2026 Quilt Making Strategies: Third Quarter Plan

Hard to believe over half of 2026 is already past. The end of the year will come up quickly. So far I've stuck to the main strategy that was posted in January, but the priorities of some of the projects has changed.  That's not so bad.  The plan for second and third quarters was to focus on moving UFOs to finished, or at least closer to finished.  I'm going to stick with that strategy.

1. Guild BOM 2026

The 2026 Guild BOM has to be finished by the November guild meeting.  The first draft of the block instructions for the last 4 blocks are written.  The plan is to get all the blocks made this quarter and start quilt assembly.  I won't be able to complete assembly until October after the last block is shown, but doing all I can this quarter will help keep what needs to get assembled at the end to a minimum. 

2. Wild and Goosey. Continue to use two blocks as my leaders and enders. The goal is to have all the blocks done by the end of the year.  

3. UFOs to be moved to finished quilt tops.    

Lupine and Laughter just needs borders, so that should be a quick finish.  Good fortune still needs 7 of the star blocks constructed before assembly can start.  I do expect that project to make it to finished quilt top before the end of the quarter.  There may be some progress on Celtic Solstice by the end of the quarter.  I'm not sure the blue and yellow scrap quilt will see any progress at all.  It would be great if I get that far.  

4. Walking foot quilting.  

I've learned that it takes me a quarter to quilt one project.  So the goal for third quarter is to finish quilting Glowing Hearts. If I can make a start on Betty, that would be a really successful quarter. 

5. External Quilting

I've changed up the priority of my external quilts.  Squared Away is a gift for one of My Girl's college buddies, so it gets moved up to next in line.  My Girl has asked for 3 more quilts as graduation gifts for her grad school buddies. I suspect one of the girls will like Magnificent Mystery, so I'm going to bump that one up too.  

If I can end the quarter with 2 more finished quilts and 2 more projects moved to finished quilt tops, it will have been a really good quarter.  

To Do List for the Week of 06/03/2025

We were in Texas all last week to attend Grad Girl's thesis defense and then just hang out with her afterwards for a bit of a celebration. Poor girl hasn't had a real vacation in over a year.  The presentation of her work was public, so we were able to attend that. Afterwards we waited in the hallway while she took questions from her committee. 

It was a good week, other than the flat tire issues. We picked up a large bolt somewhere on Sunday/Monday. By Monday night we were running with the spare (thank goodness Grad Girl has a car).  After two visits to the tire shop and the locating of a second leak that wasn't patchable, we ended up having to replace the tire on Saturday.  We had to make a few compromises on activities, but only canceled one planned outing due to needing to be back in time to pick up the car on Saturday.  

We didn't get home till late last night.  Now I have unpacking and laundry to do.  But before I get to all of that, I need to decide what's on my to do list for the sewing room.  Last week's list was short and sweet (necessary with all the travel and thesis defense activities). 

To Do List for 05/27/2025

1.  Hand stitching: embroidery or counted cross stitch ✔ 

I'm hoping that my stitching mojo is back. The fact that mid-year is almost here may have a lot to do with me feeling like I need to get back to the sewing room.  I'm going to be ambitious with this week's list. If I don't check off every item that's OK.  If there is progress on the first three, it will have been a good week.  

To Do List for 06/03/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish cutting fabrics for the blocks

The neutral background is cut for the inverted star. The colored pieces for that and all the pieces for the sawtooth stars need to be cut.  If I can start assembly that would be great.  

2.  Glowing Hearts (MMM Quilts): Finish assembling quilt top

The first two rows are sashed, assembled and sewn together. Assembly of the third row was started.  I should be able to get this to finished quilt top pretty quickly. 

3.  Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks

There's been no progress on this project for several weeks.  I'd like to have a finished quilt by the end of the month.  That may be a bit ambitious, but no reason not to pursue that goal.  

4.  Betty (Meadow Mist Designs): Find backing, figure out assembly

This is my Chookshed Challenge project for June. The quilt top was finished last year and needs to be quilted. I'm hoping to actually get the backing made sometime this month, but figuring out the fabric and the assembly part will set me up for that later this month.  I really need to concentrate on finishing a few quilts if I'm going to meet my goals this year.  

5.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Assemble blocks at late night sew

Another project I've not worked on for a few weeks. I need to figure out where I'm at with it.  I know all the blocks pieces are cut, just need to get all the subunits made.  

6.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Stitch one night this week

Both my embroidery and cross stitch projects have been just travel projects.  If I'm going to make progress, they need to be worked on more frequently.  

7.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish green, sash orange blocks

All the orange blocks are finished, but they need to be sashed with black to make 7.5" blocks.  I've already sashed all the yellow blocks. I'm trying to decide if I assemble this as a medallion quilt, start with the center and add each color as borders.  That might be easier then making it in rows.  I still have time to work that out.  I'll still work making a few 3.5" red blocks this month. I only need a few more to have all the red ones needed for the design. This project won't get finished this year, but I'm hopeful it will be ready for assembly next year.   

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

The plan is to assemble the center and start on the borders. I don't want to make any more 4 patches until I see if I need more yellow or blue. I'm close to my estimated counts.  I'm hopeful this will be a completed quilt top by the end of the year. 

It's a long list, but most of the items are just to make progress. I think I can do that this week.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

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.    

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.  

March 2024 PHD Report

First quarter is over and we are already a few days into the 2nd quarter of 2024.  Since March is over, it's time to look my progress towards a PHD and link up with P Designs USA for the March PHD report. This month the report shows a finish for the first time this year. 

 

Still a long way to go to reach PHD status. But it's nice having the first finish in March versus waiting till September. 

A Flutter was sent for quilting in February.  This quilt was started in 2013, it was my second Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.  It took almost 11 years to finish it, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. It was worth the wait. There is no pattern for this quilt. The butterfly blocks were paper pieced using a block found in Electric Quilt and the setting is a modified Irish Chain worked out in EQ.  I've loved these blocks since I started them, so this quilt is staying with me.  

Just one finish, no starts, but lots of progress on other projects in March. 

Purple was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for March. I need a lot more purple blocks for my version of Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter). The RSC color for April is yellow. I have all the yellow blocks I need for my version of the quilt, so I'm going to keep making purple blocks in April.  

Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter) is back on the active list, barely.  I was able to get the next to last border strips cut and assembled, but only two actually sewn to the quilt. Still that counts as good progress.  This one is close to being a finished quilt top.  Fingers crossed I can make that happen before my knee surgery later this month. 

Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is now a finished quilt top.  It's the last of my "deadline" sewing till the next mystery starts up in July.  It was a fun mystery and one of my favorites in terms of the final design. Now to find a backing fabric for it, prep it and send it out for quilting. Hopefully that will happen before the end of the year.  

Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter) is my current leaders and enders project. All the A blocks are finished. All that's left is to make the one B block and the 4 setting triangles.  I've had to go back and make the subunits for those blocks.  It's going to be slow going for the next bit. Even so, I'm happy with how much progress I've made on Indigo.  Usually it takes me quite a bit longer to be this close to quilt assembly.

The Just Two Charm Pack Quilts quilt along (Meadow Mist Designs) ended in early March.  My version of Betty became a quilt top just before the quilt parade ended (I was the last one to link up).  This was such a fun project. My blue and purple 2.5" strip bin isn't quite as full as it was. A few odds and ends from the stash got used up too.  There are a couple of other quilts I'd like to make from this book.  I need to finish a few more UFOs before I start anymore scrappy quilts.  

 

The 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) ended this month too.  I finished border 6 in barely enough time to link up with the quilt parade.  I was the last one to link up for the parade. (See a theme emerging here?)  I'm so thrilled with how this year's SAHRR worked out.  Now to figure out the backing and get it send out for quilting.  Fingers crossed it gets finished before Halloween this year.  

The April block for this year's guild BOM needs to be finished, but I was caught up as of the end of March.  I'm wishing now that I'd gone with a lighter gray, the one I picked is way too dark.  Fingers crossed it works out OK.  There's not much of it in the quilt, so hopefully it won't look too bad.  

One finished quilt and three finished quilt tops isn't bad for the end of third month of 2024.  My progress tracker shows longer bars in a few places. 

What I manage to get done in the next couple of weeks will determine what the  report looks like at the end of April.  I'll have surgery on my knee later this month. That's probably going to curtail my progress for a few weeks. Fingers crossed that I'm back in shape and ready to go for May.  

A Finished Quilt Top and More Progress on the SAHRR

The leg continues to heal, but then I had some issues with my back one evening.  A couple of days on muscle relaxants and the back is as normal as it gets these days. That did cut into my sewing time a couple of evenings, I just didn't feel much like sewing a lot.  It certainly seems I get one body part healed and something else goes out. Unfortunately a trade in just isn't in the cards, so maintenance is key from here on out.  

I made up for the lack of stitching time early in the week over the weekend. The first priority was to decide on a border for Betty (Just Two Charm Pack Quilts, Meadow Mist Designs).  After digging in my stash a bit,  I found an oldy but goodie.  

  

I forgot to get a photo before I cut off the selvage.  In 2005, we were still in Texas.  There was only a yard of this deep blue, but that was enough for the border. 

 

I liked the deep blue with the medium blue printing.  Unfortunately it reads almost black from a distance, but it does make a nice frame for the quilt. 

The quilt top is assembled.  I missed the parade for the Just Two Charm Pack Quilts quilt along. That's alright. I'm really happy with how this quilt worked out.  The blocks are made from 2.5" strips from my scrap bin. The background and sashing fabrics are left over yardage from other quilts.  The blue border is one of my older stash acquisitions.  The goal was to clear out some scraps and older yardage. This quilt certainly met that goal.  My plan is to finish it and donate it to one of the charities the local guild supports.  

The 5th border for the 2024 Stay At Home Round Robin quilt top was finally finished off this weekend. 

The prompt for border 5 was "4".  The friendship stars have 4 points.  The blocks for border #6 are under construction. The prompt for that week was letters or numbers.  The block represents a letter and placement in the border a number.  So I've got that prompt covered once I get enough blocks made to start assembling that border.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts this week.  

To Do List for the Week of 03/05/2024

I was a bit off my game most of the week.  Fitting in physical therapy and some time with an ice pack afterwards has skewed my schedule a bit.  The medication is messing with my sleep schedule a bit and that has definitely taken a toll too.  I made it to the sewing room every day, but just didn't have the energy to focus for long periods of time.  All that to say, I didn't do so hot on last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 02/27/2024

1. 2024 SAHRR: Finish borders 5 and 6 - progress

2. Betty: Finish quilt assembly - progress

3. Meadow Mist Designs: Finish the February Clue - progress

4. Wild and Goosey: Make red and start purple blocks ✔

5. Indigo Way: Continue making blocks as leaders/enders ✔

I guess the week wasn't so bad.  There was a bit of progress on everything.  It just feels like things didn't go as smoothly last week.  It's a new week and I can hope that my energy levels and focus come back.  

To Do List for 03/05/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail): Finish border 5, work on border 6. 

There are just a few stars left to assemble for border #5.  I've cut the orange fabric for the blocks in border 6, but need to cut the black fabric before assembly can start.  I'll need 36 blocks for the last border. Thankfully I choose a much simpler block for the last border.  I have almost 2 weeks before the final parade.  I should be able to finish up both borders before then.  

2.  Betty (Meadow Mist Designs):  Finish final borders

Cheryl's pattern in the book uses the background fabric as the border, but I want a blue final border. So I changed the background border to the same size as the sashing.  I have several options for the final border, I need to decide which one to use this week and cut the strips.  Betty should be a finished quilt top by the next week (fingers crossed anyway).  I missed the quilt parade dead line, but that's OK. I will still end up with a quilt that helped reduce the scraps in my too full bin.  

3.  Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs):  Finish the February clue.

Just two narrow borders have to be added to finish off the February clue.  The March clue comes out on Thursday.  It would be nice to get the last clue finished before then.  

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

I only managed 4 purple blocks last year.  Fingers crossed I can do a lot better than that this year. 

5. Scrappy Butterflies (self designed): Print label, make binding

Trudy sent the quilt back last week, it arrived on Saturday.  I spent some time this weekend designing the label.  A flutter is a group of butterflies and that seems to fit well for this quilt.  The goal is to have a finished quilt by the end of the month. Doing a little each week will help me meet that goal.  

6.  Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks as leaders and enders.

I'm going to need to make a few more components for the blocks. I made half the blocks to start with, but my final layout requires 2 more block A and several more block b and block b setting triangles.  Even so, I've been happy with the progress.  I might actually finish this one before this year's mystery starts up.  

This week's list is a little longer than last week's list.  But I'm almost done with the friendship stars, which take a lot of piecing to finish. Hopefully once those are done, it will be easier to work in more projects this week. Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.  

February 2024 PHD Report

February always feels like such a shock after January. The first month of the year always seems to be so long and then you blink and February is over.  As the month is over it's time to review my progress (or lack thereof) on my PHD in 2024 and link up with P Designs USA for the February report.  The report is about where I expected it to be at this point, so no surprise on my part.

No finishes as yet and one new start.  Looks like I'm going in the wrong direction.  Maybe, maybe not.  There has been good progress on a lot of fronts, but not enough to get me to a finish. But I'm close. 

Scrappy Butterflies (self designed) was sent out for quilting early in February. 

  

The quilting is finished, I'm just waiting on it to arrive back from Trudy.  That should mean there is a finish in March.  That will beat last year when my first finish wasn't until September.  

I had hoped 2024 would be much better on the health front than 2023 when my back hindered my stitching time.  This year it's my leg.  Rather than not sew, I pulled out my long term embroidery project and took a few stitches. 

It's hard to see the progress, just a few stitches to finish off one clump of grape leaves and a few stitches to start the next clump.  

There was really good progress on making red blocks for Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) this month. 

Almost half the red blocks are finished now.  Angela at SoScrappy hasn't posted what the color is for March as yet. I'll keep making red blocks until the scrappy color for March is revealed. 

Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) had been my leader and enders project for most of last year.  The last block was finished about mid month.  

The sashing for this quilt is pieced, so I wanted to wait till the design wall was free so I could lay out the pieces as I sew.  There aren't so many errors if the pieces are taken from the design wall to the sewing machine.  For now, the blocks have been put up in the project box.  Not sure when I'll get back to this quilt.  There are several others closer to finished that will probably come back into rotation before I pull this one out again.   

Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is almost back on track. 

This may be my favorite Meadow Mist mystery to date.  I'm happy with my fabric choices and love the medallion setting she used this year.  I just need to add another round of blue and white sashing and I'll be caught up with the February clue.  

Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter) has become my new leaders and enders project. 

Back in January, I wasn't thrilled with how this one was coming together. Now that most of the blocks are finished, it's growing on me.  Fingers crossed all the blocks get finished this month.

My time out of the sewing room last week really hit my current quilt along projects hard.  But at least there was good progress on Betty (Meadow Mist Designs) previously in the month.

The first three rows are sewn together, assembly continues on the last two rows. I'm hoping I can get that done today and the borders on it before the deadline ends for the quilt parade. The deadline is tonight, so I'm going to have to hustle to make that.   

Progress on the 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) has been pretty good up till this last week. But I'm not all that far behind. 

Half the blocks for border #5 are finished.  If I work really hard, hopefully I can catch up over the weekend.  

The new project this month is the block of the month for the local guild.  I went back and forth over doing this one, but I liked the setting, so I pulled some fabrics and got started. 

I just caught the error in the corner of the February block. So I'll need to fix that when I get started on the March block.  Both the background and the green on blue have been in the stash for awhile, so I'm glad to finally find a home for them.  

That's 8 projects with progress for this month.  Not shabby at all.  Betty and the SAHRR have been my priorities, but it's good to see that most everything else moved along pretty well too.  Not a lot of new blocks colored in on my progress map, but a few. 

Fingers crossed that the top line is all the way across by the end of the month.  Since the quilt alongs for Betty and the SAHRR end this week, I'll need to decide what's next.  Do I loop back and start in on the quilts that just need backing and prep before they can go out for quilting, or do I keep the focus on the current projects and move those to finished first?  Maybe a little of each?