January PhD Update

Hi Quilting Friends,

Happy New Year (again)! I’m happy to be hopping in to the Year of the Rabbit, and I’m feeling a bit like an Energizer bunny right now. January has been a whirlwind of activity here in my sewing studio! I got off to a quick start, and had a little extra time to “play” with my stitching projects earlier in the month. It is SEW nice to be able to leave my projects-in-progress on the sewing table and then jump back in whenever I have time and energy for sewing during the week. I LOVE my “new” studio!

Here’s my January update-

PHD in 2023 Projects

Project #2 – “Bonus” HST Squares from RSC2021 and RSC2022

I made a quilter’s organizer bag with 48 of the “bonus” HST squares and some of my scraps, using the YouTube tutorial from Yoan Sewing Studio. The instructions are easy to follow and the video information includes a downloadable instruction file as well as time markers for each step in making the bag, so it’s very easy to return to the instructions if you need to stop before you’re finished stitching.

I’m all finished, thanks to a long mid-January weekend that provided some extra stitching time. I’ve already loaded my bag with hand-stitching notions and other sewing essentials, and it’s sitting by my chair near the window in our family room. If I had time to take (or teach) quilting classes or go on fun quilting retreats, then I could load up whatever I need into this handy organizer bag and hit the road. It’s nice to be prepared, I suppose! I don’t get out much these days, except to go to work, LOL.

Project #3 – “Bonus” HST Squares from RSC2021 and RSC2022

Eighty of the remaining HST squares will (eventually) become a pretty wall quilt. I played around with color placement earlier in January, and then I decided that my time would be best spent by sewing the squares together into the quilt top now, rather than having to sort them out again if I put them away without stitching. So, here’s the center of the quilt top-

Decisions are pending about borders, and how I want to quilt my rainbow quilt top. This will be another opportunity for Princess Nina and I to get more practice with her stitch regulator feature. (Whee!)

I still have about 32 HST squares left of the 160 that I started out with, but I’m not going to push myself into making another project at this time; they’ll tell me when they’re ready to become something more. . .

Project #5 – Shades of Blue Challenge

My “One Monthly Goal” for January was to finish this project in time for the blog hop. Ta-done! You can read more about the “Let It Snow” table topper in this post.

Project #6 – Sweet on You Challenge

Lunch-time inspiration to design another little table topper, along with a recent visit with Susan at her new quilting studio (and her fabulous fabric stash), resulted in a plan for my project to share during the February Sew It-Show It challenge.

This was our original fabric pull and even though it looks pretty darn sweet, it isn’t what I’ll be using for my project. (Susan kept playing with fabric while I took a phone call and she managed to put together a completely different colorway using fabrics that she had on hand, because that’s how she rolls, LOL.) I liked the second colorway better, so I took it home with me instead of the pieces in the photo. You’ll have to wait until February to see what I’ve been making!)

My “One Monthly Goal” for February is to finish my sweet project for this Sew It- Show It Challenge. Ready, Set, SEW!

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Link-up

Project #7 – Little Green Apples Challenge

January brought a “squirrel” into my studio, inspired by a post that I saw in a Facebook group and a tutorial from Anne at Agile Jack It is called a “Frankenbag”, and mine is made with spare parts from previous quilts and some of my scraps. The project is finished, but I’m going to delay publishing photos of my bag until March because this will be my project for the “Little Green Apples” Sew It Show It blog challenge.

I’m really excited to share this with you! I had SO much fun playing with my Franken-pieces that I plan to (eventually) create another bag.

Project #12 – Christmas Place Mats

I’ve pulled out a stack of pretty Christmas fabrics in green, red, and cream with gold metallic accents. I scanned my drawings and sent them over to Susan, so she can digitize the piecing diagrams. I am not in a rush to complete this project, but I can tell that it will be fun!

New Projects

Ain’t nobody got time for that. 😜

Ongoing Projects

The “Rainbow Scrap Challenge” color for January was BLUE; bright blue and dark blue were on the agenda, so I made a few more blocks for my collections.

Carolina Chains

Four more blocks are finished, two dark and two light. Current block count is 255 of 310 needed, so I’m creeping closer to the goal.

Rolling Stone

I made this pretty Rolling Stone block from some of my BLUE scraps-

Progress Update

Here’s my updated task list, showing my progress for January-

And here’s my January PHD tally-

I’m looking forward to making the most of my stitching time in February! “See” you next month for my update.

Happy quilting,

Sharon

Quilting Gail’s January PHD Linkup