November Wrap Up: PHD in 2023

Hard to believe it's December.  Just one month left to reach all those goals we crafted so carefully last December. One of my goals was to play along with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2023 and do better than I did in 2022.  I'm linking up to the November PHD Update with a report that looks better then last month's. 

  

I finished a second quilt in November, which puts my PHD performance on par with last year's in terms of overall finishes.  In addition to the finish, there was good progress on several other projects. 

I've been working on this emboridered panel since 2012. It's been my traveling project for most of that time.  I have to admit it travels a lot more then it gets worked on, but Grad Girl likes to sit, stitch and talk, so I did make some good progress on it over the holiday weekend. 

The panel is over half way done. Let's hope it doesn't take me another ten years to finish it!  

The backing for Scrappy Butterflies (self designed) is in progress. 

The next step is to prep both quilt top and backing for quilting.  The person who quilts for me has some significant family stuff this month, so we agreed that it was best to wait to send this quilt till after the holiday.  I may or may not try to get this prepped before the end of the month. It may wait till January.  

A few orange blocks were finished for Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter).

There ares still 2 partially completed orange blocks at the sewing machine. Once those are finisehd, Wild and Goosey is going back into the project box till January.  I'll pull it out again to use as my RSC project for 2024.  

Macaron Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) was my one finish for the month, the second for the year. 

I always enjoy Cheryl's mystery quilts, though this one isn't exactly her final layout.  This quilt is going to be a graduation present next May, well unless I finish something that Grad Girl thinks is a better fit for her mentor between now and then.  

The plan was to finish getting the borders on Rhododendron, Bonnie Hunters 2021 mystery quilt, before this year's mystery took off. 

There was progress on the pieced border, but the quilt top is still a ways off of being finished. I'm not doing full borders of the flying geese. Fingers crossed my plan for the unpieced part of the border works out.  

Melodic Mystery, the 2022 Meadow Mist Designs quilt along, is back from being quilted. 

The quilt was delivered yesterday. So I've not done much more than unbox it and admire the quilting.  Trudy did a wonderful job on this one.  Now the plan is to get the label and binding made so this qult becomes my third finish of the year.  

Last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery, Chilhowie, is still in the works.  The last few blocks haven't gone as quickly as I thought they would.  

It's hard to see the progress since last month, but there was some.  

Clue 5 is still in the works for this year's Meadow Mist Designs' Mystery, the Malted Mystery.  I've till next Thursday to catch up. 

I'm happy with my colors this year. Looking forward to seeing how all these Bits and pieces go together.  

Bonnie Hunter's 2023 Mystery, Indigo Way, kicked off last Friday.  Since we weren't home for Thanksgiving, I didn't get started till Tuesday on clue 1.  Thankfully, I'm only making half the blocks. 

I'm going to need to step up the pace if I'm going to catch up.  My Guy is leaving on a business trip Sunday, so I should have lots of sewing time next week.  

If you stuck with me this long, thank you.  There are way too many projects in the works.  I definitely need to trim the active list down some.  That should happen this week.  

I had hoped to have more complete bars in my progress chart.  

  

Hopefully, by the end of the month there will be more colored in spaces.  

Happy stitching this month.  Enjoy the holiday season, whichever one you celebrate.  

Another Finish, Finally

The plan was to finish one quilt a month starting in September. Due to vacation, I got behind in October.  Even so, I'm still happy to have the Macaron Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) quilt finished. 

My version is a little different than Cheryl's (Meadow Mist Designs), I wasn't a fan of the partial blocks, so those were left out.  I finished the binding Saturday afternoon. 

The plan was to use the red for the binding, but there wasn't enough left from the quilt top. But the black and white print works pretty well. 

My practice has been to name my version of a quilt. The first step in deciding on a name is usually a Google search for any flower names that match my color scheme.  Usually that returns something for me to work with, for this project, that took me down a bit of a rabbit hole.  At the bottom, was this term "aposematic".  Again per Google: 

Aposematic: (of coloration or markings) serving to warn or repel predators. (of an animal) having aposematic coloration or markings. 

The next search was for examples of aposematic color schemes. Red, black, yellow, or very bright colors (such as those yellow, blue, or orange poison frogs from the Amazon rain forest).  Combinations of red and black were another example given.  For whatever reason the word just stuck in my head. The quilt does have a pretty striking color scheme, though I certainly hope that doesn't warn someone away. Well, maybe if you are taking a nap under it you'd want to warn someone away.  At any rate here's the quilt label. 

This quilt is destined to be a graduation gift, probably for Grad Girl's research group mentor who will be graduating in the spring.  If not for her, then it may go to one of her other friends later.  

Linking up with my normal Monday linky parties,  Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  Also linking up with Meadow Mist Designs, Favorite Finish for November.