PHD in 2021: December Wrap Up

Year three of Stitching Gail's 2021 PHD program went pretty much like the first two.  I didn't manage 12 finishes, I didn't finish what I started, but at least my UFO count stayed the same.  

There were three finishes this year, I only started 3 of 4 planned starts, and I made progress on 5 other projects.  So it wasn't a horrible year.  

So though it's not PHD worthy, I'm happy with the progress in 2021. 

Cabins and Fans finally made it to the Post Office and Trudy is working her quilting magic on it.

 

Hopefully I'll have a finish before the end of January.  

Unity, the Bonnie Hunter Sew in Place quilt along from 2020, is moving along slowly.  

The top border is almost done.  Since the end of the year, I've finished the last star.  Unity should be a finished quilt by the end of this year. I can safely count on at least 2 finishes for 2022 

The Macaron Mystery from Meadow Mist Designs is almost caught up. 

The square in a square blocks are almost finished. Those should be all finished up the Thursday when the new clue comes out.  

The 2021 Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt along, Rhododrendron, isn't in nearly as good of shape. 

Step 1 is the only clue that's finished.  There was progress on steps 2, 3 and 4 before the end of the year.  I've since made some progress on steps 5 and 6, but I'm a long way from caught up.

Potions was started just before the year ended. It's a graduation present, so needs to get started so it can be finished by May.  

I managed to finish the first test tube. These are going to be fiddly blocks. I'm probably going to have to put some of my other projects on the back burner to get this one finished in time. This needs to be a finish before mid year, so that brings the total to 3 probable finishes for the year.  That would be at least as good as 2021.  

A few more alternate blocks for Scrappy Butterflies made it to the design wall. 

These blocks have been returned to the project box for now.  Potions took it's place in the rotation. Hopefully I can get back to this one later in the year and make some more progress.  

My embroidery project didn't progress much over this Christmas.  

I was finishing reports and then got sick the first week of Christmas vacation, so I didn't have much of a chance to do any handwork while we were off visiting family this year.  I won't be looking for a traveling handwork project any time soon.  

The other project that I made progress on in 2021 is Chocolate Marshmallow (Quilt along from Seabreeze Quilts). 

Back in August I finally decided on a setting. I don't have enough of the dark brown print to do that dark border, so I went searching for an alternative and found one that's almost an exact match to that brown print.  I struggle to figure out how to set some of my finished quilt along blocks, so having the setting all worked out and the fabric in hand means this one is ready to start once I get that far in my PHD list.

There were three finishes.  

Picnic Stars (Red, White and Blue Stars) which was self designed

Fritillaria (Bonnie Hunter's 2020 Grassy Creek Mystery Quilt along)

Wrapped Sweets (Meadow Mist Designs 2019 Morewood Mystery quilt along.

So though I didn't meet my PHD goals, there was still good progress on several projects this year. So I'm going to claim success and cross my fingers that I can do as well in 2022.  

A Finished Mystery

There hasn't been much sewing room time the last couple of weeks.  No point in posting if there isn't anything to post about, so there were no posts last week.  October has proved to be a busy month, with late nights at work and we were on the road the first two weekends of the month.  We were mostly home this weekend, so I had time to sew a bit and to finally get some photos of my last finish. 

Morewood Mystery (Wrapped Sweets)
Meadow Mist Designs 2020 Mystery Quilt Along
Started 9/4/2020, Finished 9/26/2021

  

The Scientist in Training noted how the square in a square combined with the light blue/teal HSTs looked like a wrapped candy.  So Wrapped Sweets seemed like a good name for this quilt. This project is my fifth Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt. I really enjoy Cheryl's mystery quilts. She gives great information on how the fabrics interact with each other, so it makes it much easier to pick fabrics that work well with each other. I'm really happy with how this project came out. 

Trudy quilted Wrapped Sweets with a leafy motif. It gives the quilt a really nice texture.  

   

The backing is pieced from the darker teal and the multicolored print used in the blocks.  

The binding is the lighter teal/blue also used in the blocks. 

This quilt is staying here for now.  It will find a home eventually.  

Wrapped Sweets was finish number 3 for 2021. It's one of 3 quilts started in 2020.  The UFO count is down to 19, which is where it was when 2020 ended.  I'm still hoping to work down the UFO list before the end of the year, but at least that number isn't going up.  I'll take that.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  

Slow Stitching to a Finish

We took a day off on Friday and enjoyed a three day weekend. My Guy was still pretty sore from his bicycle accident the weekend before, so the plan was to just take it easy and hang out at home.  He was feeling much better by the end of the weekend, though he still has some really colorful bruises. 

My goal was to get laundry done and then spend a lot time in the sewing room working on some finishes.  The easiest was to finish reworking some face masks.  

These were some of the first masks I made. The elastic had worn out, so I reconstructed them with a new fabric backing and T-shirt ear loops.  The face mask making is done, at least for a bit. I may make some new Halloween ones, I have some fun novelty fabrics that would make cool masks.  

Most of my sewing room time was spent binge watching British Bake Off while sewing down the binding for the Morewood Mystery.

It was late in the evening before the last stitch was made. 

So this is the only picture I have of the finished quilt, showing that all 4 corners are stitched down.  This was my September One Monthly Goal.  It feels good to meet it with a few days to spare.  

Also linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. 

Working On a Finish

It's always exciting to get a quilt back from the quilter.  One more project almost finished and off the to do list.  But there's still a few steps to complete between pulling it out of the shipping box and taking that last stitch in the binding.  

One goal for this weekend was to finish those pre-binding steps so I could focus on finishing up the Morewood Mystery quilt this next week.  I remembered to do finish step1 just before I went to bed on Saturday.  I printed out the label, soaked it, and let it dry overnight. Sunday I added the borders. 

I still need to turn under and press the top and left side borders, but that won't take long.  Other than that, the label is ready to sew on with the binding. The Scientist in Training suggested the name. She thought the square in a square blocks with the HSTs, next to them looked like wrapped candies.  

Trimming off the excess batting and backing is not one of my favorite things to do. It's not hard, it's just awkward to fold and refold the quilt so it fits on the cutting table for trimming. 

Morewood Mystery by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

After that it's ready for the binding.

Which at the end of Sunday was still being stitched together over at the sewing machine.

I just need to sew the two halves of the binding strips together to finish that step.  I'm hoping to get that far tonight.  After that the binding still needs to be folded in half and pressed before stitching it to the front of the quilt.  That's the goal for this week. I'm hoping to get that done and make a start on hand stitching the binding to the back. That's my favorite part of the finishing process.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.