October 2024 PHD Report

It's been a very weird autumn. October was cooler than September, but not by much.  My sewing room was my preferred location for most of the month. That means I have lots to blog about for the October PHD Report posted over at P Designs USA.  

One more finish in October brings my total to 5.  Not too shabby for me. I'm hoping for at least one more finish before the end of the year.  It won't be my best year ever for finishes, but definitely better than I've done the previous 3 years.  

Diatom (Dancing Lights) (Quilting Jetgirl) was my finish for October.  This quilt was started in 2023 and was on my "to be finished list" for this year.  It's a wedding gift for some of Grad Girl's good friends. I'm thrilled with how it came out.  It was hard to part with, but it's going to a good home. It was gifted last weekend and she was assured they would definitely use it to cuddle under this winter (assuming it's going to get below 80 at some point in south Texas).   

In addition to the finish, there was good progress on several other projects this month. Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts) was started in 2014. It's on my "quilts to assemble" list for this year.  I finally decided on a setting for the blocks and got started on assembly.  At the end of October, all the sashing was made. Since then the rows have all been sewn together and I've started on the borders.    

Squared Away (So Scrappy) is another project on my "quilts to assemble" list. This project was started in 2018.  After dithering about the setting for years, I finally took a good look through the fabric closet, found a couple of fabrics that would work with the blocks. That pretty much decided the setting.  The sashing, corner stones and border strips were cut for our Girl's weekend.  I've since worked out the block layout but haven't started sashing the blocks yet.  

There was just one orange block left to complete for Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) at the end of the month.  I started back on the red blocks and will probably work on those till the end of the year.  

There was some progress on the leaders and enders project, the Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt (Kevin the Quilter).  Another set of 10 blue 4-patch blocks were finished and another set of yellow 4-patches are under construction. This one has been slow going, but that's what happens with leaders and enders.   

Grad Girl asked if I had a quilt she could give to her group's departing Post Doc.  She looked over what quilt tops I had done and picked out String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs) as a good option. But she thought it needed to be a bit bigger and really needed borders. The borders were added, the backing made and both pieces prepped for quilting.  It's been packaged up and shipped out for quilting.  This will probably be my last finish for 2024.  

 

The October block for the Guild BOM was finished pretty early in the month. The November clue covers one of the pieced borders. 

October's clue for the Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) was also finished pretty early in the month.  So I'm ready for November's clue when it comes out tomorrow.  For some reason my digital camera has a hard time capturing purple accurately. The photo on the right is closer to the actual color of the fabrics than the one on the left.  

By the end of October I had made progress on each one of the projects on my 2024 quilt plan. 

Not all the projects show a change in status in my bar graph, but that's OK, I can see progress in my photos. It's been a good year so far and there are 2 months left in 2024. Well, maybe just a month and a half with all the holidays.  Even so, there is still time to make some progress on several projects before year's end.   

Last Dance with Diatom

We celebrated my mom's and My Guy's birthdays yesterday.  Mom's birthday was this last week and My Guy's was earlier this month.  My mom is big on celebrating birthday's and realized that she'd never done anything special for My Guy on his.  So this year she wanted to be sure we celebrated both.  We had a fun time, but it's the 4th weekend in a row that we've not been home. 

Even though we've been gone a lot, I put the last stitches in the binding for Diatom the day after we got back from vacation.  It took me a few days to get the final photographs. 

Diatom was Quilting Jetgirl's 2023 quilt along. The blocks are 24" finished. It was such fun to make. I fell in love with Yvonne's all blue demo version so stuck with the same color palette.  My version has thin sashing and a final border. It's one of my favorite finishes this year. 

Trudy did her magic with the quilting, a nice flowing vine motif. 

The backing is a dark blue design from Connecting Threads and it's bound in the same dark blue used on the front. 

This quilt is a wedding gift for a couple Grad Girl met at Oklahoma State.  The new wife is a fellow chemistry graduate student and the new husband is an architect, but he's also the Dungeon Master for the Dungeons and Dragons adventurers group that Grad Girl plays with.  The DM title is important as that's where the name of the finished quilt came from. 

Dancing Lights is a spell used in D&D to create torches to provide light. Grad Girl thought it worked pretty well for this quilt. The poem on the label is Dancing Lights by Mary K. Boye. I've only used the first verse, but it seemed very fitting for a newly married couple and still worked nicely with the D&D theme. 

Completion of Dancing Lights brings my UFO list down to 19, which is where I ended last year.  I'm hoping to finish at least one more quilt this year.  We'll see how that goes.  Linking up to Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.     

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 10/01/2024

It's October! I'm really not ready for that reality. We've got a lot going on this month, so I'm sure it will go faster than September.  Oh well, at least I got a lot done last week.  

To Do list for 09/24/2024

1.  Rhododendron: Finish binding ✔

2.  Diatom: Make label, binding, trim, sew on binding ✔

3.  Guild BOM: Make September block ✔

4.  Chocolate Marshmallows: Decide on setting ✔

5.  Wild and Goosey:  Continue making orange blocks ✔

6.  Sensational Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Six for six last week.  I took the finishing of Rhododendron down to the wire. But it's off the to do list for good now. The plan is to do as well with this week's to do list. 

 

To Do List for 10/01/2024

1.  Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Finish hand stitching binding

I've just started on the hand stitching.  All four corners left to finish.  But it should be doable to finish it this week.  

2.  Guild BOM: Cut and start stitching on October block

Those instructions should come out today. This is the last block for the sampler. November's clue will be all the flying geese used in setting it all together.  

3.  Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Start October clue. 

The next clue doesn't come out till Thursday, so I won't finish it this week, but I should be able to make a start on it.  

4. Chocolate Marshmallows (Seabreeze Quilts): Decide on block layout, start assembling sashing. 

Before I get into cutting and assembling the sashing, I need to decide which one of these neutrals to use in the borders because that needs to be the third strip in the sashing pieces. The EQ design uses the first neutral, I like the texture of it best.  But I'm not sure I have enough of it.  I have lots of strips left over from making the blocks. Fingers crossed I can assemble enough of those strips to use the yardage for the borders.  

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish making orange blocks

Only 4 more orange blocks left to finish what's needed for the quilt layout. Once those are made, I'll get to pick another color to continue with, probably red or green. Both of those are close to being finished up as well.   

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

Still lots of 4 patches left to make.  This was definitely the right UFO to tackle as a leaders and enders project.  

That's my list for this week.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.

Before I sign off, Grad Girl and I want to wish My Guy a very happy birthday!

He's off today and we have some adventures planned to celebrate.  

To Do Tuesday on Thursday for the Week of 9/24/2024

Getting a to do list posted for this week hasn't been the easiest.  I was very sick Tuesday and then yesterday had an appointment to get the car in for service. By the time I got home, the ragweed had given me one of those "light hurts your eyes" headaches.  I still have the dregs of the headache, I'm hoping it clears up as the day goes on.  But it's backed off enough I can at least sit in front of the computer this morning.  

Last week's to do list was an easy one.  

To Do List for 09/17/24

1.  Rhododendron: Trim quilt, attach binding to front ✔

2.  Marble Mystery: Finish the September clue ✔

3.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

4.  SSSS Mystery: Continue as leaders and enders project ✔

5.  Learn to quilt:  Read books, watch videos ✔

I didn't do as much on the learn to quilt front as I had hoped, but I did a bit.  I'll take some progress over none.  

The list for this week is pretty long, but hopefully I'll feel up to a bit of catch up on the sewing front today.  

To Do List for 09/24/2024

1.   Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter): Finish binding

I didn't make as much progress on this as I wanted, but I'm just about to turn corner 2.  It should still be a finished quilt by the end of the month. 

2. Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Make label and binding, trim and start binding

Diatom is back from the quilter.  This quilt is for one of Grad Girl's chemistry buddies who got married earlier this year, it's a late wedding present.  Grad Girl came up with the name and I've gotten a good start on the label.  This one won't be finished in September, but should be completed before my next trip to Texas. 

3. Guild BOM: Finish the September block

I've let myself get behind on this one.  But it's a small block and I have the fabrics cut, it should go together pretty quickly.  

4.  Chocolate Marshmallows: Decide on a setting

This project was started in 2014 and the blocks all finished in 2015. It's been sitting waiting for me to come up with a setting that I like.  When I looked this morning, there are 22 versions of a final quilt in my EQ files.  Either I use one of those or come up with something completely new.  We'll see how that goes.  

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

Just four more orange blocks to finish and I'll be done with that color for this project.  Not sure I can finish them all this month, but I'll definitely give that a go.  

6.  Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Mystery (Kevin the Quilter): Continue as leader and enders project. 

Another set of the yellow 4-patches have been finished. So it's back to blue 4-patches this week. 

That's my list this week. It's an ambitious one, so it's OK if I don't check off all the items for this week.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.