To Do Tuesday for the Week of 09/01/2020

This week has gotten off to a rocky start.  My Guy was really sick Sunday and Monday, thankfully the fever broke last night and he's feeling much better today. Even so, My Guy has to take a Covid 19 test this morning. Since his symptoms are such a close match for that virus, we can't go back to the office till he gets a negative result back. The company adopted that protocol to avoid community spread at work. That policy has been working, the company has had no instances of community spread at any of our offices or production facilities.  So I'll be working from home for at least the next few days. 

In spite of all that drama this weekend, progress on the To Do list for last week was pretty good.  

• Storm at Sea: Send out for quilting  ✔
• Unity: Finish step 3, make HSTs for step 4 ✔
• Christmas Mystery:  Make backing ✔
• Daisy Chain: Add tan border - progress

Three check marks, with progress on the last To Do is a really good week. Hopefully I can do as well with this week's To Do list. 

Daisy Chain - Add tan and black borders

I at least got the strips cut for the tan border.  The plan is to take Friday off this week, so with the Monday holiday there will be four days to stitch. So it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to get the black border on as well.  

Morewood Mystery: Start clue 3

Clue 3 comes out on Thursday.  Clue 2 was the cutting instructions. I usually cut my fabric as I go, less chance I'll loose the pieces that way.  I still need to decide which fabric is my A, B, C, and D.  You can find the steps for this mystery here. 

Frolic: Decide on backing fabric(s)

The wild flower print at the top was originally thrown in the mix as a possible border fabric.  I went a completely different direction there so it didn't get used in the quilt top. I'm not sure there is enough to completely back the quilt with it, but it's been in the stash for a while.  So I'll start with that fabric and see where it goes from there. 

Unity: Make HSTs and blocks for step 4

 

I've finished four of the friendship star blocks. You really have to pay attention how you pin those the HSTs together,  it's easy to get one turned.  This will be my leader and ender project for the week. 

It should be a fun week. I get to start a new project and hopefully finish off one more quilt top.  Linking up with Home Sewn by Us for Tuesday To Do.  Good luck with your to do list this week. 

Backs and Borders Part II

The weekend was a bit of a mixed bag.  We got to see the Scientist in Training on Friday, but then My Guy got to feeling bad on Saturday.  So we spend a quiet day at home on Sunday. He's still not feeling great and has a fever. With the current guidelines at work, he has to see the doctor and I have to work from home till he's cleared. 

It was a pretty good weekend in the sewing room.  I finished my August One Monthly Goal.  

Storm at Sea was cleaned up, boxed up and shipped out for quilting.  So this is likely to be another finish by the end of September. I used the Frolic quilt top as my back drop as a box just isn't very exciting on it's own. A backing for Frolic is next on the to do list.  

The backing for the 2019 Christmas Mystery Quilt is done. 

This is one quarter of the backing. The center is a dark green (not black)/red plaid, with the red/white stripe along the sides and the holly print at the top and bottom.  Now the top and back just need a good pressing and all the loose threads removed so they can be packaged up and shipped out for quilting.  The Christmas Mystery isn't very large, so that shouldn't take me near as much time as it did to finish the Storm at Sea clean up. 

Unity Step 3 is finally finished and I've made a start on the blocks for step 4. 

Unity, 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt Along

Yes my step 4 blocks look different than Bonnie's. After playing in EQ, I just like this block better than her version. These blocks are bigger than the step 3's, so I'm hoping these go much faster. But that's still a lot of HSTs.  

So lot's of forward movement, but not the most exciting photos.  The second clue for the Morewood Mystery quilt should come out this week, so I should have something new to post next week.  Linking up with Elm Street Quilts, Monday Making and Monday Design Wall.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 35 of 2020

 It was 100 F on Friday, so we finally got some typical August weather.  Thankfully a front came through Saturday morning and that cooled temps back down again.  It's supposed to be a rainy day, so a good day to just hang out in the sewing room. Hanging in the sewing room happened a lot this week.  How about you?  Were you able to work in 15 minutes or more on a regular basis this week? 

It was a good week on the stitching front. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/August = 26/29 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 214/242 days
• Success rate = 88.43%

It's been a few weeks since my last 7 out of 7 week. My goal for the year is to get into the sewing room for a bit 85% of the time. I wanted to give myself a break on the having to sew every day. Besides the fact that life just gets in the way sometime, it is sometimes good to just go do something else.  You can link up below and share how much sewing room time you got in this week. 

We had to do a car switch with the Scientist in Training. So we drove over to see her on Saturday.  After lunch, we took a walk across campus.  Since Oklahoma State is the agriculture college in the state, it has some pretty impressive grounds with gorgeous and unusual flowers. I pretty much took a photo of every blooming thing, but here's just a couple of my favorites from the walk. (I have no idea what any of these flowers are, just that they are pretty.) 

 

And these guys in front of the library were appropriately attired to meet current campus rules.  

We had a short, but good visit with the SIT.  Both she and her roommate have busy schedules this next semester, so we didn't hang around for long. 

So I'm hoping for a nothing but laundry and sewing day to begin this week's stitching time.  How did you do last week at getting in some stitching time?   

1. karen 2. katie z. 3. Julie in GA

4. Meloney 5. Quilting Gail 6. Angie in SoCal

7. amanda 8. Chrisknits 9. Shasta @ High Road

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To Do Tuesday for the Week of 8/25/2020

 I'm not sure what happened to the last week.  It's already Tuesday again and time for a new to do list.  Except there isn't much new on this week's list as I didn't finish much from last week's list. 

• Storm at Sea: Finish prepping quilt top for quilting ✔
• Christmas Mystery: Make backing - progress
• Daisy Chain: Decide on borders ✔
• Unity: Finish Step 3, make HSTs for step 4 - progress

I did finish getting Storm at Sea cleaned up and pressed.  That pretty much dominated last week's sewing time.  Which is why there aren't more check marks.  Still, there was one more check mark and progress on the other two items. So overall not a bad week.  Here's the plan for this week. 

Storm at Sea:  Send to Trudy for quilting

I found a box, now I just need to finish taping it all up, write out the address label and get it to the post office. That should be easy.  

Christmas Mystery: Finish backing

The center is actually a dark green and red plaid. It looks black in the photo.  It's been in the Christmas fabric stash for many years. It was time to clear it out.  All the other fabrics that make up the backing are left overs from other projects.  

Daisy Chain: Add first border

Daisy Chain Mystery
2019 Little Bunny Quilts Mystery

I finally decided on the tan inner border. Maybe, probably, most likely.  

Unity:  Finish Step 3, make Friendship Star blocks

Two strips of background fabric are all that's needed to finish step 3. I screwed up on the measurements and had to recut the strips. It won't take long to get those two sewn on.  I've been making the HSTs for the modified friendship star blocks as my leader and ender project. Hopefully, I'll actually finish a star block this week.  

That's a reasonable to do list.  I should get most of it done.  You can find more to do lists over at To Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.  

Random Stitchy Stuff

The weather has been beautiful.  Typically we've had a couple of weeks of scorching hot days by this time.   But that didn't happen this year. It's also been a lot wetter than normal, everything is still green. Normally the fields and yards are mostly brown by this point in the summer.  There is a downside to all this lovely weather, the allergens are a lot higher than normal. So my sinuses haven't been happy.  Thankfully I'm not miserable, I'm just not operating at 100%.  

In spite of the the allergy issues, I did get in a good bit of sewing room time.  But all I have to show for Saturday is the pile of threads in the trash can.  

It took pretty much all afternoon and most of the evening on Saturday to finish cleaning up the back of the Storm at Sea quilt.  But that's done.  I should get it shipped out to Trudy sometime this week. 

Up next was picking border fabrics for Daisy Chain.  I've got it down to two options.  My favorite is the red and black.  

My Guy and the Scientist in Training like the black and tan.  

I'm still contemplating both options. Maybe the red is too bold and distracts from the quilt?  

I decided to let the subconscious dwell on the options for Daisy Chain and moved on to piecing the backing for the 2019 Christmas Mystery quilt. I pulled some yardage I'd like to move out of the stash. 

After playing in EQ for a bit, a backing design that uses four of the prints came together. I've made a start on cutting the pieces, but didn't get to the sewing part.  

So not a lot of stitching this weekend, but three projects are that much closer to finished. I'm happy with that.  Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.