September 350 Block Count

 It was a good sewing month, so I have 98 new blocks to add to the previous 1651, bringing me to 1749 blocks for 2022.  The 98 new blocks were 12 bow ties, 17 rows for my watercolor quilt, 16 blocks for the tree skirt, and 53 flower blocks for a new quilt.  Woohoo!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

October UFO List

 September vanished.  Between work, lots of appointments, learning Korean, and returning to piano playing, my space time was certainly less wasted than usual!

1. Double wedding ring

2. Pillow

3. ABC appliqué 

4. Hand hexagons

5. Pink hexagons

6. Bow ties

7. Flower quilt

September 1: 8 projects

Started: 2

Finished: 3

September 30: 7

I started two projects, the “flower” quilt and curtains for my atrium.  I finished the curtains as well as the tree skirt and watercolor quilt I started in August.  I don’t know that I’ve ever had so few projects on the go… and it’s fine.  I have a new one percolating in my brain and clearly don’t have time for too many projects at the moment.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #38 and 15 Minutes

 No orders arrived this week, and there was nothing to finish, so the stash report remains unchanged from last week.  I did use up another spool of thread, for 27 for the year.

On the 15 minutes a day front, I worked on my hexagons every day this week, finishing the brown rounds on two of them.  I’m not out of blue flowers and will have to move on to green!  This has been a great year for hand stitching, so I’m at 263 of 267 days for 2022.  How is it that there are less than 100 days left in the year?!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Blooming

 I have a few more flowers in my collection this week.  Mysteriously, a cat also appeared, and for now I’ve decided it can stay.  Hopefully I can add at least a dozen more in the next week.

It felt like a chaotic week, but I’m not sure I can pinpoint why.  I clearly had loads of waiting time, as I finished the brown rounds for two hexagons.  We’ve had two splendidly cool days after two days of 100 F;  I am quite looking forward to fall.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #37 and 15 Minutes

 After being so proud of my stashbusting efforts this summer, it may seem odd that I went fabric shopping.  Honestly, I’ll blame the quilts.  The Assistant and I have spent significant time over the last two weeks plotting a flower quilt based off an inspiration photo. I had a pleasantly large stack of fabrics that would work, but we had some important gaps to fill (hello, darker greens.  I wiped out my selection in the green quilt earlier this year) and ordered the backing while I was at it.  We also ordered for a second quilt that is still only a selection of colors in our minds.

Unfortunately, one order hasn’t arrived yet, two weeks later, so I may have to reorder somewhere else.  Maybe it’s a good thing, as by finishing the watercolor quilt and making some curtains for my atrium at school (basically, my classroom), I maintained my usage at twice my purchases still.

IN this week: 11 yards

OUT this week: 8 1/4 yards

IN YTD: 82 yards

OUT YTD: 166 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 84 1/2 yards OUT

Another good week for hand stitching means I’ve worked on my hexagons (or occasionally on bindings) for 256 of 260 days in 2022.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

This and That

The new project, which is almost all from stash and scraps and has liberal helpings of light blue, is moving along nicely.  Visually, it currently makes absolutely no sense, but since I’m roughly 10% done making blocks (maybe less), it’s going to be a while before it makes sense.  I do like it so far!

I was thrilled that my awkwardly orange and brown and not quite either fabric arrived this week.  The Assistant and I agreed that the actual fabric looked a shade lighter than the sample fabric, but the quilt didn’t protest too much and I cut and stitched on the fabric before any of us could change our minds.  I love that the binding almost makes you think the fabric darkens next to the dark blue.  The ways color play together never cease to amaze me.

 The backing is a really lovely ombré by Vicki Welsh (I think it’s the midnight gradient, but could be wrong).  You can see a few of the thread changes in the picture, but it doesn’t quite catch all five different threads.

The finished quilt is currently hogging my empty floor space in my sewing room as I really enjoy looking at it.  The similarly demanding Jack in the Box quilt is hung in my window.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #36 and 15 Minutes

 Finishing the Christmas tree skirt kept my stash report interesting this week.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 2 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 71 yards

OUT YTD: 158 1/4 yards

YTD Total: 87 1/4 yards OUT

My hand piecing is also moving along just fine, with only 4 days missed so far this year.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Stalled

 My tree skirt is done and dusted.  It was not a demanding quilt, so a little straight line quilting made short work of it.  My watercolor quilt is quilted, but when it came to binding, it was quite difficult.  The Assistant and I again combed through the stash only to find that the quilt wanted a very specific brown/orange shade, and I did not own it.  We placed a fabric order for the binding as well as for two other quilts she’s helping me with, and now we wait for its arrival to finish.

The Assistant and I have dreamed up a new quilt with flowers of many colors, so I made a few blue ones.  She’s thrilled with the beginning; I’m nervous that I don’t have the skills to produce what we imagined.  We shall see.

I also pulled out the giant bag of scraps I bought earlier this year.  Now all the blues are sorted and pressed, and I am faced with the endless trimming. Maybe today I’ll empty the bin!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #35 and 15 Minutes

 It was a good sewing week.  I finished a small bag, having the binding to stitch down on a tree skirt, and finished quilting my watercolor quilt.  I have various pieces of yardage arriving in the next two weeks, every yard for specific projects, so it’s good to make progress this week.

26 spools have been emptied for the year.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 1 yard

IN YTD: 71 yards

OUT YTD: 155 3/4 yards

YTD Total: 84 3/4 yards OUT

I worked on my orange hexagon star this week, but didn’t quite finish it.  Still, that brings me to 242 of 246 days for the year.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Enjoying the Blues

Quilting this week was rather more productive than I expected or planned.  Saturday, I ended the day with a fabric pull, blues from light to dark with a few grays and blacks mixed in.  The Assistant helped me arrange my layout.

Today, I have a flimsy ready to quilt.  I sewed the rows together in between the next flimsy, and I only mixed up fabrics in one spot, as I have two identical squares touching.  I used 32 different fabrics, including some precious shibori fabrics from Vicki Welsh.  I considered not using them, but they are perfect.

My other light (plus) blue project for the week also speedily turned into a flimsy.  This will be a tree skirt for my sister.  I’ve had the fabrics set aside for some time, but every time I tried to start it, the inspiration was lacking.  Finally, I sketched out a plan and got to cutting.
 

Next week’s Rainbow Scrap sewing will focus on quilting, and then I suspect I’ll need to have another color of scraps in the wings.  Not having a long term project has definitely changed the flow of my sewing room lately.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Goals

 August was chaotic and pleasantly productive.

1. Scraps: trim, 5 rounds or 1 star, and ???  Done.  The ??? turned into a butterfly wall hanging.  I finished one orange star and will finish another this week.

2.  Tie dye.  We had hoped my sister would visit earlier in the summer and we’d dye things together, but Covid hit them hard.  We should do our shirts, towels, and a few odds and ends before school starts.  Done.

3. Spunky’s skirt in a splendid yellow-gold.  Done

4.  Process one color of scraps.  Done.

I also finished the Split Star quilt, a stack of masks, and my wild Jack in the Box quilt,

5.  Finish the split star quilt.

I have no idea what September will yield, but it’s beginning safely enough.

1. Scraps: trim, hand hexagons (4 rounds), tree skirt, and watercolor quilt.  Something else scrappy will certainly be here, but I don’t know what yet.

2.  Process scraps.

3. Apron.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.