August Block Count

'Twas a busy month here for new blocks!

42 new 9s and 6s (enough for a quilt!)
14 new Tell it to the Stars setting blocks
12 new row blocks
8 new sampler blocks
16 new Carrie Nation blocks (enough for a quilt!)
13 new blocks for my SiL's quilt

111 new blocks!!  This brings my yearly total to 526.  Now, in the six weeks that remain until my due date, I need to finish a quilt or two.  Therefore, I may not complete as many blocks in September.

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Green Edition

Blogger ate a nice post... bummer!

Anyway, in the good news section, let's hear about finding my camera.  Outside.  On a flight of stairs I rarely used.  I wonder which child tired of the camera and dropped it off there?  I'm so glad we found it before the rain instead of after, as it may not have survived!

More good news: I have seven of eight completed rows sewn together for Bear Cub Q's "big boy" quilt.  With only orange and brown to go, I love how it's shaping up!

 And since the camera is back in my possession, I snapped a shot of my eight bright green blocks.  Since I only need eight more for my selected layout, once September is over, I should be ready to assemble these into a flimsy.

Since next month will mean one last row for my Carrie Nation quilt, I'm hopeful it will be a flimsy by October, just in time to be stalled out by the arrival of a new baby... unless the baby's late.  Since most of my babies have been late, let's just assume I'll be sewing until late October.

Be sure to check out all the awesome green projects that are part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each weekend!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

a Finish!

Here's a picture of half of it, as I don't have a clean floor anywhere in the house with enough space to spread out the entire quilt.

This queen size quilt finished at 88" square and is quilted on the diagonal along all the star points.  It has a dark green backing and a red star binding.  I'm not washing it until I know my SiL is ready to pick it up, as JoJo has a nasty habit of eating Nutella and wiping his hands (or face) on available quilts! (Golly, I love that boy.  He tries so hard to be helpful, and it's mildly funny that he fails so miserably!)

Most of the fabric is from my stash, but I did have to purchase the bright greens, as I had previously used up most of those (for the same SiL's daughter, my niece!).

I'm happy, happy, happy to have this done, as I have several more quilts to finish in the next six weeks!

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

Invisible Rainbows

This week, my little helper JoJo absconded with my camera.  Since it's been missing several days, I'm concerned he found a permanent hiding place.  Ugh.

Anyway, I was able to complete my eight scrappy blocks in bright green.  JoJo thought he should own those too, but I was able to sneak them away when he wasn't looking!  I'm making him a personal set of blocks, which is sometimes successful in keeping him busy.  He wants so badly to work!  I think I only need eight more to make the quilt in my chosen layout.  I think.  Finding the drawing is proving to be a challenge since I have hidden so many things from JoJo!

I also completed a blue-grey row for my row quilt, since I already completed one in lime green.  Just two more to go!

Off to quilt a quilt so I can assemble more of the rows for the row quilt by next week.

Be sure to check out the other scrappy green projects that are part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  You'll be plotting what you can do with your scraps too!

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Light and Bright Green

Not quite a flimsy yet, I need an orange row between the yellow and red to finish out.  As it is, I finished a "light and bright" green row and I think it looks lovely.  I had intended to add a brown, but will now forgo it since I did the bright green.

I am still slightly obsessed with this Carrie Nation blocks and intend to complete at least one more quilt with these blocks, in a controlled color palette of blues and yellows.  And then maybe others...  Maybe.

Right now, I've come to the realization that since my oldest has two instead of one homeroom teachers this year, I need another quilt.  Ai yi yi!

Be sure to check out the light and bright projects found as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

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

Finish: a Tree Skirt

Whew!  I wasn't sure I would finish this lovely before the baby was born, but it's done.  I am happy with the quilting and the backing, although I should have ordered another 1/2 yard of the gradient I used on the back so I could have pieced it according to original plan.

This tree skirt is a gift for my lovely younger sister, who is still waiting for an unfinished double wedding ring quilt.  I used mostly scraps and stash for this quilt, although I did order a red or two and a lovely cream with holiday ornaments all over it.

It finished at 48" square, so a little smaller than my own tree skirt, which I found too large.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Light Green

Whew!  I wasn't confident I would finish the week with any green to show, but here I have TWO pictures.


First, I have a quilt that doesn't strictly follow the "scrap" part of this challenge.  Below I have a quilt top (two seams left) I was commissioned to make for my sister-in-law, whose sister married in July.  I think it fits, however, because everything seen is from stash except for a few bright greens.  I had to purchase the bright greens because I used up ALL of mine last year!

I also whipped out my 8 Carrie Nation blocks as leaders and enders in between the tedium of the hundreds of half square triangles in the above quilt.  (And the sewing lesson I learned with all those triangles?  My sewing would be significantly better if I cut more accurately.  Hard to do with kids around, but I'm definitely going to work on it.)

Since I won't be doing a row for my row quilt in greens (I did it with the other greens), I may try to assemble all of my finished Carrie Nation blocks into a partial top.  I'm at due date in less than 10 weeks, so my time is growing short to get some of this done.

I finished my 9s and 6s, totaling enough that it's ready to be laid out for a top.  This will wait until I finish the tree skirt for my sister and the above quilt.  Since I am to finish both by month's end, maybe in September?

Be sure to check out all the other fabulous green projects at the hub for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday.

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

August Goals

July, July, July, where I thought I would quilt three quilts.  Ha!

1.  I finished step 7 of Tell it to the Stars.

2.  In the scrappy world, I finished my sampler blocks, Carrie Nation blocks, row for my row quilt, but still have some 9s and 6s blocks to finish.

3.  I wanted to quilt Back to Square One.  I started on it, someone stole my thread (his name is JoJo; he's obsessed with my machine), and stalled out.  I have made a great start, so this will continue after the commissioned quilt is done.

4.  The baby quilt is pieced, quilted, and bound!  Woohoo!

5.  The tree skirt made it to a top stage and I have the backing purchased.  I had hoped to quilt it, but that's okay.

6.  Commissioned quilt.  I had hoped to get this to top stage, but there are hundreds of half-square triangles.  I have 3/4 of the triangles done and many of the stars complete.

August goals:

1. Tell it to the Stars #8

2.  Commissioned quilt done

3.  Tree skirt done

4.  Scraps: sampler blocks, Carrie Nation blocks, maybe a row, catch up on 9s and 6s

5.  Back to Square One after the above goals.

I can do it!

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

Misc.

Today was a productive day!

We started the day with three loads of laundry and a box of peaches to can.  12 quarts later, I'm pretty happy that the rest of the peaches aren't ripe yet, and I'm sure the girls are happy there wasn't more laundry.  By lunch, I was wiped out.

DH offered to take the kids to a movie since it was his last day at bone before meetings start and we had free movie tickets.  I don't really "do" movie theaters, so he offered to take the kids alone.  Unfortunately for them, there was enough time before the move started late enough in the afternoon that I had plenty of time to insist on clean rooms.  Kids and paper of any kind is a terrible combination.  And the clothes.  I don't buy their clothes, since I have a MiL who loves to shop, and it is out of control!  I've got to purge, purge, and purge some more!

Once everyone cleared out, I did chicken chores and headed to the basement for some serious sewing time.  JoJo, as I've mentioned before, is obsessed with my sewing machine.  His eyes light up whenever he thinks "we" are going to sew.  Oh, that boy.  He really wants to help, but if he gets to my machine while I'm out of the room, he sorts all my pieces for me.  Since I'm in the midst of hundreds of half square triangles meeting up with rectangles, squares, and flying geese, this has been stressful.  It's been challenging to hide little pieces from him, and even distractor blocks only work for a short time. He knows the real deal.  So, needless to say, sewing time has been limited and of less than optimal productivity.

This afternoon, alone, I pinned and stitched while listening/watching the BBC Pride and Prejudice.  We don't own a tv, so I watch on a portable DVD player.  Again, JoJo usually mettles, but not today!  I did have to break for missing pieces (found in the duplos.  I wonder who put the, there?), but was able to finish sewing together all the major components for this commissioned quilt.  That means layout and top piecing are next!

Now I'm going to bed.

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

July Block Count

Lots and lots of blocks this month, so we'll cut to the chase with:

I thought I started with 330 blocks, but somewhere my numbers aren't adding up.
I added...
6 for Tell it to the Stars
13 for my row quilt
7 for my sampler quilt
8 Carrie Nation blocks
23 for a tree skirt
28 for a commissioned quilt for my SiL

82 total new blocks...
My new numbers say 415 blocks for the year, so that's my story!

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Not Quite Green

I did sort my scraps today to pull out bright green, but, customary for pregnancy and summer, I am too hot and too tired to do much cutting.

Since I already made a lime green row in my row quilt, I'll be skipping that this month.  If (BIG if) once the kids go back to school and I finish a commissioned queen size quilt, I may work on a blue/grey row.  I will make Carrie Nation blocks and sampler blocks.  Otherwise, I still need to finish my 9s and 6s in red and may start sashing my row quilt.  Or quilt the two quilts waiting... or... or nothing.  And that would be okay too.

I did finish a RSC quilt recently, thanks to awesome help from my two girls.  I started these 2" 36-patches last year and continued at the beginning of 2014.  Then, morning sickness and reality kicked in.  I had (and have!) too many different projects ongoing at this point, so this one was booted.  I didn't really want to repeat colors much, and I didn't want a tiny quilt, and the original recipient changed so... they sat, and they sat, and they sat.

The saga continues... this summer, the Assistant wanted to make a quilt with me.  I suggested we use her scraps and make a quilt for the new baby, G, due in October.  We talked about using her sewing machine, but it's broken, and I decided we should hand piece it.  Out of the 100 patches, 20 were cobbled together from smaller scraps and pieced on my machine, but we put all 100 patches together, as well as the borders, by hand, usually when we were reading the Hobbit together as a family.

Of course, not wanting to be outdone by her sister and wanting a special mommy project too, Spunky asked to help.  She's not quite deft enough with a needle and thread to piece a top, so, when inspiration struck, I put her to work!  She took the 25 blocks I had, which just happened to be almost the perfect size for the top once I added borders, and laid them out for a backing.  Now G will have a super special quilt from both her sister and her mom, and I finished up a RSC project and some of my daughters' scraps!

 I love that everything came from stash and scraps, down to the ombre border and pink binding, and that we worked on all of it together.  I didn't even protest when Spunky laid out her blocks totally differently from how I would.  I asked her why, and realized she made rows of color... I'm glad I asked before I rearranged it!  I quilted it very simply with a wavy line down the seams, just in case our hand piecing wasn't quite up to snuff.  The quilt washed up wonderfully soft, not stiff at all, and JoJo has already given it his seal of approval by snuggling with it while I was finishing the binding.

So... back to green next week!

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