What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Happy All Saints Day or if you are of Hispanic heritage, Happy Day of the Dead. How can it be November already?  Just 8 weeks till 2023?  No I'm not ready, at all!   

Life was very crazy yesterday and I just didn't have a chance to post my To Do list for this week. Thankfully things have calmed down significantly today, so I'm hoping to get this post drafted.  Last week went pretty well. 

We've hit the windy part of autumn here in Oklahoma, so it was definitely a good weekend to just stay in and sew.  I contemplated cleaning up the sewing room a bit, it needs to be decluttered badly, but sitting at the sewing machine was really what I needed.   

Pinning and stitching borders always takes longer than you think it should. I only managed to get two of the next border strips attached.  This quilt is too big for the design wall, so I had to utilize the design floor to get a progress picture. 

Macaron Mystery: Meadow ...

Stitching time was a bit limited last week, but luckily the To Do List was pretty easy. 

Last week was busy, between Mom's birthday party and Grad Girl's visit.  Grad Girl has to head back to Texas this morning, but we had a chance to just hang out together yesterday.  All the family activities cut into my stitching time, but I still made progress on the To Do List. 

To Do List for 10/3/2022

1. Finish the last 2 grocery sacks ✔

2. Start on Melodic Mystery - progress

3. Continue assembling backing for Unity ✔

Two out of three with progress on the third is still a good week. The goal is progress and that ...

The schedule has been mostly back to normal the last week. There have been a couple of late nights, not all because of my schedule. Even so, I've had a lot more time in the sewing room the last week than I was getting in April and May. That positively impacts the progress on the To Do List. 

To Do List for 5/31/2022

• Unity: Press backing fabric, decide how to assemble - progress
• Macaron Mystery: Start on first border ✔
• Rhododendron: Make hourglass blocks as leaders and enders ✔

My work/life balance has been anything but balanced the last couple of months. Hopefully balance will be restored after yesterday.  I turned in the last review summary for the never ending project yesterday at 7 PM.  So hopefully that means I'll have more time for stitching in June.  I've been playing along with Quilting Gail's PHD program for 2022, but didn't have an opportunity to post in April. Here's where my projects stand as of the end of May. 

It was nice to have a three day weekend, it just went really fast.  I was able to spend most of Monday afternoon in the sewing room. It was nice.  My last To Do List was posted two weeks ago, so I've had ample time to make some progress on it.  

To Do List for 5/17/2022

• Macaron Mystery: Continue assembling rows ✔
• Rhododendron Mystery: Make hourglass blocks as leaders and enders  ✔

It's been a slow down and rest kind of weekend. I definitely needed it. This is the first weekend in over a month that I've not had to drag out the work computer and look at data.  I was under the weather on Saturday, all the stress and late nights at the computer finally caught up with me, so I  slept most of Saturday afternoon. The sewing room was calling my name by Sunday afternoon. It was nice to get to spend a few hours playing on the sewing machine.  

My work schedule is starting to return to normal, thankfully.  I've had more time in the sewing room the last week.  The work project took another two weeks to complete. I didn't know that was going to be the case when I posted my last To Do List.  

Life has been busy. It's tax season, plus my special project at work has really picked up and I ended up working most of the weekend.  While that helped with the work to do list, the stitching to do list suffered. 

Weekly To Do List for 4/5/2022

• Unity: Find backing fabric, press, cut panels - progress
• Macaron Mystery: Start assembling blocks into rows ✔
• Rhododendron Mystery: Work on clue 5, hourglass blocks as leaders and enders ✔

I've been keeping my To Do Lists simple and short recently.  That seems to be working well for me, just enough items to keep me on track and not so much that I feel frustrated when my week goes wonky and my sewing time disappears.  Last week was a good week in the sewing room.  

The first quarter of 2022 is done.  That was fast, or at least it seemed that way.  I'm definitely ready for spring.  Mother Nature ended March with a pre-April Fool's Day prank. We had snow flurries yesterday!  I had to drag my winter coat out of the closet.  It really felt more like January than it did the day before April 1st.

There's been no new finishes this month, so my PHD report looks the same ...

This is my 115th (ish) weekly To Do List. I'm not a list person, or at least I didn't think I was. What started off as an experiment over 2 years ago has become just how I organize my sewing week. Have I finished more projects? Probably not, but I feel more productive. That has to count for something, right? 

Monday's after almost a week out of the office are always hard.  It's too bad that Friday is so far away this week. It's only Tuesday, but that means it's time to look back at last week's To Do List and make a list for this week.  

To Do Tuesday for 3/15/2022

• Potions: Package and send out for quilting ✔ 
• Unity: Finish last pieced border, attach, start next border - progress
• Macaron Mystery: Work on blocks ✔
• Rhododendron: Make hourglass blocks as leaders/enders ✔

Thankfully the last week has been much calmer. My Guy is healing well. His neck still bothers him quite a bit, but the lacerations on his face have healed and the swelling has mostly gone down.  He's going back to work today.  I'm off this week (except for Thursday). The Scientist in Training is home this week for Spring Break. She's been my partner in the sewing room the last few days. We've both made a lot of progress on our projects the last couple of days.  My To Do List for last week is all ...

Last week was one of the least fun weeks I've had in a long time.  Two people in my group announced they are leaving due to spouse relocations. We are under a hiring freeze right now, so you can see where that's going.   If you read my Sunday post you know My Guy had a nasty bicycle accident Saturday morning. He's doing OK, but boy does he look beat up.  He was released from the hospital late Sunday afternoon, but we were back at the doctor's office yesterday since he developed a fever overnight. He will ...

I'm glad to see the back end of February, but my hope for a smoother March has pretty much been dashed. Work is going to be interesting this month.  Hopefully I'll still be able to work in lots of sanity stitching time, I'm going to need it.  

February has apparently become the whiplash month for weather.  The high yesterday was in the 70's, today we won't hit 40 F. Tomorrow we have a winter weather advisory the runs into Thursday.  I'm ready for spring already! 

Valentine's Day was pretty low key.  We treated ourselves to a fancy take out dinner. It was really good.  Unfortunately the glass of wine I had with dinner made it hard to do much in the sewing room, I'm such a light weight on that front. Consequently I was in bed pretty early last night.  It's a good thing that the last item on last week's to do list was checked off over the weekend.