Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Finished Quilt

Monday, I finished this little beauty.  At less than 30" square, it really is little.

It was made using scraps, orphan blocks, and a bit of "remnant " stash.  Four of the blocks were leftovers from a quilt I made my second daughter and finished in 2012.  I made four more blocks from stash and remnants over the last few weeks, added the tail end of the blue and red barn fabric, and the red squares.  I liked adding the flange between the border and the blocks, but maybe it was ill chosen, as it makes the blocks look lopsided.

There is a single misshapen block, one of the few I mis-cut when making the original.  I decided to keep them, since I didn't have oodles of fabrics and thought a few odd balls might be quirky.

Even the batting is scrappy, with three pieces stitched together, and the backing used up all but about 6" of another fabric long in my stash.

In my mission to empty the orphan box this year with the help of scraps, I feel like I'm making excellent progress!

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

Slow Stitching Sunday

I finished the grey setting triangles, AKA "Grey Spiky Things," on all four borders this week.  That means two months of UFO progress are finished, so this quilt is finally seeing significant progress.

The next handwork progress is finishing the binding on a Tshirt quilt, so my hands won't be idle long!

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

Stash Report Week #8

Three pillowcases add up to a change in the stash report!

6 spools out already this year

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 3 yards

IN YTD: 3 yards
OUT YTD: 11 yards
YTD Total: 8 yards OUT!

Sapphires and Rubies

Six Bits and Bobs appeared this week.  That leaves me 16 left to make for the year!!!

 I made four more Barn Dance blocks.  Oh, how I love sorting the fabric for these!  I really want to make a quilt out of just my turquoise, blue, and green fabrics with a background like this.  Oh, the possibilities!

 Finally, I took four orphan blocks from the bin, made five more from stash and scraps, and whipped out this little baby quilt flimsy.  It's not even 30", but I think that's okay.  I have a small quilt Karol-Ann gave me for Q, and I still use it as a floor mat, four kids later!  I hope to quilt this next week and finish it.  The orphan blocks is definitely emptying out.

I still have a stack of blue-green four-patches, but I don't think I'll finish those out this month.

In sad news, my sewing machine finally gave up the ghost.  You may remember several months I said I needed a new one.  I limped along until Wednesday with this one.  It managed to quilt my Tshirt quilt, but then it started skipping stitches, and no matter what I did (clean it, change the needle, rethread everything...), it was skipping 5-10 stitches in a row.  Since I've also struggled with an inoperative light for the last three years and the feed dogs weren't functioning well or consistently, I was okay with getting a new one.

I ran to Walmart, knowing the last time I'd looked, they had the machine I wanted (cheap, functional).  This time, they didn't.  A trip to a second store delivered one I could use.  I can tell I'll tear up this one too, and it definitely feels like the quality has gone down, but I refuse to invest in a good machine until the kids are older and won't destroy it.  I can sew again!

Be sure to check out the other teal, turquoise, sea-green projects this weekend!

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

Icicles, Snowflakes, and Roses in Winter

Another crazy week... conferences, days off school, a zoo trip, a commission, a cancelled sleepover turned into a campout, and, and, and... You know, life.

I managed to miscount, so I made 21 hourglass blocks (see that low contrast, light one in the middle under the last row?).  These colors make me so happy.

 I finished basting my applique quilt to the backing, so now this will be tucked away until my "handwork" time opens up again.  I'm still hand quilting my queen-sized quilt and embroidering a last stocking, so this will wait a bit.

Finally, this week, I finished my flimsy of Bonnie Hunter's En Provence.  I switched the colors on one step and didn't have enough fabric to remake it, so there are some changes.  I'm pretty content with how it looks.  I have the backing, so once the commission Tshirt quilt is finished, I'll be basting and quilting this lovely.  I thought about putting on my bed, but now I don't know...

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Linking up to the En Provence Link-Up as well as the beloved Rainbow Scrap Challenge

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Sunday Slow Basting

This pattern has been sitting around for several years.  In fact, it's old enough that the color ink is shedding off the front cover.  This is a smidge inconvenient, as the color is the only image of the finished project in the whole packet!  I am finding the layout to be bearish, since there is no large schematic to follow, and trying to lay out a 30x40 quilt from a 4x6 image is obnoxious.  Oh, well.

I've made all the components, I think, and I'm basting everything in place is preparation for hand quilting.  I considered basting only a section at a time, but I really need to see if there are any gaps or repositioning needed as a part of the whole.  Things are roughly pinned in place, and then I'm glue basting the stems, cutting to size, and thread basting each section.

My goal is to have it all basted by the end of the month, and then the appliquéing will begin!  As I'm stitching away, the back of my mind is pondering borders and quilting.  Decisions, decisions!

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

P.S.  Visit all the handwork each Sunday!

Stash Report Week #6

IN this week: 3 yards
OUT this week: 0 yards

IN YTD: 3 yards
OUT YTD: 8 yards
YTD Total: 5 yards OUT!

Also, 5 spools of thread consumed for the year.

I ordered backing fabric for Winter Dance, extra wide, for 3 yards in.  I could double the yardage, to  ale it equivalent to 40" wide fabric, but I'll only count my usage out of 3, so I figure it's fair.  Now to peg away at Winter Dance, so that yardage can enter the "OUT" column!

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

Quiltathon

Day 1:

After the usual dishwashing, kids to school, morning chore routine, I sewed my heart out!  Two hand quilting motifs were completed, along with finishing my mini 9s for the month, basting part of my rose appliqué, stitching down appliqués on the last stocking, sewing two rows for the Tshirt quilt, and completing a plastic bag holder from some aqua orphan blocks!  I was amazing how quickly things moved along.

Winter Dance saw the block pieces webbed, borders pieced, and the sashings slowly coming together.

Of course, I realized at the end of the day how I managed so much: I walked too little!  I am slowly increasing my step goal again since PK's birth, and I was about 3000 steps short of my 11500 goal.  Eek!  I must do better tomorrow.

Day 2:

Woot, woot!  My Winter Dance blocks are done!  I've also continued to piece together the sashing units.  I also finished the Tshirt quilt flimsy, cut the batting, and unfolded the newly arrived backing.  During therapy, I appliquéd down another piece on the stocking, and I spent a good chunk of the day making sure I was walking enough.

It wasn't until the very last moments before bed that I managed some hand quilting for the day.  I didn't make it to my roses.  They're very tedious, and I simply didn't want to mess with them today.

Day 3:

I started with hand quilting, to guarantee it wasn't left out today.  One motif later, I'm only another motif away from having my UFO goal for the month complete.  How crazy is that?

Winter Dance blocks met the iron today, the sashing units all came together, and I'm ready to assemble.  It doesn't read like much stitching for the day, but JoJo was home, we went to the park, and I walked over 16,000 steps today.

Day 4:

A bust.  We had great fun walking and exploring in the nice weather.  I walked 19000 steps and didn't stitch a thing.  Oh, well.

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

Sea-Faring Stitching

These little gems are the sum total of my aquamarine stitching this week.  I finished the Tshirt quilt flimsy, the blocks for Winter Dance, some hand quilting, and some basting, but not more sea green.

I didn't make it to the post office either, Joyful.  Hopefully this week!

Y'all are some mighty pray-ers, as the past week was significantly less stormy.  Thank you.  As long as we can avoid influenza Type A or strep (schools west of us cancelled school with over 20% of the school absent), February looks to be much more cheerful.  With a high of almost 80, we will be outside walking, so I won't see many hourglass blocks today.  That's okay, as it gets cold again tomorrow.

Be sure to check out the blue-green riches this weekend.

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

Grey Spiky Things

For this month's UFO, and therefore this month's slow stitching, I will be working on the quilting on this border, "grey, spiky things."  There are 14 large and 14 small, so I need to finish half this month and the other half may way for another month in the challenge.  I already have four done, so my wild hope is to finish the entire border, thereby freeing up another month for other projects!

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

P.S. Be sure to check out the weekly Slow Stitching posts.

Stash Report Week #5

Nothing in, nothing out.  I'm pegging away at my Winter Dance, and the goal is to wrap it up by the end of the month, so while the stash report will be dreary for a few more weeks, it should brighten up soon!

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

P.S. Check out other, more eventful stash reports each Sunday!

Sea Glass Fragments

I'll be the first to admit my blocks may miss the "sea green" directive for this month, but I'm working out my scrap box, so this is what I have to offer: four "Garden Party" blocks.

Last month, I'd already leaped ahead to my mini 9s, but this week I was cutting Tshirts for a commissioned quilt.  I did get all my scraps cleaned up, so the overflowing bin is sorted and put away.  I prepared all the pieces for my last stocking, for DH.  Then there was that crazy, what was I thinking project: Winter Dance, my variation on Bonnie Hunter's En Provence.  I have all the units made, even if the colors aren't all in the proper places, and I'm currently sewing the border.  Next week will be mini 9s and blocks for this quilt!

If you are of the praying inclination, would you remember us in your prayers, please?  JoJo has hit a rough patch, and it is hard to weather this storm together when there's nothing I can do to "fix" it.

Be sure to check out the sea green beauties this weekend!

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

February Goals

In January, I hoped to...

1.  Sew up some new scrappy projects and keep up with old: trim scraps, Bits and Bobs, 5 Garden Party blocks, 20 mini 9s, 20 hourglass blocks, and four Barn Dance blocks.  The color for the month is purple.  I have one lonely orphan strip in purple, so rather than create more blocks, I hope to find a small project to use up the strip.  Done, done, done, down to the orphan block turned pin cushion.

2. UFO hand quilting: quilt blocks 9 and 10.  Done, and finished block 3.

3.  Finish "Spelling Bee."  Yes!

I also started Winter Dance, cut 10 pillowcases and stitched 3, and finished all my appliqué buds!

In February, I want to...

1.  Keep sewing scraps in sea green, blue green, teal, turquoise, etc. Trimming, Bits and Bobs, 4 Garden Party, 20 mini 9s, 20 hourglass, and four Barn Dance blocks.  If all those get done, I have a small collection of orphan blocks to transform into a baby quilt.

2. Tell it to the Stars: quilt to sides of the grey settnig triangle border.

3.  Finish Winter Dance.

4.  Finish three pillow cases.

5.  Finish DH's stocking.

6.  Baste all my rose appliqué pieces, including stems, to the background.

7.  Start and finish a commission Tshirt quilt.

I'd best get busy!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.