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  • chilhowie mystery
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June 11, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 6/8/2026 from Life In Pieces

My weekend wasn't as productive as normal, but I certainly made up for it during the week.  I finished the to do list and a bit more.  

To Do List for 6/2/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM:  Prep back for quilting ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔

3.  Lupine and Laughter: Continue working on main blocks ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue sashing blue blocks ✔


A good week on the progress front.  I'm hoping for the same with this week's to do list. 


To Do List for 6/9/2026

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Prep quilt top for quilting ...

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June 8, 2026
Making Progress on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Backlog from Life In Pieces

It was a pretty productive week, which resulted in a not so hot weekend.  One of our local quilt shops has a late night sew one night a week. This week the shop decided to host two late night sewing sessions. It's usually a pretty fun session with lots of stories, laughter and valuable quilt making feedback. The only problem is the sewing set up isn't the best from an ergonomic standpoint for me. One late night isn't an issue, but apparently that second 6 hour session wasn't such a good idea. I woke up early ...

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June 2, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 6/2/2026 from Life In Pieces

I didn't get much done during the week, but once we got to the weekend, there was a lot of progress in the sewing room.  A fully checked off to do list was the result. 


To Do List for 5/26/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make backing ✔
2. Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔
3. Lupine and Laughter: Continue working on main blocks ✔
4. Good Fortune: Pull project box, assess status ✔
5. Wild and Goosey: Continue sashing blue blocks ✔

It was definitely a more productive week than I expected it to be.  Hopefully, I can do as well this week.  

To ...

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May 27, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 5/26/2026 from Life In Pieces

My reading time encroached into my sewing time this last week.  I'm sure part of the reason is that the stairs up to the sewing room haven't been fun to navigate with my knee giving me fits. So it takes a bit more motivation to head that direction.  Thankfully, I was in the sewing room enough to make good progress on last week's to do list. 


To Do List for 5/19/2026

1. 2025 Guild BOM: Make backing - progress
2. Chilhowie: Continue quilting ✔
3. Lupine and Laughter: Continue working on A blocks 
4. Wild and Goosey ...

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May 20, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 5/19/2026 from Life In Pieces

The to do list post is a bit late this week. I had an early morning appointment yesterday, followed by our gym workout, then a trip to Wally World as we call it.  It was time for lunch by the time we got home. When I did get back to the computer in the afternoon, I needed to make sure the guild block of the month instructions were ready to go as yesterday was meeting day.  I just didn't get around to writing a blog post.  


I did pretty well with last week's to do list.  

To Do ...

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May 12, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 5/12/2026 from Life In Pieces

My back has been slowly getting better. Bending is still problematic, but otherwise I'm mostly pain free.  My therapy has included cycling, walking and sewing.  Movement is the best thing for the back and with all the walking between rooms I did working on Chilowie, I moved a lot!  It's a blessing that the sewing room was one of the places I could go and not hurt. That was really good for last week's to do list. 


To Do List for 5/5/2026

1.  Old Town: Work on borders ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Sandwich quilt and start marking ...

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May 11, 2026
Tackling the Bonnie Hunter Unfinished Mystery Quilts from Life In Pieces

If you've followed me for any length of time you probably know I have a week spot for Cheryl Brickey's Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilts and Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt alongs. I've been sewing with Bonnie's mysteries since 2013. That year was her Celtic Solstice mystery. It's still in pieces with a few blocks made. It's on my 2026 project list. Not sure I'm going to get that far. 





I've started 15 of Bonnie's mysteries and finished 7 of them.  Her 2024 mystery was Old Town.  It's one ...

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May 5, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 5/5/2026 from Life In Pieces

Hard to believe it is already May. I completely missed that yesterday was "May the 4th Be With You" day.  Today is Cinco de Mayo, so happy holiday if you are of Mexican heritage. Mother's Day is this weekend (I have no idea what to get my mother).  


The end of April, beginning of May were pretty productive as my to do list shows for last week shows. 

To Do List for 4/28/2026

1. Guild BOM: Finish July block ✔
2. Magnificent Mystery: Finish borders 
3. Chilhowie: Prep top and back for quilting 
4. Lupine and Laughter: Work ...

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May 1, 2026
April 2026 PHD Report from Life In Pieces

I'm not sure what happened to April. Well, that's not entirely true. We were on vacation for almost half the month, so there is only half of month of stitching progress to report for the April PHD Report over at Ms P Designs. There was definitely progress the latter half of the month, but definitely not as much as previous months.  My April PHD report looks exactly the same as March's report. 




No new finishes, but several projects moved closer to that goal this month. 




The Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter) quilt top is prepped for quilting. The backing ...

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April 30, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 4/28/2026 from Life In Pieces

Storm season has been brutal in Oklahoma this year.  I have family in Enid (they are fine).  There were tornadoes just west of us Sunday night. We were up late waiting to see if the tornado warning was going to cross the county line. No point going to bed if you have to make a run for the storm shelter just as you get to sleep. More rain/storms are in the forecast for today. Hopefully those will be mainly just rain, not strong storms.  


The severe weather hasn't affected my sewing time too badly.  I did pretty well ...

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April 21, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 4/21/2026 from Life In Pieces

The storms put a hitch in my stitching time last week.  I still got a lot done, but didn't complete all of my to dos from last week. 


To Do List for 4/14/2026

1. 2026 Guild BOM: Work on May, June, July and Dec blocks ✔
2. SAHRR: Add final border 
3. Magnificent Mystery: Finish half blocks, start quilt assembly 
4. Chilhowie: Piece backing, start prepping for quilting - progress
5. Wild and Goosey: Continue working on blue blocks 

It was a good week even though I didn't get as much done on Chilhowie as I wanted.  There ...

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April 16, 2026
2026 Quilt Making Strategies: Second Quarter Plan from Life In Pieces

After reviewing my first quarter progress, my second quarter overall strategy won't need to change. But I will need to adjust the project list for the quarter since there is a lot that didn't get finished in first quarter.  


1. Guild BOM: The focus for April is to get the blocks for May, June and July finished. I should probably also finish off the flying geese needed for the borders. Before the end of the quarter, blocks for August, September and October need to have the instructions written and the blocks made. November will be an easy block ...

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April 15, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 4/14/2026 from Life In Pieces

This is my first to do list for April.  My last to do list was back at the end of March, just before we left for vacation.  With vacation prep, I just didn't have time to get to much that was on the list before we left, but I did make some progress after we got home.  


To Do List for 3/24/26

1. SAHRR: Finish quilt top - progress

2. Magnificent Mystery: Finish blocks, start quilt assembly - progress

3. Chilhowie: Piece backing, start quilt prep- no progress

4. Wild and Goosey: Continue working on blue blocks ✔


One check ...

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March 24, 2026
To Do List for the Week of 3/24/2026 from Life In Pieces

Hard to believe there is just a little over a week left in March.  It's been a good month for me on the productivity front. Even with my allergies and my back issues, I've been doing pretty well at getting my to do lists mostly checked off.  


To Do List for 3/17/2026

1. SAHRR: Work on borders ✔

2. Magnificent Mystery: Work on block assembly ✔

3. Wild and Goosey: Continue working on blue blocks ✔


Three for three is a good week.  I didn't get as far with the SAHRR as I would have liked. Hopefully it ...

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June 2, 2025
Just 28 Days to Mid-Year! from Life In Pieces

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 ...

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May 6, 2025
To Do List for the Week of 05/06/2025 from Life In Pieces

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


To Do List for 4/29/2025

1.  2025 Guild BOM: Finish June blocks ✔
2.  Kate's Choice: Continue quilting blocks ✔
3 ...

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May 5, 2025
Plans for May? from Life In Pieces

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 ...

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January 4, 2025
PHD in 2025 from Life In Pieces

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 ...

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January 2, 2025
PHD in 2024: End of the Year Wrap Up from Life In Pieces

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 ...

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October 2, 2024
September 2024 PHD Report from Life In Pieces

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.  






The report shows a new start.  But that start was planned at the beginning of the year.  At least ...

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  • chilhowie mystery
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