July PHD Report

July felt like a month of medical appointments.  Physical therapy twice a week and then several appointments to address the tooth pain that was keeping me up.  Even with all the disruptions, July was a pretty good month on the PHD front.  There is another finish to link up with Ms. P Designs for the July PHD report.  

This is my third finish for the year.  I had hoped to have more finishes by this point in the year.  Learning to quilt has been a slow process, but I'm getting better and a bit faster there.  Finding a long arm quilter took a bit of time, but now that I have that option, hopefully I'll make more time to get quilts ready to go out for quilting.  I would really like to make a dent in the projects hanging in the to be quilted closet.  

 

My July finish was the 2025 Guild BOM quilt, which as been renamed to "Ansley's Palette".  This quilt is a gift for one of My Girl's college buddies. This is my second quilt using the Inverted Star block and it was my first effort at being responsible for the guild's BOM program.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  

 

All the blocks are finished for Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter) and quilt assembly has been started. This should be a finished quilt top by the end of August. 

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been progressing steadily all year.  All the blue blocks are now sashed and a few more teal blocks are finished.  The hope is all the blocks are done by the end of the year.  Hard to tell at this point if that's going to happen or not.  

Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker) is the next project to be quilted with the walking foot on my sewing machine.  The backing, the batting and the top are now all prepped.  I've selected the threads to use, though I've not decided on the bobbin thread as yet.  I need to baste the layers together and decide how I'm going to quilt those hearts.  It would be nice to keep my a finish a month going into August. We'll see if that works out.  

There wasn't as much progress as I had hoped for the 2026 Guild BOM.  The block for August was finished and shown at the July meeting.  I did finish the November blocks, which are just 4 patches for one of the pieced borders. It was fast and easy to cut the strips for those. The plan was to finish the September and October blocks too.  But I didn't get that far. I did finally work out what pieces I need to cut from each fabric for those blocks. Hopefully I can get that done soon. The September block has to be ready before the next guild meeting, so it has to get done sooner rather than later.  

The final two borders were added to Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter) early in July. It's now a finished quilt top hanging in the to be quilted closet.  It's always nice to finish piecing last year's mystery before the next one comes out. 

July was a productive month. In addition to the finish, another project is prepped for quilting, another became a finished quilt top and a fourth project had all the blocks finished.  

My project progress sheet is starting to show more color, especially in the quilt blocks to finish category. I'm hoping to see more color in the quilts to finish block, probably not by the end of next month, but certainly in September.    

Another Finish!

It was a good week on the stitching front. It's always fun to have a finish.  My goal was to finish the 2025 Guild BOM quilt before the end of July.  I put the last stitches in the binding at about 5:10 PM last Friday, the 31st.  Not up to the wire, but close.  

I'm really happy with how this quilt turned out.  This is the second time I've made an Inverted Star quilt.  Here's the original started in  2014, finished in 2019.

The newer version is more scrappy, a consistent white one white background was used for the original version. I made the second version as the guild BOM because it was an good way to ease into being responsible for that program.  Just two block patterns and quilt assembly instructions to write.  Each month was a different color. Having to write instructions for someone else really helps you to simplify the construction process. I added the narrow blue borders as a stop between the scrappy whites in the sawtooth stars and the speckled background fabric in the new version. It just didn't look right without them.   

The first version was for one of My Girl's writing class buddies from middle school. The new version is for one of her college buddies. Ansley's Palette is the name My Girl chose for this quilt.  

The friend enjoys painting water colors and My Girl thought the quilt looked enough like a painter's palette to select that as the name. She wrote a personal message for the label that's on the quilt. My Girl has always told her friends that have quilts from us to think of them as a big hug from her whenever they curl up in one.   

This is the first quilt in 16 years that I've sent out for quilting that wasn't quilted by Trudy.  She's a hard act to follow, but the new long armer did a wonderful job. 

I picked Stars and Loops for the quilting and that worked out beautifully.  The background for each star is different, but I used a "paint spatter" print for the background for setting the quilt together. Something different than my typical white on white. But it definitely works with the quilt name My Girl picked.  

The backing is a Connecting Threads sale fabric, Mum's Garden.

The copyright says 2018, so this has been sitting in the stash for a bit.  It was picked because I wanted something light to go on the back and this was what worked best of my stash options.

I used all of the blue fabric in the narrow borders, there was none left for the binding.  I tried a few other colors, but My Girl and I decided a scrappy binding would work best. 

It's hard to see all the colors, a bit of green shows there in the middle. I managed to incorporate all the colors but black, brown and yellow.

My Girl has one more quilt picked out for me to finish for another of her college buddies. That will be my next project to send out for quilting. I have a potential backing selected, just need to see if there is enough or if it needs to be supplemented.    

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, plus Sew & Tell Monday. And with Favorite Quilt Finish for August.  

To Do List for the Week of 7/28/2026

We were home most of this week and with the triple digits outside staying in my sewing room seemed to be the best option.  I did get a lot done, it just doesn't feel that way.  

To Do List for 7/21/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make binding and label - progress

2. Glowing Hearts: Piece batting, prep backing ✔

3. 2026 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for remaining blocks - progress

4. Good Fortune: Continue to assemble quilt ✔

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue making teal blocks ✔

Only three check marks, but there was progress on all 5 to dos from last week.  I'll take that.  The goal is progress, and that happened. It's pretty much the same list for this week.  

To Do List for 7/28/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Bind quilt

The binding strips are all cut, they just need to be joined together.  The plan is to use my time at late night sew to get the binding sewn to the quilt.  I have a lot of hand stitching to do for this to get done this month.  

2. Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker): Prep quilt top and assemble quilt sandwich. 

The quilt backing and the batting are laying on the My Girl's bed waiting for the top to be prepped.  I haven't completely figured out how I'm quilting this one.  Once the quilt sandwiching is done, I'll need to commit to something.  

3. 2026 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for remaining blocks

I did get the fabrics cut for one of the blocks and actually got that one assembled.  That leaves the last two blocks.  I finally sat down and looked at what I needed for both, so I can optimize my strip cutting. I'm getting low on fabric and I don't want to run out.  

4. Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to assemble quilt. 

The third row is under construction, just 4 left to go. This project will take a back seat until I can finish up the 2025 Guild BOM.  There will be progress I'm sure, but it probably won't be a finished quilt top by the end of the week.  

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making teal blocks

I need to cut some additional teal triangles because I'm running a bit low on that color.  I'm just a bit over halfway done with these blocks so I still need lots of scrappy triangles.  

If I can move each to do along a bit, it will have been a good week.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.

A Bit of This and That

We had a pretty quiet weekend. After all the running around last weekend, that was definitely on my agenda for the week.  We hit triple digits both days of the weekend, so hiding out in my sewing room was definitely my preferred retreat from the heat.  

In an effort to work down my UFO list, I finally found a local long arm quilter to try.  My Girl needs a few graduation quilts for school buddies, so I'm trying get those finished before everyone graduates this year or next.  Last year's guild BOM has been picked as one of those quilts to be gifted.  So I gave the new to me quilter a try. The quilting turned out beautifully.  Now it just needs to be bound. But before the binding it needs a label.  After a bit of back and forth with My Girl, this is what we came up with (minus the personal message). 

This friend enjoys painting as a hobby.  Since the quilt has all different colors in it, My Girl decided it was a good substitute palette.  So I went with it.  I'm hoping to have the quilt bound before the end of the month. Which means I need to do a lot of hand stitching this week.  

There was also good progress on assembling Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter).

The the sashing has been pinned to that third row, I just need to stitch that long seam. So I'm close to another finished quilt top. My 5th finished top for the year.  Which will bring the total of tops hanging in the closet to be quilted to 15.  The long arm quilter did a good job with the 2025 Guild BOM at a reasonable price, so I'll definitely be using her again.  I already have the next quilt top and a potential backing selected for the next quilt to be sent out. Hopefully I can finish 4 more quilts this year between the new long armer and my at home quilting efforts.  That would take the UFO list lower than it's been in a long time.  

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

To Do List for the Week of 7/21/2026

We were in Dallas for the weekend, so I didn't get much sewing done. I worked a lot on the instructions for this year's Guild BOM, so that was my "stitching" activity for the weekend. That wasn't on last week's list, but it needs to get done.  There was some good progress on last week's to do list before we left.  

To Do List for 7/14/2026

1.  Glowing Hearts: Piece batting, start quilting - progress

2.  Guild BOM: Assemble August block ✔

3.  Good Fortune: Continue to work on blocks ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue working on teal blocks ✔

Three check marks and a progress is a good for a week with no weekend sewing room time.  I'm not sure how well this week is going to go.  The upstairs air conditioner quit cooling last night.  My sewing room is upstairs.  Temps are supposed to in the low 90s the next few days, but that's still a bit warm to be sewing in. I can sew at the local quilt shop or set up an alternate location downstairs. It depends on when we can get it repaired. With 100 plus temps the last week, it's not the easiest time to get someone out to look at an air conditioner.  Here's my list for this week, it probably won't all get done, but why not dream big. 

To Do List for 7/21/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Make binding & label

  

I picked the quilt up from the shop yesterday. It needs to be trimmed, plus the label and the binding need to be made.  This quilt is a gift for one of My Girl's college buddies, so I sought her input for the binding.  Since this is a rainbow quilt, we decided on a rainbow binding. I tried to stick with dark to medium fabrics, hence the absence of yellow. I'm pretty sure the binding will get made, but since I won't have access to my big cutting table for an unknown amount of time, I'm not sure when this quilt will get squared up so I can sew on the binding.  

2. Glowing Hearts (Sandra Walker): Piece batting, prep backing

I have two large pieces of batting left over from the piece I used for Chilhowie.  If I sew those together, I'll have enough for Glowing Hearts.  I'll probably get the batting assembled. If I'm out of the sewing room till next week, prepping the quilt back won't happen.  

3. Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for the remaining blocks

August's block was shown at the guild meeting last night, so I can share that.  The plan is to start working on the remaining blocks.  If I can get all the block parts cut while I have each fabric out, it's much more efficient.  It would be nice to finish August with all the blocks finished so I could start quilt assembly.  November will be here before we know it!  

4. Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter): Continue to assemble quilt top

The first row of blocks have been sashed, but they aren't back up on the design wall yet.  Fingers crossed this will be a finished quilt top by the end of the month.  

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making teal blocks

I haven't counted how many more teal blocks I need. A little over half the blocks were made as of last week and only a couple more were finished during the week. So still need quite a few more before all the teal blocks are finished.  

It's an ambitious list. It would be even if I was sure of access to my sewing room. I'll be happy if even a little progress happens for each project. Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday when it's posted. 

Second Quarter Review 2026: Strategic Progress?

Back in January, I drafted a strategic plan (?) for 2026.  Strategic Plan is probably a gross overstatement of what I actually put together, but it was at least a potential road map for my quilting decisions.  Now that we are in 3rd quarter, I should probably take a look at where I'm at and decide on any adjustments.  

2nd Quarter Strategy

1. Guild BOM: Finish May through October blocks.  Finish Flying geese. 

The May, June and July blocks are all finished.  The flying geese for the alternate border are also all finished.  The instructions are written for the August and September blocks.  I needed to verify the cutting dimensions for some of the pieces for the October block and that got done last week.  So I didn't get everything done, but I'm also not too far off track.  If I put focus on this project in July, I should be back on track before we got too far into third quarter. 

2. Wild and Goosey: Continue as leaders and enders project

All the blue 3.5" blocks were finished last quarter and most of the blocks were sashed.  The hope is this project will be ready for assembly before the end of the year. 

3. Move UFOs to finished quilt tops. 

Three of the 5 UFOs became finished quilt tops: 2026 SAHRR, Magnificent Mystery and Old Town.  Lupine and Laughter only needs two more borders added to be a completed quilt top.  The remaining pieces needed to assemble the blocks for Good Fortune have been cut.  The chain blocks are all finished, but still working on the star blocks.  I didn't get it all done, but at least every project on the plan is farther along. 

4. Walking foot quilting

The plan was to finish off two quilts, but only Chilhowie was finished up. Glowing Hearts has been pulled out of the closet, the batting laid out to relax and I've been contemplating quilting motifs.  So even though it didn't get done, at least there was a bit of progress on it.  Based on how the walking foot quilting has been going, one quilt a quarter seems to be my speed, at least for now.  

5. External quilting

A backing was pieced for the 2025 Inverted Star BOM. Both the backing and the quilt top were prepped for quilting.  I delivered the project to the long armer the first week in July.  So at least that one will be a finished quilt in third quarter. I didn't even touch Chocolate Marshmallow.  It's probably going to go to the bottom of the list as My Girl has picked a few quilts that will be going to college and graduate school friends.  So those will higher priority the last half of the year.  

Second quarter wasn't a total success, but I have learned a lot. I'm doing well at moving projects to finished quilt tops. That will help a lot in clearing out my UFO list. But I'm not doing so hot on either the walking foot quilting or getting quilts ready for external quilting.  It seems one quilt top for each a quarter is about my speed on that part of the UFO process. I'll have to consider if that modifies my strategy for third quarter or not.  At any rate, there's been reasonable progress on all of my "strategies".  Not a bad first half of the year.   

June PHD Report

Hard to believe we are half way through 2026. By this point you realize your goals were just a touch too ambitious and what seemed doable back in January is probably not going to get done. At least that's how it seems to work for me. Thankfully it is the start of a new month, so another chance to make good progress on my projects.  Linking up with Ms. P Designs to review on my progress with my June PHD Report.  

June's report includes another finish.  It's my second for the year. Which isn't much, but two finishes is double what I had last year. Not what I had hoped to achieve by this point in the year, but I'm not going to be too hard on myself. 

Chilhowie, the 2022 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, was finished in June. This is my first attempt at quilting a whole quilt (my March finish was a quilt as you go project).  I learned a lot while quilting this project. It's far from perfect, but it doesn't look too bad. The quilt is 61" x 62", a bit bigger then I remembered.  This project was donated to the local charity that supports women fleeing domestic violence.  I'm hoping this colorful quilt ends up with one of the kids, I think they'd like the bold colors.

Even though there was only one finish this month, there has been good progress on some of my other UFOs.  

The embroidered butterfly panel is my travel project. It came along with me on my visit to My Girl the last week of June.  I also took my sewing machine. But the days we had plans, it was easier to work in a few minutes of embroidery time then pull out all the sewing stuff. I sew on her dining room table, so it has to get put away when we eat. I made good progress on the 7th butterfly. 

I needed a new block assembly project for June.  The UFO with the most blocks already completed was Good Fortune, the 2018 Bonnie Hunter Mystery. The chain blocks were a pretty quick finish, the main pinwheel blocks are taking a bit longer. 

June was spent adding sashings to the blue Wild and Goosey blocks (Bonnie Hunter). I made good progress with those, but didn't quite get finished.  It's much easier to put the blocks up on the design wall now that most of them are sashed. I'm excited to get this project to the assembly stage.  Purple and teal still need a number of blocks, but there has been progress on both.  

The 2025 Guild BOM is prepped for quilting and will be dropped off for long arm quilting this week.  Fingers crossed that means a finish in July.  

The July block of the month for the guild was shown at the June meeting.  I've been working on the blocks for the rest of the year.  Instructions have been written, but that's about it. I need to get going as I'll need to have the August block ready in just a couple of weeks. 

 

The blocks for Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter's 2025 mystery) were finished last month and assembled into a top. The first border is on.  The strips for the last two borders are cute. Those should go on in July. 

Looking back, there was visible progress last month on my project tracking chart.  

 There was a finish, another quilt that reached the ready to be quilted stage, and another quilt to adding borders stage. There has been steady progress in the first half of the year.  Hopefully I can keep up the momentum into July.   

To Do List for the Week of 6/16/2026

Last week was a good one for progress, it's just that most of that progress was just on two projects.  But I did a bit on everything that was on my list.  

To Do List for 6/8/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Prep quilt top for quilting - progress

2. Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔

3. Lupine and Laughter: Continue assembling quilt ✔

4. Good Fortune: Continue making blocks ✔

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue sashing blue blocks ✔

Most of the week was spent on Chilhowie and the 2025 Guild BOM projects. Chilhowie is a finished quilt, I just haven't had a chance to get final glamor shots for it. That will happen today. A finish always makes one feel like they've been pretty productive. Hopefully I can carry that momentum into this week's to do list.

To Do List for 6/16/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Finish prepping quilt top for quilting

    

Giving the quilt top a good pressing and removing the loose strings always takes time, but it's worth doing.  I took this photo so I wouldn't forget to get one of the prep work.  Since this was taken, I've moved on to the last row of blocks.  It's been pressed and seen a pass of the lint roller, I still need to deal with some loose threads.  I'm hoping to get this finished up and delivered to the long arm quilter tomorrow. Fingers crossed this will be finished in July.  

2. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter) Continue assembling quilt. 

Just two rows left to assemble and then it will be time for borders. What looks like black is actually a very deep purple.  I'm pretty happy with how this one is coming together.  I'm hoping this is a finished quilt top by the end of the month.  

3. Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making main blocks

I finished all the chain blocks and got started on finishing up the main block.  There's a lot of HSTs and stitch and flip corners for this block so it's been slow going, but it is going.

4. Celtic Solstice (Bonnie Hunter): Cut fabrics needed to finish blocks

I found the project box and looked at the finished blocks, but didn't really look very closely at what pieces had already been cut. I don't like to just stand and cut, so I'll work that in with my sewing time. 

5. 2026 Guild BOM: Finish block instructions and cut pieces for blocks

I have block instructions written for August and September.  I've started on the instructions for the October block.  I need to play with some fabric scraps to be sure I've got the pieces sized right for the October block before I finish those instructions.  The block for July gets shown at the guild meeting tonight, so I need to get going on August pretty quickly.  

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

This has been a slow process as I've been using this as my leaders and enders project. But there has been progress, I just didn't get a picture this week.  

A longer list then I've had recently, but most of it is prep stuff so I can keep moving along with some of the older projects.  If I don't get to all of it, that's OK.  It helps me to see where I'm going next.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday. 

To Do List for the Week of 6/8/2026

My weekend wasn't as productive as normal, but I certainly made up for it during the week.  I finished the to do list and a bit more.  

To Do List for 6/2/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM:  Prep back for quilting ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔

3.  Lupine and Laughter: Continue working on main blocks ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue sashing blue blocks ✔

A good week on the progress front.  I'm hoping for the same with this week's to do list. 

To Do List for 6/9/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Prep quilt top for quilting

The backing is pressed and de-threaded.  The quilt top isn't going to go quickly.  I suspect it will take me most of next weekend to get it prepped.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue quilting

The cross hatching is done.  After a consultation with my late night sewing buddies, I'm going to move on to quilting the borders this week.  I'm hoping to have a completed quilt soon. 

3. Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembling quilt

Having two late night sewing sessions really helped move the main blocks along for this quilt.  I'm going to cut the border strips so those are ready to sew.  This should be a finished quilt top before the end of the month.  

4. Good Fortune (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks 

Working on this project wasn't in last week's list.  But after making such good progress on Lupine, I needed some block construction to work in between assembling the rows for the other project.  After yesterday's photo of the black and purple blocks, I thought these were done. Nope, still need to make another 4 blocks.  But that's not too bad. There should be progress on main blocks this week too. 

5. Wild and Goosy (Bonnie Hunter): Continue sashing blue blocks  

 

These blocks are my current leaders and enders project. So it's been slow going.  There will be 16 sashed blocks once all of the flying geese units have been sashed, so not quite halfway there.

Fingers crossed this week is as good as last week on the progress front.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

May 2026 PHD Report

May went fast. Hard to believe that at the end of this month we'll be half way through 2026.  Looking back, May was a pretty productive month, even though my PHD report didn't change.  

I'm still going to link up with Ms P Designs for the May PHD report to show that no finish isn't the same as no progress.  

The goal for 2nd and 3rd quarter this year is to tackle my UFO pile.  Good Fortune was the 2018 Bonnie Hunter mystery. The project box had a pile of both A and B blocks, with a few other odds and ends from the various steps.  The A and B blocks will go into one quilt, the blocks that were supposed to be the pieced borders will either get worked into the quilt back, or into a separate quilt top.  The total number of blocks has been decided and all the pieces to make those blocks have been cut.  Probably won't make any additional progress on this project till this year's BH mystery is a finished quilt top. 

Progress on Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been slow since sashing the blue blocks has been my leaders and enders project for most of May. Slowly, but surely more 7" blocks are showing up on the design wall.  

Chilhowie, the 2022 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, was the next project on my "to be quilted" list.  Still need to add the second set of cross hatch lines to the left side of the quilt. I've figured out how to feed the quilt to the machine without dragging, so the stitching has been much more even on the more recent quilting lines.   

The 2024 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Old Town, just needed the borders added. It's now a finished quilt top hanging in the closet with all the other to be quilted projects.  

Some quilts on the to be quilted list will be quilted professionally. the 2025 Guild BOM is one of those.  The backing was ready for stitching at the end of the month. So didn't quite get this step done in May. 

 

The Meadow Mist Designs 2025 Magnificent Mystery quilt also just needed a final border.  It's hanging right next to Old Town waiting to be quilted.  

The June block was added to the 2026 Guild BOM this month.  The July block is actually finished, but hasn't been shown to the guild yet.  The plan for June is to at least start on the August, September, October and November blocks and start on the instructions. 

Lupine and Laughter (2025 BH Mystery) was the project with the most progress this month.  All the alternate blocks are made.  The main block takes lots of stitching time, so it's been slow going, but there has at least been some progress with those.  

My progress chart isn't much different from April. Two projects have graduated to finished quilt tops, but that's about it for May.  Hopefully June will see at least one more finished quilt top and a finished quilt.  Cross your fingers for me.