July PHD Report

I'll make this short & sweet ... hopefully. What did I hope to accomplish by month end?

To-Do List for June

1. Get that Kyoto to the finish line!!! - Finished in time for Show 'n' Share at my LQS via Zoom. This counts on my PHD list!

2. Get Pooh finished too! - Top is completed. Count that as a win too! Started this QAL with Quilting Gail in June.

3. Cross Patriotic Wall Hanging from my list! - Finished except for stitching down the binding & hanging sleeve and writing on the label. This is the project I found when I was reorganizing my upstairs sewing space due to the baker's rack I snagged. You can read about it HERE.

All in all, I think I did pretty good reaching my June goals. Just a couple loose ends and then I'm done. So what will I hope to do for July?

1. Quilt, bind, & label Winnie the Pooh

2. Finish Patriotic Wall Hanging 100%

3. Get Star in a Star top assembled. This quilt is due at my LQS on August 25th. It finishes as a queen-sized quilt. For credit at the shop, it will also have to be quilted, labeled, and bound. Definitely a big job for July & August. Currently, 5 of the nine 24" blocks are assembled and the top & side borders are complete. What's left? Assemble the final 4 blocks and finish the 4 border cornerstones. They are hand appliqued Celtic knots. Sounds like a hospital project to me!

4. Quilt, label, & bind Hope.

5. A little more progress on Eva Grace would be nice too!

Thanks to Quilting Gail for keeping us accountable with our PHDs. I'll be linking up with the others and cheering my fellow PHDers on!

Final RSC Saturday in June

As I'm sure you already know, Angela picked pink for our Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month. Last post I said that I was short one pink Awesome Land block. Dopey me! Forgot it was finished yet still under my needle so all nine have been accounted for. Too bad I can't say the same for the aqua and the light blue ones. I think I'll just make a few extra ones in a different color. I think I've got enough blue variations for this project already. To keep me honest, here's a picture of all nine pink Awesome Land blocks.

I also have 4 of 7 Heartfire hexies/blocks done. The last three only have the outer ring to go so they'll be done by June 30, I'm sure. I'm wondering what July's color will be ....

What really took up all my time was getting Kyoto across the finish line. It was due for a UFO Challenge at my local quilt shop this past Tuesday, June 23rd. Finished it up the night before and got the label done that morning. The pattern was created by Jinny Beyer and this was a 2018 BOM. I bought the fabric kit from Jinny so I could learn how to use stripes better.

Here are a couple pictures of the finished quilt, its label, and pieced backing showing some of the quilting. I love using the fabric design on the front as my quilting motif. That's what I did for the outer border. I quilted Kyoto on my domestic home sewing machine.

This quilt finished at 58" x 64". It's rather large, too large for a wall hanging, not sure about using it for a lap quilt. It was a lot of work since it was hand-pieced. I might lay it across my dining room table .... Hmmmm. We'll have to see.

Of course, the UFO meeting was held on Zoom. Nice to "see" the ladies again and catch up a little with them. At the end, our fearless leader (Cindy) chose the next number. I'll be working on Star in a Star in a Star which was a Twisted Mystery quilt that I worked on through my guild. Most of it is done, only the four cornerstones to make. Then I'll need to sew it all together and then get it quilted. It will take a while as it is a queen-sized quilt. When I locate all the pieces, fabrics, and directions, I'll let you know the exact size! Due date is August 25th but I don't want to wait until August 24th to start working on it! Hahaha!

I've also been busy with the Winnie the Pooh sew-a-long. I posted pictures of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet HERE, HERE, and HERE.Yesterday I finished Eeyore.

This afternoon I sewed the flimsy together.

Awfully cute, isn't it? Need to get it sandwiched & quilted. It's pretty good-sized too at 46" square. Nice size for a baby quilt.

Two more blocks appliqued for Afternoon Delight.

All in all, I'd say it was a very good week. Now let's get this weekend rolling! I'll be linking up with Angela on Saturday.

May Final PHD Report

My PHD goals did not materialize 100% as planned but I didn't do too bad. Lately I've been extra busy taking care of DH. This partial nephrectomy of his has wreaked havoc on the entire house. Seems like if I'm not emptying & measuring output, I'm changing bandages and/or doing extra laundry due to leakage. Anyway, enough of that. Let's get to the report.

Here were my goals:

My To-Do List for the end of May:

1. Find Kyoto and make it lie flat. I remember putting it away and not being 100% happy with the finished top. ✅ Found if after quite a bit of digging around. It lies mostly flat now.

Here's where Kyoto's progress went south-ish. I thought the top was done or just about. You know, like maybe needs final border. Turns out I had one strip of the 1st border attached with two more borders (a total of THREE borders) to be added. Might not sound like a lot but this is a hand-pieced project!

How far did I get? I am sewing the final half of the final side of the final border. Finally! Ha! I will most certainly post a picture when done with the top. This is a very large wallhanging -- 58 1/2" X 64 1/2"! Looks like I have about 30" left then!

2. Start thinking about how I want to quilt it. ✅ I can say I started thinking about it, but truly no plan finalized.

3. Select a backing fabric and baste Kyoto. NOPE

4. Make the binding and the quilt label. NOPE

5. Finish Hope Quilt. ✅ I can honestly say that the top has been completed. This one is actually mostly pin-basted too. Ran out of pins so ordered more for curb-side pick-up from JoAnn's on Thursday afternoon. My order is still processing! Really?

So what kept me busy besides Kyoto? Well, there was Hope, a new project started in May. I have it pin-basted (mostly) and have a quilting plan ... as soon as I can "conveniently" pick-up more pins.

I also discovered a new Patriotic Wall Hanging that I want done. The final borders are waiting to be sewn down. Then will come the quilting. It's pretty good-sized too at 26" X 42".

Sounds like I'm looking forward to three finishes next month -- Kyoto, Hope, Patriotic Wall Hanging. We shall see, won't we?

My To-Do List for Mid-June:

1. Finalize quilting plan for Kyoto.
2. Select a backing fabric and pin-baste Kyoto.
3. Make the binding and the quilt label for Kyoto.
4. Quilt, bind, & label Hope.
5. Finish, quilt, bind, & label Patriotic Wall Hanging.

I was going to add more, but I think my plate is full!

See you mid-June! Thank you, Quilting Gail, for trying your darnedest to keep us on track! I'll be posting to the Linky Party HERE and catching up on everyone else's progress too!

Last of the RSC Green Saturdays

This is it! Last Saturday of May which means it is last Saturday post for dark greens. We're all wondering what color Angela will select for June. Many are hoping for a warm color and here and there I hear someone looking for purple. Hmmmmm ...... Well, anyway, here's what I've been working on. If you'd like to see what others have done, you can find it all HERE. Angela hosts a wonderful Linky party!

Earlier this week someone from my neighborhood posted she had a free baker's rack if you want to pick it up at her address. There was a post underneath saying the baker's rack had moved but it didn't fit so it was now located at her house with a new address. A couple of hours had passed but there were no further posts. I decided to see if it was still by the curb. Hot diggity! There it was! So I loaded it up and drove home.

It was obvious this baker's rack used to live in a kitchen because there was a bit of an issue of grease build-up but nothing 409 & elbow grease couldn't handle. I cleaned it up and it now resides in my upstairs sewing space. It even holds my small TV just fine!

Sooooo, in the process of moving the bins to the baker's rack, I found an unexpected UFO I  had started last year with the intention of having it completed for this summer. I was making it patriotic and had gotten as far as the red & white 9-patch cornerstones & border. All the fabric choices were there as well as the pattern. As I looked at what I had already sewn, I remembered I wasn't thrilled with my sewing. The flying geese units had points cut off because I didn't have my Deb Tucker geese trimmer at the time. Oh well, I decided to jump back in because, in the famous words of someone, "Better done than perfect!" So that's what I did  although it's not quite done yet! There are six 9-patches in the bin above it that will get attached to the ends with some spacers and then a final border.

Sheesh! From here you can't even see that the star points aren't that great! So glad I'm getting this one done. The pattern is called Looks Like a Gameboard from Country Threads.

While sewing Gameboard, I of course used Awesome Land blocks for leaders & enders. Got four more done which makes 6 for the month. There are two more cut out and ready for sewing and the month is not quite over yet! *wink*

I made fabulous progress on Kyoto. Last week I was working on border #2, the dark blue. I finished that and am close to done with the final border. All that's left are the two long sides of border #3, another stripe fabric. I've started one of the sides with the rest of it pinned.

I did manage to finish the last applique block of April for Afternoon Delight. Pretty sure I won't get the four May blocks done before June 1st! Ha! I love the purples in this block. I won a package of scraps from Jan Patek and these were in there!

That just leaves Bloomtopia, the cross-stitch project from Fat Quarter Shop. I got the little bird on a branch finished up last night while waiting for the Tater Tots to cook. Wonder what the next section will be!?!

To keep you up-to-date on hubby's health, we went to the doctor's this week. The output numbers have improved significantly lately so we're giving that kidney 2 more weeks to shape up or it'll be forcibly shipped out! Lol! Anyway, we're keeping our fingers crossed that this is a positive trend and he gets to keep the remaining portion of his right kidney. Time will tell and prayers are appreciated!

Have a great weekend! Now go wash your hands AGAIN!

Just a Few More

I've got just a couple more Dark Green Awesome Land blocks to show you today. I am certainly loving using them as leaders & enders for whatever else it is that I'm sewing! Dark greens was the color Angela selected for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge's color for May.

At my side, ever ready lay these parts. The large white squares have been sewn corner-to-corner both ways and will make 8 HSTs at one time. Love this method!

So you may be wondering what have they been leaders & enders for? I finished the Hope quilt top with a small border. Then I pieced the back. I found this really fun fabric stashed away by Deb Strain from Moda. It says "Hive Rules Bee Kind", "Beelieve in Yourself", "Bee Respectful" ..... you get the idea and can probably read for yourself. Lol!

The problem was, I didn't have quite enough so I pieced in some remnants of the Hope fabrics that I used and sewed it down the middle for the back. That ought to do it! Hopefully my measurements were correct since I screwed up the border that was going to be borders. I even graphed it out and still managed to mess up. But that's OK, it's plenty big as is.

The main priority lately has been Kyoto. This needs to be finished, which includes quilted, by June 23rd, I believe. I thought all I had to do was sew on a border and then get it quilted but nope! It has three borders to sew on. I finished the first border and have the top & bottom sewn on of border #2. It probably doesn't sound like much but it is 100% hand-pieced and that will include the borders. I love doing it though but it takes a little more time.

The dark blue at the top is border #2 and the striped below it is border #1. I have to fold it up carefully and tightly due to a certain little pussycat that likes to chew on any loose strings! Bad kitty! Lol!

That's been my sewing week. I'll leave with a picture of one of my gardens that I finished up this week. I'm hoping it will be a cool place to visit when the heat of summer finally arrives.

Have a good week! Now go wash your refrigerator & freezer door handles!



Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy HERE to see what the other scrappers are doing!

Mid-May PHD Report

I just updated my PHD spreadsheet. I have completed two of my 2020 projects so far with only 11 to go! Oh brother! But I do understand "baby steps" so I will just have to be happy with that. I should be working on Kyoto for another PHD finish. It would also be a finish  for the UFO Challenge at my LQS. It is due to be shown at the end of next month. I really need to get on that one. First step would be to locate it from somewhere in the many basement piles!

My updated PHD spreadsheet now includes the four quilts I've started at the beginning of the year. Two are Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts (Awesome Land & Heartfire), The Quilt Show Block-of-the-Month (Afternoon Delight), and on May 3rd I started GE Design's Quarantine Quilt-A-Long (Hope) with my sister. The first three projects have kept me very busy this year as they have monthly goals that I feel compelled to keep up with as best as possible.

All the Hope blocks have been sewn and the quilt is webbed. Right now I'm joining the rows into a top. Here's a picture of how it looks this morning.

I don't have any pictures of finished quilts today but I can share with you a picture of another finished applique block for Afternoon Delight.

My To-Do List for the end of May:

1. Find Kyoto and make it lie flat. I remember putting it away and not being 100% happy with the finished top.

2. Start thinking about how I want to quilt it.

3. Select a backing fabric and baste Kyoto.

4. Make the binding and the quilt label.

5. Finish Hope Quilt.

These may not seem to be lofty goals but it will be enough for me. I'll be linking up with Quilting Gail HERE.

See you June 1st!

Over the Blues and On to the Dark Greens PLUS a Finish and a Start!

Angela at Super Scrappy has picked DARK GREEN as the color for May. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge provides so much inspiration to dig into that stash and see what you can come up with. I'm sure I have plenty of dark greens to keep me busy this month!

As for last month's blocks, I finished Heartfire blocks in light, bright blues. Here are the last two. I didn't get a picture of all seven but they are done.

If you recall from last post, I had an Awesome Land block under my needle. Finished it and now have another under the needle.

I still have two more "kits" cut out and they with the one on the sewing machine will make seven of the nine blocks for this month. This picture includes the parts available of the block in progress plus the two kits ready to go.

I may just call it quits on the light, bright blues and move on to the dark greens this month. Whichever way I decide to go, I'll be using the scrappy Awesome Land blocks as leaders & enders for my next project which I'm very excited about ...

The other day my sister told me that Gudrun Erla from GEDesigns was having a 2nd Quarantine Quilt-a-Long. The pattern we will be using is called Hope and will be held as an all-day sew-day on May 3rd. Linda wanted to know if I'd be interested and she, who lives in Texas, and I, who live in Illinois, would sew-a-long with Gudrun, who lives in Minnesota. Of course I said YES!!!

There are so many fun things about this sew-a-long, besides sewing with my sister obviously.

• Gudrun will have a Hope Playlist ready to go at 9am CDT, available on Spotify.
• Gudrun will give tips for quilt construction every two hours live on Facebook & YouTube. They will be at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, and finally 5pm -- the Ta!Da! moment!
• Gudrun will be having four guests also sewing the Hope pattern and sharing their thoughts and upcoming ideas and whatever. The guest list includes Pat Sloan, Nancy Jewell, Doug Leko, AND LISSA ALEXANDER!! Lissa is the author of the book "Oh Scrap" that I got the Awesome Land blocks from!!!! Super exciting for me!!!

The pattern is available for a small donation of $2, $5, or $10. All proceeds are being divided among three of Gudrun's local charities. She's about to hit $30,000 raised! She truly is a superstar!!!

If you'd like to join in, just go HERE to download the pattern. Hope only requires 10" squares and 2-1/2" strips. If you have a layer cake just laying around, that would be a fabulous start. You can use yardage too, of course. Dig into that scrap bin and join us on Sunday, May 3rd!

In other news, I have a finish to share. It has been added to my PHD spreadsheet and it also satisfied the April UFO Challenge project at my Local Quilt Shop. We will be working on #3 for the next couple of months. That's to finish up Kyoto .... finally! The LQS did our show 'n' share on Zoom this past week. I must say I almost failed because, in my haste and misunderstanding as an old lady, I turned off the video because I thought it meant Zoom would video the session and I told Zoom to "not ask me again". Well, turns out you have to have the video turned on to be seen! Who knew??!!?? So I missed about the first 20 minutes of the meeting trying to figure out how to actually turn that video back on. On my! What a dope!

Anyway, this is called Hospital Sketches and Barbara Brackman offered it last year on her blog called Civil War Quilts and you can still find the block patterns there.

If you went to the block posts, you will see that this is my own rendition. I knew I could not keep up with the very intricate larger blocks but, since I'd already completed the first one, I wasn't going to toss it out! I moved on from there and made the smaller versions that she called Sprouts. The border was inspired by Irene Blanck. She frequently uses an entwining design which I love.

We've had a lot of rain this past week. Overnight we got 1-1/2" as seen on my awesome rain gauge. This was a Christmas present from my awesome daughter!

 A cold and rainy day inspired me to turn some leftover chicken & gravy into a home-made pot pie. I used puff pastry and it was delicious! DH loved it and ate a very good portion.

April showers brought May flowers! This clematis is a very early-bloomer and I just LOVE the color!

For those of you wondering about my hubby's health, he still has all three tubes in place. We empty the two drain bags 3-4 times a day, measure the output, and he records the numbers for the doctor. I flush his kidney drain twice daily. It's quite the process and we've got it down pretty good. We've only had a couple of mishaps and but there was obviously a learning curve. I'm fixing him three meals a day which he eats pretty good. Slowly he's gaining some strength back but it is definitely still a work in progress. Maybe I should add him to my UFO list! Ha! Thank you from both of us for all your thoughts & prayers!!!

Have a great weekend! Now go wash your hands!

Getting My PHD in 2020

Yes, that's right! I hope to be earning my PHD this year. Not a scholarly type but cleaning out my Projects Half Done! Gail over at QuiltingGail will be organizing it and I look forward to finishing up a few (that's a laugh -- lots of!!!) projects started. You can also do this by linking up here.

Starting with #1: My Snowman Quilt, a lap-sized kit I bought from Hickory Stick, Hannibal MO, on a Kinderhook retreat. I finished piecing this at a Todd Hall retreat years ago. It needs to be backed, quilted, and finished off.

#2: Scrap Dance 2-Step. This was a fun mystery quilt-a-long with My Carolina Home a few years ago (2017). I wanted to make it a bit bigger and had a GRAND idea to piece a migrating geese border. Got it organized then proceeded to chicken out. I truly want to work this border, then get it backed quilted, and finished off.

#3: Star In a Star. This was the Twisted Sisters Quilt from     . This is so close to finished, it really isn't funny. Sew the ginormous blocks together and sew up the four cornerstones. Final assembly, back it, quilt it, and bind it. Do it!

#4: Sew Spooky BOM. I started this project with my BFF Vickie. I had been visiting her and we went to a quilt shop - surprise! surprise! We both fell in love with an amazing Halloween BOM, signed up, and kept up mostly. We did a lot of motivating on each other's parts too. I kind of forget how she was doing her blocks, but I chose to put in some wool applique. I love the blocks I completed so it is now time to git 'er done!

#5: Blowin' in the Wind. How many times has this been on my UFO list? OMG! Way too many times and it still sits. It started as a mystery quilt-a-long with my local quilt shop, Rosemary's Fabrics. I love this top but I really need to finish this one up! After all, I made it for my own bed!!!

#6: Hugs & Kisses, aka Riptide. This quilt has been on my UFO list in the past and never got to the finish line. This year!!!!

#7: A Very Merry Christmas to You. Started this QAL with Suzn Quilts. Got caught up with the holidays, followed by my guild's quilt show, blah, blah, blah. Would love to finish this one up.

#8: Easter Wall Hanging. This one is so "done" that it is already pin-basted and ready to be quilted & bound. This ought to be an easy finish .... as soon as I find it again! UGH!

#9: Eva Grace. I really need to get going on this one. It was designed by Irene Blanck from Australia and I started it in October 2018 when Irene visited my TAS group. It is applique so it'll be a longer work-in-progress.

#10: Kyoto. This was a yet another mystery quilt-a-long. This time with Jinny Beyer's blog and it is hand-pieced. I worked REALLY HARD to get this one done for the 2019 UFO Challenge at another local quilt shop, OSew Personal. Got to the borders so I really should be able to finish this one off this year.

#11: Shark Bite. This one started off as a Leader & Ender project with Bonnie Hunter that ended up morphing with a quilt I saw on the cover of a magazine. Fred named it one day when I was laying it out to see what it was shaping up to look like.

#12: Tiny Tuesday. This was Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2019. So fun to put together. I've got ideas for finishing this one up. Let's move it!

#13: Hospital Sketches. Another quilt-a-long, only this time with Barbara Brackman's Civil War blog. Need to sew the blocks together, back it, quilt it, and finish it up.

There are several more that I'd like to add but I think a lucky 13 number of projects will be enough to set for my 2020 goals. Maybe I'll have these finished early and can add a few more finishes. Right, Sue, dream on!

In the meantime, I'll be thinking long & hard about what projects I'd like to do for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2020! I also need to update my blog page. Happy New Year!!