Stash Report Week #13

I finished a quilt this week!  It's only a big baby quilt, so the numbers aren't much, but progress is progress.

I also bought fabric and promptly used it for a project for our church, so I'm not counting it.

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 4 1/4 yards

IN YTD: 20 1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 26 yards
YTD Total: 5 1/2 yards OUT!

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Slow and Steady

I started this blog post with a complaint of how hard last weekend's drive home was (I had a bug or altitude sickness), but last night takes the cake.  Two kids with fevers, an autistic non-verbal child with an ear infection, and another child with second degree burns.  That leaves one relatively healthy child and two sleep deprived parents.  Hello, exciting life with kids!  Oh, and did I mention the massive fire in Oklahoma and Kansas blew lots of smoke and soot our way, so that has multiplied the breathing issues.

Anyway, until the last 24 hours, we really had a fabulous week.  The kids had fun playing outside, we're preparing for a baby shower for my sister-in-law, and the garden is taking its share of time.

I did whip out a meager pile of Bits and Bobs.  I still have plenty of blue to stitch up, so it will keep coming back each month!

The quilting on this beauty is proceeding slow and steady.  I have one or two setting triangles to rip out as I didn't have a clear plan and they look ugly.  Otherwise, I'm pleased with the pace.  Maybe I will still finish before the end of March (or maybe not.  I need no pressure, right?)

Be sure to check out other lovely projects this weekend!

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

Finished Quilt: ABC Baby Quilt

Woohoo!  For all the fiddly bits to this quilt, it came together splendidly this time around.  I had already cut the background squares and sashing strips, the letters were rough cut, and the tiny squares came from my scrap bins, so it was practically ready to sew when I began!

I glue basted my appliqué letters this time, which was much speedier (and kinder to my fingers) than trying to iron back the seam allowance.  I opted for a simple meander and backed this with two greens from my stash.  It finishes at roughly 41"x 49".

I may have four or five of these still in my future, as I collected fat quarters of different letter-appropriate fabric over the years and have a few sets of letters cut.  Next, I think, a dark background, and I cut the background, sashing, and cornerstones of one in teal!

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

Stash Report Week #12?

No changes (again).  I've used 6 spools of thread so far this year, so it's not for a lack of sewing.  I will finish a quilt this week, so I'll finally have changes!

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

Amethyst and Iron: a Flimsy!

Woohoo!  Even if my piano key border has a touch of the wobbles at the top, I love this flimsy!  I'm trying not to think about quilting at this time, as I have a million and one things to do, but I really love how this top has turned out.

The border ate up most of my remaining short strips, so I'm down to only a few WOF purple 1.5" strips, and no grey.  We won't look at any other sizes, okay?  I didn't do well with the grey coping strips, as I think my top was a bit smaller than the original, and so I forced too much border on.  Lesson learned.

I'm brief today as we are on our way home from a trip to Colorado.

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Amethyst and Iron (Take Two)

I do believe Amethyst and Iron will be the name of this quilt.  Despite illness (double ear infection, anyone?), busy schedules, a precocious JoJo, and family trauma (a family member walked away from a head-on car collision without injury, praise God), I managed to finish a quilt top as well as all the blocks for my challenge quilt this month!

First, I'm making another ABC quilt.  I tried glue basting my letters this time, then machine appliquéd them, and I love this method!  Prepping the letters for appliqué always holds me back from loving this quilt, but this time the process was great.  I have the backing ready and hope to baste in next week in between all the other spring break chaos at our house.

Once that obligation was done (deadlines drive me to work but don't give me much pleasure), I moved on to my nines and rails blocks.  I thoroughly enjoyed choosing what scraps would go in which block, and it wasn't until I hung all the finished blocks on the wall that I had any sense of the values I'd chosen.  The background fabric may be a little too colorful for this quilt, but I decided to embrace choices outside my comfort zone, and this fabric was one of those choices.  I'm currently plotting a piano key border for the outside, since I have oodles of purple scraps left.  I wonder what will happen next?

Be sure to check out other orchid and mulberry projects this week!

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

Stash Report Week #10

Nothing in, nothing out.  I'm working, but I don't see any finishes for a few weeks!

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Amethyst and Iron

The week has seen less stitching than I might have wished, as JoJo developed pneumonia and Miss G seems to have escape the pneumonia but contracted whatever violent illness accompanied it.  Erg.

I am very happy to start the new month with strip sewing and cutting.  I'll be making a quilt from the book Recreating Antique Quilts by Wendy Sheppard.  I won the book in a giveaway when it first came out, and I immediately knew I wanted to replicated her Feathery Formation quilt in purples and grey.  I even gathered my 1.5" strips earlier in the year, so I was ready to match and sew.  Assembling the 9-patches are my current hangup, as Miss G wants me to hold her at all times.  She'll feel better soon!  

I'll need 16 of these blocks, and I have the nine-patches together for eight.

Be sure to check out all the refreshing purple projects this weekend!

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

UFO: March Updates

Projects February 1: 20
Finished: 2
Started: 0
Projects February 29: 18

I finished Miss G's name letters and a baby quilt.  I also finished a placemat, but since I need two I can't check it off until the second baby is born!

"Something Done"
1. Hand pieced hexi (quilting)
2. Tell It to the Stars (quilting)
3. ABC applique
4. Stockings (4 of 7 done)
5. Twinkler Star (cut)
6. Applique
7. Placemats
8. Bits and Bobs
9. Odd Fellows
10. Purple and grey

Not Started Yet
1. Mom's yellow and grey
2. Embroidered pillows
3. Uncle Ron
4. Scrappy DWR
5. Aegean Sea
6. Orphan blocks
7. Kris quilt
8. Pillow

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

March Goals

In February, I wanted to...
1.  Quilt 10 more hexies.  I think I quilted 14!

2.  Scraps: trim, Bits and Bobs, applique, and work on Odd Fellows in orange and brown.  Done, done, done, and slow going!

3.  Make Miss G's name for her closet door.  Done!

4.  Crochet a new winter hat for myself.  Done!

5.  Clean up my business files.  Done!

6.  Baby quilt for a friend. Done!

Bonus: a placemat for my niece.

In March, I hope to...
1. Finish quilting the hexies.  All remaining will be the borders.

2.  Scraps: trim, applique, Bits and Bobs, and a purple and grey rails quilt.

3.  A baby quilt for my brother.

4.  Taxes.

5.  Further progress on Odd Fellows once my other goals are complete.

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

February Block Count

I made
4 more Bits and Bobs,
10 applique blocks
15 rows of a baby quilt
And already had 61 blocks, so my total is...

90 blocks for 2016

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