October 350 Block Count

 Happy Halloween, however you celebrate (or don’t!).  BJ is having a flare or is ill, so his trick or treating was confined to the many outside doors on our farm.  At 3, he’s too little to care, as long as he gets some candy!

The block count surprised me this month with a total of 134 new blocks.  That brings my total to 1930 for the year, with 4 bow tie blocks, 85 flower blocks, and 45 Bojagi blocks/chunks/rows.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #43

 I was doing so well this week, but then the Assistant requested a quilt for another friend, and the design we settled on required yardage.  Alas for the stash report.

I did finish my Bojagi panels for my sewing room, the bow tie quilt, and another small Bojagi panel.  Will I use another 30 yards before the end of the year?  That is quite a challenge.  I do have the flower quilt, the triangle quilt, and a new optical illusion currently in the works, which I assume will yield close to 30 yards.  I suppose I should ban myself and my daughters from any new starts that require purchases before the end of the year!

IN this week: 8 yards

OUT this week: 9 1/2 yards

IN YTD: 105 yards 

OUT YTD: 181 yards

YTD Total: 76 yards OUT

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Here, There, Everywhere

I have a finished scrap quilt for the week.  Even the backing is scrappy this time.  Usually I attempt to coordinate my backing, but this time it’s chaos!  In the end, it’s a very cheerful quilt (even if the early morning picture is a bit darker than reality), and I think I already have a new home in mind.

Meanwhile, the Assistant and I have laid out a new quilt.  This should work pretty well as a leader ender if I can keep it organized by row and roll up the rest.  We’re having interesting conversations about the brown triangles.  The Assistant wants them gone, but Spunky and I like them.

In green news, I am making another Bojagi panel for hanging over the shelves in my sewing room.  I often just pin up extra fabric, but my large pieces of fabric are dwindling, and I have plenty of scraps.

 from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #42 and 15 Minutes

 For the first time in months, I missed a day of hand stitching.  290 of 295 days is quite lovely, and I caught up on my hand pieced hexagon Saturday morning.

The second Bojagi panel was completed on Friday.  This will be the third in the “series,” but I left the first until last as I am the most uncomfortable with the making of it.  It is well underway, and the bow ties quilt is patiently asking me to quilt it as soon as I can.

IN this week: 0 yards

OUT this week: 2 yards

IN YTD: 97 yards

OUT YTD: 171 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 74 1/2 yards OUT

I am so glad I will have no work this week; I need the mental and physical energy not sucked out of me for one week.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Spring Colors in the Fall

 I thought I didn’t accomplish much this week until I started taking photos.

Despite a few hiccups (I didn’t “math” well), my bow ties are in one piece, the backing pieced (ahem, too small initially), the flimsy basted (again, math with the batting), and all my errors corrected.  I theoretically could have quilted it, but I had my Bojagi panels to possess my time.

My second panel is, alas, not quite light green, but it is constructed of more precious scraps, mostly hand dyes from Vicki.  I’m confident I could write quite a long post about this new project, but suffice it to say I finished the second panel.  One more to go.

The flower quilt has plenty of light green fabric, so much so that I may run out of light green before the end of the month.  I’m excited to lay out the current blocks with the Assistant and see how we’re doing.

Finally, I should have finished this brown round easily this week, but I missed a day of hand stitching due to scheduling and exhaustion.  I plan to go for a walk while it’s still cool, and then I’ll try to finish this.

On that note, I’m going to wrap up my post and get busy! I hope to visit Rainbow Scrap Challenge blogs after my chores are done.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #41 and 15 Minutes

 Another early morning is here since BJ seems to think 5 am is wake up time!

Hand stitching went well this week, with another hexagon round finished.  With 284 of 288 days of 2022 involving hand stitching, it’s been a great year of hexagon progress.  I’m definitely interested in a new/different hand piecing project, so when this project becomes less portable at the assembly stage, I’ll be thrilled with a change of pace.  Also, can we talk about how we’re approaching 300 days of 2022 being gone.  Where has this year gone?!

I finished off two spools of thread, for a total of 29.  Considering that I began the year using a spool a week, I’m relieved the pace slowed down.  I want to use up old thread, not run out completely.

Hanging the first bojagi panel for my sewing room means I get to count some yardage out.  I’m estimating two yards used for each panel.  The bow ties are now pinned into two sections, so it won’t be long before I count them out too.  I’m relieved to find I like them better now that they are mostly assembled.  They’re quite cheerful.  One yard of pale pink arrived this week from the previous order; I didn’t realize I was missing anything!

IN this week: 1 yard

OUT this week: 2 yards

IN YTD: 97 yards

OUT YTD: 169 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 72 1/2 yards OUT

With 2.5 months left, I need to use at least 25 more yards without buying anything to (re)meet my goal for stash numbers.  I have a large stack of various red yardage chunks but haven’t found a pattern that sings yet.  What does one do with quantities of red?

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Detour

I started off the week with great focus, cutting nine more flower blocks, including light green bits, and even sewed up seven of them.  This pre-dawn photo is particularly unglamorous, but the neutral/light blocks are going to be splendid in the grand scheme of the quilt.

We could say sewing took a major detour?  We’re finally having cool mornings, so having the iron on for an extended stretch of time is no longer torturous.  This led to a new project, Bojagi panels.  Strictly speaking, since these aren’t cloths intended for wrapping, they aren’t Bojagi, but they are inspired by and could be considered a wrapping for my sewing room.  Anyway… blue scraps…

The sewing method leaves all seams enclosed, so I don’t need lining or quilting, and they are hopefully going to give a lovely stained glass impression when light shines through them from either direction.

I’ve already picked more scraps for the next two panels.  We’ll see if I can at least wrap up my bow ties as I pieced my bojagi panels.

My bow ties area quickly forming into a quilt.  I don’t really enjoy cutting and piecing them, so I called it quits after 120 and began sewing them together at random.  They will be a lovely lap/car quilt to give away, and I’ll continue searching for my next convenient leader and ender project.  

My 1” scraps are accumulating into an alarming pile, so they are high on the list to consider.

It’s only 6:15 and I’ve been awake since 3:45, so maybe it’s about time to start sewing.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

It’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge day, so maybe I’ll find my new leader and ender in the link up!

Stash Report Week #40 and 15 Minutes

 The stash remains unchanged from last week.  I have been sewing, but with nothing close to completion, I don’t anticipate any stash changes for a few weeks.

I do have a new project, a bojagi-esque set of curtains for my sewing room.  Since they aren’t wrappings for something, I suppose bojagi technically is not the term, but as I’m intrigued by the methods to make Bojagi, the curtains will be bojagi inspired.

I am faithfully keeping up with my hand stitching, so the total is 277 days of 281 for the year.  

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Tiny Flowers

 I will be brief today.  I got my Covid booster and flu shots yesterday, and like each time with the Covid vaccine, my night was rough.  Today, fortunately, I’m mostly bone weary but not feverish or as ache-y, but I’m certainly not moving fast this morning.

Before the shots, I finished 30 small (3” finished) blocks to move along my flower quilt.  This month being for light green will remind me to keep adding bits of light green to the quilt.  The newest special addition was embroidered moon phases.  Fortunately, no one has complained about my blocks still on the floor in front of the fire place, so I can keep them visible as I cut new blocks.

That’s all for today.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

October Goals

 September is over, and my goals were deliberately small.

1. Scraps: trim, hand hexagons (4 rounds), tree skirt, and watercolor quilt.  All done, including five hexagon rounds.

2.  Process scraps.  Done.

3. Apron.  Done.

October will certainly have its own collection of chaos, so I have similarly conservative goals.

1. Scraps: trim, hand hexagons (5 rounds?), wrap up my bow ties.

2.  Process green scraps.  That will leave me with three bins to sort for the rest of the year.

3.  Flower Garden quilt.  I’d love to start my pastel triangles quilt, but we shall see.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #39

 I finally sewed my apron this week.  Why do I put off clothing projects for so long?  I’m pretty sure it’s the decisions involved in clothing; I prefer straight piecing over and over.  Anyway, a remnant of wool is used up and I have an apron for work, where I have too many things to fit in my pockets - phone, matches, keys, rags…

Unfortunately for my stash report but fortunately for me, my order of solids finally came in.  Some are for my flower garden while others are for the next quilt, another collaboration with the Assistant.  So far, I’ve been disciplined enough to stick to existing projects not to cut into the fabric, but I may need to.  It’s going to take hours of arranging and adjusting balance to make it.

IN this week: 14 yards

OUT this week: 1 yard

IN YTD: 96 yards

OUT YTD: 167 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 71 1/2 yards OUT

I will need to finish a few things to regain my goal of using twice what I buy, but as I’m cheerfully sewing up flowers, that’s quite possible.

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.

Indoor Garden

 My little indoor garden is growing despite the lack of rain outside.  This morning I insisted the Assistant help me lay out the finished blocks so I could confirm I was on the right track.  I think we’re both pleased, and all the little special bits I’ve been adding are lovely (find the cat and the cactus… and more are planned).  My fabric reorder finally came, so I will be incorporating a few new ones in the coming week.  I only finished 9 blocks instead of my goal of a dozen, but considering the week, 9 is a fabulous number.  I need many, many more tiny blocks, so we resolved that the leaves just aren’t the right thing and I’ll construct a plethora of flower heads to fill the spaces instead.  I also have some embroidery to do; while it’s not an area I’m skilled in, practice makes improvement.

My sister asked about whether I’d incorporate any Korean quilting methods in the quilt.  For the time being, the answer is no.  I have other ideas for that.

I’m off to release the chickens and go for a walk.  Have a splendid day!

from the room of Zana’s Ninis,

katie z.