November UFO Report

 1. Pillow

2. Scrappy DWR

3. ABC appliqué
4. Hand pieced hexagons
5. Temperature quilt

6. Spunky

7. Morewood Mystery

8. Blue and white

9. Rainbow

November 1: 7 projects

Started: 3

Finished: 1

November 30: 9 projects

Eh, I started a few things.  Fortunately, I first finished my courtyard steps quilt.  All three new quilts are intended as gifts and are needed/wanted in the near future, it was worth starting all three now.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #48 and 15 Minutes

 Oh, my, my, but the year is suddenly sliding right past me.  Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that the pandemic began?  Of course not, but as we have settled into a routine, it does feel like time has gone faster.

This week, I finished nothing, so my totals remain the same.  I did use up one more spool of thread, for 20 out for the year.

I worked on my hexagons this week every day, for 319/332 days.  I finished round one and two, and tonight I spent some time basting round three.

We had a full day, with honey extracting after finding a hive died, chick rescuing after our guineas attacked them, and later butchering, sadly, because we don’t keep vicious animals on our farm.  That’s not quite how I intended Sunday to go, but so it is!  Now I’m heading to bed.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Quiet Days

 Happy Thanksgiving, belatedly!  We had a quiet, lovely Thanksgiving.  We did an 8x8 meeting (video call) with most of my siblings and my parents in the afternoon and evening, but we also had a great time just celebrating by ourselves.  While our original plan was to drive to Colorado and celebrate (alone) in a cabin, we decided there was too much risk if DH or the Assistant, who are regularly at risk of exposure to COVID, got sick at 8000 feet instead of our normal 1000.  No fun.

The bonus is the hours and hours (more than 20) of time not spent in a car.  I’ve been quite productive with my extra hours.

Spunky wants an owl in her quilt, so I’m constructing one for the last corner.  Then we’ll find a backing and quilt it. The weather is easing into winter here, but Spunky loves the quilt and really enjoyed the collaboration.  I did too.

In the meantime, I completely finished this flimsy.  Wow!  I love how fast these blocks come together once constructed.  As I mentioned last week, the blue and neutral strips were almost entirely from my scrap box, with just a few strips of each required from my stash.  I had no idea I could make such a large quilt from it.  This weekend, I’ll press it, cut the batting, and piece the backing.

Last night, when I didn’t feel like doing the pressing, I cut an entire new quilt.  The little man said his favorite colors are red and rainbow, so I’m making a rainbow quilt.

I need to get busy!  It’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge weekend.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

Katie z.

Stash Report Week #47

I lost track of Sunday.  Oops.

Last week, I finished my Courtyard Steps and delivered it to its intended recipient.  She was happy, and I’m happy.

I forgot to report last week that I ordered a bold of 60” wide Kona for quilt backs.  I’ve gotten tired of trying to match bits of my stash into panels for quilts, when often what I need is roughly 60” wide and I only have 40-45”.  A bit of an ouch, but it’s going to be quite useful.

IN this week: 30 yards

OUT this week:  11 yards

IN YTD: 159 yards

OUT YTD: 223 3/4 yards

YTD Total: 64 3/4 yards OUT

I did remember to stitch for at least 15 minutes each day for a total of 312/325 days.  I’m ready for this year to be over.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Changes

 When Spunky helps me with quilting, we always have interesting developments.  I was in need of distraction this week, so we pushed through a few more “chunks” of her quilt.  I will make another checkerboard section for the top (right) of the quilt, and then I think all we need to do is use up the odds and ends on the left for a final wide strip.  I like it.  She says it feels like fall, which was the original vision, so it’s good.

I also started a new quilt this week.  I had plans for the intended recipient in 2021, but as life does, I could see it would be a great quilt to make now, in this strange interim time of the year.  It’s similar to the purple quilt I made for my SiL earlier this year, but with one round less.  I was able to get about 95% of the strips from my 2.5” scrap box, and only needed maybe 1/2 yard of strips from white and blue to cut the rest.  I’m excited and nervous to see if this quilt looks like I have imagined it.

Next week, with Thanksgiving, I don’t know if I will get as much done as I dream about, but that’s okay.  We all need to decompress from the stress, and while we won’t celebrate with family, we will try to relax.

I finished one more hexagon flower.  Next will be a big orange star, and it will take me certainly longer than the next week.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

P.S. It’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge day.

Stash Report Week #46

 No stash changes.  I didn’t finish my courtyard steps quilt and I didn’t make the Assistant’s skirt, as it was just the kind of week to disrupt goals.

I did work on my hexagons every day, so I am at 305 of 318 days for the year (how are there so few days left?).

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Busy Hands

 I am grateful for a seventh grader who needs Kansas history this year.  We made one more school outing to Lecompton, where we would safely (mostly outside, no close contact) put images to history.  I’m not sure we can go out again, even without contact, as chart for case numbers for COVID is turning into an elevator rather than a slope.

Here at home, we are having lots of outdoor time for Vitamin D, enjoying the chickens, and tidying the farmyard for winter.  Today it’s windy, so we’ll find all sorts of interesting things blown around!

I quilted my courtyard steps in fits and starts.  It was a full week, somehow.  I did a simple meander.  Here is a reality about my quilting: I don’t have the setup or space, currently, for lots of extravagant or intricate quilting.  And I’d rather buy more fabric than branch out to find a quilter (new things are hard for me).  I’m quite happy with it, and I’ll bind it this weekend and next week.

One more small hexagon flower is done this week.  I think that, more than anything else, is an excellent visual representation for all the catch-up medical and other appointments we have had lately.  I baste and stitch these up when waiting.

I made a little progress on my Morewood Mystery quilt, some sewing, some cutting, some pressing.  

I cut two baby quilts, variations on the same block for a set of twins coming next spring.  No, not mine.

Spunky and I didn’t even touch her quilt this week.  Oops!

I feel a bit bereft without a solid leader ender or other project to keep me on task with goals.  Part of me doesn’t want to start another new project (it’s November, it’s busy, I don’t want to get too much done now so that it doesn’t “last” for 2021), but another part of me says, just cut up some scraps and sew!  I have the Pineapple Farm pattern by Elizabeth Hartman out, so I think I need to take this time to wrap my mind around the best way to cut and sort for this. Maybe I can make pineapple tops now?  I should stop dithering and get doing, as the morning will be over before I know it!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

P.S. It’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge time!

Stash Report Week #45 and 15 Minutes

 I missed a day of hand stitching this past week.  That gives me 298 of 311 days.  I did spend time early in the week prepping and sorting squares, etc., so it was still a great week.

On the stash report this week, I completed 5 masks as well as my Christmas apron.  It’s a good thing I finished a few things, as I ordered a rather large amount of fabric.  I found some Pokémon fabric hopefully to entice JoJo to wear his mask when we’re at appointments.  Then, Hancock’s of Paducah had mystery grab bags of Kona solids as well as batiks for sale.  I use batiks in masks, as they are a tighter weave, and I just wanted some new solids to mix in my collection.  My usage is safe for the year as I should finish one more quilt this year (although I do have a bolt for PFD 60” fabric coming, so maybe I need to finish more than one quilt.  Eek!)

IN this week: 26 yards

OUT this week: 4 yards

IN YTD: 129 yards

OUT YTD: 212 3/4 yards

YTD Total: 83 3/4 yards OUT

I finished the 19th spool for the year.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Whirlwind Week

 I drove for hours this week, taking the Assistant to school as her usual ride to school has been quarantined for exposure to COVID (all are well, thankfully).  Add to that appointments, errands, and so forth, and I spend far too many hours out of the house!

Spunky and I weren’t able to make much progress on her fall quilt.  I have hope that next week will see better progress.

I made masks... 5 this week.  I finished my new holiday apron, one that should conceal grease stains quite nicely.

Most of my precious minutes at the sewing table focused on assembling my courtyard steps.  Spunky helped me with the random arrangement, as my attempt to organize it in rainbow order was clunky and awkward.  I even pieced a wild back from some funny chunks of prints and florals that I had no plans for.  I hope the intended recipient will like it.

I did choose and cut fabrics for a new quilt.  A good friend is potentially facing surgery and is having some spinal issues, so I thought a quilt would cheer her up.  Her favorite colors are blues, purples, and pinks, so I’m hoping the current Meadow Mist pattern, the Morewood Mystery, will satisfy.  The pattern clues have been posted once a month since July, but I think I can catch up in the next month and then see where it takes me!  Right now, I have stacks of pieces and parts everywhere.

I’ll be linking to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and hopefully find the time to visit all the other quilters.

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

October Block Count

 It took me far too many days to organize myself for this post for October.  The week was flush with an abundance of appointments, so here I am.

October delivered 59 new blocks, 48 temperature quilt blocks, 2 courtyard steps, and 9 Easy Breezy blocks.  This gives me a total of 1010 blocks for 2020.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

October UFO Report

 Tallying up and reporting my UFOs each month has shown me I’m a much more productive and calm quilter when I finish up the little projects and odds and ends rather than letting them hang on for months and years.  This is the first year, I think, that I’ve steadily kept my projects at under 10.  I tend to stay stuck at this level as three of my UFOs are not projects I care to address anytime soon!

1. Pillow
2. Scrappy DWR
3. ABC appliqué
4. Hand pieced hexagons
5. Courtyard steps
6. Temperature quilt

7. Spunky

October 1: 8 projects

Started: 1

Finished: 2

October 31: 8 projects

I finished off Garden Party and my Easy Breezy blocks but added a project with Spunky.  I’m enjoying it, and I think she is as well!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #44 and 15 Minutes

 Somewhere I’ve counted inaccurately, so let’s try this again... for the past 304 days, I have managed to hand stitch for 292 of them.  Only a few thousand more days to go for this beloved project.

On the stash busting front, I have myriad things to list.  Two thread spools bit the dust, for a total of 18 for the year.  I feel like that’s a little low, but I looked back and saw I was lazy in my spool reporting.  Oh, well.

I finished one more niece apron, an apron for PK, a baby quilt for a nephew, and two masks for nieces.  They were in need of halter strap masks instead of elastic to give their ears a break.  That makes 125 masks and counting.  There are new babies expected elsewhere in the family this year, so my lovely sister splurged and sent me some yellow and orange fat quarters as quilt seeds.

IN this week: 4 yards

OUT this week: 5 3/4 yards

IN YTD: 103 yards 

OUT YTD: 208 3/4 yards

YTD Total: 105 3/4 yards OUT

I finished a number of labor and fabric intensive quilts this year, and it’s certainly reflected in the totals.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.