Stash Report Week #5 and 15 Minutes

 I finished a quilt, I finished a quilt!  This is quilt finish number 3 for 2021, but now I think we may enter a drought of quilt finishes for a while.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 6 yards

IN YTD: 28 3/4 yards (0 purchased)

OUT YTD: 22 1/2 yards

YTD total: 5 1/4 yards IN

Oh, that’s an improvement.  There are twins due in the family in the next few months, so if I get their quilts done, I should be able to get back in the positive.  Again, that may take a while, since I won’t be able to baste or quilt for well over a month, but I can get plenty of quilt tops ready to go.

On the hand work 15 minutes a day front, I found time every day this week, so my record is 28/30 for 2021.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Pink Petals

 I have one last pink piece for the month, a pink flower for my farm quilt.  Woohoo!

Most of my sewing was dedicated to quilting and binding this lovely.  Now it’s done, and its next stop is the washing machine.  I really like how it turned out.  I used fleece instead of batting and backing, just for fun, and I love that it’s light and warm.

It’s been nearly two decades since I last made a strip twist, and I think I have it out of my system for a while now.  I like the colors and hope the recipient will as well.

Yellow will be perfect for February, as I already have one of the twin quilts cut out, and it’s yellow.  Next week will be dedicated to cutting out my yellow farm quilt blocks and modern vintage blocks (I hope!).

And that’s it for my weekly Rainbow Scrap Challenge report, as I have farm work to do.

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

January 350 Block Count

 We’re close enough to the end of the month I feel comfortable reporting my block count.  I finished the 2020 temperature quilt and a strip twist this month, for 72 and 30 blocks respectively.  Add to that my farmhouse blocks (7) and Modern Vintage blocks (3), and I’m up to 112 to start of 2021.  Not too shabby, I think!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #4 and 15 Minutes

 Hand stitching is more complicated this year, apparently, as I missed another day.  We are busy with such disparate things that I don’t yet have a routine in the new house to keep hand stitching easy. Sometimes while I’m doing school with Miss G, it works to stitch, and sometimes, that’s a battle.  Sometimes I can rest in the afternoon with my feet up, and sometimes it’s chaos or we have a project to complete before the kids have screen time.

Anyway, that’s my excuse.  I have stitched 21 of 23 days for 2021.

I finished my Morewood Mystery quilt (early).  I had a sneak peek and figured out how to assemble my blocks ahead of schedule, which allowed me to finish it before surgery (whew!) and get it off my plate.  I love it and hope to share pictures after the reveal in a few months.  Finishing this quilt does mean a nice change in stash numbers again.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 11 yards

IN YTD: 28 3/4 yards (none purchased)

OUT YTD: 16 1/2 yards

YTD Total:  12 1/4 yards IN

I’ve also exhausted three spools of thread and made 0 masks for 2021.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Peeks of Pink

 It’s been a busy week.  We still don’t have internet (the installer failed to come twice.  Ah, the joys of rural life.)

First, in terms of completeness, is I finished my Morewood Mystery quilt.  I can’t show you the top, as the last clues aren’t released yet (I had the sneak peek), but it does have pink binding.  It washed nicely (I only see one or two spots or bleeding).  I’ll be giving it to a friend soon.

Next, I whipped out some really pink farm blocks.  I followed various Lori Holt patterns and used the cork fabric collection with various backgrounds.  So far, so good.  Since this quilt is destined for DH and my bed, we’ll have an initial for each child in the quilt.  One down.

Oh, and I did finish the third modern vintage block.  (And the sun came out after being dreary all morning, so thank you for excusing the sun stripe in the photo!)

Finally, and worked on perhaps the longest, my strip twist blocks are finally coming together.  I hope the intended recipient likes the color scheme.  It’s much more muted than my normal preference, but as I keep having these fabrics in my scrap basket, they keep coming out to play.  If it needs a border (it might), which color would you choose?

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

I’ll be linking to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Stash Report Week #3 and 15 Minutes

 IN this week: 3/4 yards

OUT this week: 5 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 28 3/4 yards

OUT YTD: 5 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 23 1/4 yards IN

I received a lovely prize/gift from Shelly of Prairie Moon Quilts for participating in her 350 Block Challenge.  She sent 3 super cute fat quarters.  That means I still haven’t bought any fabric.  (Ha ha, 16 days in and “still” haven’t bought fabric.)

I finished my temperature quilt!  I’m so glad to have a quilt finished after my large birthday gift.  I’ve been cutting and piecing, so the year’s goals are moving along nicely.

On the 15 minutes front, I did miss one day.  The baby wakes up 3-4 times in the evening before I go to bed, and one time I laid down to nurse him, I fell asleep and didn’t get back up to do my hand sewing.  The hexagons are still coming together nicely.  That leaves me with 15/16 days for 2021.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Pink Pieces

 My apologies on out of order pictures.  I put them in order, they appear out of order, and on phone internet, I don’t have the option to reupload, etc.  so here we go...

My temperature quilt for 2020 is finished!  I would like to embroider 2020 in the brown filler patch at the bottom, and maybe label each sample fabric (bottom right corner, from dark purple at below 0 to the maroon red at over 100), but it’s quilted and bound.  I did use a fabric pen to mark when self-isolation began for us as a family, but otherwise it’s plain.

Some year, if I’m organized enough, I’d like to mark birthdays, special events, major weather events, etc.  it would be interesting to record visually.  I marked each day with a low and high temperature, so I quilted in pairs two separate out each day.

The backing is hand dyed by the big girls and me.  I like it!

Here’s the actual pink for the week.  I finished two of my pink Modern Vintage blocks.  I clearly need to trim my half square triangles next time, but I was (cough, cough) too lazy this week.  Next week, I hope to  finish the last one and make some pink Farm Quilt blocks.

It’s time to link up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again!

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

Sewing Room Tour, Attempted

 I had all my pictures taken, but attempting to post from my phone is proving challenging.  Please forgive the out-of-order photos as the uploading is slow and clumsy.

Photo 2: Sewing room on the left.  I’m not sure where the sewing machine will live permanently, but here it is now.

 Photo #3 In the winter, there are abundant hours of sun, so instead of storing my fabric on this cart as I did in the old house, current projects will live here as I’m working on them.  I don’t have a kitchen desk any longer, so all our regular bills and filing are also going to live here (see that pile of papers on the bottom... I haven’t been filing).  The lock box is for screens... my kids have trouble leaving them alone, so we lock them up unless it’s screen time.

Photo #6. Closet on the right.  Here’s all my fabric, with business files on the floor and some other craft materials on top.

Photo #5 Opening the closet door.

Photo #8 This interesting alcove in the closet holds bigger tubs of upholstery fabric, baby clothes for a future quilt, calligraphy materials, and batting and my quilting frame.  A little chaotic, but out of the way.

Picture #4   Right side of the sewing room. The table on the left is my daughter’s sewing table.  My computer might go there.  On the right is a small bookshelf with quilting and crafting books.  The white cart is homeschool materials.  The door is my lovely, lovely closet.

This should be the first photo.  Hello, hearth room and entry into my sewing room.  Homeschool materials are on the right, my bedroom is through a door next to the fireplace.

Photo #7 Straight ahead in the closet.  On the floor, paper in file boxes, thread, etc.  Shelves for projects, scraps, and supplies.  Eventually my WillowTree ornaments will have a shelf in the sewing room, but DH is busy with more time sensitive projects right now!

I don’t know if this makes any sense at all, but until we have internet at home, I don’t have a good way to reorganize the pictures.  I will get to it eventually!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

January Goals

 I posted for 2021, but what about January?

1. Scraps: trim the scrap bin, finish (maybe?) the strip twist quilt, work on my hexagons (finish the orange and make one in pink), make pink blocks for Modern Vintage and farmhouse.

2.  Assemble, possibly finish my Morewood Mystery.

3. Finish the temperature quilt.

4. Cut future quilts...

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report #2 and 15 Minutes

 It was a good week for incoming fabric.  Yes, yes, my goal is to buy only 20 yards this year, but it was my birthday, and my birthday present was fabric.  It doesn’t count for the 20 yards.

I received some bolt end scrap bags of Kona solids and batiks, so I’m going to estimate 25 yards.

IN this week: 25 yards

OUT this week: 0 yards

2 spools used up for the year.

I did hand stitch every day, for 9/9 for the year.  We still don’t have internet at the new house, so I’m dashing this out in the driveway of the old house after taking care of trash.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Gone Astray

 I did work on my pink hexagons this week, but they change so little from week to week that it didn’t occur to me to take a picture.

Mostly I’ve been sewing and handling not-pink scraps, when I have time to sew!  I have plans for a split star quilt.  I want to cut lots and lots of “parts and pieces” so that when I have my lifting restrictions post-surgery next month, I won’t have to worry about the weight of the iron or the pressure of the rotary cutter for a while.  It’s currently a mess of piles.

I have gathered up pinks for my new scrappy quilt.  The magazine page calls the quilt “Modern Vintage,” so that’s what I’ve been calling it for now.  The blocks should be easy to make each month, requiring only one size of scrap, and I can stop whenever I feel like I have enough blocks (or keep going for a second quilt!).

I would really love to finish my temperature quilt from 2020 in the next week, and then I can focus on 2021. There will be no temperature quilt this year; I need to think about how I’d like to add more detail to the quilt in a future project... birthdays, major life events, etc.

DH is almost done building a wall in the basement, which will help us get the rest of the unpacking in process.  I’m happy the kitchen and sewing room are both unpacked, even if I will have to rearrange in time.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z. 

P.S. I’m linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

2021 Sewing Goals

Ah, 2021, it looks like we already blew the year on my birthday (January 6).  I’m going to set forth some goals anyway and see if we can redeem the year.

Stash: I’d like to use 100 yards more than I take in, and buy no more than 20 yards.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Modern Vintage, hand pieced hexagons, cork fabric farm quilt

Other quilts: twin quilt, placemats, 2020 temperature quilt, strip twist, pineapple quilt, star quilt in blue and grays

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

 

2021 UFO Challenge

 My goal for years has been to decrease my UFO count to less than ten, and in 2019 and 2020, I was able to do that.  I start 2021 with the following list:

1. Pillow

2. Scrappy DWR

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

6. Morewood Mystery

7. Strip Twist

I hope to finish the temperature quilt this week, the Morewood Mystery this month, and Strip Twist before February 9 (I hope!).  I will also start at least two new scrappy quilts this month.  The first three projects are unlikely to be finished in 2021, and the hexagons will be a work in progress all year.

My brother’s wife is pregnant with twins, roughly due in March, so I need to work on those baby quilts in February and March.  I’ll do what I can to have them ready to go before then, but I also have oodles of unpacking and decluttering tasks yet to be done.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #1 and 15 Minutes

 A fresh start for the year!

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 0 yards

My 2021 goals for the stash are to buy less than 20 yards (gulp) and have my net usage above 100 yards.  My closet at the new house has ample space, but as I stack up my fabric, I have plenty of bits and pieces I’d like to use up rather than continue storing.  Empty space would be good for me!

I hand stitched 2/2 days for 2021.  I really need to finish this large orange hexagon star, but I’ll get there!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge, 2021 Edition

Plans, that’s what I’m working on today.  Plans.

Each month, I’m going to make some blocks called “Modern Vintage.”  I’m away from the pattern source at the moment, but it will make a nice quilt.

The hand hexagon sewing will definitely continue 2021.  In February, I have surgery scheduled and won’t be able to lift anything for two weeks, and then drastically reduced after that for a while, so hand sewing will be good.

We got a new, king-sized bed, and have only a Tshirt quilt and my 16-patch quilt that fit.  And it’s cold in our new house, so I’m going to make farm-themed blocks from Lori Holt and a cork fabric fat quarter stack to make a few blocks a month for a new quilt next year!

And, that’s it for now.  I need to finish three quilts in progress before I can commit to something new and random.

We had 6” inches of snow!

Here’s my sewing nook-in-progress.  I had my tablecloth laid out to organize a quilt, but it’s picked up now.  We’re still finding homes for things, and that always means mess until we do!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.