What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

About mid-morning yesterday I realized it was June 1st.  Along with that came the realization that we'll be half way through the year at the end of the month. I'm hoping that fact jump starts my sewing mojo, because I'm not doing so hot on my goals for 2025. 

I don't have much to show for this week.  My goal was to reacquaint myself with counted cross stitching.  I made a mistake pretty quick on my relearning process and had to unpick a lot of stitches.  But eventually a bit of progress was made.    

I'm ...

I'm a bit late getting to my to do list for this week. All the rain has brought on lots of pollen and mold, two big allergens for me.  Lots of annoying allergy symptoms are sapping my enthusiasm for much of anything this week. I was tempted to not even draft a to do list, but if this keeps up, I'm going to need the motivation.  At least last week's list has all check marks

It doesn't seem all that long ago that we kicked off 2025, but now it's May. June follows, which means that mid-year isn't that far off.  Do you ever wonder what happened in the sewing room and why you don't have more done?  I could be sewing more, so my plan for May is to maximize my sewing time while still doing the other things that need to get done around the house.

My primary goal for the last couple of years is to make progress on my UFOs. I'm doing well on getting quilts ...

This year will be my seventh attempt to earn a PHD. Ms. P Designs USA is again hosting the 2025 PHD challenge.  The rules are simple, 1) finish twelve UFOs and 2)Finish all new starts (unless they are mysteries/BOMs that run into 2026).  I've never finished more than seven quilts in one year. I'm hoping that all the progress last year will help me finish 12 this year. Even if I don't get that far, if I can reduce the total number of UFOs this year I'll be happy.  

Last year's efforts reduced ...

It's always an adjustment to move from the previous year to the new year.  Mostly it's a mind reset, but it did take me the better part of the morning to reset my quilting tracking spreadsheet for the new year.  That first meant making sure all of the quilty stuff that went on in 2024 was captured. With that all done, it made pulling all the information for my end of the year PHD report easier. 

The year ended with six finishes, six projects moved to finished quilt tops, progress on the rest of the UFOs on the ...

September was just a weird month for some reason.  I guess because, though it has cooled off some, it was still pretty warm. Didn't feel like autumn at all.  At any rate, the higher temps made the sewing room the place to be so I got a lot of stitching done this month. So there is plenty to report for the September PHD Report linky party over at P Designs USA. Here's my PHD report for the last month.  

This year has been really good on the progress front. Maybe not as many finishes as I would like, but there has been good progress on multiple fronts.  We are half way through September and I've made good enough progress that I need to rethink my active project list.  Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) is a finished quilt top and is off the active list for now. 

Just one week into September and it already feels like the month is just flying by.  The weeks do seem to be getting busier and I have more things on my other stuff to do list, my sewing room to do list has suffered a bit as a result. 

To Do List for 09/03/2024

1. Diatom: Prep top for quilting - progress

2. Chilhowie: Finish 1st pieced border, start on second border ✔

3.  Jewel Box Blocks: Finish blocks - progress

4.  Marble Mystery: Cut background fabric, start assembly - progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

6.  Sensational Summer ...

It was a busy weekend.  We spent some time with the family celebrating my sister's birthday.  So I didn't get much done on the stitching front over the weekend.  Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) is still up on the big design wall. 

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. 

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 ...

Summer is still in full force here, though we have a chance for cooler temperatures starting this weekend with increased chances for rain. Of course there will be rain, it's Labor Day. It always seems to rain here for that holiday weekend.  We have no special plans for the holiday, but My Guy is taking a couple of days off, so I'm sure we'll end up doing something fun. So I should probably take that into account for this week's To Do List.  Before jumping there, I should review how it went with last week's ...

It's been a so-so year for finishes but a pretty good year for progress on many projects. Just three finishes so far this year, but double that number of projects have moved from a collections of pieces or blocks to finished quilt tops. The latest one to get the final borders added is the 2023 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Indigo Way.

My borders don't look like Bonnie's, but I rarely keep to her plan at that point.  It's a pretty busy quilt, but the dark blue border calms it all down, so the finished top works for ...

It's been another hot week, so the sewing room was my favorite place to be. My shoulder issues did require me to minimize my time early in the week, but by the end of the week, I could sew for more than my 15 minutes each day. That made it much easier to tackle the to do list.   

To Do List for 08/13/2024

1.  2024 SAHRR: Finish binding ✔

2.  Indigo Way: Add last border ✔

3.  Diatom: Finish sashing, start borders ✔

4.  Guild BOM: Make August block - progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

6.  Sensational ...

February always feels like such a shock after January. The first month of the year always seems to be so long and then you blink and February is over.  As the month is over it's time to review my progress (or lack thereof) on my PHD in 2024 and link up with P Designs USA for the February report.  The report is about where I expected it to be at this point, so no surprise on my part.

No finishes as yet and one new start.  Looks like I'm going in the wrong direction.  Maybe, maybe not.  There ...

The beginning of February ushered in some warmer temps, so afternoon walks have been taking some of my afternoon sewing time.  Even with that added activity, I did pretty well with my long to do list from last week.  

To Do List for 01/30/2024

1.  2024 SAHRR: Make border #2 ✔

2.  Betty: Assemble 5 blocks ✔

3.  Indigo Way: Continue assembling blocks ✔

4.  Malted Mystery: Finish Jan clue, start Feb - progress

5.  Scrappy Butterflies: Send out for quilting ✔

6.  Wild & Goosey: Finish green blocks, start red blocks ✔

7.  Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders project ✔

Check marks on six ...

No power outages with the freezing rain we had from Sunday into Monday.  The roads were pretty much solid sheets of ice till sometime in the afternoon. Thankfully My Guy's company told everyone to work from home, so he didn't have to navigate that. It's supposed to reach low 40's here, I'm ready for a warm up, even just a small one.  

Cold, stay at home weather has been good for my sewing time.  I did pretty well checking off items on last week's list.  

To Do List for 1/16/2024

1.  2024 ...

I'm ready for winter to be over, or at least for this brutally cold stuff to move out.  We've got one more day before we'll see any temps above freezing.  My Guy is working from home today, his offices are closed.  

The cold has been really conductive to spending time in the sewing room where the iron helps heat up the space.  Consequently, there are a lot of check marks on last week's  to do list. 

To Do List for 1/9/2024

1. 2024 SAHRR: Make center block - progress

2. Betty: Continue cutting fabrics ✔

3 ...

With Grad Girl here this last week, it's felt like vacation.  We've had our shopping day and our girls lunch. So it was a nice week on the family fun front. But the consequence is that there wasn't as much time in the sewing room and that shows in the progress on last week's list. 

To Do List for 01/02/2024

1. Indigo Way: Continue clues 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and start 8 ✔

2. Malted Mystery: Finish clue 6, start clue 7 - progress

3. Betty: Start cutting fabrics ✔

4. Scrappy Butterflies: prep backing - no ...

We are already a couple of days into 2024, so it's definitely time to review my progress on my PHD projects this year and link one more time with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2023.  It definitely wasn't one of my more successful years in terms of finishes and my report shows that. 

I was able to add one more finish before the year ended.  That brings my total for the year to 3.  Not stellar, but it's one more than I finished last year.  I'll take an incremental increase. I finished three of the small ...