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Hard to believe we are half way through 2026. By this point you realize your goals were just a touch too ambitious and what seemed doable back in January is probably not going to get done. At least that's how it seems to work for me. Thankfully it is the start of a new month, so another chance to make good progress on my projects.  Linking up with Ms. P Designs to review on my progress with my June PHD Report.  

June's report includes another finish.  It's my second for the year. Which isn't much, but ...

Now that 2025 is over, it's time to review the progress on my PHD plan and link up with Ms. P Designs for the PHD Wrap Up report.   Looking back, my 2025 PHD report is probably my worst in the seven years I've participated.  

I'm in the coasting portion of the Christmas holiday. The shopping is done, the presents wrapped, groceries bought (mostly). Now I can hang out with family and just chill out. There won't be any sewing room time between now and Christmas, but I'll have lots of time next weekend to decompress from the holiday with my machine.  Before getting to my probably bigger than realistic plans for next week, here is how this week went. 

To Do List for 12/16/2025

1.  My Girl Trivets: Quilt the kitty trivets ✔

2.  2026 Guild BOM: Start February block ...

How can it be December already? We've reached that point where you've either done a great job on your PHD plan or not.  There's not much opportunity to fix it at this point.  So I'm going to confess my lack of progress and link up with Ms. P Designs for the November PHD report.  

No new finishes, but one new start.  The 2026 Guild BOM won't end until next year and doesn't officially start until January. But as I'm the one leading it this year, I have to be ready to go one ...

Hard to believe there are just two months left in 2025.  It's been a busy year in and out of the sewing room.  The summer was mostly out, I'm hoping fall and winter are mostly in.  Since October is over it's time to assess where I'm at on my PHD report and link up with the October PHD report over at Ms. P Designs.  

Most of last week was spent on the road.  So there wasn't much sewing room time. What time there was, was spent on the last few blocks needed for the 2025 Guild BOM. I can't show those just yet. So that leaves the hand stitching I worked on all week.  

I finished up the letters along the bottom and have been working on the leaves just above those.  I still have one color to add to the leaves, then I need to do the back stitching for the vines.  Don't know when I'll next work on ...

It's been a busy summer. August and September were especially busy.  August was so busy I didn't have time to put together a PHD report.  Thankfully things have slowed down enough for me to put together a September PHD report and link up with Ms. P Designs.  

Physically, I'm finally back home after a week and half of moving and hanging out with Grad Girl.  I'm glad to be back home.  Though I'll miss Grad Girl and Queenie, but I'll see them again in late October. We weren't able to load the cars with all off Grad Girl's stuff that got moved home.  So I'll make another long weekend trip sometime next month to take her the stuff that didn't fit in the cars.

It's been a busy week, lots of holiday preparations, not much stitching stuff the last few days. I did work in a few stitching sessions in the sewing room before the holiday schedule completely took over.  

Where did the last week go?  My last To Do List post was last Wednesday, so maybe that's why I'm feeling like the week just evaporated?  It has been a busy week and it certainly seems like I've not gotten much done. 

To Do List 12/10/2024

1.  String Lights: Finish binding ✔

2.  Guild BOM: Make January Block for 2025 BOM ✔

3.  Old Town: Work on clues 1, 2, start 3 and 4 ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Make red blocks ✔

5.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

The two things I needed to get ...

Our Thanksgiving holiday ended yesterday morning about 9:30 AM when we hit the road to drive home.  It wasn't too bad till we had to exit 35W to 35 just north of Dallas. It was stop and go traffic a significant part the drive from Dallas to OKC.  What normally takes us about 8 hours to navigate took 11.  Other than the drive back, we had a wonderful holiday with Grad Girl.  We did small business Friday and shopped in Brenham for stocking stuffers.  Than on Saturday we went to The Texas Renaissance Festival.  

Something different for us ...

This is the last to do list for November!  With the holidays basically here, my stitching list will really need to get shorter.  December is not typically a month with a lot of progress and that's OK.  I've had a good year so far.  Before getting into this week's abbreviated list, here's how I did with last week's list. 

Hard to believe that we've already passed the half way mark on the year.  June was busy with lots of non sewing stuff, so though I managed to keep up with my stitching time, there's no progress in my PHD Report. 

No new starts, so that's a positive.  But no new finishes. Even so there was good progress towards making that happen in July.  

My second oldest UFO was moved along and underwent a name change as well.  What started as the Grandmother's Choice quilt along with Barbara Brackman is now Kate's Choice as I ...

Last week required a bit of retooling.  I attended a chemistry conference.  Something that's been off the to do list since I retired.  I had to wear dress up clothes and heels. Plus remember a bit of chemistry and statistics.  It was fun and I'm going to be more active going forward.  I've missed the technical parts of my previous job, joining a couple of the technical committees will help fill that void.  

May went fast. Didn't I just write the April PHD report?  At any rate it's time to link up with P Designs USA for the May PHD report. There's been no change in my PHD report. 

We had a wet and dreary weekend for the most part.  I came down with a 24 hour stomach bug Saturday night.  So I didn't get all that much done at the sewing machine.  I'm almost finished with the April block for the guild BOM. 

Hard to process that April is over.  Between our travels for the eclipse early in the month and then knee surgery mid month, my sewing room time was down considerably.  Even so, now that it's May it's time to put together a progress report and link up P Designs USA for the April PHD report.  

There's been no change in my PHD spreadsheet.  No finishes, but no new starts either.  So I'll take that.  Even though there were no finishes, there has been a bit of progress on a few projects.  

Most of my stitching time ...

It's been a couple of weeks since my last to do list.  We were traveling for one week and once we got home, prep for knee surgery made it a lot harder to do the stairs.  So I've been sticking with hand work pretty much exclusively the last 3 weeks.  Since that's the only thing that was on my "allowed" activity list, it didn't seem worth it to do a new to do list.  By Wednesday, I was pretty bored with hand stitching and just restless. The knee is fully weight bearing, meaning nothing is going ...

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted a Monday post on just stitching stuff.  The eclipse trip, along with prep and recover from knee surgery has limited my sewing room time.  So my stitching efforts have been focused on my long term travel project.  My goal was one full thread of stitching time each day while we were on the road. The first top wing of the butterfly was finished off last week.  

Since I had to go off my anti-inflammatory before surgery, it was really uncomfortable to manage the stairs, so I kept to the ...

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 ...