Nothing New on the Design Wall

It was a busy weekend.  We spent some time with the family celebrating my sister's birthday.  So I didn't get much done on the stitching front over the weekend.  Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) is still up on the big design wall. 

I finished the pieced border and the narrow orange strip border.  The final teal border is still over at the sewing machine. 

Almost ready to cut the first strips for the last border.  By the end of the week, Chilhowie should be a finished quilt top.  Before I get to that though, I need to prep Diatom for quilting and get it sent out for quilting.  At some point in the next few days I'll need to figure out which to be finished and which to be assembled project needs to be added to the in progress list.  So there should be something new up on the design wall next week.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 36 of 2024

 

Lower temps and lower humidity made for a much more pleasant week.  But it's still summer here, true autumn weather is several weeks off for us.  It's still much nicer in my sewing room in the afternoon then it is outside.  Still easy to maintain my stitching time streak last week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Sept = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 251/251 days
• Success rate = 100% 

I'm still stalled on processing scraps, but I have made a bit of progress on pressing fabric and reorganizing the fabric closet.  

The bin is almost half empty. It's been a month since I started on this refill.  I've not had as much time to press fabrics, so it may take a couple more months to empty the bin this time.  But I'm happy with the progress I'm making, even if it is slow. 

Are you happy with your progress year to date?  Have you had time to stitch or has it been just one of those years?  

1. Frédérique 2. maggie f 3. Karen 4. DonnaleeQ

5. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 6. Jennifer in Indy 7. Deb in Canada 8. Bonnie in Va

9. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 10. Amanda

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Week 123 Photo Challenge: Sleeping

All three of us enjoy this photo challenge.  It's been such fun to see what we each come up with.  But some week's are more of a challenge to find a photo then others. This week was that way for me and My Guy.  

 

This isn't an object, it's an activity.  It would be easy to take photos of each of us sleeping, but to be honest those probably aren't the most interesting subjects.  I struggled all week with getting a photo. In fact you can tell from mine that inspiration didn't strike till this morning. 

 

Kate: I Should Be Sleeping

Actually, I tried this earlier in the week with my I-Phone and that didn't work.  It's amazingly hard to get a good photo in total darkness. I had to go to the kitchen to turn on the lights there to adjust my camera settings to avoid waking up My Guy.  Yes, I did go back to sleep for a bit after this photo.  I'm at the age where sleeping thru the night doesn't happen all that often anymore.

My Guy went with a similar theme, but ended up with a very different photo. 

My Guy: Shhh-the Neighbors are Sleeping

 

Can you see the stars in the sky over the sleepy neighborhood?  Thankfully the worst noise we get during the day and night is the high school kid with the souped up Jeep who guns it as he leaves the house.  Thankfully, we can't hear him in the bedroom.  

You could say that Grad Girl had it much easier this week. 

Unlike sleeping old people, sleeping kitties are cute. Though a black cat can be extremely difficult to photograph. Queenie likes to nap in Grad Girl's closet on the pile of blankets/quilts.  It's out of the way and dark, a great place for a kitty looking for an uninterrupted nap.  

All in all, I don't think we did so bad with last week's subject.  Next week's subject will probably be challenging for all of us. 

 

I have some thoughts. We'll have to see if any of them actually become photos.  

August 2024 PHD Report

With all the hot, hot days in August, the sewing room was the nicest place to hang out most days.  Consequently there was a lot of progress on the various projects.  Now that we've moved into September it's time to link up with P Designs USA for the August PHD Report.

Another finish added to the chart with no new starts. That's definitely a good month.  So I'm up to three finishes for 2024.  The latest finish was my 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) project. 

 

This quilt, named The Shadow Demon, is destined to live at my daughter's apartment and be snuggled by her black cat, Queenie.  It was such a fun project to make and turned out better than I expected.  Grad Girl is thrilled with it and that's the best thank you there is.  It's also nice to finish one of the quilts that was started this year.  

Just one finish, but there was good progress on a number of other projects in August.  

A few more orange blocks filled in the center of Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter). 

It takes so long to get all the blocks up on the design wall, I'm just going to stick with summary shots of all the blocks of the color I've been working on. Since September is dark neutrals, I'm going to continue with the orange this month as all my blocks have black in them.  Still a long way to go before all the blocks are finished, but I'm happy with the progress so far with this project. I'll probably need another year or two to get all the blocks done. We'll have to see what next year's quilt plan looks like, it could become a primary project to finish next year.  

Not a lot of progress on the new leaders and enders project, The Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt (Kevin the Quilter). 

I've been alternating making yellow and blue 4 patch blocks.  So far one blue and one yellow set of 10 have been added to the project box.  

It's definitely been a year for catching up on Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts. Back in February all the blocks for the 2022 mystery, Chilhowie, were finished as a leaders and enders project.  It went back into the project box as I was in the middle of several other quilt alongs. In August, Chilhowie came back onto the active list as my next quilt top to finish. 

The sashing is finished and I've started on the borders.  Chilhowie won't be finished with all the pieced borders Bonnie used.  My plan for the left over blocks is to use them on the back.  

Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl) became a finished quilt top during the month. It's next on the list to be finished.

The backing fabric has been washed. Hopefully, the backing will be pressed and cut soon.  

The 2023 Bonnie Hunter mystery, Indigo Way, became a finished quilt top during August. 

I'm not sure it will become a finished quilt before the end of the year. But I am thrilled to have it to the finished quilt top stage before the next mystery comes out.  

The August block for the Guild's 2024 BOM was finally cut out and pieced. 

Just two more blocks and then the setting pieces left to make, so just three more months of clues left.  

The project tracker is definitely showing more color/longer bars. 

One more finished quilt and two more finished quilt tops are the primary reasons.  I had hoped for more finishes this year, but it helps to see the progress in other areas.  There should be one more finish in September and hopefully another one in October. That would get me to five this year, so better than the last couple of years for sure.  

To Do List for the Week of 09/03/2024

Is it really September?  Seems like it was the beginning of May just yesterday.  Now summer's end is looming. It will be a quick march to the end of the year.  But I should slow down and just take it a day at a time.  

Looking back at last week, the to do list was pretty simple.  

To Do List for 08/27/2024

1.  Diatom: Piece backing, prep for quilting ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Finish sashing, start borders  ✔

3.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

4.  Simply Sensational Mystery: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

The hardest item on it was getting the backing for Diatom finished up.  Next week's list is going to be a bit longer.  

To Do List for 09/03/2024

1.  Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Prep top for quilting

The backing is assembled, pressed and de-threaded.  So if I can get the top done quickly it can go out for quilting quickly.  it would nice if it comes back before my girl's weekend with Grad Girl.  

2. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Finish pieced first border, start on second border

Still have a bit left to do on that first pieced border.  The next two borders will be strip borders.  Those will go faster, but never as fast as I think they should.  

3.  Jewel Box Blocks (Cynthia Brunz Designs): Finish blocks

Cynthia who hosts the Quilting is More Fun than Housework blog has posted the next block drive for Many Hands and Many Hearts.  The blocks are black and white with bright blue, greens and purples.  My scrap bins are pretty full, so this seemed like a great opportunity to pull out a few scraps and make a few blocks for charity.  The white and black fabrics are left overs from other quilts. Using those will make some more space in the fabric closet.  So a win/win for everyone.  So far I have 8 cut out and ready to piece. 

4.  Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs): Cut background fabric and start assembly of for the September clue.

After much dithering, I finally decided this is the fabric pull for the mystery.  I had contemplated doing red, white and blue, but Grad Girl pointed out that I had just finished  RWB project.  I really like purple and I like monochromatic quilts.  Hopefully these will all play well with each other.  

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

It would be fun to finish off all the orange blocks I need this month.  Doubt that happens, but I have a few weeks to see how much progress I can make.  

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

This has been a wonderful scrap buster and easy leaders and enders project.  Still have a ways to go, but I'm enjoying making the 4 patches.  

That's my to list for this week. Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt for To Do Tuesday.