PHD in 2024: End of the Year Wrap Up

It's always an adjustment to move from the previous year to the new year.  Mostly it's a mind reset, but it did take me the better part of the morning to reset my quilting tracking spreadsheet for the new year.  That first meant making sure all of the quilty stuff that went on in 2024 was captured. With that all done, it made pulling all the information for my end of the year PHD report easier. 

The year ended with six finishes, six projects moved to finished quilt tops, progress on the rest of the UFOs on the list and six new starts.  So I broke even in terms of finishes and starts for the year, there was no net change in my UFO numbers. But I finished double the number of quilts in 2024 than I did in 2023.  So I'll take that as successful year even though I didn't earn my PHD for the year.

The finishes this year ranged from some of the oldest on my UFO list to one of the new starts. 

First row: A Flutter (self designed), Blue Birds (self designed), Shadow Demon (self designed)

Second row: Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter), Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl), String Lights (Meadow Mist Designs) 

The projects that became finished quilt tops also range from some of my oldest UFOs to one of this year's new starts.  

First row:  Chocolate Marshmallow (Seabreeze Quilts), Squared Away (So Scrappy), Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter)

Second row: Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs), Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter), Betty (Meadow Mist Designs)

There was good progress on a few other projects this year as well.  

Grandmother's Choice (renamed Kate's Choice) was supposed to be my quilt as you go project. It hadn't been touched in twelve years. I finished all the blocks, but didn't do much on the learning to quilt part of the project. There's always 2025 right?   

I didn't do as much on the Butterfly panel this year.  One butterfly and some of the fill in foliage got finished.  This is my travel project. It went on a few trips, but this year I was able to take quilts that needed to be bound on a number of trips away from home. So I still got a lot of hand work done, just not on this project.

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) has been on the active list for the last couple of years. I make a few blocks each week.  This year all the orange blocks got finished. I only need to finish 3 more of the red blocks to be done with that color.  That should happen this month, then I'm left with all the cool colors to finish. 

The Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt (Kevin the Quilter) wasn't on my PHD list for 2024, but it became an active project when I needed something that would empty out my scrap bins a bit and be a good leaders and enders project.  I need over 200 of the blue 4 patches and over 100 of the yellow. There's ten 4 patches in each stack, so I'm a long way off from that.  So this will probably be my leaders and enders the rest of the year.  

Of the six new starts for 2024, one is a finished quilt (Shadow Demon), one is a finished quilt top (Betty), the remaining 4 are in various stages of completion.  

I hadn't planned on doing the guild BOM, but it was such a different design that I decided to go for it. I mostly kept up, except for December.  All the blocks are made, all that's left is assembly and cutting all the sashing and border strips.  This should make it to finished quilt top before the end of the first quarter this year.  

Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) was going along pretty well until December. I've made some progress on the last clue but, didn't get it done before the January clue came out this morning. This morning's clue includes the instructions for final assembly and I'm excited to see how my version comes together.  

Old Town kicked off in late November.  A month and a half later, I've finished clue 1. Made decent progress on clue 2, but am way behind on all the other clues. There is some of each clue finished, but not enough for more than one block I'm guessing.  We'll see what I can get done before Friday's clue comes out.  

The last new project wasn't planned for at all.  But when I agreed to take on the guild BOM this year, it meant I had to have the January block ready to show at the December guild meeting.  I've made this quilt before, but with the same background for all the blocks. This time I'm going scrappy on the background as well.  

That pretty much wraps up my 2024 in the sewing room. I'm hoping for a successful 2025.  Linking up with Miss P Designs USA for the 2024 PHD Wrap Up.  

Best of Life In Pieces for 2024

This was my second full year of being retired.  I learned some lessons last year and made some different choices for this year. Not sure I've got it all figured out, but I'm in a better place this year than I was last year.  I think that showed in my blog posts. With the new year less than two days away, I'm linking up with Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs for her Best of 2024 Linky Party to remember the best things that happened on the blog this year.  

This is Cheryl's 10th year to host the linky party. I've written a post for all of them.  Cheryl leaves it up to us to define the "best of" for the year.  Here's what I consider the best of what was on my blog for 2024:

5.  To Do Lists: I've been playing along with To Do Tuesday since late 2019 (most recently hosted by the Quilt Schmilt). Some weeks the lists are short, some weeks they are long.  For some reason my May 7th to do list had the most views of all my posts this year.  There wasn't anything special in this post, no near finishes. It was the post with my first to do item for Grandmother's Choice, the Barbara Brackman quilt along from 2012. 

I finished all the blocks in August. Now I just need to quilt them. Having a to do list each week really helps keep me on track with my projects.  So that's definitely one of the "best" things for my quilting.  

4. 15 Minutes to Stitch (Stitching Stuff): I've been challenging myself to stitch for 15 minutes a day since 2011. I've hosted a linky party off and on over that time period. When you are a working women, wife and mother, it's so easy to decide oh I'll sew later. But then later never comes because there is always something to do, someplace to be and the ever present, I'm too tired.  Even being retired you can fall into, oh I can do that later thinking, but then later never comes.  So I've stayed intentional about getting in my 15 minutes each day. My last stitching stuff report says I've stitched every day this year as of 12/28.  

Making an effort to get in the sewing room each day pays off in lots of progress on projects. It's amazing what you can do with just 15 minutes every day. Posting my progress on the blog is motivating, so it's one of my "best" reasons for blogging.  

3.  Finishing one of my older UFOs, Scrappy Butterflies (A Flutter). 

    

A Flutter was my first finish for 2024.  Started in 2013 as my Rainbow Scrap Project for the year, it sat until last year when I finally figured out a setting for the blocks.  This is my current couch quilt. When I sent it out for quilting it was the 4th oldest UFO on my list.  So it felt nice to get this oldie, but goodie off my UFO list and into use. 

2. The most fun quilt to make this year was Shadow Demon, my Stay at Home Round Robin project for 2024.  

  

This quilt was for Grad Girl and her very own shadow demon, Queenie.  She helped me pick out the fabrics and she had a say so on what went into each border. It was fun collaboration.  Even better, she loved the finished quilt, so does Queenie.

1. Our Girls weekend when Grad Girl got her first sewing machine lessons is my "best" post for 2024.  

 

I tried for many years when she was growing up to interest her in learning to sew, video games were more her thing then.  But as she's gotten more and more into embroidery, she'd like to make some of her projects into other gifts, like bags and pillows.  She brought her sewing machine home for the holiday. We are signed up for a retreat next weekend. No telling what we'll get up to in the meantime.  

That's my "Best of 2024".  Thankfully, I had lots of posts to choose from this year. It was hard to pick just 5.  I liked all my finished quilts this year, it was hard to pick just 2 to highlight on this post.  Hopefully you'll go by Cheryl's blog and check out a few other "best of" to get a good vibe for what needs to be on your to do list for 2025. That's my plan.  

March 2024 PHD Report

First quarter is over and we are already a few days into the 2nd quarter of 2024.  Since March is over, it's time to look my progress towards a PHD and link up with P Designs USA for the March PHD report. This month the report shows a finish for the first time this year. 

 

Still a long way to go to reach PHD status. But it's nice having the first finish in March versus waiting till September. 

A Flutter was sent for quilting in February.  This quilt was started in 2013, it was my second Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.  It took almost 11 years to finish it, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. It was worth the wait. There is no pattern for this quilt. The butterfly blocks were paper pieced using a block found in Electric Quilt and the setting is a modified Irish Chain worked out in EQ.  I've loved these blocks since I started them, so this quilt is staying with me.  

Just one finish, no starts, but lots of progress on other projects in March. 

Purple was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for March. I need a lot more purple blocks for my version of Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter). The RSC color for April is yellow. I have all the yellow blocks I need for my version of the quilt, so I'm going to keep making purple blocks in April.  

Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter) is back on the active list, barely.  I was able to get the next to last border strips cut and assembled, but only two actually sewn to the quilt. Still that counts as good progress.  This one is close to being a finished quilt top.  Fingers crossed I can make that happen before my knee surgery later this month. 

Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is now a finished quilt top.  It's the last of my "deadline" sewing till the next mystery starts up in July.  It was a fun mystery and one of my favorites in terms of the final design. Now to find a backing fabric for it, prep it and send it out for quilting. Hopefully that will happen before the end of the year.  

Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter) is my current leaders and enders project. All the A blocks are finished. All that's left is to make the one B block and the 4 setting triangles.  I've had to go back and make the subunits for those blocks.  It's going to be slow going for the next bit. Even so, I'm happy with how much progress I've made on Indigo.  Usually it takes me quite a bit longer to be this close to quilt assembly.

The Just Two Charm Pack Quilts quilt along (Meadow Mist Designs) ended in early March.  My version of Betty became a quilt top just before the quilt parade ended (I was the last one to link up).  This was such a fun project. My blue and purple 2.5" strip bin isn't quite as full as it was. A few odds and ends from the stash got used up too.  There are a couple of other quilts I'd like to make from this book.  I need to finish a few more UFOs before I start anymore scrappy quilts.  

 

The 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) ended this month too.  I finished border 6 in barely enough time to link up with the quilt parade.  I was the last one to link up for the parade. (See a theme emerging here?)  I'm so thrilled with how this year's SAHRR worked out.  Now to figure out the backing and get it send out for quilting.  Fingers crossed it gets finished before Halloween this year.  

The April block for this year's guild BOM needs to be finished, but I was caught up as of the end of March.  I'm wishing now that I'd gone with a lighter gray, the one I picked is way too dark.  Fingers crossed it works out OK.  There's not much of it in the quilt, so hopefully it won't look too bad.  

One finished quilt and three finished quilt tops isn't bad for the end of third month of 2024.  My progress tracker shows longer bars in a few places. 

What I manage to get done in the next couple of weeks will determine what the  report looks like at the end of April.  I'll have surgery on my knee later this month. That's probably going to curtail my progress for a few weeks. Fingers crossed that I'm back in shape and ready to go for May.  

First Finish for 2024: A Flutter

I've been trying to shift my perspective to appreciate progress at least as much as finishes. I'm still working on making that shift.  But the truth is, the goal for every project is to get it finished. This one has been on the "to be finished list" for quite awhile.  

The blocks were started as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge sponsored by SoScrappy (Angela has done an amazing job of keeping this going for so many years).  My first post on this project presented this mock up as my RSC project for 2013.

The first block wasn't actually started until 03/26/2013.  I started with a trial block and then made the first one for the quilt.  The second block wasn't finished until January of 2014.  The last block was finished in March of 2015.  Then the blocks sat waiting for me to decide on a setting.  Finally in July of 2021 the final look was decided and I got busy on construction.  So almost 11 years from the construction of the first block, Scrappy Butterflies became the finished quilt, A Flutter, on 3/18/2024.

I'm happy with how it came together, maybe not so much with how long it took. But I do love it. It's currently on my couch and I've already snuggled under it a few times.  

Trudy quilted big swirls to look like wind. 

The same blue as the final border was used as the binding. The label was also framed in that blue fabric.  I didn't have enough of the blue/white stripe for the backing, so I added in a strip of a blue bonnet fabric that's been in the stash for awhile. 

A Flutter was my 4th oldest UFO. It definitely feels good to get this one off the UFO list and onto my couch were I can enjoy all the colors.  

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday over at Alycia Quilts and with Favorite Finish over at Quilting JetGirl.  

Bits of This and That Stitching

I'm late posting this morning.  I had an early morning doctor's appointment to go over the MRI results on my knee.  When I mess myself up, apparently I don't do anything in halves. Both meniscus in my right knee are torn. So that will mean surgery, probably later this spring. We'll see how long I'm out of the sewing room when we get to that.  For now, I'll keep working to finish off a few projects before I end up on restrictions. 

This weekend was a mixed bag on the stitching front.  I did a bit of hand stitching on the binding for Scrappy Butterflies (A Flutter).

  

I've turned 2 corners and have two more left.  So that's good progress. 

The rest of the weekend was spent on cutting additional parts for Indigo Way and making a start on the guild March BOM block.

I'm also working on getting the last border onto the 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin project. Two border strips are assembled and attached. I was almost done with border three when I found an error. So I need to spend some time with Mr. Seam Ripper to get that project back on track.  

So nothing exciting today.  I'm hoping to have a finished quilt and quilt top by the end of the week.  We'll see how far I get.  Linking up with  Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

To Do List for the Week of 03/12/2024

It certainly seems like March is moving along.  Friday is the halfway point of the month.  The end of the month marks the end of the first quarter of 2024.  There is still 3/4 of the year left, but boy does it seem like time is moving quickly.  

Thankfully I was able to make good use of the time I had last week so there was good progress on the To Do List. 

To Do List for 3/5/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin:  Finish border 5, work on border 6 ✔

2. Betty: Finish borders ✔

3. Malted Mystery:  Finish February clue - no progress

4. Wild and Goosey:  Continue making purple blocks ✔

5. Scrappy Butterflies: Print label, make binding ✔

6. Indigo Way: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Five check marks and one no progress is a really good week.  Betty is a finished quilt top. So it will drop off the list for now.  I've plenty in the sewing room to replace it with.  Here is this week's to do list.

To Do List for 3/12/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail): Finish border 6.

I've made good progress on making the blocks for the border. Just a little over half the 36 blocks needed are pieced.  The final parade starts on Monday, so I'd like to have a finished quilt top by then. 

2. Scrappy Butterflies (A Flutter): Finish the quilt

The label is printed and is ready for pinning to the back.  The binding is made.  So I just need to machine stitch it to the front and finish the hand stitching to the back.  That should be doable this week.  

3. Guild BOM: Fix February block, finish March block.

Somehow I completely missed that turned piece in the upper right of the February block. That should be a pretty quick fix.  The March block isn't too complicated, so fingers crossed it goes to together pretty quickly.  

4. Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Finish February clue, start March clue. 

I've gotten a bit behind on this one.  If I can finish the March clue, this project will move to the finished quilt top category on my list. 

5. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making purple blocks. 

Purple is such a fun color to sew with.  One block finished and a start on two others.  I'm hoping to make good progress on these this month. I don't have a lot of purple blocks finished, it's the color I've the least of. 

6. Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks as leaders and enders. 

I need to regroup at some point this week and see what component parts need to be cut.  I need to make two more A blocks for sure. I'll need more B blocks and side triangle blocks, I'm just not sure how many.  

Once the SAHRR and the Malted Mystery are quilt tops, I'm hoping my weekly to do list will shrink a bit. It's hard to make progress on six items each week.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for this week's To Do Tuesday.  

To Do List for the Week of 03/05/2024

I was a bit off my game most of the week.  Fitting in physical therapy and some time with an ice pack afterwards has skewed my schedule a bit.  The medication is messing with my sleep schedule a bit and that has definitely taken a toll too.  I made it to the sewing room every day, but just didn't have the energy to focus for long periods of time.  All that to say, I didn't do so hot on last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 02/27/2024

1. 2024 SAHRR: Finish borders 5 and 6 - progress

2. Betty: Finish quilt assembly - progress

3. Meadow Mist Designs: Finish the February Clue - progress

4. Wild and Goosey: Make red and start purple blocks ✔

5. Indigo Way: Continue making blocks as leaders/enders ✔

I guess the week wasn't so bad.  There was a bit of progress on everything.  It just feels like things didn't go as smoothly last week.  It's a new week and I can hope that my energy levels and focus come back.  

To Do List for 03/05/2024

1. Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail): Finish border 5, work on border 6. 

There are just a few stars left to assemble for border #5.  I've cut the orange fabric for the blocks in border 6, but need to cut the black fabric before assembly can start.  I'll need 36 blocks for the last border. Thankfully I choose a much simpler block for the last border.  I have almost 2 weeks before the final parade.  I should be able to finish up both borders before then.  

2.  Betty (Meadow Mist Designs):  Finish final borders

Cheryl's pattern in the book uses the background fabric as the border, but I want a blue final border. So I changed the background border to the same size as the sashing.  I have several options for the final border, I need to decide which one to use this week and cut the strips.  Betty should be a finished quilt top by the next week (fingers crossed anyway).  I missed the quilt parade dead line, but that's OK. I will still end up with a quilt that helped reduce the scraps in my too full bin.  

3.  Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs):  Finish the February clue.

Just two narrow borders have to be added to finish off the February clue.  The March clue comes out on Thursday.  It would be nice to get the last clue finished before then.  

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter):  Continue making purple blocks

I only managed 4 purple blocks last year.  Fingers crossed I can do a lot better than that this year. 

5. Scrappy Butterflies (self designed): Print label, make binding

Trudy sent the quilt back last week, it arrived on Saturday.  I spent some time this weekend designing the label.  A flutter is a group of butterflies and that seems to fit well for this quilt.  The goal is to have a finished quilt by the end of the month. Doing a little each week will help me meet that goal.  

6.  Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks as leaders and enders.

I'm going to need to make a few more components for the blocks. I made half the blocks to start with, but my final layout requires 2 more block A and several more block b and block b setting triangles.  Even so, I've been happy with the progress.  I might actually finish this one before this year's mystery starts up.  

This week's list is a little longer than last week's list.  But I'm almost done with the friendship stars, which take a lot of piecing to finish. Hopefully once those are done, it will be easier to work in more projects this week. Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.  

February 2024 PHD Report

February always feels like such a shock after January. The first month of the year always seems to be so long and then you blink and February is over.  As the month is over it's time to review my progress (or lack thereof) on my PHD in 2024 and link up with P Designs USA for the February report.  The report is about where I expected it to be at this point, so no surprise on my part.

No finishes as yet and one new start.  Looks like I'm going in the wrong direction.  Maybe, maybe not.  There has been good progress on a lot of fronts, but not enough to get me to a finish. But I'm close. 

Scrappy Butterflies (self designed) was sent out for quilting early in February. 

  

The quilting is finished, I'm just waiting on it to arrive back from Trudy.  That should mean there is a finish in March.  That will beat last year when my first finish wasn't until September.  

I had hoped 2024 would be much better on the health front than 2023 when my back hindered my stitching time.  This year it's my leg.  Rather than not sew, I pulled out my long term embroidery project and took a few stitches. 

It's hard to see the progress, just a few stitches to finish off one clump of grape leaves and a few stitches to start the next clump.  

There was really good progress on making red blocks for Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) this month. 

Almost half the red blocks are finished now.  Angela at SoScrappy hasn't posted what the color is for March as yet. I'll keep making red blocks until the scrappy color for March is revealed. 

Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) had been my leader and enders project for most of last year.  The last block was finished about mid month.  

The sashing for this quilt is pieced, so I wanted to wait till the design wall was free so I could lay out the pieces as I sew.  There aren't so many errors if the pieces are taken from the design wall to the sewing machine.  For now, the blocks have been put up in the project box.  Not sure when I'll get back to this quilt.  There are several others closer to finished that will probably come back into rotation before I pull this one out again.   

Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is almost back on track. 

This may be my favorite Meadow Mist mystery to date.  I'm happy with my fabric choices and love the medallion setting she used this year.  I just need to add another round of blue and white sashing and I'll be caught up with the February clue.  

Indigo Way (Bonnie Hunter) has become my new leaders and enders project. 

Back in January, I wasn't thrilled with how this one was coming together. Now that most of the blocks are finished, it's growing on me.  Fingers crossed all the blocks get finished this month.

My time out of the sewing room last week really hit my current quilt along projects hard.  But at least there was good progress on Betty (Meadow Mist Designs) previously in the month.

The first three rows are sewn together, assembly continues on the last two rows. I'm hoping I can get that done today and the borders on it before the deadline ends for the quilt parade. The deadline is tonight, so I'm going to have to hustle to make that.   

Progress on the 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) has been pretty good up till this last week. But I'm not all that far behind. 

Half the blocks for border #5 are finished.  If I work really hard, hopefully I can catch up over the weekend.  

The new project this month is the block of the month for the local guild.  I went back and forth over doing this one, but I liked the setting, so I pulled some fabrics and got started. 

I just caught the error in the corner of the February block. So I'll need to fix that when I get started on the March block.  Both the background and the green on blue have been in the stash for awhile, so I'm glad to finally find a home for them.  

That's 8 projects with progress for this month.  Not shabby at all.  Betty and the SAHRR have been my priorities, but it's good to see that most everything else moved along pretty well too.  Not a lot of new blocks colored in on my progress map, but a few. 

Fingers crossed that the top line is all the way across by the end of the month.  Since the quilt alongs for Betty and the SAHRR end this week, I'll need to decide what's next.  Do I loop back and start in on the quilts that just need backing and prep before they can go out for quilting, or do I keep the focus on the current projects and move those to finished first?  Maybe a little of each?