You Got This, Girl

I thought I was all done quilting, but, alas, I forgot the little grey block.  I saw it when I laid it out, and quilted it.  It took me so much longer than I thought it would to pick fillers, etc.  I struggled to make some fill the space entirely, and I'm not sure I found any new ones I would repeat very often.

 But I did it.  The binding is stitched on the front, so next I'll turn and hand stitch it down.  This will be a good occupation for the next few days, since we are totally emptying our playroom/sewing room, hallway, and stairs in order for a carpet cleaner to come before the holidays.  We've had our share of accidents and messes, and it's time for a professional cleaning.

I enjoy the fun and funky look of the backing with the different thread colors and patterns.  My tension was a little rough during the meander, but I seem to have straightened that out for the most part by the blocks.  I did ruin a needle and have to clean out my machine in the middle of quilting, but everything's splendid now.

And the details: all fabric but the backing and dark blue are hand dyes by Vicki Welsh.  (Please treat yourself to a package or two when you can.  They are wonderful.  I've managed to accumulate an inspiring stash!  The quilt design is a partial ( I left off a wide row and column) by Denise Russart.

I'm afraid that other than quilting pink blocks this week, I didn't get much pink sewing in.  Too much cleaning, moving, and, you know, stuff.  To see more inspiration, join the Rainbow Scrap Challenge each Saturday!

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

Stash Report Weeks #41-42

Oops!  Where was I last Sunday?  I had a finish, but never wrote a stash report.  Oh, well.  Last week I finished Orange Sherbet, a baby quilt, and this week I finished a body pillow cover.

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 5 3/4 yards

IN YTD: 168 1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 138 yards
YTD Total: 30 1/2 yards IN

I'm moving along nicely!

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Challenge Accepted

On the other side of the basement family room, this is always the view.

 Meanwhile, here's my view:

 Some pink nine patches were made for a new project.  They feel HUGE after working with 1" pieces for so long!  On the right are the remaining orphan block pieces.  I've done a little sorting and looking at possible companion scraps, but this is it!  If they don't come off the wall in some sort of sewing piece, they are taking a leap into the garbage bin below!

I basted the mini nines, and now I've finished agonizing over quilting patterns.  The dark blue background of the Barn Dance quilt is quilted in a meander.  Now I'm working my way through Leah Day's 365 Free Motion Quilting Ideas and trying as many as I can.  The smallest blocks are only 6", and surely I can suffer a more tedious pattern for 6".  Plenty of them I realize I have trouble seeing how to travel well with them, but that's a good challenge to undertake!

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

(Join the PINK scrap party this weekend!)

Conundrums and Complexities

First, the pastel finish.  I settled on a quilting design (ahem, many designs) for my baby quilt made from orphan blocks, scraps, and stash.  I nearly gave up and simply quilted in the ditch between each round.  Then I reminded myself that I regularly chicken out on learning new quilting designs because I don't want to spend hours hating the quilting.  On a baby quilt, there's no more than a few hours sunk into the quilting, so it's a good place to experiment.  I quilted swirls, feathers, loops, vines, and so on.  Binding, in green scraps, was a breeze after agonizing over the quilting.  "Orange Sherbet" is complete!  (It's around 40" square.)

"Barn Dance" was the next quilt to tackle.  It's basted for quilting with a wide backing piece.  Now the agonizing and conundrums for the quilting plan.  What color of thread?  What quilting pattern?  I don't know!  Please offer suggestions, since I don't want to leave this lingering in the wings.  This quilt is made from a lovely dark blue batik as well as many, many scraps of hand dyes from Vicki Welsh.  The pattern is a scaled down from Barn Dance by Denise Russart.

 In the meantime, while I puzzled over the quilting conundrums, I breezed through the layout and partial assembly of my mini 9s.  I see a few dark next to dark blocks, but when I was to the last row, options were limited.  And it's random, which was the idea, right?

 Finally, I finished the top of my orphan block body pillow.  I used up a number of these earlier in the year, but not all of them.  It was time to use ALL of them!  No leftovers this time!

P.S. Be sure to check out the pink projects this weekend!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #40

I finished the hourglass quilt this week, and managed to resist ordering any fabric, so it's s good week!

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 4 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 168 1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 132 1/4 yards
YTD Total: 36 1/4 IN

Not bad, not bad.  Hopefully I'll have another finish next week!

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

Rouge and Rosewood

Oh, the stories not to be told via social media about allergy attacks, potty training, and lack of sleep.  I actually went back to bed Friday morning (unheard of for me) after I fed the chickens since the kids were all out of school.  We then proceeded to fill the morning with chores and the rest of the day with splendid adventures, so everyone was ready for bed early.

First, the last of the Garden Party blocks are now stitched and pressed.  Next month, they will be worked into a flimsy.  Please remind me that can wait until next month, as I have enough sets of blocks to turn into flimsies for this month already.  I may need a firm reminder.

Since those bitty blocks are so quick to make, it was easy to move on to the hourglass blocks.  Quilting on either side of the seam was a new tactic for me, and the final look pleases me greatly.  Even the binding came from my scrap bin, and two pieces from my stash form the backing.  It's a nice snuggly couch size, and now ready for Christmas giving!

The Assistant has claimed the Barn Dance blocks for her teacher gift this year, so we spent an evening laying out the blocks.  She certainly had different notions of distribution than I, as she wanted to cluster colors and I try to spread them out, but I like it.  I began sewing it together as an awkwardly sized leader and ender, in between Magnolia Mystery pieces, the aforementioned Garden Party blocks, and some orphan blocks for a body pillow cover.  Lo and behold, it ended the week in three pieces!

Unfortunately for my expectations, the orange, green, and purple orphan flimsy never found its day in the sun.  I picked a quilting thread but am no closer to a quilting decision than I was at the beginning of the week.  Next week, this will be first up, before finishing Barn Dance or sewing more mini 9s together.

Oh, yes, I worked on those mini 9s.  No pinning is required to sew them into pairs, so after a little sorting, I ran through these in batches to break up the Barn Dance assembly.  I have no idea what this quilt is going to look like, since this is another "haven't put up the blocks" flimsy, but it always works out in the end.

Assembly always goes so quickly, after many months of a few blocks here and there.  I can't believe there are so many ready to put together at once, but I'm up for the challenge!

Be sure to check out the pink projects this weekend!

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

October UFO List

September 1: 13
Started: 0
Finished: 2
September 30: 11

Project List:
1. Rose appliqué
2. Mini 9s
3. Hourglass
4. Garden Party
5.  Barn Dance
6. Placemats
7. Orphan blocks
8. Pillow
9. Scrappy DWR
1o. ABC appliqué
11. Meadow Mist Mystery

I finished my oldest project, Bits and Bobs, as well as a mini for the Teal Mini Swap.  With multiple projects to the assembly and finishing stages, I haven't started anything new (yet).  I'm going to love a gloriously short list to start the new year!

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

October Goals

In September, I wanted to...
1.  Sew scraps like mad: finish Bits and Bobs, finished my hourglass quilt, finish my mini 9s blocks, sew 5 more Garden Party blocks, sew 4 more Barn Dance blocks, and use up a few more orphans.  The pile is so small, the end is in sight! I did it all (except finish the orphan quilt, although I did get it to a flimsy and basted).

2. Rose appliqué: progress.  Always onward, right?  Not much, unfortunately.

3.  Finish my Teal Mini Swap and mail it.  Yes!

4.  Complete the next step for the Meadow Mist Mystery.  Yes!

5.  I need a UFO goal.  I think it will go with the orphan blocks in orange, since I finished my hand quilting of Tell it to the Stars in July.  The next UFO was the alphabet quilt in blue, which I finished in August, so now it's time to wrap up the orphan blocks!  Not finished, but progress.

In October, I would like to...
1.  Tackle those scraps: trim, finish the Garden Party blocks, get mini 9s and Barn Dance to the flimsy stage, finish the hourglass  and orphan block quilts, and make a body pillow cover from other leftovers.

2.  Make oodles of progress on the Rose appliqué.

3.  Complete the next step in the Magnolia Mystery.

4.  Mending.  It has piled up, and needs to be gone before company comes for Thanksgiving.

That's it.  Those goals are big, so I need to get sewing!

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

September Block Count

It was a paltry month, as the remaining ones will be...

5 blocks to make an orphan block quilt
4 Barn Dance
5 mini 9s
5 Garden Party blocks
For a total of 19.

Add that to last month, and my current total for 2017 is 972 blocks!

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

Stash Report Week #39

Last week, I couldn't seem to manage my stash report, so we'll have two weeks in a go...

IN this week: 1 1/2 yards
OUT this week: 18 1/4 yards

IN YTD: 168 1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 127 3/4 yards
YTD total: 40 3/4 yards IN

I received 1 1/2 yards of lovely rainbow stripe from a friend, and finished a mini for a swap and my Bits and Bobs.  I have five more quilts to finish this year (at least), but they don't add up to 41 yards, so I may not manage to use more than I bought this year.  Oh, well, I've had a good time buying and sewing it all!

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