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.  

Just a Bit of Stitching

The weekend was cold and windy, good stitching weather. Or it would have been except for the respiratory or sinus infection that was trying to take hold this weekend. I didn't do much on Saturday, but finally felt well enough to head to the sewing room late Sunday afternoon. Bonnie Hunter posted the second clue for Chilhowie, but I'm still stitching on clue 1.  Not much to show for that project yet, just lots of strip sets.

The December clue for the Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) was out on Thursday. There I did make some visible progress.

I'm still working on the November clue, it's a lot of flying geese to make. I'm really wondering how all these blocks are going to fit together in the end.  That's the fun part of these mysteries. 

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts. 

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?   

PHD Progress at the Half Way Point

Hard to believe it's already July 2021.  The last two months have passed really fast for me. My work-life balance was pretty much non-existent during that time.  Thankfully, things have improved and I have hopes of making more progress this month.  So hopefully next month's PHD report will look a lot better than this one.  

 I squeezed in one more finish at the end of June. 

Not a great showing for the half way point in the year. But that's all I had finished at the midpoint of 2020, but 5 more projects were completed before the end of the year. I'm hoping for a repeat of that this year. I've been really good on not starting anything new. That's probably my biggest accomplishment for the year. 

Grassy Creek was the new finish on the report. 

I'm really happy with how my version of Grassy Creek, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt, worked out.  It's not my usual color palette, I used Bonnie's recommended colors for this mystery.  I only made half the blocks, which ended up creating a nice throw sized quilt. This is BH mystery quilt #9 for me. I've only completed 4 others. There are two other BH mystery projects on the PHD list, On Ringo Lake and Celtic Solstice.  But they are at the bottom, so it's not likely I'll get that far this year.  

The Morewood Mystery quilt advanced to finished quilt top in June. 

Morewood is my fifth Meadow Misty Designs mystery quilt. I'm in the process of assembling the backing.  I'm hoping to get this project out for quilting before cutting the fabric for this year's Macaron Mystery.  Cheryl just posted the fabric requirements for this year's mystery.  So I've got another month before she posts the cutting directions.  These are one clue a month mystery quilt alongs, so not as fast and furious as a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt along.  

There's been visible progress on Cabins and Fans. 

Rows three and four are all sewn together along with a good start on assembling row five.  I'm excited to see this quilt come together.  I'm hoping to have a finished quilt top by the end of the month.  

Progress on Unity  plods along as it's my current leader and ender project. 

Unity is another Bonnie Hunter quilt along.  Just two more blocks and I'll be able to sew on border number 3 for step 7.  Fingers crossed the next 9 blocks go much faster then the last 9.  After that there is only another top and bottom pieced border before I can finish this one off with a plain border.  

There wasn't time for any hand stitching this month, so there's been no change to the embroidered butterfly panel.   

That's the progress for this month.  Linking up with Quilting Gail for the monthly PHD report.  Happy stitching this month and for those in the US, have a wonderful 4th of July holiday.  

To Do Tuesday for 05/04/2021

April was a busy month and May looks to be following suite.  It's been a lot harder to find the time to hang out in the sewing room.  I knew that was going to be the case so last week's to do list was pretty tame. The goal is to just to keep everything moving.  

Weekly To Do List for 4/27/2021

• Morewood Mystery: Continue working on borders ✔
• Cabins and Fans: Continue assembling blocks ✔
• Unity: Continue making HSTs for clue 6 ✔

There was progress on each project, so it was a successful week on that front.  My plan for this week is the same; do enough to keep each project progressing. 

Weekly To Do List for 05/04/2021

Grassy Creek:  Make label and binding

Grassy Creek, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

The yellow fabric from the border will be the binding.  The label has been drafted, but it still needs to be printed, rinsed and dried. 

Morewood Mystery: Add border three

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

 I've got the white strips for the next border cut, but I still need to stitch one section together before I cut them to length. 

Cabins and Fans: Assemble row three.

Cabins and Fans, self designed

Row two was finished off last night. Row three should go pretty fast as it's made up of mostly 7.5 inch blocks that don't need any further assembly.  

Unity: Continue making HSTs as leaders and enders

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

The blocks for the next border are still in construction and there's still more blocks needed for the last border.  I'll be stitching on HSTs for a good while yet it seems.  

Linking up with ChrisKnits for Tuesday To Do.  Good luck with your list this week.  Happy stitching.  

Mid-Month PHD Progress

It's mid-month, so time to stop and reflect on the overall progress in the sewing room for the month.  I'm following along with Quilting Gail's PHD program for 2020.  

I'm not doing so well if you look at my stats for the year so far. 

Only two finishes, but thankfully only one new start.  So I've at least reduced the overall project total by one. Though it doesn't show up on the stat list, there has been some really good progress this year in addition to the two finishes. 

Mosaic Mystery is back from the talented Trudy, so it's ready for binding. 

Mosaic Mystery Quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

I've got the label design all worked out. So there's a good chance the end of the month report will have one new finish on it. 

There's been good progress on Storm at Sea this month. 

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

It just needs the last dark blue border stitched on and it will be a finished flimsy.  So I'm hopeful of having another finish by the end of next month.  

Frolic has been up on the big design since November of last year.  

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

All the blocks are made and the quilt is mostly assembled.  Just a few more sashing strips to stitch together before tackling the final assembly.  It will still need borders, but I'm not doing the fully pieced borders Bonnie designed. So fingers crossed that this project is ready to go out for quilting by the end of next month.  

There has been progress on the one new project for 2020. 

2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

Unity Step 3 is in the works. But those tiny flying geese needed for the star blocks are going to take some time.  The good thing is I can decide not to do all the rounds and stop where ever. The current plan is to finish the twin sized version, but I may do a few substitutions here and there.  

If I can stay on track there will be 3 more finishes over the next 3 months.  So  a very good chance there will be at least 5 finishes this year. That's better than last year, so I'm pretty happy with how the quilty year has gone so far.  

To Do Tuesday: Finding a New Groove

We are slowly settling into the new normal of working from home.  I wouldn't want to do this long term, but we've figured out how to manage dueling video conferences, dropped networks and other computer glitches.  As all of that dust has settled, my quilty mojo has returned, I actually checked off everything on last week's to do list.  

Weekly To Do List (3/24/2020)
Twinkle Stars:  Print label, attach binding ✔
Mosaic Mystery: Add third border ✔
Frolic: Make 2 dark blue blocks, start stitching rows ✔
Butterfly Embroidery: Work on for 15 minutes ✔

Last week was definitely productive. It's been helping to pick one thing off the list to work on first, with a secondary task that can be the leader and ender project.  Once task one is done, I can move on to task two and so on.  Focusing on one thing at a time seems to be the best way for me to make good progress. We'll see how that plan works this week. 

Weekly To Do List (3/31/2020)

Twinkle Stars:  Finish the binding. 

I'm about ten inches from the turning the last corner. Then there's about thirty something inches on the last side before the binding is done.  Finishing Twinkle Stars is my March One Monthly Goal. Not sure I'm going to get all that binding stitched down today as I have to work.  Fingers crossed that I can get it finished off before bed tonight and have time to get a photo and write a post.  

Mosaic Mystery: Add the final dark purple border. 

Frolic:  Make 2 light blue blocks, continue stitching rows.

I'm short two of the light blue geese pieces, but I've started stitching the other sub-pieces together in the first of the two blocks for this week. I'll have to spend some time at the cutting table before starting on block number two. 

Unity: Pick the fabrics and make the center block

Bonnie Hunter is starting up a new quilt along, Unity.  I've been so good about sticking to my quilt plan, not adding any new projects and focusing on moving projects to finished. But this one looks like fun and with all the stress lately, having a bit of fun should be allowed.  

That's the To Do List for this week.  Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your weekly to do list. 

To Do Tuesday

It's been very, very different the last week. I've been working from home since last Wednesday.  The Scientist in Training has been home for spring break.  It's been good to have her hanging out with us, though all of our shopping and family outings were canceled.  I've been AWOL from the blog and the sewing room for the last week.  It's been hard to adjust to the new normal.  After spending all day working on the computer and coping with the news, we've chosen to spend the evenings and last weekend together as a family. So there wasn't a lot of progress on last week's To Do List. 

Weekly To Do List (03/17/2020)

Twinkle Stars: Print label, attach binding - progress

Mosaic Mystery: Add third border - no progress

Frolic: Make 2 dk blue blocks, start stitching rows together - progress

I'm hoping to do better this week.  Here's the plan for the next seven days.

Weekly To Do List (03/24/2020)

1. Twinkle Stars: Print label and attach binding. The SIT finally wrote out the message she wanted on the label.  I've updated the label, but need her to check it before printing it out on fabric. 

2. Mosaic Mystery: Add third border. 

3.  Frolic:  Finish off the dk blue blocks, continue assembling the rows.  

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

There was a bit of progress on getting the last two dark blue blocks made. The only visible progress on the design wall is that the sashing strip has been sewn to the upper left corner. 

4.  Butterfly Medallion:  Stitch on for 15 minutes

This was about the only stitching I got done this week. The embroidery is something that could be worked on while we all hung out in the living room.  

That's my To Do List this week. Hopefully I'll get more done this week than I have the last two.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at Home Sewn by Us.