Two Weeks...

It's hard to believe that two weeks of my summer break are gone.  The good news is that I do have a couple of things to show for it.  I finished up this Arrow quilt that I started during the school year.  It was slow going because I didn't have much time to sew, but I managed to finish it just as the baby/wedding craziness started.

Oh - didn't I tell you about that?  OK, I'll get to that soon.

Anyway, this quilt was one of Jenny's tutorials on Missouri Star Quilts (and was also in her Winter Block magazine), and I just couldn't wait to try it.  I stopped by my LQS and picked up a Kona Solids Layer Cake, brought it home and got busy.  Or at least started to get busy.  Jenny uses a Sizzix in her tutorial with a 5" half hexagon, but I don't have a half hexagon - or a whole hexagon for that matter - for my Sizzix, so I used the hexagon die for my AccuQuilt and cut the hexagons in half.  I also didn't have a triangle template for either the AccuQuilt or the Sizzix so I rotary cut them from a triangle template.  Consequently, my arrows started out a bit different than Jenny's from the beginning.   If I remember correctly, her sashing between rows was even, making the rows of arrows evenly spaced, but apparently I can't leave anything alone, so I graduated the width of the sashing so the rows got progressively further apart.

I have to admit that it was very nice to actually finish something - even if it was only a top.

Last week, in my creative funk, I dug out my box of blue scraps and started cutting and sewing.  I put together these random four-patch squares, and then interspersed them with white Bella.  It was just a bit of fabric play.  Borders or no borders - that was the question.   Since the quilt ended up being only 36"x 48", I finally decided to do asymmetrical borders on all four sides, making the finished size 48"x60".

I didn't notice until I uploaded the pictures that I hung the quilt "upside down" - to my mind anyway - so this is the way I envisioned it.

So, progress is being made.  Stay tuned.

Creative Dilemma

Before the hubs and I went on our great adventure of cruising and grandchild watching, and before I took a job teaching English in a public high school, I had a serious plan for quilting my way through life.    Before all that, I had a goal to finish 14 quilts in 2014.  These are the 8 I actually finished, backing, batting, binding and all.

The other 6?...  well, sadly they were left in the dust. And I think I have 4 or 5 other finished quilt tops that are ready to be quilted.  And I have tons of fabrics which have {mysteriously} found their way into the sewing room along with patterns and books in case I want to begin something new.

But what I'm finding, after almost 11 months of being away from my sewing room is that I don't know where to start.  My fingers are "itchin' to be stitchin'" but I just can't settle on a project.  It's crazy. 

I find myself reading books rather than sewing.  Maybe it's easier to decide what to read than what to create?  Even this blog post took 3 days to write.

I expected to have a new quilt top done by now and ...  nothing.  What is wrong with me?  Where is my creative mojo?  Oh dear!

On the First Day of Summer...

The 2014-2015 school year is over.  My first year of teaching is finished.  This year, I taught English to some 150+ students for approximately 9-1/2 months.  Whew!  And for the first time in my adult life I have a "summer break".  I am sure I am at least as excited as my students!  It has been a memorable - and at times overwhelming - year.  I learned a lot - more than my students perhaps.  I had to think about things I hadn't thought about in years - like participles and literary devices and run-on sentences....  I read and taught Hamlet, Macbeth, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales (so fun!) and a lot of other stuff that was not so fun.  I had to learn how to keep order amidst a classroom of sometimes-rowdy students and try to motivate my anxious-to-be-finished seniors to complete the requirements necessary to pass English - the graduation they were so anxious to accomplish in jeopardy as they thought they saw the end of their high school careers looming so very close.

And now it is over. 

AND I HAVE A SUMMER BREAK!!!

Whatever shall I do with it?

Oh, the possibilities!!!!

And the Parents went to Europe...

One of the funnest things I have done in a long time was spend the summer with the grands.  Abby and Britton are so hilarious.  This is Britton trying to get both of his "suckies" in his mouth at the same time.  I think Mommy and Daddy have since taken his little helpers away from him, but that is so not Grandma's job.  This little guy has a wonderful sense of humor and shares it often.  Sometimes, he just cracks me up!

Abby is growing up big and strong, and here she is showing off her big muscles.  She was a great little helper with her brother and with Mommy and Daddy's shop.  She moved bolts of fabric, sorted fabrics by color, and

made a quilt, with a little help from Grandma!

We went to the 4th of July parade with Uncle Sean and girlfriend, Jessica, and it was **HOT**.  I think it was 104*F that day.  Whew!

Britton gave up on our walk back to the car, sat down in the middle of the street (which was conveniently blocked of traffic because of the parade, thank goodness) and decided he was just - done. 

We rode on the carousel...

And drank milkshakes...

And played in the park...

and "rode" bikes...

and fed the ducks...

and taught each other dancing...

and read lots and lots of books and colored lots of pretty pictures...

and best of all, Grandma got lots of cuddles (while someone was taking selfies)!

All in all, it was an amazing summer!

My New Toiletries Bag - A Process Post

One of the crafty things I did before I left on my trip this summer was to make a new toiletries bag.  My old one was a Clinique freebie that was at least a decade old, and had certainly seen better days.  Even though the old one was ugly, the real motivation was that the zipper was breaking.  A toiletries kit isn't much use if the zipper is broken.

My LQS had some wonderful laminated fabrics.  The one on the left is Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey, and the one on the right is Rose Peacock Feathers from Soul Blossoms by Amy Butler.  I think they look nice together although this probably wouldn't have been my first choice if there had been more of a selection, but laminates don't come in very many prints.  I had never worked with laminate before, so I solicited help from the Instagram community, and as always, everyone was very helpful!  It's so great to be part of such a wonderful group of people who are always willing to give advice.

I measured my old bag and cut the Soul Blossoms fabric 1" larger.  I made some piping (straight of grain because laminate doesn't stretch) with the Nicey Jane and stitched it all the way around the outside of each rectangular piece.  If I was to do this again, I would make the piping join in the center of the bottom instead of at the corners - it would make the gusset and the zipper go in much easier, I think.

Essentially, I made two bags - the outside and the lining - and joined them together.  If I had it to do over, I would be sure to use a double separating zipper and sew a tab on the bottom of the zipper on both sides so I had something to grab while zipping and unzipping.  Joining the outside and the lining is a little tricky in some places, but I just kept at it until I got it mostly correct (yes, my seam ripper became my best friend for awhile - you can see at the bottom of the zipper on the right where the machine didn't catch the lining the first time... oops!)

I am pretty pleased with the finished product.  It is the perfect size and shape, just like my other one.  It held up well during my trip this summer, which is nice.  I'm really glad I put the laminate on the inside, since on the very first plane ride, my body lotion oozed out of its container and made a mess.  The laminate made it super simple to clean up.

The End of June... A Berry Fine Retrospective

Today, I thought I'd start to tell you about my summer, since I promised and all.  The weekend before I left for Utah, my youngest daughter came for a short visit.  One of the things she always likes to do in the spring is pick blueberries.  This year, possibly because of our amazingly cold winter, the blueberries lasted a lot later into the summer than usual, so we were able to pick blueberries at the end of June.

We got up early to avoid the heat and headed out into the country.

Along the way, we stopped for a little pre-4th of July donut action.  How better to celebrate our country's independence?

This little girl just had to have her picture taken.  She was waiting in the shelter while her mom picked berries.

There were lots of lovely flowers bordering the berry field.

And some sunflowers standing as sentinels.

And even a visitor or two.

And honestly, my sweet girl can look adorable anywhere, doing anything, don't you think?

It was a wonderful day spent with my little sweetheart (well, actually, she's a grown, married woman, but I'm a mom, after all.)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

It's really been awhile since I've posted on my poor, neglected little blog, and honestly, it doesn't look like that's going to get better any time soon.  After a wonderful summer of watching the grands and a fabulous cruise with the hubs, I came home and didn't even get fully unpacked before I had a job offer, which has totally consumed my life.

Once upon a time, before there were grands or children or even a husband, there was this idea that I would one day teach English.  Then the changes came, one by one.  Good ones, but sometimes distracting.  First, my mom got me a job at the bank where she worked so I could earn money to pay for college.

Next came the husband, right in the middle this educational adventure.  He was military, and so we moved a lot.  Since I was in a rush to get my degree, I didn't take any Ed courses, just the courses necessary to get that oh-so-essential piece of paper.  Meanwhile, I kept working at banks as we moved around.  It seemed like they always needed people.

Sometime later, children came, but by now, the banking thing was a career, and I was deeply entrenched.

Quilts I made in 2013

Then, decades later, I got laid off, and I got to quilt full time for almost a year and a half.  It was awesome!

Things I swapped in 2013

But as amazing as full-time quilting was for my emotional well-being, it wasn't so great for the budget.  In fact, I realized that if I spent all my retirement money before I was 60, there were going to be bleak years ahead.

Somewhere along the line, I remembered that old dream of teaching English, and started applying for various teaching positions with our local school district.  One day I went to an interview, and the next thing I knew I had a job offer.  From there, it got crazy.  In fact, it's been a little like trying to sip water from a fire hose.

Between teaching 130 students a day and taking the necessary classes and workshops for my certification, Barbie has been pretty lonely.  And when I 'm not teaching, taking classes, or grading papers, I am sleeping.  But I am confident that these early days won't last forever.  Hopefully, one day soon, I can come home from work and sit down and do a little quilting, just as I did when I was a full-time banker.

Until then, please don't give up on me.  I'll be back.