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It's always an adjustment to move from the previous year to the new year.  Mostly it's a mind reset, but it did take me the better part of the morning to reset my quilting tracking spreadsheet for the new year.  That first meant making sure all of the quilty stuff that went on in 2024 was captured. With that all done, it made pulling all the information for my end of the year PHD report easier. 

The year ended with six finishes, six projects moved to finished quilt tops, progress on the rest of the UFOs on the ...

My Guy had lots of vacation time, so he took off last week and we headed to Eureka Springs, AR.  We had much bigger plans for vacation this year, but then a family wedding and a potential refinery project hijacked the dates we had planned to go.  We've been to Eureka Springs several times. We did a lot of shopping, hiking, and eating out.  I took two quilts to bind and finished one of them. 

My version of Rhododendron, the Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery quilt, is finished.  I've named my version Azaleas since I used purple rather than ...

September was just a weird month for some reason.  I guess because, though it has cooled off some, it was still pretty warm. Didn't feel like autumn at all.  At any rate, the higher temps made the sewing room the place to be so I got a lot of stitching done this month. So there is plenty to report for the September PHD Report linky party over at P Designs USA. Here's my PHD report for the last month.  

Last week's maladies definitely hampered my progress on all things quilty. Some days, 15 minutes was really all I managed to accomplish.  But there was still progress.  Both design walls are completely empty at the moment. Chocolate Marshmallow goes up next. I did work out the final setting in EQ on one of the days I didn't make it to the sewing room. 

  

This may or may not be the final block layout. I need to get the blocks up on the design wall and play a bit before that's a done deal.  Chocolate Marshmallows was started ...

Getting a to do list posted for this week hasn't been the easiest.  I was very sick Tuesday and then yesterday had an appointment to get the car in for service. By the time I got home, the ragweed had given me one of those "light hurts your eyes" headaches.  I still have the dregs of the headache, I'm hoping it clears up as the day goes on.  But it's backed off enough I can at least sit in front of the computer this morning.  

Last week's to do list was an easy one.  

To Do ...

We had a family wedding to attend last weekend.  We hit the road Thursday afternoon, so there wasn't a lot of time in the sewing room last week.  I did get the binding made and attached to Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter).  That was my only sewing time over the weekend. With all the activities, I didn't get very far, just one corner turned at this point. 

I should make better progress with this now that we are home. You can really see the quilting Trudy did in the dark purple part of the backing.  It's lovely.  

The wedding ...

Hard to believe we are already more than halfway through with September.  The end of the year always seems to pass so much quicker than the beginning of the year.  There is still so much left on my goals for this year, I guess that's why last week's to do list was so long. 

To Do List for 9/10/2024

1.  Diatom: Finish top prep, send out for quilting ✔

2.  Chilhowie: Add last border ✔

3.  Jewel Box Blocks: Finish blocks ✔

4.  Marble Mystery: Cut fabrics, start September clue ✔

5.  Rhododendron: Make label and binding ✔

6.  Wild and ...

Just one week into September and it already feels like the month is just flying by.  The weeks do seem to be getting busier and I have more things on my other stuff to do list, my sewing room to do list has suffered a bit as a result. 

To Do List for 09/03/2024

1. Diatom: Prep top for quilting - progress

2. Chilhowie: Finish 1st pieced border, start on second border ✔

3.  Jewel Box Blocks: Finish blocks - progress

4.  Marble Mystery: Cut background fabric, start assembly - progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Continue making orange blocks ✔

6.  Sensational Summer ...

My Guy is off on a business trip, so I have the house to myself for a few days.  I lived alone for many years before we were married, but it feels so weird now.  A lot of stitching got done yesterday, but I have other chores to get done today.  But there will probably be some later night stitching again tonight.  

The weekend was way too short.  I'm retired, but My Guy isn't. We seem to run out of Sunday before we run out of things we planned to do together. The big one this weekend was to get vacation planned.  Oh well, I'll work on it this week and we'll finish it off next weekend. 

One sewing room chore I tackled this weekend was getting Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter) prepped for quilting. 

There are lots of seams to press. Thankfully there weren't too many loose threads. 

So now it's all pressed, de-threaded and ready to ...

July wasn't nearly as busy as June, so there was a lot more time for playing in the sewing room.  Enough playing that there is finally an update to the PHD report. 

The finish for July was the 2023 Stay at Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail).  

I'm really happy with how this one turned out.  My Guy really likes it. That's a good thing because it ...

Summer is well and truly back. We've had heat advisories pretty much every day since late last week.  It is almost August. The first two weeks of that month are typically our hottest.  Which isn't fun to contemplate considering how hot early July was.  

Since there wasn't much to do but hide in my sewing room, there was lots of stitching time last week, which made pretty quick work of last week's to do list. 

To Do list for 7/23/2024

1.  Rhododendron: Prep back for quilting ✔

2.  Kate's Choice: Continue making blocks ✔

3 ...

We've settled back into our normal schedule for the most part.  The weather has been much nicer as it's cooler, but the mold count is way up. So I've been fighting sinus headaches and congestion for most of the week.  It slows me down a little, I tend to nap more (one of the joys of retirement, I don't have to fight the allergies and work).  Even with a few naps, last week's to do list still got finished.  

Last Sunday's post noted just how out of it I felt during most of last week. Saturday allowed for a reset and I managed to get back up to speed on a number of things, including last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 07/09/2024

1.  2023 SAHRR: Finish binding  ✔ 

2.  Kates' Choice: Continue making blocks ✔

3.  Guild BOM: Finish June block, start July block ✔

4.  Wild and Goosey: Finish blue blocks, start teal blocks ✔

5.  Indigo Way: Finish setting triangles, start assembly ✔

I'm 5 for 5 for last week, a definite improvement over ...

Hard to process that April is over.  Between our travels for the eclipse early in the month and then knee surgery mid month, my sewing room time was down considerably.  Even so, now that it's May it's time to put together a progress report and link up P Designs USA for the April PHD report.  

There's been no change in my PHD spreadsheet.  No finishes, but no new starts either.  So I'll take that.  Even though there were no finishes, there has been a bit of progress on a few projects.  

Most of my stitching time ...

We were lucky this weekend, the worst of the storms either went northwest of us or stayed south of us.  We did get plenty of the wind and rain. The storms that hit Saturday night/Sunday morning were bad because the worst of the storm came very early in the morning.  Those are nights you make sure you have shoes by the bed and what's going into the storm shelter with you (jackets, water, etc) is located on the path to the garage. We didn't need the shelter last weekend, but we have used it once since the ...

It's been a couple of weeks since my last to do list.  We were traveling for one week and once we got home, prep for knee surgery made it a lot harder to do the stairs.  So I've been sticking with hand work pretty much exclusively the last 3 weeks.  Since that's the only thing that was on my "allowed" activity list, it didn't seem worth it to do a new to do list.  By Wednesday, I was pretty bored with hand stitching and just restless. The knee is fully weight bearing, meaning nothing is going ...

The big thing that wasn't on my to do list for last week was to watch the eclipse. We ventured down to Texas so we could see totality.  My Guy had the special filters and such for his camera, I didn't get that motivated. Even so,  I did get a cool photo during totality.  

We'd had mostly cloudy skies all morning, but we got lucky and the sun was in a clear patch for almost all of totality.  This photo was taken with my cell phone with no filters.  My Guy had his DSLR set up with ...

First quarter is over and we are already a few days into the 2nd quarter of 2024.  Since March is over, it's time to look my progress towards a PHD and link up with P Designs USA for the March PHD report. This month the report shows a finish for the first time this year. 

Still a long way to go to reach PHD status. But it's nice having the first finish in March versus waiting till September. 

A Flutter was sent for quilting in February.  This quilt was started in 2013, it was my second Rainbow Scrap ...

It's definitely spring in Oklahoma. We spent about half an hour in the storm shelter last night in response to tornado warnings.  The news is reporting damage in one of the smaller towns to the south and east of us. We experienced some pretty strong winds and a bit of hail, but we never lost power. Still I'll have to do a walk around to check for lost shingles, the winds did get pretty high.  

The storms meant no evening stitching, which meant I didn't quite get to everything on my to do list for last week ...