Stitching Stuff: Week 33 of 2021

We are halfway through August.  That doesn't seem possible.  I'm not sure where the last 2 weeks have gone.  At least I've been more productive on the sewing front this last week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/August = 11/14 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 189/226 days
• Success rate = 83.63%

My last stitching 7 out of 7 days week was three weeks ago.  There's been good progress this last week. I always forget how much progress you can make even with just 15 minutes each evening. Fingers crossed it will carry over to this week.  I'm off track on my goal of stitching 85% of the days this year, but not so far off track that I can't still meet that goal. 

How did you do at fitting in some stitching time this week?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. karen 4. maggie f

5. Meloney 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Andree at Quilting & Learning 8. Shasta @ High Road

9. Amanda 10. DawnyK 11. Quilting Gail

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Family Photo Challenge Week 7

Thank goodness for Saturday!  I was ready for a weekend.  Our Friday evening after dinner activity was to decide what photo to submit for last week's challenge.  

This week's challenge can be visually interpreted so many ways.  We each did something just a bit different.  I struggled to come up with an idea for this week.  I was putting away scraps in the sewing room when I found my inspiration. 

Kate: Penciled Paisley

My Guy as usual had lots of ideas for photos but finally settled on this one.  It has some very nice texture to it. 

My Guy: Basket Flower

The Scientist in Training struggled a bit to find a shot.  She finally went with a more journalistic vision. 

Scientist in Training: Show Time

Since the SIT is home this weekend, she drew the card for this week's challenge.  

My reaction pretty much mirrored My Guys, "Oh. Really?"

To Do Tuesday for Week of 8/10/2021

It's been about three weeks since my last To Do Tuesday post.  To Do Lists were written, but nothing was checked off, so nothing really to post about. Finally this last week there was some action on the stitching front.

To Do List for 8/3/2021

• Morewood Mystery: Finish prepping quilt top ✔
• Cabins and Fans: Work on row 7 ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs for clue 6 as leader and ender ✔
• Scrappy Butterflies: Finalize quilt setting ✔

The biggest achievement was getting the Morewood quilt top pressed and de-threaded.  Now that's done, I can get back to piecing. Even better I can add another UFO to this week's To Do List. 

To Do List for 8/10/2021

Morewood Mystery:  Box up and send out for quilting. 

I found a shipping box last night.  Now I just have to tape it up and find time to get it to the post office to mail it off.  

Cabins and Fans: Continue assembly of row 7

The last orange block is just about assembled.  There hasn't been any progress the last few weeks on these fan blocks.  I'm hoping to get a few blocks assembled this week.  

Scrappy Butterflies:  Start framing the butterfly blocks

The butterfly blocks finish at 9". A 1" frame needs to be added so they fit with the 10" Irish Chain blocks.  That should go pretty fast. 

Unity: Make HSTs for Step 6

Just 6 more blocks needed to finish off the last border for Step 7.  I'm hoping to get in a lot of stitching time this week to get that far.  I'm ready to move on to Step 8.  

Any progress at all will be welcome, as that will be an improvement over the last few weeks.  Linking up with ChrisKnits for To Do Tuesday.  

Priming the Pump

It was nice to be home for the whole weekend.  After being on the road the last couple of weekends, mount laundry had reached significant heights, knocking that down was the first priority.  The main task waiting for me in the sewing room was to finish prepping Morewood for quilting.  Not my favorite thing to do. With the shoulder and back issues, I had to take it slow, just clean up one row at a time, then take a break.   With Morewood completely covering my cutting/pressing table, I couldn't really do much else in the sewing room.  So I did some virtual work during my "breaks".  

Scrappy Butterflies is the next UFO on the list. Back in July I posted this layout.  

 Scrappy Butterflies
Block is available in EQ 8 Block Library

I mostly like it, but it doesn't look complete because not all the butterfly blocks are completely framed by the Irish Chain.  So I played around a bit more and came up with this version. 

This version spreads out the butterflies and finishes off he chain by adding a half block as the first border.  As much as I love the border with the repeating Irish Chain blocks, adding it to this version would make it way too big.  I was aiming for a nice sized couch quilt, not a queen sized quilt. 

While I was playing in EQ8, I pulled up the file on another UFO on this year's quilt plan, Chocolate Marshmallows.  

Chocolate Marshmallows
pattern by Amanda Bergamin of Sea Breeze Quilts

These blocks are from a quilt along with Sea Breeze Quilts back in 2014.  It's another UFO that's not finished because I couldn't decide on a setting.  Like Scrappy Butterflies there are about 20 different layouts in EQ8, none of which I'm happy with. So I played around with a few more layouts. 

This is my current favorite.  The simple sashing floats the blocks in the center. Of all the sashing options, I like this one the best.  The dark brown borders work for me, the only problem is if I remember correctly, I don't have much of the dark brown left.  But if memory serves, there is plenty of the darker pink. 

I'm just not a fan of the all that plain pink in the border. Maybe what this quilt needs is a scrappy border?  Maybe a key board?  Any suggestions?   

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 32 of 2021

The first week of August is already over. By the end of this week, August will be half over.  The second half of the year really does pass at light speed.  I missed posting last week.  The intention was there, but moving the Scientist in Training took a lot more time and effort than we'd planned for. I just didn't have time to sit down with the computer and write a blog post.  The last couple of weeks have been spent babying my shoulder and hanging with family.  My stitching time metrics certainly show that I wasn't in the sewing room. 

• 15 minute days/week = 4/7 days
• 15 minute days/July = 23/31 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 182/219
• Success rate = 83.11%

I'm off target on my stitching time goal. I did better this week than last week. Hopefully I'll get back on track with 7/7 days next week and can quickly work my success rate back over 85%.  

How did you do this week on working in some stitching time? 

1. Ivani 2. karen 3. maggie f 4. Julie in GA

5. Meloney 6. DonnaleeQ 7. Sherrie 8. Andree at Quilting & Learning

9. DawnyK 10. Amanda 11. Quilting Gail

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