Second Quarter Review 2026: Strategic Progress?

Back in January, I drafted a strategic plan (?) for 2026.  Strategic Plan is probably a gross overstatement of what I actually put together, but it was at least a potential road map for my quilting decisions.  Now that we are in 3rd quarter, I should probably take a look at where I'm at and decide on any adjustments.  

2nd Quarter Strategy

1. Guild BOM: Finish May through October blocks.  Finish Flying geese. 

The May, June and July blocks are all finished.  The flying geese for the alternate border are also all finished.  The instructions are written for the August and September blocks.  I needed to verify the cutting dimensions for some of the pieces for the October block and that got done last week.  So I didn't get everything done, but I'm also not too far off track.  If I put focus on this project in July, I should be back on track before we got too far into third quarter. 

2. Wild and Goosey: Continue as leaders and enders project

All the blue 3.5" blocks were finished last quarter and most of the blocks were sashed.  The hope is this project will be ready for assembly before the end of the year. 

3. Move UFOs to finished quilt tops. 

Three of the 5 UFOs became finished quilt tops: 2026 SAHRR, Magnificent Mystery and Old Town.  Lupine and Laughter only needs two more borders added to be a completed quilt top.  The remaining pieces needed to assemble the blocks for Good Fortune have been cut.  The chain blocks are all finished, but still working on the star blocks.  I didn't get it all done, but at least every project on the plan is farther along. 

4. Walking foot quilting

The plan was to finish off two quilts, but only Chilhowie was finished up. Glowing Hearts has been pulled out of the closet, the batting laid out to relax and I've been contemplating quilting motifs.  So even though it didn't get done, at least there was a bit of progress on it.  Based on how the walking foot quilting has been going, one quilt a quarter seems to be my speed, at least for now.  

5. External quilting

A backing was pieced for the 2025 Inverted Star BOM. Both the backing and the quilt top were prepped for quilting.  I delivered the project to the long armer the first week in July.  So at least that one will be a finished quilt in third quarter. I didn't even touch Chocolate Marshmallow.  It's probably going to go to the bottom of the list as My Girl has picked a few quilts that will be going to college and graduate school friends.  So those will higher priority the last half of the year.  

Second quarter wasn't a total success, but I have learned a lot. I'm doing well at moving projects to finished quilt tops. That will help a lot in clearing out my UFO list. But I'm not doing so hot on either the walking foot quilting or getting quilts ready for external quilting.  It seems one quilt top for each a quarter is about my speed on that part of the UFO process. I'll have to consider if that modifies my strategy for third quarter or not.  At any rate, there's been reasonable progress on all of my "strategies".  Not a bad first half of the year.   

May 2026 PHD Report

May went fast. Hard to believe that at the end of this month we'll be half way through 2026.  Looking back, May was a pretty productive month, even though my PHD report didn't change.  

I'm still going to link up with Ms P Designs for the May PHD report to show that no finish isn't the same as no progress.  

The goal for 2nd and 3rd quarter this year is to tackle my UFO pile.  Good Fortune was the 2018 Bonnie Hunter mystery. The project box had a pile of both A and B blocks, with a few other odds and ends from the various steps.  The A and B blocks will go into one quilt, the blocks that were supposed to be the pieced borders will either get worked into the quilt back, or into a separate quilt top.  The total number of blocks has been decided and all the pieces to make those blocks have been cut.  Probably won't make any additional progress on this project till this year's BH mystery is a finished quilt top. 

Progress on Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been slow since sashing the blue blocks has been my leaders and enders project for most of May. Slowly, but surely more 7" blocks are showing up on the design wall.  

Chilhowie, the 2022 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, was the next project on my "to be quilted" list.  Still need to add the second set of cross hatch lines to the left side of the quilt. I've figured out how to feed the quilt to the machine without dragging, so the stitching has been much more even on the more recent quilting lines.   

The 2024 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Old Town, just needed the borders added. It's now a finished quilt top hanging in the closet with all the other to be quilted projects.  

Some quilts on the to be quilted list will be quilted professionally. the 2025 Guild BOM is one of those.  The backing was ready for stitching at the end of the month. So didn't quite get this step done in May. 

 

The Meadow Mist Designs 2025 Magnificent Mystery quilt also just needed a final border.  It's hanging right next to Old Town waiting to be quilted.  

The June block was added to the 2026 Guild BOM this month.  The July block is actually finished, but hasn't been shown to the guild yet.  The plan for June is to at least start on the August, September, October and November blocks and start on the instructions. 

Lupine and Laughter (2025 BH Mystery) was the project with the most progress this month.  All the alternate blocks are made.  The main block takes lots of stitching time, so it's been slow going, but there has at least been some progress with those.  

My progress chart isn't much different from April. Two projects have graduated to finished quilt tops, but that's about it for May.  Hopefully June will see at least one more finished quilt top and a finished quilt.  Cross your fingers for me.  

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.   

To Do List for the Week of 5/5/2026

Hard to believe it is already May. I completely missed that yesterday was "May the 4th Be With You" day.  Today is Cinco de Mayo, so happy holiday if you are of Mexican heritage. Mother's Day is this weekend (I have no idea what to get my mother).  

The end of April, beginning of May were pretty productive as my to do list shows for last week shows. 

To Do List for 4/28/2026

1. Guild BOM: Finish July block ✔

2. Magnificent Mystery: Finish borders ✔

3. Chilhowie: Prep top and back for quilting ✔

4. Lupine and Laughter: Work on A blocks

5. Wild and Goosey: Continue making blue blocks ✔

Definitely a lot of progress on the to do list last week. Now that Magnificent Mystery is a finished top and the Guild BOM is caught up for a few months, I can add something back to the list and it will still be shorter then last week's list. 

To Do List for 5/5/2026

1. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Work on borders

I finished assembling the quilt top back in December of last year. It got put away to concentrate on all the new projects that started in December and January.  All it needs is the borders.  I spent some time in Electric Quilt yesterday and finally decided on fabrics and layout.  I'm excited to get this one to finished quilt top.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Sandwich quilt and start marking

The top, batting and backing are all prepped.  With my back, I can't crawl around on the ground, so I'm going to have to take the sandwich to the quilt shop and assemble it there.  There is a big table in the back that should make that a lot easier.  If all I do is get the sandwich made this week, I'm good with that.  

3.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter): Work on A blocks

 

In the project bag were 5 finished block A's and this partially assembled one. My plan was to make 3/4 of the blocks, I think.  I need to pull out my notes and confirm that. The plan is to work on this one till it's finished quilt top.  

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish blue blocks, start sashing

 

Just one blue block left to finish. Then I'll need to lay out all the blocks in groups of four and decide which block goes where.  Sashing goes fast so I'm hoping to have these all made into 7.5" blocks by the end of the month.  

This week, my to do list is all Bonnie Hunter quilts, three mysteries (2024, 2022, and 2025) plus one Rainbow Scrap Challenge project (2019).  I've started 14 mysteries, finished 7 of those, and 3 are quilt tops.  So 4 are still in the block making stage (well 3, Old Town just needs borders). 

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

2026 Quilt Making Strategies: Second Quarter Plan

After reviewing my first quarter progress, my second quarter overall strategy won't need to change. But I will need to adjust the project list for the quarter since there is a lot that didn't get finished in first quarter.  

1. Guild BOM: The focus for April is to get the blocks for May, June and July finished. I should probably also finish off the flying geese needed for the borders. Before the end of the quarter, blocks for August, September and October need to have the instructions written and the blocks made. November will be an easy block, so I'll try to get that one done as well. Then I won't have to do anything on this project till 4th quarter.    

2. Wild and Goosey: Continue to use two blocks as my leaders project for the quarter.  

3. UFOs to move to finished quilt tops: The plan is to focus first on the projects that didn't make it to finished quilt tops in first quarter. Since two of those don't need that much work, I'm hoping to work in at least two UFOs from the January plan.  

2026 SAHRR, Magnificent Mystery, Old Town, Lupine and Laughter, Good Fortune

4. Walking foot quilting: I hoping now that I have a designated time to quilt that two quilts will get quilted this quarter. The plan is to tackle the 2 smallest ones on my list.   

Chilhowie and Glowing Hearts

5. External quilting: Since I didn't get one done in first quarter, I'm hoping to get two done in second quarter.  

2025 Guild BOM and Chocolate Marshmallows

If everything gets done, there will be 5 more finished quilt tops and 4 more finished quilts.  That's probably way too ambitious a plan considering that I've already lost half of April.  If there is half as much progress, I'll be happy.  

PHD Report for 2025

Now that 2025 is over, it's time to review the progress on my PHD plan and link up with Ms. P Designs for the PHD Wrap Up report.   Looking back, my 2025 PHD report is probably my worst in the seven years I've participated.  

Lots more starts than finishes this year.  At least I finished one of those new starts this year.  One finish is better than none.  That gives me lots of incentive to get more finished in 2026.  But finishes aren't the whole story, there was a lot of progress on other projects this year. (This is a picture heavy post. I didn't realize just how many projects I had worked on in 2025).  

The Rose Throw is a counted cross stitch project started sometime in the mid to late eighties. I came across this project during a sewing room clean up and reorg.  I'd forgotten how long it takes to make progress on counted cross stitch.  I made a bit of progress this year, but not much.  This one will probably sit in time out all year while I focus my hand stitching efforts on the butterfly embroidery project.  

The blocks for Kate's Choice were finished last year.  All the blocks were quilted this year and I started assembling the quilt as a quilt as you go. The first row is finished.  I'm not a fan of this assembly method, so the project got put in time out. It will get finished in 2026.  That's my first goal for the year.  

 

Normally there's more progress on this project during November and December, but the last time I worked on the Butterfly panel was Thanksgiving.  The embroidery in the third corner is all done and I've started stitching on the 7th butterfly.  This is my travel project.  It will probably see some progress this year, but won't be finished. 

 

On Ringo Lake was the 2017 Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  After 8 years it's finally a finished quilt top.  I've been trying to finish up all my BH mystery quilts. Out of 14, 7 are uncompleted.  Which isn't awful, but still not stellar.  This is one I'm hoping to finish quilting this year.  

It's been slow going on Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter).  This project started in 2019.  I've been making the blocks as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I'm almost done with the green blocks, but still need lots of blue, purple and teal.  But the quilt is over halfway now. I'd like to finish it this year, we'll see how it's looking by 4th quarter.   

The Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter) is also a project from 2019.  It came out of time out when I was looking for something to use up a few scraps as my bins were getting full.  It was my leaders and enders project for the first half of the year.  I needed the design wall for something else, so this project got put away.  Not sure when I'll get this one out again.  Hopefully I won't wait another 5 years!   

I joined the local quilting guild in 2023, about midyear if I remember correctly.  A bit late to start the BOM that year, but I did start the 2024 one.  For once, I stayed on track and actually finished the quilt top in time to show at the January meeting.  It's still waiting to be quilted.  I haven't decided to quilt it myself or send it out.  We'll see how some of my smaller and simpler projects work out.  

The Marble Mystery was the 2024 Meadow Mist Designs Mystery.  It's been a finished quilt top for most of the year. This is another project I hope to quilt with the walking foot sometime this year.  

The 2024 Bonnie Hunter mystery was Old Town.  One of my 7 unfinished BH mystery projects. All the blocks are done, I just to need to figure out the borders.  Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.  

Leading the guild BOM for 2025 was a learning experience.  I've seen several finished quilt tops and it's been such fun to see how everyone has made them their own.  My version still needs to be quilted. One thing about being the lead, you have to keep up!  

The 2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail) was my only finish for 2025.  This quilt was gifted to My Girl's grad school roommate as a thank you for being such a good one.  The roommate's favorite color is green, so that was picked as the predominant color. I've finished all of the SAHRR quilts that I've started. Fingers crossed that stays true for this year!  

MMM Quilts offers a quilt along in the spring.  I've admired from afar, but decided if I could pull all my fabrics from the stash I'd participate in her Glowing Hearts quilt along.  The background fabric had been in my stash forever without finding a home till this project.  Another quilt top I'm hoping to quilt myself this year.  

I got a late start on the 2025 Meadow Mist Designs Magnificent Mystery.  The September clue is the only one completed, but I do have a good start on the next three. The January clue came out yesterday, so I need to get a start on that. Assembly happens next month.  It would be nice if I had all the component parts done by then.  

Apparently, I'm a glutton for punishment as I agreed to lead the guild's 2026 BOM.  I am finding that the sampler blocks I picked for this year are much easier to cut and assemble. Fingers crossed I can keep up better this year.  

And lastly, Lupine and Laughter was started during the local quilt shops late night sew on New Year's Eve.  I wondered if we'd get the reveal this week. I just checked this week's clue is more pieces. I'm going to make the blocks that use the hourglass pieces and hold off on any of the other clues till I see the reveal. Then I'll figure out what's next. I'm behind, but that seems to be par for the course with a BH mystery.  

One finish and progress on 14 other projects.  That's a lot for one year.  So maybe not as lame a year as I was thinking?  

Mostly Checking Off Another Priority

This week has gone fast.  Hard to believe that it was just last Monday we got back from our Thanksgiving holiday trip. Both My Guy and I kept asking each other what day it was all week.  Sunday didn't feel like Sunday, mainly because we finally did our big Christmas shopping trip to Tulsa. I'm not done, done, with the shopping, but pretty close. There are still a couple of things we decided we'd be better off ordering. Hopefully, I get that done today.  Getting the tree up and wrapping presents is likely to take a good chunk of time away from the sewing room this week. What gets done, gets done. 

Saturday was my get in the sewing room and stitch day this week.  One of my goals was to get last year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt, Old Town to finished quilt top.  

It's most of the way there.  The blocks and sashing are sewn together, now it just needs the borders added. The plan was to add the inner pieced border, but not the outer pieced border. But I'm rethinking that now.  So I'm going to let the border plans marinate a bit, so for now this project will go back into the project box to be tackled sometime next year.  I'm happy with how this came together, the secondary pattern of the crosses formed by the sashing is one of my favorite things about this quilt.

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts and Sew and Tell Monday.  

I'm still having problems with my computer memory. If I disappear for a few days, it means I finally put the computer in for a spa day.  Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that.    

November 2025 PHD Report

How can it be December already? We've reached that point where you've either done a great job on your PHD plan or not.  There's not much opportunity to fix it at this point.  So I'm going to confess my lack of progress and link up with Ms. P Designs for the November PHD report.  

 

No new finishes, but one new start.  The 2026 Guild BOM won't end until next year and doesn't officially start until January. But as I'm the one leading it this year, I have to be ready to go one month early.  It's possible I could finish one other quilt before the end of the year, but it's not likely at this point.  Even though the finishes haven't happened, there has still be good progress on several projects over the last month.  

The butterfly embroidery project saw some stitching time over the Thanksgiving week.  You can see a bit of stitching on that bottom middle butterfly. Since we have family time coming up at Christmas, I'm sure this project will see a bit more progress before the end of the year.  

 

Almost finished with the dark green corners for Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter), just one small dark green block left to finish.  Then on to the bright green blocks. Just 12 of those left to make. I'm hoping to finish those before the end of the year.  I'll have to stay diligent to meet that goal.

I really like the secondary pattern that shows up with the addition of the sashing to the Old Town blocks (Bonnie Hunter).  Two rows done and sewn together, with a good start on row 3.  I'm still hoping to get this project to finished quilt top by the end of the year.  

The 2025 Guild BOM quilt top is finished. It needs to be pressed pretty badly, but you can still get a good look at how it came out.  I was so happy to have this completed for November's guild meeting.  I've heard from several of the guild members that they really enjoyed this project. It will be fun to see what variations come from the participants.  

Magnificent Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is progressing slowly. The September clue is completed and I've got a start on the October clue.  I still need to cut the pieces for the November clue and December's clue will come out tomorrow.  I'm hoping to get in some good stitching time this week so I can catch up a bit. I have holiday stuff that needs attention too, so we'll have to see how that all goes.  

 

The mushroom trivets that My Girl is making for a friend aren't on my list.  She pieced them and I quilted then bound them. So a joint quilting project. These trivets have been a nice way to practice quilting with the walking foot.  Both of us were pretty happy with how these turned out. 

 All the pieces are cut for the first block of the 2026 Guild BOM and assembly of the subunits has started. Still a bit to go before this is a finished block. I have two weeks.  Fingers crossed that it all goes together smoothly and quickly. 

My project tracker hasn't changed much since the start of the year.

 

All the blocks were finished for Old Town. The 2025 Guild BOM is a finished quilt top.  Those are the only two changes to the quilt plan for November.  We'll see what happens with December. I'm hoping to move Old Town to finished quilt top and will probably start this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery at some point before the new year.  Now that I've got a better handle on the walking foot quilting, I'm hoping there will be more finishes in 2026.  So I'll definitely be playing along next year.