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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 ...

Happy 2024!  We didn't make it to midnight last night. Usually we stay up and have some bubbly or a glass of wine to celebrate the new year.  But after being down with Covid for most of the week, both of us decided early to bed was probably better for our recovery efforts.  Grad Girl was off with friends for the holiday.  Queenie, her cat, was in bed before we were!  

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 ...

Last week there was nothing on the design wall. This week it's pretty much full. 

The pieced borders for Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery) are finally all attached. I'm happy with how they worked out.  The plan was for two more simple borders, but I'm now thinking maybe just one. I need to play in EQ and try out some options. 

Any decisions will wait till after the holiday. I'm trying to keep up with this year's mystery, so Rhododendron is going into time out for a few weeks.  For the next week or so ...

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. 

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 ...

Happy Halloween!  Our plans for the evening are to hand out candy to the kids who come by.  We used to have a lot of littles in the neighborhood, but like our daughter, many of them have grown up and left for college.  Not sure how many we'll get. It's going to be cold, plus it's a school night.  

Now back to the regularly scheduled To Do List.  There was no linky party post over at The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric last week.  I know that Carol's been really busy with non-quilting commitments ...

 We went from the 80's last weekend to the 40's this weekend. Plus it was rainy and windy.  It was perfect sewing room weather. I finally bit the bullet and cut out the setting tringles for Rhododendron, crossing my fingers that I had the correct measurements.  Based on how it's going together I got it right.  

I'm just about halfway done with the construction.  So far, so good.  Bonnie used flying geese in a pieced border. I'm going to do that too, but a little differently than what she did.  I should pull those out ...

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. 

I'm really not ready for it to be September.  The last four months of the year seem to speed by, I guess because we've got the holidays at the end of them.  Even though I'm not ready for the new month, I am happy with all the progress in August. So though I have no finishes to show off for the PHD in 2023 challenge, I can link up over at Quilting Gail's and not feel too badly this month.

Still no new finishes, but also no new starts.  So there ...

It was really warm this weekend. Plus the late rains this year have produced a bumper crop of ragweed, so my sinuses have not been happy.  Definitely time to stay in and stitch. It's been a good week on that front, a couple of projects hit major milestones.  Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs 2022 mystery quilt) is now a finished quilt top.

The colors aren't really true in the photo, the pinks are much brighter and so is the green used in the sashing and borders.  I'm happy with my color choices for this one and pleased ...

I seem to have gotten my startitis under control. And I finally tackled the project that's been filling me with dread ever since it became a finished quilt top. So definitely a good week for the to do list. 

To Do List for 8/8/2023

1. Unity: Finish prep, send out for quilting - progress

2. Wild and Goosey: Make 2 yellow blocks ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Continue assembly of quilt top ✔

4. Chilhowie: Continue as leader and enders ✔

5. Sewing room clean up: Reorganize project boxes ✔

I'm happy with the 4 check marks with progress on the 5th ...

The Monday post is a bit late this week for the second time in less than a month.  Let's just say the morning didn't get off to the best start, but everything has lined out since then.  

I spent most of last week working on prepping Unity (Bonnie Hunter) to send out for quilting. 

I ended up with quite a nest of loose threads at the end. But the quilt is pressed and folded so it can be packaged up. 

So this afternoon I need to track down a box, pull some batting and finish getting it ready ...