PHD Report for February

Believe it or not, I've made progress but nothing to show for it to speak of ... so far. So many projects underway. It seems I've bitten off A LOT and finding it hard to chew! Lol! I'm sure no quilter has ever felt this way before! 😉 

So what has caused this predicament? I'm blaming it on the The Quilt Show BOM called Afternoon Delight. I am managing to stay pretty caught up with it but with 2 pieced blocks and 4 appliqued blocks per month so far? Whew! Here are my appliqued blocks for February.

The pieced blocks are still in pieces. I should have time to put them together this week. Also this week I should be able to finish this sweet little wool pincushion/pillow. I got the kit in November for ordering the minimum amount during Primitive Gatherings Christmas sale. I never seem to have trouble making that mark! Haha! All that needs to be done is stitch it, fill it, and finish it off. Surely that's doable, right?

I did manage to get the A Very Merry Christmas SAL pieced this past week. It was all set for show 'n' tell at my LQS (O'Sewpersonal). I hope to get it quilted soon so it'll be ready for next Christmas. The project was offered through Quiltmania and, since the designer (Suz'n Quilts) lives locally to me, she turned it into a free-standing pattern and made it a sew-a-long. It turned out good-sized -- 46"x43".

My To Do List for mid-March PHD Report:

1. Pin-baste A Very Merry Christmas SAL
2. Quilt & bind the Little Easter Wallhanging
3. Applique two Afternoon Delight blocks, finish the first four pieced Modified Shoo-fly blocks
4. Piece together Hospital Sketches completed blocks and design/prep applique borders
5. Work on RSC teal blocks plus see about catching up Awesome Land blocks

Hopefully by making this list, I'll feel a bit more accountable. Told you I have a lot on my plate. Nom! Nom! Nom!

I'll be joining Quilting Gail for the linky party and seeing the progress of my fellow PHD-ers!

Have a great week!

Good-bye, Orange! Hello, Teal!?

Happy Leap Day! Today is my husband's niece's TRUE birthday and she is now, since she was born in 1992, 7 birthdays old! Lol! I wonder what day she celebrates her birthday on during regular years -- February 28 or March 1 ....

Orange is officially over today at RSC. There were many lovely additions which you can check out at So Scrappy. I personally loved working with orange. I find it a very cheerful, happy color. Here are my orange blocks for this month playing with the green blocks from January.

I wanted to also make Heartfire blocks for RSC but there were a few setbacks. However, this week I managed to play around and experiment to see how they played. I only made two green blocks, but I'm loving how they look so I'll be playing catch-up with these as time allows.

On a bit of a side note, my grandson has been having a time with cradle cap. It has been very persistent and actually been infected. He was given a topical cream but he had too much hair on his head to penetrate effectively, so ..... time for his first haircut and he's not even nine months old.

Gnawing a broccoli stalk (picture with hair)

1st Haircut

OMG! Cracking me up! Such a sweet little face!

Guess it's time to start digging out my teals and moving forward with Awesome Land & Heartfire blocks!

Happy Leap Day! Do something fun with your Bonus Day today!

Orange I Glad I Went On Retreat!

I already finished my Awesome Land ORANGE blocks (see header photo) so this is not really a very scrap-happy post. However I'll still be linking up this week with Angela and all my scrappy friends because I do want to share what I worked on in the meantime. I'm hoping to make some scraptastic progress on Heartfire blocks this week. We shall see ...

I finished another Afternoon Delight applique block.

Isn't it pretty??!! I really do need to start working on the Modified Shoo-Fly blocks that go with the appliqued ones. I'm supposed to do 2 per month which means I'm currently 4 behind!

This past week was my birthday week and I spent it in a new happy place with old & new friends -- Itch'n To Be Stitch'n Quilt Shop & Retreat Center in Staunton IL! Wonderful place, wonderful sewing buddies!

Mine & Millie's Bedroom

Sewing Space

Handwork/Reading/Chatting Space

We enjoyed watching each other struggle with  happily piece our quilt tops. Here are some of our masterpieces.

While there, I took the time to put together 2 blocks for my friend's group-drive to help out all affected by the fires in Australia. #bushfireblocks

I'll be shooting them out today or Monday to be in time for the March 1st deadline.

This was my main focus at retreat -- getting this monster delight pieced. That blank spot in the upper right corner just needed this last section (below) finished.

See the blank spot on the lower left side? Apparently I was one spool block short with no extra fabric to complete it with me. What's a girl to do? IMPROVISE with what you've got!

Hopefully I'll be able to assemble this 100% this weekend!

So what did you do this week? Finish it off with a great weekend!

Orange is SEW FUN!

I can happily say that I have my 9 orange blocks completed for February's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. These Awesome Land blocks are a lot of fun to sew. I think it's because you can actually see the fabrics I'm using. They're made using 2-1/2" strips and these blocks will finish at 6".

Here's a peek at the nine orange blocks playing with the nine green blocks from last month. Sew much FUN! Having only this project going for 2020 RSC has really lightened up the pressure for me. 




However .... I feel like I should have one more project in the works so I've started on Heartfire by Sew'n Wild Oats. I love hexies so I figured this was right up my alley. I'll be playing catch-up with this one so stay tuned!

I'm linking up with Angela at So Scrappy to share my ORANGE progress. There are lots of other quilters doing their own thing HERE. So much delightful oangeiness! (Is that a word? Lol!)

In the meantime, I finished the first of two socks. I discovered this pattern already printed out but I have no idea when I did it or if I had a specific yarn in mind? The pattern is called Margaritaville ... that may be enough of a reason to knit it up! The yarn I'm using is from Flat Feet. It's apparently dye-ready yarn knitted up by machine. Then it's dyed and I unravel it as I knit with it. You get two identical pieces. This is not the first time I've knitted with this kind of yarn. I've actually got two other pairs already knitted up. Just forgot to take any pictures of the yarn before knitted. I remembered this time though! One sock done and the other just barely started so you could see what it looked like before unraveling and after knitted.

Here's a picture of another pair of socks using Flat Feet yarn. The sock on the right has been blocked and the one on the left has not. I actually wore these socks yesterday!

I love knitting socks!

I also made progress on the block-of-the-month from The Quilt Show. Another appliqued 6-3/4" block done for the pattern Afternoon Delight by Sue Garman. The next block is in the "prep stage".

Wait until you see it ... should be another pretty one!

One last quick picture: I walked the dog Thursday morning around 7am. It was FREEZING COLD here in the Midwest, Illinois to be precise.  4 degrees is very cold but the wind made it colder ... -7! Kept the walk short -- only about 30 minutes and 1.5 miles. BRRRR!!!! 

Hope your Valentine's Day was special. Have a great weekend!

RSC Report & More!

Retreats are always satisfying in getting so much accomplished. However there's not much time to post. Here are my ORANGE blocks so far for the 2020 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. These are easy and fun 6" blocks.

Five down, only four to go.

I'm still working hard to get A Very Merry Christmas finished. Managed to get the 17 required 9-patches stitched up. These measure only 3" square.

Still working on the star blocks for this project. Should get some if not all of them finished off tomorrow.

This retreat is "sleep in your own bed" so last night when I got home I finished off an applique block for Afternoon Delight (6.75").

There's nothing like a baby's belly laugh. Please enjoy this moment with our little Brody being thoroughly entertained by his Daddy. (I hope this works!)

Linking up wth Angela at So Scrappy!

PHD in 2020 - January Progress Report

Well, unfortunately I haven't finished anything yet in 2020 but I have made progress on a few fronts. So that's saying something anyhow. Here's how I did with my PHD projects.

Shark Bite has been assembled. I just need to figure out how I want to go about the borders. Currently measuring at 88"X88". I definitely hope to have this top completed in the next few months.

A Very Merry Christmas is really coming along. I thought I might have this top done by the end of January but it still lingers on. Progress made this month includes all 23 spool blocks. They are various sizes and colors but they are ALL done!

I also started the star blocks for this project too. These tiny flying geese units measure 2"X1.5". The stars will eventually measure up to 3". While I have a total of nine to make, here's a picture of the first three that are essentially ready to be assembled.

So I'm happily progressing on this one. There's another set under my needle and then only five more to go. I believe 9-patches are next, after these star blocks.

I'm also working on a BOM. The pattern is called Afternoon Delight and it was designed by Sue Garmen. It is offered by The Quilt Show. For January we were to  complete 4 applique blocks and two pieced blocks. Here is a picture of my four applique blocks.

Sadly there are no pieced blocks to show off. This is a year-long block-of-the-month project. I hope to stay pretty much caught up with it. I've already downloaded the next four applique blocks for February. These blocks are small, by the way, measuring at a finished size of only 6-3/4".

I just saw that the Dirty Dozen number for February is 1. That would be Scrap Dance Two-Step. Oh my. Not sure if that'll happen by the end of the month but here goes nothing! Lol! I'll be concentrating on Afternoon Delight and A Very Merry Christmas this month. Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Gail at Quilting Gail. Take a peek and be amazed at what we quilters can get done when we set our minds to it!

Scrappy Happiness

Happy Scrappy Saturday! Really just a quickie post as I've already shared my blocks. As a refresher: For January, Angela selected light & bright green for our monthly color. I made my nine blocks for January. The pattern for these is called Awesome Land by Lissa Alexander.

February's color of the month for RSC is orange. I cut out a few select orange strips and they're ready to go. What do you think? I believe I've got a good assortment going on here. The colors are a little off. They're a bit more orangey in real life.

As far as using the pattern Heartfire by Sew'n Wild Oaks for Rainbow Scrappy Challenge, I never got any greens sewn up. When I went on retreat, I was waiting on the hexagon template to arrive. It did but I got caught up in another project.

Check out my post on my PHD progress (coming soon). You'll see that I've got a few irons in the fire, as they say!

Have a great weekend!


Linking up with my friends at SoScrappy for loads of green & orange RSC posts! You won't be disappointed at all the inspiration to be found there!!