Horse Wagon Ride

Lots of fun last week!

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

Needle and Thread Week 3

I completed another two roses: FOUR left!  I didn't quilt Sunday, as I was arriving home from a LONG car trip, but the rest of the week I quilted a little, and on nights I caught Bonnie's quiltcam, I quilted for more than an hour.

My goal is to have the quilt finished by the end of the first week of October.  I have a craft show October 6, so maybe by then!

I have no pictures, as the blue and orange stitching on white doesn't really show up.  You can get the idea from my previous posts.  You can check out others' progress (and probably some pictures) on the Quiltville blog.

Thank you, Bonnie, for hosting!

Where I started
Week 1
Week 2

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

28 hours in the car

is TOO long for a pregnant lady.

Friday morning, in the rain, before dawn, my family loaded up for an epic trip to Boerne, TX, which is near San Antonio, in the Brazos River Valley region.  DH, God bless him, manned driving for the most part, as it rained almost the entire trip.

South of Fort Worth, we took an unplanned detour off 35 to avoid Austin and San Antonio after consulting DH's dad as to the best path.  Taking the byroads allowed us to visit Glen Rose, a site of many of DH's childhood memories, including Dinosaur Valley State Park.  We spontaneously decided to stop, as Bear Cub Q loves dinosaurs.

Any idea what this is?

After this lovely diversion (truly beautiful, really. Just look how small we are in the world!), we drove the rest of the way to Boerne.

Saturday, we enjoyed attending a beautiful wedding.  On the way back to the hotel after the reception, Bear Cub Q decorated himself.

Sunday was an intense drive home, with raining causing hydroplaning and slower speeds all the way to Fort Worth, where we finally found a Mass time that didn't involve waiting in a town formore than 0 minutes.

Now it's time for some rest!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Needle and Thread Week 2

You can "kinda" see where I was last week in this post.

I completed two roses, so I'm now on the LAST row of roses: 6 more to go!  I only accomplished four hours of quilting, as Sunday I had crashed, and Friday/Saturday/Sunday I spent 28+ hours in the car (but that explanation is for another post).

My goal for this week, after I recover from post-travel pregnancy exhaustion, is to quilt two more roses.    Definite progress is being made!

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

A Day (or Afternoon) at the Fair

Dollar Day at the Kansas State Fair meant a "quick" trip after school.  Unfortunately, we almost had to cancel due to some vehicle title issues (another post, maybe, another time!), but decided we should push on, as our upcoming weekend was packed, and we didn't want to miss the fair.

I think, given how many of us there are, we are going to have to try to go on Dollar Day every year.  It was only $3 for all of us to get in, and ride on the midway were only 1 ticket, or $1.25 a piece, instead of 3 or 4 (or more!) tickets.  Also, the people congestion was much lower than on the weekend.

First stop was the train.  Q would have been very put out not to ride it, as he loves all things train.  DH is trying to get him to smile, but he's so confused!

DH was tiller shopping, so we visited all the giant combines and tractors too.

Last year, we snapped a photo of the Screamer in another tire (HERE).

Everyone else ended the evening with a ride on the ferris wheel.  I just watched, as the wheel was plastered with warnings about pregnant women not riding, and I don't do ferris wheels on the best days!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

One Hour of Needle and Thread

… or progress on the Screamer’s big girl quilt.

Two more roses and their echo quilting, accomplished in at least 5 hours of quilting.  Sunday-Thursday I did great, but Friday pregnancy nausea and exhaustion prevented any quilting.  Saturday, I was out of town and came home to a moving van and inherited furniture (let’s just sum it up with: OH, MY).  Sunday, after returning home from my parents’ house, was taken up by unpacking boxes from the previous day’s moving truck, and by the time the insanity calmed down, I could only think about bed.

It's so hard to see on white, but this is the quarter of the quilt I'm on right now!

Still, considering I haven’t hand quilted in two months, 5 hours and 5 days is pretty good.

I'm down to one more rose on this row, then it's the last row: 7 more roses!  The end is near!

Check out the other hand stitches on Bonnie's blog!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

The Life and Times

...of my children

Dress up at Exploration Place between Mommy's volunteering times.

Work on the "farm."  Pictures courtesy of the Assistant.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Handwork in Progress

I've finished my two small quilts that were most urgently needed, so now I'm going to focus on the Screamer's big girl quilt, a modified 9-patch that I bought fabric for years ago, on a shop hop.  She requested roses for the quilting, and that is NOT a quick thing when hand-quilting.

The whole quilt back.
Where you can see the safety pins at the top is
what I have left to quilt.

Close up of my current position.
Family members and friends have been signing the back of the quilt
as an extra-special backing!

When my morning sickness kicked in at about 7 weeks, it was hard for me to sit with the layers of quilt on my lap, and then packing to move relegated this quilt to a box.  Now that we're unpacked, the morning sickness is easing a little (finally, at 21 weeks), and at least some days are less than 100, I've decided Bonnie's challenge of an hour a day of handwork is just what I need to get this quilt done by Christmas.

These pictures are of the back of the quilt, as the front is too busy for me to see the quilting lines.  I've passed the halfway point, so I'm on the home stretch.  Now to get it done!

I don't know if this will be my handwork every day, as I run a small business crocheting hats, and business must come first sometimes!

I don't have any pictures of where I quilt because, well, I quilt wherever the kids are... In the living room at night, in the play room/sewing room when possible, outside if it's lovely and cool.

Now to go stitch!  (See who else is up for the challenge here!)

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

Dyeing Part II

The colors definitely stayed deeper this time, but my washer is a lovely color of pink even after several rounds of bleach.

I love the yarn, but do wish I could find a way to keep the white part white.  I want the stark contrast.  This lovely mix reminds me of raspberry sherbet, and when I wind the other skeins into balls, I’ll have a good selection of wine red-pink to create yummy hats.  The yarn is not nearly as pink as the picture makes it out to be; it’s more like the dress.

I’m quite happy with my dress.  It will fit another few months at least, doesn’t squish my pregnant belly, and is interesting to study.  I’m sure some of my friends think I’m nuts for dyeing dresses, but this should hide the dropped-food stains well!

The girls are begging for matching dresses, so I see more dyeing in our near future!  (I've ordered the dresses from Dharma Trading, and love the quality and weight of the fabric.)

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.