Stash Report Week #35 and 15 Minutes

Since we had an emergency trip to Colorado this past week, I hustled through quilting the Due South quilt, then worked hard over the last few days, between the kid wrangling and such, to finish the binding.  Last night, we spread the new quilt on my niece’s bed, she was pretty thrilled.  Her name and a few other messages are quilted into her quilt for her!

I think it’s a touch wide for her bed, but I wasn’t in the mood to fiddle with measurements, so this is what it looks like.

 Most of my handwork was the binding of this quilt and the hand quilting of my Teal Mini Swap.  I have done handwork 234/242 days for 2020.

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 15 yards

IN YTD: 99 yards
OUT YTD: 175 yards
YTD Total: 76 yards OUT

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

Change in Plans

I had things to do this week, if you know what I mean.  I had quilting goals, garden goals, school goals, canning coals, and so on.

Then, Monday, a woman decided she could beat oncoming traffic to turn left, and instead hit my sister’s van full of kids before bouncing off to hit two more cars.  My sister had surgery Thursday for a broken distal radius (elbow) and ulna.  She has a few metal plates in her arm now, and my kids and I and my mom hustled to Colorado to help with cooking, cleaning, kid-tending (all her kids are okay minus seatbelt rash and mental trauma).  We have 11 kids and 4 adults in one house.  (And I’m grateful we’ve behaved ourselves so that we aren’t concerned about Covid.  I’ve only been to the dentist and the doctor in the last two weeks).  So, I didn’t sew what I intended.

I finished a sling pad, my mini swap (hey, partner, I’ll get it mailed next week), and quilting my niece’s quilt.  I have 1 1/2 sides done, and I need to finish the last 2 1/2 sides.  So my sewing looks like this today...

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

Stash Report Week #34 and 15 Minutes

My handwork has shifted from hexagons this week to binding and hand quilting of a mini for the Teal Mini Swap.  I think I’m at 227 out of 235 days for 2020.  Life is a little crazy, and I’m got less sleep last night than usual (ah, nightmares and early risers), so I will admit my record keeping has lagged.

On the stash busting front, I made 15 masks and finished the quilt for my SiL.  The masks are for my daughter and nieces for school, so it was high time I got them finished.  I will still need to mail them to my nieces, but at least they are done.  The quilt was a quick one, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.  I like the colors, I like the pattern, I like the size.

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 13 yards

IN YTD: 99 yards
OUT YTD: 160 yards
YTD Total: 61 yards OUT

If I have time and get other things done (soap and canning tomatoes), I may have a finish again next week.

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

A Plethora of Purple

I whipped out my purple quilt this week!  It’s already in the mail and will hopefully arrive in the next 9 days (she lives 3 hours away, so this should be a reasonable hope).  I am quite happy with it.  It might be a smidge wide, but I accidentally had 64 blocks instead of 63, so it’s 8 blocks wide.  The block pattern is from the book Successful Scrap Quilts from Simple Rectangles.  I will revisit this book for other patterns, as I was very happy with how the directions were written, etc.  My purple stash has dwindled alarmingly with the making of this quilt, but since we are finding a move may be necessary soon, the more I use, the less there is to move later.

Ten Garden Posies are finished for the month.   I think there’s only one scrap of purple in the entire quilt, so the scraps aren’t cooperating with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.

Week 3 of homeschool is in the books.  It was smoother, despite outside chaos, so I would consider it a success.

I basted my pink Flying Stars quilt which had been set aside for the purple goodies above.  As soon as I load some bobbins with pink thread, I’ll have another finish not too far away!

What else did I do this week?  I know, things, but it feels like I should have more sewing time to account for somewhere.  Oh, yes, masks and tie dyeing with the kids!  We made a new shirt for me (my first shrunk too much), some hats, a sweatshirt, and some lovely fabric.

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

Stash Report Week #33 and 15 Minutes

 It’s amazing how fast thread disappears when I push through a mass of blocks all at once. The purple blocks are done and they finished off yet another spool of thread last week!  My goal is to finish the quilt this week, so I should be able to report a stash change!

I completed some hand stitching everyday in the last week. Whew

I apologize for the late post.  I am busy and forgetful lately.

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

Plum Crazy

 Here we are, another Saturday.  School week 2, including a safely socially distanced field trip to a national park, is in the books.

You ladies know I’m always busy.  Amongst my self-chosen occupations this week is trying to make an entire quilt in less than three weeks.  It’s purple and scrappy, so it fits with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  One of my SiLs has surgery coming in September.  We have a “sick quilt” that my mom pieced and I quilted that gets passed around, but I thought, since she may have to stay near the hospital for a week to ten days, that it might be nice for her to have a larger quilt for her bed.  I need to finish the remaining blocks today, and if so, I am on track to finish it by next Saturday, which should give me enough time to ship it and it arrive, despite the postal drama, safely at her house before surgery.  (These blocks/this quilt need(s) a name.  Any suggestions?)

My courtyard step blocks are done.  Many Garden Party posies worked up as leaders and enders for my scrappy purple blocks, so they are on the wall too.  I have one more hand hexagon stitched up.

In the next two weeks, I also have another pile of masks to make.  The Assistant will (theoretically, as our case numbers are high) be attending high school for the first time in two weeks, so she picked out some fun fabrics.  My nieces return to school in three weeks, and they each need a few more masks too.  They’re all cut, and maybe I’ll work on their sewing as I assemble my purple blocks.

I, of course, have things to do, so this is all for now.  May your days be full of threads and happiness!

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

P.S. I’m linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have trouble getting to comments and visiting others’ blogs, but I really will make an effort to better this week.  You all are full of inspiration!

PPS I can’t seem to find where to link and how to sort my pictures.  Give me a week or I’ll switch back to the old blogger.

Stash Report Week #32 and 15 Minutes

 One more hexagon flower is finished!  I’ve done hand sewing or quilting 213/221 days for 2020.  At some point this year, I hope to lay out all the finished hexagons and start a little more organization for the big ones.  There are plenty of blues and purples cut, so I can stay busy for quite a while before I need to make too many decisions.

While there are no finishes this week, I did finish off another spool of thread, for 11 for the year.  I am speed piecing (and, fortunately, strip piecing) as much of a quilt as I can for someone sweet who has surgery September 1.  Can I finish it in two weeks?  I don’t know, but I’m certainly going to try.

I need to cut masks for the nieces and my oldest daughter, who are headed back to school September 1.  Always more masks.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Grateful

The first official week of school is over.  It went better than expected.  Surprise, surprise, I’m exhausted.

And, surprise, surprise, it was a struggle to find time and energy and children-calmness to make it downstairs to sew.  I finished up one last blue hexagon flower and cut the fabric for purple ones.

I made two courtyard steps early in the week.  Next week, I think I’ll make one more round of purple ones.  Then, only three sets remain.  It’s amazing that I’ll be assembling this quilt in a few short months!  Isn’t it funny how the pandemic has disrupted our sense of time?  On one hand, the kids and DH have been home “forever,” but somehow the “old normal” doesn’t seem five months ago.  The days are both too long to be around everyone and too short for everything to get done (and there’s never enough sleep!)

My finest sewing accomplishment this week is the finished flimsy for Flying Stars, also known as “Due South.”  At the best of times, I don’t love borders, and this week the math and time to wrestle with it were elusive.  Here we are!  (The borders are hiding on one side.  The Assistant’s arms aren’t quite wide enough, and we were in a hurry.)

I’m going to try to make it downstairs to sew, but since it’s taken till afternoon to finish this post, it may be challenging to get anything properly done all day!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.  

P.S. I’m linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I’m not savvy enough with the new setup to link here!

August Goals

For July, I hoped to...

1.  Manage my dark blue scraps.  I’ve trimmed, and now I’ll make courtyard steps blocks, Garden Party blocks, and some hand pieced hexies.  Done.

2.  Work on the temperature quilt.  I’m not sure if I’ll get one or two rows done (I think only one). One row.

3.  Get all the foxes into a flimsy.  Hey, I was an overachiever and finished the quilt!

4.  Work on Flying Stars.  It should be possible to get it to flimsy stage this month. It’s not quite a flimsy, but it will be there soon.  See #3.  Oh, yeah, and we decided to homeschool four kids this year, so I had other things taking my time!

5.  Repair Millie’s quilt.  Ooh, this is a story.  We decided to rip the top and backing apart.  This was quite a feat as I had “birthed” it, uneven edges and all.  I’ll be making a new backing, repairing the top, adding new batting, and machine quilting it into a new, fabulous beauty.  Eventually.

6.  Make Millie’s red skirt.  (Tee hee.  I finished this today.)  Done, of course.

7.  I had porch seat repair on my original list, but I think I’m going to pass.  It’s inconvenient and the frames are rusting through, so why bother?  After shopping for new chairs, I opted to repair the old ones for one more season.

In August, besides the major goal of not being hospitalized for Covid 19 or infecting anyone else with it, I have the following goals...

1.  Purple scraps.  Trim, courtyard steps, hand pieced hexies.  I will make some Garden Party blocks and Easy Breezy blocks, but neither quilt has purple, so they will not cooperate this month!

2.  Temperature quilt: 2 rows.

3.  Finish Flying Stars.  I need to finish and apply the borders, then make the backing and quilt.

4.  Make my teal mini for the teal mini swap, which raises money for ovarian cancer research.

5.  I may need a special purple quilt made in the next month.  We shall see.  I’ll have to see what I can manage.

6.  In the unlikely event of spare time, I’ll work in repairing my first quilt to get it back to my sister.

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

Stash Report Week #31 and 15 Minutes

The hand stitching consisted mostly of binding this week, but I’m still stitching away.  206/214 for the year!

The binding completed BJ’s for quilt, so I have some yardage out for the week.  Having one more project off the quilting list is a good idea at this point, since we’re starting school tomorrow and I imagine we’re going to be busy getting into a routine!  I’m also glad to have “redeemed” myself a bit from last week’s splurges.  The fabric cart is a bit full, and I do mean to keep all my fabric in it, so sew I must.  I have already pulled out several new pieces to make masks for my nieces, who need solid masks for school in September.  The mask-making never seems end.

IN this week: 0 yards
OUT this week: 11 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 99 yards
OUT YTD: 147 yards
YTD Total: 48 yards OUT

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

Crazy Times

Apparently, I only thought I was tired through the first five months of this pandemic.  This week, I didn’t make it to my sewing nook most days, as I was too busy.

There was the transforming of the dining room into our homeschool space.  The Assistant and I ventured out to purchase school supplies.  I sorted and planned and started school with two eager beavers.  The other two will start next week so we have plenty of time to take breaks before DH and the Assistant are in full high school mode.

I think I also canned tomatoes once, picked cucumbers a few times, and moved chickens daily in there.

Then we moved DH’s desk back to the basement, this time into our storage room.  He gave up his office one week pre-pandemic, for the big girls to have a room separate from their (difficult) little sister.  We had no idea he would spend nine weeks teaching from our bedroom, but now we know some variation of that is in our future, the bedroom and the office must part ways.  Lots of shifting and rearranging took place.  Up and down stairs, cleaning out little piles, and purging were required.

Big boy BJ turns one tomorrow (we’ll celebrate with his new fox quilt), and is falling off every table and high surface he can hike himself onto.  The benches and chairs for the tables are moved away everywhere to try to save him from himself.  He doesn’t want to be saved!

Friday, we worked outside.  I made yogurt (the milk was going to expire soon!) and granola to eat with the yogurt.  Then, DH removed full frames from the bee hives, and I spent many hours extracting honey (I have only extracted honey once before, so I had trouble finding a rhythm).  We ended with roughly 29 cups of liquid gold, with another one or two still dripping from the last of the comb.

I also finished the fox quilt (blogged here), sewed together half of Flying Stars, finished hand piecing one flower, and trimmed all my scraps.

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