite?  

Stitching Stuff: Week 43 of 2025

It's been a busy week, but not an unproductive one.  Another trip to deal with car tires and a trip to see my mother, but I was still able to get in my stitching time each day. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 25/25 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 258/298 days
• Success rate = 86.58%

This is week three of stitching 7 days.  My record this year is 4 consecutive weeks with 7 days of stitching time.  That's from back in January.  I'm hoping for a repeat of those stats for October. 

Have you been able to find time to stitch this week? 

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

5. Melissa G 6. Deb in Canada 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Karen

9. Bonnie in VA 10. Quilting Gail 11. Andrée at Quilting & Learning

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

To Do List for the Week of 10/21/2025

Usually my allergies give me fits early in October. But since it hasn't really cooled down till this week, whatever hits the breeze when that happens is playing havoc with my sinuses.  So I've been early to bed and slow to get moving in the morning. So I just didn't get my To Do Tuesday post written yesterday.  In spite of the crappy feeling allergies give me, I did pretty well on working through last week's list even with the early bedtimes and slow mornings. 

To Do List for 10/14/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish December, press sashing fabric ✔

2.  2026 Guild BOM: Start First block - progress

3.  Old Town: Continue making blocks ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making green blocks ✔

Definitely not a bad week, three check marks with progress on the last to do item.  I'm hoping to have a really good week next week as the plan is pretty much nothing but stitching during the day. My version of a solo retreat. 

To Do List for 10/21/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Continue quilt top assembly

The color for November is orange.  I finished all of this month's blocks a week and a half ago.  December's blocks are all done.  I pressed the sashing/border fabric and started assembly of the rows.  The quilt top has to be ready to show in December, so I'll do what I can to move this project ahead without the December blocks that will get shown at the November meeting. Every little bit of progress helps. 

2. 2025 Guild BOM: Start first block

I washed all the fabrics a couple of weeks ago.  But didn't get them pressed until earlier this week. So the fabrics are ready to go. I just have to cut the pieces for the first block. That should happen this week. 

3.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter) Finish block assembly

The project bin is starting to empty of block pieces and fill up with sashing pieces. Just 2 more blocks need assembly.  About 2/3 of the sashing pieces are assembled.  I may just get the top assembled before the first clue for the 2025 mystery comes out.  

4. Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Cut fabrics and start Sept/Oct clues

I had to purchase the tone on tone off white because I just didn't have quite enough of my first stash choice. If I made any mistakes, I'd be hurting. So I bought a new background. After it was washed, I discovered that I was short a full yard.  Not sure what happened there, so I had to go back to the shop and buy a bit more to ensure I had enough for the quilt.  I'm hoping to get the pieces for the September and October clues cut this week.  

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembling green blocks

The pile of green blocks continues to grow.  I keep two moving while I'm doing my other piecing.  It's slow going, but it's meant that I've made consistent progress all year.  Still a long way to go, but I'm happy with the progress to date. 

That's my list for this next week.  You can check out all the other to do lists over at the Quilt Schmilt.  

Making Progress

I spent most of the weekend working on the 2025 Guild BOM.  All the Inverted Star blocks are finished with just 2 sawtooth stars left to finish.  That's a wonderful feeling. No last minute dash to the finish line the afternoon before the meeting!  The guild meeting is this week, so the November block will be shown and then just one color left to share with the guild.  Since this quilt needs to be assembled for the December meeting, I started adding the sashing strips to the blocks that have already been revealed. 

I've left the blocks for November and December out of the photo. I'll be able to add November's block after the meeting on Tuesday.  I'll have to wait till after the November meeting to finish assembly of the center.  But I'll have 3 rows that I can full assemble, so I'll work on that.  Plus, the full version of this quilt includes a sawtooth star pieced border. 

Those borders have to be laid out and stitched together too. That will take a lot of  time. So I may start on those and then finish the center after the November meeting. I just need one sawtooth star to show at the meeting, so I can add in all the others. One of the December blocks will be a corner block, so I can just add that one at the end of a border row once that meeting is over and be ready to assemble the remaining row and add the borders. Definitely doable.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, Sew and Tell Monday and Oh Scrap.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 42 of 2025

Sorry the post is a bit late this morning, I forgot to set it up to post automatically. 

It's been a busy week.  Took the car in for it's biannual service and found out we need new tires for the back.  We replaced the front two tires back in June when we were in Texas for Grad Girl's defense due to the hole in the sidewall. Turns out all wheel drive cars need all the tires with the same rolling distance. So new matching tires are ordered for the back and the car will go in Monday for those. My visit with my mother went well. She's still not a 100% recovered from the respiratory infection she caught a couple of weeks ago, but she's doing better.  

I did manage to fit in some stitching time even with my road trips last week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 18/18 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 251/291
• Success rate = 86.25%

So definitely not bad for a busy week. Scrap processing and fabric organization just aren't happening right now.  Hopefully I'll get in some of that before the end of the year.  

How did you do with fitting in some stitching time this week?  

1. Melissa G 2. maggie f 3. Gretchen 4. DonnaleeQ

5. Karen 6. Bonnie in Va 7. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 8. Deb in Canada

9. Frédérique 10. Quilting Gail 11. Carol @ Quilt Schmilt 12. Marsha's Spot

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Week 148 Photo Challenge: The Light Coming Only from the Fridge

This week's photo challenge required night photography, but we could do it from the comfort of our home.  

Since all we had to do was walk to the kitchen when it was dark, that made it easy for all of us to get photos this week.  I was concerned that My Guy and I would have the same photograph more or less, so I changed my perspective a bit. 

Kate: Fridge Lighting

This is the counter across from the refrigerator. Yes we still have a land line, at least for now. This is the area behind the Keurig and the coffee pot, it's mostly invisible when you are in the kitchen.  Even by just the fridge lighting I can see it really needs a bit of a clean up.

My Guy dragged out his tripod last night for his photograph.  

My Guy: Hey, Is this Still Good?  

  

He photographed himself doing what we often do after we come home from vacation. Clean out the fridge before he does the weekly grocery shopping, which is usually his Saturday chore.  

Grad Girl went with a similar theme. 

Grad Girl: Hey What's in Here?

Queenie has to know what's behind any door in the area she's living in.  Though she doesn't usually exhibit much interest in the fridge. Grad Girl assured me that Queenie was well paid for her modeling services in this photo shoot.  

I think we did pretty well in getting some fun shots for last week's challenge.  My Guy pulled the card for this week's challenge. 

Wonderful timing (unlike the Beauty of Winter card he pulled back in July).  The leaves are just starting to change here.  Not sure what Grad Girl is going to do, I'm not sure Houston has a fall.  Should be interesting to see what we all come up with.  

Photo Play: August 2025

August was another busy month this year. It was so nice to have Grad Girl home for a bit, but she was busy with interviews that meant road trips to Texas. That left me cat sitting while she was on the road.  I spent a lot of time out on our back porch because Queenie loved being outside. As in July, most of August's photos came from our own back yard.  The difference is I did take the DSLR out with me one day.  So most of the photos in this post were taken with the Canon 70D paired with a Tamron 18-400 mm telephoto lens.  Some photos have been cropped.  

These three photos are from the back yard taken with the DSLR. 

Indian Blanket Seed Heads

Sunset

The backyard photos wouldn't be complete without one of the reason why I was in the backyard.

Queenie on the Hunt

The last photo was taken with my I-Phone 12 while Grad Girl and I were apartment hunting in Houston. 

South Beltway 8 after the Rain

That yellow afternoon light after a late summer downpour so common in south Texas was just too interesting to not try to capture it.  

I take a lot of photos of flowers, they are my favorite photographic subject.  It's harder for me to look for other photo opportunities. One of my problems this year is that I've been in my habitrail and haven't  ventured out much. That changed in September and October. Lots more photos because we went places. I need to keep that in mind for next year's photography goals. 

If I have to pick a favorite for this month, it would probably be the photo of Queenie. She's so hard to capture in a photograph and that one captures her focus on getting to explore and hunt outside. Something she doesn't get to do often as an apartment cat. A close second is the photo from Houston. It's not a great photo, but it captures the light of the moment, which is an area I struggle with photographically.  Do you have a favorite?  

To Do List for the Week of 10/14/2025

Since we were on vacation last week and out of town, I didn't get a lot of time in my sewing room.  I adjusted my to do list for last week accordingly.  It was pretty short. 

To List for 10/7/2025

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Finish December, press fabric - progress

2. Old Town: Piece blocks and sashing ✔

3. Wild and Goosey: Make green blocks ✔

There was good progress on the December BOM blocks, but they aren't finished.  My priorities will be pretty much the same this week.

To Do List for 10/14/2025

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Finish December, press sashing fabric

Fingers crossed this actually happens this week. It will be a busy week, The car needs to go in for service and I have a trip planned to see my mother this week. So it won't be a nothing but stitching week.  I should have all weekend to sew though.  

2. 2025 Guild BOM: Start first block

Even if all I do is get the fabric pressed, that would be progress.  I keep putting this off and I can't for much longer.  I should also be working on writing the instructions for the remaining blocks.  Maybe I'll make some progress on that while I'm waiting for the car to be serviced.  

3. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks at late night sew

Working to assemble the last 5 blocks and make the sashing pieces. A third of the sashing pieces have been assembled, so good progress there. Still have quite a few left to make. Working through all these assembly steps, I can't help but admire the quilters who keep up with each step during the mystery.  Definitely makes one feel like a complete slacker sometimes. I know it's not a race, but completely admire the focus and skills it takes to keep up.  

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

The green blocks make a nice little stack. It's fun to look at all these scraps and think about the projects they went into.  Only 20 of the green blocks left to make, I'm just over half way there with this color. My plan is to work on the green till the end of the year or till I finish them.  

That's my list this week. It's pretty much the same list I've had for the last few weeks.  I have to prioritize the guild BOMs for now, so that's limiting the time to work on other projects still on my list.  My goal is progress and I'm doing well on that front.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.   

A Lot of Slow Stiching

Most of last week was spent on the road.  So there wasn't much sewing room time. What time there was, was spent on the last few blocks needed for the 2025 Guild BOM. I can't show those just yet. So that leaves the hand stitching I worked on all week.  

I finished up the letters along the bottom and have been working on the leaves just above those.  I still have one color to add to the leaves, then I need to do the back stitching for the vines.  Don't know when I'll next work on this, maybe Thanksgiving?  

I am hoping to have some good sewing room time this week. I have two new projects I'd like to start, but need to finish the 2025 Guild blocks first. Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, Sew and Tell Monday, and Slow Sunday Stitching.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 41 of 2025

Mine and My Guy's week of adventures comes to an end today.  He goes back to work tomorrow.  We spent the week in Eureka Springs, AR. We walked a lot, climbed a lot of stairs, did a bit of early Christmas shopping, went hiking a couple of days and best of all ate really, really good food.  It was a nice week away from the every day we both have, me with chores, him with work.  I took my hand stitching with me, which made it easy to keep up with my stitching time for the week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Oct = 11/11 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 244/284 days
• Success rate = 85.92%

So it was a good week on my hand work project. Now I have two days in the sewing room to check off what's on my to do list for the week.  

Did you get in lots of stitching time this week?  

1. Gretchen 2. maggie f 3. Melissa G 4. Julie in GA

5. Frédérique 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Karen 8. Bonnie in Va

9. Quilting Gail 10. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 11. Marsha's Spot

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Week 147 Photo Challenge: Neon-Lit Photographs at Night

These photos only took us two weeks to come up with compared to the two months we took for the Beauty of Winter challenge card.  This week's card wasn't quite as difficult. 

It is a bit of a challenge when you live in a small town, neon lights are far and few between.  It also requires that you be out at night. Even Grad Girl tends to get home and stay home after work, so it took a couple of weeks for all of us to get photos.  

It was easier to get photos for My Guy and I as we were out and about somewhere else other than home and out at night for a change.

Kate: A Pink Pony Club? 

We spent a few days in Eureka Springs Arkansas.  There is no parking in that town, so you rent a place within walking distance of downtown.  This was a club we passed on our walk home each night. It obviously wasn't jumping on a Sunday night. 

My Guy's photo comes from one of evening walks in search of a sweet treat after dinner. 

My Guy: Colossal

  

This bakery was on the very edge of town, right by the big parking lots just outside of downtown.  They had the biggest cupcakes with sky high icing. We settled for ice cream, which we finished off on the front porch of our rental. It was a nice end to our stay.  

Grad Girl is still settling in to her new life as a working girl in Texas. She finally had the time and energy to wander out after work one night this week. 

Grad Girl: Lights up the Night

This is a restaurant sign not too far from her apartment. She says you can definitely see it when you are out and about.

That's our efforts for the last photo challenge. The newest photo card will also require some night photography, but none of us will have to leave the house. 

I'm sure My Guy and I will come up with different perspectives even though we'll likey use the same fridge.  Should be interesting

Photo Play: July 2025

There aren't a lot of photos for July, but there are a few that stood out.  Most of those come from my I-phone as it's the one camera that's with me pretty much anywhere I go.  You can decide if "the best camera is the one you have with you" is true.  

The first photo was my second choice for the "Reflections" family photo challenge.  It's the only photo this month taken with my Canon 70D DSLR. I used a Sigma 105mm macro lens.  

It was close between this one and the one I used for the challenge. I have noticed that I take a lot more photos when I'm working on getting photos for the challenge. 

The remaining photos were taken with my I-Phone 12, all of them were taken either in the house or in our back yard.  I spent a lot of time in July out on our back porch with Queenie while she was eating grass and chasing bugs.  

Queenie Cat

Wheel Bug, one species of Assassin beetles

Bee on a Basket Flower

My top two for this month are the rose reflection and the picture of Queenie.  Black cats are hard to photograph, it's hard to get a lot of definition, all that black tends to just blend together.  Maybe not one of my better months, but it is nice to know I can still take interesting pictures when I'm just hanging out with the cat.