What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

After a wonderfully restful week off, it's time to head back to the office today.  I'm not ready, but I'll get over it. The Scientist in Training headed back to college yesterday.  She'll be home for winter break in two weeks. 

I got to spend a lot of time in the sewing room last week. The last border was stitched onto the Red White and Blue Stars quilt. 

Red, White and Blue Stars, Setting self designed

It just took 15 plus years to get this project from inception to finished quilt top.  But it was worth ...

There wasn't much blogging going on last week.  My schedule was just that nuts. Thankfully this week it's much calmer.  Though I didn't post last week, there was a to do list and I actually didn't do too bad. Thankfully I had the weekend to play catch up on those to dos.  

To Do List for 11/17/2020

• Red, White and Blue Stars: Continue adding borders ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Work on November Clue ✔
• Unity: Add next border, make flying geese - progress 
• Grassy Creek:  Pick fabrics ✔

Check marks on three out four of is pretty good. And ...

Last week was one of those weeks.  It was hard to focus on much and even the sewing room was not enough of a distraction.  This week is going to be better, just busy. My meeting calendar is pretty packed for the next 2 weeks.  Even with the distractions last week, there was still some good progress on the To Do List.  

To Do List for 11/2/2020

• Christmas Mystery Quilt:  bind ✔
• Daisy Chain: Find a backing fabric ✔
• Red, White &Blue Stars: Add first border - progress
• Unity: Finish Step 4, start step 5 ✔

It was a beautiful weekend, though it was pretty windy yesterday.  I'm glad we did some photography on Friday, the winds did a good job of striping the leaves off many of the trees. It won't be long before the trees are all bare.  

Just two months left in 2020.  The end of the year always just flies by it seems.  As it's a new month it's time to take stock of the progress towards my 2020 PHD (projects half done)

The tracking sheet has been updated again this month, but this time in the right direction. 

Storm at Sea (Streams) Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

We are heading out earlier than normal today to get to our polling location when it opens. Even in our small community turn out was high for early voting, so we expect long waits even when the polls first open. 

So I'll need to speed write this week's to do list.  Before I write the new list, I should look at how it went with the previous To Do List. 

Weekly To Do List for 10/27/2020

• Frolic: Prep quilt for quilting and mail ✔

• Christmas Mystery: Trim quilt, make label and binding ✔

• Red, White & Blue Stars: Continue ...

Can you believe it's November?  It didn't really hit me till I had to create a new file folder this morning for yesterday's sewing room photos.  Just a little over three weeks to Thanksgiving! I'm not thinking about it. As much as I'd like to get 2020 over with, I'm still hoping to get a few more projects off the UFO list before we get to 2021. There was good progress on that goal this weekend. 

Red, White and Blue Stars, Setting self designed

Just a few days left in October. November will definitely be underway when we make out next week's list. But I should focus on the here and now to come up with this week's list. Before doing that, I should take a quick detour to look at the progress on last week's to do list. 

Weekly To Do List for 10/20/2020

• Frolic: Prep for quilting and mail - progress
• Red, White & Blue Stars: finish sashing the blocks
• Morewood Mystery: Continue to make October's blocks
• Unity: Make more HSTS and blocks for clue 4

There are only 10 weeks left in 2020.  Just 10 more to do lists left for the year, just 10 weeks to make progress on this year's goals. The weeks always seem to go faster this time of year. So it's definitely time to decide on the priorities for the rest of the year.  Before looking ahead to this next week, how did week 11 eleven go? 

Weekly To Do List for 10/13/2020

• Red, White and Blue Stars: Continue sashing blocks ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Work on October blocks ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs and blocks for Step 4 ✔
• Strom ...

Not much happened in the sewing room on  Saturday.  We met up with the Scientist in Training in Tulsa to switch out cars. The front end damage from that accident in August was finally fixed. She was thrilled to get her car back. She's been driving My Guy's 21 year old Jeep.  To be honest My Guy's feeling was mutual, he was just as glad to get his car back as the SIT was. It turned cold and rainy on Sunday.  Perfect sewing room weather and I made the most of it.  

 It's back to work this morning after a week off. I'm expecting a pretty rough day and a long week.  That's usually the price for taking the week off.  Still it was nice to have some time to relax and recharge a bit. Hand stitching the binding for the Storm at Sea quilt fit in with the sit and soak it up agenda for the week. 

We were home for most of the weekend, so I did get in some good sewing room time ...

Even with a nothing but stitching day over the weekend, I didn't get to everything on last week's to do list.  So it's not just having the time to stitch, but the priority you put on each project.  Checking off three out of the four is still a pretty good week.  

Weekly To Do List for 9/29/2020

• Storm at Sea: Make binding ✔
• Red, White & Blue Stars: begin sashing blocks ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs and blocks for Step 4 ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Start October clue - no progress

 Weekend's have been busy lately with yard work and family stuff, consequently my sewing room time has been pretty curtailed.  I made up for it this weekend.  Saturday was a nothing but sewing day and Sunday afternoon was reserved for more of the same. 

First thing on the list was to finish off the Halloween face masks requested by the Scientist in Training.

Mask pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts

The SIT requested one more chemistry themed mask and the butterfly mask is for me. The spider web masks are for me and the SIT, while the skeleton is for ...

 I was definitely ready for Saturday to get here.  The plan is for a nothing but stitching day to celebrate the end of the work week and the beginning of October.  Just three months left in 2020. Though I will be glad to see the end of this year, there's not much time left to finish my 2020 PHD. 

The Morewood Mystery quilt September clue had me cutting into the fabric to make last months blocks.  I count a ...

Checking off my to do list at work took priority this last week.  End of year reviews are coming up, so it's time to finish off what's left of the 2020 goals.  Not much different with what I'm doing with my 2020 quilting ambitions.  Even though there were some long work days last week, I still managed to check off all the items on last week's to do list. 

• Red, White and Blue Stars: Decide on sashing fabric ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Finish September clue blocks ✔
• Unity: Make HSTs and blocks for step 4 ✔
• 2019 Christmas Mystery: Mail ...

 I'm hoping for a bit of a slow down day today, it's been a hectic week.  Work has been busy, I went in early and stayed late several days last week. I'm way behind on comment replies and blog reading, but have been able to keep up with my stitching time.  Some weeks there just aren't enough hours in the day.  A few nights last week, getting in just the bare minimum of 15 minutes was a challenge.  How are you doing at fitting in a bit of stitching time each day?  

 The weeks continue to just fly by.  It will be October in just over a week.  Definitely time to get moving on any stitching goals that are still hanging out there. I've never been much of a list maker, other than the grocery list.  But there's a good deal of research that shows making a good list can really help with productivity. The weekly list seems to be helping me on that front. All of last week's to do's are all checked off.    

Weekly To Do List for 09/15/2020

• Red, White & Blue Stars: Find ...

 The weather has been nice, cool in the mornings, warm in the afternoons. It's a good time of year for yard work, which is the plan for this morning. I'm hoping for a full afternoon in the sewing room to get a good start on my stitching time for week 39.  Today will hopefully be a lot more than 15 minutes, which is my goal during the work week.  

A two day sinus headache took a bite out of my stitching time this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/September = 17/19 days ...

 It seems that all I did was blink and it's already the middle of September. The year always seems to speed up as it goes along.  Even though it seems like last week passed at warp speed, the To Do List got done.  

Weekly To Do List for 09/08/2020

• Frolic: Piece backing ✔
• Morewood Mystery: Continue making clue 3 blocks ✔
• Unity: Continue making HSTs and clue 4 blocks ✔
• 2019 Christmas Mystery: Prep back for quilting ✔

After almost a year of making To Do Lists, I've learned that for some projects the goal is to just keep it ...