May 2023 - Stitch Maynia and the end of High School (for the oldest)

What a big month for our family - from the start to the end, we attended functions, talked about schedules, and counted down the days for my daughter's last day of high school. Graduation wasn't until June but all the hard work was done in May. We are so proud of this girl who powered through a year of school from her bedroom and graduates with honors. 

Senior Awards Night

Top 30 Graduates Dinner (with her most inspirational teacher)

First day of kindergarten 

Last day of high school

What a run it's been and now we start counting the days until we leave for New York to drop her off for college. No worries, she has plenty to do before then with a summer job, a grad party, packing, and working on a special project that we hope will be worthy of the Girl Scout Gold Award. 

It's a really good thing in times like these to have great hobbies - they really keep me sane and give me something to do with my hands. It was a special month for stitching too - the month of May is called Stitch Maynia for a lot of stitchers and I am one of them. I continued with the same plan as I've followed for the last year or two, with 10 projects, spending 3 days on each of them. It was 5 works in progress and 5 new starts this year and I am really happy to have finished one of each! 

My new starts for Stitch Maynia 

First project - a start and finish! Christmas Joy by Praiseworthy Stitches - kit linen, thread and beads

Second project - a WIP finish - the top section of Yuletide Revels by Joan Elliott stitched on white 18 count Aida with Splendor silk

For the first time, I stitched all 31 days of May and I really enjoyed it. Some days were just a few minutes of stitching and others were a few hours. In between the stitching, I made a little time for quilting and finishing. 

On the quilt front, I finished quilting a top that I've had on the frame way too long! I will share a sneak peek that gives you an idea of the quilting and then hope to have it bound for a full picture next month. 

The back with all the quilting texture

I also decided to quickly make a baby quilt for one of my work colleagues who was going to be in town in June - she is expecting her first baby and we decided to throw a little surprise shower. I dug through my baby/kid fabrics and found a fat eighth pack of Elementary from Sweetwater Fabrics. I used the Triple Treat Petite pattern from Happy Hour Quilts, a book by Atkinson Designs. It is a great and quick pattern and I finished the top quickly. 

Quilt blocks pre-assembly into a top

Last up is a hybrid quilting/stitching project and my one FFO for May - I decided to make this piece into a wall hanging and plan to hang it in my room. The piece is Blocks of the Month SAL by Durene Jones from 2020 and I really enjoyed stitching this over the course of the year. I adjusted the block for May (second row, middle) to honor Medal of Honor recipients, and I really like the end result. I am glad to have this one FFO'ed!

Phew, May was quite a month - in addition to all of the above, I started and ended the month with trips - one for work and the other to see family. It was a whirlwind, but a great one! 

Here are the stats for the month: 

Stash Reporting with Donna at quiltpaintcreate:

Fabric added in May: 0 yards

Fabric used in May: 1 1/2 yards

Fabric added year to date: 1 1/2 yards

Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards

Net fabric used: 5 yards

Stitching time with Kate at Life In Pieces: 

Days with at least 15 minutes of crafting: 31/31 = 100%

FFO Challenge tracking (just me!): 

+2 stitched finishes, -1 FFO = 42 stitched pieces waiting to be FFO'ed (+2 from April)

+1 new quilt top = 11 Quilts to be fully finished (+1 from April)

See you all again soon! (I am going to go start writing the June post now so that I can get it up closer to the start of the month.)