Stitching Stuff: Week 50 of 2020

Week 50 of 2020?  Just two more weeks (and a few days) left in 2020.  That's not a lot of time to finish or start all those projects that were on our to do lists for the year.  It gets even harder to work on those to do lists when you have those extra holiday chores, like present wrapping and baking pop up as well.  Sometimes even just 15 minutes of stitching time is just not going to happen. 

This was another of those weeks where holiday preparations and family time trumped my stitching time. 

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Dec = 6/12 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 305/347
• Success rate = 87.90%

I spent two days wrapping Christmas presents and hanging out with the Scientist in Training and my mother.  We've all been careful to social distance and wear our masks the last couple of weeks so we could have some girl time before the holiday. Needless to say, stitching time just didn't work out with the schedule.  But at least this week was better than last week on the stitching front.  

A lot of the stitching time this week was slow stitching. 

I'm just about to turn the first corner on the binding for Frolic, or what I'm calling The Couch Frolic as this quilt is destined to be draped over the back of our couch.  I hope to make a good bit of progress on the binding this week. Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday over at Kathy's Quilts.  

Last week I shared one of the ornaments from our annual girls' weekend, which was much toned down this year, no shopping or restaurant dinners.  I've mentioned before that both Mom and my sister were managers of Hallmark stores.  Consequently, I have quite the collection of Hallmark ornaments. Some of my favorites are a special series of Barbie ornaments. 

This is one of porcelain ornaments from that series.  I started collecting the Barbie ornaments before I was married and way before the Scientist in Training came along.  The thought was there might be a little girl at some point in time that would love Barbie.  Well the little girl came along, but she wasn't a big fan of Barbie.  Not surprising as I didn't like to play with them, I much preferred sewing clothes for them. I have fun memories of sewing to my sister's specifications and learning how to sew on a snap from my mother.  

So how are you doing on working in some stitching time this holiday season?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. karen

4. Meloney 5. DawnyK 6. Shasta @ High Road

7. Quilting Gail 8. Andree at Quilting & Learning 9. Amanda

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of December 8, 2020

Life has been a bit hectic since Thanksgiving, with work bordering on being completely insane. Consequently sewing and computer time has been at a premium the last week. I missed last week's To Do Tuesday because I just didn't have time to post, thankfully things calmed down by the weekend and I did get in some really good stitching time, else my to do list would have looked really pitiful.

Weekly To Do List for 11/24/2020

• Red, White and Blue Stars: Continue with borders ✔
• Unity: Add next border, make flying geeese ✔
• Grassy Creek: Start on Clue 1 ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Work on November clue ✔
• Daisy Chain: De-thread, press, pack and ship ✔

So the week of Thanksgiving was really, really good.  In spite of work insanity, there are a few check marks for last week.

Weekly To Do List for 12/01/2020

• Unity: Add one flying geese border, make flying geese ✔
• Grassy Creek: Continue to work on Clue 1, start Clue 2 progress
• Morewood Mystery: Work on December Clue ✔
• Frolic: Make binding stitch to front, start hand stitching ✔

Three out of four is pretty good for a week that was pretty much rubbish till the weekend.  There will not be as much time for stitching this week. I have some plans with the Scientist in Training this weekend.  That means this week's list needs to be pretty reasonable.  

Weekly To Do List for 12/08/2020

Frolic:  Hand stitch the binding.

I've not gotten very far on the hand stitching yet and probably won't finish that till next week.  But Frolic should definitely be finished before the end of the month. 

Grassy Creek: Work on Clues 1 and 2

I've made a start on clue 1, actually have a few more of the HSTs finished than in this photo. I haven't started on clue 2 yet. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few blocks made on Sunday. 

 

Morewood Mystery: Work on the December Clue.

This is my fabric for the December clue. Of all my choices this is the one I'm not sure is going to work.  Fingers crossed that the pieces are big enough you get all the colors in each patch.  

Unity: Make flying Geese

I've got a good start on the flying geese border for the bottom.  I doubt it gets finished this week, but any progress is good.  

In addition to plans with the SIT, I've got Christmas wrapping to do, so that will cut into my stitching time as well. The plan for this week is to just keep all the projects moving.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at Home Sewn by Us.  Good luck with your to do list this week.  

Not a Lot of Stitching

I'm hoping this week is better than last week. There wasn't much stitching time last week, mainly due to having to work late several nights. I'm working on two mystery quilts and both are still building the pieces, so there's not much to show with those two projects as yet. But Unity is up on the big design wall. 

2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

The top row of flying geese is all sewn together and to the quilt top. I've got a good start on the flying geese for the bottom row.  There's another round of blocks, followed by top and bottom borders, so I'm getting closer to getting this one finished. I'm off the last two weeks of the year, so I'm hoping to have lots of stitching time. It would be nice if Unity became a finished quilt top before next year. 

Linking up with Monday Making and Monday Design Wall.   

Last Push for My 2020 PhD

I've been following along with Quilting Gail's 2020 PHD. 

The goal is to finish 12 UFOs, plus finish any quilts you start during the year (other then quilt alongs that won't finish before the end of the year). I'm not going to finish 12 quilts this year and I'm probably not going to finish the one quilt I started that doesn't carry over to next year.  Here's my report card so far this year. 

There's one more finish on the list and one more new start.  But Grassy Creek, Bonnie Hunter's 2020 mystery, won't finish till next year so I don't have to worry about getting that one done by the end of the month. Same with the Morewood Mystery, it won't finish till next spring. 

The one new finish is the 2019 Christmas Mystery quilt. 

That brings my total finishes to five.  

Frolic is next up on the to be finished list. 

Frolic, 2019 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

The quilt is trimmed, label made and assembling the binding strips is in progress.  So getting in a sixth finish is really likely.  

Daisy Chain was mailed out to be quilted the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and didn't get delivered to Trudy till yesterday. 

Daisy Chain Mystery, 2019 Little Bunny Quilts Mystery
by Alison of Honey, Bunny & Doll Designs

I'm not sure if this one will make it back in time for me to finish it this year.  The label is mostly done, I just need to know if it's a this month or next year finish before I can finalize the label.  I haven't decided on the binding yet. If I can decide on that, I could make the binding and then be ready to go when it does come back.  

Red, White and Blue Stars become a finished quilt top last month. 

Red, White and Blue Stars, Self Designed

I still need to piece the backing.  This one may get sent out for quilting before the end of the year, but it's too late to get it finished for this year.  

I've made good progress on Unity. 

2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

The first flying geese border is almost assembled.  But there's one more flying geese border to make and then one more full round of blocks, plus one more top and bottom border.  I'm not going to get all of those done before the end of the month.  But at least I've kept this one moving. 

Only three new projects started this year compared to the seven new starts for last year is an improvement. I finished four quilts last year and have already finished five for this year.  So my UFO numbers will go down for the year rather than up as they did last year as I've finished more than I started. I need a few more years of that to whittle down my UFO list to something more manageable.  I'll be playing along with the 2021 PHD in hopes of that. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 49 of 2020

 

Just three more weeks left in 2020. It will be a busy time for most of us. Last week didn't go so well for me. How about you? Did you get a good start on any last minute holiday stitching?  

It really was a miserable week for me. Finishing up projects and personnel reviews kept me at work really late several nights. That took a toll on finding time to stitch last week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 2/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 25/30 days
• 15 minute days/Dec = 1/5 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 300/340 days
• Success rate = 88.24%

I'm still on track to meet my goal of fitting in some stitching time at least 85% of the time this year. It should even out at work this next week, so fingers crossed next week's numbers will look much better.  Hopefully, you are on track to meet your stitching time goals as well.  

It's the first Sunday in a new month, so it's time to take a look at the stash report.  

• Fabric used in November = 6.2 yards
• Fabric used YTD = 61.93 yards
• More fabric in than out for 2020

November was a really good month for fabric usage.  If I can find a way to use 4 more yards this month, I'll break my record for fabric usage in one year. I need to piece the backing for the Red, White and Blue Stars quilt, that would get me part of the way there.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the monthly stash report.  

We put the tree up just before the Scientist in Training had to head back to school for dead week and finals.  Usually I put the lights on the tree and she picks out and hangs the ornaments.  This year, she helped with the lights and we both did the ornaments.  My sister and mother both managed Hallmark stores (each for about 20 years), so we have a pretty impressive collection of ornaments to choose from when decorating.  

This isn't one of our many Hallmark ornaments, but it's one we got last year on our annual girls only Christmas shopping trip with my mother and sister.  There won't be a shopping trip this year due to the pandemic, so the SIT wanted this ornament on the tree to remember last year's trip.

So how did you do with doing at juggling holiday preparations and stitching time this week?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Meloney 3. Chrisknits 4. karen

5. Jennifer in Indy 6. Sherrie 7. Shasta @ High Road 8. Andree at Quilting & Learning

9. Quilting Gail 10. DawnyK

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