Checking One Off the To Do List

It's been a whirlwind month.  April started with a week long business trip, followed by two weeks of some type of respiratory crud, a trip to see the Scientist in Training for Easter and then a weekend away for a family wedding.  Not a lot of time for stitching, so I wasn't sure that my "to do" item for the April One Monthly Goal was going to get checked off the list. 

The plan was to finish the binding on the Christmas Mystery quilt. With all the travel and not feeling well, it wasn't as easy to get all those hand stitches in, but that did happen last week.  I finally got decent pictures last night, just in time to post today. 

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

This was a fun mystery quilt along. I also learned how to make a Dresden plate block, that was a new skill.  My favorite block is probably the nutcracker.  I embroidered on facial features because My Guy thought it was too creepy left blank. My Guy was right, the nutcracker looks more finished and polished with the mustache.  The poinsettia border fabric has been in the stash forever.   The blocks were made from scraps and left overs from other projects. I can't claim it emptied any of the stash bins, but no new fabric was added.  

I'm pretty pleased with the label.

Yes, I know it says March 2019. It was supposed to have been finished last month, but it didn't happen.  In 10 years it won't matter if it got finished in March or April, it was at least finished in the right year.  I'm planning to keep this one for myself to use at Christmas time.  

The talented Trudy custom quilted this one with a swirly beard and swirling snowflakes in the block backgrounds. She kept the whimsy I was aiming for with the quilting.  

This is quilt finish number 2 for 2019.  So I'm 1/6th of the way to finishing off my UFO PHD for 2019.

Just ten more UFOs and three new starts to finish off before December 31st.  I may be just getting a bachelors degree this year.

Linking up with The One Monthly Goal April Finishes, Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  Ho Ho Ho is also on my second quarter list for the 2nd Quarter 2019 Finish Along, so I'll be linking up there come July.  

Weekend Stitching: Good to Be Home

After a hectic business trip to the West Coast last week, I've spent most of the weekend trying to recover from the sinus crude that showed up while I was on the road. I'm still feeling pretty crappy, but at least the fever is gone.  It's nice to be home.  The sewing room doesn't have magical healing properties, but it was as great distraction from my symptoms.  

I spent some recovery time just sitting and hand stitching the binding for Christmas Mystery quilt, while binge watching the Great British Baking Show on Netflix. 

I'm just about to turn the third corner. So this project should reach the finish line before the end of the week.  

Progress was also made on the Storm at Sea quilt. 

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

All the dark blue Economy blocks are finished, I'm still working on the paper pieced dark blue diamonds.  There's a stack of unfinished  diamonds over at the sewing machine.  Hopefully, I'll be ready to start on the purple blocks sometime this week.  I'm really liking how this project is coming together.  

That's it for this week.  Linking up with the regular Monday show and tell linkies. 

Monday Making
Monday Design Wall

April To Do's

Six days into the a new month and it's already been a bit of a madhouse.  Unfortunately, it's not going to get a lot better anytime soon.  A week long business trip, Easter and a family wedding are going to keep me pretty busy this month.  So the April One Monthly Goal needs to be a pretty light one. 

There's lots to choose from, but not a lot of it is doable based on the time I'll have in the sewing room.  Based my time constraints this month, finishing off the Christmas Mystery quilt is probably  doable. 

The binding has been sewn to the front of the quilt.  As of last night, I had turned one corner with the stitching the binding to the back.  It's a small quilt, so I should be able to finish it up even with a packed calendar.  

Weekend Stitching: Rainy Days and Storms At Sea

Saturday was stormy and cold.  The Scientist in Training and I headed out for a necessary shopping expedition anyway.  The SIT has a poster presentation over her undergraduate research at a regional chemistry conference in a couple of weeks and needed to add some professional attire to her college wardrobe of jeans and graphic tees.  Plus we have a family wedding coming up at the end of April, so both of us needed dresses for that.  We found slacks, shirt and a jacket for the SIT, plus wedding appropriate dresses for both of us.  That accomplished we had lunch in Tulsa and then drove home in very heavy rain.  

Once we got home, she started on some organic chemistry homework, so I spent the rest of the rainy afternoon up in my sewing room finishing off a few more blocks for the Storm at Sea quilt. 

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

I really love the bright colors in this project.  On Sunday, I finished cutting all the dark blue pieces and started assembling those blocks.  The large diamonds are paper pieced, the other blocks are not.  I still need to cut the fabric to make the purple blocks.  Once I do that I can easily finish off a few more economy blocks that go in the bottom corner.  

Between starting the Storm at Sea and the Daisy Chain Mystery this month, I've lost a bit of momentum on my quilt plan.  Inverted Star was finished last week, next on the 2019 list is the Christmas Mystery quilt.  It's quilted, but needed to be trimmed up for binding.  The trimming got done, as did stitching together the binding strips. I was getting ready to sew the binding on to the front of the quilt, then remembered the label wasn't ready. 

The label was finished, printed, soaked, rinsed per the instructions, and dried.  It's sitting by the sewing machine ready for the framing strips.  The label says this will be finished in March 2019, that may be a bit optimistic. We'll see. 

It's Monday, so there are lots of fun linky parties to check out.  My favorites are Main Crush Monday, Monday Design Wall, and Monday Making.