January Get It Done

Whew!  I need to remember that when all six of us are home, there is no time to quilt!  I felt I had pretty attainable goals for December, but here I am lurking in a dimmed kitchen without the biggest goal complete.  The kids are still asleep, and if I'm quiet enough, they'll stay asleep after I finish this blog post and I'll be able to quilt.

Goals were:
1.  The Back to Square One mystery: finish as a top.  This is done, and I'm cutting fabric to piece a back.

2.  Use up the scrap of the month.  Since there wasn't a specific color for December in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I cut some more bits for my Omigosh quilt and cut myself some slack.  I don't have any blocks ready for a top yet, so it was nice not to push myself to do anything here.

3.  Finish the hand quilting of the gold and cream parts of the DWR quilt.  This is the insanity I wish I had kept up on.  Unfortunately for my goals, I took off Thanksgiving for company (the company wasn't unfortunate, since it was my sister and this is her quilt!).  I also didn't work on it last week much as we were traveling and needed all the available van space for luggage and, on the return trip, gifts.  I have one and a half rings left.  By the end of the day, I hope to have it done.

4.  I finished my modern Hexi quilt and gave it to the woman who drives my girls to school.

5.  I randomly hoped to finish a quilt for one of my daughters' teachers.  I have the blocks done!

I have lots of goals for January.  Lots.  Too many.  That's okay... it's better to have too many than none at all, and all too soon my gardening will be taking my time!

1.  Tell It To The Stars (the next mystery by Judy Laquidara) step 1.

2.  Scraps: bright blue: Carrie Nation blocks of my 1.5" and 2.5" scraps, Omigosh bits as leaders and enders, cut a strip of fabric from each of the blue fabrics in my stash for 4" charms as well as scraps for my scrap bin, and a blue skirt.  Too much.

3.  Quilt and finish Easy Street, which has been aging a year.

4.  Quilt and finish Falling Leaves, a pattern from Weekend Quilts, one of Judy Laquidara's books.

5.  Prepare a backing for Back to Square One.

6.  Three vests for Easter/wedding clothes.

7.  Quilt all the blue inner bits of the melons on the DWR quilt.

I need to go quilt!

Check out other goals as part of the Get It Done challenge on Judy's blog.

Scraps, Scraps, Scraps, Scraps!

Greens chopped up and turned into leaves...

... as well as a stack of light blue for a quilt back.  I see lots of scraps in my future!

Other scrappy projects are shared as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each Saturday.

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

Cutting Scraps, the Crazy Way

First, Mr. JoJo is mobile and a royal pain.  He thinks the rotary cutter should be his, so if he's close enough, make a dive for it.  Or does this:

 Notice the Assistant looking on and laughing.

Before and after his climbing antics, I cut another tray of 4patches and 9patches.  Good times, folks.

Maybe I will actually get to sew today.  I desperately need to quilt, but am lacking motivation.

Good sewing to you all!

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

Recently Completed

A silly sock monkey hat!

Sewing Rooms Spaces

As the final stop for the three week tour, I present...

my sewing spaces!

My sewing table shares space with the playroom, so here I keep the iron, yarn supply, sewing table, and design wall.  The coffee table is my cutting board, and JoJo loves to chase the rotary cutter.  Scary. I try to cut fabric when he's asleep.

 At the very bottom of the bookshelf, you can see my Easy Street (Bonnie Hunter's 2012 mystery) waiting for quilting.  I almost always quilt tops immediately, but this one has been waiting a year.  There was a baby born shortly after it was finished, if I recall correctly!

 The trunk holds non-sewing things like blankets and a Wi.  The top hold current projects and almost always some mending I'm trying to ignore.


In our utility room, the previous owners built in some counters.  One side holds the kids' art supplies.  The other recently became home to my fabric stash and project boxes.  Not all of my stash fits in the boxes, so I have some sewing to do!  The shelf above holds materials the kids can use... when supervised!  There's my Back to Square One top waiting for me to find time to piece the backing.  As soon as I finished hand quilting my DWR for my sister, I'm hand quilting this beauty!

We also have a closet under our stairs, part play place for the kids, part storage for sewing things.  A box of recycled jean pieces, home dec weigh fabric, batting scraps, giant pillows for a future project, clothing fabric, and a box of Tshirts for a quilt for the same sister who's getting the DWR.  (You can wait, can't ya?)

Since my kids share my spaces, I can't leave out too many dangerous things, so while the piles collect, they usually have to be put away sooner rather than later!

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

Challenge Quilt

A few months ago, I picked up my fat eighth roll to take part in the Wichita Modern Quilt Guild's challenge quilt.  We're part of the national Modern Quilt Guild, so this is a national to-do.

When I received the little roll, I had to admit myself uninspired.  I do not, in general, approach quilting with a broad array of fabrics.  I usually only work with a few colors, so gray, orange, turquoise, navy blue, and yellow was doing nothing for me!

Finally, after tossing around a few ideas with myself (last year I made a lovely chevron quilt), I pulled out my hexagon ruler and started eliminating fabrics.  Since I didn't have to use all the fat eighths and I could add whatever solids or Riley Blake basics I wanted, I knew I could limit my palette.

I chose grey, orange, and turquoise fabrics, paired with white, and cut hexagons and 2.5" strips.  Away we went, with a bit of a learning curve!  (Funny angles, lots of pressing...)

Once the top was assembled, quilting had me stymied.  After all, the fabric already had great visual texture, but the white was pretty flat.  An idea flitted by that I should mimic the pattern of each fabric in the white of the block, but that seemed pretty complicated.

I did it anyway.

It took me much longer than I anticipated, but I love it.  The quilting is by no means perfect, as I only marked when absolutely necessary.  Since I matched bobbin thread to fabric color, the back looks pretty spiffy too.  Marking is hard with littles around.

The quilt is flat, but my helper couldn't quite smooth it out!

I bound it in what orange I had left, so mostly dots with two strips of chevrons.

Bear Cub's trains

Finished at a nice lap size, I'm pretty happy with the results.  Perfect, no, but I definitely learned a few things and expanded my FMQ horizons!

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

Scraptastic Saturday

We have a busy day on the books, folks, but that's how it works at our house.  All or nothing with no in between.

Today, I have quilt guild from 10-2.  I'll race home for James to attend a wedding at 2.  He'll race home for us to get the kids squared away for the faculty dinner for James' school.  Late night, crabby kids, bed.  Sunday is Zana's first confession, so we'll be having company for dinner and an excited girl.

What do I have to show in scrap use?  Not much.  Much of the last few weeks has been caught up in quilting my modern quilt (more on that later.  I'm still inching away on the binding.)

Bear Cub Q wanted to share the numberjacks with you: 01236540123456987

Check out other scrap uses as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

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

REAL Studio Tour Storage Solutions

My current favorite storage solution is this little craft box my MiL gave me last Christmas.  For a while, Bear Cub Q stored scraps and bits of things, but I took it back when I inhaled deeply and jumped off the crazy cliff.

See, I'm going to make a quilt in which most pieces are 1" unfinished.  There are hundreds of 9 patches and 4 patches, so as I cut up my scraps, I'm dropping each set into these little adjustable slots.  While it would be nice to strip piece everything, the reality is that I have short scraps to work with, and strip sets can be dicey to track with JoJo around.  Precutting and having a reliable storage spot is better for me.

I love the four different trays, as I can precut quite a bit but not have the risk of the whole kid and caboodle being dumped by an enterprising toddler.

I can even keep the uncut strips in the top compartment along with a small rotary cutter and ruler.  Security is important here, as JoJo is obsessed with diving after a moving rotary cutter.

Check out lots of other storage option on Vicki's blog.

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

Real Studio Tour

Vicki Welsh is hosting a real studio tour, and I confessed to be stumped in searching for a "non quilty" tool in my sewing room.  The sewing room isn't big, so I don't have many specialized tools.

Then I realized I do use a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth for my design wall.  It's certainly not as large as I would like, but as JoJo is an expert in destruction right now, this will do!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

DWR progress

Slowly but surely moving along!  5/18 left of the gold and yellow quilting to go...

Back to Square One

I'm in love.

Hurrah!  The top is finished, down to the borders.  I even have an intended recipient.

Now, I need to piece a backing and ponder quilting.  I think I'll try hand quilting, but it depends how difficult it is to needle the hand dyed fabric.  Since I'll be piecing a backing, this is a serious consideration.

Thank you, Judy and Vicki!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.