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?  

July 2025 PHD Report

July was a busy month. I was away from home for over a week helping Grad Girl move.  So there's not a lot of progress to report for the July PHD report over at Ms. P Designs.  

There are no updates to my PHD log.  No finishes, but no new starts either.  I can at least celebrate that!  There has been progress on some other projects this month.  

There's been a bit of progress on the Rose Throw counted cross stitch project.  I just didn't feel like doing much handwork this month.  Does it look like a rose? Not so much yet.   

One more row of blocks for Kate's Choice were quilted this month.  I've made more progress in the days since the end of July. My plan is to focus on this project till it's completed.  

All the red blocks for Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) are all sashed. That finishes up the last of the warm colored scarp blocks. There are still lots of cool color blocks to make before I can start sashing any of those colors.  

Progress on the Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter) has been pretty minimal this month, but there has been a bit. 

All the components for Old Town (Bonnie Hunter) have been made. So block assembly has started.  Each block requires 25 pieces, so they take a bit to construct, which is why I've only 2 were completed at the end of July.  This will be my late night sew project for August.  

I was a bit slow on finishing off all the August sawtooth star blocks for the 2025 Guild BOM , but they are all done.  I've made this pattern before, but since it's all scrappy, it doesn't look exactly like my previous version.  

There's been progress, but no movement on project tracking graphic.  

It looks the same as it did in June.  Some months are just going to be that way. I'm hoping to see some projects hit milestones this month.  That's assuming we're not moving Grad Girl to a new location for a job. If I loose another 10 days to apartment hunting and a move, it will be worth it.   

To Do List for the Week of 07/08/2025

It was a busy weekend and though I got my stitching time in most days, I was still busy enough that it was hard to get to everything on last week's to do list.  

To Do List for 07/01/2025

1.  Guild BOM: Finish August blocks, start Sept - progress

2.  Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks - no progress

3.  Embroidery or cross stitch: Stitch one night ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Finish green, start purple, sash red ✔

5.  Old Town: Continue assembly at late night sew ✔

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

Grad Girl is here this week and we have a few things planned, so I won't have as much sewing room time as I usually do. That will necessitate a pared back to do list for the week. 

To Do List for 07/08/2025

1.  Guild BOM: Finish August blocks

All the pieces are cut, they just need to be assembled. The guild meeting is next week so I need to get the August blocks finished up pretty quickly.  

2.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembly at late night sew

I still have a few flying geese to finish up before I can start assembling the blocks. If that doesn't happen this week. It will definitely happen next week.  

3.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Make purple, sash red blocks

I've gotten a good start on the purple blocks and just have a few red blocks left to sash.  Still a long way to go on this project, but getting to the point I can sash some of the blocks has been motivating.  Probably another year left to finish this project. Unless I decided to make it a priority.  

4.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Fit in at least one evening of stitching time. 

I forget just how slow going the counted cross stitch is, but I'm making a bit of progress here and there.  

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

Two of the yellow borders have been added to the center. The top border is in progress.  

That's my list for this week.  With Grad Girl home, I'm just looking for progress on my current projects.  I'll be able to get serious again later this summer.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

June 2025 PHD Report

Hard to believe we are half way through 2025.  Now that it's July it's time to take another look at my progress with the June PHD report over at Ms. P Designs. 

  

I've not done so well on the finishing up front, but I have been making steady progress on several other projects.  

While cleaning up the sewing room, I found a very old counted cross stitch throw started back in college.  It's been added to my traveling handwork projects.  Not a lot of progress on this, but at least there's been some. I'd forgotten just how much time it takes to do counted cross stitch.   

Another oldie saw some progress in July.  A few more blocks for  Grandmother's/Kate's Choice project were quilted this month.  Just 2 rows left to quilt.  

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) also saw a lot of progress this month.  All the orange blocks were sashed as it was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for June.  Once those were finished, the remaining red blocks were finished and sashing of those started. 

In May, quilt assembly started for the Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter).  This month the center was assembled and the first border of the yellow 4-patches was added. 

Clues 6 and 7 for Old Town (Bonnie Hunter) were completed in June.  A good start was made on clue 8.  I'm really hoping to be assembling the quilt blocks by the end of July. 

 

The color for the July Guild BOM block was red. I've already started looking for my sashing options.  August blocks are already under construction as we've got some stuff going on this month, so being ahead will be important.  

Glowing Hearts (MMM quilts) became a finished quilt top.  It's in line for quilting, which I should really focus on this last half of the year.  This was an unplanned project, but it used up some older stash and was a lot of fun to make.  

There has definitely been progress, but other than Glowing hearts none of the other projects have hit a major milestone, so my tracking graphic doesn't look much different than last month's. 

Only Glowing Hearts shows any progress on the bar graph.  Some months are going to be like that.  We'll see what gets done in July, it's going to be a busy month.  

To Do List for the Week of 07/01/2025

The year is half over.  I'm always amazed at how quickly we get to this point.  We were in Crown Center in Kansas City last week for a conference. The Hallmark store there was setting up for this year's ornament display.  Christmas will be here before most of us are ready I'm sure.  

Let's not dwell on time passing, not much we can do on that front. I didn't have time to write up a post last week. Which works out as I didn't have time to stitch much last week.  So I had two weeks to work on my previous to do list. 

To Do List for 06/17/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish July blocks, start August ✔

2.  Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks ✔

3.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Stitch one night this week ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Finish red blocks, start sashing red blocks ✔

5.  Old Town: Continue assembly during late night sew ✔

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

I'll definitely take six check marks even if it did take 2 weeks.  The list for this week will look pretty similar.  

To Do List for 07/01/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish August blocks, start Sept.

The color for July was red.  The blocks got done just in time for the guild meeting last month. I have all but one of the smaller sawtooth stars cut out for August. I've got one last set of 4 HSTs to make and then I can start assembly on the Inverted star for next month.  I've been auditing sashing and border fabrics for this quilt.  I'll need to have mine assembled for the December meeting, hence the need to work ahead a bit.  

2. Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks

I'm hoping to get in one solid afternoon of quilting and finish row 5 this week. 

3.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Stitch on a project at least one night this week. 

We have a family get together planned for this weekend to celebrate Grad Girl finishing up her master's degree.  So I'm sure there will be time to sit and stitch for a bit. 

4.  Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish green, start purple, sash red

All the red blocks are made and sashing them is in progress. I went back to green to work on those blocks a bit. Purple is the color for this month, so I'll pull out all those triangles and make a few of those. 

5. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembly at late night sew

Clue 8 is more flying geese.  I need to some more of the neutral triangles, I didn't count correctly apparently and am short by quite a bit.  

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

The first yellow border for the center of the quilt is assembled and stitched on. Border #2 is still in progress. 

So pretty much the same list I've had for a few weeks.  With the family get together for the holiday weekend and having to help Grad Girl move later this month, I'm just hoping to keep these projects moving till we get to August then things will slow down a bit on the travel front.  

Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.   

To Do List for the Week of 06/17/2025

Do you ever look at your calendar and realize that you don't really have that much time to get ready for something?  Grad Girl will be moving home next month.  She's been applying for jobs and has had one video interview so far.  With the current job market, she's probably going to be here for at least a month, likely 2 to 3 before she finds a full time chemist job.  I've been using her old closet as storage for some of my quilting supplies, I'm going to have to find someplace else because she's going to need the closet.  I have time, but will need to add that to my decluttering to do list.  

Maybe it goes on my quilting to do list too?  It certainly wasn't on last week's to do list.  

To Do List for 06/10/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: finish cutting, finish assembly - progress

2.  Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks - no progress

3.  Old Town: Work on blocks at late night sew ✔

4.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Stitch one night this week ✔

5.  Wild and Goosey: Finish red blocks - progress

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

It wasn't a bad week, three check marks, two with some progress and only one with no progress.  I'm finding it hard to get back to the quilting because I have deadlines with the Guild BOM blocks. My next deadline is in later July, so hopefully I'll have some time to quilt this week.  So it will stay on the to do list for this week. 

To Do List for 06/17/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish July blocks, start cutting for Sept. 

It will take an hour or so to finish up the blocks for July. That's doable before tonight's meeting.  I'm going to try to get ahead on August. July will be busy.  

2.  Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks

The plan is to change over to the walking foot tomorrow and spend a couple of days quilting.  I'll just have to be disciplined and do it.  

3.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Stitch one night this week. 

I made a little progress Sunday night.  It's slow going, but to be fair that's only an hour of stitching time.  But progress is progress even if it's slow.  

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

Just one last red block to finish paper piecing and I can start sashing the blocks with black.  Orange is this month's RSC color, but I finished all the work on those blocks.  So I'm continuing with a different color.  I'll be paper piecing a couple more green blocks this month too.  I'd really like to see this project be ready for assembly sometime next year. Hopefully, by doing a bit each month, I'll get there.  

5.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Continue assembly during late night sew.

All the gold/neutral flying geese are made and I've moved on to making these subunits.  Hopefully assembly of the blocks will start in early July.  I've been working on this at late night sew because it's the only non-guild project I have everything cut for.  

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

Yesterday's blog showed the progress from last week.  The only change is that some of the yellow border blocks are sewn together.  It's been fun to see this start to come together.  It feels like I've been making all those 4-patches forever!  

It's the same list as last week, though I'm hoping to do a bit better on the quilting and the cross stitching this week. We'll have to see how that works out.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday. 

To Do List for the Week of 06/10/2025

Laundry and household chores are my prime focus this week after not doing much of either last week.  Shirking my housekeeping duties last week let me take advantage of the return of the sewing mojo.  That shows up clearly in the progress with last week's to do list.  

To Do List for 06/03/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish cutting fabrics for blocks - progress

2.  Glowing Hearts: Finish assembling quilt top ✔

3.  Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks - no progress

4.  Betty: Find backing, figure out assembly ✔

5.  Old Town: Work on block units at Late Night Sew ✔

6.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Stitch on night ✔

7.  Wild and Goosey: Finish green, sash orange blocks ✔

8.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Definitely not a bad week considering how long my to do list was. Only one "no progress" item. I can live with that.  I'm slowly catching up on chores and laundry this week, but I'm hoping to still get in a good bit of stitching time.  But with the added chores, I'm going to shorten this week's list a bit.  

To Do List for 06/10/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish cutting, finish assembly

All that's left to cut is the colored pieces for the border sawtooth stars.  Assembly has started on the Inverted Star block for July. The guild meeting is next Tuesday, so this has to get done.  

2. Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks

Since this requires the walking foot, it's been harder to schedule this with all the other projects. Once I finish the BOM blocks, the plan is to switch back to quilting for a few days.  

3.  Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Work on blocks during late night sew. 

All the HSTs for step 6 were finished last week. Now I'm on to the flying geese for step 7.  I'm in awe of those who can finish a BH mystery during those last weeks of the year.  It takes a lot of stitching to finish a clue! 

4.  Embroidery or Cross Stitch: Stitch one night this week.  

There was a bit of progress Sunday night before bed on the rose throw cross stitch. Saturday and Sunday evenings seem to be my best bets to work in a bit of hand stitching time during the week.  We'll see if I can keep it up for a few months. 

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

The orange blocks are all sashed, but I forgot to get a photo of those.  I'm back to working on the red blocks.  Just four more are needed for the planned layout.  I should be able to get those done this month.  

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

I'm still working on getting the center of the quilt assembled.  The plan is to work on assembly and then make more 4 patches if needed.  We'll see how that works out. 

That's my list for this week. The guild BOM is a have to do, so it will get done this week. The rest will probably see some progress.  Linking up with the Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.  

May 2025 PHD Report

May went fast!  It didn't help that at about the halfway mark my sewing mojo disappeared.  So not as much progress as I would have liked for the month. But there is still a bit to report for the May PHD report over at Ms. P Designs.  

Finally a finish shows up on the PHD report, along with a new unplanned project. The finish is a project started this year, so there is still no progress on the UFO column.  

The 2025 SAHRR, aka Stars in a Derecho Sky, (Quilting Gail) was my finish for May.  Trudy, who has quilted so many quilts for me, is getting out of the quilting for others business and this is the last quilt she'll ever quilt for me.  It's already been gifted to Grad Girl's roommate as we were in Texas last week. She loved it. 

I'll need to amp up my walking foot quilting if I want to see a few more finishes before the end of the year.  Even with my absent sewing mojo and a week of vacation, there was still a bit of progress on several other projects in May. 

During my week on the road, I relearned how to do counted cross stitch and worked on a throw that was started back in the early 80's.  It will join my medallion butterfly embroidery as a travel project. It's not really a quilt, so I'm not going to add it to my spreadsheet as a quilt.  It will just be one of those sewing room projects I'd like to see get done in the next few years.  

Half the Kate's Choice blocks have been quilted.  I'm hoping to finish the other half this month.  It would be nice to have another finish by the end of this month.  This is my second oldest UFO, so it would be nice to get it off the list.  

The lack of Wild and Goosey blocks (Bonnie Hunter) for May is a direct result of my sewing mojo problem.  I didn't even finish 2 green blocks.  The plan is to do better with getting the orange blocks all sashed this month. 

 

Work continued on the center for the Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter).  The left and bottom single rows of squares have been added and the first row is sewn together. It's been fun to watch all those scrappy blocks finally come together.  

All the step 2 block components for Old Town (Bonnie Hunter) were finished in May. Clues 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all completed.  Another afternoon was spent cutting the rest of the pieces needed for the remaining steps.  Hopefully a couple more clues can be finished off this month since all that's left is sewing pieces together. The goal is to have this project assembled before this year's mystery quilt is started.  

The color for the June Guild BOM was green.  Since I'm leading the program this year, I have to be a month ahead.  Half way through and I'm happy with how the blocks are coming together. It's been fun to see what the guild members have decided to do with their projects.  Now I need to get going on the July block so it's ready for this month's guild meeting.  

Glowing Hearts (MMM Quilts) was my unplanned new project in May.  It's been a fun project to make.  All the fabrics came from the stash, which was my requirement before allowing an unplanned project on my list.  Moving along some of my older stash is always a good reason to start a new project. Plus this one is small enough that I can quilt it myself.   

Maybe it wasn't such a bad month after all?  There was progress on a lot of projects, but some didn't see as much work on them as I would like.   

  

The only progress that shows up on my project tracking sheet is finishing the 2025 SAHRR and starting Glowing Hearts.  No other projects reached major milestones in May.  Hopefully I can do better in June.