Easy Street Step 1

192 tidy 4-patches sewn and pressed!

Friday will bring the revelation of step 2.  I hope to keep up as easily.

I even managed a few spools through the process (now I have 20!)

The mystery from the beginning:

Easy Street on Bonnie Hunter's blog

Fabric Selection

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

the Blues

Yay for a finished quilt!  I finished the binding Friday morning at the beginning of  my really boring bed rest.

This quilt was born of a splurge purchase of a variety of Kona blues and some Ash.  The backing is a fun ABC print, apropo for a first grade teacher.

This is the third year I've made the Assistant's teacher a quilt.  Sometimes they're for Christmas, sometimes they're for the end of the year.  This year, it might be a pre-Advent gift, just to make sure it doesn't get lost in the post-Christmas, post-baby chaos that will be January.

Why am I calling it the Blues?  The Assistant won't be at the Catholic school she's attended for three years since we moved this summer and it's a 40-minute drive as opposed to a closer Catholic school (only 15 minutes straight down the road).  Next year, Spunky and the Assistant will have a new school and new set of teachers.

Besides, it's a blue quilt!

The pattern was inspired by Cherry House's book City Quilts, particularly by City Green.  No, it looks nothing like it.  It was inspired.  I'm not good at following directions.

I agonized for several weeks over the quilting of this top.  I like hand quilting, but didn't know what I'd do.  A meander, I though, would break up the lines of color too much, as well as perhaps show more of the unevenness of some of my sashing strips.  Finally, I settled on a wave across the quilt, keeping with the emphasis of the color strips and providing some lovely texture.

I love it!

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

(and come Friday, this will be linked to AmandaJean's blog!)

In Between Quilts

Bonnie Hunter calls them leaders and enders.  Whatever you may call them, these bitty spools are my in-between bits for a future quilt.  Usually I do my own thing, but I've been looking for a group-type project in which to participate.  As next year progresses, we'll see who else joins in.

I only have 17 so far, but the past few weeks have been more flimsy-assembling and quilting rather than block piecing.  Now, with Easy Street in progress and a few other smaller projects to tackle, I should make better progress.

And now to go put my feet up!

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

Easy Street

Since I can't sew right now, I thought I'd update on my progress on Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery.  This year, my first to participate, is called Easy Street.

I think taking pictures is safe while on the couch, so I took pictures of my fabrics.  I traded for some of my black-on-whites and apple greens.  Fortunately, turquoise is my favorite color, so I was set there, and purple turned out not too low either, although I did add a few pieces.

Shopping rounded out my black-on-whites and apple greens, and brought me a grey, as the only grrey in my stash was too light.

My favorite greens are from this stash pack by Vicki Welsh.  Aren't her fabrics amazing?

Hand dyed fabric from Vicki Welsh on the left!

My strip sets are sewn and pressed.  If I can sneak in a few upright minutes today (shhh!), I will subcut a few, but I won't have my four-patches done for awhile, I would guess.

What are you going to do with your quilt, if you are participating?  I'd love to say it's going on my bed, but I doubt it.  The colors aren't really my DH's favorite.  It may just stay in the basement, where I share a room with the kid's toys.  We can always use a few more quilts down here!

Check out everyone else's progress at Bonnie's linkup.

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

Life's Little Happenings...

Three weeks ago, I STUPIDLY met up with some poison ivy.  I knew it was there, thought I was careful enough, and never again will I believe in "careful enough."

A week ago, I saw my OB for my 32 week checkup, and he prescribed Prednisone to help with the inflammation.  It caused some sleepless nights, but what's new about that?  I can always tell when a medical person has poison ivy: either they are immediately deeply sympathetic (they've had it), or they tell you to put more cortisone cream on it (they haven't.  Maybe they should roll in it and treat it only with cortisone cream.).

I thought I was on the upswing until my entire calf muscle began taking on an angry red color and my leg from the knee down began swelling like a camel's hump as soon as I had been up for an hour.  Only an entire night in bed would bring down the swelling.  My mom, a nurse, had been keeping an eye (both eyes, really) on my lack of progress, and on Thanksgiving told me I needed to go back to one of my doctors, as she suspected a brewing case of cellulitis.

Being the no-medicine-if-possible, path of least resistance person that I am, I scoffed until I began to read up on cellulitis. If it entered my bloodstream, I could end up in the hospital with an IV.  And remember, I'm pregnant, so this could also bring on early labor.  My younger sister had her last child at 33 weeks, and even with minimal complications, it was a long time before Nuggette came home.  Dang.

Any holiday weekend is a terrible time to find a doctor.  Needless to say, the nurse on call for my OB had never had poison ivy and blew me off.  Fortunately, our family doctor's practice had an urgent care clinic.  I'm now on my second round of steroids plus a round of antibiotics.  In order to manage the swelling, my mom has insisted I go on temporary bed rest.

Boring.  Boring.  Boring.  Not to mention hard to do with three kids running around, a busy husband, and in-laws in town.

Now to survive until Monday, when I'll see my OB and hopefully be told the lack of swelling means I can get up and around more.

And it's all my own STUPID fault.  Lesson learned.

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

Scrappy Strings

 This quilt top, approximately 50" x 68", was a long time in the making!

Every year, I try to make one charity quilt.  Sometimes I have an intended recipient, sometimes I don't.  This year, I had no plan when I started this quilt.

I cut 8.5" squares of remnant batting, sorted out the very light and dark green, blue, and purple scraps from my scrap bags, and began piecing.  I won't do it this way again… the batting stretched and distorted too much!  The pattern is from one of Bonnie Hunter's books, and I used it as my leader/ender project.

I don't think I like piecing with strings/ strips like this.  It just wasn't my cup of tea to have to press, sort, trim, over and over, then sort the trimmings to see what could be used in another block.  I'd rather do the cutting in one big batch and know what will be left.  Still, the quilt turned out better than expected, even with my wonky quilting (I was trying to have a more open quilting pattern, but that means it's a little… wonky!).

Now I need to decide its future home.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  I'd prefer a local-ish charity/person in need, as shipping is costly!

My next leader/ender project, possibly also destined to be a charity quilt, is spools, a la Bonnie Hunter as well.  I already have a vision of the next one after that too!  But one quilt at a time, especially since there are only seven weeks left until Baby 4's due date!

I should also note: this quilt is #2 on my Short List.  Now on to quilting #3!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Quiet Time Quilt

I just realized there's a dust mote on the camera lens, as there's really no spot
on the sashing. Oops!

Baby 4 has a quilt!

Quilted in a meander, backed in lovely chocolate-colored Kona, bound in the same brown, all I need to do is wash it and add it to the hospital bag!

This was a quick quilt partly out of necessity and partly because I'm finishing a string quilt that has taken far too long to finish and has SO many errors!  I like it.  There are two blues for the bigger squares and one, cerulean, for the cornerstones.  I love the colors and hope DH will approve of the appropriately masculine quilt.

One done from my short list.  Now on to the next!

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

P.S. I'm linking up to AmandaJean's Finish It Up Friday.  Let's see how many more weeks I can squeak out a finish!

The Short List

Vicki, the LA Quilter, has posted a short list to complete by the end of January.  Since Baby 4 is due January 9, the deadline for mine will be January 9!

1.  Baby 4's quilt.  In record time, I cut, pieced, and quilted it.  It's in need of binding!

2. Scrappy string quilt, ala Bonnie Hunter, just finished being quilted today, so it too needs binding.

3.  The Assistant will be giving her teacher a quilt for Christmas... Or the end of the year.  Preferably Christmas, as I think I'm avoiding quilting it out of nervous fear.  I WILL quilt and bind it!

4.  A t-shirt quilt was commissioned by my DH's cousin, and she assured me she was in no hurry, but, seriously, I need to at least cut up the shirts and piece a top before the baby comes.

The only new project I intend to start is Bonnie Hunter's post-Thanksgiving mystery, Easy Street.

If I finish the above, next up will be...

5. Twirly skirts for my sister.

6. Work on a sampler quilt for my brother and SiL.

7.  The DWR quilt I owe my photo-savvy sister (who is patiently waiting for #5 too).

That's enough, don't you think?

From the room of Zana's Ninis,
Katie Z.

Week in Review

Saturday, I was able to meet up with several other members of the Wichita Modern Quilt Guild for a sew-in.  Rather than bring my machine, I opted for a cutting mat, rotary cutter, and my overflowing bag of scraps.   I made excellent progress, as Sunday morning I sorted the remaining scraps and haven almost empty bag!  I will get to the remaining bits and pieces soon, but my little basket of spool pieces was overflowing, so I'm don't until I make a few spools.

Another member and I have decided to tackle Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt together.  She has a newborn right ow, and I probably will in the middle of making the quilt, so neither of us will be critical if the going is slow.  In checking out my stash, I found 0 black-on-white prints and few apple greens.  I have a lovely piece of gray, but there isn't enough of it.  A little shopping has taken care of all but the grey!

Baby Four is due in nine weeks and still has no quilt, so I pulled fabrics, cut, and began sewing.  As I type, I have the blocks pinned and ready for sewing.  Once his top is done and basted, I will have  THREE quilts awaiting quilting, so that will be my next project!

I had great plans for quilting and binding this week, but... Man makes plans and God laughs... Although I don't really believe God was laughing at what happened.  Monday night, the Assistant, while preparing her lunch, stepped on a piece of glass that ended up requiring two surgeries, two different emergency rooms, and an overnight stay in the hospital to remove.  What a nightmare! My DH earned some time off of purgatory as he navigated her care at the hospitals, even thinking to contact our family doctor to have some help in making decisions.

Now, Thursday night, I have a whole new appreciation for keeping an energetic six year old off her feet so her incision can heal.  My assistant is quite a trooper.  She didn't complain in the hospital, or even about missing her first art class, and slogged through the piles of homework so it would be done (even though her teacher is VERY accommodating).  It's just a matter of time till her bandage is off and life can proceed.

ETA:  Now, Friday afternoon, I have a finished top, albeit with a rather unattractive picture.  The wind is blowing, the sun is setting, and my kids are restless!  It is flat!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Prayers, Please

My daughter, the Assistant, stepped on glass.  After three attempts to remove it, including two surgeries and an overnight stay in the hospital, she's glass free.

Please pray we get her home safely and comfortably!

Scrap Taming

Recently, I realized I had not trimmed down scraps and organized them since before our move in July.  In reality, it had probably been April since I last sorted out my scraps, and the drawer containing them all was overflowing.

Add to that my desire to join in Bonnie Hunter's spools as my leader and ender project since my string flimsy is waiting to be quilted.  Besides that, the string flimsy resulted in a gallon-size bag of 1", 1.5", 2", and 2.5" strips needing to be returned to their proper bags.

Ay-ay-ay.  I have a mess.

This bag was overflowing with scraps in various stages of needing trimming.  I can recognize the projects most of them came from, and I'm enjoying selecting which scraps are long enough to cut the materials for a spool.

My spools will all have white, cream, or light gray backgrounds.  I was much more lenient in my string flimsy, but I would like to use some medium value fabrics, and I can't do that if I allow too much variety in my background.

I love keeping scraps... I love the lack of waste...  but I have a hard time remembering to trim AND remembering to use them.  Then there's the problem of not having a cutting table (I sit on the floor and use the coffee table in the play room), which is compounded by my bulging belly, and the mess has grown!

Often times, I find that patterns that purport to be scrappy require too much of any given fabric for my scraps to work.  Most of my scraps are really scraps... short strips, not long enough to count for much.  I'm even having a little trouble cutting spools, as many of my 1.5" strips aren't long enough.  Oh, well.  I'll progress as far as I can, and they'll be find for leaders and enders in between other projects.

What do you make with your scraps?  Do you bother to keep scraps?

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

Friday Wrap-Up

This week, all my sewing/quilting was wrapped up in preparing for All Hallow's Eve/Halloween.  This year, I let the girls choose their own costumes for me to make.  Little did I know that Spunky would love the pattern envelopes so much that they would vanish... until a scant week before Halloween.  Then, they both requested to be Mary, Mother of God, but with different patterns.  All righty, I like saintly girls.  The eldest, my Assistant, posed nicely.

Spunky and Bear Cub Q (a train engineer) were less cooperative in regards to pictures.  Here they are riding in the wagon for the 1-mile circuit of our neighborhood.  We turned back after only three houses as nobody was home.  Instead, we visited immediate neighbors and drove into town to hit a few blocks there.

I also finished a big order of two Wild Turkey hats for my business.

Thursday night I basted my string quilt, so I'm hoping to have a more quilty finish by next week.  I also cut the fabric for my baby's quilt, as his due date is 10 weeks away and I need to get busy!

I'll be linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.