15 Minutes To Stitch 2021 - Week 40

I loved participating in Kate's Life in Pieces 15 Minutes to Stitch since 2020 and am a fan of her blog. She's continuously hosted since 2011!

My 2021 goal is to stitch at least 15-minutes 50% of the days in the year.

• Week 40: 7 of 7 = 100 %
• 66 minutes/day average across 7-days
• September: 26 of 30 = 87%
• October: 3 of 3 = 100%
• 2021: 239 of 276 = 87 %

This week started with crazy work days and slowed down to be able to complete some long overdue tasks by Friday. Life seems to have finally settled down after the last fortnight. 

I'm still following my own pace for String And Story's Fall 2021 Free Motion Quilting Academy with doodling as often as possible. It is easier than I thought and I'm so pleased. HollyAnne Knight encouraged us to pick something in our closet and finish it with one of the first two motifs, Meander or Loopy Meander. There's a Fabric Cafe 3-yard lap quilt that I've been wanting to do since 2016. I've started putting the top together. I'm also going to try different Basting Sprays in my practice sandwiches.

3 of the 5 sprays are ready to be tested. I need to cut the batting to sit between the already pressed Fat Quarters. Waiting for the 2 pots of flour paste to cool to room temperature. Unfortunately, I had to scrub the two pots because I burned some flour paste onto the bottom of 2 Pyrex glass pans. Barkeeper's friend worked hard to help me out.

Continuing to work on my habits from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, I'm continuing to track my food macros and Intermittent Fasting on the kitchen calendar with shiny foil stars when I hit my targets. This past week following Dr. Mindy Pelz YouTubes and The Menopause Reset book, I have successfully completed a 37-hour fast. There's still more research that I need to do to look into my own current habits to be the person I want to be. 

So, how did the sewing projects go?

Top items with progress:

1) Modern Quilt Guild QuiltCon 2022 Artisan Challenge - pressed and cut most of the background pieces for my original design. Luckily the Marti Mitchell templates have been just the thing to get the right size pieces prepared.

2) PBJ Monthly Color Challenge - 3 October Blocks: Printed the instructions and determined how to make the 2" Trixie sized block

Lil'Trixie will have to wait until it's time to get all the October blocks sewn. Reference photo from June of the first 6 blocks:

3) String and Story Free Motion Quilting Academy

Going to try a few different basting sprays to test:

1. S&S HAK Flour paste basting spray with cheap Vodka
2. S&S HAK Flour paste basting spray with isopropyl alcohol
3. Washable Glue diluted with water
4. Washable Glue diluted with cheap Vodka
5. Washable Glue diluted with isopropyl alcohol

Third motif, Swirls, doodles:

I am making a commitment to doodle on 2 pages/day going forward. 

4) Happy Go Lucky Unicorns quilt - Bought a roll of 3 one-yard cuts from Fabric Cafe's booth at an early quilt show I attended. I'm going to use this quilt as a piece to use my early FMQA motifs to finish.

White with dots and purple with squares have been cut and sewn to make 72 HST's. Need to remove the remaining water soluble marking lines, cut apart, press and trim.

Updating Mini Archie's Fettle Those Finishes! to continue my focus for the Fourth Quarter of 2021. 

Fettle Those Finishes! priority projects UPDATE (Q3 final & Q4):

1. Geo Grid quilt - 30 blocks for exchange - DONE Q3
2. Guild 2nd Lottery block for Party - DONE Q3
3. PBJ 2021 Color Challenge July (3 blocks) - DONE Q3
4. PBJ 2021 Color Challenge August (3 blocks) - DONE Q3
5. Geo Grid quilt - 12 bonus blocks for my quilt - DONE Q3
6. Cross Body Mobile Phone Pouch for Nurse friend - DONE Q3
7. PBJ 2021 Color Challenge September (2 big blocks) - DONE Q3
8. SECRET: QuiltCon 2022 Artisan Cotton Fabric Challenge - IN PROGRESS
9. Happy Go Lucky Unicorns quilt - IN PROGRESS
10. Free Motion Quilting Academy Practices - IN PROGRESS
11. Free Motion Quilting Academy Sampler
12. Free Motion Quilting Academy Whole Cloth
13. All About Me guild challenge quilt - ON HOLD
14. PBJ 2021 Color Challenge September (1 lil blocks) - IN PROGRESS
15. Kinship Fusion Sampler - #100days100blocks2021 - ON HOLD
16. Cheerful Christmas quilt - ON HOLD
17. Two Hold Tite Folio's for SewTites
18. EPP Training Tablerunner - ON HOLD
19. Honey Teddy Bear - ON HOLD
20. Unicorn "Bear" - ON HOLD
21. 2020 PBJ Monthly Color Challenge Assembly & Finish - ON HOLD
22. 2021 EPP BOM Smitten - Months 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 - ON HOLD
23. Journey2Nebula #2: Lucky Charm pillow
24. Journey2Nebula #3: Jawbreaker
25. Journey2Nebula #5: Candy Dish (2-for-1)
26. Journey2Nebula #6: Gazebo
27. Journey2Nebula #1: Seaside - Living room table runner - ON HOLD
28. Journey2Nebula #4: Rock Candy - ON HOLD
29. Journey2Nebula #8: Infinity Stones Throw - ON HOLD
30. 2021 BOM Nebula - Blocks 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9
31. Fantastic Creatures fabric as Fabric Cafe's Byzantine Door Quilt #1 (FAL #1)
32. Fantastic Creatures fabric as Fabric Cafe's Byzantine Door Quilt #2 (FAL #4)
33. Fabric Roll as Happy Go Lucky (FAL #56)
34. EPP training - Heart kit
35. Pick a washable purse for myself (from FAL #5, 93, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101)

What are you working on?

Link-Ups:

• Life in Pieces Week 40 of 2021 - As #8