To Do List for the Week of 5/19/2026

The to do list post is a bit late this week. I had an early morning appointment yesterday, followed by our gym workout, then a trip to Wally World as we call it.  It was time for lunch by the time we got home. When I did get back to the computer in the afternoon, I needed to make sure the guild block of the month instructions were ready to go as yesterday was meeting day.  I just didn't get around to writing a blog post.  

I did pretty well with last week's to do list.  

To Do list for 5/12/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make backing - progress

2. Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔  

3. Lupine and Laughter: Work on A blocks ✔

4. Wild and Goosey: Continue sashing blue blocks ✔

Check marks on three out of 4 items and progress on the 4th is a pretty good week.  We'll see how this week goes, I have more appointments then I normally do. 

To Do List for 5/19/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: make backing

The 2025 BOM is a big quilt, it needs almost 6 yards of backing fabric.  I found this older Connecting Threads fabric in my stash. I have 7 yards of it.  So that should work. I've started cutting the pieces for the backing, it should be assembled before next week.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilting

The plan is to use the walking foot to quilt straight lines along the diagonals of the quilt.  I've finished all the lines along one diagonal. I'll start on the lines from the other diagonal today.  

3. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Continue working on block A 

I've added one block to the wall since Monday, so no photo.  Hopefully, I'll have time to sew this weekend and can get all these blocks done.  

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

This has been slow moving as I'm sashing the blocks as my leaders and enders project. Only 2 blocks completely sashed. I may have to make this a full task and start using the purple blocks as my leaders project.  

That's my list for this week. Pretty much the same as last week.  The 2025 BOM and Chilhowie should drop off in a couple of weeks.  Then I'll have to figure out what projects come next.  

Linking up the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Back to the Lupine and Laughter Mystery

My sewing room mojo was a bit sparse this last weekend.   I ended up reading most of Sunday afternoon. But I did finally make it up to the sewing room for a couple of hours before dinner. 

Other than the 2025 Guild BOM, the Bonnie Hunter Lupine and Laughter Mystery  is the only quilt started last year or for that matter this year, that's not a finished quilt top.  I've been working on what Bonnie calls the alternate blocks.  

Six blocks finished over the last couple of weeks. What looks like black is actually a very dark purple.  I'm making my version half sized.  So I only need 6 more of these blocks.  So half way there. I have cut most of the pieces for the main block, but haven't started assembling those yet. I'll get these done, then start on those.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts and Sew & Tell Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 20 of 2026

 

It's been a pretty calm week on both the weather and the home front. My back is mostly healed, bending doesn't hurt like it did. The doctor didn't see anything that needed immediate follow up in my X-rays. Though he did recommend PT. We'll see what happens there, he wasn't sure insurance would approve it at this point.  

It was a good week on the stitching front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 16/16 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 135/136 days
• Success rate = 99.26%

Another good week in the sewing room. I even spent a day decluttering my fabric piles and going through my project boxes.  I also retired the pincushion I've been using since 2022/2023.  

 

The center of the pincushion was starting to wear just a little thin. It's hard to see how thin the center is from the photo, but you can definitely see the discoloration.  I had a spare in one of my "extras" drawer.  

This pincushion was part of a set that my sister gave me for Christmas several years ago.  The fabric is a heavier decorating fabric rather than cotton. Hopefully it will last longer than three and a half years.  

Have you had the bandwidth for a bit of stitching this week?  

To Do List for the Week of 5/12/2026

My back has been slowly getting better. Bending is still problematic, but otherwise I'm mostly pain free.  My therapy has included cycling, walking and sewing.  Movement is the best thing for the back and with all the walking between rooms I did working on Chilowie, I moved a lot!  It's a blessing that the sewing room was one of the places I could go and not hurt. That was really good for last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 5/5/2026

1.  Old Town: Work on borders ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Sandwich quilt and start marking ✔

3.  Lupine and Laughter: Work on A blocks ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Finish blue blocks, start sashing ✔

It was a good week, 4 for 4 on the to do list. Fingers crossed I can do as well with this week's list. 

To Do List for 5/12/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make backing

My Girl has asked me to finish this quilt for one of her college buddies.  This one is a bit big for me to quilt on my sewing machine. Plus, having some professionally quilted will help me make a dent in the number of to be quilted projects.  I found a reasonable backing fabric in the stash.  So I need to get some measurements and get started on sewing the back up.  It also needs a different name. My Girl is usually pretty good at coming up with good names for the quilts that go to her friends.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilting 

I'm using painters tape to mark my lines. The first two lines were not perfect. I may or may not go back to fix them. I'll see how noticeable the wobbles are once all the quilting is done.  At least I got started. It's slow going at the moment. I'm hoping it gets faster with more practice.  

3. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Work on A blocks

I was reading the pattern last night to get started on what I thought was block B.  My block IDs are switched from Bonnie's.  That's OK, as long as I know which is which.  I've started on the "framing blocks" for the first block.  That purple may be way to dark for the rest of the quilt, but it's what I've cut, so we'll see how it develops as the blocks come together. 

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

Only 1 block sashed so far, 63 left.  This makes a great leader and ender project.  

Another short list.  But it is in line with my strategy was for the year.  I wanted to keep the list to 4 to 5 to dos during second and third quarter.  The focus will be on getting quilts to finished over the next few months.  

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

Tackling the Bonnie Hunter Unfinished Mystery Quilts

If you've followed me for any length of time you probably know I have a week spot for Cheryl Brickey's Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilts and Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt alongs. I've been sewing with Bonnie's mysteries since 2013. That year was her Celtic Solstice mystery. It's still in pieces with a few blocks made. It's on my 2026 project list. Not sure I'm going to get that far. 

I've started 15 of Bonnie's mysteries and finished 7 of them.  Her 2024 mystery was Old Town.  It's one step closer to being finished. 

The borders were added over the weekend and it's now a finished quilt top. When I bought that teal fabric, I wasn't sure how to use it. It worked really well as the accent color in this quilt.  Rather than pink, I switched to gold, which was one of the accent colors in the teal print. Not my normal color palette, but I do really like how this one turned out. 

Old Town now joins the 14 other quilt tops waiting to be quilted in the spare closet.  

I do have a plan to tackle getting at least some of these tops to finished quilts this year. I'm working on quilting Chilhowie (the 2022 Bonnie Hunter mystery) with my walking foot. I've started but it's going to take a few weeks to finish.  Some of the quilts I am going to get professionally quilted.  Hopefully between the two efforts I can whittle down the to be quilted list a bit.  

Linking up with the usual Monday linky parties: Patchwork & Quilts and Sew & Tell Monday.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 19 of 2026

Happy Mother's Day.  My kiddo didn't know what to get me, so I told her she could take me out to lunch during my next visit.  We had planned to spend the holiday with my mother, but she's not feeling great, so we are targeting Memorial weekend to get the family together.  My plans are to spend the day in the sewing room, one of my favorite gifts of all time.

It's been an up and down week.  My back is slowly getting better. Bending is still a problem, but it's gotten less painful.  We decided that maybe our 14 year old mattress was one of my problems, so we replaced that. That didn't go quite as planned. However, adding a pillow between my knees (I'm a side sleeper) has made a world of difference.  

Thankfully the back problems haven't kept me from the sewing room.  My stats look pretty good considering how miserable I was last weekend.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 9/9 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 128/129 days
• Success rate = 99.22%

I've already made good progress on my to do list for the week. Just need to finish the borders on Old Town. That's the plan for this weekend.  

How are you stitching plans working out?  

 

1. Gretchen 2. Kathy S. 3. Julie in GA 4. maggie f

5. LeeAnna 6. Quilting Gail 7. Karen 8. Bonnie in Va

9. Frédérique 10. Linda at Texas Quilt Gal 11. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 12. Marsha's Spot

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Week 154 Photo Challenge: Crowds

The new photo challenge cards have been a bit more involved then the previous two packs.  It's been taking all of us a bit longer to come up with photos. My Guy and I spend most of our time in a small town, which can limit our photo opportunities. My Girl lives in the big city, but she now has a full time job, with a commute. So she doesn't have as much time as when she was a college student. Consequently, we seemed to have shifted to a monthly schedule on our photographs. We're just going to roll with that.  

That last photo challenge was:

Living in a small town, crowds are a relative thing.  The only crowds around here are things like the high school sports, graduation, and the art festival.  We don't have a kid in school anymore, so we aren't tied into those activities anymore.  The art festival isn't till June. So I went with the only place we routinely see more than 10 people.  

Kate: The Church Crowd

 
We usually attend the vigil Mass on Saturday night, that church crowd is mostly the more senior members of the parish. Our church is a bit plain for a Catholic Church, but that's because the founders of this parish were more focused on works then on the building.  When we started here more than 30 years ago, it had the reputation for being the rebel parish in the diocese. They've since combined our parish with the more conversative parish downtown, not so much because the parish is troublesome, more so because of the dwindling numbers of priests.  

My Guy went a completely different route, literally. He spends most of his time out on long walks or long bike rides these days, so he sees a completely different type of crowd.  

My Guy: The Wind Sweeping Down the Plains Crowd

He's more likely to find cows or horses out on the back roads he rides on. I'm not sure where exactly he took this photo, but it really shows just how flat it is here and how much sky you can see.  Our spring weather this year has been stormy, which does make for some dramatic skies. Those clouds do wonderful things to the light this time of year.  

My Girl took advantage of her big city location to find her photo. 

My Girl: This Picture Cost Me $100

She was able to find last minute, discounted tickets for a Raye concert last weekend.  The advantage of living in Houston is there are lots of concerts. If not in Houston, Dallas is only 4 hours away. Still concert tickets have gotten expensive. She is selective about which ones she attends.  

Of the three, it's a toss up between My Guy's and My Girl's photos for my favorite. Both are very different, but both are interesting photos.  

My Guy and I probably have an advantage with the new photo challenge. 

The summer wildflowers are just getting going here.  So we should have a good opportunity to get some new photos. Since My Girl lives in town, it may be harder for her to get a shot.  

To Do List for the Week of 5/5/2026

Hard to believe it is already May. I completely missed that yesterday was "May the 4th Be With You" day.  Today is Cinco de Mayo, so happy holiday if you are of Mexican heritage. Mother's Day is this weekend (I have no idea what to get my mother).  

The end of April, beginning of May were pretty productive as my to do list shows for last week shows. 

To Do List for 4/28/2026

1. Guild BOM: Finish July block ✔

2. Magnificent Mystery: Finish borders ✔

3. Chilhowie: Prep top and back for quilting ✔

4. Lupine and Laughter: Work on A blocks

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue making blue blocks ✔

Definitely a lot of progress on the to do list last week. Now that Magnificent Mystery is a finished top and the Guild BOM is caught up for a few months, I can add something back to the list and it will still be shorter then last week's list. 

To Do List for 5/5/2026

1. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Work on borders

I finished assembling the quilt top back in December of last year. It got put away to concentrate on all the new projects that started in December and January.  All it needs is the borders.  I spent some time in Electric Quilt yesterday and finally decided on fabrics and layout.  I'm excited to get this one to finished quilt top.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Sandwich quilt and start marking

The top, batting and backing are all prepped.  With my back, I can't crawl around on the ground, so I'm going to have to take the sandwich to the quilt shop and assemble it there.  There is a big table in the back that should make that a lot easier.  If all I do is get the sandwich made this week, I'm good with that.  

3.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Work on A blocks

 

In the project bag were 5 finished block A's and this partially assembled one. My plan was to make 3/4 of the blocks, I think.  I need to pull out my notes and confirm that. The plan is to work on this one till it's finished quilt top.  

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish blue blocks, start sashing

 

Just one blue block left to finish. Then I'll need to lay out all the blocks in groups of four and decide which block goes where.  Sashing goes fast so I'm hoping to have these all made into 7.5" blocks by the end of the month.  

This week, my to do list is all Bonnie Hunter quilts, three mysteries (2024, 2022, and 2025) plus one Rainbow Scrap Challenge project (2019).  I've started 14 mysteries, finished 7 of those, and 3 are quilt tops.  So 4 are still in the block making stage (well 3, Old Town just needs borders). 

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

Sticking with the Strategy

It's been a quiet week on the weather front. That's been nice, no late night sessions watching the local weather to decide if we need to move ourselves to the tornado shelter.  My back is still a bit out of whack, I can walk and sit, but bending is completely out for now. Thankfully  I can still sew. 

I've been mostly sticking with my strategy for the year, but I'm not where I'd hoped to be at the end of first quarter.  So it was catch up time in April.  

The Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is finally a finished quilt top.  The final two border strips were added yesterday.  The pattern didn't call for a border, but I usually like to see a frame around the quilt, it looks uncomplete to me when there is not one.  I'm thrilled with how this one worked out.  It's hard to get the colors right for a mystery quilt, I have no regrets about what fabrics I picked and where they went.  It may be my most favorite Meadow Mist Mystery ever. 

It's been slow going, but there has been lots of progress so far this year.  Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts and Sew & Tell Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 18 of 2026

 

This hasn't been the easiest week.  My back was complaining a bit last week. Finally on Wednesday it reached a breaking point and I made a trip to urgent care. They couldn't do much for me other do some x-rays, give me a muscle relaxant and tell me I needed to see a doctor. Like most rural communities we have a shortage of primary care doctors. I finally found one that was on our insurance, but I can't get an appointment for a couple of weeks. The back is getting better, but the x-rays were concerning, so I still need to see a doctor.  

Thankfully the back injury hasn't kept me from the sewing room.  I'm just a bit slower going up the stairs.  So it was another good week on that front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Apr = 29/30 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 121/122 days
• Success rate = 99.18%

Not a bad week. One of my main activities this week was prepping Chilhowie for quilting. That meant standing and stretching a bit across my work table. My back felt much better after each prepping session. Who knew that some sewing works as well as physical therapy?  

How was your stitching week? 

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

5. Kathy S. 6. Karen 7. Frédérique 8. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting

9. Jennifer in Indy 10. Bonnie in Va 11. Quilting Gail 12. Marsha's Spot

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April 2026 PHD Report

I'm not sure what happened to April. Well, that's not entirely true. We were on vacation for almost half the month, so there is only half of month of stitching progress to report for the April PHD Report over at Ms P Designs. There was definitely progress the latter half of the month, but definitely not as much as previous months.  My April PHD report looks exactly the same as March's report. 

No new finishes, but several projects moved closer to that goal this month. 

The Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) quilt top is prepped for quilting. The backing is made and also prepped for quilting. The plan is to sandwich the quilt and mark it next week.  I have a rough quilting plan and will decide if more quilting is necessary as I go along.    

The blue blocks for Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) are almost finished.  Just 2 left to sew up. Orange is the color for May. The orange blocks were finished last year, so the plan is to stick with the blue blocks and get them sashed into 7.5" blocks.  If I get that done before the end of the month, it will be time to tackle the remaining purple blocks.  

The goal for April was to get Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) moved to finished quilt top. The narrow border is on. The final border will get added this weekend. I'm really happy with how this quilt worked out. It may be my favorite Meadow Mist Designs mystery.   

The May and June blocks are all finished for the 2026 Guild BOM. July is in progress. I'm only showing the addition of the May block since that's all I've shown the guild. I've pretty much decided on the blocks and the layout for 2027 Guild BOM. Now I just need to pick the colors and corresponding fabrics for it.  

The 2026 SAHRR (Quilting Gail) became a finished quilt top the week we got home from vacation.  Now it's waiting in the "to be quilted closet" for it's turn to be finished. 

My goal the last couple of years has just been to make progress. Even with the shorter month, several bars in my project progress graph got a bit longer in April. 

The chart for last month finally shows some progress in the big section of quilts to be finished. There is still 2/3 of the year left so hopefully there will a few more completed bars at the end of 2026.