End of Month PHD Report

Here we are at the end of March, beginning of April. It is time to see how I'm doing with my PHD (Projects Half Done). Here's what I had planned to get done and actually DID get done:

What do I hope to accomplish by the end of the month?

• 6 more Heartfire blocks - Managed to get all the Teal blocks done for March and made a stab at getting some orange ones done for January
  
  
  
  
• Complete three Afternoon Delight applique blocks - One done, one half done. This means I only got 2.5 blocks done of the 4 for this month. I also managed to piece a bunch of patches in order to get ready for a few Modified Shoo-fly blocks.
  
  
• Piece five more  Awesome Land blocks - Got 4 more done for a total of 8, but ran out of teal fabric for the final 9th block.
  
• Get at least two, hopefully four, applique borders for Hospital Sketches - Not only did I get all four sides of the applique borders finished, but I've also got the backing fabric picked out and ready to iron!
  
  
  
  

Overall not too bad. I'm thrilled with the progress on Hospital Sketches and Heartfire but I'll need to be playing catch-up with the others. Let's not forgot that I did have a finish this month too. This cute little Easter Wall Hanging.

What will I focus on in April? Surely I'll make a dent in this list!

• 9 Awesome Land blocks in the RSC April color.
• Baste, quilt, bind, and label Hospital Sketches. In other words, get it to the finish line!
• 7 Heartfire blocks in the RSC April color.
• Finish the 2 applique Afternoon Delight blocks and maybe start the next 4.
• Piece 4 Modified Shoo-Fly blocks for Afternoon Delight

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a bit of a somber note, my son & DIL had to say good-bye to their trusty bull terrier Rocky. He was suffering more & more each week from an auto-immune disease and they couldn't bear to see him ail any longer. Here's the most recent picture we have of beloved Rocky with my mother from our last trip to Maryland in October. R.I.P. dear Rocky.

Let's cheer things up, OK? How about a sweet picture of our Brody-Boy! Look how much fun he's having driving his car! Lol!

He's such a big boy and we can't wait to see him. Just as soon as the COVID-19 quarantine lifts and Grandpa Fred is right again. This kidney cancer surgery has really knocked him for a loop!

See you mid-April for the next PHD report. I'm linking up with Quilting Gail to share my accomplishments and see what the others have been up to this late March!

Final Teal/Aqua/Turquoise RSC Report

Wednesday is April 1 and on that day or before, Angela will announce the new color for Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I just love working with a specified color all month but I will admit I'm ready for the new one. Here's what I managed to get done in March. First up are the Heartfire blocks. You can order the pattern from Lynn Wilder of Sew'n Wild Oaks HERE if you would like to make this pattern too. She has such very clear instructions that even I am having no troubles! Lol! Here are my blocks for this month.

Just so you know, that row of green on the bottom right hexie is actually a teal with yellow polka dots. Photographed green! So I thought I'd see how these look with the first ones I made, which were from the RSC Green Month in February. I only made two because I was checking to see how easy (or not) these blocks would be to make.

Playing nicely together! I forgot to mention that the partial block up in the top left corner was also an experiment. The edge blocks will end up getting chopped in half anyway and, since I need 63 center motifs to make this quilt as large as I want and I only have 60 full-sized motifs, I thought I'd play with 1/2 blocks. You know -- those extra motifs along the edges of the fabric. My first one was a failure.

I was thinking that since there are six sides to the hexie, all I would need would be three sides. Hmmmm..... not quite there. So I made experiment #2.

Ta! Da! Success!! That ought to work just fine! I believe I'm three full motifs short so there will be three of these halvsies! I'm OK with that!! Things are moving along perfectly with these so I thought I'd play a little catch-up with orange blocks from January RSC. I will make seven full-sized ones of these because I love orange and have plenty of orange fabric to use. Here's my start.

Alright, on to my Awesome Land blocks. Just when I thought I was finished, I realized I was one short. I thought I had my 9 for this month but I counted (and recounted twice!) and still only 8.

Aren't they pretty? Well, only 8 would never do so off I went to see if I could find a 2-1/2" x 12" piece of teal in the stash. Hmmmm .... nope! Eight will have to do for this month and I'll do 10 next month. That is, if I can find enough of whatever RSC April color will be!

The "children" approved! Lol! Next I wondered what all the Awesome Land blocks would look like together.

I'm very much liking this so far and will be linking up with Angela at So Scrappy later today! So much to see at all the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge blogs!

Hubby is still not doing as well as we expected at this point. It's been a week since his surgery and he continues to spike a fever periodically (we're to report to ER if it tops 101.3, which it hasn't quite yet) and he still has quite a bit of pain. Last night we managed to get him out of his recliner at bedtime and upstairs to a bed. I hope he slept better because that may make all the difference. Maybe then he'll be able to enjoy the Get Well package our daughter sent. I got a box of Bridge Mix and hubby got a box of chocolate-covered Nutter Butters! If you want to send candy to someone or to yourself, Wockenfuss Candies out of Baltimore, Maryland is a fabulous source. The variety and quality are amazingly delicious!

Signing off. Have a fantastic weekend and go wash your hands!

FNSI and RSC Report & Hubby's Surgery

RSC is going rather well. I'd say teal seems to agree with me!

This Awesome Land block came out from under the needle last week and I particularly like the way the b&w packground plays with everything in this block. Another block was also completed as a leader & ender but I failed to get a picture.

I also finished another three teal Heartfire blocks but apparently didn't get around to snapping a picture of them either. That brings my total teal Heartfire blocks to six. Only three more to go for my 9-block-goal! I promise more pictures for next week's So Scrappy link. In the meantime, visit Angela and see some really amazing teal/turquoise creations here!

I'm trying very hard to concentrate on Hospital Sketches. I really want this one finished before April 28th which is the next meeting for UFO Club at my LQS. Of course, we may have to meet virtually if COVID is still lurking. Anyway I got the bias made and glued down the entwining vines.

I made a start on the applique of the vines at home Thursday but I really got a lot done yesterday at the hospital while waiting on hubby's surgery. I'm linking up with Wendy at Sugatlane Designs for Friday Night Sew-In yesterday! A lot of these girls are from Australia so, even though I was sewing all day yesterDAY, I was actually sewing with them Friday NIGHT down under! Be sure to stop by and see their amazing creations ... usually lots of handwork ad tons of inspiration!

As far as Hospital Sketches goes, I'm thinking some appliqued motifs in the corners and I'm not too sure about the three links per side ... maybe leave as is and quilt a motif in them? Maybe an applique dot? Heart? Suggestions welcomed. Wish I'd taken a better picture ...

My husband had surgery yesterday to remove a mass from his right kidney. It went the full (and perhaps a tad longer) than the estimated 3-5 hours. There were a couple hurdles for the doctors to overcome but when I left late last night, DH was in his room waiting for Xray results and waiting for more pain medicine. While the surgery was performed with robotics, apparently this isn't an easy surgery. I hope he was able to get some rest last night. He's going to need it because the plan when I left last night was to have him up & walking this morning. Oh boy!

RSC & PHD

Check out that title. It sounds like someone doesn't know her alphabet. I better not sing that to my sweet Brody! Lol!

Look who has teeth!

RSC  March color is teal, just like Brody's shirt! I managed one pretty Awesome Land block. There's another one under my needle but it's not out & pressed yet.

Last night I managed to sew three Heartfire blocks. I don't think they look too bad!

I'm trying to vary the lights, mediums, & darks so the rings aren't always in the same order. I'll need to work on that for the next grouping. You can see that I have plenty of strips left to play with in the upper right-hand corner.

I'll be linking up with Angela at So Scrappy. There's a lot of Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters willing to share what they're working on in teal this month. Go check it out!

As for my PHD, I have a finish to report. Yay! First of the year! Just in time for Easter which will be here in a short while. Quilted, bound, and labeled!

Already hanging

A close-up

Complete with label!

One Project Half Done has made it to the finish line. (Patting myself on the back!) I'll be linking up tomorrow with Quilting Gail to report my PHD progress. What do I hope to accomplish by the end of the month?

• 6 more Heartfire blocks
• Complete three Afternoon Delight applique blocks
• Piece five more  Awesome Land blocks
• Get at least two, hopefully four, applique borders for Hospital Sketches.

I think that will be enough. I may have bit off more than I could chew last report. Here's how that went:

My To Do List for mid-March PHD Report:

1. Pin-baste A Very Merry Christmas SAL - Didn't happen
2. Quilt & bind the Little Easter Wallhanging - Yay! 100% finished!!
3. Applique two Afternoon Delight blocks, finish the first four pieced Modified Shoo-fly blocks - One Afternoon Delight block appliqued. Finished the 4 Shoo-Fly blocks
4. Piece together Hospital Sketches completed blocks and design/prep applique borders - Blocks are pieced together with sashing and a whole lot of bias stems were prepped
5. Work on RSC teal blocks plus see about catching up Awesome Land blocks - 2 Teal Awesome Land blocks pieced and 3 Heartfire blocks pieced

Not bad progress but could use a little improvement! Lol!

On other fronts around my world, this was sunrise off my deck yesterday morning. So pretty!

Later that morning, by about a half hour, Gracie & I enjoyed this scenery. I repeat - So pretty!

And, if you made it this far, you won't be surprised to learn that besides still trying to keep up with Afternoon Delight on The Quilt Show ...

I jumped on board with Fat Quarter Shop's Sew-a-Long called Bloomtopia.

Twice a month they release the next bit to cross stitch. These are February's releases. I only need to complete March 1 release because tomorrow comes the March 15 release. This wraps up in July and is FREE. However, Kimberly at FQS requests a donation to her charity of choice for this year which happens to be Make A Wish. She matches whatever her crafters donate. If you don't like cross-stitch, you can jump on board her quilt project of the same name.

Today we'll be eating Corned Beef & Cabbage with potatoes and carrots in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. I plan on making Irish Soda Bread too! And, because today is 3/14, I hope to make a Strawberry Pie. Happy Pi Day!

Have a great week!

Mock Mola & Celtic Design Classes - Alice Ridge!

Tuesday night at my monthly guild meeting we had a wonderful woman share her experiences and collected textiles from trips and military assignments from all over the world. I would absolutely recommend to any guild to bring her in for her Trip Around the World lecture. We were lucky enough to also have her teach a couple of classes Wednesday which I was fortunate to attend. Let me share with you some photos from the workshops today with Alice Ridge.

The morning class was Mock Molas. Alice shared SO MANY samples and I wish I'd taken more pictures. This is a quilt she made with several "mock mola" flower motifs.

 I loved the way she couched some fluffy yarn around the edges of the flowers.

The decorative stitching really made the designs come to life.

 Loved the elephant and the gorgeous echo stitching. Notice that chain stitching outlining the ear?

Another pretty quilt using the leaf pattern. I really liked the organic, striped background fabric too!

Here are some of our works in progress.

 Don't you love that colorful fabric behind the fish?

 Here is another floral motif but these colors just feel "Hawaiian", don't you think?

This snowflake was a booger to cut out but Jean persevered and has already made her thread choice ... a white thread with a metallic twist. Going to be gorgeous!

After a brief lunch break, we started a second class. This one was Celtic Designs and once again Alice shared lots of samples. And once again I should have taken more pictures ....

Here's a bright and colorful dragon. Loads of twists and knotty turns.

 Such concentration on this Celtic heart.

 Another rendition of a Celtic Heart. Isn't that background stunning??!!

 Here's a Peacock getting threads matched to the tail feathers.

And another Peacock in the works. I loved the colors of this one!

Here's a look at my projects.

I loved the elephant so that was what I chose. See that cut on the right hand side? I was supposed to cut the back fabric and erroneously started cutting the front. Oops! Alice, may I have another kit? Class, let this be a lesson to you ... this is what NOT to do.

Take #2 went much better. I did all the outline stitching to secure and will cut the flannel on the back. The next step is the decorative stitching and that will be fun. We were allowed to choose one large varigated ball of floss or five small cards of floss. I picked a really cool card of black/dk gray/lt gray bulky floss and 4 shades of purple floss. Should work up nicely. Class was over.

Celtic class went much better for me. I chose the dragon and, in retrospect, it was probably one of the hardest designs due to many tight knots. I even managed to start some of the stitching to hold it all down permanently. The decorative stitching on the face, neck, and tail will come next.

All in all it was a fabulous time with Alice, both for her lecture and then the following classes. I hope we get to see her again! If your guild would like to bring her in and/or you're interested in looking at her other projects, visit her website at Alice Ridge Quilts.

Have a great finish to your week!

Scrappy Teal!

I must confess I didn't do a whole lot with teal/turquoise this week because I had another project to work on. However, I used my Awesome Land blocks as leaders & enders and managed to squeak out these lovelies! I'll be sharing them with Angela at So Scrappy where all us RSC-ers will be meeting and sharing our teal blocks.

I have a few more blocks cut and ready to go under the needle for later too! See them?

What was I working on? My LQS (O'Sewpersonal) picked #5 for the UFO to work on over the next 2 months. My #5 is Hospital Sketches. This week I trimmed the prepared blocks to size and laid them out. I did this so I had a reference to sew them together without getting them mixed up.

Next I cut the sashing strips and sewed this top together. This is when I sewed the two Awesome Blocks, using them as leaders & enders.

I need to sew the final borders on and finish the applique that I have in mind. There will be vines and I've got bias strips ready to sew together! See that pile??!! Vines in the making!

Have a great weekend!