To Do List for the Week of 01/21/2025

It always seems like the Tuesdays of the weeks with Monday holidays are actually second Mondays.  It's not as bad as it was when I was working. But I still get off schedule as My Guy is home and I don't follow my typical weekly routine. It's been too cold to do much of anything but sew over the three day holiday weekend.  That worked out well for the to do list from last week. 

To Do List for 01/14/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish February blocks ✔

2.  2025 SAHRR: Finish center block ✔

3.  2024 Guild BOM: Add final border ✔

4.  Marble Mystery: Work on assembling blocks ✔

5.  Old Town: Finish clue 3, work on other clues ✔

6.  Wild and Goosey: Finish red blocks, start purple ✔

7.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders/enders ✔

Definitely a good week, there are check marks on every item on the list. The priority stitching got done and the 2024 Guild BOM is now a finished quilt top.  Consequently, this week's list will be a bit shorter.  

To Do List for 01/21/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish first border

The prompt for the first border comes from Kathleen McMusing.  She suggested a King's Crown block or a block that starts with your first initial.  Considering I don't want my borders to be larger than 4", the King's Crown block won't work. So after a bit of a panic, I did come up with a border that uses a block based on my first initial.  Fingers crossed it works out OK.

2. Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Continue block assembly. 

There are only 4 #1 blocks. One down, the second started, so just two more left before moving on to block #2. 

3. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter):  Continue working on clues

I used gold rather than the coral Bonnie suggested.  Not even half way done with clue #4.  I did finish up clue #3 last week. 

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to make purple blocks.

I thought I was finished with the red blocks but as I was looking over my progress photos, I still need 8 more red block to finish out the set.  That's OK, I'll go back to red when it comes up as the RSC color.  

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

I'm back to making yellow 4 patches.  When I checked the project box, I only need to make 30 more of the yellow.  I'm just over half way done with the blue 4 patches, so there's still a lot of stitching left to do.  

That's my list for this week. Since this week's list is shorter, I'm hoping for more progress on each project. 

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  Stay warm and dry, it's cold out there!  

Priority Projects

I'm not really ready for it to be Monday, even if it is a holiday.  Of course being retired, it's almost like another day, except I get to hang out with My Guy because he's off work.  I did spend a lot of time in the sewing room this weekend. I finished priority project #1 on Friday, my center block for the SAHRR. 

I've seen the prompt for the first round posted over at Kathleen McMusing's blog.  My plan is for 3" or  4" borders for each round so her first part of the prompt won't work for me.  So I'm going to have to find another block that works with the first letter of my name.  I think I have an idea. I'll definitely be playing in EQ later this morning to see if I can make that work.  

The second priority project was to finish the February block for the guild BOM. 

 

That was finished just before shutting down for the evening last night.  So I'm ready for the guild meeting tomorrow.  

The only other progress I made was actually assembling the one block A for the Marble Mystery. 

I'm pretty happy with my fabric choices, we'll have to see if that's still the case once I get the other blocks made and the quilt assembled.  

That's what's up on my design wall currently.  Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 3 of 2025

 

It's been a good week on the stitching front.  My big goal was to get my deadline sewing completed. The center for the 2025 SAHRR is finished.  I'm still working on the guild BOM, but should be able to finish that up later today. I've had to be in the sewing room to stay caught up.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 17/18 days
• Success rate = 94.44%

Definitely a good week on the stitching front. My weather app says lows in the teens and highs well below freezing till Wednesday.  I suspect it won't be a problem to spend lots of time in the sewing room during the upcoming week.  

How are you doing at keeping up with your stitching stuff?  Are you on track or falling behind?  

Getting Started on the 2025 SAHRR

The middle of January snuck up on me. I had hoped to have my center block picked out and ready to go before the the first 2025 SAHRR kick off post went up. But that didn't happen. I've been contemplating center blocks since 4th quarter last year. I knew the color palette was going to be predominately green, but hadn't picked the fabrics.  Inspiration struck when Grad Girl and I found a beautiful blue and green Batik in the close out section of the local quilt section.

From that we found the bright blue and the darker green.  I pulled a gray from the stash to use as the background.  Now that I had the fabrics it was easier to decide on a center block. I'd been going through my patterns to find something that clicked, but ended up designing my own center block.  

I'm pretty happy with how it came together, though it's certainly not perfect.  Now we just have to wait till the prompt for the first round is announced on Monday over at Kathleen McMusing's blog. 

I'm playing along with the Chookshed Challenge this year. I realized when the  Mid-Month Check In post went up that I had never specified what my January challenge was.  My goal for this month is my #9, get the center block and first round border finished for the SAHRR before the end of the month.  I've got the center done, now to stay on track with the first border.  

To Do List for the Week of 01/14/2025

January seems to be chugging along much more quickly then it normally does.  Tomorrow we'll be halfway through the month. Wasn't it the first like yesterday?  Maybe it's because a cold has put a damper on my stitching time and I don't feel like I got much done last week. Progress on last week's to do list isn't bad, but I definitely didn't have the most productive week. 

To Do List for 01/07/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Start February blocks ✔ 

2.  2025 SAHRR: Select fabrics, start center block - progress

3.  2024 Guild BOM: Finish borders - progress

4.  Marble Mystery: Finish December, start January clues ✔

5.  Old Town: Continue to work on clues ✔

6.  Wild and Goosey: Continue to work on red blocks ✔

7.  Summer Scrapy Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Not the best week, but not the worst either. The list for this week is pretty much the same, but there are two projects with deadlines, so those will be priority this week.  

To Do List for 01/14/2025

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Finish February blocks

Found the gray scraps for the main block and one of the sawtooth stars.  Those are cut. I still need 4 other grays for the remaining sawtooth stars and to cut the background fabrics.  These have to be done before next Tuesday's guild meeting. So this will be my priority this week.  

2. 2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish center block

This quilt will be a gift to Grad Girl's current roommate.  She likes green, so most of the rounds will be green with blue used as an accent fabric.  The background is a pale gray.  I know what I'm doing for the center block, I just need to cut the pieces and get it assembled before next Monday.  So this is priority number 2 for the week.  

3.  2024 Guild BOM: Add final border. 

Since I have two other projects with immediate deadlines, this has been pushed to the side. Hopefully I'll have time to get the last border on so it can fall off the active list for a bit.  

4.  Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Work on assembling blocks

Fingers crossed my fabric choices work out. I'm hopefully optimistic seeing how the block 1 is going to go together.  

5. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Finish clue 3 and continue to work on other clues

I'll eventually get this mystery put together, but it's not a priority.  I've been adding in a few step 2 and step 3 pieces as I work on other projects.  Just a few more step 3 hour glass units to assemble. Then I'll move on to finishing off step 4.  

6.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making red blocks, then start on purple

Just two red blocks left to finish and then I'll start on purple ones till we see what the RSC color is for February.  

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

Another long list for this week.  Finishing #1 and #2 is my priority this week. If I can also get #3 moved to finished quilt top, it will have been a really good week. 

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Not Much To Show

With the cold I had last week, I didn't spend a lot of time in the sewing room.  Grad Girl and I did have one marathon sewing session Thursday evening.  She started some trivets at the retreat and she wanted to finish at least one of them before she went home.  So we cut the batting and backing for one of the mats. Since I've not done any quilting, I really couldn't teach her. So we played with the machine settings while I tried quilting the mat. She provided discussion and support.  Then I showed her how to bind it.  Not perfect, but Grad Girl was really happy with the outcome. 

It was definitely a very fun collaboration. I still need to work on my quilting skills, a lot! 

I've made some progress on the 2024 Guild BOM.  

The second light blue border is attached.  I just need to cut and attach the strips for the last border and this will be a finished quilt top. 

That's it for what's up on my design wall this week.  Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.

Stitching Stuff: Week 2 of 2025

I'm trying to get back on track with my regularly scheduled activities.  Grad Girl left Friday to head back to Texas.  She ended up staying an extra day due to the snow storm that blew through here on Thursday.  The house was so quiet yesterday. There's no kid taking a nap on the couch in the afternoon with the TV on and no thunder of paws going up and down the stairs.  It was so nice to have Grad Girl home for almost 3 weeks.  She'll graduate either this May or August, so it's the last long school break she'll have. 

I've been fighting a cold the last few days.  On Wednesday I was just too out of it for much of anything, sleeping in the recliner a big portion of the day.  It was just too much energy to think about stitching, that broke my 373 days long streak of daily stitching time.  I'm still not 100% on the health front, but I have been back in the sewing room every day since.  My numbers for the year don't look so bad.  

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 10/11 days
• Success rate = 90.91%

If I can maintain between an 80% to 90%  success rate this year, it will still be a very good and productive year.  

Now that Grad Girl is learning to sew, Queenie spent more time in the sewing room since both of us were there.  I set up a place for her to sleep on the window seat, which is her preferred perch in the Grad Girl's room down the hall.  Typical cat, she decided there was a better place to nap when hanging out with us. 

  

Apparently my fabric to be pressed bin was far more comfortable.  

How did your second week of 2025 go?  Are you holding firm on all your quilting and non quilty resolutions?  Or have you already fallen off the resolution wagon?  

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

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Meloney 7. Quilting Gail 8. Alycia Quilts - Quiltygirl

9. Bonnie in Va 10. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 11. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 12. Frédérique

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Week 133 Photo Challenge: Power

We all had photos, but My Guy forgot to send me his in time for me to get a post out last week. To be fair he's had a busy couple of weeks in the New Year.  The last challenge card we pulled was a bit different. 

I had an idea for this one, but my photos turned out horribly. So I racked my brain for something else.  I'm not impressed, but I do have a photo.  

Kate: My Daily Power Source

 

A simple power strip, not something that makes an eye catching photo. This one sits by my recliner so I can charge my phone, IPad, ear buds, and Fitbit. Nothing glamorous, but it makes my life a lot easier.  Definitely one of those things we use daily that we completely overlook.  

My Guy and Grad Girl's photo's form a theme.  My Guy's is a long established source of power. 

My Guy: Pumpjack

 

If you've been to Oklahoma you used to see these pumpjacks moving oil out of the ground pretty much everywhere.  As the reservoirs in these oil fields decrease below economical production, you see less and less of them.  

Grad Girl's photo shows what's been taking their place. 

Those fields that used to be full of pumpjacks are now filled with wind turbines.   The northern parts of Oklahoma are really flat and very windy, a perfect place for them.  Not that they don't create their own environmental issues with the wildlife and not everyone wants to have these be the main view of what used to be vast and sweeping plains.  

This week's challenge is more concrete. 

Should be interesting to see what we all come up with.  

Photo Play: December 2024

I'm really good about wrapping up and planning my quilty year, I don't have such good habits for my photography.  As I wrote in the post covering the November photos yesterday, I didn't think there would be much to review.  And that was true. Even though there wasn't much photography going on at the end of the year, there are a few photos that were interesting. 

Photos were captured using a Canon 70D DLSW with a Sigma 105 mm macro lens or on my I-Phone 12.  

Photos of the Christmas tree and the decorations are my usual repertoire for December.  Usually they are pretty predictable photos.  As part of my "play" for this year, the goal was to capture something a bit different.  Not sure I succeeded there, but there were two photos that I though had some promise. 

The Christmas lights aren't blown out and you can see the detail on the green light really well.  The hint of blue off towards the corner adds some interest. Taking photos of the lights is one of my staples, but this year I did better at setting the camera so I got the photo I wanted. 

The reflections on this red ornament caught my eye. I tried lots of different settings, but this photo was the best balance getting the reflections sharp and keeping the rest of the ornament mostly in focus.  Not a typical photo of an ornament, but I wanted something that looked different.  It's an interesting photo, but maybe not a great photo if you know what I mean.  

The last photo for December isn't perfect technically, but it has an emotional impact on me. 

Grad Girl's cat, Queenie discovered the window seat in Grad Girl's room last year when they visited.  The day of this shot, Grad Girl left to spend the day with one of her undergrad college roommates. Queenie will make do with me and My Guy, but she really misses her girl when she's not around. During this day and New Year's when Grad Girl was off again to spend time with friends, Queenie pretty much stuck to the window seat and Grad Girl's room.  She just looks so sad and contemplative in this shot.  

That's the last of my photos from 2024. I'm going to review my best and see if that points me in any direction for this year.  Thanks for sticking around for another non-quilt related post.  If you have any feedback/suggestions, that helps me get better too.  

Photo Play: November 2024

December was so busy with my mom being here and then it seems like Christmas arrived shortly after. I never got around to reviewing my November photography efforts.  I was so very unfocused on photography in September and October, I tried to get back on track in November.  I ended up with 3 sets of photos that made my best list for the month.  

Photos were captured using a Canon 70D DLSR with either a Tamron 18-400 mm telephoto or Sigma 105 mm macro lens.  

One of our family photo challenges for November was "smoke".  I used incense to generate the smoke so I could collect a whole bunch of shots.  I picked one for the challenge, but there were two others from the shoot that were close seconds. 

 

I like the flow and the "drama" in both photos.  I don't usually do well when I have to stage photos, but this effort really produced some nice photos.  There were lots of rejects, trying to capture smoke and keep it all in focus with a macro lens was definitely a challenge. Capturing three good photos definitely feels like a win. 

The second set of photos were taken just a few days later. We had some big rain storms in early November which produced some interesting puddles on our back patio. 

 

There was almost no wind with these storms, which allowed the ripples from the raindrops to show up so well in the pools of water.  I used a narrow aperture which produced the sharpness, but kept the photos dark.  Only the green leaf in the second photo shows that the photos weren't shot as black and whites. I really like the patches of light and dark in each photo, along with the texture of the rings and diffraction patterns that are produced when two sets of rings overlap each other.  

The last set of photos were taken on a date day with My Guy. We drove over to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County to hike.  We saw a few bison, none of those photos came out very well.  You have to shoot with the angle the car allows because you don't get out when they are crossing the road in front of you.  We ended up staying till sunset as another photographer told My Guy that if we stayed till dusk he could probably get some photos of some short eared owls. He did get a couple of nice shots, he has a much longer lens than I do.  But I did get some wonderful photos of the moon rise over the prairie.   

It was full dark when we left.  I have to admit, I wasn't so thrilled to be staying so late, that wasn't the plan. But we both ended up with photos we would have never had the chance to photograph if I'd kept us on schedule.  I would do well to remember that when I try to rush My Guy because his change of our plans doesn't always align with my agenda.  

Thanks for sticking around for another non-quilting post.  I'm not sure I have much of anything for a December Photo Play post. December was busy, we didn't even do much with the photo challenge. If there's anything worth sharing, hopefully I can get to that next week. Then I need to give some thought to what are my photography ambitions for 2025.  

To Do List for the Week of 01/07/2025

Hard to believe we are a full week into the new year.  I've spent more time this week looking over what happened in 2024 and deciding what should happen in the sewing room this year than actually doing anything in the sewing room.  Thankfully, I did have a one day retreat that helped me move along with some projects.  It was a fair week for the to do list.  

To Do List for 12/31/2024

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Start on February blocks - no progress

2.  Old Town: Continue to work on clues 2 to 7, start clue 8 - progress

3.  2025 SAHRR: Decide on and start center block - progress

4.  2024 Guild BOM: Finish sashing and start assembly ✔

5.  Marble Mystery: Finish December, start January clues - progress

6.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making red blocks ✔

7.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders/ender ✔

Check marks on 3, progress on 3 and only one with no progress.  That's really not such a bad week. Seven to do items is a bit much for one week, but I'm going to need to stick with that this week to stay on top of things.  But maybe I need to scale back some of my to dos a bit.  

To Do List for 01/07/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Start February blocks

I need to get going on this soon, I need to have them ready for the guild meeting in 2 weeks.  

2.  2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Select fabrics and start center block

I've got the center figured out and a start on the fabric selection. Kick off is on the 13th, but the first round doesn't start till the 20th. So I have some time here too.  

3. 2024 Guild BOM: Finish borders

The second set of borders are in progress. So just one more set and this will be a finished quilt top.

4. Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish December and start January clue.

As part of my prep for the retreat last weekend, I did end up cutting up the big 9 patch blocks that was the second part of the December clue.  I've just got a few more square in squares to sew to the flying geese and I'll be all ready to start quilt assembly. I'm excited to see this project come together. 

5. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to work on the various clues.

Clue 1 is finished, clue 2 is almost finished.  I cut a lot of pieces in preparation for the retreat, so I'm in much better shape there. I've still got a lot of sewing to do on the rest of the clues.  I do have enough to put one block together and I may do that, but I'm going to try to finish all the subparts first.  

6. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to work on red and purple blocks. 

 

Only two more red blocks needed in addition to this one.  The RSC color for January is pink, but I'm not using pink in this quilt.  I'll switch to purple once the red blocks are done.  

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

The next set of 4 patch pairs are pinned and ready to be stitched. Looking at this pile I remember some of the quilts these scraps came from.  The rose print on the top was from my third pieced quilt.  The blue stripe next to it is the backing for another quilt. There's an oriental print that went into the Geisha quilt for my niece. Another square is left over from a high school graduation quilt for Grad Girl's best friend.  So lots of memories in these scraps.  

That's my list for this week. I'm just hoping for progress on each project.  The most pressing is the 2025 Guild BOM and the 2025 SAHRR, so those should be priority.  I'd like to get the 2024 Guild BOM to a finished quilt top to get it off the active list.  If I can do that much it will have been a good week.  

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday. 

The First Design Wall of 2025

The last week has been full of end of year summaries and plans for the new year.  I posted my share of both. Grad Girl and I sewed our selves to exhausted on Saturday, but we both got a lot done.  My big accomplishment was getting the 2024 Guild BOM assembled. I finished the first round of borders just before I headed to bed last night.  

I finished the pieced borders and sashing over the holiday. And finally got the center all sewn together. All that's left is the final two borders. I have the strips cut for each, I just need to sew the strips together and measure for length, then cut border sized pieces.  That always takes longer than you think it should.  

I'm still piecing bits and pieces for the Marble Mystery and the Old Town mystery. But I don't have much to show on either of those even though the final reveal for both was last week. I'll get there eventually.  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts for the first time in a couple of weeks.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 1 of 2025

My apologies that the post is a lot late today.  Grad Girl and I went to a quilt retreat yesterday and didn't get home till late. I completely forgot about the post for today and pretty much went right to bed and then slept really late (for me anyway). 

There's been a lot of 2024 wrap up and 2025 planning in blog land this week.  Hopefully this is my last wrap up of 2024.  I track my stitching time by year, so cut off 2024 last Tuesday.  So here's my final metrics for last year.  

• 15 minute days/2024 = 366/366
• Success rate = 100%

I may never have a success rate of 100% ever again, but it's fun to say I've done it once.  All that sewing time meant I used 64.2 yards of my stash last year.  That's about a yard and a half under my record for stash usage. The year that was 2024 was definitely a good one on the stitching front.  

This year has gotten off to a good start. 

• 15 minute days/week =  4/4 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 4/4 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 4/4 days
• Success rate = 100%

  

There is no goal for stitching time this year. I'll still track it and  progress on my projects will reflect if I've been stitching or not. I am going to work on using up a bit more fabric this year. It should be easier to limit my fabric intake as I just don't have the budget for it any longer.  No written goal, but it would be fun to have a record year on the fabric usage front.  I'm hoping to finish the 6 quilt tops on my list for this year, that should help a lot.  

I mentioned the retreat at the beginning of the post.  Grad Girl is still pretty new to sewing, her only project up to yesterday was a pincushion.  For Christmas she got a Villa Rosa pattern card in her stocking that would make some cute trivets she could use when she's baking.  She said that's what she wanted to work on at the retreat. 

The pattern is Kitty Cat Snack Mat by Tricia Lynn Maloney.  Grad Girl worked on getting her 1/4" seam down first. Then she mastered the stich and flip corners. She still needs to layer them with Insul-Bright batting and a backing, the kitty will come out more once she quilts them.  But I think she did very well with her first foray into piecing.  I may convince her to make a quilt at some point.  She had fun and really enjoyed hanging out with the "old ladies".  

So how did your first week of 2025 go?  Did you get in some stitching time or are you still in recovery mode after the holidays?  

1. Julie in GA 2. DonnaleeQ 3. Karen 4. Gretchen

5. Melissa G 6. Jennifer in Indy 7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. Quilting Gail

9. Bonnie in Va 10. Elvira 11. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 12. Amanda

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PHD in 2025

This year will be my seventh attempt to earn a PHD. Ms. P Designs USA is again hosting the 2025 PHD challenge.  The rules are simple, 1) finish twelve UFOs and 2)Finish all new starts (unless they are mysteries/BOMs that run into 2026).  I've never finished more than seven quilts in one year. I'm hoping that all the progress last year will help me finish 12 this year. Even if I don't get that far, if I can reduce the total number of UFOs this year I'll be happy.  

Last year's efforts reduced the number of UFOs that just needed assembly, that leaves me this year with six quilt tops to be finished, two projects that need assembly and lots of projects that still need the blocks finished.  I've already planned for three new projects this year as I've learned, focusing only on UFOs isn't fun.  The plan is to pull one quilt top per month get it out for quilting and one project that needs the blocks finished. I'll work in the ones that just need assembly somewhere in there.  

The finished quilt tops have shown up on other posts this week, but I'll add them here as reference for later. 

Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts), Squared Away (SoScrappy), Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter), Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs), Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter), Betty (Meadow Mist Designs)

Quilts to Assemble 

Kate's Choice (my quilt as you go project) and the 2024 Guild BOM. 

Projects that still need the blocks constructed. 

Celtic Solstice (Bonnie Hunter), On Ringo Lake (Bonnie Hunter), Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter), Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter), Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter), Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs),Old Town (Bonnie Hunter), 2025 Guild BOM.

A sub goal for 2025 would be to get all my versions of Bonnie Hunter mysteries into quilt tops by the end of the year.  There are 4 on this year's PHD list.  it would be nice to get them all made into finished quilts, but that's not likely. 

I'm planning 3 new starts for next year, the 2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail), 2025 Meadow Mist Designs Mystery and the 2025 Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  Hopefully I can hold the line at those three. If I can do as well on finishes this year as I did last year, the number of UFOs should go down.  At least that's the plan.  Here's my PHD Report tracking card for this year. 

 

 And here's my project tracker for this year. 

I'm dreaming big this year, I've never had more than 12 projects on my PHD.  I won't finish all of these, but if I can make progress on each one, it will have been a good year.    

ChookShed Challenge

Dreamworthy Quilts is sponsoring the Chookshed Challenge again this year. 

The challenge has you pick 10 quilting related goals for the year and then uses a random number generator to pick which project you work on for the month.  I like challenges that help me stay on top of my to do list for the year and the monthly accountability helps with that. But I don't work well with random, I'm just not wired that way.  So I'm going to pick my list of 10 goals to play along, but I'll decide which one to work on during any given month.  

The first 6 goals for the year is to make backings, quilt, label and bind all the finished quilt tops from last year.  

From left to right, top to bottom

1. Chocolate Marshmallows 

2. Squared Away

3. Chilhowie

4 Malted Mystery

5 Indigo

6 Betty

Here's the remaining 4 goals

7. Learn to quilt as you go by quilting the blocks for Kate's Choice.

8. Finish On Ringo Lake as a gift for one of Grad Girl's chem buddies

 

9. Start and finish the 2025 SAHRR as a gift for Grad Girl's roommate

10. Finish the blocks and assemble my oldest Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice. 

These will be on my 2025 PHD plan as well, but it doesn't hurt to the same entries in multiple challenges. Hopefully that means I'll actually have double the incentive to make progress on these projects.  

PHD in 2024: End of the Year Wrap Up

It's always an adjustment to move from the previous year to the new year.  Mostly it's a mind reset, but it did take me the better part of the morning to reset my quilting tracking spreadsheet for the new year.  That first meant making sure all of the quilty stuff that went on in 2024 was captured. With that all done, it made pulling all the information for my end of the year PHD report easier. 

The year ended with six finishes, six projects moved to finished quilt tops, progress on the rest of the UFOs on the list and six new starts.  So I broke even in terms of finishes and starts for the year, there was no net change in my UFO numbers. But I finished double the number of quilts in 2024 than I did in 2023.  So I'll take that as successful year even though I didn't earn my PHD for the year.

The finishes this year ranged from some of the oldest on my UFO list to one of the new starts. 

First row: A Flutter (self designed), Blue Birds (self designed), Shadow Demon (self designed)

Second row: Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter), Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl), String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs) 

The projects that became finished quilt tops also range from some of my oldest UFOs to one of this year's new starts.  

First row:  Chocolate Marshmallow (Seabreeze Quilts), Squared Away (So Scrappy), Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter)

Second row: Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs), Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter), Betty (Meadow Mist Designs)

There was good progress on a few other projects this year as well.  

Grandmother's Choice (renamed Kate's Choice) was supposed to be my quilt as you go project. It hadn't been touched in twelve years. I finished all the blocks, but didn't do much on the learning to quilt part of the project. There's always 2025 right?   

I didn't do as much on the Butterfly panel this year.  One butterfly and some of the fill in foliage got finished.  This is my travel project. It went on a few trips, but this year I was able to take quilts that needed to be bound on a number of trips away from home. So I still got a lot of hand work done, just not on this project.

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been on the active list for the last couple of years. I make a few blocks each week.  This year all the orange blocks got finished. I only need to finish 3 more of the red blocks to be done with that color.  That should happen this month, then I'm left with all the cool colors to finish. 

The Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt (Kevin the Quilter) wasn't on my PHD list for 2024, but it became an active project when I needed something that would empty out my scrap bins a bit and be a good leaders and enders project.  I need over 200 of the blue 4 patches and over 100 of the yellow. There's ten 4 patches in each stack, so I'm a long way off from that.  So this will probably be my leaders and enders the rest of the year.  

Of the six new starts for 2024, one is a finished quilt (Shadow Demon), one is a finished quilt top (Betty), the remaining 4 are in various stages of completion.  

I hadn't planned on doing the guild BOM, but it was such a different design that I decided to go for it. I mostly kept up, except for December.  All the blocks are made, all that's left is assembly and cutting all the sashing and border strips.  This should make it to finished quilt top before the end of the first quarter this year.  

Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) was going along pretty well until December. I've made some progress on the last clue but, didn't get it done before the January clue came out this morning. This morning's clue includes the instructions for final assembly and I'm excited to see how my version comes together.  

Old Town kicked off in late November.  A month and a half later, I've finished clue 1. Made decent progress on clue 2, but am way behind on all the other clues. There is some of each clue finished, but not enough for more than one block I'm guessing.  We'll see what I can get done before Friday's clue comes out.  

The last new project wasn't planned for at all.  But when I agreed to take on the guild BOM this year, it meant I had to have the January block ready to show at the December guild meeting.  I've made this quilt before, but with the same background for all the blocks. This time I'm going scrappy on the background as well.  

That pretty much wraps up my 2024 in the sewing room. I'm hoping for a successful 2025.  Linking up with Miss P Designs USA for the 2024 PHD Wrap Up.