Best of Life in Pieces in 2021

 This is the 7th year that I've played along with Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs Best of series. It's fun to look back at some of the high points posted on the blog this last year.

  

1. Most Views (400): Stitching Time: Week 2 of 2021

I'm not sure why this one had so many views, though it's one of my favorite posts from this last year.  The Scientist in Training took a few stitches on my traveling cross stitch project while we were visiting family last Christmas. From that she decided to give embroidery a try.  She had finished two projects by the second week of the year and hasn't looked back since.  She's been designing her own projects for months now.  

2. Second Most Comments(23): The Oldest UFO

The post with the second most comments documented the finish of what was then my oldest UFO.  Picnic Stars is one of my favorite quilts. The blocks had been finished for years, but I could never figure out how I wanted to set them.  Having finally decided on a plan, it took still took me a couple of years to get it finished up. The post with the most comments (27) was my #1 in this list. 

3. Most Link Ups for the 15 Minutes to Stitch (18): Week 1 and  Week 4

Both weeks had 18 link ups. That's one less than the maximum in 2020. But on average there were 13 participants who stuck with the stitching time goal for 2021, which is up from 9 last year.  Thank you to all the bloggers who stuck with me this year, especially since most of them were much better at blogging about getting in their 15 minutes of stitching time than I was.  

4.  My Favorite Finish for 2021: Grassy Creek ( Fritillaria)

Grassy Creek isn't my favorite Bonnie Hunter Mystery, but there were several other factors that made it my favorite finish for 2021.  The colors are out of my comfort zone so normally I would change them for the mystery, but decided to just stick with them to see how that worked. I like the end result. Another reason it's my favorite finish is that this mystery was finished well before this year's started. That's a first. 

5. My favorite family photo challenge post:  Week 23: Fire or Something Burnt.  

The Family Photo Challenge started as a Father's Day Gift for My Guy.  I bought him a card deck full of photo prompts. We draw a new card every Friday (lately it's been a bit later in the weekend as life has been busy). We've had such a great time with this challenge. We didn't think the Scientist in Training would play along each week, but she enjoys it too.  It's been a really fun family thing we can do even though all of us aren't in the same place. It's hard to pick just one favorite from this year, so I just picked the last post for week 23, Fire or Something Burnt.

That's my Best of Life in Pieces for 2021. Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs Best of 2021. 

2021 MidYear Quilty Ambitions Check In

Back in December 2020, Quilting Jet Girl hosted the 2021 Planning Party to give everyone a chance to think about goals for the new year.  Well, 2021 is more than half over and it's time to check in on the progress (or lack thereof) on My 2021 Quilty Ambitions as part of the 2021 MidYear Checkin. 

2021 Quilty Ambition #1: Finish 8 Quilts in 2021

I'm not doing so hot on this one.  As of July 1st there are only two finishes in 2021. 

My May and June were pretty crappy months at work, so I didn't get much done in the sewing room. That's disappointing.  But in 2020 there were only 2 quilts finished by 7/1/2020, but there were 7 finished by the end of the year. So there is still hope to meet this goal.  

The other part of this goal is to play along with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2021.  

The biggest achievement here is that there are no new projects started so far this year. That will change, but limiting the new starts will help me focus on finishing off the older projects.  

2021 Quilty Ambition #2: Stay Focused

To move quilts to finished, I have to stay focused on just a few projects.  What's worked for me on that front is to limit my weekly to do list to just 3 projects.  If I'm trying to finish up a quilt, I'll let the number of focus projects increase to 4. There are 3 focus projects at the moment.  

Beginning of the year to end of June progress on
Unity (Bonnie Hunter), Morewood Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs),
Cabins and Fans (self designed)

Unity, Morewood Mystery, and Cabin and Fans are the current focus projects.  Morewood Mystery should go out for quilting this month and I'm hoping to have Cabins and Fans ready to go out next month.  Unity has been my leaders and enders project. I'm hoping it's ready to be finished up in September. That will get me to five finishes for the year. 

2021 Quilty Ambition #3: Continue to Host the 15 Minutes to Stitch Linky Party 

As of week 27, there have been 26 weekly 15 Minute to Stitch linky parties. I only missed week 14 (due to work trauma, it's been a bad year on that front).  At the end of June, my success rate at finding 15 minutes to stitch was 85.64%.   My goal is to stitch 85% of the days this year, so I'm on track with this goal.  

Not a bad first half of the year, but I'm hoping for better the second half.  Linking up with Quilting Jet Girl's 2021 Midyear Checkin.

PHD in 2021: March Progress

Three months down, nine to go in 2021.  One of my goals is to finish 8 quilts this year, one more than I've ever managed.  I'm hoping Quilting Gail's PHD in 2021 will keep me motivated enough to reach that goal.  

March's report shows a finish, finally! 

So one finish in the bag, seven more to go!  

The binding for the Picnic Quilt (Red, White and Blue Stars) didn't quite get finished before the calendar turned over to March. But the first finish of 2021 came really early in the month.  

No other finishes for the month, but there was good progress on the current list of works in progress. 

Grassy Creek went from assembled blocks to finished quilt top.  The backing has been made and prepped to send out for quilting. The task for April is to get the top pressed and cleaned up so it can go out for quilting.  

All the blocks are finished for the Morewood Mystery.  This month the goal is to get the blocks sewn together and to get the borders attached. 

Border number two for step 7 is assembled for the Bonnie Hunter mystery Unity.  This is the current leaders and enders project. It's moving slowly, but it is coming together.  

That's the progress for March.  Fingers crossed I can get one more quilt out for quilting and another to finished quilt top stage by the end of the month.  

Linking up with Quilting Gail's March PHD in 2021 linky party. 

The Oldest UFO

The weather this weekend was beautiful. Sunny with temperatures in the mid 60s.  It was just too pretty to stay inside and sew all weekend, so there were a couple of long walks on the schedule this weekend.  Still there was plenty of stitching time.  

Friday night I put the last stitches into the binding for the Red, White and Blue Stars, aka the Picnic Stars quilt.  

Picnic Stars was the oldest UFO on my list.  We were still living in Texas when I started these Lone Star blocks back in April of  2005. Like most of my quilt starts in those days, these were the result of a quilt class. I apparently finished one block before we moved back to Oklahoma and then the project sat till 2012.  This project shows up on the blog for the first time that year as my May/June UFO challenge project where I finally finished the second block.  By April of 2013 there were 7 blocks finished.  It disappears from the blog (and apparently my active project list) till August of 2017.  From there on, it shows up a few times a year. It made it to finished quilt top last year, but it was so close to Christmas that it didn't get sent out for quilting till January.  After dealing with mail delays on both ends, it's finally a finish. 

Red, White and Blue Stars (aka Picnic Stars), setting self designed

Picnic Stars is going to be one of my recliner quilts. So it's not going anywhere.  Trudy did a great job with the quilting. 

Each block as a starburst in the center.  It's a little more obvious from the back. 

I'm really happy with how this project came out. I love all the blocks. So why did it take 16 years to finish?  Life had other priorities. The Scientist in Training was 6 when I started this. There's been one move, several job changes at work, and other family obligations. I'm just going with the philosophy that older projects get done when they are supposed too.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Making to celebrate this finish.       

March One Monthly Goal

The first week of March is just about over, so it's definitely time to decide on a One Monthly Goal.  

I just noticed that the OMG button says "motivation in a monthly link up". That's exactly what I need at certain stages of the quilting process. So which project needs that extra "umph" to get to the next stage?  

Not Red, White and Blue Stars.  

I've turned corner three on stitching down the binding.  A good sit down session tonight will net me a finished quilt. Plenty of motivation with that project.  

Grassy Creek needs borders. Borders are tedious and are one of the quilt stages I can stall out at.  

Grassy Creek, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

So that seems to be a good option for my March OMG.  I'm bailing on Bonnie's pieced borders. The plan is for a set of strip borders, gray, yellow, gray.  The strips are cut and sewn together for the first border. I've even sewn on one strip.

As my focus for the year is to whittle down the active project/UFO list, I'd really like to have another project ready to send out for quilting soon. Getting the back made as well is probably doable this month.  I've already decided on a backing fabric. 

I found this floral in the stash. No idea how old it is. It's got the red and gold from the front of the quilt, so I think it suits.

That's the plan for March. Finish the Grassy Creek borders and get the backing pieced. That's definitely doable if I don't get side tracked. That will set me up to have a quilt ready to send out for quilting in April.  

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the March One Monthly Goal. This week also linking up with a new to me weekend linky party over at Quilting Patchwork Applique.   

PHD in 2021: February Progress

The plan for 2021 was to focus on finishing quilts.  Playing along with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2021 is supposed to help me keep on track and focus on those finishes. 

If you look at my chart for this year, I've done really well on the not starting anything new.  But the other side is still looking pretty anemic, no finishes at the end of February.  

No finish, but there has been visible progress on my four focus projects highlighted in blue. 

Red, White and Blue Stars was sent out for quilting in the middle of January and came back the last half of February.  Hand stitching down the binding is in progress.  I just finished corner two last night.  So there will definitely be a finish for March.  

Unity is my current leader and enders project, so it's not moving along really quickly. Still there was pretty good progress last month.  One border is on and the second is over half finished. I should get the second border finished and a good start on the third by the end of this month. 

All of Morewood's block A were finished in January. But I didn't fare as well in February with block B. This mystery quilt should be ready for borders by the end of the month. At least that's the current plan. 

Grassy Creek was the focus project for February, so it saw the most progress.  February ended with just one border strip added.  I'm hoping this project is ready be sent out for quilting by the end of the month. 

So no finishes yet, but lots of progress.  My goal for 2021 is to finish 8 quilts this year. Fingers crossed these four are finishes by the end of June which would get me half way there.  

Linking up with Quilting Gail for the February PHD Progress Report. 

To Do Tuesday for 03/02/2021

My office calendar shows a new month as of yesterday.  Hard to believe that a quarter of 2021 will be over at the end of this month.  Didn't we just change out our calendars to a new one?  

Friday was a day off work, so I got an extra afternoon of stitching time last week. That was really helpful in tackling the to do list.  

Weekly To Do List for 02/23/2021

• RW&B Stars: Make binding, label, trim quilt, sew binding on ✔
• Grassy Creek: Start adding borders ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Continue making block B ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs for clue 6 as leader and ender ✔

RW&B Stars should come off the list this week. I'm hoping that Grassy Creek is out for quilting by the end of the month so it will come off the list making room for one of my older UFOs.  But for this week, the To Do List will look pretty the same as it has for the last couple of months.  

Weekly To Do List for 03/02/2021

Red, White & Blue Stars: Finish the binding, take glamour photos

Red, White and Blue Stars, self designed

I've turned one corner and got the label stitched down last night during a phone call with the Scientist in Training. So three corners left.  I had planned to make the label all in red, but my printer wouldn't cooperate, all I could get from it was a really sick looking brown, so I decided to go with the contrasting blue.  The quilt is only throw sized, so it shouldn't take too long to finish the hand stitching.  

Grassy Creek: Add the borders

Grassy Greek, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I decided on three borders: gray, yellow and then gray again.  I'm going with simple strip borders. I like the quilt, but not enough to spend a lot more time making more pieced borders.

Morewood Mystery: Continue making block B

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

Morewood is now up on the big design wall. I think there are just four block B's left to make.  With the focus on getting RW&B Stars to finished quilt and Grassy Creek to finished quilt top, I doubt I get all four made this week. But you never know, that will be my stretch goal for the week.

Unity: Continue to make HSTs for step 6

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

There's a nice little pile of HSTs in the upper left corner, but I'm getting low on a few other block components for step 7. So I'll also need to replenish a few of the other pieces before making any more blocks.   

Linking up with Chris Knits for this week's Tuesday Do To.  

Stitching Time: Week 9 of 2021

This week went really quickly.  All of last week's meetings got moved to this week, so I didn't do much else this week. If I wasn't in a meeting, I was getting ready for a meeting. That also meant we were late getting home a few nights this week.  I just barely managed my 15 minutes of stitching time a couple of evenings.

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Feb = 27/27 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 56/58 days
• Success rate = 96.55%

Still I managed to fit in some sewing room stuff every evening. Every little bit does add up.  I finished the designing and printing the label for the Red, White and Blue Stars quilt.  That set me up to get the label pinned to the quilt so I could sew it on with the binding.  I've just started hand stitching the binding to the back. 

Red, White and Blue Stars, setting self designed

So I'll definitely be doing some slow stitching later today on that binding.  It's been awhile since I've linked up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.  

So how was your stitchy week? Did you get in lots of stitching time or did it seem as if life conspired against you so you did everything but that?

1. DesertSky Quilting 2. Julie in GA 3. Chrisknits 4. karen 5. Ivani

6. Meloney 7. Sherrie 8. Quilting Gail 9. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts 10. Amanda

11. Shasta @ High Road 12. Carol Andrews 13. Jennifer in Indy

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

To Do Tuesday for 02/23/2021

Hard to believe it's been a week and it's time for a new to do list.  With all the disruption to normal life my sense of time is a bit warped. After four days of working from home, it was getting hard to remember what day of the week it was.  I can't say there was more stitching time last week, but there was enough to check off most of my to do list. 

Weekly To Do List for 02/16/2021

• Grassy Creek: Assemble rows and pieced borders - progress
• Morewood Mystery: Continue to assemble Block B's ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs for clue 6 as leader and ender ✔

I didn't quite finish off getting Grassy Creek sewn together.  I was going to finish the last of the stitching last night, but the Scientist in Training called for a bit of a catch up as she hadn't called over the weekend due to homework overload. Even so,  two out of three, with significant progress on the third is a really good week. Here's the plan for this week. 

Weekly To Do List for 02/23/2021

Red, White and Blue Stars: Make binding, label, trim quilt, stitch to front. 

Red, White and Blue Stars, self designed

This project showed up in the mail yesterday.  Trudy did a beautiful job with the quilting. I'll show off more of that when I do the final glamour shots.  I'm going to use the red on white print that's in the sashing for the binding.  The plan is to trim the quilt, make the binding, print the label and get the binding sewn to the top of the quilt.  I'll probably be able to start hand stitching it to the back, but even though this is a small lap quilt, I'm not going to get that finished this week. 

Grassy Creek: Finish assembling top, decide on borders

Grassy Greek, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

All that is left is to sew the bottom pieced border to the top.  Adding borders comes next.  I've not made up my mind on what those borders will be at this point. I need to play in EQ a bit more to see what I can work out.  But I'm close to having a finished quilt top. 

Morewood Mystery: Continue assembling Block B's

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

I'm just about half way done with the Block B's.  RWB Stars and Grassy Creek are the priority projects for now, so there probably won't be a lot of progress on these blocks, but the goal is to just keep it moving.  Once Grassy Creek is off to be quilted, Morewood is my next focus project.  

Unity: Continue to make HSTs for step 6 as leaders and enders

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

Only three blocks for the second border strip are finished. I've got a lot of HSTs still to make to finish off the remaining three border strips. I've got a nice pile of HSTs to make blocks with now, so maybe the block assembly will speed up a bit. Still this is my leader and ender project, so just keeping it moving is the goal.  

That's the list for this week. I'm close to a finished project and a finished quilt top, with good progress on two other projects. So not a bad year so far.  Linking up with Chris Knits for this week's Tuesday to Do.  Good luck with your list for the week.  

PHD in 2021: January Progress

The goal this year, like last year, is to work down the UFO list a bit.  Also like last year, I'm playing along with Quilting's Gail PHD in 2021 as one of my motivators.  

My plan is to finish the UFOs while limiting new starts.  I've done really well on not starting anything new, but not so hot on finishing anything as yet.  

But there has been really good progress on the four projects highlighted in blue in my tracking chart. 

Red, White and Blue Stars

Red, White and Blue Stars (Picnic Stars) started the year as a finished quilt top. The back was pieced, the two parts were de-threaded and pressed, then packed up and shipped out for quilting.  This project should be on it's way back from the quilter sometime this month.  So fingers crossed this becomes my first finish in February. 

2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

Unity is my current leader and ender project, so progress has been slow.  The blocks for the first border of step 7 are done and sewn into a strip that still needs to be attached to the quilt top. With three borders left, this one is going to be on the list for awhile.  

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

Morewood Mystery shows a lot more progress.  From a pile of subunits at the beginning of the year, a whole set of blocks has been completed.  The final clue comes out today.  It would be nice to get this project to finished quilt top this month, but Grassy Creek may get more attention. 

Grassy Creek, The 2020 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt Along

From only three subunits started at the beginning of the month, all the sashing parts are finished and just under half the blocks are pieced.  The border pieces are in the process of being pieced as well.  Even a few of the completed rows are in the process of being stitched together.  So really good progress last month.  So this one may become the next finish for 2021.  

One project out for quilting, one with rows ready to stitch together one that's gone from pieces to blocks, with progress on the leaders and enders. Not a bad January.  I hope the momentum carries over to February.  

You can check out all the other PHD candidates over at Quilting Gails January 2021 PHD linky party.    

Making Mysteries

It was cold and cloudy all weekend, perfect sewing room weather.  I took advantage of that and spent all of Saturday afternoon in the sewing room. Saturday morning I braved the biting cold (the wind made being outside absolutely miserable) and finished my January One Monthly Goal.   

The Red, White and Blue Stars quilt is all cleaned up, pressed, boxed and is now on it's way to Trudy for quilting.  My January OMG was to get this project prepped and mailed. Hopefully that means my first finish for 2021 will happen in February.  

Now that the RWB Stars is out of the sewing room for a few weeks, it was time to focus on something else.  Rather than pull out a UFO to focus on, it seemed prudent to focus on the three mysteries that were started last year.  I did pretty well at keeping up with Grassy Creek, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter mystery.  It's a typical Bonnie mystery with lots of pieces in each block. I've only got two blocks completed, with a third in progress. I have started finishing some of the sashing pieces as well.  

Grassy Greek, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

I'm only making half the blocks. That should give me enough for a 3 x 4 layout.  I'm hoping to at least have all the blocks made by the end of February.  

Unity, Bonnie's coping with the pandemic mystery, is the current leaders and enders project. Since there was so much stitching this weekend, it moved along as well. 

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

The first border in the next round is more than half done at this point. Once Grassy Creek is assembled and out for quilting, Unity will be the next focus project. It's time to get it finished and off the big design wall.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Monday Design Wall.  

To Do Tuesday for 1/19/2021

It's been cold and windy in my part of the world.  Great stay in your sewing room weather. I'd prefer to do that, but I still have to work to support my fabric habit. Even with a few longer work days last week, the to do list didn't get neglected.  

Weekly To Do List for 1/12/2021

• Red, White & Blue Stars: Clean up and press quilt top ✔
• Grassy Creek: Continue to make subunits, blocks ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Continue making block A ✔
• Unity: Continue making HSTs for clue 6 ✔

Four for four, so definitely not a bad week.  I've decided to focus on finishing off Grassy Creek, so this week's to do list won't look much different.  

Weekly To Do List for 1/19/2021

Red, White and Blue Stars:  Package and mail.

Finding just the right size box is always hard. This one is a bit too long, but it will do.  I just need to add a bit more packing material, write out the address label and tape it up.  That's the easy part, finding time to drop it off at the post office is the trickier part.  

Grassy Creek:  Finish making subparts, make blocks

All that's left of the block subparts is these 5 square in rectangle units.  There are 8 pieces to each subpart, so they don't go together fast, but they aren't too bad.  Since I'm so far along with the subunits, it just seemed wise to keep up the momentum and get this project into a finished quilt top rather than pull out an older UFO to add to the mix. 

Morewood Mystery:  Continue making block A

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

Since Grassy Creek has been taking up most of my stitching time, there's only one more Block A up on the design wall.  I have till the end of the month to finish constructing all of these.  These blocks should go faster once I've got all the subunits made for the other project.  

Unity: Continue making HSTs and blocks as leader and enders

I've got a good number of the pieces cut for the blocks, so this should be an easy leader and ender for quite a bit.  Once Grassy Creek is assembled, I think Unity will be the next focus project. I'd like to get it finished and off the design wall. The Morewood mystery wraps up in April. It would be nice to have all of last year's starts out for quilting by mid year. 

That's my list for this week. Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for To Do Tuesday.