Setting Priorities

My Saturday sewing time started off with a review of what was on my plate for the rest of this year.  Particularly my responsibilities with the guild BOM.  Last Monday started with an email saying the meeting was on Tuesday and I hadn't started the BOM block for October yet.  That was first on my to do list when I got to the sewing room on Monday.  I finished the black Inverted Star block and a couple of the saw tooth star blocks just in time for the meeting. I finished the rest yesterday. 

I also finished off the red-violet sawtooth stars for September's BOM. 

These may look purple in the photo, but in actual light they are more red, than true purple.  

Looking at the calendar, My Guy and I have a week of vacation planned in the next month. I'm making a visit to Grad Girl in October. Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up. Plus, I'm going to need to spend more time in Oklahoma City with my mother for the next few months. All of which will impact my sewing time, which means I need to get the 2025 BOM blocks finished off, so I can get away from this just in time stuff for the meetings. Plus I need to have a completely assembled quilt top with the 2025 blocks at the December meeting.  I'm also responsible for the 2026 Guild BOM.  Next year's project is a sampler, so that's a new block each month. I've got the instructions for the January and February blocks written, but neither of them have been started. So my sewing room card is pretty packed till the end of year. And that doesn't include the Meadow Mist Designs or Bonnie Hunter mysteries that I want to do as well.  

I'm hoping to get in some good sewing time the rest of this month.  Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts and Sew and Tell Monday.

Stitching Stuff: Week 38 of 2025

It's been another one of those weeks where things haven't gone exactly to plan.  I spent some much needed R&R time in my sewing room on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I woke up Thursday morning with a text from my Mom saying she needed my help.  She really hates to ask me for help, so when she does, I know it's most likely something significant.  Thankfully, things lined out on Friday, so I was able to come home that night.  I still did pretty well on the stitching front even with the unexpected road trip.  

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 11/20 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 223/263 days
• Success rate = 84.79%

So not the full week of stitching time I was hoping for, but better than I've been doing. I am hoping for a good week on the stitching front this week. I have chores to do, but I may make an exception and cull out a couple of days for nothing but stitching.  We'll see how that goes.  

What did you do with your stitching time this week?  

To Do List for the Week of 9/16/2025

Looking back at my blog, my last to do list was posted over a month ago. Life's been busy with getting Grad Girl set up in her new situation.  I'm going to need a new blog nick name for her since she's not a graduate student any more.  I'm sure we'll come up with something suitable that she can tolerate.  

Getting back to that last to do list. 

To Do List for 8/5/2025

1.  Guild BOM: Finish cutting pieces, start assembly ✔ 

2.  Kate's Choice: Start assembling rows ✔

3.  Old Town: Continue block assembly at late night sew ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Finish purple, start teal ✔

At least there are check marks by all the items on that last list.  I've been sewing here and there, but nothing very consistent for the last few weeks. Hopefully that will change this week.  Here's my list for this week. 

To Do List for 9/16/2025

1. Guild BOM:  Finish September and October blocks

The last sawtooth star block from September is almost finished. I started cutting out the pieces for the October block. The guild meeting is at 6:30 PM tonight. So you can guess what I'll be spending my time on today.  

2.  Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Start September clue.

I still need to wash the background fabric. Hopefully I can get to that today.  

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

A pile of blocks in progress are pinned and sitting by the machine waiting for me to stitch.  

4. Kate's Choice: Continue Assembling rows

I have the next row all pinned, but I'll need to switch to the walking foot to continue row assembly. That probably won't happen till the weekend.  

5.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter):  Finish teal blocks, start green/blue blocks

I won't get as much done this month on these blocks as the month is already half over, but I should make some progress.  

That's my list for this week. I'm looking forward to some concentrated sewing time the next few days. I'll be stress sewing today trying to get the block ready for the meeting tonight.  Wish me luck!  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Where Am I and What Was I doing?

Physically, I'm finally back home after a week and half of moving and hanging out with Grad Girl.  I'm glad to be back home.  Though I'll miss Grad Girl and Queenie, but I'll see them again in late October. We weren't able to load the cars with all off Grad Girl's stuff that got moved home.  So I'll make another long weekend trip sometime next month to take her the stuff that didn't fit in the cars.

The only stitching that happened was on my long term embroidery project.    

The set of leaves in the corner and the words in the corners are what got stitched.  I'm more than half way done. Not sure how much more I'll finish this year.  It was nice to sit and stitch while watching Netflix and waiting for Grad Girl to get home from work.  This is the first time I've touched embroidery this year. I always forget how much I enjoy it.  

I checked my email once I got home. The Guild meeting is tomorrow night.  Which means I need to get the BOM block for October finished between now and then. I'm pretty sure that's not what I was working on before I left, but that's definitely what I'm working on when I get back to my sewing room!  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts for the first time in a few weeks.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 37 of 2025

It finally slowed down midweek.  Grad Girl is moved in and has started her new job.  My Guy left on Tuesday as he had to be back at work. I stayed in Texas the rest of the week to finish the unpacking and take care of a few errands while Grad Girl was at work.  I'm flying home today. On the one hand I'm sorry to be leaving Grad Girl, it's been fun to hang out post all the moving stress, but I am ready to be home and spend some significant time in my sewing room. 

There's been time to do some hand stitching while Grad Girl's been at work. 

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 6/12 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 218/225 days
• Success rate = 85.49%

I've done quite a bit of embroidery since Wednesday.  It's been nice to just sit and stitch in the afternoons while I wait for her to come home from work.  I'm hoping to spend a good bit of time in my sewing room this week. I've definitely missed it.  

How has your stitching week gone?  

 

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

5. Melissa G 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Karen 8. Quilting Gail

9. Bonnie in Va 10. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 11. Frédérique 12. Deb in Canada

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Stitching Stuff: Week 36 of 2025

With all the stuff going on this week, I completely spaced that this was Sunday.  Consequently the post is going up really, really late this week.  This was moving week for Grad Girl. We didn't find out for sure she had an apartment till Tuesday this week. In fact she was already on her way to Texas to start her new job by the time they told her she for sure had an apartment. My Guy and I drove to Texas to move the stuff out of storage and drive it to Houston.  Thankfully, I was able to find movers on short notice that could unload the truck. There's no way we could have managed the three flights of stairs to her apartment carrying the couch.  To top it all off My Guy came down with some respiratory thing the day we left. Of course after 9 hours in the car with him sneezing and coughing, I came down with it yesterday.  So it's been a crazy busy, stressful and in many ways miserable week.  My stitching numbers pretty much tell the same story. 

• 15 minute days/week = 2/7 days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 20/31 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 213/249 days
• Success rate = 85.54%

So August has been my worst month so far this year. Now that we've got all the moving stuff done, I'm hoping to settle into some more regular stitching time for the rest of the year.  I'm hoping to catch up with email and blog reading this week.  A slower pace of life will be really welcome.  

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

  

1. Donnaleeq 2. Bonnie in Va 3. Deb in Canada

4. Frédérique 5. Julie in GA 6. Gretchen

7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Marsha's Spot

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New Projects Coming

Though I've not spent a lot of time in the sewing room the last couple of weeks, there has been some planning going on here and there.  The Meadow Mist Designs Magnificent Mystery kicked off back in July with the fabric requirements. I don't usually start cutting the fabrics till the first set of block instructions come out, which happen Thursday this week. I've been pulling fabrics and putting them back, but I think this weekend I reached my final selection. 

I've wanted to make a brown and teal quilt for awhile. This project seemed like a good opportunity to try out that color combination.  Many of these fabrics have been in my stash for years. 

The other new project that's still in the planning stages is the Guild BOM for 2026.  I agreed to take that on again for next year.  I have the quilt designed in EQ. Next year's BOM will be a sampler quilt.  Since that will mean a new block each month, I wanted to get going on that this year and make the blocks while I was writing the instructions. My plan is to start with the first couple of blocks  this month.  Here's my fabric pull for that project.

 

All this fabric needs to be washed and pressed.  I'm hoping to get to that in the next couple of weeks.  

Most of my projects are still at the stage they were at the last time I blogged, so not much to share there.  But Grad Girl finished her first quilt top while she's been living at home. 

She did all the embroidery by hand last winter.  The embroidery and quilt pattern is Ingrid's Wildflowers from Missouri Star. I helped her change the quilt pattern to include corner stones.  This is only her second ever sewing machine project (her first one was a pincushion).  She did such a great job with it. Her plan is to finish it as a wall hanging for her bedroom.  She wants to try a three yard quilt next.  Probably won't start on that till I go visit her in October (at least that's the plan now).  

That's it for me this week. We will be moving Grad Girl this week, so I'll probably be scarce in blogland for a bit.  Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.