November PHD in 2024

Hi Quilting Friends,

November started out with our yearly trip to the Houston International Quilt Festival! Susan and I enjoyed seeing the creativity and craftsmanship of the quilts that were included in the exhibits and browsing in the vendor booths, but the best part about Festival (every single time) is meeting quilters from all over the world. I always feel inspired and energized after the Festival!  (Except for my feet, which are usually tired from walking all day.) If you ever have the opportunity to attend Quilt Festival, it is a wonderful experience!

In other news, this has been a busy month! We had birthday celebrations for friends, a bus trip to Armand Bayou Nature Center & Martyn Farm, and a weekend in Port Aransas to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with Gaby’s family (our daughter-in-law-to-be), time on the beach, and a helicopter ride. Here are some of the highlights-

Mr. Fix-It and I hosted our Houston family Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday. The table was filled with delectable dishes!

Oh, and my birthday was yesterday as well.  It was low-key, since everyone had gathered on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving together.

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Have you ever had a plan that went awry? The plan that looked good on paper, but didn’t quite work out as expected? I think that answer is “Of course!” My plan for quilting Lone Star is an example of plans going awry. Challenges have presented themselves during my quest for progress, but I remain undaunted.

The thing to remember, as my Grandma used to say, is that “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” (My colleague who teaches high school anatomy and physiology would disagree, having had lots of experience with cats in his classes. He says that there’s just one way that works well when one actually needs to skin a cat, and any other method will leave you with a very messed up cat. But I digress, and you’d probably rather not know about this.)

Point being, there’s usually more than one way to approach a problem, and the most obvious solution won’t always be the best one. That’s where your creativity comes into play! So if you’re stumped, don’t give up. View the challenge as an opportunity for growth. Take your time, and think outside the box for those creative solutions.

Here’s my November update –

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Project #2- Black & White Delight Quilt

Ta-done!  My “One Monthly Goal” for November was to finish this UFO from 2020, and it is all done and I LOVE it!  Ready for some pictures?  Here we go!

The pattern for “Black & White Delight” is available right here!

• Finished size = 72″ x 96″
• Intermediate skill level
• Includes instructions for 9 pieced blocks
• Includes templates for floral border appliques
• $24 USD

Individual block patterns are available here-

Project #3- Lone Star Quilt

Plans were made, but then changes were necessary. Here’s what happened!

Plan A was to purchase a new quilting template in a size that would fit my blue squares. Well, I looked high and low at the Houston International Quilt Festival but never saw a vendor who was selling hand-quilting templates. I’ve seen them every time I’ve browsed the booths at Festival in past years, but not this time. Drat!

Plan B was to cut my own template. I’ve done this before, successfully, and so I found a design that I like, and then I located my template cutting tool and some template plastic and set to work. Things were looking fine until I tried to use my newly-cut template. None of my marking tools would fit into the channel, making it impossible to mark the fabric. I probably used the wrong type of template material, and it didn’t cut cleanly. (I need to order some Mylar sheets so I’m ready for the next attempt at template-cutting.) Drat!

Plan C is to use a template that I already owned, which was meant for use in setting triangles. I will put four of the triangles into each square, which means that there’s a LOT of marking to be done, but it is an acceptable solution for this project.

I’ve started hand-quilting, and 3 of the 8 squares that surround the central star are competed. Each square takes about 4 hours to stitch, so I will finally have an excuse to sit and watch the “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy (That’s one movie per square, LOL). Here’s one finished square –

I am enjoying the quiet rhythm of hand-stitching, when I’m able to sit without a dog or two on my lap. Astrid insists upon keeping my lap nice and warm while she naps, while Freya prefers to pull out the batting around the edges, when she’s not snoring loudly.

Project#7- “Gnome for Thanksgiving” Challenge

I didn’t share a photo of this project when I finished it in October, but you may have seen it during the “Gnome for Thanksgiving” blog hop challenge last week. Read more about it, or purchase the pattern HERE.

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New Projects

Gaby asked me to make 20 snap bags in blue and rose-gold (their wedding colors), to be given as gifts for wedding attendees. (Their wedding will be next April, in Aruba!) I shopped for fabric at Quilt Festival, and then I added more fabrics from my stash (and Susan’s stash too; I’m helping her to decrease her fabric inventory). Here’s my initial fabric pull-

I’ve been busily cutting and stitching up the bags, and they’re all finished & delivered to Gaby’s mom. Here’s a picture-

I’ve continued to stitch the “Bricks and Stepping Stones” quilt, using my Christmas fabric scrap stash. Quilting is currently in progress. Read more about it HERE and HERE.

My “One Monthly Goal” for December is to finish quilting, and then bind “Bricks and Stepping Stones”.  Ready? Set.  Sew!

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal December Link Up

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PHD Progress

Here’s my updated task list for November, with a few more cells filled in –

And my PHD tracker, updated for November. As you can see, I have two new starts that I’ll need to finish up in December.

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Your turn! Join our link party to share your progress, and then visit the other links to comment and encourage. We’d appreciate a link back to this post please!

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

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Happy quilting,

Sharon

P.S. Yes, I know. We still have another month of 2024 to finish up those projects and earn a PHD in 2024, but it isn’t too soon to plan on joining us for PHD in 2025! Here’s the new logo-