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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 ...

It's not been the best week. What I thought was a pinched nerve, isn't.  The doctor isn't sure what's wrong, but it's gone from bad to worse.  I wasn't able to walk at all Friday. Mobility improved throughout the day on Saturday.  So I worked on some embroidery stitching both days as I couldn't navigate the steps up to my sewing room.  With that I was able to maintain my stitching time for the week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/February  = 24/24 days
• 15 minute days/2024 ...

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 ...

Hard to believe it's December.  Just one month left to reach all those goals we crafted so carefully last December. One of my goals was to play along with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2023 and do better than I did in 2022.  I'm linking up to the November PHD Update with a report that looks better then last month's. 

  

I finished a second quilt in November, which puts my PHD performance on par with last year's in terms of overall finishes.  In addition to the finish, there was good progress on several other projects. 

For those in the US, I hope you had a wonderful holiday and that everyone else had a wonderful weekend.  We ate a lot last week.  Both Grad Girl and My Guy are incredible cooks. I did my part with chocolate pie, pistachio salad and brownies, all family favorites. I really need to get with my exercise program over the next few weeks so I can endure a repeat round of feasting at Christmas.  

I did get some time in the sewing room before leaving it for holiday prep and hanging out time with Grad Girl.  But I don't ...

I'm really not ready for it to be Thanksgiving.  But now it's just a few days away.  Maybe that's what motivated me this week, I definitely made a dent in my rather long to do list. 

To Do List for the Week of 11/14/2023

1. Malted Mystery: Finish clue 4, start clue 5 ✔

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Prep fabrics, design back, cut back ✔

3. Rhododendron: Finish sewing sashing and blocks, start borders ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Make 2 orange blocks ✔

5.  Chilhowie : Leaders and enders project ✔

6.  Fabric organization: Cut/sort scraps, press yardage ✔

Very surprised ...