Finished Quilt: Friends

 Earlier this year, Spunky asked for a quilt for her friend L.  They’ve been friends since kindergarten despite her being homeschooled the last two year and him transferring away from the Catholic school due to bullying. She asks for so little that I happily obliged.  We chose fabrics, and then I hunted for a pattern.  I am still enjoying the book Successful Scrap Quilts from Simple Rectangles, so I picked two block designs and went to work.

Spunky is happy.  I’m happy.

The quilt is roughly 5’ by 7’; L is tall and lanky, so a big quilt was necessary.  We decided together that a dyed backing would be better than pieced (my stash rarely has larger than a two yard piece these days), so we decided on a spiral.  You know me and my dyeing experiments.  I have plenty of learning moments.  This time, it’s that some of my dye has expired.  This backing is supposed to be green and orange; all the turquoise is from the green dye.  Fortunately, I’m not hooked on perfection, so the backing is what it is.

I’m inordinately pleased with my quilting this time. I chose a lime green thread for my meander this time, and with few jagged bits and good tension, I think it looks beautiful.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

April Goals

 March was a great month.

1.  Finish “Flowers for Frances.”  Done.

2.  Scraps: trim, one large hexagon star in yellow/gold, finish making Farmhouse blocks (8 left!), continue turning my triangles into tiny blocks, and do something with a collection of bee fabric remnants.  Done!  I finished a lovely quilt from my bee remnants.

3.  Make a quick quilt for a family in need of cheering up.  It’s also basted and ready for quilting, as the piecing really was that quick.  Done.

4.  If I finish the above, Spunky requested a quilt for her friend.  I cut it and may very well start sewing it after quilting the other quilts.  Also done.  I love successful months.

April should be lovely too, unless I am totally sucked into the outdoors!

1.  Scraps: trim, make a pink star (probably finish the orange one first!), make the farmhouse blocks into a flimsy (stretch goal: basted or even done?), sew more triangles into blocks, and make at least 20 more heart blocks.

2.  My sister-in-law is patiently waiting for a tshirt quilt.  I may need to order backing, but I’d like to make good progress on this one.

3.  Make a quilt from the rocket/space fabrics I have.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

March UFO Report

 March was a busy month.  Clearly I was relieved by finishing my Rhododendron Mystery, as I finished four quick and easy quilts this month!

I started a quick quilt from fat quarters, the bee scrap quilt, a quilt for Spunky’s best friend, and a quilt from a stack of space-themed fat quarters.  I finished Frances’ flowers and the first three starts for the month.

1. Double wedding ring

2. Pillow

3. ABC appliqué 

4. Hand hexagons

5. Split Star

6. Farm quilt

7. Pink hexagons

8. Valentine

9. Triangles

10. JoJo’s space fabric

March 1: 10 projects

Started: 4

Finished: 4

March 31: 10 projects

The hope in April is to finish the space fabric quilt and make great progress on the Valentine quilt.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week # 12

There are no stash changes this week.  That’s fine, as I’m busy planning what I’m doing with the fabric I already have, and it’s ridiculous to think I’ll finish a quilt every week.

On the hand quilting front, I finished the gold hexagon star and started an orange one.  Stitching came easier this week, so I’ve stitched 84 of 85 days for 2022.

 from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Progress

I finished my large gold star this week!  The outer fabric has dashes of green in it, which I like.

I finished the final two farm blocks.  All the 6” blocks are in 4 patches and sashing is sewn on one side, so this next week will be a good time to work on the layout.  I certainly have some size issues, so it’s time to figure out how to fix this.  My supposedly 1/4” foot is definitely not 1/4”, but I don’t want to glue/stick anything on the bed of my machine.  Work to be done…

 Pink for April sounds great.  I’ll return to my heart blocks and won’t start anything new for my scraps.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Finished Quilt: Nameless

 A few fun fat quarters and some coordinating solids later, this quilt is done, washed, and splendidly wrinkly.

Roughly 52” x 56” (it would be 56” square if I had not made a cutting mistake!), it will be a very nice lap quilt.  I dyed the backing over the summer.  It should have soaked longer, as I had a tiny bit of bleeding of the pink onto the solid yellow on the front, but I’m happy with the results.  I’ve learned plenty for the next round of backings I dye.

I’m enjoying straight line quilting very much lately, so stitching on either side of the seams and diagonally across each block finished the quilting without too much thinking or marking for me.  I know people use washable markers to mark patterns, but my experience the last two times I used washable markers was that the marker did not fully wash out,

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #11

 I think it’s a record to finish two quilts in a week.  They were both small, roughly lap sized, but finishes are finishes, right?  One more spool bit the dust, for a total of 10 for the year.  The bee quilt used up a box of scraps, and the quick quilt used up a stack of lovely prints that didn’t quite fit in with the rest of my stash.  My stash is definitely tending to monochromatic or ton-on-tone these days, and these cheerful and loud prints needed a home together.  In the quest to use up the random stacks of “saved” fabrics in my closet, I also spent the weekend cutting up a stack of glow-in-the-dark space-themed fabrics.  They will make another cheerful and quick quilt.  Clearly I’ve exhausted my tolerance for complicated blocks right now; it will come back eventually.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 9 3/4 yards

IN YTD: 22 yards

OUT YTD: 53 yards

YTD Total: 31 yards OUT

I missed hand stitching for the first time yesterday, much to my disappointment.  Now at 77 of 78 days for 2022, there’s nothing wrong with my total, but I would have liked to keep my perfect streak a bit longer.  I was tired at bedtime and just forgot.  Oh, well.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Penultimate Blocks

Woohoo!  Two more blocks finished this week means only two more blocks to finish.  I’ve picked out the final blocks, and then I’ll dive into joining blocks into four patches and adding sashing.  I’m glad I already have backing and batting, as a large part of me is ready to see this quilt finished.  (Don’t remind to me about quilting.  I’m well aware the bulk of some of these blocks is going to be challenging.)

Since I’m managing from the ends of the cork scraps now, I don’t have as many choices on fabrics.  Some are down to small scraps, so I make it work as I can. 

I did finish my bee quilt this week.  I’m definitely in the mood for mindless sewing.  The backing is something I dyed with mediocre success over the summer.  My intention was for it to look bee stripe-esque.  Just this week I redyed it to add the orange.  The original yellow was a little too neon, and of course I turned it a little too orange.  It works.  I’m learning.  The quilting is an all-over loop and meander with the occasional bee thrown in.  The Assistant helped with all of it, and she’s be happy to add this to her collection.  I’m happy to have a bin of scraps emptied usefully.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #10 and 15 Minutes

 I finished my Flowers for Frances this week, so my stash report feels lovely.  I have almost gotten back on track to using twice what comes in.

One more spools is gone, for 9 used up this year.  Thank goodness I haven’t continued on my pattern of using up a spool every week; I don’t buy the most expensive thread, but 52 new spools of thread is still a lot!  On the other hand, it’s not a bad thing that I’m using up half-empty threads.  I would like all my colorful threads to fit in one storage box, and that’s not yet possible.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 7 1/4 yards

IN YTD: 22 yards

OUT YTD: 43 1/4 yards

YTD Total: 21 1/4 yards OUT

On the 15 minutes front, I have worked on my hand work every day.  I already have the first three colors of my star finished, so it’s just the large outer round left.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Buzzing Busily

 I had another week of more appointments and meetings than normal.  This makes me so tired.  Fortunately, this week, it also lit a fire under me to make good use of my sewing time when I was able to sneak it in.  As such, I finished one quilt, “Flowers for Frances.”  I also quilted my quick quilt, which is quietly calling for a binding.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t answered my question of what color?

On the yellow side of sewing, I assembled a lovely quilt from a leftover layer cake of bee fabrics.  The Assistant managed the layout for me, so it was a quick project to sew up.  I’m glad the “leftovers” box will be empty, with only a few 5” squares and two pieces of yardage left.

Two more farm house blocks joined my collection, leaving only 4 more to choose.  I’ve decided to abandon the truck.  It’s more work than I want to recreated the block with less detail.  I’m in the mood for easy to pick up and put down blocks right now!  (One of our new-to-us apple trees does have yellow apples, so it was perfect for this month!  And, as it is nearly spring, I planted carrots and peas this week.)

Today is a “too full” day as well, so I need to get back to it!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Finished Quilt: Flowers for Frances

 I finished a quilt!

I finished a quilt!

This quilt is called “Flowers for Nanagirl” from Kim Brackett’s book Scrap-Basket Sensations.  I loved how easy the flowers were to stitch and assemble.  I don’t have any large print florals for a border, so I chose gray like stones around a flower bed.

The backing is simply fantastic.  This was a two pieces of fabric from a giveaway by Vicki Welsh.  I had other dreamy plans for it, perhaps a lovely hand quilted piece, but the flower-like center piece called to be included in this quilt.  I framed the center piece with the dyed-to-match fabric in strips around it.  I love it.

I am pretty chuffed with the quilting texture on this one.  I avoided my usual meander and did curls and leaves instead.  While that required more attention and focus, I’m delighted with it.  The border is quilted in wide straight blocks.  Maybe it should be more quilted, but I’m happy with the texture overall.

No fabrics bled in the making of this quilt, for which I am eternally grateful.  Bleeding fabrics have been the bane of my quilting existence of late.

The short story on this quilt… We moved into this house over December and January a year ago, so we didn’t meet all the neighbors.  Since we live out in the country, our “neighbors” live a mile or more away for the most part.  My husband and I delivered Christmas cookies to the neighbors this year, and we met the most lovely lady in a farmhouse down the road.  I won’t share too much about her for the sake of her privacy, but she was relating to us that at one time she had an enormous flower garden, but she was too old to keep it up anymore.  Hence, Flowers for Frances.  I whimsically imagine this quilt to be a little flower garden for her, neatly edged in stone, with no weeding required.  We’ve had a cold running through the house, so once no one has the sniffles anymore, I’m excited to delivery this squishy package.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #9 and 15 Minutes

It was a full week, with appointments and meetings and “extra.”  I’m relieved it’s over and that the coming week looks calmer.  Finishing my Rhododendron Mystery has resulted in a much anticipated change to my stash report.  After eight more yards, I’ll be back on track for using twice what I buy/receive this year.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 14 yards

IN YTD: 22 yards

OUT YTD: 36 yards

YTD Total: 14 yards OUT 

On the 15 minutes front, one of my “extras” for the week was getting three kids their third COVid shot as they’re part of a research study.  The appointment is two hours with lots of waiting in between steps, so I had more than 15 minutes for my hexagons that day.  There was a near disaster when I discovered my pin had fallen out of my bag!  I did find a safety pin, so that sufficed for the rest of the morning.  My total is 64 of 64 days for 2022 (how are we already 64 days into 2022?).

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Sunshine and Daisies

 I finished my two farm blocks for the week, leaving only six more!  They both turned out lovely, which I hope will inspire me to cut out the last week promptly.

I also cut the fabric for my yellow/gold hexagon star.  Additionally, I finished two flimsies, one of flowers and one quick quilt.  I included pictures, although the bottom quilt is still in the “arrangement stage” in this picture!  It’s currently folded up with batting and backing to be basted next week.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

P.S. I link up each Saturday to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

February UFO Report

 The large goal for February was to finish my Rhododendron Mystery, and finish it I did, on the 27th!

1. Double wedding ring

2. Pillow

3. ABC appliqué 

4. Hand hexagons

5. Split Star

6. Farm quilt

7. Pink hexagons

8. Valentine

9. Triangles

10. Flowers

February 1: 10 projects

Started: 3

Finished: 3

February 28: 10 projects

I started three projects: Boxes, a weighted blanket, and Flowers for Frances.  I then finished three projects: Boxes, the weighted blanket, and my Rhododendron Mystery.  It was a great way to finish out the second month of the year!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

March Goals

 February only had a few goals…

1.  Scraps: trim, 4 teal flowers or rounds, eight more farmhouse blocks, a small quilt from 2.5” bricks, and more triangles into four patches.  If I finish all that, I will add some teal flowers for a quilt I want to make in March.  Done, all of it, as well as all the flowers for what was supposed to be a March project.

2. Finish the Rhododendron Mystery.  Yes.

3.  Make a weighted blanket for my niece before her newest sibling is born.  Done indeed.

March has a little bit more ambition peeking out, just in time to be waylaid by the spring garden.

1.  Finish “Flowers for Frances.”  It is basted as I write this.

2.  Scraps: trim, one large hexagon star in yellow/gold, finish making Farmhouse blocks (8 left!), continue turning my triangles into tiny blocks, and do something with a collection of bee fabric remnants.

3.  Make a quick quilt for a family in need of cheering up.  It’s also basted and ready for quilting, as the piecing really was that quick.

4.  If I finish the above, Spunky requested a quilt for her friend.  I cut it and may very well start sewing it after quilting the other quilts.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

February Block Report

 It was a busy month (again) for blocks.  8 farm blocks, 56 box blocks, and 21 flowers were joined by 150 triangle blocks!  That makes my total for February 235 blocks and 471 total blocks for 2022.  Wowzers!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.