Just a Bit of Stitching

The weekend was cold and windy, good stitching weather. Or it would have been except for the respiratory or sinus infection that was trying to take hold this weekend. I didn't do much on Saturday, but finally felt well enough to head to the sewing room late Sunday afternoon. Bonnie Hunter posted the second clue for Chilhowie, but I'm still stitching on clue 1.  Not much to show for that project yet, just lots of strip sets.

The December clue for the Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) was out on Thursday. There I did make some visible progress.

I'm still working on the November clue, it's a lot of flying geese to make. I'm really wondering how all these blocks are going to fit together in the end.  That's the fun part of these mysteries. 

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 47 of 2022

Sorry that the posting of the 15 Minutes to Stitch linky party is a bit late this week. I simply forgot that yesterday was Saturday and didn't think to get the post ready to auto publish this morning.  Some type of respiratory virus seems to be trying to take hold, so sleeping in this morning seemed wise. It wasn't till I opened my computer that I remembered it was Sunday.  Do you ever have days like that? Maybe it's time for calendar reminders on my phone?  

Stitching time this week fell victim to Thanksgiving travel plans and an evening out with friends.  

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 22/30 days
• 15 minute days/2022 = 184/337 days
• Success rate = 54.6%

So it wasn't a bad week on the stitching front. November was actually a pretty good month comparatively, it's the most stitching time I've managed since last March. Being retired the whole month may have something to do with the improvement in finding stitching time.  Hopefully I can keep up the momentum in December. Holiday plans can be big disrupters.   

So how was your stitching week?

  

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

5. maggie f 6. Gretchen 7. katie z. 8. Quilting Gail

9. Carol Andrews 10. Frederique 11. Andre at Quilting and Learning 12. Andre at Quilting and Learning

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Week 50 Photo Challenge: Eyes

We ended up taking a week off the challenge due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  We were a lot busier that week then we thought we would be, so we just delayed pulling a new card out of the pack till last night. More on that below. 

Here's the card we pulled two weeks ago. 

As usual we all went with different subject matter.

My subject matter came from the sewing room. (Big surprise right?)

Kate: Eye of the Needle

The eyes of my sewing needles in the pin cushion wouldn't be an obvious subject unless you spend a lot of time stitching.    

My Guy's photo is the product of his never ending search for birds to photograph when he's out for one of his walks.  

My Guy: Wood I

In this case the trees really do have eyes! 

Grad Girl probably has the most "expected" photo, but I like it.   

Grad Girl: If Looks Could Kill 

Queenie is Grad Girl's roommate. We quit calling her Grad Girl's cat, because she really acts more like a roommate than a pet. No one was harmed in the taking of this photo, but Queenie was not amused at being woken up from her afternoon nap.  

The last photo card was easy. This week's card is one that is open to a lot of interpretation.  

I'm curious to see what gets photographed this week.  

PHD in 2022: November Progress

Just 31 days left in 2022.  I'm really not ready for that. On the other hand, this year hasn't been so great on a number of fronts, so I'm looking forward to the new year in hopes it's a lot better.  Since it is a new month, it's time to summarize my progress on earning my PHD and share over at Quilting Gail's.  It's not a stellar report, but there has been some progress on all the active projects.  

No new finishes, but one new start. The clues for both mystery quilts won't end till next year, so they don't have to be completed this year.  I doubt there are any more finishes this year, but I'm going to try to move each project closer to that point.  

Unity, the Bonnie Hunter Pandemic quilt along,  is the closest to being finished. 

The backing has been pressed and prepped for quilting. Now I just need to do the same for the quilt top.  That means tying up the cutting table for a few days. I'm much more interested in actually sitting at the sewing machine the last few weeks, so it's been hard to get motivated on the clean up.  I will get to that before the end of the month. It would be nice to start my 2023 PHD with a finish in January.  

Macaron Mystery, the 2021 Meadow Mist Designs mystery, is now a finished quilt top.  

The backing is proving to be difficult, I don't seem to have enough of any one fabric for the backing. So I'm back to deliberating between a pieced backing or buying backing fabric. I'm leaning heavily towards buying backing fabric, so that's probably what will happen.  

My current leader and ender project is Bonnie Hunter's 2021 mystery quilt, Rhododendron.  

All the "A" blocks are finished and one "B" block was finished last month. Just three more "B" blocks and quilt assembly can begin.  I doubt I get that far this month, but at least it's progressing.  

Clue 4 for this year's Meadow Mist Designs mystery, Melodic, will be out today.  

Clues 1 and 2 are finished, and clue 3 is over halfway finished.  Hopefully, I'll be caught up with all the clues by the time the January clue comes out.  

Chilhowie is the newest Bonnie Hunter mystery.  

I'm still working on the strip sets for the 4 and 9 patch units from last week's clue.  I'm not going to be caught up when tomorrow's clue comes out. But that's usually how it goes with Bonnie's mysteries. I tend to stay perpetually behind. But that's OK, I really enjoy the process. 

So 2022 will probably be one of my least successful years for the PHD program.  Maybe that will motivate me to do better in 2023?   

To Do Tuesday for the Week of 11/29/2022

We had a fun Thanksgiving with Grad Girl.  We were amazingly busy while we were there. We spent one day in Houston hanging out at the Houston Museum of Natural History. One day was dedicated to Christmas shopping.  Even though I didn't have a lot of time for stitching I still managed to check off all the items on my to do list. 

To Do List for 11/22/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on clue 3 ✔

2. Chilhowie Mystery: Start clue 1 ✔

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Work on block 2 as leaders and enders ✔

My sewing time for last week was pretty much limited to yesterday, so I was wise to keep my list for the week simple.  That worked so well that the plan for this week is pretty much the same.  

To Do List for 11/29/2022

1. Melodic Mystery: Work on clues 3 and 4

Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs 2022 Mystery)

I'm almost to the halfway point on clue 3.  Clue 4 should come out on Thursday.  I'm hopeful of being mostly caught up by then.  

2.  Chilhowie Mystery: Work on clues 1 and 2

Chilhowie Mystery (Bonnie Hunter 2022 Mystery)

Most of the strips for clue 1 are cut but aren't sewn together into sets yet.  I'm only making half the blocks this time. That typically works better as I have a chance of actually completing a clue before the next one comes out.  We'll see how far I get before the next clue comes out on Friday. 

3. Rhododendron Mystery: Make block B as leader and ender

Rhododendron Mystery (Bonnie Hunter 2021 Mystery)

The hourglass blocks take a bit to assemble, but I'm making progress.  Once this set is all assembled, only two more blocks need to be completed.  It's slow but steady progress.  

That's my plan for this week.  Yes I have quilts to prep for quilting, but I'm really just not in the mood to add that to my list. Maybe next week.  

Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal for To Do Tuesday.  Good luck with your to do list this week.