Momentum

 What a week!  I'll be glad to see the end of this one.  My Guy is finally feeling much better and thankfully his test came back negative. Thank you for all the moral support and crossed fingers. I'm really looking forward to the holiday weekend. A few days off work will be nice. After this week, a sewing only day is definitely in the cards.  I should decide on my September One Monthly Goal before then.  

Next up on the 2020 Quilt plan is Daisy Chain.  

Daisy Chain Mystery
2019 Little Bunny Quilts Mystery
by Alison of Honey, Bunny & Doll Designs

It just needs two borders added, a tan and then a black, to be a finished quilt top.  I've gotten the first two border strips cut, at least one should be stitched on tonight.  This seems like a simple OMG, but borders always take longer than I think they should. 

I've also been working hard on getting my PHD this year. 

My spreadsheet hasn't changed since July. 

But I've been building momentum on those quilt finishes. Storm at Sea is out for quilting. 

Storm at Sea
Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

The 2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt has a back pieced and ready to go, it just needs to be prepped for quilting.  

2019 Christmas Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

Finally, Frolic is finished. It just needs a back. 

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

If I can keep up the momentum, these four should become finishes this year. That won't earn me my PHD, but it's a tie for the most quilts I've finished in a year. I'll take that.  

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the September One Monthly Goal and with Quilting Gail for the 2020 PHD.  I hope you'll stop by tomorrow for my 10 year blogiversary.  

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 8/25/2020

 I'm not sure what happened to the last week.  It's already Tuesday again and time for a new to do list.  Except there isn't much new on this week's list as I didn't finish much from last week's list. 

• Storm at Sea: Finish prepping quilt top for quilting ✔
• Christmas Mystery: Make backing - progress
• Daisy Chain: Decide on borders ✔
• Unity: Finish Step 3, make HSTs for step 4 - progress

I did finish getting Storm at Sea cleaned up and pressed.  That pretty much dominated last week's sewing time.  Which is why there aren't more check marks.  Still, there was one more check mark and progress on the other two items. So overall not a bad week.  Here's the plan for this week. 

Storm at Sea:  Send to Trudy for quilting

I found a box, now I just need to finish taping it all up, write out the address label and get it to the post office. That should be easy.  

Christmas Mystery: Finish backing

The center is actually a dark green and red plaid. It looks black in the photo.  It's been in the Christmas fabric stash for many years. It was time to clear it out.  All the other fabrics that make up the backing are left overs from other projects.  

Daisy Chain: Add first border

Daisy Chain Mystery
2019 Little Bunny Quilts Mystery

I finally decided on the tan inner border. Maybe, probably, most likely.  

Unity:  Finish Step 3, make Friendship Star blocks

Two strips of background fabric are all that's needed to finish step 3. I screwed up on the measurements and had to recut the strips. It won't take long to get those two sewn on.  I've been making the HSTs for the modified friendship star blocks as my leader and ender project. Hopefully, I'll actually finish a star block this week.  

That's a reasonable to do list.  I should get most of it done.  You can find more to do lists over at To Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.  

Random Stitchy Stuff

The weather has been beautiful.  Typically we've had a couple of weeks of scorching hot days by this time.   But that didn't happen this year. It's also been a lot wetter than normal, everything is still green. Normally the fields and yards are mostly brown by this point in the summer.  There is a downside to all this lovely weather, the allergens are a lot higher than normal. So my sinuses haven't been happy.  Thankfully I'm not miserable, I'm just not operating at 100%.  

In spite of the the allergy issues, I did get in a good bit of sewing room time.  But all I have to show for Saturday is the pile of threads in the trash can.  

It took pretty much all afternoon and most of the evening on Saturday to finish cleaning up the back of the Storm at Sea quilt.  But that's done.  I should get it shipped out to Trudy sometime this week. 

Up next was picking border fabrics for Daisy Chain.  I've got it down to two options.  My favorite is the red and black.  

My Guy and the Scientist in Training like the black and tan.  

I'm still contemplating both options. Maybe the red is too bold and distracts from the quilt?  

I decided to let the subconscious dwell on the options for Daisy Chain and moved on to piecing the backing for the 2019 Christmas Mystery quilt. I pulled some yardage I'd like to move out of the stash. 

After playing in EQ for a bit, a backing design that uses four of the prints came together. I've made a start on cutting the pieces, but didn't get to the sewing part.  

So not a lot of stitching this weekend, but three projects are that much closer to finished. I'm happy with that.  Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  

The June To Do List

Wow, already one week into June!  Since we were in Colorado the first few days, it's taken a bit to get back into the groove at home  The Scientist in Training headed back to school last night. So the house feels pretty empty.  I've been playing catch up with work stuff, so there hasn't been much computer or sewing time since we got back.  I hadn't given much thought to this month's quilty to do list or to what is June's One Monthly Goal.

Only two quilts have come off the quilt plan for the year.  Next on that list is Christmas Angels.

Christmas Angels
Pattern by Kate

It's back from quilting, so it just needs to be bound.  That's definitely my June One Monthly Goal. 

But there's some other things that should really be on the to do list.  Number 4 on the 2019 Quilt Plan is Vintage Dresses.  I stopped at 4 of the 6 borders that were planned, trying to decide if it needs the last two or if I should just stop.  It's getting pretty big with just the 4.  Sorry no photos on the progress for this one.  I'm hoping to make a decision on the borders and get the backing made so this project can go out for quilting before the end of the month. 

Two new projects have been started this year and to finish off my PHD, both should be finished by years end.  The first is Storm at Sea.  It's all sewn together and I've started working on the pieced border blocks. Here's the current plan.  

 Storm at Sea
Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

I'm hoping to get the pieced border completed on this project before the end of June.  

The second new project is the Daisy Chain Mystery.

Daisy Chain Mystery
2019 Little Bunny Quilts Mystery
by Alison of Honey, Bunny & Doll Designs

The blocks need to be sewn together and I'm going to add a couple of borders.  I'm just hoping to get all the blocks sewn together this month.  Not sure I'll get any farther than that.  I'm considering adding a border. We'll see how that plays out. 

That's enough for one month.