Always look on the bright side of life...

... That would mean... God is granting me an extensive lesson in patience today!

I finished some curtains today (whew!) and am almost finished with hand-stitching the third side of the Japanese quilt, so I will finish before surgery on Friday BUT

My office decided to move the staff meeting that is supposed to be tomorrow at 8:30 to tomorrow at 10... then changed it to TODAY AT 3:00. Did I mention no one bothered to tell me until 2:00 (10 minutes ago)? How do I find a babysitter in an hour when all the kids are in school? And I'm already working tonight from 6:00-9:00, so I'm not going to see DH or the girls much tonight.

Oh, yeah, and I'm preparing for surgery on Friday. We're making good progress on preparing for that in the house. I just baked bread, did my 8th load of laundry for the week (you know, nobody warned me that ALL laundry multiplies when you have potty training going on. I mean, even things that are not even remotely related to potty accidents are multiplying in their filthiness. That's why DH and 2 little girls have produced 8 loads of laundry!!!!).

The assistant has been victorious twice in using the potty. She was so proud of herself. I was so proud of her.

Okay, we'll end on that positive note. The assistant is learning to be potty trained.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

Week #17 Stash Report

I finished quilting the Japanese quilt! This week I'll bind it, and that'll be more yardage out, but for now I'll settle for finishing my rag rug (10 1/2 yards).

The Assistant bought a yard of funky fat quarters yesterday, but I only bought 3 yards of extra-wide backing for a commissioned T-shirt quilt, so I'm not counting my T-shirt.

So...

IN this week: 1 yard
IN YTD: 113

OUT this week: 10 1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 64 yards

YTD Totals: 49 yards IN

I'm making progress!

This week, I hope to finish the Japanese quilt and catch up on Judy's scrap quilt. I also have some basement curtains to work on, but since I have surgery on Friday (gulp), I'm not pushing myself too much. I have lots of work-work and house-work to complete by then!

T-shirt Quilt

This is the T-shirt quilt top I finished this week. The backing I bought is the same color as the red T-shirts. Since it's for a cousin as work, I didn't count the backing in. Like it?

Stash Report Week #16

This week, I finished a sewing carryall for myself. The pictures here aren't great, but you get the idea. It fits nicely in my purse, and it's nice not to worry about losing fabric or being poked by a stray needle. 1/2 yard out.

My sister and I went shopping for fabric to make the girls' flowergirl dresses. 6 yards in.

The assistant turned 3 yesterday, and what a day it was! She's still not old enough to skip naps, no matter what she says. She wore her new birthday dress until she had an accident (we're not officially potty training, but she removes her diaper most of the day!), so no picture of the dress I made for her. She's such a grown-up little girl sometimes, and she gave me the BEST hug this morning!

I've been working on the T-shirt quilt (you can see parts of it in the background of my picture)

I also caught up on mending and made some flying geese for Judy's newest stash quilt. I also quilted 6 rows on my Japanese quilt! I might be able to finish quilting it next week.


Report:
OUT this week: 1/2 yard
OUT YTD: 53 1/2 yards

IN this week: 6 yards
IN YTD: 112 yards

YTD Totals: 58 1/2 yards

This week, I hope to finish quilting the Japanese quilt, trim it, assemble the T-shirt top, work on the rag-rug, and maybe finish my flying geese.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

I keep deleting what I write because it's all so NEGATIVE!!!! That's the kind of day it's been. Enough said.

I thought I'd throw out a picture of something cheerful that I made for a coworker of DH when she married. (Hey, the picture was not sideways on my computer. Whatever!)

I killed most of my strawberry plants while waiting to plant them. Oops. The horseradish wintered over well, and is the greenest thing in the year. There's garlic and wild garlic growing, and I think I see my first potato sprouts. Hurrah! I can grow things (I think I can, I think I can...). The peas are sprouting also, and we ate our first spinach a few nights ago. It's still very early, but I've been pulling dandelions, and that makes me want to plant too.

The Japanese quilt is coming along well. I think I'll have it finished before my surgery. Another hurrah!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

Week #15 Stash Report

I used 1 yard this week: 1/2 of lousy fabric to mop up messes, and 1/2 yard to make tea towel rags.

IN this week: 0 yards
IN YTD: 106 yards

OUT this week: 1 yard
OUT YTD: 53 yards

YTD Total: 53 yards IN

I finished my Japanese quilt top last night and now need to make plans to quilt it. DH accidentally deleted the picture of the whole top, but I think you can see from this one what it looks like. How would you (simply) quilt this if it were yours? (The book is Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match by Susan Briscoe.)

We went for a long drive today to look at some land for sale. We're not seriously looking, but we want to know what's out there so when we can, we know what we can afford. I wish we could move today!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

Life is Good!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

Week #14 Stash Report & Goals

A finish! A finish! I finally finished a quilt! I love it, too!

Last night, I finished hand-stitching the binding down on Bonnie's Star Struck pattern for my BiL. I'm not sure I ever want to work with a pattern that ever piece has a triangle, but it's a great pattern! I bought her book, but decided against using the sashing as I didn't have the right colors. I think this is amazing as is. (I apologize for the blurry picture - this was the third, and it's still a little shaky!) My BiL requested soft red, and I had to pick a palette from there. The colors are a little more yellow than in real life, but not too far off. It's very different from my usual choices, but everytime someone new sees it, they saw, "Wow!" so I guess it worked. Good colors, Chris!

I also sent away 3/4 yards to someone across the ocean, so with the quilt, I managed to use 16 yards this week.

IN this week: 0 yards (whew!)
IN YTD: 106 yards

OUT this week: 16 yards
OUT YTD: 52 yards

Total YTD: 54 yards IN

At least I'm digging out of my hole. Now if I can just keep DH's itchy fingers from buying purple fabric to cover all the statues in our house for the last week of Lent (because I don't have time to make that purple fabric into properly seamed covers), I will be doing well next week!

Goals this week:
Finish sashiko blocks
Finish last 30 Japanese blocks
Assemble Japanese top
Tame scraps (the little drawer is overflowing)
Charity: work on rag rug
Trim interfacing for T-shirt quilt to 15 1/2"

Judy asked if our stashes were looking any smaller. I'm in the hole, so it doesn't look smaller, but it doesn look different. Since the first of the year, I have been buying more yardage and less small pieces, so I have a stack of yardage that doesn't fit in my little boxes. Maybe I might need a new storage solution?

from the room of Zana's Ninis

Long-Overdue pictures

of my haul from the closing quilt shop. The Assistant and the Screamer tried to make a nest out of the big pieces! The stripe I already had - I'm just showing you how nicely the fat quarters play.