What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It was a good week.  I've gotten a handle on the leg issues, physical therapy and anti-inflammatories are keeping the pain at bay. I do have to be careful on the stairs, getting in and out of the car and changing direction when walking.  But that's not been too hard to manage.  So I was able to spend a lot of time in the sewing room, which means really good progress on last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 3/19/2024

1.  Stay at Home Round Robin: Finish border # 6 ✔

2.  Guild BOM: Finish ...

This will be my 6th attempt to achieve a PHD in quilting projects.  I've yet to manage that.  I doubt it happens this year either, but I won't know unless I try.  There are new hostesses for the PHD in 2024, Sharon Anderson and Susan Hatcher of Ms. P Designs USA.  Here's my list of this year's UFOs for the PHD in 2024.  

My strategy this year is to work on a new quilt or a quilt that needs the blocks assembled plus a quilt top to be finished or a quilt top to be assembled ...

We are already a couple of days into 2024, so it's definitely time to review my progress on my PHD projects this year and link one more time with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2023.  It definitely wasn't one of my more successful years in terms of finishes and my report shows that. 

I was able to add one more finish before the year ended.  That brings my total for the year to 3.  Not stellar, but it's one more than I finished last year.  I'll take an incremental increase. I finished three of the small ...

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 ...

Only two Tuesdays left in 2023?  December always seems to speed by.  I'm definitely not ready for the end of the year.  My holiday to do list has just about preempted my quilting to do list, but it is that time of year.  Even so, I didn't do too badly with last week's to do list. 

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.

In addition to stitching this week, I finally made a serious start on my Christmas shopping and decorating.  All the wrapping stuff, paper, boxes, bags, tissue paper, has been pulled from it's various storage locations and assembled in Grad Girl's bedroom. The 3 foot tree is up and decorated.  That definitely went faster then the 6 foot tree I normally set up. Hopefully that means it will come down much faster. I ususally enjoy putting up the tree, but getting it down was always a chore (we won't discuss the longest I've ever left the tree ...

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 ...

Hard to believe it's December.  Just one month left to reach all those goals we crafted so carefully last December. One of my goals was to play along with Quilting Gail's PHD in 2023 and do better than I did in 2022.  I'm linking up to the November PHD Update with a report that looks better then last month's. 

  

I finished a second quilt in November, which puts my PHD performance on par with last year's in terms of overall finishes.  In addition to the finish, there was good progress on several other projects. 

I'm still in recovery mode from Thanksgiving. We spent the holiday in Texas with Grad Girl. We had a lot of fun, but that drive back is just long.  We didn't get back till early evening yesterday.  At least this trip, My Guy and I could share the driving duties.  Even so, it's a long day in the car. 

Because of the holiday and our trip, last week's to do list was really simple.  

To Do List for 11/14/2023

1. Butterfly Medallion: Take a few stitches ✔

2. Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday ✔

Keeping it simple ...

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 ...

The weeks always seem to go so quickly as we get closer to the end of the year.  Last week seems to have just sped by somehow.  My ambitious to do list for the week was definitely too long.  

Another month gone, just two months left in the year.  It's time to review how well I'm doing on moving a few UFOs to finished and link up with Quilting Gail for the October PHD update.  At this point,  my PHD report isn't very impressive.    

The plan for November is to ...

 We went from the 80's last weekend to the 40's this weekend. Plus it was rainy and windy.  It was perfect sewing room weather. I finally bit the bullet and cut out the setting tringles for Rhododendron, crossing my fingers that I had the correct measurements.  Based on how it's going together I got it right.  

I'm just about halfway done with the construction.  So far, so good.  Bonnie used flying geese in a pieced border. I'm going to do that too, but a little differently than what she did.  I should pull those out ...

Just one more week and October will be over.  That just doesn't seem possible.  Just 2 months left in the year. I'm really not ready for that, so we'll just concentrate on taking it a week at a time, starting with last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 10/17/2023

1. Melodic Mystery: Prep back for quilting ✔

2. Malted Mystery: Continue working on clue 4 ✔

3. Rhododendron: Start assembling blocks into rows ✔

4. Wild & Goosey: Make 3 yellow blocks - progress

5.  Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders project ✔

Four check marks with progress ...

It was a warm weekend here, but I didn't enjoy it much.  My allergies really didn't like the warm up. I'm hoping we get some of the forecast rains sooner rather than later to knock back the pollen. I didn't spend a lot of time in the sewing room this weekend, but enough to make a bit of progress on the UFO next in line for assembly.  

All the blocks for Bonnie Hunter's 2021 mystery quilt along (Rhododendron) were finally finished back in January of this year. They've been sitting in a project box ...

Half of October is already gone.  Taking a week and half for vacation will really speed up time.  It's been 3 weeks since my last to do list post.  About half the last list from September was checked off before I left for vacation.  I've checked off the rest since we got back. 

So far all we've seen from the winter storms this week was some sleet on Monday.  It's just been really cold. But I'll take that over the ice storm that's in the forecast for areas south of us. Grad Girl said that Texas A&M canceled classes for today due to the threat of winter precipitation. Stay safe everyone if you have to get out and about.  

This is my 5th year to participate in Quilting Gail's PHD (Projects Half Done). I've yet to finish my PHD, I doubt I finish it this year ...

It was a good week on the stitching front. No fever for 24 hours as of Sunday morning, so we were able to get mostly back to normal in terms of living arrangements.  Thankfully staying on 2 separate floors seems to have been effective, My Guy never did test positive for Covid. 

Other than the low grade fever, I felt pretty good most of the week and made some good progress on my To Do List. 

Weekly To Do List for 1/10/2023

1. Melodic Mystery: Finish half blocks for Jan clue ✔

2. Chilhowie: Finish first block and clue ...

My plans for the week got derailed, pretty significantly.  I'm feeling much better, but I still have a low grade fever, so that means more quarantining and avoiding My Guy.  Having Covid definitely made it harder to manage my To Do List for last week.