What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The second round of snow didn't amount to much, but 6" of snow is a lot more than we normally get.  We've been told to work from home for another day. So my commute will be from my recliner to my home office today, no walk across the parking lot in the cold.  

We woke up to the sound of sleet on the bedroom windows this morning.  Work sent out an email yesterday afternoon that due to the forecasted inclement weather and low temperatures everyone was to work from home for today and tomorrow.  So rather than bundling up to brave the cold, I'll just fire up the work computer when it's time to go to work. 

Welcome to February!  January always seems to be such a long month. Maybe because it's typically so much calmer than December?  It's definitely still winter, the forecast says ice and snow starting for us tonight. Thankfully we are farther north and in a valley, so we are likely to get mostly snow.  Ice storms are the worst.  

It's been a busy few days and there wasn't time to post this morning.  It's the last day of the month, so definitely right at the wire to post my January One Monthly Goal wrap up and link up with Elm Street Quilts.  

My plan for January was to make good progress on the Potions quilt by finishing all the test tubes and half the beakers. 

Potions: pattern by Flying Parrot Quilts

 All the test tubes are made and all the beakers are made.  Which puts me ahead of schedule on this project. I need this quilt ...

This is the last To Do Tuesday for January.  Already?  I'm close to finishing up my One Monthly Goal for the month, so that should get done.  I won't have any finishes this month, but there has definitely been good progress as last week's To Do List shows.  

To Do List for 1/18/2022

• Potions: Make 5 beaker blocks ✔
• Rhododendron Mystery: Work on A and B blocks ✔
• Macaron Mystery: Continue to work on the January Clue ✔
• Unity: Continue making flying geese as leader and enders ✔

It was a nice weekend. We spent most of Saturday hanging out with the Scientist in Training, so I didn't get to spend a lot of time in my sewing room. But between having Friday off and finding time to stitch Sunday afternoon, I was able to finish just over half of the beaker blocks for Potions. 

How is it the work week drags, but the quilting week speeds by?  It's Tuesday again, time to take stock of what did and didn't get done last week and figure out what's doable this week.  My biggest priority item got done last week, so I'm calling it a good week. 

Saturday was cold and snowy, Sunday was cold and sunny.  Both were great days to stay in and hang out in the sewing room. Which is what I did after tackling laundry and finally dragging all the stuff out so I could put the Christmas tree away. 

Most of the weekend was spent piecing the rest of the test tube blocks for Potions.  

Potions: Pattern from Flying Parrot Designs

Once I figured out the seam allowances, the test tubes went together pretty quickly.  Next step is to make all the beaker blocks. When the lights went off in the sewing ...

It's been cold and windy, but sunny the last few days.  We've only had the really cold weather for about two weeks now and yet I'm already hoping for an early spring. The cold weather does make it easy to just hang out in the sewing room, which helps with checking off the items on last week's To Do List. 

To Do List for Week of 01/04/2022

• Potions: Make 8 test tube blocks ✔
• Rhododendron Mystery: Work on clues 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 ✔
• Macaron Mystery: Work on the January clue ✔
• Unity: Make ...

It's been a few months since my last Monday morning post.  So far, 2022 has been calmer then the end of 2021. Fingers crossed that remains the case as we get deeper into January.  

I haven't quite mastered getting the year right when writing out the date. That's probably going to take a few weeks rather than the few days of the new year that have passed so far.  I'm mostly wrapped up with last year's stuff and can concentrate on what's in the works for this year.  Participating in the One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts has always been a great motivator, so I'm going to play along again this year. 

I have two quilts that need to be finished in time for the Scientist ...

Sadly it's back to work for me today. I've enjoyed the last week. We've done some deep cleaning around the house, hung out as a family, I've gotten some concentrated time in the sewing room and made really good progress on last week's To Do List. 

Year three of Stitching Gail's 2021 PHD program went pretty much like the first two.  I didn't manage 12 finishes, I didn't finish what I started, but at least my UFO count stayed the same.  

There were three finishes this year, I only started 3 of 4 planned starts, and I made progress on 5 other projects.  So it wasn't a horrible year.  

So though it's not PHD worthy, I'm happy with the progress in 2021. 

Cabins and Fans finally made it to the Post Office and Trudy is working her quilting magic on ...

As seems to be typical this year, my one monthly goal was met the last day of the month. I'll be linking up with Elm Street Quilts for December's One Monthly Goal Finish.  

The goal for December was to make a start on a gift quilt for next May.  I've had the pattern and fabric picked out for several months, but just hadn't found time to get started on it.  I hadn't even read the pattern yet, other then the fabric requirements on the back.  So I opened the pattern book and got started on ...

 My last To Do Tuesday post was on November 30th.  December was just a desert in terms of having time to stitch. I'm hoping to make up for that a bit this week since I'm on vacation till the new year.  Here's the status of that last To Do List. 

• Cabins and Fans: Ship out for quilting - no progress
• Scrappy Butterflies: Make alternate 9 patch blocks ✔
• Macaron Mystery: Start clue 6 ✔
• Rhododendron Mystery: Finish clue 1, start clue 2 ✔
• Unity: Continue making flying geese for step 8 ✔

I didn't quite finish my November One Monthly Goal.  That goal was to prep and send out Cabins and Fans for quilting. The prep work got done, but during the packaging process I realized that the right sized batting wasn't in my stash. So I had to order some. That came on Tuesday, but I was at work so there wasn't time to get the project shipped out in time to meet the end of the month deadline.  That's OK that will happen tomorrow.  

So that leaves me to contemplate what's my December One Monthly ...

It's really squishy outside after our rainy weekend.  The river running through town is up, but not out.  So we should be able to get to work no problem.  I'm glad we didn't get all that moisture as snow, but I know lots of places did.  Hope everyone will be able to dig out today.  

I didn't spend as much of my weekend in the sewing room as usual.  The Scientist in Training was home and so there were other things to do.  Though we did hang out together for a bit while I was working ...