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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 ...

It's going to take me a while to get the 2024 part of my dates right.  That's always the trickiest thing about the new year. I need to pay bills today, so I should get lots of practice on that.  

At any rate, I'm starting my first to do list of the new year with a completed last to do list from 2023. 

To Do List for 12/26/2023

1. Indigo Way: Continue clues 2, 3, 4, start 5 and 6 ✔

2. Malted Mystery: Finish clue 5, start clue 6 ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Finish hand stitching ...

I'm a bit late posting this week's to do list.  We went to my family's for the holiday.  All of us came home yesterday with headaches, sore throats, and runny noses.  My Guy and Grad Girl have fevers, I don't. Up till then, the holiday had been a good one.  Fingers crossed this is a short lived virus and we'll all be back to feeling good soon.

Since I felt the best, my first back home assignment was grocery store duty. That was followed by a  run to Walgreens as afterwards we discovered that both ...

Less than a week till Christmas. I've got gifts to wrap and some laundry to catch up on before the holiday, but that's about it.  My Guy is off work till after New Year's.  Grad Girl will be home this weekend.  All that to say I'm not sure what this week is going to look like in terms of "at home time".  So this week's list will be a bit looser then normal.  But before I get to this week's list, here's how it went with last week's list. 

To Do List ...

Only two Tuesdays left in 2023?  December always seems to speed by.  I'm definitely not ready for the end of the year.  My holiday to do list has just about preempted my quilting to do list, but it is that time of year.  Even so, I didn't do too badly with last week's to do list. 

I spent a lot of time in the sewing room over the weekend, but don't seem to have much to show for it.  Here's the last round of chain piecing sitting by the machine.

In addition to stitching this week, I finally made a serious start on my Christmas shopping and decorating.  All the wrapping stuff, paper, boxes, bags, tissue paper, has been pulled from it's various storage locations and assembled in Grad Girl's bedroom. The 3 foot tree is up and decorated.  That definitely went faster then the 6 foot tree I normally set up. Hopefully that means it will come down much faster. I ususally enjoy putting up the tree, but getting it down was always a chore (we won't discuss the longest I've ever left the tree ...

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. 

I'm still in recovery mode from Thanksgiving. We spent the holiday in Texas with Grad Girl. We had a lot of fun, but that drive back is just long.  We didn't get back till early evening yesterday.  At least this trip, My Guy and I could share the driving duties.  Even so, it's a long day in the car. 

Because of the holiday and our trip, last week's to do list was really simple.  

To Do List for 11/14/2023

1. Butterfly Medallion: Take a few stitches ✔

2. Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday ✔

Keeping it simple ...

It was wet, rainy and cold on Sunday. So I responded accordingly and spent pretty much the whole day in my sewing room.  I managed to move a few projects along.  The center of the 2021 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Rhododenron, is assembled and up on the design wall. 

I'm happy with how it's come together so far. I've also been working on the flying geese for the pieced border this week and almost have enough to start that border. But before I get to that, I need to trim up the center and add a narrow white ...

The weeks always seem to go so quickly as we get closer to the end of the year.  Last week seems to have just sped by somehow.  My ambitious to do list for the week was definitely too long.  

Another month gone, just two months left in the year.  It's time to review how well I'm doing on moving a few UFOs to finished and link up with Quilting Gail for the October PHD update.  At this point,  my PHD report isn't very impressive.    

The plan for November is to ...

Just one more week and October will be over.  That just doesn't seem possible.  Just 2 months left in the year. I'm really not ready for that, so we'll just concentrate on taking it a week at a time, starting with last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 10/17/2023

1. Melodic Mystery: Prep back for quilting ✔

2. Malted Mystery: Continue working on clue 4 ✔

3. Rhododendron: Start assembling blocks into rows ✔

4. Wild & Goosey: Make 3 yellow blocks - progress

5.  Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders project ✔

Four check marks with progress ...

Half of October is already gone.  Taking a week and half for vacation will really speed up time.  It's been 3 weeks since my last to do list post.  About half the last list from September was checked off before I left for vacation.  I've checked off the rest since we got back. 

The end of September was hectic with vacation preparations, complicated by a three day migraine.  So blogging went out the window for several days.  Vacation preparations got done, but I didn't have the energy to get into the sewing room to get photos for my end of the month post.  Since I've not done anything stitching related for the last couple of weeks, all I have to post is progress on my quilting goals for the year and my PHD progress for September.  I'm linking up with Quilting Jetgirl's 2023 Q3 Check In.  

2023 Ambition #1 ...

It's hard to believe that October is just a few days away.  The end of the year always goes so quickly.  I've got lots of stuff on the calendar over the next few months, so my stitching time is definitely going to drop off.  I've done pretty well at taking advantage of all the stitching time this month.  That is definitely reflected in last week's to do list. 

Hard to believe that more than half of September is in the books.  Looking at what's on my calendar, the end of the year will come really quickly.  Consequently my to do lists are getting longer.  Last week's list was up to six items, which makes it harder to check off the entire list.    

To Do List for 9/12/2023

1. Unity (Helianthus): Make label, binding, finish - progress

2. Macaron Mystery: Prep quilt top for quilting - no progress

3. Scrappy Butterflies: Finish top assembly ✔

4. Malted Mystery: Continue to work on clue 3 ✔

5. Wild and Goosey ...

Where did the last week go?  I worked in my stitching time each day, but it wasn't enough to check off all the items on my to do list. 

To Do List for 9/5/2023

1. Macaron Mystery: Prep back for quilting ✔

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Finish border blocks, finish assembly - progress

3. Wild and Goosey: Make 2 blocks - no progress

4. Malted Mystery: Start on clue 3 ✔

5. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Three out of 5, with progress on the 4th to do item isn't a bad week. I didn't get my typical nothing ...

Before I start my Monday post, I always read over what I wrote for the previous week's post.  Some weeks all I can do is shake my head and wonder what was I thinking.  The plan was to get Scrappy Butterflies assembled last Monday.  Didn't happen, not even close.  It was a week of, wrong block in the wrong place. Tried to take it off the row, unstitched the wrong seam.  I did this not once, but twice on two different rows.  So all I have to show for my progress is this:

The pieces are all sewn ...

How was your Labor Day holiday?  We kept ours really low key this year.  I spent a lot of the weekend in my sewing room. Consequently I did really well on checking off all the items on last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 8/29/2023

1. Macaron Mystery: Continue piecing backing ✔

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Continue making border blocks, start assembly ✔

3. Wild & Goosey: Make 2 aqua blocks ✔

4. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders/enders project ✔

My goal is to make progress on my projects, so the items on my to do list are mostly just "keep ...