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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 ...

Did you have a family celebration for Easter?  We didn't this year, we mostly just hung out at home for the weekend.  I spent the afternoon in the sewing room working to finish the last border for the Malted Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs).  

The dark blue used in the border looks black, it's just hard to photograph it accurately under the lighting conditions in my sewing room.  This is one of my favorite Meadow Mist Designs mystery designs from Cheryl.  It kept me guessing. I wondered where we going to use those blocks in the last border.   

This ...

I don't usually post twice in one day, but today is the last day to link up with the quilt parade for the 2024 Stay At Home Round Robin over at Quilting Gail's.  The last border strip was added late yesterday afternoon. Last year I didn't finish the 2023 SAHRR quilt top till June. I'm very happy to have a finished quilt top before the end of March this year. 

The prompt for border #6 was a letter or a number.  I decided to go with an hourglass block, which looks like the letter X.  

My ...

I'm late posting this morning.  I had an early morning doctor's appointment to go over the MRI results on my knee.  When I mess myself up, apparently I don't do anything in halves. Both meniscus in my right knee are torn. So that will mean surgery, probably later this spring. We'll see how long I'm out of the sewing room when we get to that.  For now, I'll keep working to finish off a few projects before I end up on restrictions. 

This weekend was a mixed bag on the stitching front.  I did ...

The leg continues to heal, but then I had some issues with my back one evening.  A couple of days on muscle relaxants and the back is as normal as it gets these days. That did cut into my sewing time a couple of evenings, I just didn't feel much like sewing a lot.  It certainly seems I get one body part healed and something else goes out. Unfortunately a trade in just isn't in the cards, so maintenance is key from here on out.  

It wasn't a bad week in the sewing room, but not making it up the sewing room for a couple of days last week really put me behind on my ongoing quilt alongs.  I did make good progress on the 2024 SAHRR, but wasn't able to finish off border #5 this weekend. 

Week 5 of the SAHRR ends today.  Up to this week, I'd done such a good job of keeping up. Unfortunately, some health issues really limited my sewing room time this week.  It didn't help that my first idea for the border turned out to be a bit unreasonable to piece in a timely manner, so I ended up coming up with plan 2. I did make some progress, just not nearly as much as I would have liked. 

No winter precip this weekend, but it was cold. So it was definitely a hang out in the sewing room weekend.  The main priority was to finish the prompt for week #4 of the SAHRR posted by Songbird Designs. You could choose from square in a square blocks or blocks set on point.  

I went with the square in a square blocks around two corners.  It's been fun to watch this quilt come together.  The prompt for border #5 will be posted over at Quilting Gail's on Monday morning.  I'm looking forward to seeing what's next ...

This week I had hoped to finish off the third round of borders for the SAHRR before Sunday evening.  I was doing so well Friday on getting my triangle borders pulled together.  The first set of border blocks went up on the design wall just before dinner on Friday.  Something  didn't look right.  The diamond tips don't line up.  

I'm paper piecing these diamonds. Note that a diamond is made up of two equilateral triangles and four isosceles triangles. These look wonky because the center diamonds aren't made from two equilateral triangles. I didn't draw ...

It's been a cold and rainy day, perfect for lots of sewing time.  My focus today was to finish the second border for this year's SAHRR.  Last week's prompt was from Anja Quilts, using just two colors do anything you like for the second border.  I decided to go simple. 

The rail fence borders were pretty easy, but those 9 patches with the 1" orange strips weren't as easy.  I didn't do too badly at matching the corners up with the sides, but even being just a tad off shows up with those bold colors ...

I did this to myself last year too.  Being retired it was so easy to say, "I have lots of time for new projects."  Ha! Maybe that would be true if I'd just stick with one new project after the madness of the Bonnie Mystery that wrapped up New Year's Day.  But no, I really wanted to play along with 2 quilt alongs that started in January.  It took me all weekend, but I'm caught up on both!  

We had freezing rain overnight.  During dinner My Guy got a text from work, saying it was a delayed start this morning.  He woke up to a text that said work from home.  The road does look pretty much like a solid sheet of ice.  It's supposed to get above freezing before noon, we'll see if that happens.  It's these kind of days that make me appreciate being retired.  

I used the cold as an excuse to hang out in the sewing room a lot this weekend.  Though the cold is also really conductive to warm naps ...

It's cold! I know we have it easy compared to those north of us, but once you get past a certain point it's all just cold.  It's -1 F at the moment.  We are supposed to get up into the teens today. That's a heat wave compared to our high of 5 F yesterday. 

The one good thing about the cold and snow is that it's a very good reason to spend most of Sunday in the sewing room.  I spent most of the morning cutting scraps and yardage for the Just Two Charm Pack ...

It's been a busy week. Grad Girl and I spent one day in Tulsa and then another in Oklahoma City.  We had fun, but it did impact my stitching time this week.  I managed my 15 minutes every day, but sometimes not much more than that. It's OK, she heads back to school tomorrow.  I'm glad we had a chance to hang out so much while she was home.  

All I have to show for the week is a bunch of pinned pieces at my sewing machine. 

At the top is the last of pieces needed to ...

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!  

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 ...

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.

Sitting at my machine last night and pinning pieces for the next round of chain piecing, I realized that 4 out of 5 projects getting pinned were Bonnie Hunter projects.  Her mysteries are known for needing lots of piecing. I enjoy the piecing, but to be working on 4 at one time may not be the easiest way to move a few projects to finished. Especially when I am trying really hard to keep up with this year's mystery, Indigo Way. I've finished half of the clue 1 HSTs and have made a start on the clue 2 ...

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 ...

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 ...