Pitiful Pinks

Yup, that's it for the week.  Five little blocks, and one not even pink.

Wouldn't you know, I have a story to tell!  Of course, it involves JoJo (do you ever wonder what my other kids do?  Obviously not cause crises in the house).

JoJo, my fourth child, is extremely inquisitive and nonverbal.  This combination is dangerous, as I can't always find him quickly when he is investigating the next possible "new thing."  He's had stitches, bruises, and so forth, most particularly around his eyes.  Yup, another (two, in fact) accident.

I still don't know how he managed, but he had a corneal abrasion.  I won't bore you with the drama of his eye, the screaming, the rush to find an optometrist still open at 5, and so forth, but let me tell you, getting eye drops in this boy is NO FUN.  Tuesday, I spent half my day holding him and Miss G, and the other half frantically trying to finish laundry, eat, etc., before he woke up screaming in misery.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, were all "rinse, repeat," with slightly less time spent holding him. His solution to the painful eye was to walk around with both eyes closed, crying, until I picked him up. Poor little bugger.  Friday evening, he fell again and raised a terrible bruise just under his other eye.  He now looks like he's been in a war.

I have been sewing the quadrants to my rainbow Carrie Nation blocks, but there's nothing interesting about four patches (lots and lots and lots of four patches).  Maybe I'll have some finished blocks in the new color next week!

Be sure to check out the various other pink projects as we end February.

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

UFO List, March Updates

February 1: 34 projects
Projects Finished: 4
Projects Started (Found!): 4
February 28: 34

Hmmm... I don't seem to be moving forward much!  I really don't need 34 projects on my list, but maybe I'm coming to the end of finding forgotten projects.  Two of my "started" projects are really things I have always planned to do, but found in cleaning up and realized they aren't on my list.  Nuts.  I found one new block that I added to my future list as I really would like to do it.  Who knows, I might take it off!  The only really new projects is #10 on my in process quilts.  It will be a charity quilt, my fourth time participating, and the source of all my scraps for the donation Rainbow Star.

I also rearranged how I list my projects, to make it easier for me to tally up.

Finished:
1. Chevron Quilt
2. Easter clothes
3. Kitchen towels
4. Doll quilt

In process:
1. Tell it to the Stars (quilting started!)
2. Bits and Bobs
3. Chevron, blue, black and brown
4. 16-patches
5. Triangle scraps
6. Queen sized Carrie Nation
7. Donation Rainbow Star
8. Blue and yellow Carrie Nation
9. Aunt Monica projects

10. Scraps to Treasures (NEW)

Non-Quilt Projects:

1. Placemat
2. Funeral dresses
3. Pillows
4. Someday, inherited embroidery
5. Customer cushions (1/8 complete)

6. Old school uniforms (FOUND)

Future: 

1. Glacier fabrics
2. Giant chevron for my mom
3. Sets of coordinated scraps, one set left
4. Hand pieced 5" squares
5. Crazy quilt for Em.
6. Horses quilt
7. Odd Fellow block
8.  Scrap crystal
9: Hand dyed applique (I thought this was already on the list, but it wasn't!)

10. ABC quilts

11. Scrappy DWR
12. Lime/Aqua/white diamonds
13. Alzbe's Tshirt quilt
14. Tom and Hannah
15. Orphan block quilt
16. Irish chain in green and brown

17. pinwheel block (NEW)

18. hand pieced hexi

I hope to finish the funeral dresses, customer cushions, and maybe the blue chevron, just to keep moving.  I shall endeavor not to add any new projects this month, as wouldn't it be nice to get this list down to less than 30?!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #8

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 2 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 0 yards
OUT YTD: 18 3/4 yards

YTD Total: 18 3/4 yards out!

Another week of success!  I'm considering challenging myself to stay on a fabric fast until I finish hand quilting my Tell it to the Stars.  I fear it will be to long and I will fail, as the last quilt took over a year to finally complete. Do I have enough self control to avoid fabric purchases for a year?

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

Pretty Pinks

Let's start with JoJo updates, since I know you must all be anxious to know how we're all still whole.  He hurt his eye (third time's a charm?) but didn't need stitches.  This kid has insomnia like nobody's business.

Miss G likes to roll over when I'm not looking, so I have to be pickier when I lay her down so she doesn't roll into anything hard.  She's also quite a chatterer when the mood strikes, and it's so cute you can't help but stop what you're doing to listen.

On the sewing front, I whipped out the last two Easter clothes, a skirt and a dress for the girls.  I still have a few finishing touches for the dress, but it's good enough for the week.

I also made 24 more 16-patches.  I love how these blocks look, but since I'm working from scraps and not strips, it takes a LONG time to put these darlings together.  I don't have many pinks left, just some triangles and nine patches for my Bits and Bobs quilt are left.  It's really okay, since I have more of the Carrie Nation blocks that could use attention next week, and I need to work on some hand quilting!

Be sure to check out other scrappy pink projects every weekend.

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

Stash Report Week #7

This was a great week for stash busting.  I even added fabric to an online cart and deleted it when I finally placed my order (zippers, buttons, and upholstery thread)!  I finished a small quilt and two vests.

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 8 yards

IN YTD: 0 yards
OUT YTD: 16 1/4 yards

YTD Total: 16 1/4 yards OUT

from the room of Zana's Ninis
katie z.

Scrappy, scrappy mess

Another wild ride pretty well sums up this week!  I managed some lovely sewing sessions, the laundry is done (even folded), and nobody is injured or crying, so I'm pleased with life right now.

Sunday afternoon, I whipped out the last stretch of binding on my zigzag quilt, now named January at the Beach.

Half of the Rainbow Star is officially sewn and pressed.  I love this quilt and only wish I'd had a few more triangles to enlarge it.  Since it will finish around 40" square, it's not large, but it will make a splendid wall hanging or baby quilt. I've even progressed far enough to ponder backing (a gradient, I think) and binding (most likely black, although I'm tossing about the idea of white).  It is splendid to have more of my design wall freed up!

My triangle nine patches are also together.  Only a few pink triangles made it into my bag, but I found more greys and turquoises, so plenty of progress was made.

One set of Carrie Nation blocks made it to quarter sections on Sunday, so throughout the week I pinned and sewed them into finished blocks. Rather pathetically, I never managed to press them.

The rest of my time has been spent on Easter clothes.  I finished Bear Cub's vest and made excellent progress on another for DH.

Check out more pink progress as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

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

Finished: January at the Beach

While JoJo reveled in the unseasonably warm temperatures yesterday, I brought out my binding and finished this lovely little lap quilt.

Adapted from AmandaJean's directions for a zig zag quilt, I used 2.5" x 4.5" bricks cut from my scraps to whip up this little quilt.  My original intent had been to create a white and turquoise quilt, but I couldn't help but pull in the lime as well.  It wasn't until I laid out the bricks that I discovered some of my white fabric glows in the dark!

Before quilting, I was concerned the lime and turquoise blended too much, but I was encouraged by everyone's feedback that it looked happy.  After all, we don't need high contrast in every quilt, do we?  After plenty of stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, I think the definition of the different colors improved.

I quilted loops along each zigzag and was only temporarily stymied by discovering I have used up every single spool of white thread I ever owned.  In a bag of thread I inherited from DH's grandmother, I finally uncovered a spool of white thread.  It was polyester, and I usually use cotton, but mostly out of convenience.  It looks lovely and no one will ever care.

This takes care of one more of the three zig zag quilts I cooked up at the end of last year.  The last one will be blue, brown, grey, and black on cream.  It won't be a zigzag after all, but I look forward to coming up with a different way to use my sewn up patches.

At the current time, this quilt will be kept in reserve.  I often have an intended quilt recipient before a quilt is finished, but this one still is searching out a home.  I figure, if nothing else, I'll keep it for next year's teacher gifts.

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

Stash Report Week #6

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 3/4 yard

IN YTD: 0 yards
OUT YTD: 8 1/4 yards

YTD Totals: 8 1/4 yards out

It's too bad 8 yards out doesn't make much of a dent in the stash, especially since much of that was scraps.  I am still headed in the right direction!

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

Pinks!

Sewing, sewing, sewing.

Last week, I wasted time searching for my camera.  This week, I lost our budget ledger.  (Ack!  I need more sleep.)  Fortunately, I found it after a frantic few days, but I still haven't done as much sewing as I thought I would.

I did finish this super cute and simple doll quilt for my niece and goddaughter.  The Assistant sewed the strips together and quilted half of it.  I finished it up and bound it.  Hopefully my sister doesn't find the binding too weird, but I love the idea of the two sizes of stripes (and it was in my scrap box too!).  I especially love the back, which was a gift from Alaska.  I was happy to find a use that didn't required cutting up the lovely dolls!

I trimmed down all my scraps and snapped a picture, only to discover it was horribly blurry when I prepared to upload it.  Oh, well.  Y'all know what a pile of scraps looks like!

I'm working on the binding for my turquoise, lime, and white quilt.  Yesterday was busy and there were more important things than binding!

Be sure to check out other pink projects today!

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

Finished: Kitchen Towels

One of my goals this month was to finish my "dress towels."  I made a large batch of these several years ago and gave some away and sold others.  Then, my interest waned, and I repurposed the unused towels.  These four remained, needing only buttons and a few straps, as well as to be sewn together.  What a silly way to abandon the project!

Taking part in Vicki's UFO challenge combined with cleaning everything to deal with mice has inspired me to take care of these bits and pieces scattered in the storage area.  I've now emptied an entire bag of unfinished things!  I may tuck these towels away for my girls when they get older, but I haven't decided yet.  I just hate to get them dirty.

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

February Goals

I wanted to...

1.  Baste Tell it to the Stars and begin hand quilting.  I basted it.

2.  Make two of the vests needed for our annual Easter clothes.  Eek!  I need clothes for 7 this year.   I finished a vest, Miss G's jumper, and my skirt, so I consider this complete.

3.  Use some of my chevron pieces to make a baby boy quilt.  Finished!

4.  Scraps: Omigoshish, triangles, 16 patches, Carrie Nation, donation quilt, and bricks, all depending on the color.  Finished!

5.  The long suffering hexagon quilt.  I think I'll try to add one snowflake to the top a month until spring arrives and summer gets crazy.  Nada.  I think I'm going to take a pass on this one.

6.  Make or pull from my store four hats for donation.  Done!

I also finished a map bag to store the road atlases in our van.

This month, my goals are...

1. Quilt some part of Tell it to the Stars.  I need to start.  Somewhere.  Anywhere.  I love this quilt and want to use it!

2. Make three more Easter clothes.

3. Scraps: trim my scrap bucket, Bits and Bobs, triangles, 16-patches, Carrie Nation, Rainbow Star, doll quilt, and finish my blue zigzag quilt from last month.

4. Make or pull from my store four more hats for donation.

5.  Finish my kitchen towels.

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

Stash Report Week #5

IN this week: 0 yards
IN YTD: 0 yards

OUT this week: 1 yard
OUT YTD: 7 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 7 1/2 yards

No shopping so far (who wants to take a 3 month old, 2 year old, and almost-5 year old with them to shop for fabric.  Buzz kill!). I finished a bag for maps in the car and am busy with the next few projects as well!

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