Life in the Room of Zana's Ninis

... is getting warm in the evening with the hot spring sun. (And no, there's no baby yet.)

We planted more seeds today - carrots, onions, chives, cabbage, evergreen bunching onion. Mmm... I'm looking forward to the spinach.

If Q isn't born by Tuesday, he will be forced out by induction. I was induced last time (it went WAY TOO FAST), but my due date is tomorrow, so he still has a week to make up his mind!

I am quite fond of my new walking foot. I didn't even know what the purpose of one was (remember, I am self-taught), but had read enough from other people to get an idea. I had no idea it was so much better for machine quilting than a regular foot. I am THRILLED as I have already quilted 6 placemats and a quilt this week, plus I have another quilt to work on throughout the week. They aren't bunching, puckering, or sliding. Oh, happy day!

I finished two bibs (pictures on Sunday, if I remember or am still around!). They're rough, but everyone else seems impressed, so they must be okay.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

New Sewing Machine

I have completely neglected to blog about my new sewing machine. A few weeks ago, while shopping at Target, I found a Brother XL-3750 sewing machine on clearance. You may remember that I said I have a dislike-hate relationship with my old Singer. It's lovely, but cannot quilt and piece as much as I wish. I talked to DH about buying a new machine, with the agreement that I would somehow pass on both of my old machines (the Singer and an old, simpler Brother).

Well, the new machine is not computerized, which I love. It has about 20 more decorative stitches than the old Brother, and my Singer only did zigzag, so it's fabulously better than the Singer. It came with a WALKING FOOT! Woohoo! I will be able to order a 1/4" foot soon, and that will only cost $5, instead of the $40 it was going to cost me to get one for my Singer.

My sister will be receiving the old Singer for her birthday. She has no sewing machine, but we both learned to use them when we were little. The Singer was my step-grandmother's, and she passed away several years ago, so I hated to sell it or junk it. For mending, it will be great.

The old Brother I hope to sell (for $25, if that!), to pay a little but off the new one.

I'm so excited that it has worked out so well. I was afraid I would have to spend $100s on a new machine, and that was not going to be in the books for a LONG time with the Assistant going to preschool next year.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #13

IN YTD: 79 1/4 yards

OUT YTD: 84 1/4 yards

YTD Total: 5 yards OUT

16 spools of thread used

I have a number of projects requiring cutting and piecing right now, plus a hand-quilting project that will take a while to finish. These projects are listed under my "Projects to Ponder" on the right. I'm not sure when any of them will be finished, as Thursday is my due date.

Be sure to check out the other stash reports on Judy's blog!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.zzvb (thanks, Assistant for your typing)mommy

Garden Stuff

Nope, no baby yet. Here's hoping, though, as I am dialated to 3 cm!

Today it's yucky and rainy, making me tired. In fact, even the Assistant took a nap.

Over the last two days, though, we transplanted tomatoes to bigger pots, planted onions, peas, mesclun, and spinach. The garlic looks great. DH even put the grape vines and hazelnut tree into temporary homes in buckets. The blueberries are freed from their basement sleeping place because they came out of hibernation. I think I'm most looking forward to fresh spinach and lettuce. Yum!

It's supposed to snow tomorrow (again)!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #12

For the story on my week, you might want to read this post. I am revising my measurements from that story, however, as I washed and ironed on Saturday only to find the garage sale finds were not as lengthy as they were supposed to be.

IN this week: 30 1/4 yards

IN YTD: 79 1/4 yards

OUT this week: 0 yards

OUT YTD: 84 1/4 yards

YTD Total: 5 yards OUT!

At least I'm still using more than I bought! I did finish the red and cream top and it is basted, awaiting handquilting. I finished another baby top that might get quilted sooner rather than later (but I'm out of safety pins). I think I should stop shopping for a while.

Check out the other stash reports on Judy's blog.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Pre-Baby Shopping

So, in the past, I have always gone shopping the day I am in labor. I don't think I can do that this time, as I have already purchased (gulp) 32 yards of fabric this week.

First, I've been working on taking back the Assistant's chopped up pink fabrics to make her a quilt. I realized there weren't enough after she had done so much cutting, so we went to JoAnn's to buy a little more. While there, I bought a piece to match my "Royal People" quilt (gift from Lori for my birthday) that I have been struggling to match. Of course, the Assistant picked out her own pink also (she won't even let me get close enough to snap a picture), and (GASP) Screamer started her own stash: red. I also picked up the lovely blue and green fabrics just for me. That was 10 yards.

On Thursday, I saw a sign for the next block over that there was a hug craft/fabric sale. Of course, I forgot to stop by, and thought maybe God was telling me I had enough fabric for now. On Friday, to occupy the girls while DH was cutting wood in the backyard, I thought I would take them for a walk around the block and see if we could check out this massive fabric sale. After all, it's good for pregnant women to walk, and sometimes these sales are overrated. There was no sale on the next block over; I was bummed; we headed for home.

Aha! The signs were set up for the next street, but the sale was actually at the end of MY block! (Shows you just how often I walk into my neighborhood, doesn't it. It becomes the ghetto in 3/4 mile, so I usually walk in another direction.) We started looking, and 22 yards later, plus 20 zippers for $10, jiffy grip for free, I was a doomed woman. A woman had died several years ago, and her husband was only now getting to selling off all her crafting supplies. The fabric was being sold for $1.50 a yard.

I bought 4 yards of Jiffy Grip (she actually threw it in for free), two yards of a light blue knit, 1 yard of a dark mint knit, and 1 yard of a dark green knit. If I mess up the projects, I won't feel as badly as if I had paid $5/yard for them.

I picked out this pink for the Assistant's quilt, and 8 yards of green to fill out my nearly-depleted green stash. The cream butterfly is in two 2-yd pieces, and as I used up most of my muslin, whites, and creams for a current quilt, I though a little replenishing might be a good idea.

Finally, there were some packages of fat quarters and fat quarter-ish (a little smaller) pieces. I bought one of yellows, one that contained music fabrics, and one that contained bright children's fabrics. The Assistant picked up her own bag of scraps, but she won't let me touch them or the pink pieces she chose. She's afraid I'll cut them. DH says I may have created a monster. I will be sharing some of it with a friend who will be adopting a baby due this summer. She is learning to sew, and needs some goodies too!

And I'm not in labor yet (despite the contractions), so I don't have a really good excuse. At least I'm still 3 yards out for the year.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #11

Three quilts finished this week! The Irish chain quilt used 6 1/2 yards, the map quilt 3, and the friendship star 2 3/4. Not bad, eh? The pictures are here.

IN this week: 1/2 yard (for the Assistant)
IN YTD: 49 yards

OUT this week: 12 1/4 yards
OUT YTD: 84 1/4 yards

YTD Total: 35 1/4 yards!

I did finish the red and cream main top, and just need to add borders. There are no goals for next week; it's DH's spring break, which means nothing goes according to schedule.

Check out the other stash reports on Judy's blog.

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

Last of the Baby Quilts

I finished the last baby quilts that I was hoping to finish before April 1!

First up is a quilt for my SiL, who is expecting six weeks after me. Remind me never, ever, EVER to pick a block that is entirely triangles that don't have easy matching points. The block is called "Aunt Martha's Irish Chain" and was made from Judy Martin's 500 Quilt Blocks book. The backing had to be shamrocks, and I used the last four leftover blocks (they have more errors than the front blocks). The end effect of the blocks is pretty cool, but I wouldn't want to make them again!.

Next up is Q's floor mat using the map fabric. It wasn't part of my original list, but I'm still glad to get it done. It's not really quilted. I did some quilting but had to rip it out. When I feel like doing more, I will, but I'm still calling this done for now.

The last baby quilt is Friendship Stars. Since I don't know if the mommy is having a boy or a girl, I tried to keep it pretty neutral. DH vetoed a purple fabric that I wanted to include, and I think he was right on. He usually is, which is why I don't like to ask for his advice. Fortunately, the colors for the front matched well with a piece of fabric I received for my birthday. Since there was only a yard of it, I had to make sure the top wasn't too big. I did end up adding a small strip of orange stars to make it fit. I simply machine quilted around the stars in echoing lines of yellow, bound it in orange, and

am relieved to know I'll have all the new-mommy quilts done until August!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

If only I could post the pictures.......

... you would be laughing awfully hard.

We returned from a trip to the grocery store and library. The girls asked to play outside, and even though it was wet, I thought it would be okay. The worst that would happen would be mud, right? I saw the Assistant go dance in a puddle and told her puddles were off limits.

So what happened next? I looked outside to see the Assistant COMPLETELY NAKED coming up the steps. Where were her clothes? Ah, in a muddy pile in the grass next to a giant puddle of water. And there was Screamer's shirt. Where was Screamer?

Oh, my. Screamer rounds the corner with her jeans around her ankles, her poopy diaper lying on top, poop all over her legs. She's crying because she HATES being dirty.

I run for the wipes and camera, take a few pictures, then settle down to figure out how to clean them up. The Assistant could be sent inside to clean up, but Screamer had muddy shoes on.

What an adventure!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

I thought it was April showers...

... that bring May flowers. This March rain is a little much for me. I went downstairs last night to start a load of laundry, and there was a river running across the floor to the sump pump.

Of course, we haven't cleaned up from the basement functioning as the winter workshop, so I picked up two cardboard boxes from the middle of the river to move to high ground. Oops, pulled a muscle doing that (good thing there's ice for such things!). Then I had to move the rugs I use for my feet while I'm doing laundry (concrete is so hard on my hips after a while).

Then, this morning, I walked downstairs to put the laundry in the dryer and start another load. Hey, where'd the river go? There are ponds, but the flood is gone.

Now, I dare not ask our neighbor what his basement looks like. I saw the lake in his backyard yesterday.

Woohoo! Spring is coming! The Assistant took her new raincoat outside (and used her sister's to keep our statue of Mary dry. She's always worried about Mary) and an umbrella to enjoy the rain.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #10

Only 3 1/2 weeks to my due date!

This week, I quilted 8 more blocks on my Aunt Martha's Irish chain. The plan is to finish it in the coming week. I also assembled the last baby quilt top for the "To Do" list and began machine quilting it. I hope to finish it too in the coming week.

I made myself a dumpy skirt with two yards of blue vines for wearing in the last few weeks (not much fits anymore) and for after the baby is born (when I tighten the elastic). I also had to make a spur of the moment doll quilt for a birthday party on Sunday. The Assistant helped pick the green fabric, but not she says it's "not cute." What does that mean? I finished a log carrier for DH (the other wasn't big enough, so now we're ready for next winter!).

Finally, I cut the pieces for a red and cream quilt that I hope to finish this summer.

I have now finished 10 spools of thread for the year.

IN this week: 0 yards

IN YTD: 48 1/2 yards

OUT this week: 3 1/2 yards

OUT YTD: 72 yards

YTD Total: 23 1/2 yards OUT

I'm almost half-way to my goal for the year, but I do intend to shop before Q is born. Still, I will not have far to go after he's born, so I won't be in a hurry to get back to finishing projects after he's born.

Goals for the week are: finish the Irish chain quilt, finish the friendship star baby quilt, make the red and cream pieces into a top, and make a floor quilt out the the map fabric I wrote about last week. The baby quilts take top priority!

Check out the other stash reports on Judy's blog!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

The Land

My DH, dad, and our partner in crime tilled a large garden on the land today. I hear DH almost went flying across the property when he first turned on the tiller. Oh, my. I wish I could have seen that. The land, to the best we can gather, has not been farmed for 100+ years, so we may have a "little" trouble with weeds this year.

I brought lunch and helped plant the potatoes. I don't think my swollen ankles appreciate that much, but I enjoyed being in the fresh air. I brought garden tools for the girls, and they dug around, laid out potatoes, and the Assistant planted garlic.

Now I need to go put my feet up!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Girls

I love my daughters.

The Screamer can say happy, sad, blue,... she's learning so many words right now. She gave herself a haircut a few weeks ago, and I had to "edit" it, so now her hair is much shorter than it was. She found the Assistant's fabric scissors and went to town. She's even working on learning to use the potty (a whole year + earlier than her sister!). She will ONLY eat cheerios for breakfast (and any other time she can convince me to feed her). Right now, she is clearing off the cutting table so she can do her own nini-ing, which consists of sticking 20 or more large-headed pins into a hotpad. It's great. I was just called over to put away a pen and pencil that didn't "belong."

(This picture was BEFORE the haircut... sometime in December.)

The Assistant is so ridiculously polite. "Oh, thank you, Mommy, for..." She likes to go outside and bathe our statue of Mary. Both girls like to say goodbye to Mary before we leave in the car. She wants to wear pink (lots of it), frills, and dresses. For the past two weeks, she has wanted a "baked" breakfast for eating instead of cheerios. So we've had waffles, pancakes, and German pancake. She will help me beat the eggs and stir in the flour.

I'm so lucky to be a stay-at-home mom.

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

Yogurt Failure!

I tried to make yogurt from a quart of goat's milk yesterday. Can we say curdled milk? I think I did okay until I had trouble lowering the temperature and keeping it low. By the end I figured it out, but it was too late. Oops. Now who said making yogurt was easy? I've only made it twice that the girls have actually found it edible. Oh, well!

Today we're going to the grocery store with my mom for our monthly shopping spree. With the baby due in less than a month, I'm going to be doing a little stocking up in addition to the normal large buying!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.