Scraps to Treasures Quilt

I entered the Scraps to Treasures competition on the HGTV boards, sent in my fabrics, and just stared at the fabrics that arrived.  There were beautiful, but I struggle to even imagine making a random scrappy quilt.  So... I started sorting.  Yup, I'm a sorter.  Sorted.  Sorted again.  Light to dark, merging colors, rearranging colors.  Finally, I settled on dividing the colors into 8 different ranges and started pulling piles from my stash to add.  Fortunately some colors were already well represented, but I added plenty of orange, yellow, and purple.

Oops... Shoulda' rotated.
Anyway, these are my chosen fabrics, minus background.

My sketch.
I have a Mac and a non-compatible EQ5, so I draw out by hand.
Usually, this saves me from being too ambitious.
This time?  All triangles?  Awfully ambitious.

The center star laid out on the back of a cheapo table cloth.

Then I rolled it up and left it.  What was I thinking?  When I finally started piecing, I realized I had waited much longer than I should have to start.  Attempting to keep that many triangles in order (hundreds... probably thousands...)  drove me a little batty (wait, I was already there...).

Sewed a few triangles.  Then a few more.  Then I would sew something else, just to not sew triangles.  As I would finish a quadrant, I would wonder just what I was thinking.  Would it all lay flat after a firm pressing?  You see, I didn't iron all the resulting squares after each sewing marathon.   I have three small children.  They don't approve of Mama keeping her sewing in order, and ironing and the following trimming would have encouraged them to "help" by rearranging.  I didn't have time for that!

Did I mention the entire quilt is triangles?
This was only the dog ears from the blue and purple quadrant!

Top complete.
You can see the tan star in the corner... There are LOTS of stars in this quilt!
If I had been thinking when I laid them out, I would have made the center star radiate out more...
But I didn't think of that until I was half done.

Then it hits me.  How am I going to quilt this baby?

LOTS of layers.  Lots of missing points.

Hand quilting... cross-hatching in the "white" spaces.
Scroll-y tendrils in the large main star.
Little tilde marks in each eighth of the small stars. 

May I present "Star Light"... Thanks, Alzbe, for the suggested name and final photos.

Ahem.  About this backing.  I am frugal to a fault (in certain things, anyway).  I showed DH this backing, and he said, "Did you make it that ugly on purpose?"  Don't you know you don't say things like that to a quilter?

Awesome additions you should know about:
This quilt will be donated to charity/a needy individual.  Do you know someone who needs this quilt?  Leave a comment, and if your story tugs my heartstrings, I'll contact you for info!

You can check out all the other quilts HERE.  Aren't they amazing?

My quilt won first place for best use of color!

If you are a visitor from the HGTV boards, thank you for stopping by, and I hope you stay a while!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #44

Is it really week 44?   That hardly seems possible?

Many good things this week...

My hands are much improved, so I can move on with some sewing and crocheting projects... But slowly. I would like to prevent a flare-up!

I finished my memorial quilt (I'll show pictures once I have permission).  I used 1/2 yard from my stash for this quilt, bringing my stash usage to 27 1/2 yards of the 69 1/2 I want to use by year's end.

Gwynette won my pattern giveaway, and I'll ship her pattern on Monday. Thank you to everyone who entered.

I finished the last six blocks for the center of my Favorite Things quilt.  Now, three sides of border remain, hopefully to be completed by the end of November!

With a friend, I canned blueberry jam, strawberry jam, peach jam, and mint jelly. We are hoping we will each have a year's worth of jam on hand.  We also made applesauce and apple pie filling, although I didn't cook the filling long enough, as it didn't set.

The voting is over for my Scraps to Treasures quilt, so in the next week, I'll be posting about its creation.  I think it's safe to post a picture, so here is the finished product:

Check out the other stash reports at Judy's place.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #43

This was supposed to be a week of rest, and I blew it all on Saturday, quite possibly.  Let me make excuses...

I quilted 7 blocks of Favorite Things, which is less that 25 minutes of hand-quilting a day.

I machine pieced blocks and finished a memorial top.  No hand-hurting there.

I crocheted ONE hat for my sister.  And stopped.  All week.  (Well, almost... I finished a scarf.  Still, that's much less than usual.)

Then, being a genius, I forgot that taking 8 hours of training on Saturday would involve at least 3 or 4 hours of taking notes.  And I take notes with the same hand that holds needles and hooks.  DOH.

So, another week of rest, but hey, I'll be able to finish the center of my F.T. quilt this week, even at a reduced pace, and I'm not crocheting this week, so there's hope!

Someday I too will bust stash again (and I didn't buy anything, which helps!)

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

Design Wall Monday

No design wall. Not much stitching. I'm taking a self-enforced break to rest my hands.

BUT!!! I am having a giveaway. Hop over to sign up.

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

Ring Around the Runner

Congrats to Gwynette!

I'm so excited!  I've finally finished editing (with the help of some fabulous people like Liz and Vicky... not to mention my sister Alzbe) my first pattern.  While I hope it's not my last, my printer might!  Yes, I am self-publishing for the time being.  What's the point of paying someone else to do it when I don't know if it will sell enough copies for that to make sense?

Anyway, this pattern was born of the monochromatic challenge posted by Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times for 2011.  My idea was to make a table runner a month to create enough for gifts for all the adult women family members in my life.  After one or two, I thought it might be fun to share this pattern with others, as it's super easy!

(10 of the 11 I made over the course of the year, hence, the wrinkles)

The table runner finishes at approximately 18" x 60".  It can be made using anywhere from two fabrics to totally scrappy!  There's even a page where you can design your own, with guidelines on how many of each piece you will need to cut.  Directions are given for a 3 color with alternating rings (the green and red one below), two colors, four colors, and a color wash using a fat quarter bundle.

Sound interesting?  You can purchase your own at my etsy site for $8 plus shipping.  I'll ship pretty quickly, as I have some printed and ready to run to my favorite box store!  Even better, for one lucky quilter, I'm giving away a copy of this pattern.  Leave a comment here telling me your favorite color combo.  I'll draw a name (or have my trusty Assistant draw a name) on Friday, October 21, probably after my Assistant get home from school.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

(By the way, if you find that it is sold out at my etsy site, check back later.  I'm not going to list 100, as I get charged per listing, but will definitely add more if I sell out!)

Stash Report Week #42

Only 10 weeks remain to the year, so I am hard at work considering my goals for next year.  One thing I know I will have to do is SLOW down on my quilting.  After the rush to work on sewing projects while preparing for a craft fair with lots of crocheting, my hands hurt, particularly my thumbs.  What does that means?  Slow down!  I'm not very good at listening to such instructions, but I have done better this week.

I finished my placemats on Saturday, not rushing through the binding like I normally do in order to give my hands a break.  This resulted in 2 1/2 yards out, bringing my total to 27 of 69 1/2 yards I would like to use by year's end.

I also completed my UFO for the month.  The amount of trimming involved was slightly sickening, and I've promised myself I won't let it go years again before I sort out what stays with the pattern pieces!

A memorial quilt is in the works as a commission, and as a leader-ender type thing, I am working on the Screamer's red and aqua quilt.  Other than that, next week only contains quilting on my Favorite Things and making ONE hat for my lovely older sister.

The most exciting thing in my week was finished my table runner pattern!  Come back tomorrow to enter to win a free pattern.  Woohoo!  If you haven't seen my table runners, here're a few of them...

Check out the other stash reports at Judy's place.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

UFO #5 Complete!

UFO #5 for me was a bag (okay, multiple bags) of scraps intended someday for a scrappy double wedding ring quilt.  I just kept shoving scraps in, never measuring to see what was the largest size of scrap I needed to keep, and when I went to empty out the scrap drawer, it was bad.  REALLY bad.  As in, I found two gallon-sized bags worth of scraps I had not trimmed down, ranging in size from 1" square to huge pieces for my scrap drawer (I think I decided I didn't want those fabrics in my stash anymore, so they went to the scrap bin.  And reproduced).

I have been trimming a fist-full a day (scientific, eh?), determining that I only needed to keep a 4" x 3" scrap for the quilt, and the rest needed to be trimmed down for the scrap bags.  Now, after 13 days of trimming, I'm only left with this mousy little pile.

I think I have a ways to go.

On the other hand, my scrap bags are plumping up.  I may need to (next year) make an effort to use these.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #41

A finish this week!  I think I finished my monochromatic challenge in record time for me... 3 days.  The link is here.

I quilted seven more blocks of Favorite Things.  If I quilt seven a week, I will have the center and one side of the borders complete by the end of October, meaning I will have only three sides of borders to finish in November to still have a finished quilt for our bed before the winter is half begun.

I survived my first craft show.  Do you want to know the silliest part?  Despite my photo-awesome sister being there with me, we didn't take a. single. picture.  Nope.  Notta one.  I made more money than I expected, enough to pay back 75% of what I borrowed from the family budget to finance this endeavor.  I will be proud when I am no longer in debt.  I don't like debt, even between my husband and I.  I should be able to pay off the debt by the end of the year!

I "unofficially" released my new pattern at the craft show, belatedly realizing that NOWHERE on the cover does it say the finished size of the table runner!  Oops.  I DID sell two patterns (but no table runners... that's okay, they're for Christmas anyway!).  After I correctly my little glitch about the cover, I will have on "official" release of the pattern here.  Hopefully that will take place next week.  Stay tuned, as I will give away a free pattern (and you, oh lovely pattern testers, will get one of your own, of course!).  (See a finished one!)

Three special hat orders, then I think I'm taking a week off of crocheting... My wrists and thumbs could use it.

The children, all three of them, are finally on the mend, and I am feeling much better after a lightning attack of the WORST mastitis I have ever suffered (and this is the fourth time, I think).

I'm going to bed to listen to the rain and just RELAX.

Check out the other stash reports at Judy's place.

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

Monochromatic Quilt Challenge

This may be my quickest finish yet for the monochromatic challenge!

It's not really wonky...
I just didn't take my time to make it a tidy picture.
(Does that surprise anyone?)

I finished last night, after my post, and washed and dried it today.  Does this mean I'm also done with my table runners (a UFO still on my list)?  I can't decide.  I might do one more next month, I might not.

It was inspired by a not-so-accurate reinterpretation of a design my sister tried to describe over the phone.  I botched it, but I'm cool with that!

Now that the baby's asleep, I want to quilt!

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

To Do List

trim scraps for my ufo
quilt & bind RWB runner (almost!)
quilt 7 blocks of my Favorite Things quilt (3 done!)
finish two frog hats
pink beanie
custom order form 
table runner pattern (worked on it!)
take care of two sickies
clean the inside of the van
fold laundry (that's been waiting since we came back last week... eek!)

I told my mom I lost an hour of my life cleaning the van, but she reminded me that it is clean, so that's a good thing.  Cleaning vehicles is just one of those things I've never felt compelled to do... but I did it!

Despite illness in the house today, we've been busy and had lots of fun (kids too, not just me!).

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Design Wall Monday

One last table runner before the fair (if I finish it... I think I can, therefore, I can!).  This might be my last table runner for the year, too, since next month I might have plans other than a table runner for the monochromatic challenge!

I'm also quilting away on my Favorite Things quilt (pattern: Peaches and Dreams by Judy Laquidara).  Now that I'm doing the blocks in a simple free-hand line, I'm making progress.

The Screamer's aqua/turquoise and red quilt is moving along as a "leader-ender" type of project, in between piecing the above runner.

There are four placemats ready for quilting.  I may sneak in one or two while I quilt the RWB runner, but I doubt I'll get to all four this week.

My UFO for the month is a charm double wedding ring quilt.  No, I'm not going to make the whole quilt this month!  I'm sorting out the bag of scraps that are to be cut down.  Why did I save a 12" x 12" piece when I only need a 3" x 4" piece?  Because I'm so gosh darn lazy I never bothered to measure how big a piece I needed.  Therefore, as I am embarrassed by my laziness and the mess, I am cutting all the scraps down to 3" x 4", and the rest go into the appropriate scrap bags.  This will tidy up my scrap drawer and give me a much better view of what I already have!  Maybe, in a year or two, I'll be ready to start cutting the arcs (that might be on NEXT year's UFO list!).

Check out the other design walls at Judy's place.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #40

An unexpected 1/2 yard out is all I have to report!  The Assistant, in between bouts of fever, chopped up some of her stash and threw it out when I was rocking Bear Cub Q to sleep.

We are done moving for a while, I hope.  The previous week's packing was to move out in preparation for 34 new windows.  Now that we are home and the Assistant is sick, we are settling in quite nicely (she doesn't makes as many messes laying on the couch :().

I stripped down my sewing room even more from my cleaning spree a week or so ago, moving the in progress project bucket to the basement.  It's just a clutter magnet anyhow!

What am I working on?  A red, white, and blue table runner.  My "Favorite Things" quilt.  Screamer's blue and red quilt.  My UFO: moving forward with a charm double wedding ring quilt.  A craft fair on Saturday.  Pondering next year's goals.

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

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