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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. 

The plan was to finish one quilt a month starting in September. Due to vacation, I got behind in October.  Even so, I'm still happy to have the Macaron Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs) quilt finished. 

It's a long drive from Southern Texas to Northern Oklahoma.  I got home early evening on Monday.  It was a very nice girl's weekend. But now it's time to catch up on a few things.  I'm behind on blog reading and replying to comments, fingers crossed that catching up isn't that hard to do.  Getting back to the sewing room is on my list for today too.  I have a long to do list for this week. Before getting to that, I should review last week's much shorter list. 

To Do List for 10 ...

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 ...

Happy Halloween!  Our plans for the evening are to hand out candy to the kids who come by.  We used to have a lot of littles in the neighborhood, but like our daughter, many of them have grown up and left for college.  Not sure how many we'll get. It's going to be cold, plus it's a school night.  

Now back to the regularly scheduled To Do List.  There was no linky party post over at The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric last week.  I know that Carol's been really busy with non-quilting commitments ...

The end of September was hectic with vacation preparations, complicated by a three day migraine.  So blogging went out the window for several days.  Vacation preparations got done, but I didn't have the energy to get into the sewing room to get photos for my end of the month post.  Since I've not done anything stitching related for the last couple of weeks, all I have to post is progress on my quilting goals for the year and my PHD progress for September.  I'm linking up with Quilting Jetgirl's 2023 Q3 Check In.  

2023 Ambition #1 ...

It's hard to believe that October is just a few days away.  The end of the year always goes so quickly.  I've got lots of stuff on the calendar over the next few months, so my stitching time is definitely going to drop off.  I've done pretty well at taking advantage of all the stitching time this month.  That is definitely reflected in last week's to do list. 

Hard to believe that more than half of September is in the books.  Looking at what's on my calendar, the end of the year will come really quickly.  Consequently my to do lists are getting longer.  Last week's list was up to six items, which makes it harder to check off the entire list.    

To Do List for 9/12/2023

1. Unity (Helianthus): Make label, binding, finish - progress

2. Macaron Mystery: Prep quilt top for quilting - no progress

3. Scrappy Butterflies: Finish top assembly ✔

4. Malted Mystery: Continue to work on clue 3 ✔

5. Wild and Goosey ...

Where did the last week go?  I worked in my stitching time each day, but it wasn't enough to check off all the items on my to do list. 

To Do List for 9/5/2023

1. Macaron Mystery: Prep back for quilting ✔

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Finish border blocks, finish assembly - progress

3. Wild and Goosey: Make 2 blocks - no progress

4. Malted Mystery: Start on clue 3 ✔

5. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders and enders ✔

Three out of 5, with progress on the 4th to do item isn't a bad week. I didn't get my typical nothing ...

How was your Labor Day holiday?  We kept ours really low key this year.  I spent a lot of the weekend in my sewing room. Consequently I did really well on checking off all the items on last week's to do list. 

To Do List for 8/29/2023

1. Macaron Mystery: Continue piecing backing ✔

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Continue making border blocks, start assembly ✔

3. Wild & Goosey: Make 2 aqua blocks ✔

4. Chilhowie: Continue as leaders/enders project ✔

My goal is to make progress on my projects, so the items on my to do list are mostly just "keep ...

I'm really not ready for it to be September.  The last four months of the year seem to speed by, I guess because we've got the holidays at the end of them.  Even though I'm not ready for the new month, I am happy with all the progress in August. So though I have no finishes to show off for the PHD in 2023 challenge, I can link up over at Quilting Gail's and not feel too badly this month.

Still no new finishes, but also no new starts.  So there ...

I'm really not ready for August to be over, though I'm ready to loose the hot 100 plus temps we've had the last few weeks. Thankfully, we got a bit of a cool down this weekend and I was able to enjoy a much cooler sewing room the last couple of days.  That helped a lot with getting all the items on last week's to do list checked off. 

To Do List for 8/22/2023

1. Macaron Mystery: Start assembling backing ✔

2. Scrappy Butterflies: Continue making alternate blocks ✔

3. Wild and Goosey: Make 2 yellow ...

We've had the hottest temps of the year this week.  The heat index yesterday was 120 F.  My Guy was going to go ride, but that's too warm even for him.  I've mostly been hanging out in the sewing room. It's been so warm the upstairs air conditioner is having problems keeping up, we've raised the thermostat a bit so it's not running constantly.  Which means the sewing room has been a bit warm, but with the ceiling fan on it's still inhabitable. Consequently I made good progress on last week's to ...

It was really warm this weekend. Plus the late rains this year have produced a bumper crop of ragweed, so my sinuses have not been happy.  Definitely time to stay in and stitch. It's been a good week on that front, a couple of projects hit major milestones.  Melodic Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs 2022 mystery quilt) is now a finished quilt top.

The colors aren't really true in the photo, the pinks are much brighter and so is the green used in the sashing and borders.  I'm happy with my color choices for this one and pleased ...

I'm struggling a bit to think clearly.  Benadryl does wonders for allergies, but it also creates a lot of brain fog.  I think the cats, Grad Girls and my mom's, finally got to me yesterday.  Actually it's probably mostly due to my mom's cat.  He decided to sleep next to my head Tuesday night. Grad Girl and I drove back down to my mother's on Tuesday because it would cut 2.5 hours off GG's trip back to college and I needed to pick up some things that wouldn't fit in the car ...

Just 31 days left in 2022.  I'm really not ready for that. On the other hand, this year hasn't been so great on a number of fronts, so I'm looking forward to the new year in hopes it's a lot better.  Since it is a new month, it's time to summarize my progress on earning my PHD and share over at Quilting Gail's.  It's not a stellar report, but there has been some progress on all the active projects.  

No new finishes, but one new start. The clues for both mystery quilts won ...

It was a quiet weekend. Which is nice as this week will be busy with plans and prep for the Thanksgiving holiday.  As I was sorting through what to post for the Monday Design Wall and Patchwork and Quilts linky parties, I realized that my sewing room efforts the last few months have been dedicated to finishing up old mysteries or starting new mysteries.  A couple of weeks ago, the 2021 Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt became a finished quilt top.  I thought I was going to need to buy backing fabric, but I found something in the stash that ...

We are halfway through November. The weather has turned cold, so you'd think I'd be able to wrap my head around the fact that Thanksgiving is next week and December starts the week after that.  I'm definitely not ready to contemplate Christmas, so I'm going to avoid and think about stitching stuff like last week's To Do List. 

To Do List for Week of 11/8/2022 

1. Unity: Prep backing for quilting ✔

2. Macaron Mystery: Find backing fabric ✔

3. Melodic Mystery: Work on clues 2 and 3 ✔

4. Rhododendron Mystery: Work on blocks as ...

We've mostly survived time change, though we forgot to reset the alarm clock in the bedroom before we went to bed and My Guy got up a bit earlier then he needed to Sunday morning.  I spent a solid afternoon in the sewing room for the first time in months. My sewing mojo isn't completely back on track, but it's slowly improving.  

Macaron Mystery: 2021 Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt along

 

 I've not written a PHD post in four months because there really wasn't anything to post about.  There was pretty much no stitching from June till the end of August. Over the last month or so, I've finished a couple of new projects and made a bit of progress on my 2022 UFO list.  My report is not stellar, but it could certainly be worse. 

I finished two of three new starts. That's probably my biggest achievement from the last few months.  

Grad Girl asked me to make pillows from two of her embroidery projects.