Monday Design Wall - Oct 7th

The weekend passed way to quickly.  A cold front came through Friday night/Saturday morning so we had wonderfully comfortable temperatures.  The cold front brought something else with it that gave all three of us sinus headaches.  My Guy's morphed into a migraine, so he was out of commission most of yesterday. Thankfully he is feeling better this morning. My headache is getting worse.  It will be a long day if the Tylenol doesn't knock it back a bit.  

On the stitching front, it's been a pretty good week.  I finished all the Log Cabin blocks for Back to Square One.  

Back to Square One
pattern by Judy Laquidara
(available here)

Now I've got to make the Economy blocks that go in between the Log Cabin blocks.  I like how this quilt is turning out.  Drama Teen has been asking if she can have this one.  She calls it the Japanese Pond quilt.

That's it for my design wall today.  I'm linking up with the Patchwork Times.  Check out her post to see the latest and greatest design walls around.  

Stash Report - Week 40 of 2013

It's been a mixed bag of a weekend so far.  Yesterday all three of us woke up with sinus headaches.  After a dose of Tylenol we were all feeling well enough to jump in the car and head to Tulsa for My Guy's promised birthday lunch.  My Guy's favorite restaurant was closed for remodeling, which was a disappointment till he remembered there was a place on Cherry Street that he had seen in passing and wanted to try.  So we headed in that direction. He ordered the fried green tomatoes stuffed with crab.

I ended up with pork tacos.  

Drama Teen ordered lamb sliders.  Since she typically doesn't eat breakfast on the weekends until lunch time, she was so hungry that she dived right in, so no picture.  My Guy's not fond of cake, so he ordered the bread pudding with ice cream and caramel sauce as his "birthday cake".  

Oh I forgot to mention the bacon bits on the top.  Needless to say we were all pretty stuffed after all of that. After lunch we lucked into an art show and browsed that for a while.  We found a couple of Christmas presents (yes it is unfortunately that just about that time of year).  My Guy's headache came back full force, so we made one more quick stop and headed home.  All of us took naps when we got home and all felt better for it.  But My Guy got up this morning with what is now a full blown migraine headache.  So I'm being really quiet so he can sleep.

With all of our doings yesterday, not much stitching happened.  I did get some stitching done earlier in the week.  I'm now starting to complete the Log Cabin blocks for clue 7 on the Back to Square One quilt, so there is a little bit to report as going out. 

Used last week:  0.38 yards
Added last week:  0 yards

Used for 2013:  58.45 yards
Added for 2013:  157.83 yards

Net stashed for 2013:  99.38 yards

Even better, there was nothing in last week, so I'm still under my limit of 100 yards of stash added for the rest of 2013.  

That's it for my stash report.  Check out other reports over at Judy's Patchwork Times.  

October Report - The Year of the Finished Project

Hard to believe that we are already three days into October.  I have a feeling that from now until Christmas, the days are going to fly. October is wrap up time at work, I've got a number of reports that need to be completed by the end of the month.  Though I have deadlines at work, not so much with my sewing.  I'm not trying to have anything done for Christmas this year.  However, since it is the first Thursday of the month, it is time to see what progress was made on September's sewing goals.  I'm linking up with Lynn over at Never to Hot to Stitch for her 2013 the Year of the Finished Project.

My September goals were pretty ambitious.  Not sure what I was thinking when they ended up on the blog. But all in all, I didn't do too bad.  

Mon Ami
     Make backing          Done
     Send out for quilting

Back to Square One
     Finish Clue 5          Done
     Finish Clue 6          Done
     Finish Clue 7
     Finish Clue 8
     Finish Clue 9

Neutral Gems
     Make 5 blocks          Done

Scrappy Stars
     Make 5  blocks          Only 3 completed

Christmas Angels
     Make 9 4-patch blocks         Done

     
       Additional progress:  Finished 14 Triangle in a Square Blocks

Road to Brenham
     Make 32 red/black HST's          Done

      
     Additional progress:  Finished 32 black/white HST's

I need to take the time to press out Mon Ami and it's back so I can send it out for quilting.  I just haven't wanted to spend the time with the iron.  Back to Square one was 5 clues behind in September.  Looks like it will be just 4 clues behind in October, so I'm gaining some ground there.  It's fun to see the progress with Neutral Gems.  The only goal I didn't make this month was making 5 of the Scrappy Stars, but the addition of 3 more is still progress.  Both Christmas Angels and Road to Brenham are ahead of plan.  I like making a few of the HSTs and Triangle in a Square blocks at a time, that way I don't have to stand at the cutting table and trim dozens of them before moving on to the next step.  Making a couple every time I stitch on the other projects makes those blocks a lot more palatable to me.  

So what's the plan for October?  

Mon Ami
      Press, package and send out for quilting

Back to Square One
     Finish Clue 7
     Finish Clue 8
     Finish Clue 9
     Finish Clue 10

Neutral Gems
     Make 6 blocks

Scrappy Stars
     Make 5 blocks

Christmas Angels
     Make 32 Triangle in a Square blocks

Road to Brenham
     Make 18 black/white HST
     Make 18 white/white HST
     Make 32 quarter square triangles

Scrappy Trip Around the World
     Make 5 blocks  

Another ambitious list for October.  I think this one is doable, but I'll probably have to scale back for November since holiday activities will start showing up on the calender.  

That's it for my efforts this month.  Check out all the other project progress over at Never Too Hot To Stitch.  

Wordless Wednesday - Fall Floral

15 Minute Challenge - Do you need a break?

October usually brings cooler weather our way.  In a couple of weeks the leaves will start to change.  The fall foliage should be glorious this year since we've had ample rain all summer long.  Besides all that Drama Teen and I have reason to celebrate the first of October.  Today is My Guy's birthday.

Since DT has an away game tonight, we celebrated last night. Happy birthday My Guy!  

The new month also brings a new fostering your creativity theme.  This month's topic is "take breaks".  First there's the, "I need to stretch and walk around" break that you need when things are moving along and you are so close to a finish.  Then there is the "It's not working and I'm frustrated" break when you really should walk away from the sewing machine for a while.  We'll talk about both kinds of breaks and how to make the most of them in subsequent posts. 

The break I took last week when I only managed 3 days in the sewing room, really paid off this week.

Seven out of seven.  A really good week on the stitching front.  I even spent a couple of sessions working on a new project, which was a lot of fun.  

So how did you do this week?  Did you stitch or take a break?