Stitching Stuff: Week 48 of 2025

 

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We certainly did. So much food, both My Girl and I ended up in food comas after dinner.  I did eventually go walk some of it off with My Guy.  

With all the family stuff this week, I didn't find the time and energy to stitch a couple of days. 

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 25/29 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 289/333 days
• Success rate = 86.79%

So not my best November ever, but I've still stitched more days than I've not. An 86% (87% if you round it), is still a good solid B. I'll take that this late in the year. I'm probably not going to break 90% this year. I'm OK with that.  

Our Thanksgiving was small this year just three of us and the cat. 

You can see Queenie was being an excellent meal prep supervisor.  Now it's on to Christmas prep and I'm so not ready for that.  

Were you able to work in some good stitching time with all the family and holiday time this week? 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Checking off the Big Priority

How are your holiday preparations going?  We need to make one last grocery store run, but our menu is set and we've divided up the cooking chores. This week my focus is on the holiday, last week my focus was on getting the 2025 Guild BOM ready to show at the meeting last Tuesday. 

I finished sewing on the last border about an hour before the meeting last Tuesday.  This is the quick shot I grabbed before folding it up for the meeting.  It was cloudy all weekend, so I didn't get my usual glamor shot.  Hopefully I can work that in before the PHD post that will go up sometime next week.  

I've moved on from one priority to the next, I've got the pieces all cut for the first block of the 2026 Guild BOM.  That has to be ready to show at the guild's December meeting. 

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

Stitching Stuff: Week 47 of 2025

 

It was a busy week.  The 2025 Guild BOM took up the early part of the week.  Once that quilt top was finished, making a start on the 2026 Guild BOM dominated my sewing time. All the "required" stitching stuff made for a good week on the stitching time front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 20/22 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 284/326 days
• Success rate = 87.12%

All the sewing room time means I'm checking off a few things on this week's to do list. But it's hard to get to everything.  One more week left in November, and it's a holiday week.  We do have plans for later in the week, so I'm not sure how much stitching time I'll actually get in this week. Once we get to December I really need to think about Christmas. Advent starts next week.  Feeling unprepared is an understatement. 

How are you doing at balancing stitching time with holiday prep?  

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

5. Gretchen 6. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 7. Karen 8. DonnaleeQ

9. Bonnie Stapleton 10. Stitching Loving Nana 11. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 12. Marsha's Spot

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To Do List for the Week of 11/18/2025

It's been a busy week. I've never been fond of deadline sewing and I've had a bit of that lately.  Having something with a deadline did affect my ability to get to the rest of my to do list this week.

To Do List for 11/11/2025

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Complete quilt top assembly ✔

2.  Old Town: Continue Assembly ✔

3.  Magnificent Mystery: Finish Sept, Start Oct/Nov clues - progress

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making green blocks ✔

Three check marks out of four and progress on the 4th is a pretty good week. Especially since my number one priority got finished. I have a pretty long list this week. 

To Do List for 11/18/2025

1. My Girl Trivets: Quilt

My Girl made a couple of these mushroom trivets as Christmas gifts for one of her long time BFFs.  I need to quilt these before Thanksgiving. So that's my newest #1 priority.  

2.  2026 Guild BOM: Start first block

Now that the quilt top for the 2025 BOM is completed, I can focus on getting ahead on next year's blocks.  I have the instructions written, now I just need to make the first couple of blocks. 

3. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Start the first step in the mystery.

My fabrics are selected. All but the deep purple came from my stash.  The background is a blue gray marble.  I still need to wash and press the background and the dark purple. That's on the agenda for today.  

4.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilt assembly

I've not made as much progress with this as I had hoped. The 2025 BOM assembly took precedence.  I'm going to stick with assembly and hope that I can get it done before the end of the year.  It would be nice to get it all out of the project box.  

5. Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish Sept, Start Oct/Nov clues

The September clue is almost finished. The fabrics are cut for the October clue. Hopefully, I'll get the fabric for the November clue cut today. 

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

I won't finish green this month, but should be on track to finish up those blocks before the end of December. That would just leave teal, blue and purple blocks to finish next year.  

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

Priority Project

Thanksgiving is next week.  I'm not ready to be that far into the year!  But it comes regardless. Just like the November guild meeting is tomorrow.  My weekend sewing was focused on getting the 2025 Guild BOM to finished quilt top stage. 

The first two borders have been added and I started on the pieced borders. Both long sides of the quilt top have the pieced sawtooth star borders added.  I can't show the whole quilt because the color for December hasn't been announced to the guild yet. The top and bottom border blocks need to be stitched together, then stitched to the quilt top.  Then there are 2 more strip borders to add. Then it will be a finished quilt top.  I have till 6:30 PM central time tomorrow to get that done.  I don't want to jinx it, so we'll leave it at that.  

Once I get this quilt top finished, I can move on to getting ready for the 2025 Bonnie Hunter mystery that kicks off on Friday. I still need to prewash some of my fabrics and then press them.  

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

Stitching Stuff: Week 46 of 2025

It's been a fast week.  I'm caught up on laundry, not so caught up on household chores, but getting there.  I didn't sew as much as I could have, but I did manage to stitch each day this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 13/15 days
• 15 minute days/2025= 277/319 days
• Success rate = 86.83%

So definitely a good week. My goal this weekend is to finish up the 2025 Guild BOM. All I can say is that I'm getting there.  What have you been working on this week? Did you get your stitching time in? 

1. Frédérique 2. Julie in GA 3. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 4. Gretchen

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

9. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 10. Bonnie Stapleton 11. Marsha's Spot 12. Carol Andrews

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Week 149 Photo Challenge: Autumn Leaves

This post was supposed to go up last week, but with all my computer issues last weekend, it didn't even get written.  We ended up taking a few weeks with this challenge card because fall didn't really set in till early November.   

Both My Guy and I went out for walks and we both captured a few leaves that were changing, but definitely nothing spectacular in the week after we drew this challenge card.  It was very different during my walk after I got back from Houston. 

 

Kate: Reds and Yellows

Though I didn't have to walk for for these glorious red maple leaves. This tree resides in our next door neighbor's front yard.  It's so pretty when the afternoon sun hits it.  

My Guy's photo was also taken close to home.

My Guy: Sugared

Not your typical fall photo.  The first frost here didn't happen till the last week in October.  It does look like someone "sugared" the edges of the leaves.  Pretty cool looking.  

My Girl really struggled with this week's challenge. South Texas doesn't necessarily have all the seasons.  

My Girl: South Texas Autumn

This is what autumn leaves look like the first week of November in Houston, TX.  No colorful leaves, just green ones.  It's still a cool photo. My Girl has done pretty well over the last few years coming up with photos when she's under very different conditions than we are.  She didn't miss on this week's challenge either.  

I pulled the next challenge card from the shuffled deck last week.

 

This one may take a bit longer to get photos for. Changes for rain improve towards the end of next week for both Oklahoma and Texas.  So hopefully we'll all be able to get photographs and I'll have a post for next week.  We'll see.  

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

What I suspect has been a cold hasn't quite cleared up yet.  Thankfully the sinus pressure and headache have backed off.  I'm still a bit sniffly, but at least I can mostly breathe.  I didn't much done on Saturday since I felt so crappy, but I didn't do too badly with last week's list. 

To Do List for 11/04/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Continue quilt top assembly ✔

2.  2026 Guild BOM: Start first block - no progress

3.  Old Town: Finish sashing pieces, start assembly ✔

4.  Magnificent Mystery: Start Sept/Oct clues - progress 

5.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making green blocks ✔

6.  Lupin and Laughter: Pick fabrics ✔

Not a bad week, just one item with no progress. I did lock down the final layout options for the 2026 guild BOM.  I'm going to take a break from the 2026 BOM project and focus on the 2025 version This week's list is a bit shorter. 

To Do List for 11/11/2025

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Complete quilt top assembly

The next borders were assembled and are pinned ready to be stitched down.  There are 4 more borders, one of which is pieced from all those sawtooth star blocks.  This will be my priority this week. If all that gets done is this, then I'll be happy. I have to have it ready for next Tuesday's guild meeting. 

2.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembly

All the sashing strips are assembled and I've started sewing rows together.  I haven't quite finished assembling the first row of blocks and the first row of sashing.  With all the seam matching, it does take fair amount of pinning, which slows down the process. But so far so good.

3. Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish Sept, Start Oct/Nov clues

   

All the HSTs are sewn, now those are being combined into the large hour glass blocks.  I'm really happy with my color choices so far.  We'll see if I feel that way once I finish the October clue.  

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

I'm still working on the dark green blocks needed for the corners. There's been more progress on moving those blocks a long this week.  

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

Guild Block of the Month

It wasn't the best weekend.  I'm still sniffly and mostly still breathing through my mouth. I didn't sew at all on Saturday, but I did get back to the sewing room a bit on Sunday.  My biggest priorities this month are the 2025 Guild BOM and the 2026 Guild BOM.  I've made progress on both.  For the 2026 Guild BOM, there will be three options, a square sampler and two rectangular options that include a top and bottom border.  I'm not fond of square quilts, so I decided it was worth the effort to add top and bottom pieced border.  It's not that difficult to write the instructions for the block to be used in the additional borders.  

The goal for the 2025 BOM is to get it assembled before the next meeting, which is next week. 

All the rows are sewn together. The December block has been whited out because I've not shown it to the guild.  My plan is to introduce the block color and then reveal the assembled quilt.  I have the next set of border strips cut, but not assembled.  My goal is to get all the borders assembled and on by next Sunday.  I need to focus on making that happen. 

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

Stitching Stuff: Week 45 of 2025

 

My apologies for getting the post up so late.  I've been dealing with memory issues on the computer. Addressing those has been a work in progress.  I tried to get my post put together yesterday and had to just give up to focus on how to fix the memory issues. I've revamped the start up programs. That seems to have helped. But I've done that before and it didn't seem to completely resolve the issue.  The computer may still need a major spa day. So if I go dark for a week or two, know that's probably my plight.  

This time last week I was in Houston hanging out with Grad Girl.  (As a side note, after much discussion with her, we've decide for now that her new blog moniker will be "My Girl". That's consistent with her Dad's moniker, My Guy.)  This week has been a mixed bag on the stitching front.  

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 6/8 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 270/312 days
• Success rate = 86.54%

So not a horrible week, but not one of my best.  It was a 10 hour drive home from Houston on Monday.  I was pretty beat and just didn't have the energy to do anything stitching related.  By Thursday evening I started feeling off, by Saturday I didn't want to move from the recliner. Jury is out if it's been a severe allergy attack or some other respiratory virus. I'm feeling better, but not 100%.  But I'm hoping to get in some stitching time this afternoon.  

I did miss my stitching buddy this week. 

Queenie would hang out with me in My Girl's craft room while I sewed.  She took an immediate liking to the blow up mattress that I brought down for My Girl to use when she has company. It is more comfortable than the couch and Queenie decided it was a wonderful cat bed.  

That's it for me this week.  How did you do at working in some stitching time to your daily schedules? 

1. Deb in Canada 2. Julie in GA 3. DonnaleeQ 4. Frédérique

5. Gretchen 6. Karen 7. Melissa G 8. Bonnie Stapleton

9. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 10. Andrée 11. Marsha's Spot

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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

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