And so PHD2022 Begins

Another year, another list of UFOs. Wish me luck! Ha! In  case you don't know what a UFO is in "quilt-ese", it is any quilt that has been started and has yet to be completed. I'll be joining Quilting Gail again with a list of my 12 UFOs which I hope will strive to complete this year. You may notice that a few of them are repeats from 2021. Unfortunately I did not complete my PHD (Projects Half Done) last year so some of them made the list again for 2022.

Each month, Quilting Gail will be hosting a Linky Party for all PHD 2022 Challenge participants to share their progress and root each other on. If you care to join in or have any questions about this challenge, you can find ALL the details at her link HERE. 

Here's a peek at the twelve projects I hope to finish this year.

2020 Twisted Mystery
Lots of blocks made with more to go.
Final assembly as yet to be determined.

Another 12 Days of Christmas
First block almost done with 11 to go!
Offered by Susan @ SuznQuilts

Autumn Jubilee 2021
Top completed; needs to be quilted
Offered by Carole @ My Carolina Home

Cactus Flower
Pattern by Judy Niemeyer

Calla Lily
All blocks & borders completed except pillow top.
My oldest UFO.

Gardenhurst
One block done and the second barely started
Pattern by Irene Blanck

Guild 2021-22 BOM
Six blocks done with three (?) to go.

 

Heartfire
Many blocks done, many more to go?
Pattern by Lynn @ Sew'n Wild Oaks Quilting Blog

Irish CourthouseH
27 blocks completed, many (?) more to go
Pattern by Bonnie Hunter @ Quiltville's Quips & Snips

Maple Leaf
Top completed. Needs to be quilted.
Pattern by Norma Whaley @ Timeless Traditions

String X
Blocks are done. Needs borders & quilting.
Free pattern from Bonnie Hunter @ Quiltville's Quips & Snips

Xmas Placemats
Partially assembled.

And there you have it! Of course I've already got big plans with a couple of SALs (Uptown with Sentimental Stitches and 2022 Twisted Mystery) and playing along with RSC2022. I noticed that I missed RSC Red Month for Heartfire and I want to do a string border for String X.

Thanks for reading along this far and I hope to share progress with you on these UFOs all through 2022. Here's to a new year with a new PHD list! Thanks again to Quilt Gail for organizing us and hosting the Linky parties.

October is HERE!!!

Hello to all my quilty friends and welcome to Fall. The leaves have started falling and we've got a storm on the horizon. That means plenty of warm, sticky breezes blowing the leaves off the trees. I was just up on the roof this morning blowing out the gutters in preparation. But enough of that, let's talk quilts!

I managed to finish up all the orange Irish Courthouse Steps and was thinking I was done with RSC September Orange.

All of a sudden it dawned on me that I hadn't done an orange Lotus block. When I looked in my pile of those blocks, I saw that not only was there not a September orange block, there wasn't a turquoise/aqua Lotus block either! Oh brother! Where was my head???

Last night was Friday Night with Friends. I joined Cheryll at Gone Stitchin' and other quilty friends virtually for the fun. First up -- find a nice square of aqua, another one of orange, and two background squares. Then I took them to my starching table to dry overnight. I'll be attacking those sometime this weekend. If I was smart, I would have also starched up an extra background square and a light, bright green for the RSC color for October. Guess I'll do that later this week while I also look for candidates for the October Irish Courthouse blocks.

So what did I work on after I played in the starch? I finished the last three Falling Star blocks for Twisted 2020. I shared all of them HERE yesterday if you need to take a peek as a reminder. Then I pulled out all the pieces for the Star Power of Twisted 2020. Because it's scrappy, I had to sort the block parts to at least try for no repeats when I sew the blocks together. Here's the pile for the 1st eight blocks ready to be sewn.

Here are the remaining unorganized parts. Apparently they will make slightly different Star Power blocks. There is a total of 13 Star Power blocks.

When I finished that, I had to break from my sewing space because not only was the Cardinals baseball game on but the season opener for Magnum P.I. and Blue Bloods was starting up. Could I just sit and watch? Of course not! I pulled out the Afternoon Delight applique block that I had been working on a month ago. I made it around the third heart-shaped corner and more!

Only the bottom right-hand heart to go and then the center, inner circle.

Did you get a chance to visit Carole at My Carolina Home yet? She's running her annual Autumn Jubilee again this year. Click on the button on my right sidebar to check it out. I'm very excited and have done a little fabric pull in anticipation of the table topper. I picked most of these up at Rosemary's Fabrics & Quilts the other day at her garage sale. Perfect timing to find these!

What are your plans this weekend? Whatever you choose to do, I hope it's a good time! I'll be linking up and exploring the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters to see all the green goodness over at Super Scrappy.

Got Some Orange Done!

This week I managed to get all three of my Irish Courthouse Step blocks done and they are so pretty, even though each is so different.

Yellow-orange with a pretty floral

Halloween-esque!

Who says you can't mix dots & stripes?!?!

See what I mean? Even the shades of orange are different and that last one? A bit wild, eh?

I also grabbed the remnants of Sew Spooky and squared up a couple of HSTs. There were leftover candy corn triangles that got sewn into semi-circles. Now what? Hahaha! They were going to be my table topper for Joy's Table Scraps Challenge but, as usual, my "process" takes so much longer than most.

I finished the knitted mittens and will share pictures of them after blocking. I love them! So with those done, I cast on a pair of socks. Look! Orange!

That's all I've got for this week. Orange you glad I didn't make more? Hahaha! C'mon, man, everyone's (over?) using that joke this month! Hahaha!

Linking up with my friend Angela and the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters HERE,

Have a great final week of September!

Friday Night with Friends & Rainbow Scraps

Our lovely hostess Wendy gathered us together for our monthly sew-in. We meet virtually every 3rd Saturday of the month and it's so much fun to see what everyone has been busy doing. Last night I worked on Irish Courthouse Steps, a pattern from Bonnie Hunter. I caught myself up on the last turquoise/aqua block. It's pretty blah in appearance but, wherever there's a party, there's bound to be a shrinking violet, right?

Using the above as leaders & enders, I worked on the 2021 Twisted project which is hosted by my friend LindaLee. I now have all ten of these blocks worked up. I'm really enjoying the Studio 180 rulers for this project.

Earlier this week I worked on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. September is orange, the perfect excuse for finishing up BOO. On Thursday's post I told how I found this really cool fabric on the Free Table at guild and knew it was perfect for BOO. This week I pieced the back, quilted, and bound BOO. Check out ALL THAT ORANGE!!!

A look at the front!

A look at the back!

Those owls just kill me!!! The striped fabric used to stretch the owls and also used for the sleeve were remnants from Sew Spooky top that I finished up earlier this year. The binding was a scrap that was earlier used for the "B" in BOO. If you like this easy, peasy pattern, you can pick it up at Susan Marth's website HERE. Her patterns are wonderful!

Earlier in the week I finished up the dark blue Irish Courthouse Steps. Finally caught up to ORANGE!

So I started an orange one. Here it is under the needle. So pretty!

And here are the other two waiting in the wings.

And because I have my hat in a lot of rings, here's the start of last month's BOM with my guild.

This week I plan on starting the quilting on this project. It's due at next month's 2021 UFO Challenge through my LQS. After quilting it, I'll turn it into a pillow. I plan on making a zippered back. If you know me at all, you know I'm shaking just at that thought!

I think I'll be busy for a while. How about you? Have a great week doing whatever you have planned!

Linking up with Wendy at Sugarlane Designs and Angela at Super Scrappy!

Not Much Orange Here Yet

It's starting to feel a bit like Fall here in the St. Louis area and that makes me very happy! We've enjoyed the last couple of walks in the mid-50s with highs in the low 80s. LOVE IT! There's a certain smell in the air that says summer is winding down although we're going to have a very warm weekend (think mid-90s!). Ugh! On my walk this morning I noticed there were leaves starting to fall and acorns crunching under my shoes. All good signs in my opinion. Even the sun this morning didn't look like it much wanted to light my way this morning.

On this 11th day of September we remember the tragic events in PA, NYC, and DC. What an awful day etched in most of our memories that day twenty years ago. But long before 2001, September 11th was a wonderful day -- my Dad's birthday! I think I'll make a chocolate cream pie in his honor. He loved it with a graham cracker crust and whipped cream. Many wonderful memories come to my mind when I think of him. ❤

As for us Rainbow Scrappers, Angela has chosen orange for the month. Even Polly was getting into the color last night. Ha!

Yesterday I finished up my aqua/turquoise Irish Courthouse Steps block. Turquoise was August's color.

Did you notice where I had to improvise when I mis-cut one of the fabrics and couldn't find any more in the scrap bin? YIKES!

I really haven't had a chance to think about orange yet since getting back from our trip to Cleveland to celebrate my friend's recent retirement. However, I was reminded on a fellow blogger's post that I never finished up my BOO mini wall hanging. I think it's about time to do that and to also pull out the scrap bin for some orange Irish Courthouse Steps blocks, don't you?

Have a great weekend!

I'm linking up with Angela at SuperScrappy to share my not-so-orange post and to see what the others are making. Join us!

Last Call for RSC Turquoise/Teal

This is the last Saturday of the month and that means in a few days turquoise/teal will come to an end for us RSCers. I like the color but don't have a lot of scraps to prove it. I did manage a couple of blocks this month though.

One Lotus Blossom block

One Irish Courthouse Steps Block

I do have two more Irish Courthouse Steps blocks cut and ready to sew this weekend.

Pretty turquoise cutter between them!

I have really been concentrating this month on moving my Twisted 2020 and Twisted 2021 projects forward. No pictures at this point as there are really only a lot of parts working towards blocks. Soon enough I'll share.

Linking up with Angela at So Scrappy. I'll head over there myself over the weekend to see what my friends have accomplished with their teal/turquoise scraps as well!

RSC Aqua

Let me start by saying I had a wonderful time at retreat this week. I'm looking forward to the October one and hope that we'll be able to get together then. While at retreat, I squeezed out an aqua block. I used the opportunity to make it my leader & ender. The others were quite impressed with my L & E. I even got another one started but I'll save that another time.

I cut out enough pieces to make 5+ of these complete blocks. I say "plus" because I've got enough of some of the pieces to make 8 but only had a chance to sew together these two. Scrappy but no aqua.

These blocks use the Corner Beam ruler from Deb Tucker & Studio 180 Design. It is a WONDERFUL ruler and I'm looking forward to using it more in the future.

I got about half the binding sewn down for my Positivity quilt which has now been completed. Needs a  washing and a photo shoot which will take place today hopefully.

While at retreat I also worked on a little applique. I got the top half done on this block.

There was also a little stash enhancement done while I was away but some much needed rest, eating, and (most of all) laughter & chatting with friends. I hadn't been on this retreat for about 4 years. Maybe even longer than that so there was a lot of catching up to do with friends that I hadn't seen in that long!

I'm already looking forward to next retreat but I'll sign off for now. Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Angela at Sew Scrappy to see how other RSC quilters have progressed this week.

Last RSC & WOOFA

This being the last Saturday of July, I'm sure Angela, our fearless RSC leader, will be announcing our color for August. According to my fellow RSC bloggers, it will either be orange or turquoise. I'm good with either of those colors and will be happy with either choice!

Just did a check on the Lotus blocks. Oops! Didn't make a dark blue version so the design floor looks this for the time being.

The Irish Courthouse Steps still need one more dark blue block. Guess I'll do that one at the same time as the  Lotus Flower block. I think these are looking pretty good so far.

As for the July WOOFA (Working On Or Finishing A ....), I was going to really get a move on the Mini Wool Christmas project. It needed to be quilted & bound & labeled. I managed to get it pin basted and quilted. The binding has been chosen and is being prepared. Here's the project as it stands right now.

Wasn't that the perfect backing fabric? This was a really fun project from two years ago, I believe. At that time, my friend Katie & I decided to (sort of) make it together. We would push each other to the finish. I think she still has the borders to embroider and then piece the whole thing together. We decided it wasn't a race but we each wanted to be done by this December. Mine was on my 2021 UFO Challenge List with my LQS. It's due August 10th for show 'n' tell. I've got this!

I also wanted to give a good push to the applique blocks left on Afternoon Delight. There are a total of 40 blocks I think and I was getting down to the last 10 or so, maybe 12? I actually did make good progress this month. This block went from this ...

to this!

I then went on to finish these.

I'm currently working on this one.

And I finished my socks last night!

What a good month I've had. Now if only I had BOTH my machines to sew on. The one I named Roger is still in the shop. Sure hope I hear some good news next week!

Linking up for Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela HERE and with Cheryll and my fellow WOOFA quilters HERE!