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Well, it seems there is some interest in joining me to recommit and finish up our 2011 PhDs that did not make it to the "DONE" or "FINISHED" stage during this 2011 year. 

There is quite a few of us in this boat, so lets all get paddling as soon as the year end festivities are over, and get those PhDs done!! 

If we can collectively get at least 75 of the 157 remaining PhDs done, I'll consider starting a new 2012 PhD Challenge, where we can commit to completing some new PhDs, and take on new participants...

So, anyone new wanting to join in on a 2012 PhD Challenge later in the year, and present participants, do your part by cheering us on through comments when we post our FINISHES. 

We need all the help we can get!

You can see my 3 PhDs (of the 6 committed) that still need to be completed, by clicking on this link... There are links there to the 3 projects I managed to get done already...

Wishing you a very merry Christmas, and the best of 2012!

Happy stitching!

Myra

Sliding Into The Finish Line

PhD number 4.

This quilt was a stack and slash I did at the end of 2006 so it's been a UFO for some time. Last month it became my first quilt on the frame and after some trials the quilting was completed. Monday I machined the binding and last night finished hand stitching the binding on the back and ta da! "Citrus Splash" is a UFO no more.

Looking forward to tackling number 5 in the new year but will have to take it shopping with me first to find some sashing/border fabrics.

My calendar quilt will be number 5 as it's required for a local quilt exhibition towards the end of 2012. Above are the months of April, May and June ... one 1" strip for each day of the month. All 12 months are completed and have the name of the month embroidered at the top.

A late finish here, too!

I had a Dec. finish myself. I finished my summer porch quilt. I changed the border on it from this:

to the border in this finished version and I love it.

I think the fact that I wasn't in love with the original border was part of what kept me from quilting it.  I'm so glad I waited on this one and now it's part of my living room quilt ensemble.

(You can read baout that in this post.)

Happy Holidays, everyone!
Beck

A FiNaL FiNisH

WooHoo... I've finished my LAST PhD... and just in time too. I had forgotten to post a pic of "Family Matters" until I read Myra's last post... so here it is.
It was originally going to be a wall hanging... but I changed it to a lap quilt as I thought it would get better use that way. The original block that I showed was the one in the bottom left corner. I added the "hearts" after I joined into the PhD group. I'm really happy I did change the plan because it turned out really well... (I think it did anyways) and I hope the recipient will too!
Merry Christmas EvEryOnE... and a special ThAnK YoU to Myra.

PhD Challenge

Many have asked if I will be leading a 2012 PhD Challenge soon. Well, sad to say and somewhat embarrassed, I've decided to give it a rest this coming year... 

If I can't even seem to get the rest of my committed PhDs from 2011 completed yet, what would be the point of committing to more PhDs for 2012... (and I seem to have been creating more this past year too yet!)

Perhaps just a challenge for those of us with the remaining "157 committed PhDs from 2011" would be in order... Lets get those done in the first half of 2012, and then consider putting out a new 2012 PhD Challenge for the second half of the year for more commitments, and add in new participants...?

What say you?

Myra

Happy Thanksgiving/Turkey Day

To My Stateside 

Family & Friends...

Myra

Hi there... Long time no see!

A belated Happy Halloween to you all! 

Ha! Check this out! 

While you are there look at 

the other items offered...

This was brought to my 

attention by Edna... 

Thanks Edna!!

Slowly, very slowly, the finishes are showing up here. Good for you all that got yours done and posted!! I'm hoping we will see many more posted here by year's end...

Anyone out there thinking we should do another 

PhD Challenge starting January 1st 2012?

I shall ponder it a while... We'll see... 

I do have a few PhDs to finish up and post about by the end 

of December still, cause I wouldn't want to carry them 

over into another PhD Challenge...  ;)

Happy stitching!

Myra

Kate's PhDs - The 2nd Finish, Finally

Late is better than never right?  I finally got the binding on the Buck-a-Block quilt last week, so it's finished. 

My Guy has dubbed this quilt Texas Twilight.  The Buck-a-Blocks (designed my Mary B Hayes) are from Series #2 of the Thangles Buck-a-Block patterns.  These were purchased in Texas before we moved in 2006 and were supposed to have been a BOM.  I didn't start working on them till last year.  The Thangles blocks are made from a light blue dotted fabric and a black background blue bonnet print. 

I had planned to use green sashing and a print with large blue bonnets to set the quilt.  But neither seemed to work.  The blue and black fabrics came from my stash and seemed to be just right.  So this quilt looks nothing like the original computer mock up I did.  But I like it. 

The quilt was custom quilted by Trudy Lindemann.  She used loops in the blocks and black borders.  With a feather like design in the middle blue border and just straight lines in the last blue border.

This quilt will have a new home in Texas come Christmas.  So I'm glad to have this one done well in advance of the holiday. 

Only 4 months behind schedule.  Oh well, late is better than never. 

My Finished Calendar Quilt

Yes, I am almost 4 months late in getting a finished PHD Challenge done and posted but here is the picture of the quilt. The pattern was in an old Piecemaker's quilt book and it called "Heart's A Plenty". It's a calendar quilt as each block represents a different month of the year. The sashes and borders are machine quilted and I hand quilted the blocks. I'm so happy it is done and it's going to a quilt show next week!!

Wishing all Canadians a wonderful Thanksgiving long-weekend!!

Take care...

Myra

 

Finished the Mystery Quilt!

Just finished handquilting and binding my Mystery Quilt...It has been a little over a year since it was made, or at least it seems like it..

Now to give it a bath and decide  where it will be going....

I'm a first time gramma!!!

 ...and I am bragging already!! LOL! 8-)

More on my blog if you are interested... 8-)

Popped in to see if there were any more finishes posted here... 

Sadly, not! Hopefully soon...?

Happy stitching!

Myra

Not Quite

Just wanted you to know that I am coming into the home stretch with one of my challenges..should be done by the middle or end of September...

Is there no more PhD finishes being done!?!

Or are they just not being posted?

At any rate, how sad that we aren't seeing 

any new "Finished PhD" posts here lately...

I know that some of you lovely ladies do have some done, so please, pop a quick post here for us all to share in your happy dance, and ogle at more wonderful eye candy...

You won't see a finish from me for a bit yet, 
cause I'm doing baby quilts right now... 
Any day now I'll be a first time grammy...

8-)

Happy stitching, and I hope you 
are all having a wonderful summer!

Myra

Long time no see!!

Hello PhD Challengers and visitors of this blog!!!

 The Challenge is long over, and committed PhD finishes can still be posted here for all to see and to be able to say we are done, but if you have some free time....?.... I have something else you may be willing to take part in.

Yup! I am plunging in with both feet, and hope it runs smoothly for all that take part...

If you are interested, I'm introducing a Mystery Quilt-Along to my CCC Quilt Group, and will be putting the info on my blog. So, if you feel inclined to do a Mystery, feel free to join in!!! You can find the starting info on my CCC Mystery Quilt-Along Page...

Feel free to put my button on your sidebars with a link to my blog, or my Mystery Page for others to join in the fun, and do please take part in to my "participant poll" on my blog's right sidebar! 8-)

Happy stitching!

Myra

PS: Sorry I have been behind in my blog visits this last while, life is kind of overwhelming family-wise right now...

Long Awaited Finish

Way back on the 26th of July, 2009 I posted this picture. The beginnings of a Quilt-as-you-go Log Cabin Quilt for our King size bed.

Today two years and 5 days later I am very very happy to share a photo of the finished quilt.

I had to add a border to the bottom of the quilt for tucking into the bed ... knowing what I know now, I should have made it 7 rows of 6 blocks but you don't see the border anyway. (The border is hanging over the clothes line out of sight)

This is my 3rd PhD and the one I really really wanted to finish. Thankyou Myra for allowing us to share after the deadline. Now onto my next PhD.

Better late than never

Ok my final finish from the challenge, a few weeks late, but a finish none the less.  I am so glad to have this one done after over 3 years of working on it.

PhD Participant Giveaway

I chose from my numbers of the active participants in the PhD Challenge, as I thought that is the only fair way to do it...

These are the giveaway goods!

 Winners picked by "Custom Random Number Generator"

First number was from the 12 that met all their PhD Commitments.

#6 is the 6th person down the list as shown...

Not by the numbers in front of the names...

That is Peg from Pieces on My Mind!!!

Second number picked from the 121 PhD "Done" posts.

# 42 is the 42nd "DONE" post on the blog...

Labeled - "DONE"

That is Jane - No personal blog...

Third number was picked from the 145 PhDs that were completed.

#97 is from the order that finishes showed up on the blog...

That is Marlene from Sipiweske Quilts...

Here is the whole list...

Every time you posted of a finish, I added you, in order of posts received, on this list, and then wrote in the numbers of each finish counted for the tally button...

So Peg, Jane, and Marlene, if you would be kind enough to email me your mailing addresses, and which bundle you'd like in order of preference... I will try to accommodate... but of course the 3rd drawn number will end up with what is left...

That is just the way it goes right!?!

I'd like to thank all of you for making this PhD Challenge a wonderful blog of eye candy,  and for keeping me company in my endeavor. I think we were quite successful!!! 

I hope to see "everyone's" remaining committed PhDs pop up here as finishes in the upcoming months, and as I mentioned before, I will check once a week to tally up the new finish numbers...

Happy stitchings!

Keep in touch!

Myra

PS: If anyone is inclined, I may be hosting a Mystery Quilt-Along  

in September if there is enough interest...

A day late and a dollar short

62 by 82, machine pieced and quilted

Actually, this is two days late, but it is finished!



The 6-Month PhD Challenge Has Ended...

145 PhDs DONE!!!

Way to go ladies!!! 

... and now we see if we can finish up at least half 

(if not all) of the last 163 PhDs by the end of 2011!!!

I will check this blog once a week for new "finished update posts" 

and adjust the tally button...Sound like a plan? 

We can do it!! I know we can!!! 8-)

Stay tuned for Monday's Tuesday's announcement...

Myra  

Almost Made It

At last a finish! I completed the binding at 11:15 PM last night - needless to say, getting up at 6:30 this morning for work was a bit of a chore! Final tally for me is 2 out of 3. I wish I could have gotten to everything on my list but it's just not happening.

Here is a top view of the little Christmas Snowballs quilt.

And here is a shot of the pieced back.

I opted for straight line quilting with the walking foot, stitching in the ditch around the blocks and borders. Diagonal lines cross through the nine patches.

Thank you, Myra, for hosting this and for being very gracious to those of us who came to realize that our ambition was far larger than the amount of time we could commit to our crafty goals. Life does indeed "happen" and creative time for me has been fleeting these last months. And congratulations to everyone who had finishes to share! There are some absolutely beautiful projects shared here. Best wishes to all!    ~~Annie

Thanks for taking part in my PhD Challenge!!!

First, I must say that I was blown away last December by the interest in joining me to get those PhDs off our back burners, and make efforts in getting them done!!!
It made it much more fun for me
having you join in! 8-)

Now, here we are, just hours away from the end of the PhD Challenge...

 * Some of our gals have met their commitments well ahead of time...

* Some met their commitments in good time... 

* Some may yet by midnight tonight...?

* Some of us got half way through our commitments...

* Some will continue to plod along on our PhDs beyond today...

...and others... well...?

Great intentions and wonderful efforts have been made here in the last 6 months! We all know that sometimes "life" just gets in the way of our best laid plans...  But you know what!?! We are ahead of what we would have been, had we not challenged ourselves. I know my PhDs would still be sitting there in bags and boxes collecting dust!!

As of 11pm last night, we had 136 PhDs completed! That is pretty darn good, considering that these completions were done by
a little over two thirds of us participating!!!

My hope is that you all will continue to post/visit the PhD Group Blog
beyond this weekend, as I'm sure many of us would love too see
those remaining PhDs once they are completed!
Maybe we can have them "all" done by the end of 2011! 8-)

Since I am a night owl I will do the final tally at midnight tonight,
and will announce a "PhD Participant Giveaway" on Monday...
Correction - Tuesday!

I thank you all for taking part in my PhD Challenge!

For those of you that followed our progress, I hope you've
been able to get some of your own PhDs/UFOs/WIPs done
during this first half of 2011 too!! 8-)

Happy stitchings!! 8-)

Myra

Nothing Like a Deadline.......

These are two twin-sized quilts that I finally finished on my Husqvarna. The nice thing about squishing lots of fabric through on a small Husqvarna is that there is no presser foot lever at the back/side to get in the way!
Because the borders and backings are different on each quilt, I also quilted them using different patterns.


I finally finished the binding on this large quilt. This quilt was sent off to a long-arm to be quilted with an overall pattern. (As you can see for the picture below it is very windy, very hot, and very humid here today. My fingers are sticking to the keyboard...yuk!)

My last finish is this large bag which already comes in handy as my library book bag.

Thanks Myra...for hosting this PhD challenge!

I truthfully would not have finished these items by now. I have three more projects staring me in the face and will commit to myself to finish them over the summer so I can start anew in the Fall. Right now my quilting time is competing with yard play/work and summer reading. After all, Summer is a time to relax one's expectations, don't you think?!

It has been great fun to see everyones' creative talent and I thoroughly enjoyed reading everyones' comments.

Have a Great Summer !!!

PhD Wrap-up . . .

two more done!

I certainly will not be hitting my lofty dream of getting nine done by June 30th,

but I have been able to get 7 completed and about 3/4s of the 8th one done (still working on binding!).

This is a strips & curves pattern that has been sitting in my stack needing to be finished for a long time.  So this was a great push to get ‘er done.  Sorry about the photos - it was this morning at 6 a.m. when I was trying to do this . . . you work with what you get!

Not impressed with my machine quilting on this one except for when I got to the borders I tried this new little design I found.  Little snowflakey, star type creations that work great with the loopy meander.

This will more than likely end up as a cat blanket . . . not really proud of this one . . . but it is done.

Here is another one that I’m not proud of.  It was supposed to be a Christmas tree skirt but ended up looking more like a watermelon!!!

Also not really happy with the machine quilting I did on this one either – I think I better stick with what I know!

The binding is interesting though . . . learned how to machine stitch the binding down.  Still need some practice – I’m only showing you the part that actually worked.  Maybe if I had practiced on a straight edge quilt instead of a curved one might have made a difference.  Oh, well . . . have to learn these things somewhere, right?

Ugly quilt!!!

The 8th PhD has about half of the border sewn down (machine sewn again) and I’m not sure if I’ll get it done before midnight tonight or not.  Off to help serve supper to sandbaggers tonight so not sure how long I’ll be away doing that and how I’ll feel when I get back.

Either way I feel pretty darn good to get almost 7 PhDs done – that poor 9th one hasn’t gone any further than being pulled out so far.  It will be on top for the next go round . . .

Thanks to Myra for pushing all of us to get our sewing rooms cleaned up - seven quilts done is pretty fantastic in my book and sure makes me feel a whole lot better.  Thanks Myra!

Have a great weekend everyone!

50%

Well, I managed to complete 2 of my 4 PhD's. I finished my Halloween quilt this afternoon. I was also able to finish my son's quitar quilt top, but it still needs to be squared, sandwiched, and quilted. I hope to finish it when I have a few days off together some time this summer. My 4th PhD was to put my daughter's wonky star blocks together, unfortuately I didn't get to this project. One thing I've learned from this challenge is that I need to be more realistic when committing to things. Thanks Myra, for motivating me to complete these items.

Susan

Last PhD for This Year (for me anyway)

Jill of Apple Avenue Quilts

This is my second and last Phd for this year. I really enjoyed making this quilt. I call it Spring Flowers. The design is by Kim Schaefer from a book called "Flowering Quilts".  

 I listed three PhD's that I wanted to finish but number three is not going to happen ever. I actually made seven blocks and decided that I was not liking this quilt at all. I really don't want to spend time making something I don't like so the pieces are going with my scraps to be used in another project.

Thanks so much to Myra!!!! Without her the two project that I did finish would still be waiting on a shelf.

Finish #6

Well, I was hoping to get this one done, but I have been searching for the binding fabric for the last 2 hours and no luck! So here's a picture of it quilted and trimmed - maybe that's a sign that I need to stop buying fabric.... nah, maybe not....