Chilhowie: The Second Finish for 2026

I'm currently in Texas, hanging out with My Girl and Queenie.  I spent most of last week getting ready to travel and not as much time in the sewing room. But I did reach one big milestone. The quilting of Chilhowie was completed and I made getting it bound a priority so I had a second finish to add to my tally before we cross into the later half of the year. 

Chilhowie was the 2022 Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt.  I opted to make just 9 blocks, the quilt still turned out to be a good sized lap quilt at 61" x 62".  

The backing is pieced using the blocks from the pieced border that I decided not to add along with a couple of older pieces of yardage from the stash. 

The paisley print was used in a quilt started in 2010.  So it's close to 20 years old.  The dark brown was a Connecting Threads purchase that just hadn't found its way into a project yet. 

This is the second quilt I've quilted on my sewing machine. The first whole quilt that I've attempted. 

The quilting is pretty simple. Just diagonal lines across the center and a set of 3 straight lines in the borders. The stitching looks much more even and straight in the later quilting efforts. I've learned a large part of quilting on your sewing machine is figuring out how to manipulate the quilt so it doesn't drag when it's going under the walking foot. I'm not in love with the quilting part of the finishing process. But now that I'm retired, it just makes sense for me to tackle my smaller quilts.  So there will definitely be more walking foot quilting this year. I've already got my next project to be quilted picked out.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts, Sew & Tell Monday, and I Quilted This. And linking up with Favorite Quilt Finish for June.  

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.   

What Am I Doing?

Sitting at my machine last night and pinning pieces for the next round of chain piecing, I realized that 4 out of 5 projects getting pinned were Bonnie Hunter projects.  Her mysteries are known for needing lots of piecing. I enjoy the piecing, but to be working on 4 at one time may not be the easiest way to move a few projects to finished. Especially when I am trying really hard to keep up with this year's mystery, Indigo Way. I've finished half of the clue 1 HSTs and have made a start on the clue 2 triangle in a square.  We'll see where I'm at on Friday when clue 3 comes out.

The last few months Bonnie's 2021 mystery, Rhododendron, has been on and off the design wall.  It is one BH mystery that is getting close to being a finished top.  I rarely stick to Bonnie's design, usually because I don't want to make all the blocks for the pieced border.  That's the case for Rhododendron. But I have found a way to use the flying geese in partially pieced borders. 

 

The border on the left is ready to stitch to the top, the other 3 borders are in various stages of construction.  Fingers crossed all four are finished and attached by the end of the week. The plan is for one more narrow white border and a wider final border of purple.  If the pieced borders are all attached by the end of the week I'll be happy. A finished quilt top by the end of the month would be nice.  We'll see how that goes.   

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.

Design Wall Refresh

It was a warm weekend here, but I didn't enjoy it much.  My allergies really didn't like the warm up. I'm hoping we get some of the forecast rains sooner rather than later to knock back the pollen. I didn't spend a lot of time in the sewing room this weekend, but enough to make a bit of progress on the UFO next in line for assembly.  

All the blocks for Bonnie Hunter's 2021 mystery quilt along (Rhododendron) were finally finished back in January of this year. They've been sitting in a project box until we got back from vacation.

Bonnie used a thin sashing and pieced setting triangles to finish her version. I'm going to skip the pieced setting blocks, but keep the thin sashing. 

This is what's up on the design wall after yesterday.  I've cut the corner triangles, but still need to cut the end of row setting triangles.  Fingers crossed that happens today. Bonnie used corner stones in her sashing, I've not decided yet if I want to include them or not.  Keeping them would make assembly a little easier. 

I'm hoping to get Rhododendron to finished quilt top before Bonnie's 2023 mystery comes out.  That's definitely doable.  It probably won't be up for finishing till next year. I'm slowly whittling down my unfinished BH mysteries.  Just four more to go after this one (not counting this year's mystery).   

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.  

PHD in 2022: December and Year End Wrap Up

I'm struggling a bit to think clearly.  Benadryl does wonders for allergies, but it also creates a lot of brain fog.  I think the cats, Grad Girls and my mom's, finally got to me yesterday.  Actually it's probably mostly due to my mom's cat.  He decided to sleep next to my head Tuesday night. Grad Girl and I drove back down to my mother's on Tuesday because it would cut 2.5 hours off GG's trip back to college and I needed to pick up some things that wouldn't fit in the car after our Christmas holiday.  At any rate, hopefully I can stick with this post long enough to finish (and hopefully it's mostly readable).  

I've been playing along with Quilting Gail's PHD (Projects Half Done) for the last 4 years. I've yet to earn my PHD, but it's been a good way to be accountable for both finishing up old projects and finishing up anything new that was started during the year.  Here's my end of the year report for 2022. 

There are no updates to the report for December. There were no more finishes, but there was progress on one UFO and two ongoing projects. 

Rhododendron, the Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery quilt along, gained two blocks during December. 

So just one block left to finish and I can start quilt assembly.  This project has come a long way this year, some of the pieces for the blocks hadn't even been assembled yet when the calendar turned over to 2022.  

Rhododendron as of 12/31/2021

My word for 2022 was Progress. I met that with this project even though it's not finished. 

Melodic Mystery, the Meadow Mist Designs 2022 mystery quilt along, was started in October.  I'm still a bit behind, but only by one month. I still need to finish the December clue. 

I have 5 more flower blocks to finish to be caught up. January's clue is probably already out, I've just not had a chance to go check it out.  

There has also been steady progress on the Bonnie Hunter 2022 mystery quilt along, Chilhowie. 

Clue 1 is finished, clue 2 is close, the rest of the clues still need a lot of work.  Even so, I'm happy with all the progress on this project. 

Progress was made on two other UFOs earlier in the year, but then they stalled out. The first was Unity, Bonnie Hunter's stay at home mystery quilt along. 

I finished the last pieced border and final two unpieced borders. The backing has been made and is prepped for quilting.  All that's left is to get the Unity top prepped.  There are a lot of loose threads on the back of this one and it's just been more than I've wanted to deal with.

The 2021 Meadow Mist Designs Mystery quilt was a new start in 2021 that carried over into 2022.  The quilt top was finished back in November, but I struggled to find a good backing fabric. I finally ordered some.  This is next on the list for quilting once I get Unity out the door.  

In the finished column for the PHD program are Fluorescence and Reactive Intermediates. 

Fluorescence (self designed) was ready to go out for quilting in November of 2021, by February 2022 it was a finished quilt. This quilt is one of my all time favorites.  

Reactive Intermediates was made from the pattern Potions, by Flying Parrot Quilts. The quilt was a gift to Grad Girls undergraduate research advisor.  I started cutting the fabrics for some of the blocks at the end of December 2021. I had to be really disciplined to get this quilt finished for graduation in 2022.  But it got done (the night before, but that still counts).

There were two other projects that were started and then finished in 2022. After Grad Girl moved to Texas, she asked for one more grocery bag as she went down the one she left for her undergrad roommate.  There was request for grocery bags for the undergrad roommates as they were now short too. My Guy had been wanting his own set of bags so we could cut down on the number of plastic bags we were collecting.  

In total I finished seven grocery bags.  The grocery bags got me back in the sewing room after a rough summer of no stitching.  They were quick and fun finishes. Exactly what I needed to get out of my stitching front. 

The other finish was also a start inspired by Grad Girl. She wanted a couple of her favorite embroidery pieces made into pillows. 

I finished these the evening before we moved her to Texas. Last year seemed to be the year for just in time finishes.  Both of us were very happy with how the pillows turned out.  The star of each is her embroidery.  

In summary, I didn't do so hot on the UFO finishes, ending the year with just two. But I did make really good progress on a three others. I finished all of the new starts for 2022, since both Melodic and Chilhowie continue in 2023, those don't count.  Not a stellar year, but considering just how rough the year was, I'm happy to get at least that much done. 

You can see how everyone else did on earning their PHD's in 2022 over at Quilting Gail.  

Mystery Stitching

Today is the last day of our holiday vacation.  My Guy heads back to work tomorrow and Grad Girl starts the trip back to Texas tomorrow.  She'll go visit Grandma tomorrow afternoon, that will cut about two and half hours off the eight hour drive.  I'm going to be really sad the rest of this week. Thankfully there are some new quilt alongs starting up soon. Hopefully getting ready for those will help me adjust to being home alone again.  

There has been some stretches of stitching time this week between Christmas and New Years.  The big accomplishment was finishing off the November clue for the Meadow Mist Designs Melodic Mystery quilt along. 

That's quite a pile of flying geese. I'm still working on the December clue. But it should be close to finished by the time the January clue comes out on Thursday. 

I'm not doing so well at keeping up with the Bonnie Hunter Chilhowie mystery.  I've managed to finish clue 1 and clue 2 is almost finished.  

The hold up is those hourglass blocks.  I'm going to need to start adding more sets to my string piecing line up.  That should be easier to do as I complete more of the previous clues.  

That's my progress for this week.  Linking up with the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.

Not Much on the Design Wall

It was a stay at home and not do much kind of weekend. The wind was so cold, so it wasn't a hardship to just stay home.  I'm not looking forward to next weekend, the forecast is for really cold temperatures.  I know we won't be as cold as those of you to the north, but -7 F is cold no matter where you live!  

The sewing room has seen a fair amount of activity, but there's not really much to show. I've mostly been working on the Meadow Mist Designs and Bonny Hunter mysteries, so most of what's going on at the sewing machine is small subunits. 

This is what the pile of bits and pieces looked like after my last chain piecing session.  The orange bits and strip pieces are for Chilhowie, the pink bits are for Melodic and the purple/white block on the bottom is for Rhododendron. 

The only thing I have up on the design wall is the blocks for the Melodic Mysteries December clue. 

 

I finished all the quarter blocks, but am still working on the flower blocks.  I'm hoping to be caught up on all the clues when the January clue comes out in a couple of weeks.  The rest of my design walls are empty.  Once we start making blocks out for the Chilhowie mystery, there will be more to look at.  

Linking up with the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts linky parties this week.  Enjoy your holiday preparations and family time this week. 

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 12/13/2022

December will be half over on Thursday.  I'm ready for a clean start in 2023, but am definitely not ready for the holiday that happens between now and then. I've written in previous posts that my holiday spirit seems to have gone into hiding this year. I'm still adjusting to the new normal I guess. Hopefully it will get a good boost when Grad Girl comes home next week. 

I've been keeping the weekly to do lists pretty simple. I'm just not that ambitious at the moment, my goal is to just keep making progress. I did well with last week's list. 

To Do List for 12/6/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on Nov and Dec clues ✔

2. Chilhowie Mystery: Work on clues 1 and 2 ✔

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Block B as leaders and enders ✔

Three check marks.  Things are moving along, which for this time of year is about all I expect.  

My schedule has been disrupted the last week with house stuff.  We had the tile guy out to look at redoing one of the showers late last week and then yesterday the roof guy out to fix the damage from one of the recent storms. I also wrapped all the family gifts yesterday. I still have My Guy's and Grad Girl's to wrap yet. I'll be spending some time with my Mom and sister this week, so I'm going to keep to a pretty simple list for this week as well. 

To Do List for 12/13/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on Nov and Dec clues

The flying geese in November's clue are coming along, I should be caught up with those by the time the January clue comes out.  I've finished the quarter blocks, but still have more of the flower blocks to make.  

2. Chilhowie Mystery: Work on Clues 1, 2, 3 and 4

I've finished all the 4 patches from clue 1, but am still working the 9 patches.  I've made a start on the clue 2 blocks and have just starting cutting out the pieces for clue 3.  Bonnie's mysteries are probably a bit fast paced for me, but I still enjoy them. I'll just keep plugging along till a clue is finished.  

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Make block B as leaders and enders

Once all these triangles are stitched together, I'll have enough of the hourglass blocks to finish the last block B.  Then it will be assembly time.  

That's my list for this week.  Good luck with your stitching list for the week and your holiday prep list.  Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday. 

To Do Tuesday For the Week of 12/6/2022

As much as I enjoy the holiday season, I really don't like the cold and dreary weather, it's very deenergizing. I'm sure my energy levels would also be better if things would quit breaking.  The latest is a leak in the drain line from the tub in the second floor bathroom.  We've sent up an appointment with the plumber.  Not sure how much of the bathroom they are going to have to deconstruct to fix the leak, but it has to be done. I may have to relocate my sewing activities as my sewing room is right next door.    

On a more positive note, last week's to do list was completed. 

To Do List for 11/29/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on Clues 3 and 4 ✔

2. Chilhowie Mystery: Work on Clues 1 and 2 ✔

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Block B as leaders and enders ✔

With so much stuff going on with the holidays and the house repairs, I'm going to stick with a simple list for this week as well. 

To Do List for 12/6/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on Clues 3 and 4

Clue 4 is going to come together a lot faster than clue 3. I'm still working on those flying geese for that clue.  I'm hoping to be all caught up by the time the January clue comes out. 

2. Chilhowie: Work on clues 1 and 2

I finally got all the strip sets sewn together and cut apart, so there are a few 4 and 9 patch pieces completed.  I've started cutting the strips for step 2, but that's as far as I've gotten.  

3.  Rhododendron: Assemble block B as leaders and enders

This block is almost finished. Just two more left to assemble. All the parts have been cut, so all that's left is stitching them together. Hopefully, both will be done before Christmas.  

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.  

PHD in 2022: November Progress

Just 31 days left in 2022.  I'm really not ready for that. On the other hand, this year hasn't been so great on a number of fronts, so I'm looking forward to the new year in hopes it's a lot better.  Since it is a new month, it's time to summarize my progress on earning my PHD and share over at Quilting Gail's.  It's not a stellar report, but there has been some progress on all the active projects.  

No new finishes, but one new start. The clues for both mystery quilts won't end till next year, so they don't have to be completed this year.  I doubt there are any more finishes this year, but I'm going to try to move each project closer to that point.  

Unity, the Bonnie Hunter Pandemic quilt along,  is the closest to being finished. 

The backing has been pressed and prepped for quilting. Now I just need to do the same for the quilt top.  That means tying up the cutting table for a few days. I'm much more interested in actually sitting at the sewing machine the last few weeks, so it's been hard to get motivated on the clean up.  I will get to that before the end of the month. It would be nice to start my 2023 PHD with a finish in January.  

Macaron Mystery, the 2021 Meadow Mist Designs mystery, is now a finished quilt top.  

The backing is proving to be difficult, I don't seem to have enough of any one fabric for the backing. So I'm back to deliberating between a pieced backing or buying backing fabric. I'm leaning heavily towards buying backing fabric, so that's probably what will happen.  

My current leader and ender project is Bonnie Hunter's 2021 mystery quilt, Rhododendron.  

All the "A" blocks are finished and one "B" block was finished last month. Just three more "B" blocks and quilt assembly can begin.  I doubt I get that far this month, but at least it's progressing.  

Clue 4 for this year's Meadow Mist Designs mystery, Melodic, will be out today.  

Clues 1 and 2 are finished, and clue 3 is over halfway finished.  Hopefully, I'll be caught up with all the clues by the time the January clue comes out.  

Chilhowie is the newest Bonnie Hunter mystery.  

I'm still working on the strip sets for the 4 and 9 patch units from last week's clue.  I'm not going to be caught up when tomorrow's clue comes out. But that's usually how it goes with Bonnie's mysteries. I tend to stay perpetually behind. But that's OK, I really enjoy the process. 

So 2022 will probably be one of my least successful years for the PHD program.  Maybe that will motivate me to do better in 2023?   

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 11/29/2022

We had a fun Thanksgiving with Grad Girl.  We were amazingly busy while we were there. We spent one day in Houston hanging out at the Houston Museum of Natural History. One day was dedicated to Christmas shopping.  Even though I didn't have a lot of time for stitching I still managed to check off all the items on my to do list. 

To Do List for 11/22/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on clue 3 ✔

2. Chilhowie Mystery: Start clue 1 ✔

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Work on block 2 as leaders and enders ✔

My sewing time for last week was pretty much limited to yesterday, so I was wise to keep my list for the week simple.  That worked so well that the plan for this week is pretty much the same.  

To Do List for 11/29/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on clues 3 and 4

Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs 2022 Mystery)

I'm almost to the halfway point on clue 3.  Clue 4 should come out on Thursday.  I'm hopeful of being mostly caught up by then.  

2.  Chilhowie Mystery: Work on clues 1 and 2

Chilhowie Mystery (Bonnie Hunter 2022 Mystery)

Most of the strips for clue 1 are cut but aren't sewn together into sets yet.  I'm only making half the blocks this time. That typically works better as I have a chance of actually completing a clue before the next one comes out.  We'll see how far I get before the next clue comes out on Friday. 

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Make block B as leader and ender

Rhododendron Mystery (Bonnie Hunter 2021 Mystery)

The hourglass blocks take a bit to assemble, but I'm making progress.  Once this set is all assembled, only two more blocks need to be completed.  It's slow but steady progress.  

That's my plan for this week.  Yes I have quilts to prep for quilting, but I'm really just not in the mood to add that to my list. Maybe next week.  

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your to do list this week.  

A Late To Do Tuesday for the Week of 11/22/2022

It's been one of those weeks.  I fully intended to post my To Do Tuesday yesterday, but those plans were interrupted by either food poisoning or a stomach bug.  I went from wanting to puke my guts up to just feeling 100% crappy. It's Wednesday afternoon and I'm finally feeling almost normal again.  Thankfully My Guy and Grad Girl carried on with Thanksgiving prep without me, so that should go off as planned tomorrow.  

But back to the To Do List. Not one of my better weeks, but definitely not one of the worst either.  

To Do List for Week of 11/15/2022

1. Unity: Prep for quilting: no progress

2. Macaron Mystery: order backing ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Work on clues 2 and 3 ✔

4. Chilhowie: Decide on fabric palette ✔

5. Rhododendron Mystery: Blocks A and B as leaders and enders ✔

To finish 4 out of 5 isn't a bad week at all.  This week is a holiday and we'll be spending time with Grad Girl, so it will be a much shorter list. 

To Do List for Week of 11/22/2022

1.  Melodic Mystery: Work on clue 3

Clues 1 and 2 have been completed. Clue 3 is about half way done.  Not sure I'll be caught up before the next clue comes out, but I'm not that far behind. 

2. Chilhowie Mystery: Start clue 1

I shared the colored version of this photo in Monday's post. Here's the black and white image that shows the range from light to dark.  

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Continue block b as leaders and enders.

Just three more B blocks and Rhododendron will be ready for assembly.  It will continue to be my leaders and ender project till the blocks are done.  

That's my list this week, short and simple. Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday. 

For those in the US, have a very happy Thanksgiving.  Do take a few minutes to Google food safety for those holiday leftovers.  That's not what made me sick, but the previous 24 hours haven't been fun, so I'd like to spare anyone else from going through that when they are hoping to hang out with family.  

I Love a Good Mystery

It was a quiet weekend. Which is nice as this week will be busy with plans and prep for the Thanksgiving holiday.  As I was sorting through what to post for the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork and Quilts linky parties, I realized that my sewing room efforts the last few months have been dedicated to finishing up old mysteries or starting new mysteries.  A couple of weeks ago, the 2021 Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt became a finished quilt top.  I thought I was going to need to buy backing fabric, but I found something in the stash that will work. 

This fabric was purchased on sale to use as a backing some day.  It's not a perfect match, but there is enough yardage to make the backing for the Macaron Mystery project.  

The sawtooth star blocks from the October Clue of the Melodic Mystery, the 2022  Mystery from Meadow Mist Designs, are finished along with all the HSTs.

I'm really enjoying the color palette for this mystery.  Other than black, I don't normally make quilts with such a dark background fabric.  The deep burgundy has been really fun to sew with.  

Last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt along, Rhododendron, has also seen some progress the last few months. 

All the "A" blocks are finished. Just three "B" blocks are left to make and quilt assembly can begin. Rhododendron is my current leader and ender project. It's not unusual for the previous Bonnie Hunter mystery to be my leader and ender project as I start the next mystery. 

This year's Bonnie Hunter mystery kicks off on Friday, so it was time to raid the stash for the needed fabrics.  My rule for any of the mystery quilt alongs is that the fabric (or at least most of the fabric) has to come from stash.  After evaluating what was in the stash, I decided to stick with Bonnie's color palette for this year's mystery. 

 

I don't have the depth in my stash to do a BH mystery completely from scraps, but I do try to use up those one yard left overs from other projects. The orange and teal will be single fabrics, but I'll use three different deep purples with three different neutrals. 

I do love a good mystery.  I've played along with 11 BH mysteries (but only 5 of them have been completed) and with seven Meadow Mist Design mysteries (with 5 of those completed).   

For those in the US, hope you will enjoy your time with loved ones and find a bit of time to stitch some too over the Thanksgiving holiday.  

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 11/15/2022

We are halfway through November. The weather has turned cold, so you'd think I'd be able to wrap my head around the fact that Thanksgiving is next week and December starts the week after that.  I'm definitely not ready to contemplate Christmas, so I'm going to avoid and think about stitching stuff like last week's To Do List. 

To Do List for Week of 11/8/2022 

1. Unity: Prep backing for quilting ✔

2. Macaron Mystery: Find backing fabric ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Work on clues 2 and 3 ✔

4. Rhododendron Mystery: Work on blocks as leaders/enders ✔

Completing four out of four hasn't happened in a while.  With the holiday coming up I may not do as well this week, but any progress would be good.  

To Do List for Week of 11/15/2022

1. Unity: Prep quilt top for quilting

Unity's back is a mess. Since I used black and a light back ground, the black threads will really need to be cleaned up.  Unity is a big quilt, I'm not looking forward to this activity. Hopefully I'll bite the bullet and get it done over the weekend.  But more than likely, I'll end up putting it off for a few weeks as this is my very least favorite part of a quilting project. 

2.  Macaron Mystery: Order backing fabric

This quilt needs 5 yards of fabric and I don't have enough black and white prints to pull a backing together.  I've found a fabric on sale that will work, I just need to order it.  

3. Melodic Mystery: Work on clues 2 and 3

All that's left to finish on clue 2 is the Sawtooth star blocks. The third of four is under construction.  I should be able to finish the last two off this week. That will just leave me the flying geese from clue 3 to finish up before the end of the month.  

4. Chilhowie Mystery: Decide on fabric palette

I'll be playing along with Bonnie Hunter's 2022 mystery quilt along.  I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with her color palette or if I'm going to change it up. It depends on what I find in the stash. 

5. Rhododendron Mystery: Continue making blocks A and B as leaders/enders

This is one of two block A's that need to be completed.  I still need four block B's.  It's very unlikely that I'll have all of the block B's finished before this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery kicks off. It won't be the first time that my leader and ender for this year's mystery is last year's mystery.  

That's my list for this week.  Other than prepping Unity for quilting, it's very doable.  Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday. 

PHD in 2022: June to October

 I've not written a PHD post in four months because there really wasn't anything to post about.  There was pretty much no stitching from June till the end of August. Over the last month or so, I've finished a couple of new projects and made a bit of progress on my 2022 UFO list.  My report is not stellar, but it could certainly be worse. 

I finished two of three new starts. That's probably my biggest achievement from the last few months.  

Grad Girl asked me to make pillows from two of her embroidery projects. 

Both pillows were finished the night before we moved her to Texas.  I really like how both pillows came out, so did GG.  It helps a lot that her embroidery projects were both beautiful.  

The second new project for 2022 was also a Grad Girl request.  I made grocery sacks for both her and her roommate a couple of years ago.  After moving to Texas, GG discovered that two grocery sacks weren't enough and she asked for a third one. Plus her old roommate was now short one for her shopping, so I was asked to make a second for her old roommates.  Then My Guy reminded me that he wanted grocery sacks too as it's hard to recycle the plastic bags in our community.  So I pulled some left overs and older fabrics out of the stash and got busy.  

Seven bags were made over the last few months.  The pattern is a free download from The Fat Quarter Shop.  These bags were really fun to make and were a great way to get myself back into the sewing room.  

The last new project is Meadow Mist Designs 2022 Mystery Quilt along, Melodic Mystery.  

I got a late start on this one as the first clue came out in early September. Clue 3 comes out tomorrow. I should be done with clue 1 by then, but I'm not even half way done with clue 2.  I'm hoping to be caught up by the time the December clue comes out. This mystery will run into next year, so I don't have to finish it. 

There was also some progress on the UFO side of things.  

Unity was as completed quilt top in April, the backing was assembled last month.  

 I just need to bite the bullet and prep both the backing and the quilt top for quilting. It's my least favorite quilting activity so I tend to stall on it.  Unity is the Bonnie Hunter surprise quilt along she started in 2020 during the pandemic.  

Macaron Mystery, last year's Meadow Mist Designs mystery, is almost a finished quilt top.

Two of the three planned borders have been added.  Macaron should be a finished quilt top by the end of the month.  

The last active project is Bonnie Hunter's 2021 mystery quilt along project, Rhododendron.  

There is no change to the project up on the design wall. I'm assembling blocks as my current leader and ender project. So there's been very slow progress on this project. It certainly won't be finished by the time this year's mystery comes out.  

I'm slowly getting back my stitching mojo in the middle of what's proving to be a major life change.  Most days I have this feeling that I'm missing something, something with a major deadline coming up.  Does everyone get "ghost feelings" like that after retiring?  

Linking up with Quilting Gail for the October 2022 PHD report.