Midweek Progress

Good morning and happy hump day! I’m so excited that I got one of my May UFO goals done, and the month isn’t even halfway over. The pinwheel quilt is quilted and bound! 

This had been a long-term UFO, and now it’s completely done. I like it well enough that I’m thinking about entering it in the 2025 quilt show. Of course, that means I will have to add a hanging sleeve to the back which I detest doing, so we will see.

More good news—Julie picked up her tee shirt quilt, and she liked it a lot. That one took me a lot longer than it should have, but she was very nice about it. And now, the floor where I photograph the quilts is empty again. 

I cut out a few more of the APQ BOM’s, and I’ll take pictures when I get them sewn. I also added two more borders on the church raffle quilt, so that’s progress. 

I am open to suggestions on what other borders I can add that would look good without being too overwhelming. 

We raffled this one off Sunday for our Mothers Day raffle. 

We made $895 on ticket sales, which will be used for our WELCA projects, most likely shipping of quilts and school supplies. The money we made is worth the time we put into it. 

I hope all the moms had a good Mother’s Day on Sunday. All the moms were given a pink rose at church.

Other than that, it was not a good day. It’s okay; I survived. Whoever thought up this holiday was probably crazy. Just my opinion. 

May Goals

The number for May is 

I have four lists: Tops to Finish Piecing, New Projects to Try, Quilts to be Quilted, and New Quilts to Start. 

I haven’t been 100% successful with these UFO’s and goals. I did finish piecing the Logging On quilt last month

and, I got the twister tote done (I think that was a February goal). I haven’t been able to get anything of mine on the quilting frame as there has been a steady stream of customer quilts to work on. I need to find a way to get caught up on customer work and try to get some of my own stuff done. I am currently working on a huge tee-shirt quilt, but I am nearing the finish line……I hope. 

Another goal was to get more steps in each day. My goal is 5K, which for me is about 6500 steps. I started Wednesday.

Thursday:

And, Friday:

I’m not hitting 6500 every time I walk, but it’s pretty close. On Friday, I walked with Ruthie, and she likes to stop and sniff a lot. She also tires out quicker than the other two. The weather is getting warmer, and I am ready for a shower each time I get back to the house. 

Another Table Runner

I am hooked on the Ice Jam table runner pattern. I made another one from a Corey Yoder charm pack called Buttercup and Slate. 

It was after dark when I took the picture, so there was no natural light from the sky lights or the windows. It’s hard to capture the color in artificial lighting. Sometimes a closeup picture shows it better. 

I need to take a little time and get my recent runners quilted and bound. The quilting machine has been busy with customer quilts all week. I got this one done for Marian.

And, a graduation quilt finished for Candace.

I think I will soon be caught up on customer stuff, and then I can work on some of my quilts. I also need to finish at least one or two for the church auction. I have until October to get that done, but time tends to sneak up on me, so sooner is better than later. 

We hosted Bunco at church Monday night, and that was a lot of fun.

I think we had about 60 people, so it was a good turn out. Other than that, I haven’t been doing too much. I was thinking about the 5K a day in May challenge which I did in 2020 or 2021. Maybe I should challenge myself to get moving this May. I know I have had no energy since I had Covid last year. I can’t seem to overcome the lethargy. 

A Busy Week

I haven’t posted anything here in a week, but I’ve been super busy with a variety of things. I had a goal for last weekend to get the logging on quilt finished piecing. I think it was my January goal from one of my UFO lists. I was able to finish it Sunday.

I wanted a piano key border, but I didn’t have enough strips left of the pioneer woman fabric, so I came up with a way to make it work. I think now I would rather have the strips on the top left and bottom right corners, but I’m not changing it. Now to get it quilted. 

On Monday and Wednesday, I got a couple of customer quilts finished. Quilted and bound.

Kathryn had her senior prom last weekend. She wore the dress my daughter wore to her junior prom.

I can’t believe it was long enough, but surprisingly, I didn’t have to do any alterations. This may be the first year I didn’t have to make modifications. We have been looking for a picture of Julia in the dress, but we haven’t been able to find one. ☹️

On Tuesday, I worked at church with my sewing group. We only worked until noon, and for the life of me, I can’t remember what I did in the afternoon. It may have been yard work. There was one day that I got all my weed and feed put down and watered in.

Wednesday evening, I cooked tacos at the church.

I also made charro beans, Kim made Mexican street corn, and Mary made homemade bean dip. A lot of people brought desserts. It was our last Lenten meal. Next week is Holy Week, and we don’t do a meal then. The Easter season is a beautiful time in the church calendar, and I really do enjoy it. 

Thursday I took a friend to Sugarland for a medical procedure, and that was an all-day affair. I was so tired when I got home, and I was still tired on Friday, so not much got done. I did go to the International Festival at the university on Friday evening. My mom went with me and we met some friends there. 

They had a nice variety of food. I can’t remember what all I had, but there was a rice dish from Africa, a bean salad from Peru ((really good), egg noodles with mushroom gravy from Germany, empanadas from Spain, and some kind of little fried rice balls from India. I can’t remember the name of them, but they were served with a cilantro sauce.

I couldn’t get a picture of the food without holding up the line. 

There was a pretty good turnout, I thought.

You can go to each individual station and learn more about the country. The countries correspond to the international students who are attending UHV. These handsome boys are from Mexico.

There were also some performances. These girls, I think, were from one of the South American countries. 

And, this was a mixed group from India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. 

I made a small video of them dancing, but I can’t get it to load. Sorry about that. 

So, it’s been a busy week for me. I have tried to keep up with laundry and housework, but I have failed on both counts. There’s a load in the washer while I’m working on this post. I will get up in a minute and move it to the dryer. I’m hoping I can finish vacuuming today and get the floors mopped. That’s my main goal.

UFO’s and Other Stuff

The weather has been warmer, and it made my soccer watching much more pleasant. Our girls lost again, but they did play much better. 

We had a good turnout for the game. I also had lunch with Roger last week. 

He’s eating carrots. LOL. They were having book fair on the same day, and I offered to buy him some books, but he decided he didn’t have need any at this time. I think he was anxious to get to the playground. 

This is the picture from last year:

And here is Kathryn 12 years ago at the same school during the same week.

If it wasn’t for the grandkids and church, I wouldn’t have much of a social life.

I finally got all my UFO lists made. I made one for quilting, on for tops to finish, one for projects I want to try, and one for new quilts I want to make. Yeah, it’s a little too ambitious, but I will see what happens. 

There are only 9 items on the “New Quilts to Piece” list, but that’s okay. I’m not going to be able to finish all of this anyway. 

The January number was 2 and I did get my Day One quilt finished from the “Quilts to be Quilted” list.

On the other lists, I started the Twister Tote, and the Logging In Quilt is pieced, but I’m still working on the border. I’m going to try and finish it before I move on to the next thing. The Red Rock quilt is mostly pieced; it needs the outer border, which won’t take long. 

I had kind of given up on the “To-Do List Tuesdays”, but I might have to start doing it again to keep myself on track. I have so much I want to do, and I have a tendency to start more than I can finish. I’ve been that way all my life.

Yesterday, I decided I was tired of eating my own cooking, so I went to Tres Estados and got the ribeye and shrimp dinner.

Oh my, it was good, and it was a lot. A ribeye, four shrimp, rice, charro beans, guacamole, and tortillas for $15.99. That’s a lot of food for that price. It was more than I could eat, and I brought the leftovers home. I sewed a little when I got home, but I was too full to be super productive.

August UFO's

The July UFO still needs the binding stitched down....slowly, but surely, I am making progress on that one. In the meantime, the number for August has been drawn, and it is 12.

I have one list for quilting unquilted tops, and one list for piecing (tops started and not finished). Number 12 for quilting is Bohemia. I had to go look on the UFO shelf and try to remember which one is Bohemia. I found it:

It's been on the shelf for a few years--I'll have to steam it to get all the wrinkles out of it. I'm anxious to get it done though.

The number twelve goal for piecing is "Charity Quilt". That will work out pretty well since I need to finish up on the baby quilt I've been working on.

I'm hoping to get this one done this weekend. I have a couple of customer quilts to bind after the quilting is done, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to work on my own stuff. 

May UFO's

The May number for the American Patchwork and Quilting UFO challenge was drawn over the weekend.

I'm confused--or maybe I was confused last month. Number 8 on my quilting list is the Flutterby quilt, and I did that one last month.

Here is the quilt; binding and all:

April should have been number 4 which was the Hanging Gardens quilt. No worries, I'll do that one for May. I was a little undecided on a backing, but I have a few weeks to think it over and come up with something.

My number 8 for piecing is a String Star.

I started a string star quilt about 20 years ago, and occasionally when I am looking for something, I run across random pieces to it. I remember I drafted the 8-point star myself on notebook paper and stitched the strips to it. Here is the problem.....this is all I can find at the moment:

I really, really, really want to finish this one. I know there are more pieces, but I don't know where. I think I will see if I have any of the templates left, and if so, I may try to piece a few more blocks. If I find the missing ones that's fine, and if I don't, it's fine too. 

In the meantime, I never did finish my April piecing goal (Curvy Log Cabin), so I may just continue with that for May.