Developments…

 It’s been quite the last 48 hours.

I was stung by a bee in my thumb.  I have some strong allergic reactions, including serious swelling and a scratchy throat, but I didn’t have to use the Epi pen this time.  My thumb is still swollen and discolored, so I’ve avoided outside chores.

Last night, DH was gone for Scout training.  Of course that means the severe weather decided to live up to its name.  We had a tornado about 10 miles from us, so the kids spent the evening in the basement and I listened to a lot of weather!  We only lost one large branch and the hail doesn’t appear to have damaged too much, for which I am grateful.

My blocks for the main scrappy heart are all done, and I’m excited to see this quilt come together.

I also finished some stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on my farm quilt, but it’s so large and unwieldy in my machine that I’m taking a break from it for a few days.

Back to work!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z. 

May Goals

 April goals were not too extravagant.

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.  Trimming is always easy; both an orange and a pink star were finished; the farmhouse blocks are basted and quilting begun; many triangles were sewn into blocks; I finished most of the medium/dark heart blocks and cut the rest.

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.  Backing, batting, and flimsy are waiting for their turn at basting.  Since I was stung by a bee on the hand today, basting may need to wait a week or so.  My thumb isn’t bending well!

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

I also finished a “muslin” for the Assistant.

May goals should be reasonably possible.

1. Scraps.  Whatever the color of scraps, trim, more hexagon work, more triangles, finish the farm quilt, and then whatever is color appropriate.

2. Finish the tshirt quilt.

3. I may dive into the valentine quilt assembly or the split star blocks (of which I have finished only one).

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #16 and 15 Minutes

 It was a busy week for finishes.  I pieced a little doll quilt, quilted it, and bound it.  It’s made from a little pack of 2.5” squares my SiL gave me for Christmas.  Next, I finished the muslin dress for the Assistant.  We’ll have a few adjustments to make in the final dress, but it looks pretty good - she can actually wear it, although the zipper is not the most lovely, it’s better than the last one I put in a dress!  Also, the rocket quilt is finished.

I did receive an order of fabric this week as well, a grab bag from Vicki Welsh.  It was perfect as I’m trying to sort out the fabrics for my hexagon star blocks.

IN this week: 5 yards

OUT this week: 9 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 27 yards

OUT YTD: 71 yards

YTD Total: 44 yards OUT

I’m pleased that I’m firmly in the yardage out position for the year.  While I enjoy special collections of fabric, I tend to keep and not use them, which requires awkward spaces in my closet outside the normal stash storage.  I have other hobbies and storage needs, so making better use of my space is a desire.  I certainly didn’t begin the year with this goal, but as it meshes well with my stash use goals, this is just fine.

I need to tend to the animals now, so I should sign off.  I hope you have a lovely week!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Progress!

I sorted and cut plenty of strips and pieces this week for the final darker blocks for my heart quilt.  I’m excited about the prospect of laying out all the blocks and making decisions for the next part.

I also finished the rocket quilt this week.  The block pattern is from the book Colorful Quilts for Fabric Lovers.  I don’t love this book as much as the book with rectangles, but it was definitely perfect for the large print of these fabrics.

I dyed the backing myself and was quite pleased with the end results.  I am also glad I chose red for the binding rather than try to match one of the blues.

Our couch is slowly dying, so it’s time for me to head out for some furniture shopping.  We’re aiming for something in stock so we don’t have to wait six months or more for delivery.  We’ve been working with second hand furniture since we moved in, which is great, but we really need furniture that fits our awkward space of a living room so that all nine of us fit!

I’ll be linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this weekend.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

 

Stash Report Weeks #14 and 15 and 15 Minutes

 Alas, no stash changes.  I do have a small order coming soon, but not so much as to throw my numbers back into the negative.

Two more spools bit the dust this week, for a total of 13 this year.  Somehow my thread box is already looking sparse this year, but as my intention is to use some of the odd spools in the box and stock back up on what I actually use in a year.  I also have a dozen or so partial spools of the thicker thread I generally use for quilting, but there’s not enough to quilt an entire project.  It’s time to make space.

I did manage to remember my hand stitching every day.  105 of 106 days for 2022 is excellent!  I’m glad this project is moving along so nicely.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Pretty in Pink

Happy Holy Saturday!  The week has been chaotic again, along with the weather, so I had to think hard about what I sewed this week.

 The April block collection is growing nicely.  At this point, I only need 3” blocks, so I’ve been hunting for tiny block patterns.  It’s funny how some blocks look fine in person but are a little difficult to make out in a photo.  Oh, well.

My farm quilt is a finished (giant) flimsy.  This was not the week to baste it, so it spent some time spread across the bed to keep it smooth, and I’ll hopefully have a chance to baste it next week.  I knew it would be giant, so it’s not that I’m unhappy with it, but it certainly makes it unwieldy in my small sewing room.  Quilting it is going to be quite an adventure!

I hope you have a splendidly safe and restful Easter!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Growing Pains

My farm quilt is already too big to handle easily!  The bottom four rows are assembled and take up most of the floor space in my sewing room (I had to stand outside the room to get these two pictures).  It’s a very happy quilt.  Spunky saw it and was exclaiming over all the animals; she found the goats and a few cats.  Three more rows to go… Basting is going to be a challenge.  I’m not sure where the floor space will allow!

I did also manage some properly pink sewing.  11 more blocks for the collection is excellent progress.  I’m down to the 3” and 6” blocks, and I need to be a bit more creative with what I do.

Last week’s rocket quilt has seen progress in terms of a backing, but as it’s still soaking, I have nothing to show.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

 

Stash Report Week #13 and 15 Minutes

Last night, I was browsing my quilt books for inspiration on how to use my collection of ombré fabrics.  Isn’t it funny how you think eventually, someday, you will make a quilt, but when you return to the pattern, it feels flat?  I found one more quilt book to purge from my collection.  Fortunately, with every book I weed out, it’s easier to find my favorites and I have the space for an occasional new one.

With a finished quilt this week, my stash report is nicely in the positive.  I have resisted shopping for fabric since the first week in February.  (As an aside, I should not be so impressed with myself for not ordering fabric for only seven weeks.  Oy.). I still have more fabric than I could reasonably use in a decade or two, so there’s no rush to buy more.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 8 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 22 yards

OUT YTD: 61 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 39 1/2 yards OUT

One more spool ran out for 11 for the year.

On the 15 minute front, I remembered to stitch on my hexagons every day.  91 of 92 days for 2022 is lovely; I can feel less guilty when sickness or busyness keeps me from my stitching later in the year!  The large orange star is only lacking half its outer round, and then I’ll be on to pink!  I cut the next fabrics today, so I’m ready to go.  Next week looks like far less appointments, so probably less hand stitching time.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Some Assembly Required

 April appears to be an assembly month.  First, I have 15 months of Rainbow Scrap Challenge farm blocks to assemble into a flimsy.  Here they are laid out with one side of sashing attached.  I have a few rows assembled as I write this, but still need to press each row and assemble the line of sashing in between each row.  This is going to take a while.  I am delighted that the blocks look lovely together.  Definitely these are outside my usual style, but I love that the quilt will represent our lives here.

My pink project for April will be more heart blocks.  While appliqué is, again, not usually my style, I am enjoying using up oddments for these blocks.

Finally, this project doesn’t quite fit the brief for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but it is using a neglected fat quarter collection (because I didn’t know what to do with it) as well as solids from my stash.  I have three more rows to go.  I’m considering a fleece backing for these.  It mostly depends on whether or not JoJo likes this quilt.  If he does, it will have fleece.  If he’s disinterested, I’ll try my hand at dying more fabric and make a blue backing of some kind.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

March Block Count

 These triangles are developing into a ridiculous number of blocks for the year.  I’ll take it, as I’ll pay in lower numbers when I start assembling them into a quilt.  Oh, well.  I still finished 210 for the month.

The farm blocks are done with the final addition of 8 in March.  The four quilts I made blocks for this (quick quilt, bees, friends, and rocket fabrics) yielded 7, 12, 35, and 95 blocks each.  This brings my total to 367 new blocks for March.  That brings my total for 2022 to 838 blocks.  With several hundred triangles still waiting to be sewing into blocks, this should be a banner year for blocks!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.