What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

My Girl and Queenie left Saturday afternoon to start the almost 10 hour trek back to Houston.  So the house felt really empty.  Perfect time to go hide in my sewing room for a bit. My priority for the week is to finish the February block for the guild BOM and get started on the center block for the SAHRR (Quilting Gail).  I'm almost done with the BOM block, but I can't show that till after the guild meeting.  I didn't start the SAHRR center, but did get all the fabric cut for it. 

I had to ...

We've reached that time of the year when the three of us are off work and have a hard time remembering what day it is. We have no place to be, so the days can just drift by without you even realizing it. We check in with each regularly just to ensure we'll all at least in sync in our belief of what day it is.  

The week before Christmas always seems to pass in a rush. I felt off for a couple of days early last week.  Thankfully it appears to be just my sinuses reacting to all the crap the strong winds blew in.  That slowed me down a bit on the stuff that had to get done, but didn't stop progress completely. All the gifts were wrapped yesterday. Even My Guy has all his wrapping done. There were two sewing projects that had deadlines this month.  The first was the guild BOM. 

This year's BOM includes a large Carpenter Star block ...

This week has gone fast.  Hard to believe that it was just last Monday we got back from our Thanksgiving holiday trip. Both My Guy and I kept asking each other what day it was all week.  Sunday didn't feel like Sunday, mainly because we finally did our big Christmas shopping trip to Tulsa. I'm not done, done, with the shopping, but pretty close. There are still a couple of things we decided we'd be better off ordering. Hopefully, I get that done today.  Getting the tree up and wrapping presents is likely to take a good ...

How are your holiday preparations going?  We need to make one last grocery store run, but our menu is set and we've divided up the cooking chores. This week my focus is on the holiday, last week my focus was on getting the 2025 Guild BOM ready to show at the meeting last Tuesday. 

Thanksgiving is next week.  I'm not ready to be that far into the year!  But it comes regardless. Just like the November guild meeting is tomorrow.  My weekend sewing was focused on getting the 2025 Guild BOM to finished quilt top stage. 

It wasn't the best weekend.  I'm still sniffly and mostly still breathing through my mouth. I didn't sew at all on Saturday, but I did get back to the sewing room a bit on Sunday.  My biggest priorities this month are the 2025 Guild BOM and the 2026 Guild BOM.  I've made progress on both.  For the 2026 Guild BOM, there will be three options, a square sampler and two rectangular options that include a top and bottom border.  I'm not fond of square quilts, so I decided it was worth the effort to add ...

I spent most of the weekend working on the 2025 Guild BOM.  All the Inverted Star blocks are finished with just 2 sawtooth stars left to finish.  That's a wonderful feeling. No last minute dash to the finish line the afternoon before the meeting!  The guild meeting is this week, so the November block will be shown and then just one color left to share with the guild.  Since this quilt needs to be assembled for the December meeting, I started adding the sashing strips to the blocks that have already been revealed. 

I've left the blocks for ...

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 ...

The problem with working on the 2025 Guild BOM blocks is that I can't show them till the guild sees them.  Most of what I've been working on in the sewing room is getting those blocks finished so quilt assembly can be started. There's been good progress on that front, but it doesn't leave me much to post about on Monday.  I do keep 2 Wild and Goosey blocks going while I'm stitching other things.  I've also added back working on bits and pieces of Old Town. 

Twenty of the 25 blocks are finished ...

My Saturday sewing time started off with a review of what was on my plate for the rest of this year.  Particularly my responsibilities with the guild BOM.  Last Monday started with an email saying the meeting was on Tuesday and I hadn't started the BOM block for October yet.  That was first on my to do list when I got to the sewing room on Monday.  I finished the black Inverted Star block and a couple of the saw tooth star blocks just in time for the meeting. I finished the rest yesterday. 

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.

Though I've not spent a lot of time in the sewing room the last couple of weeks, there has been some planning going on here and there.  The Meadow Mist Designs Magnificent Mystery kicked off back in July with the fabric requirements. I don't usually start cutting the fabrics till the first set of block instructions come out, which happen Thursday this week. I've been pulling fabrics and putting them back, but I think this weekend I reached my final selection. 

I've wanted to make a brown and teal quilt for awhile. This project seemed like ...

It was nice to get back to the sewing room on Sunday.  After a week away from home, the first decision was to decide what to work on.  I finished off the August inverted star block for the guild BOM so I was free to work on something else.  Since I'd really like to get another finish in soon, the project box with the quilted Kate's Choice blocks was pulled off the shelf.  First step was to cut the sashing strips for the front and back of the quilt and attach those. 

The summer allergies are still hanging on, but it wasn't so bad this weekend.  A lot of sneezing, but I've not needed quite so many tissues.  I suppose that's progress? 

It was a slow, stay around the house kind of weekend.  We went to church and that's about it.  Most of my weekend was spent in my sewing room.  My focus was to make some good progress on my "quilt as you go" project, Kate's Choice.  

We all expected an adjustment with Grad Girl moving home till she finds a job.  It's not so much having Grad Girl home, she's pretty self sufficient. But her cat, Queenie, has had a harder time adjusting.  I think she's finally getting over the stress of moving. But probably, it's that she's gotten us through the initial training of having a cat running the home.  

I finally got back to my quilt as you go project this weekend.  

Three blocks in row 5 of Kate's Choice are completely quilted and a fourth is almost ...

We finally made it home early yesterday afternoon.  All of us were hot and tired.  Queenie, Grad Girl's cat, isn't a fan of hotel rooms. So none of us got a lot of sleep the previous 4 nights.  Needless to say after we unloaded and got lunch, everyone of us, including the cat, took naps yesterday afternoon. It was early evening before I made it up to the sewing room and took stock.  

The last sewing I did was to finish the August Inverted Star block for the Guild BOM. 

The color for August is brown. I only ...

Secret projects didn't used to be very common in my sewing room.  But with taking on the block of the month program for the guild, I don't feel like I can share much of that sewing till I've showed it at the guild meeting.  Getting a bit ahead has been my focus for the last month, so there's not much else going on in the sewing room.  If I take off all the bits and pieces of the BOM off my sewing table, here's what's left. 

There really was a plan to post last week, but I'd forgotten how hard it is when you have an early morning start and have to find coffee and breakfast before your first session.  Meetings all day and then social networking meetings in the evenings, left me pretty much spent at the end of the day. I don't do this type of stuff very often now that I'm not working.  It was fun though, I miss the technical part of being a research chemist and I definitely got to do some technical stuff during the meeting.