To Do List for the Week of 04/15/2025

It's the halfway point in April.  Already?  My progress this month is a bit of mixed bag.  I'm doing well on some things and no so hot on others.  The progress on the to do list is a bit spotty for last week.  

To Do List for 04/08/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR: Prep quilt for quilting  - progress

2.  On Ringo Lake: Finish borders ✔

3.  Kate's Choice: Learn to use the walking foot on my machine ✔

4.  2025 Guild BOM: Cut pieces for June blocks - no progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Finish blue and make red blocks - no progress

6.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders - no progress

Definitely not the best week. I was on track to finish off the SAHRR till yesterday. My Guy was sick all weekend and yesterday afternoon I came down with whatever upper respiratory infection he had (he got it from work). I would have finished getting the SAHRR prepped for quilting, but it's hard to do much when you have to keep a tissue under you nose almost constantly. My nose isn't running so badly this morning, but I'm still pretty congested and feel pretty crappy.  My Guy was mostly recovered by Monday, so he felt bad for about 3 days. Hopefully that will be the same for me.  

This week's list is quite a bit shorter. It's hard to quilt and sew blocks at the same time, so since my aim is to get some finishes in the bag for this year, I'm going to concentrate on that front this week. 

To Do List for 04/15/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish quilt top prep, send out for quilting

The bottom quarter of the quilt still needs to be pressed and de-threaded. Depending on how I'm feeling today, I'm hoping to get that done. Then I need to find a batting and a box.  Fingers crossed it will get sent out before the end of the week. Trudy is going to quilt one last quilt for me before she retires from commission quilting a bit later this year.  So this will be the last project she does for me.  

2. 2025 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for June

These BOM blocks take a bit to get together and I don't want to get behind.  The April guild meeting is tonight. Thankfully that block was finished weeks ago. I'd like to be in the same place for next month's meeting so I best get to cutting.  

3.  Kate's Choice: Finish cutting batting, start quilting

I've got the backing squares all cut and about 2/3 of the batting squares.  Shouldn't take me too long to finish cutting the batting.  I'm still trying to decide what quilting I'm doing in the blocks. Should it be one consistent pattern for each block or do I echo quilt along the seam lines for all of them?  Still deciding on the path forward there.  

4. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Work on blocks at late night sew

One of the local quilt shop offers a late night sew once a week. It's a nice chance to grab dinner with some of other quilters then sit and sew for an evening.  I need a pretty easy project to stitch on for that. I've got lots of the pieces cut for Old Town, so it's an easy project to grab and go. Hopefully the respiratory infection is much better by then.  

A much more pared down list for this week. I really want to focus on quilting the blocks for Kate's Choice.  I've got 30 blocks to quilt, so it may take a while.  I'll see how the first few blocks go then maybe decide to quilt so many a week till I'm done.  

That's my list for the week.  Good luck with your to do lists this week.  

Slaying the Big, Scary Walking Foot Dragon

I've put off learning to quilt with a walking foot for years.  The walking foot was this scary sewing machine accessory that I didn't want to take the time to figure out. I'll give myself a break for when I was working, I barely had time to piece a few quilts each year. But I've been retired for almost 2 and half years.  I have lots more sewing time. But the idea of getting out that walking foot and doing something with it was just off putting. I'd so much rather piece.  But with the wonderful quilter that has worked with me for 10 plus years retiring, I am going to need to find an alternative that fits my budget. Especially for the smaller finished quilt tops hanging in my closet.  So I located the walking foot. It wasn't where I thought it should be, but I did eventually locate it and figure out how to attach it to the machine. 

Armed with a practice quilt sandwich and a couple of quilting with a walking foot references (I can definitely recommend "Walk" by Jacquie Gering) this happened. 

I followed the exercises in the book and filled up that practice quilt sandwich.  Then I got brave enough to pull out the second Kitty trivet that Grad Girl made when she was home last Christmas.  

The photo angle makes it look a bit wonky, but at least the quilting shows up pretty well. Here's a better photo of all the quilting on the kitty. 

I told Grad Girl this one was the sad kitty trivet since her whiskers were drooping.  Her response was "Well I'd have droopy whiskers too if someone was going sit something hot on me all the time". It's certainly not perfect, but I'm mostly happy with how it turned out. It definitely gave me a chance to practice using the walking foot in different ways.  It wasn't nearly as scary or as hard as I expected. We'll see if I still feel that way once I start quilting on Kate's Choice sometime later this week.  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall, Patchwork & Quilts and for the first time with Free Motion Mavericks.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 15 of 2025

 

It was a good week on the stitching front.  I have a plan for the guild BOM for next year if needed (the tea leaves are reading as yes it will be).  And I made good progress on figuring out how to use my walking foot.  So it was a full week in the sewing room. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/April = 12/12 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 97/102 days
• Success rate = 95.10%

I'm happy with my progress year to date. My only regret is not getting more finished quilts. Fingers crossed that happens in the next month or so.  It's scary how close we are to June and the halfway point of 2025.  It creeps up on you!  

There has also been some progress with the scrap/stash organization. I emptied out the working scrap bin again and started on my last big bag of scraps. 

A few strips got cut to size.

During my scrap processing time, I remembered that Operation Clean House was going on. Once a year the city and local companies sponsor an opportunity to recycle typical household chemicals and electronics.  I had been working on cleaning out our attic this month and needed to go drop off some old electronics.  Scrap processing had to end so I could load the car and get that done. Still every little bit adds up.  I'll do more scrap processing next weekend.  

The to be fabric to be pressed bin was also visited.  It was about half full. 

 

Back in November of last year I raided the unwashed and unpressed stash for my blues and greens, colors that I could wash together.  I did a bit of pressing then, but haven't touched it since.  These are 3 and 4 yard cuts, so they take a bit of time. I managed to press 4 pieces. Now they are in the fabric closet ready to use.  

The lighter blue fabric on the bottom right is probably about 15 years old, the rest are less than 5 years old.  Maybe they'll find a home in one of this year's mystery quilts?  

Did you get a chance to stitch this week? 

1. Frédérique 2. Gretchen 3. Amanda 4. Julie in GA

5. maggie f 6. Melissa G 7. Karen 8. DonnaleeQ

9. Quilting Gail 10. Bonnie in Va 11. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 12. Marsha's Spot

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Photo Play 2025: February and March Summary

Quilting goals for 2025 are going well. That's not the case for my photography goals. There have been opportunities, I just haven't reached for my camera during them. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to make photography a priority or just let it go for now. The weather this spring with the cold, wind and fire danger hasn't been very conducive to walks or going places.  Maybe that will change once we get into warmer weather? At any rate, I'm not going to force it. There are too many other things going on that have me worried and stressed, I'm not adding to that. 

Having said all that, I did actually take a couple of walks in February when the weather was nice so I have a few photos to share. All photos taken with a Canon 70D DSLR with a Tamron 18 - 400 mm telephoto lens.  

One thing about Oklahoma is that you can see the sky. Partly cloudy days can look really cool. The trees just add that mystery and tension. Makes me think of a old horror flick.  

  

Normally it starts to green up in the later parts of February, with the colder days that didn't happen. There was lots of brown around. So a gold leaf floating on a brown pond caught my eye.  Maybe not a beautiful photo, but it's an interesting one.   

We didn't get much rain in February. That meant that all the sediments stayed out of the ponds and lakes, leaving them beautifully blue. These geese were enjoying the nice day out on the lake.  

 

Not a bad effort for February, but definitely nothing spectacular or different.  Which for where I'm at with my photography this year it's OK.  I didn't take any photos in March. We'll see what April brings.  

To Do List for the Week of 04/08/2025

I saw a meme on Instagram stating that someone should pour out Mother Nature's beer while she's doing all 4 seasons in 24 hours cause she's drunk enough.  I'm sure there are a lot in the US that agree with that sentiment.  Hopefully we'll actually see some spring weather this week (without tornadoes  and floods would be nice). 

It was a good week to hang out in the sewing room and work on last week's to do list.  

To Do List for 04/01/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR: Trim backing, start quilt top prep - progress

2.  On Ringo Lake: Finish assembly, start borders ✔ 

3.  Kate's Choice: Lean to use walking foot, practice - progress

4.  2025 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for June blocks - progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Finish blue, start red blocks - progress

6.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Only two check marks, but there was progress on the other items.  That counts as a good week.  The plan this week is more of the same. 

To Do List for 04/08/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Prep quilt for quilting

The quilt back is trimmed and prepped.  The quilt top will take longer, but I'll hopefully get to that this weekend. 

2.  On Ringo Lake (Bonnie Hunter): Finish borders

The plan is to add one more narrow yellow border and finish the top with a wider red border.  That should happen this week.  

3. Kate's Choice: Learn to use the walking foot on my machine.

 

Last week I pulled out my machine manual and actually found my walking foot. I've also been reviewing some of the quilting books I have.  Several blog buddies have mentioned the book "Walk" by Jacquie Gering.  It's one of the books I've been studying.  Once Ringo Lake is a finished quilt top, the plan is to get the walking foot on and make some progress on this project. 

4. 2025 Guild BOM: Cut pieces for June blocks

Last week I managed to pull all the fabrics for June.  I need 17 fabrics for the Inverted Star block and another 6 for the sawtooth star border blocks.  Last month I remembered to check my 1.5" strip scrap bin for any white on whites that I could use for the Sawtooth Stars. This week I checked my 2.5" and 3" strip bins for greens.  I'm getting better about checking the scrap bins before I start pulling fat quarters.  

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish up blue and continue making red blocks.

I've gotten started on the red blocks, I just need 8 of the 3.5" blocks to have enough for the planned layout.  That should be doable this month. 

6. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders project.

Pretty much the same projects from last week.  I'm hoping for a few more check marks this week.  We'll see.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Closing in on Finishes

We didn't see any snow yesterday, even though radar said it was snowing at our location.  We did see the cool temps which normally mean a whole Sunday of stitching for me, but after lunch a 2 hour nap under a warm quilt seemed necessary.  Once I worked through the groggy feeling, there was still time for a few hours of sewing. I finished another border for On Ringo Lake.

On Ringo Lake is my version of the Bonnie Hunter 2017 Mystery.  I have two more borders to add. A another thin yellow border and a final red border.  Yes it's a lot of borders, but I really like how the final version looks in EQ. Hopefully it will look equally good when those are finished.  

I also finished cutting and prepping the backing for the 2025 SAHRR.  Next is prepping the quilt to go out.  That will probably be on next weekend's to do list.  It's not one of my favorite tasks.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 14 of 2025

 

It's been a productive week.  I've gotten lots done in the sewing room and went on my first shop hop.  Even being on the road most of the day on Wednesday, I still managed to get my sewing time in.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/March = 31/31 days
• 15 minute days/April = 5/5 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 90/95 days
• Success Rate = 94.74%

March was the first month this year that I managed to sew every day of the month.  After last year's 100% success rate, I needed to break the momentum so I didn't feel compelled to keep it at 100% for this year.  It takes a lot of prep to be able to sew everyday and I didn't want that burden this year.  

Now that the Bonnie Hunter and SAHRR quilt alongs are done, yesterday morning I took some time to address my working scrap bin.  

Best I can tell from my photo records, I've not cut scraps since last July.  I've actually emptied this working bin a couple of times into my one remaining scrap bag and its full to overflowing. So it's definitely time to deal with a few scraps.  What's in the bin became these piles sorted by size.

These have all been put away in the scrap bins.  Not a lot of progress, but you have to start somewhere.  

How did your stitching week work out?  

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

5. Jennifer in Indy 6. Meloney 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Gretchen

9. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 10. Bonnie in Va 11. Marsha's Spot

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Week 136 Photo Challenge: Fairy Tale

It took all of us a month to come up with photos for the Week 135 photo challenge.  At that end of that post back on March 1st, I wrote that it might take us another month to pull together photos for the week 136 challenge.  

Looks like I wasn't wrong, it's been just over a month since that last photo challenge post. Grad Girl is still pretty swamped with trying to finish up grad school and I just couldn't come up with any ideas for how to approach this challenge.  Only My Guy had any photos. He wanted to move on, so I promised to figure something out and post whatever we had today.  These aren't the best photos we've taken, but they work.  

I finally took a few photos, but absolutely nothing was working for me.  So I got creative. 

Kate: Sleeping Beauty (and her cat)

This is not AI created. Wish I could blame it on that, but I did this with one of my photos and My Memory Suites. It's far from perfect, but it strangely works. At least I think it does. As My Guy said last night, we set the rules. I'm just glad to be done with this challenge. 

My Guy made a special trip out last night to get a toy for his photos. I think it paid off.  

My Guy: Classic Tale

That's one large frog and one small princess (Also known for her sleep habits, sense a theme?).  I don't know where he got the doll, but he improvised really well.  

Grad Girl has been insanely busy and stressed.  She really hasn't had much creativity to spare since she's trying to write her thesis.  So I went through the photos she's texted over the last month and picked one that worked if you had the right point of view. 

Grad Girl:  Rosina Leckermaul's Pantry

If you don't know who Rosina Leckermaul is, that's the name given to the witch from Hansel and Greta in an opera from 1892. The German translation of the name is Raisin Sweet-Tooth. The witch is given no name in the original story, but is also known as the Gingerbread Hag (thank you Google).  Grad Girl sent me this picture with the question, "Am I getting an Easter basket this year?". She dearly loves Peeps.  

So that's our efforts for this challenge. Did we do it justice?  I'm hoping it at least gave you a smile.  Sometimes that's the best kind of picture.  My Guy drew the next challenge card.

When I told Grad Girl what the next challenge was she texted "Oh good, an easy one". My sentiments exactly!  

2025 Quilting Ambitions: 1st Quarter Check In

The beginning of April is also the end of the first quarter of 2025. The year is already one third over. At the beginning of the year I wrote up my ambitions for the year. It's easy to get caught up in the every day and completely forget what you actually intended to do with your year. So it's definitely time to look back and see if I'm on track and following the plan. To do that I'm linking up with Quilting Jetgirl for her 2025 Quilting Q1 Check In.  

The first few months of 2025 went by quickly. Most of that time was focused on finishing up quilt alongs that started either last year or early this year.  So some of my goals didn't get much attention during first quarter, but that seems to be my normal.  I'm slower out of the gate on some.  Here's where things stood at the end of March. 

Ambition 1:  Make quilts.  The goal is to actually make as much progress as I can on my quilt plan for 2025.  Here's the plan for 2025. 

Here's how it looked at the end of March. 

Three quilts have moved to finished quilt tops and a fourth is at the assembly stage. Not bad progress for the first quarter.  If I can move every bar even a little this year, it will have been a good year.  

Ambition 2: Learn to quilt. I've been challenging myself with this goal for the last 2 years. I'm going to get serious about that this month since I have a break in quilt alongs. My fingers first typed that there was no progress on this goal yet, but then I remembered Grad Girl's second "learning to sewing" project. 

 

Back at the guild retreat in January, Grad Girl used this cute little kitty pattern to make a trivet.  I layered it with backing and batting and tried quilting it just using my normal machine set up.  It ended up being a bit wonky and we had to trim a bit off. Still it doesn't look horrible.  I did learn why a walking foot is recommended for quilting.  She made two of these, the second one still needs to be quilted. That will likely be my first practice project with the walking foot once I finish practicing a bit.  (By the way, she loves this trivet and uses it all the time in her kitchen. She wants to make some for her dad for next Christmas. Hopefully, I'll be up to speed by then).  

Ambition 3: Fabric Organization. I've been so busy with quilt alongs during the first quarter that I've done nothing on this goal. Last year I didn't make good progress on this goal till second quarter.  Looks like that will be the case this year too.  

Though I didn't have any official ambitions around new experiences, I do have two for the quarter.  One is learning how to write quilt patterns.  I started that process back in December with doing a simple block pattern. A whole quilt pattern is more of the same, but has some unique challenges. The second new experience is going on a shop hop. It was interesting, but it was a lot of driving!  

This year is off to a good start on the goal front. Hopefully I can keep it up.  Second quarter will be over before we know it.  

March 2025 PHD report

We are a few days into April so it's time to look back at what got done last month and post a March PHD report and join the linky party over at Ms P Designs USA.  I appreciate these monthly look backs, especially when I have no finishes.  It helps me remember that I did actually do stuff even though there are no updates to my PHD tracking sheet.

No new starts either, so I'm at least not adding to my UFO list yet. There was some good progress on several projects this month.  

An oldie, but goodie made it back to my active project list in March. On Ringo Lake was the Bonnie Hunter mystery back in 2017. When I last worked on in January of 2019, 28 of the 30 blocks were finished.  The last two blocks were assembled pretty quickly and assembly was started. In an effort to just get this project to finished quilt top, simple sashing rather than Bonnie's pieced sashing is the plan.    

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for several years now.  Last year all the yellow and orange blocks were finished. The red blocks are almost done, but I still need a lot of the blue, purple, teal and green.  Since yellow was the color for March, I combined the yellow blocks into bigger blocks for assembly into the quilt. I also continued making more blue blocks.  

My long term leaders and enders project, the Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter) continued in March, but it switched from making 4 patches to actually starting to assemble the quilt.  I'm not sticking strictly to Kevin's layout, so I wanted to get that going and adjust the total of 4 patches needed as I go along.  There's been good progress on the center of the quilt so far.  

Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) became a finished quilt top early in the month.  

The April and May blocks were actually finished for the Guild BOM, but I can't show May's blocks till I reveal that color to the guild later this month. April's blocks were pink, it adds a nice spark to all the cool colors already finished.  I'm trying to work ahead a bit just in case life happens and I have trouble getting a given month's block finished.  

After finishing off the May block for the Guild BOM, I wanted to add back a project that needed the blocks pieced. The 2024 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Old Town, was put aside to keep up with the SAHRR.  It's the one project I had a lot of the pieces cut for, so I pulled out the pieces for step 2 and step 5 to work on the last day of March. I'm almost halfway done with step 5.

Most of my sewing time in the first quarter of 2025 was focused on this year's Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail). I got the quilt top finished before the quilt parade.  The backing is purchased and washed, but it still needs to be trimmed to size. Fingers crossed this will be my first finish for the year before the end of this month.  

As of the end of March, my progress tracker show four quilts with progress for 2025.  Two projects became quilt tops last month and one more shows good progress.  

So it was a good month on the progress front.  April's focus in the sewing room is to work on moving a couple of quilts towards finished. We'll see how that works out.  

To Do List for the Week of 04/01/2025

March was a pretty productive month, fingers crossed April is as well.  I did pretty well with my last to do list for March. 

To Do List for 03/25/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish May blocks ✔

2.  2025 SAHRR: Trim backing - progress

3.  On Ringo Lake: Make 2 blocks, start quilt assembly ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Making blue blocks ✔

5.  Summer Scrap Quilt:  Leaders and enders ✔

Four out of five is definitely not a bad week.  Progress has been slow, but steady.  I'm hoping for more of the same for this week's to do list. 

To Do List for 04/01/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Trim backing, start prepping quilt top

I was able to get the backing with 25% off on Saturday. It's got both the green and the blue, so works well with the quilt top. It's been washed, but needs to be pressed before it's trimmed to size.  I'd like to get this project sent out for quilting before mid month, so I'll start prepping the quilt once the backing is ready.  

2. On Ringo Lake (Bonnie Hunter): Finish quilt assembly, start borders

Just one more row to add and the two halves can be sewn together. I'm happy with how this project is coming together. It feels good to get another of my older projects close to being a finished quilt top. 

3.  Kate's Choice: Learn to use walking foot and practice quilting

  

I finished the blocks for this sampler in August of last year.  One of goals the last couple of years has been to learn to quilt.  Trudy, who has done such a wonderful job with my quilts the last 10 plus years, is retiring from the quilting for others business sometime this year. She's going to quilt the 2025 SAHRR for me, but that's probably the last one she'll do.  So it's definitely time for me to learn.  I have several smaller quilt tops intended for donation that will look perfectly fine with straight line quilting.  So I'm going to start the learning process with figuring out how to use my walking foot.  I have one, I've just never used it. Getting the quilting going on the Kate's Choice blocks is my Chookshed Challenge project for April.  

4.  2025 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for the June blocks

I'm trying to work ahead on this project so that if life happens, I'm still ready to go, plus it will help give me a head start on getting the quilt assembled to show in December/January.  

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

I'll probably need to cut some more teal scraps, there aren't very many left in the bag from last year.   

6.  Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders. 

Looks like I'm back to a longer list this week.  We'll see how well I do at getting it all checked off.  

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Moving on with the Quilt Plan

It was a pretty low key weekend here. The trees seemed to have greened up overnight. And the spring storms have definitely started up.  Nothing too severe yet, thankfully, as we really need the rain.  

The Stay At Home Round Robin quilt had been my focus for most of first quarter. Now that it's a finished quilt top it was time to find something else to work on.  I signed up to play along with the Chookshed Challenge over at Dreamworthy Quilts this year, but to date haven't done a really great job of doing much with those projects.  For March, the 2017 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, On Ringo Lake, was my pick to work on. This month I actually made some progress on this challenge. 

The parts for two more blocks were cut and those were assembled.  I decided against Bonnie's pieced sashing and instead went with a simple sashing with corner stones.  That makes a cool secondary pattern. I'm happy with how it's coming together.  The last row is partially assembled.  By the end of today all the rows should be assembled and I'll have made a start on the borders. This should be a finished quilt top before the end of April. It does feel good to make some progress on one of my older projects.  

Linking up with the March Chookshed Challenge, Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 13 of 2025

 

It was a really good week on the progress front, actually March has been a pretty good month in the sewing room. My stats from this week attest to that.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/March = 29/29 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 83/88 days
• Success rate = 94.32%

So it was a good week.  Just two days left in the month, but looking back it was a good one.  I have lots of quilt tops finished, now to get those moved to completely finished quilts.

Did you have a good week in the sewing room?   

1. Melissa G 2. Frédérique 3. Julie in GA 4. Karen

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Quilting Gail 7. Gretchen 8. Bonnie in Va

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

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To Do List for the Week of 03/25/2025

This year seems to be moving ahead at light speed, when usually the first few months of the year usually seem to go more slowly. This is the last to do list for March.  I'm not ready for April. It's coming regardless, so no point in bemoaning. At least I did pretty well at getting last week's to do list checked off.  

To Do List for 03/18/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR: Finish borders ✔

2.  Guild BOM: Start May blocks ✔

3.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making blue blocks ✔

4.  Summery Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Last week's list was pretty short. My focus was on getting the 2025 SAHRR to finished quilt top and that happened.  So it was a really good week.  

The problem with finishing a project you've been focused on to the exclusion of the other stuff in your sewing room is then deciding what you pull out to work on in it's place. I may have a plan, we'll see how it goes with this week's list. 

To Do List for 03/25/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish May blocks

My version of the guild BOM is scrappy. I got lucky and found a number of 1.5" white on white strips in my scrap bins to use for the sawtooth star border blocks.  Made it much quicker to cut all the pieces I need for May's blocks.  

2. 2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail):  Trim backing

I found a wide backing at the local quilt shop, they have a 25% off sale on Saturday.  So I'll pick that up  then and get it trimmed up to fit the quilt. 

3.  On Ringo Lake (Bonnie Hunter): Make 2 blocks, start quilt assembly

I just need to make 8 of the corner units to have enough to finish off the 2 blocks.  I've got the final layout worked out. I still need to cut the sashing strips and corner stones. I'm hoping to make some progress on assembly before the week is done. 

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

I've made good progress on the blue set of blocks. I should probably count and see where I'm at.  

5. Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leaders and enders

I'm close on the number of 4-patch blocks needed to finish the quilt.  I decided to start assembling the parts of the quilt, the center requires 9 16 patch blocks made from the 4 patch blocks.  If I need more 4 patches of either color, I'll make them as I go along. I don't want to make more than I need, so this seems to be the best approach to keep moving towards a finish on this one.  

It's a bit longer of a list, but with no due dates on anything, I can relax and make progress on each item.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

2025 SAHRR: A Finished Quilt Top

It seems my modus operandi these days is to take my projects with deadlines down to the wire.  The quilt parade link up for the 2025 SAHRR kicks off today over at Quilting Gail.  I finished the last borders on my version yesterday just before lunch. 

This has become one of my favorite quilt alongs.  Coming up with a block to meet the prompt and making it fit in the dimensions for that border is part of the challenge and the fun. It's also improved my piecing skills on small blocks.  

This is my third year participating in the SAHRR.  The previous two years I made quilts for My Guy and Grad Girl.  Grad Girl had asked me to make a quilt for her current roommate. Green is the roommate's favorite color so we started there. 

The green and blue Batik in the middle was the inspiration for pulling in the blue and the darker green. I had a light grey in the stash to use as the background.  After 6 rounds or prompts this was my finished quilt top. 

 

I was pretty happy with how all the rounds came out, but it felt unfinished.  Playing around in EQ, adding a simple border didn't help.  So I decided it need one more pieced border before I added a simple unpieced border to finish it out.  Here's my finished quilt top. 

The finished quilt top is 75" X 79", larger then my previous efforts.  But the quilt needed that last border to balance out that 4th border of just the green and blue.  I'm happy with how it came out.  Now to find a backing and and get it quilted so it can be delivered to the roommate before Grad Girl graduates this summer.  

Thank you Gail, Kathleen, Anja, Wendy, Brenda and Emily for another fun SAHRR.  

I'm also linking up with my usual Monday linky parties, Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.