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.  

Finishing Up and Starting Out

Labor Day weekend has been a bit cooler, but it's still been pretty humid.  My Guy took Friday off and we've been out and about a bit.  No big plans for today, we'll probably just chill around the house. It's supposed to be nice today, so maybe an after dinner walk will happen.  

There's been a few good hours spent in the sewing room this holiday weekend.  Most of the progress has been on the 2022 Bonnie Hunter mystery, Chilhowie.

The sashing is all finished and the first pieced border has been started.  I've dropped the teal from the pieced border.  I like the cleaner feel of just the orange flying geese with the off white backgrounds.  I'm not finishing with the second pieced border in the pattern, I'll go with simple borders for the finish.  The plan is to use the border blocks when I piece the backing.  Not sure I can finish the borders this week, but there should be good progress towards getting this project to finished quilt top.  

I've not started a new project since February. But this Thursday the first construction clue for the Marble Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) is released.  The fabric requirements and cutting instructions have already been released.  But I've been fine tuning my fabric choices and finally decided on these. 

I prefer to cut my fabric as I go. Less likely to loose a few pieces that way.  I'm a little short on my background fabric, so I probably will cut all of those pieces at once to avoid refreshing the edge each time I unfold and cut.  I'm still on the fence with fabric C, wondering if it's different enough from the background. Based on the gray scale it should work. 

The background touches all the fabrics, but only A and B touch each other.  I have both darker and lighter options for C, but they tend to be the same tone as the darker and lighter fabrics already selected.  Both A and B are left overs from previous projects. The background, C and D have been in the stash for awhile.  These should work just fine.  

That's what's up on the design wall now and what's coming to the design wall in the coming weeks.  Linking up Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 35 of 2024

 

We finally got a break in the heat this weekend.  Friday was still pretty sultry, but by evening you could feel a cooler breeze blowing. It was chilly enough Saturday for a sweater when we went out for breakfast.  It will heat up again, but I'm going to enjoy the chill for as long as we have it.  

The heat has been a really good reason to hang out in my sewing room. Makes it easier to keep up with my 15 minute stitching commitment. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 day
• 15 minute days/Aug = 31/31 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 244/244 days
• Success rate = 100%

It's been fun and definitely motivating to maintain the 100% success rate through August.  I'm curious to see how I fare on that front in September.  

My stash reorganization has stalled just a bit.  I've not done much on either the scrap processing or the fabric pressing fronts. So no photos on either effort this week.  

How did your stitchy week work out?  

  

1. Gretchen 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. Karen

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Deb in Canada 7. Quilting Gail 8. Bonnie in Va

9. Andrée at Quilting & Learning 10. Carol @ Quilt Schmilt

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