Stories from the Sewing Room

It's time to officially report in on my October progress for this year's PHD program. 

Linking with Ms. P Designs' PHD program.

Unfortunately, not much has changed since last month. I have not made any additional progress on items 4, 6, 8, or 10 on my UFO list. I was sick for the first half of October and stayed out of the sewing room for a week as a result.

I have made a very small amount of progress on #11, the race car quilt. I have laid out the remaining blocks and started piecing them. It doesn't show well in my picture, but the blocks in the top set are joined into rows.

You'll notice that I added one more UFO to my list, #14, the knitted baby blanket. I've been working on this in the evenings since I haven't gotten any quilting done recently. I knew this project was old, but I wasn't sure how old. I looked back through my past finishes to see when I finished the baby quilt that I ended up making instead and found that it's from 2017! High time to get it done! I'm part way through the eighth repeat. I think there are 13 total repeats to knit, so I'm a little past half way. I only have one more skein left, so I'm wondering how that's going to work out. 

I am the world's slowest knitter, so it's probably not likely I'll get this done this year, but a girl can dream.

Meanwhile, I have added another project to the 2025 Starts column (though I added it November 1). I need to get this project completely done this month. I have everything cut. 

I have made a small amount of progress on #6 on the starts, the Magnificent Mystery. This one doesn't even count for PHD because the clues don't finish until 2026, but I am trying to keep it from becoming yet another long-term UFO. I have completed 1.5 of the sewing steps so far: the Irish Chain units are done and I have made all the half-square triangles required for the hourglass blocks. The next clue releases tomorrow.

I'm feeling bad that I probably won't earn the PHD this year. At least I have completed eight things that weren't done before. 

Meanwhile, I'm keeping plenty busy working. 

I stitched Champagne bubbles on Hannah's quilt.

I also bound her quilt.

   

I stitched Ring Toss on this quilt of Hannah's.

And bound it. I have one more of her quilts from last week to bind.

    

I stitched Jungle Party with Flowers on Jeri's quilt. I will bind this one.

I stitched Doing Doughnuts on Jeri's next quilt and will bind this one too.

I stitched a very tiny scale Van Gogh on Cynthia's Starry Night quilt using 60 wt thread.

I have lots more quilts and bindings to go, plus I need to pattern match the seams in a backing. 😬 I do not think I can charge enough money for that.

Out in the garden, we harvested our pumpkins on Halloween. We gave one to one of the kids in our neighborhood and had these three to set on our porch. 

We had maybe 30 kids come to our door for Halloween. Many more went by, but did not walk up our driveway to our house.

The remaining pumpkin had some bugs, so the chickens got it for a treat.

We also picked all the peas and the two remaining tomatoes that didn't have bugs. This harvest of peas was significantly more than we got from our spring crop.

Other than that, things are much quieter this week than they were last week (so far). Mom's back home, no one has stayed home sick, and my husband has avoided furlough for another week or two. I'm a little frustrated that my steamer (which I use on all the quilt backings) isn't working. I cut my inner wrist when things fell out of the cabinet I was digging in while trying to find the steamer brochure. It looks great. 🙄 I also managed to cut my thumb with a fork while reaching into the dishwasher. It required bandaging. My husband enjoyed making jokes about being "forked". My skin is definitely paying the price for all the stress I've been under lately. 

I asked my husband to fill the bird feeders (haven't done that since last winter, I think?). I hadn't seen a lot of birds around lately, but there's lots now that there's food. Nothing too exotic, however, there have been quite a few goldfinches. That was nice. They've been rather scarce in the past few years. I'm not sure whether that's due to habitat loss or issues during migration. I should also note that the juncos have been back for several weeks and they are typically only in my yard in the winter even though their range shows they should be here all year.