Introduction: PHD in 2025

Hi Quilting Friends,

Welcome to PHD in 2025! The purpose of this activity is to encourage and support each other as we spend the year doing these two things –

1. Finish at least twelve projects that you have selected for your PHD list
2. Complete all NEW projects that are started during 2025

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Your PHD in 2025 Project List

Choose twelve projects for your PHD list. It is fine to list more than twelve projects, and it is also fine to change your mind later and switch to a different project during the year. Life happens, and plans can change.

PHD is an acronym for “projects half done”, so let’s discuss the types of projects that are appropriate for your PHD list.

• Unfinished quilting projects (UFO’s), obviously
• Other unfinished handwork or sewing projects, since many quilters have multiple “vices” including, but not limited to-
  • Cross-stitch, embroidery, needlepoint, knitting, crochet, garment-making, etc.

I have been working on my PHD for several years now, so I currently have fewer than twelve UFO quilts hanging around my sewing studio. Thus I’ve determined that having items on hand and ready to begin creating also involves, at some level, “starting” a project because the planning and acquisition aspects are underway (yet still unfinished) at that point. With this in mind, your PHD list may also include –

• Kits that are lurking in your studio
• Fabric from your stash
• Scraps from your collection
• Patterns that are waiting to be stitched
• Tools that you haven’t used (yet)

Basically, let’s just say that if you currently possess nearly everything that is needed to complete a project, then it can join your PHD list. If you have to obtain nearly everything that’s needed for a project, whether you purchase it or receive it as a gift, then that project hasn’t been started yet and it shouldn’t be on the PHD list because it is “New”. (See “New Projects”) Does that make sense?

It is OK to be vague about an end product on your list if you are using items that you have on hand. It is fine to list it as “Scrappy Quilt TBD” (for example), and then be more specific later on as decisions are made about the project. We all understand that some projects evolve slowly and reveal their form over time.

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New Projects

“New” projects mean just what you’re thinking, and include everything that you begin working on during 2025. You must finish all of those new projects in order to earn your PHD in 2025, with a couple of exceptions-

Exception #1- Ongoing projects such as collections of leader/ender blocks, mystery quilt projects, quilt challenges, or block of the month programs, that begin during 2025 and continue into 2026.

For example, I have been making a collection of Rolling Stone blocks for the “Rainbow Scrap Challenge”, one block each month. I need to make more blocks to have enough for a quilt, so this is a project that will be continued from 2024 into 2025. It is new, but ongoing so it won’t count as “unfinished” until I decide that the collection is complete.

Exception #2- Projects that are initiated during the fourth quarter of 2025, and remain unfinished at the start of January, 2026. (However, every effort should be made to complete those projects during 2026, since our primary objective is to finish projects.) We can all agree that there are many projects which require more than a few months to finish well, so this seems reasonable.

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So now you have THREE things to do, if you want to join us and earn your “PHD in 2025”!

1. Choose twelve projects for your PHD in 2025 list. Use these handy templates for your list, if you like.  (I use both templates as I track progress for my PHD.)

2. Write a post about the projects from your list, with brief descriptions & pictures if possible. Please copy and paste this link somewhere in your post:

PHD in 2025 Project List

3. Join the linky party (see below) to share the post about your PHD list.

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

I’ll be back again at the end of the week to share my PHD list for 2025. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about joining in. I’m happy to assist.

Happy quilting,

Sharon