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

It's been a long couple of days. My back is slowly improving.  The only place I can sit comfortably for more than a few minutes is my sewing room chair.  So I went with that to spend most of Sunday and yesterday in my sewing room.  I can sit at the computer desk for about 30 minutes at a time, so I'm slowly replying to emails and catching up on everyone's blog. But all the sewing room time paid off in a fully checked off to do list.  

To Do List for 5/30/2023

1. SAHRR: Assemble last pieced border ✔

2. Just 2 Charm Pack Blog Hop: finish pressing and cutting fabrics ✔

3. Diatom: Assemble block 6, cut block 7 ✔

4. Wild and Goosey: complete 1 orange block ✔

5. Chilhowie: Leaders and enders project ✔

So it was a good week for the to do list.  I'm hoping I can do as well on this week's list.  

To Do List for 6/6/2023

1. Just Two Charm Pack blog hop quilt (Meadow Mist Designs): Start subunit assembly. 

I have till early July to finish this project, so I've moved it up to my number one priority.  It's taking over my large design wall.  

2. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Attach spacer border and choose border fabric. 

The last pieced border was stitched on yesterday afternoon.  I'm really happy with how this project came together.  It was worth all the extra time to finish those pinwheel blocks.  I've been searching the stash for a suitable border fabric and came up with three possibles. 

My Guy likes the center one the most.  I'm going to see if I have anything darker in the stash that might work.  But I think these might be it.  I also need to come up with a name for this quilt other than SAHRR.  

3. Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl); Assemble block 7, cut block 8

The center part of block 7 is assembled. Now I just need to add the borders.  

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): 1 blue or green block

The goal is to just keep this project moving this year.  

5. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) Leaders and enders project. 

Block 5 is in progress.  So I'm more than half way finished with block construction for this project.  

I'm hoping to be as productive this week as I was last week.  Fingers crossed that I can make that happen.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for the weekly To Do Tuesday linky party.  Good luck with your to do list this week.  

Progress on Both Design Walls

I did something stupid this weekend, but I'm not sure exactly what it was. Whatever it was, it threw my back out again.  So I'm back to thermal pads and Aleve. Thankfully, it appears that hanging out in the sewing room is the best physical therapy. Several years ago I invested in an ergonomic sewing table, chair and cutting table.  That has paid off in ways I didn't expect. The combination of stitching, pressing and trimming seems to work the muscles enough to reduce the pain associated with moving.  I'm feeling better this morning, but plan to spend the day getting more physical therapy in the sewing room.  Fingers crossed I don't do anything else stupid while I'm there.  

My physical therapy efforts resulted in some good progress yesterday on the SAHRR (Quilting Gail). 

 

Three pinwheel borders have been assembled and attached.  The 4th border is in the works.  The strips for the next 1" spacer border have been cut, they just need to be joined and then cut to size. Then it will be time to raid the stash for a final border. My Guy thinks blue would work best, I'm thinking teal.  I'll see what I've get and go from there.  

The SAHRR is up on my large design wall.  Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl) is up on the small design wall. 

  

Blocks 1 to 6 are finished.  This has been a fun quilt along, even though I'm behind.  I've got a good start on block 7. I'll have to move the blocks to the big design wall once it's finished, I'm out of room on this one.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 21 of 2023

 

My apologies for getting this post up so late.  I overslept this morning.  I'll blame it on the allergy medication, it really does make it hard for me to wake up in the morning.  Sinus headaches have been the norm for me this week and they've been bad ones.  I made it to the sewing room each day, but didn't necessarily get a lot done. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/May = 27/31 days
• 15 minute days/June = 3/3 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 129/154 days
• Success rate = 83.77%

But even 15 minutes each day does pay off in projects along.  How was your stitchy week?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Ivani 3. Karen 4. DonnaleeQ

5. Janice / Jannimary 6. Frederique 7. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts 8. Quilting Gail

9. Andre 10. Deb in Canada

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

Week 73 Photo Challenge: An Umbrella

This is our first card from the new photo challenge deck.  

I've been struggling with allergen induced headache this week, so I pretty much completely forgot about this week's challenge.  I had a plan, but ended up taking advantage of a unexpected chance encounter. 

Kate: A Touch of the Orient

Every year our community has a music/craft festival.  We had a cold front come through early evening, so we decided to go last night and beat the heat expected today.  These parasols were offered for sale in one of the craft booths. 

My planned photo would have looked similar to what My Guy came up with. 

My Guy: Parasol

  

Isn't this fun? My Guy is really good at thinking outside the box when he comes up with the concepts for his photos. Doesn't always work out as planned, but this one did.  

Grad Girl has had a hectic week in the lab, so she didn't have a lot of time to contemplate her shot for the week.  So she went with what she had at the apartment. 

Grad Girl: Waiting for a Rainy Day

It rains a lot in southern Texas, so Grad Girl often has to grab this on her way out in the morning. It's a 20 minute walk from her parking garage on campus to the chem building (if you've not been there, Texas A&M is a HUGE campus), so this umbrella has seen a lot of action so far.  

So a bit of the unexpected and the expected with last week's photos. There should be some interesting photos from this week's challenge card. 

Grad Girl said she had some ideas.  My Guy and I may have to work hard this week to not take the same image, graffiti isn't easy to find in a small town.  

May Wrap Up: PHD in 2023

In 2020, 2021, and 2022 my focus was on finishing up UFOs.  I limited my new projects to just 2 or at most 3 each year.  Last year work was really overwhelming, so much so that I lost interest in pretty much everything other than reading and binging on Netflix.  Since I retired at the end of last year, I decided to open up my new project list to more than just 2.  I also joined a guild, which has also added to my new project list. Honestly, I didn't expect that.  At any rate, I can safely say that the first half of 2023 has been all about new projects as my PHD report shows. 

I have finished two of my new starts, both related to the guild which was my donation blocks and a name tag.  

We are supposed to make a pin cushion for the June meeting.  I'm probably going to pass on that one as my newest project has a deadline of early July. I'll need to focus my efforts on that project or it won't be ready.  The only UFOs that have seen any progress are both Bonnie Hunter patterns, Chilhowie and Wild & Goosey.  

Chilhowie is the 2022 Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt along. It's my current leaders and enders project.  Block 4 was finished and block 5 is under construction during May.  I'm more than half way done with the blocks.  

Wild & Goosey is slowly growing.  The goal is to make at least 4 of the 3.5" blocks each month.  Three orange blocks were completed this month.  Dark/bright blue is the color for June.  I can't use really dark blue because it blends in too much with the black, so bright blue it is for this month.  

There has been progress on the new projects this month. 

 

The pinwheels for border 6 of the Stay at Home Round Robin quilt started in January are all finished (Quilting Gail).  I've started assembling these blocks into border strips.  I'm really happy with how this project has come together, just not with the amount of time it's taken for me to get it to this stage.  

Blocks 4 and 5 for Diatom were finished in May. Block 11 came out last week. This is a Quilting Jetgirl pattern and quilt along. I'm hoping to finish blocks 6 and 7 before block 12 comes out next Friday.  This has been such a fun project and I'm really happy with how my fabric choices are working out.  

The one new start in May is for a blog hop to show off the quilts in Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs new book Just Two Charm Pack Quilts. 

 

Electric Quilt is sponsoring a giveaway of this book (closes on June 4th). The link includes a link to all the quilts in the book. I've picked the pattern to make for the blog hop. I'm making my own charm pack since precuts don't usually make their way into my fabric carts. Thankfully my stash is more than sufficient to provide enough squares for 2 charm packs.  I've started cutting my charm pack, just three fabrics left and then the piecing can start. 

That's my progress for May. I'm going to shift my focus to finishing after June. Once I get the SAHRR to finished flimsy, I'll have three quilts that need backs and prepping for quilting. My focus for July will be to get those quilts sent out for quilting.  

Linking up with Quilting Gail for the May PHD report.