It’s been two weeks since my last post and I’ve been busy working through the projects that I had going at the beginning of the month.

1. Christmas Star Swap – quilted and needs to be bound
2. Squedge 18 degree table runner – needs to be quilted.
3. Community Quilt – quilted and delivered, so not pictured
4. Auction Quilt – quilted and delivered, so not pictured
5. Postage Stamp Leader/Ender – dormant, but I’ve added 1 1/2″ squares to the basket
6. Pink, Green, & Purple Quilted Sweatshirt- no progress
7. Sheet to make body pillowcase – no progress
8. Fairy Frost Sunset pillowcase – done
9. Christmas Star Swap pillowcase – no progress
10. HST for Rivanna – nearly 2 batches stitched (that’s 120 HSTs!) I have another 120 ready to go.
11. Kimberly from Stripology 3 – squares cut and ready for class
12. Tara from Stripology 3 – ready to trim and bind
13. Crystal from Stripology 3 – cut out and first column assembled

Here’s where I started from:

Take note of the fabric in the bottom left corner of this picture. All that is left is this:

After I get the 3 quilts bound, I think I’ll have enough to make a pillowcase. As for the rest of the fabric, I haven’t decided if it will go in the stash or if I’ll squeeze one more project out of it.

I finished Chilhowie over the weekend. Chilhowie was the 2022-2023 Quiltville Mystery Quilt.  This year there were 7 clues.  I kept up with the piecing through Clue 6, but when the assembly instructions came out in Clue 7 I needed to circle back to make 4 additional blocks. As I was pushing to finish the log cabin quilt, Chilhowie got set aside.

I found a backing in my stash that was perfect for this quilt.

• Started:  11/25/22
• Finished : 3/19/23
• E2E: Fresco Feathers, resized to 16″ with an offset of -4.5
• Glide 40 wt in Strawberry Blond – 3 bobbins
• Legacy 80/20 batting
• Washed Size: 73 3/4 x 90 1/4

I spent this past week in San Antonio Texas as the 3rd generation of our family joined the Air Force Reserves.  This photo of my brother, sister-in-law and nephew was taken immediately following the graduation ceremony.  This was day 2.

This was the first day — the Airman’s Run.  It was cold and blustery — for San Antonio.  The run was the first time families got a glimpse of their loved ones after 7 1/2 weeks of BMT – Basic Military Training.  I will admit this view made me emotional. My nephew is in the 2nd flight.

After the run, there was a break as the Airmen got cleaned up for the Coin Ceremony. It marked the end of their basic training.

Everyone was given a Town Pass so we went into town for lunch at one of the eateries at the Pearl.  It’s a collection of eateries and and shops in the old Pearl Brewery. We ate at the Boiler House Texas Grill & Wine Garden then had desert at Lick Honest Ice Creams.  Both were excellent. Afterwards we headed back to the Airbnb we were staying at to visit more with David.

The next morning was the Graduation Parade.  Another blustery day.  But both days were sunny.  David is the 2nd from the right in the 2nd rank.  This is at the end of the parade right before they were dismissed.

The President’s Challenge this year is for us to make a name tag.  This is mine.

The cream ribbon will be used to attach little bows that we’ll get for each show-n-tell project. We’ll also get one if we demo a ruler, or are the meeting speaker.

But since I’m in multiple guilds, I have made extra labels.  They are held on by Velcro.

I also added a pocket!  When I was in Starlight Quilters Guild, we had raffle tickets that I had to keep up with during the meeting and we were handed our ribbon bows as we approached the stage for show n tell.   This would have been handy.

This was my old name tag.  I can’t wait to start adding ribbons to my new one.

Quilters love their acronyms – BOM, DSM, FQ, HST, LQS, WIP, PIG, UFO, but today’s focus is PIG – Project in Grocery Sack.

The only reason I’m looking at this is because I day 3 of the Final Countdown was to “Take a project inventory and devise a plan“. Given that I already have a comprehensive list of my UFOs and Tops to Be Quilted – with a plan to finish at least 12 of them by early December, I decided to focus on my PIGs.

When I first started this blog I divided my UFOs into 2 lists since the thought of having in excess of 125 UFOs was mind boggling.  I’m happy to say that 15 years later, the combined list is down to 52 with less than a dozen from the original list. At the time I think I had 4 kits.  However, my kits and PIGs have exploded in the last 4 or 5 years.

So, a philosophical question is a curated collection of fabric, purchased to use together to make a quilt but without a specific pattern in mind a PIG?

What about partial bundles, such as a pattern and focus fabric, or a panel with an idea, but the rest of the fabric hasn’t been pulled or purchased?

With the count over 50, perhaps I need to divide the list in two. Projects I have everything for – kits/pigs, and project missing a pattern or fabric – WHIMMs.

My quilting mind wanders.  I setup the 2nd two cutting/pressing stations Saturday night. The space is still not finished and the boxes are not correctly labeled – not to mention stuff got shoved into them when packing last year. (Can you believe it.  I signed the mortgage papers on this house just over a year ago)

Anyway, buy Monday night the space looked like this.  How did I get there. Come along on a ride.

My SIL asked me if I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby since this week the fabric is on sale.  Of course.

I need more fabric for this table topper for  Halloween.  I’m hosting Bunco in October and need something to protect my wood tables.

My pink and brown quilt needs a label and I don’t want to use bright white.

It’s been suggested that we wear costumes when we get together for Bunco in October so I need to figure that out.  I briefly thought about Minnie Mouse when I saw a 1″ white dot on red fabric, but if the costume doesn’t get made I’m not sure how to use the fabric.  So I’m going to do Belle in her blue dress and apron.  There are 3 reasons for this option.  1 – if I don’t get the costume made, I can use the fabric in a quilt, 2 – I can use the costume to test fit my pattern for a ‘real’ dress, and 3 – a light blue dress with a white pinafore and blond wig becomes Alice in Wonderland or with blond wig and tiara it’s Cinderella.  I’ll be set for 3 years of costumes.

This still doesn’t explain the mess.  That happened after I got back.  I started looking for my Halloween fabric. This meant every tote was opened.  Oh look!  It’s the music ‘jelly roll’ race.  If I add borders it’s will be of donation size.

Isn’t the music fabric in the tote under the shelves by the chimney?

Oh – and there’s the red & white fabrics. Need to remember that and some of the Halloween fabric.

All this music fabric and nothing is working.  Back to the drawing board, but where is the Halloween fabric.

Found it. The labels are new. I added them as I opened each box.

At HL I stopped my SIL from buying some fall fabric.  Actually what I said was I purchase 1 yard of 3 different fall fabric from The Quilted Cow and she could have some.  I had to stop and cut her some fabric.

Now If I had just stayed home and worked on the project on my sewing table. There are 3 maybe 4 projects there. A purple and yellow quilt in the zipper bag.  My fabric swap blocks, a band for the second tea towel. The lavender fabric is for a pillowcase — if I make it. The whole area needs picked up.

So what am I going to do next?  Who knows. None of the quilts have deadlines and who knows how long it will take to get the dress fitted.  I’m leaning toward working on the dress.