To Do List for the Week of 2/6/2023

This last week seemed to go really quickly. Not sure why, maybe because My Guy was home sick a couple of days or because I actually had a day out on Friday. Coffee with friends, a spur of the moment trip to the local quilt shop and a walk in the park was a nice break from the routine. It didn't impact my stitching time, I did mostly OK on last week's To Do List.  

To Do List for 1/31/2023

1. SAHRR: Finish Border 1, start border 2 ✔

2. Wild and Goosey: Make one bright blue block ✔

3. Chilhowie: Continue making blocks as leaders and enders ✔

4. Unity: Prep top for quilting - no progress

I was still so far behind on SAHRR, that I decided to sew on Saturday and Sunday rather than prep Unity.  I'll get to it at some point, I'm having fun working on SAHRR.  Check marks on three out of four is still a pretty good week. 

I'm going to stick with a short list this week as well and focus on just a few projects for one more week.  

To Do List for 2/7/2023

1.  SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish border 2, start border 3. 

The Friendship star blocks are coming together.  I still have four sets of HST's to make, but they are going quickly.  The third prompt was released yesterday.  I played with multiple options in EQ8. I have a plan, I'll get going on those blocks once I finish cutting all the HSTs. Fingers crossed I can finally get caught up this week.  

2. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Make one blue block.

I was happy to finally get another block finished for this project. I'm hoping to finish one block a week this month.  I'm not using pink in this project, so I'll just use last month's color for this month.  

3. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks as leaders and enders. 

I'm back to making hourglass blocks. Once I finish a few of these and I can start on block 3 of 9.  

4. Unity (Bonnie Hunter): Prep for quilting.  I'm hoping to have this project ready to go out for quilting before the end of the month. So I'll keep it on my to do list.  

That's my to do list for this week.  Good luck with your to do's this week.  Linking up with Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for To Do Tuesday.  

Stay At Home Round Robin: Week 2

This is my typical Monday morning post, I'm just posting a little earlier than usual so I can link up with Pieceful Wendy for Week 2 of the SAHRR. I'm also linking up with the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts, my typical Monday linky parties.  

I've really been enjoying the SAHRR (stay at home round robin). This is my first time playing along and it's showing. I'm having a real hard time keeping up with the clues. I was definitely over ambitious with my week 1 plans.  That border is finally done. 

 

I'm really happy with how week 1 worked out.  I've started on border 2, but didn't get very far. 

 

I have most of the HSTs made, so the rest of the friendship star blocks should go together pretty quickly.  The plan is to put spacers between the star blocks to evenly distribute them in the borders.  

I'm looking forward to seeing what the prompt is for week 3. Will I get caught up?  Maybe, maybe not.  If I can't keep up that's OK, I'll do what I can when I can. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 5 of 2023

The first month of 2023 is in the books, now it's time to see how well we all do at moving our various projects along in this shortest month of the year. 

My stitching week got off to a delayed start due the trip to Fort Worth, TX to meet up with Grad Girl.  I drove home in freezing fog/drizzle last Sunday. The defroster was on high the whole 2 hour drive home to keep the windshield free of ice. Thankfully the roads didn't get bad till after I got home. After that drive I wasn't really in the mood for stitching.  However, the rest of week went well.  

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/Jan = 27/31 days
• 15 minute days/Feb = 4/4 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 31/35 days
• Success rate = 88.57%

My goal for 2023 was to stitch at least 75% of the days this year, so far so good on that front.  I didn't set a goal for my stash, but do keep track of what's used.  For January the usage was 4.5 yards. I'm hoping that goes up as I finish up a few quilts. 

I finally updated my word for 2023.  My sewing room is a mess and needs a big overhaul. So my focus every Sunday morning is going to be cleaning up and organizing.  I wasn't home last Sunday, but the Sunday before processing scraps was most of my morning clean up activity.  This is all the trimmings from my efforts.  

And here's the strips that came from all that trimming.  

It doesn't look like much does it?  Every little bit helps, but I've got a lot more scraps to work through.  I did decide after looking over what I'd been saving, if a scrap is over 6.5" wide, it either gets cut down to smaller bits or added back to the fat quarter drawer depending on size.  I've been using my 1.5" strips in my SAHRR, it's been nice to have strips already cut to size.  

Have you managed to keep up with all your stitching stuff this week?  Link up below and share how it's going (link will be open till Thursday morning). 

1. Janice 2. Ivani 3. Gretchen 4. Frederique 5. Julie in GA 6. maggie f

7. Karen 8. Colletta's Kitchen Sink 9. Marti 10. DonnaleeQ 11. Jennifer in Indy 12. Quilting Gail

13. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 14. Shasta @ High Road 15. Lyndsey 16. Carol Andrews 17. Andre at Quilting and Learning 18. DonnaleeQ

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Week 58 Photo Challenge: Recreation of a Movie Scene

There was no post last week for two reasons. First, I was in Fort Worth with Grad Girl. Second, all of us struggled to come up with a subject for this photo challenge card. So we all took another week to see what we could come up with. 

 

Grad Girl was just too busy with her new teaching schedule, first presentation for group meeting and getting started on her lab research to get a photo for this challenge.  She did try to find something easy, but that didn't pan out.  

My photo isn't actually a recreation, mainly because it's a public place and I couldn't get a photo with no one in it. Plus I don't quite match the right angle, but you do what you can with some of these challenges.  It was a cloudy day and this water feature has aged. When the move was made this "set" was only two years old.  

Kate: Sci Fi?

This is the Fort Worth Water Gardens.  It was also used in a 1976 science fiction film called Logan's Run.  My dad and I were/are big science fiction fans, so I remember this movie.  It's the typical everyone lives in utopia, but only till you are 30 when you have to be "processed" to be "reborn".  In the movie the gardens provide power to the city and are used by the main characters to get back into the city.  Here's a link to the footage for that part of the film. 

My scene isn't from a classic movie, but My Guy went very classic with his photo for the challenge.  

My Guy: Homage

I'm sure most don't need any hints on what scene is recreated here. I heard My Guy banging around upstairs with no idea he was recreating one of Hitchcock's iconic scenes from Psycho.  

My Guy did a second recreation that's not quite as "true" to the picture, but still fun. Since Grad Girl didn't have a photo, I'm going to include it as an honorable mention for this week. 

Honorable Mention My Guy: Just Riding Along

He did a cool recreation of a fun sci fi classic from 1982. 

My Guy was definitely the more creative this week, with two fun photos.  I know he's already got ideas for this week's challenge and so does Grad Girl. I'm going to need to put my thinking cap on firmly to compete with those two for this week's challenge. 

 

Lots of potential subject matter for this one.  

PHD in 2023: January Update

So far all we've seen from the winter storms this week was some sleet on Monday.  It's just been really cold. But I'll take that over the ice storm that's in the forecast for areas south of us. Grad Girl said that Texas A&M canceled classes for today due to the threat of winter precipitation. Stay safe everyone if you have to get out and about.  

This is my 5th year to participate in Quilting Gail's PHD (Projects Half Done). I've yet to finish my PHD, I doubt I finish it this year. Even so, it's been good motivation to keep my projects at least moving each year.  For January 2023 I've got more new starts and no finishes.  Probably not the best start to the year. 

 

The plan is to get Unity sent out for quilting before the end of February. The Macaron Mystery needs the backing cut before it can move forward.  There wasn't any progress on those two projects this month, but there was some progress on some of the other UFOs.  

The last block was assembled for Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter 2021 Mystery Quilt Along). 

Rhododendron had been my leaders and enders project for pretty much most of 2022. It's been sidelined while I work on the new 2023 projects.  Once Unity and Macaron are moved along, I'll get back to this project.  

I'm finally caught up with the clues for the Melodic Mystery Quilt Along  (Meadow Mist Designs 2022 mystery quilt along).  

February's clue will come out tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing how all these bits and pieces go together.  

Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter 2022 mystery quilt along) is my current leaders and enders project. 

I finished clues 1 and 2 before the mystery ended, but fell way behind with clue 3.  I'll be finishing blocks as the hourglass and HST components get completed.  Block 2 is almost finished.  My plan is make 9 blocks and call it good.  

I've watched other participate in the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) (Quilting Gail) for the last couple of years. It's been fun to see how everyone interprets the weekly prompts. I really didn't need any new projects, but I really wanted a project that exercised my design skills. SAHRR fits that bill perfectly. 

I'm already behind. The first week's border isn't quite finished.  The plan for the second border is decided and I've started cutting and assembling the component parts.  Hopefully I can get caught up this week.  

The second new start is Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl).  I fell in love with the all blue throw version of this quilt.  I really didn't need another new project, but I really couldn't resist.  

I was able to pull all the fabrics from my stash, so this project counts as part of my stash management strategy this year.  Block 3 comes out on Friday. Blocks 1 and 2 are finished, so I'm ready.  

No finishes yet, but I've really been enjoying the new projects.  I needed the lift after getting a bit burned out just working on UFOs in 2022.  Linking up with Quilting Gail for the January PHD report.