I have 91 blocks for September. I made 48 temperature blocks, 6 courtyard steps, the last 15 Garden Party blocks, and 22 Easy Breezy blocks.
Add that to the 860 blocks I already had, and I now have a total of 951.
from the room of Zana’s Ninis, katie z.
This was a good week for fabric usage. I get to count the new backing and binding for my first quilt (the quilt too that was a quilt for almost 20 years until my sister and I deconstructed it this summer/fall) and I will also be counting fabric for four masks.
With quilting, another spool of thread is gone, for 16 for the year.
On the 15 minutes of hand quilting a day, I have managed well for the last few weeks. This giant red hexagon star takes forever to put together, but I only have two more points of the outer ring of hexies, so it should be done by the end of the month.
from the room of Zana’s Ninis, katie z.
Hey, hey, hey! No pneumonia, kitchen disasters, or broken glasses to report this week. There were a few rough school days, but, hey, who wants to be bored? (Me!)
This week I... well, the main player on the stage of the sewing machine was Garden Party. I have two seams left and then miles of pressing. I’m quite pleased.
I finished repairing my first quilt for my sister (I think I’ll get pictures up tomorrow), including its first binding.
Finally, my hand piecing is a single large red hexagon star. My variety in shades of red is pretty poor, but I didn’t want to stray into pink or orange, so it is what it is.
I’ll be linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge as I do most Saturdays.
By now, before I tell you if or what I was able to sew for the week, I sum up our life. Buckle up, it’s a good one. Monday, I dragged the recycling down to the street and splashed a bit of dew onto my glasses. Therefore, I took off my glasses and pulled up the bottom of my shirt to dry said glasses, which promptly snapped in half on the bridge. I am so grateful that I had, a few months ago, ordered a cheap backup pair from GlassesUSA. They’re wonderful, and yes, I ordered a new backup pair.
Tuesday, BJ spiked a fever of 103 and later, 106. After two hours at the doctor, a strep test, a CoVid test, and a chest X-ray, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. I am, again, so grateful that he doesn’t have CoVid. He has ridden in the car a few times in the last six months, but quite literally not been in any stores or high population areas.
We tried to bake muffins Tuesday night to have for breakfast the next morning. I knew there was a chance BJ start struggling to breathe, and I would have to take him to the ER, but I didn’t want the kids to think the world was ending. I set my oven to 400. When smoke began trickling out of the oven, I assumed it was because DH had cooked pizza on Saturday and a bit stuck to the racks. Alas, my oven broke and was superheating to self-cleaning temperatures, so I ruined a muffin tin, silicone cupcake holders, and muffins. We figured it out before they completely burst into flames, so all’s well that ends well.
So... I did sew, if only to set aside my worries for a while. My first quilt is now, after 20 odd years, quilted with straight lines on either side of the block seams. The backing is green and red, a step calmer than the chaos of the old backing but a step crazier than my current normal of single color backings. I am working on the binding this weekend.
Before and after the quilting, I began row assembly for my Garden Party quilt. I’m quite chuffed with myself on the green ombré pattern that I planned myself and successfully executed. This is going to be a great quilt. I did realize this week I don’t have a fabric for the wide border, but I’ll sort the stash later.
I’ll be linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this weekend.
from the room of Zana’s Ninis, katie z.
I don’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that there are 15 weeks left in the year.
I missed a day hand quilting as it has been an emotionally challenging week for me. My total 246/256 days for 2020.
The state of the stash remains unchanged, although there are hopeful signs of more stash usage. I created a new backing this week and have begun the quilting process on the “remade” first quilt. I think the backing and binding will gain me 4-5 yards in usage. I also began assembling my Garden Party blocks (so exciting!) that are intended for my brother for Christmas. Of course, Arizona is currently 110 or so, so a quilt is unimaginable for actual use, but I think it will be cheerful if nothing else.
from the room of Zana’s Ninis, katie z.
It’s taken me a bit longer to write my “month end” or beginning of the month blogs posts this round. Here is, finally, the last one!
August 1: 8 projects
Started: 2
Finished: 3
August 31: 7 projects
Saturday, I couldn’t summon the energy to get out my hand piecing after resettling BJ four times before he stayed asleep, so I missed one more day. My numbers for the year are therefore 240/249.
I finished nothing this week, so the stash remains unchanged. I am working hard to repair my first quilt, and to that end have pieced a “frankenbatting” from 6 or so scrap strips of batting. I would like to use up all my batting scraps in the next few months, although the next are really only wide enough for a child or toddler quilt. One of the next quilts will be a toddler quilt, so I think I’m okay. I also pieced the batting from red and green fabrics (which sounds Christmas-y, but doesn’t look so in real life). Since the quilt is 20 years old, the fabrics in the top are remnants from Hobby Lobby, so nothing that is currently “my style.” The old, totally disintegrated old backing was from odds and ends from my grandmother and two large pieces of satin that were again remnants from Hobby Lobby and did poorly in the test of time. The top needs many, many repairs before it will be ready to baste and quilt (which I did not do the first time, such a poor job of piecing I had done!), and then I hope it will last another 20. Dear sister of mine, let it be known, that if you wear it out in another 20 years, it will be fit for the garbage and not repair! I am enjoying revisiting old fabrics and seeing how much my skills have grown since my first quilt. Oh, the seam allowances!
from the room of Zana’s Ninis, katie z.
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| Hey, there’s us 4 years ago with two less kids! |
In August, I had big plans...
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! I made all these blocks!
2. Temperature quilt: 2 rows. Negative. I cared for my sister after her car wreck instead.
3. Finish Flying Stars. I need to finish and apply the borders, then make the backing and quilt. Yes, yes, yes!
4. Make my teal mini for the teal mini swap, which raises money for ovarian cancer research. Done, but I do need to mail it.
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. I made it, I mailed it, she received it.
6. In the unlikely event of spare time, I’ll work in repairing my first quilt to get it back to my sister. Instead, I made another heap of masks.
In September, I really hope to feel more positive about homeschooling. It takes a lot of time (I knew it would), and my two younger ones fight it every day, which is discouraging. But we’re talking about quilty goals, aren’t we?
1. Scraps: trim, courtyard steps (but not in red), Garden Party posies, and one large hand pieced hexagons Star.
2. Temperature Quilt: 3 rows, to catch up from last month.
3. Millie’s quilt. It needs repairs, new batting, setting triangles, new backing, and actual binding this time.
I think that’s it. I’m exhausted, anxious, busy, and making progress. This season of life and pandemic will not last forever, and I’ll get my head wrapped around it.
from the room of Zana’s Ninis, katie z.
