Success!

I've been out of town, sequestered in a windowless conference room for 11 hours a day, 2 days in a row, with 10 of my colleagues interviewing candidates for an open position at my university.  It was an exhausting, yet intellectually stimulating exercise, and I left with even greater respect and affection for my colleagues.  And I left energized and excited by the finalists we selected to bring to campus.  But I was also ITCHING to sew!

I brought a quilt to work on, but never made a stitch.  Instead, it just adorned my hotel room bed and kept me cozy warm the two nights I had to spend away from home.  I also brought my GFG hexies out of retirement.  I did end up taking a few stitches during breaks on day two, and managed to get one flower done and attached to another.

I made the one on the left yesterday, and attached it to the one on the right that was probably made 4 or 5 years ago. 

But when I got home, I realized the way I put them together won't work with what I have together already.  Note to self - add just one flower at a time to the whole.

Looks washed out in the sun, but lots of scrappy color in this quilt top. 

I got home very late last night, and enjoyed sleeping in this morning as my kids were spending the weekend at a friend's house in my absence.  But my Cub Scout meeting was this afternoon, and I had to prepare.  I spent my entire morning and early afternoon measuring, cutting and drilling to prepare for our woodworking project.  I didn't have time to make a prototype - I just had to hope that I had thought of everything and that it would come together.

Spoon basketball.  I adapted a plan I found online to make these. 

And it did!  The boys were thrilled with their projects, and spent a bit of time trying them out.

Now, the kids are in bed, I have a cup of tea and my new copy of Jennifer Chiaverini's The Giving Quilt, and I'm going to enjoy a bit of down time.  The weekend was busy and full of interactions with other people, but everything about it was a resounding success!

Kid stuff

Some people wonder how and why I do all the "extra" stuff I do.  After all, I've got a full time job, a family, a hobby that keeps me busy.  But I gotta tell you, that "extra" stuff is what keeps me sane when the job is a drag and the kids are driving me bonkers and my dirty house makes me feel like an unfit mother and wife.  I can go into the karate studio just as low as can be, but after taking my black belt class and then teaching my intermediate class, I am flying high - every time!  And then Cub Scouts and the Ready To Quilt workshop at the elementary school - those are just more opportunities for me to be creative and hang out with kids!

The kids are almost finished with their colored and embroidered blocks for the Fair entry quilt we are making.

My Kindergarten through 2nd graders have turned out to be the most industrious. 

I guess I didn't realize until looking at these photos that they tend to self segregate by gender. But aren't they cute? 

Of course, I didn't have a real plan for the quilt design when we started, but yesterday I started whipping up some alternate blocks for them to sew their blocks to.  Here's a preview of how that quilt will look:

This will go across the top or bottom

They aren't sewn together yet - the kids will do that.  They outlined the letters with a backstitch and colored inside. 

Some ladies in my guild donated fabric for the Ready to Quilt kids, so I picked four the four largest pieces to combine in these quarter square triangle blocks.

And then, last Friday, the Cub Scouts and I were in the Christmas parade (whoever heard of a Christmas parade in NOVEMBER!?!).  We partnered with the drive-in movies again, and marched along behind a truck that was playing Frosty the Snowman on a big screen while we munched popcorn.  We made our "cars" again this year, but I gave myself a break and instead of making them out of cardboard (I swear I nearly got carpal tunnel from cutting so many boxes up last year!), I bought poster board and made them into "sandwich board" cars with some muslin strips across the shoulders.  The boys got really creative with their cars:

Yup, that's a deer peeking out the back window of the FORD truck 

My son even thought to put a seat belt on his driver!

Can you see that his lights are made out of tinfoil?  Who thinks to bring tinfoil to a parade? Clever kid! 

Can you see the little Christmas lights he drew around his windshield? Get my vote for most festive! 

Yesterday and today, the weather has been in the low 70s.  I'll admit to being affected by the weather.  This balmy weather has me skipping around and singing like a kid!  Just think, I'm on my porch in short sleeves and barefoot writing this right now, watching the sun go down...in DECEMBER!  For this child of the Maine woods, that is nearly unheard of!  The hubby and I like to joke about taking off for Panama when things get rough at home and work - well, guess where I got quilt blocks from yesterday?

Thanks, Marina from Panama! (Hubby wants to know why they quilt in Panama if it is warm all the time.  Don't worry guys, in time, I will educate him to our ways.)

And today, I got 71 more quilt blocks in the mail from Lola in VA and the Rainbow Plantation Quilters in AL.  Thanks, guys!

Luckily, I made room in my sewing room today - I mailed out 8 quilts to Blankie Depot in NJ.  That's 14 delivered so far by me, and I believe 3 or 4 more have been delivered directly from the people who have been kind enough to quilt quilts for us.  And there are many more to come.  

Do you know that I've received over 1165 disappearing 4-patch blocks so far?

That doesn't include the ones made by me or those in my quilt guild or those that were made and delivered to me in quilt form or all the orphan blocks and unfinished blocks and tops you guys have sent.  Together, we are making a difference in the lives of those who are still suffering the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  Everyone reach over your shoulder and give yourself a nice pat on the back!

And for my final bit of kid stuff - look at one of my little fellas drew for me in Ready To Quilt yesterday - just melted my heart! (and he obviously knows I love scrappy, improvisational quilts!)

The Princess and the Pea?

Tomorrow afternoon, the boys and I are headed to New Jersey on the bus with my husband's basketball team.  While there, we are going to deliver our first 6 quilts to Project Linus New Jersey on Friday, and then meet with Victoria Wolfe (of 15 Minutes of Play and Bumblebeans fame) on Saturday to learn more about the quilt drive taking place on her side of the river.  My plan is to alternate recipients - I want to make sure they are going to people in both New York AND New Jersey.

So, in anticipation, I laid out all 6 quilts on my bed for photos.  Let me tell you, I am so tempted to cuddle down underneath all of that warmth and beauty!  Or lie on top and pretend I'm the princess from The Princess and the Pea!

I'll sew the binding on tonight and then hand stitch it down on the bus tomorrow.  Thanks, Mary Ann, for assembling and quilting.  

A completed quilt donated by Mary Ann - thanks!

A completed quilt donated by Anita.  Thanks, Anita!  This is my favorite!

Another completed quilt donated by Anita.  Thanks again, Anita!

Can you believe Anita completed and donated THREE whole quilts?  Thanks again, Anita

I love this quilt, so had to put up another photo - thanks, Maria!

And look at all the other quilt blocks that arrived yesterday - 132 more blocks bringing our total to date up to 461.  That's nearly enough for 11 quilts!

Week one of my READY TO QUILT workshop is done at the elementary school.  If I do this again, I will definitely limit the number of kids in my workshop.  Honestly, I didn't think that many people would be interested, but I have 23 third through fifth graders and ten K through second graders.  I thought the younger kids would be harder, but nope!

Nevertheless, I think the classes were a success.  All of the kids made a bookmark out of upcycled denim and a fabric of their choice.  They disassembled the jeans for the denim donation quilt.  And they all began designing and picking out fabric for their composition book cover.  I don't know what the protocol is for sharing photos of those kids, so here are my two goofballs with their bookmarks.

And last night was a cub scout Pack Meeting.  I brought in a bag of ties so the boys could learn how to tie a tie, led by none other than my son, Jason, tie tying expert extraordinaire!

and I also brought 3 international students from the University, so the boys could learn about languages and cultures in other countries (from left to right, China - Rwanda - Vietnam).  Look, they are learning how to tie a tie, too!

And finally, we collected our Operation Christmas Child boxes to send to kids overseas, and look how many the boys packed!  I love the variety of expressions on their faces.

Please know that I'll be out of town until Sunday morning, so there won't be any new names added to the My Heroes list until I get back.  I'm so excited to spend a couple of days away from work - work has been kicking my butt lately!

READY to quilt!

During the Mountain Days Festival earlier this month, I was approached about teaching a workshop to kids through an after school enrichment program at a local elementary school.  Well, I'm doing it!  The school received a 3-year READY grant (I don't know what the acronym stands for), and there will be workshops offered to the kids each quarter.  For now, I'm just starting with this marking period - we'll see how it fits into my schedule and how well the kids and I like working together.  I'll be doing 2 workshops per day, twice per week, one with grades K-2 and one with grades 3-5.  My workshop is called READY TO QUILT!

I set up a blog to be able to communicate with parents about what we are doing and so the kids can show off their work.  I made my first post today (http://centralquilts.blogspot.com), outlining workshop goals and displaying my class samples (since Hurricane Sandy canceled our Open House on Monday).  Basically, I want the kids to:

1) make at least one take home project, either a pillow or a composition book cover.  In keeping with the season, here are my class samples:

I recovered one of my couch pillows.  I drew the design freehand.  If I were doing it again, I think I'd leave out the word EEK and make the spider bigger.

I figure the kids should be able to do a backstitch, right?

For the first time, I made the pillow cover small enough that the pillow is plump, without wrinkles or empty corners

Envelope back so it can be removed

 

Donald wants this composition book cover for himself!  I told him I'd teach him how to make his own.

I don't know where I got that skulls fabric, but I love it, and have been trying to figure out what to make with it for a while now.

2) contribute to a group quilt to enter in the quilt show at the 2013 Rockbridge County Fair, along the lines of this quilt that I made with my cub scouts two years ago

The boys won 2nd place at the County Fair quilt show that year.

They traced images and then colored the blocks with crayons

3) assist in making a denim rag quilt to donate to my guild's Comfort Quilt program.  I want them to understand quilting's history as a community building activity.

The denim quilt I made for Jason earlier this year

The back of the denim quilt

 I'm so excited!!!  One of the things I'm going to do is incorporate some children's books into my workshops, probably starting each session with a reading.  I know I'm going to use the following books, but if you have suggestions for others I can use, please let me know.  Since there are 8 weeks, I'd love to have 8 books to share.

Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt - to talk about how quilting is not just for girls, about entering quilts in fairs and how working together often allows us to make something even better than if we work separately

Reuben and the Quilt - another quilt that shows boys quilting and introduces the idea of giving a quilt to comfort someone else

The Quiltmaker's Gift - to talk about how it is better to give than to receive (and because the illustrations in that book are AWESOME!)

The Patchwork Quilt - showing how quilting is an intergenerational and a multicultural activity

The Keeping Quilt - I've not read this, but the READY coordinator really likes it and wants me to use it

Have any of you or do any of you currently teach quiltmaking to kids?  If so, do you have any suggestions for me?

Will you help me decide? (giveaway)

My sister called with something akin to panic in her voice, wondering if I had dropped off the face of the earth.  Apparently, I haven't posted anything on my blog for a while.  OK, sis, I get the hint.  It's just that I haven't done anything new lately, and I don't want to bore anyone, myself included.

But seriously, I have made significant progress hand quilting my Charm lap/baby quilt.  I'm hoping to have it done this weekend. I like the meander around the polka dots on the backing, but it isn't the fastest way to quilt. 

The back - I'm quilting from the back with the dots as a guide

The front - makes me even more diligent about making sure my stitches are even since it is the back of my quilting that will be on the front of my quilt!

For my next hand quilting project, I want to do something even simpler, something with straight lines, either a crosshatch or outline stitch.  And I would like my next quilt that I finish to be one that is big enough to sleep under.  So, I pulled out my quilt tops and selected the bed-sized ones that could conceivably look nice with simple, straight line stitching. 

I can't decide which to quilt first, so I'm hoping you all will help me decide.  There will be a fabric surprise in store for one lucky commenter - I plan to use some credit at a quilt shop next week to buy some batting, and I'm willing to use some of that credit on one of you.  Let me know which of the following quilts YOU think I should quilt next, and if you want to suggest a quilting motif, too, even better!  Next Tuesday (4/10/12), I'll choose a random commenter and find out what kind of fabric that person would like me to find for him/her at the quilt shop next week.  Just consider me your personal shopper!

Anyway, here are the options, with names that I am trying out for now.  Feel free to suggest better names if you think of something. (ignore the wrinkles - the poor tops have been squirreled away in an armoire for months, or even YEARS, in some cases.  I swear I could hear them breathe a sigh of relief to see the light of day when I pulled them out!):

A. Plaid Dresden

It isn't really as washed out looking as it appears in this bright sunlight

B. Ribbon of Hope

Flapping in the breeze - this quilt just wouldn't stay still for a photo!  It was like photographing one of my children!

C. Star Power

I completely forgot I had made this top!

D. Lincoln Logs

I thought you were supposed to photograph your quilts in natural light - why do all mine seem so washed out?

E. Make Mine Nine

Just pretend this is a decent photo - I despair of ever getting a good-looking shot of these quilts!

Got an opinion about which I should plan to quilt next?  I'd love to hear it!

Some of you may be wondering what I've been doing since I haven't whipped out anything new or finished anything old lately.  Honestly, I've been reading.  Somehow I completely missed that Jennifer Chiaverini's Sonomo Rose came out, so that's what I'm reading now.  I didn't even realize it was an Elm Creek Quilts book since it doesn't have "quilt" in the name, like all the others do!  I also discovered a new-to-me cozy mystery series.  Some of you know I grew up (mostly) in Maine and that I majored in Archaeology in college.  Dana Cameron writes a series of mysteries with a female archaeologist from Maine named Emma Fielding as the protagonist.  I picked up the first book in the series, Site Unseen, at a used book store last weekend and blazed through it, thoroughly enjoying it.  The only thing that could have made it better is some quilts.  And lucky me, there are 5 more books to enjoy in the series!  I ordered the 2nd and 3rd in the series from paperbackswap.com.  Which of you introduced me to that site, anyway?  I have yet to properly thank you - I LOVE IT!  It is my go-to location when I am looking to acquire new books, and such a great way to unload the books I have that I don't want to keep.

I've also been playing basketball.  Me, the 5 foot tall soccer player (well, 25 years ago, anyway) who has never played an organized game of basketball in my life!  I got together a team of women (we called ourselves the I Team - I for Ibruprofen!) who also work at the University where I work, and we've played a game every week for the last 5 weeks against some sorority girls, also known as tall, quick, lithe, energizer bunnies half our age.  We beat them the first 4 times out, but last night, we just couldn't keep up and lost.  I can't wait to play again next year!  My bruises should have faded by then...

The chicken coop is coming together slowly.  Unfortunately, I approached its construction much like I do my quilts, with a general idea of what I want, but no pattern.  I've discovered it is easier to fudge things with fabric than with wood.  And my kids have the attention span of gnats, so they only ever want to work on it for about 20 minutes before they lose interest and want to skateboard or ride bikes or do anything other than build.  We might not have chickens for a long time...

I've also been busy with Cub Scouts.  We've been working on Language and Culture Belt Loops and Pins, which included a trip to a Mexican restaurant in town with some native speakers and a performance of a skit/song at last night's pack meeting where I was the ONLY ONE SINGING!  The little twerps left me hanging out to dry, which was unfair since they were wearing homemade Elephant masks to disguise themselves and I was just myself.  We've also been working on Art Belt Loops and Pins, which included a visit to an art gallery with lots of western (read Cowboys and Indians) art that the boys loved.  And finally, we've been working on Disability Awareness Belt Loops and Pins, which included a trip to a Special Olympics event and a visit from a blind Eagle Scout who shared with us his guide dog, his cane, his talking computer, his braille, and his Goalball.  Goalball is a Paralypmics sport, and he was on a world championship 19-and-under team, and is still playing now on the US National Team.  Needless to say, not only were the boys rapt, but so were the parents!  Cub Scouts is a lot of time and effort and work for me, but it is one of the most rewarding things that I do!

As of last weekend, it is Drive-In Movie season again.  I'm still on the Board of Directors, and still the Volunteer Coordinator, so that is keeping me busy, too.  We'll be heading there tonight for a double feature of kids movies - The Adventures of TinTin and We Bought A Zoo.  I'm not sure who's more excited, the kids or me!

Finally, I'm still teaching karate once a week, as well as taking classes myself.  I find it hard to believe that I enjoy teaching it even more than I enjoy learning it myself.  I know I do a lot, but they are all things that I really enjoy doing - how can I say "no"?

And for those of you who are wondering, no, I didn't quit my job.  I'm still going there every day, too.  Somehow I convinced myself that things would slow down in April, but I haven't had lunch or left on time all week. (sigh) I'm so glad I enjoy my job since I spend so much time there.

I'm still here!

I've just been busy.  Unfortunately, I haven't been the kind of busy that produces pretty pictures.  I've been:

- playing basketball.  Yes, I am just 5 ft tall and no, I've never played basketball before, but I decided it was time the Hutchinson men cheered me on. So I put together an intramural basketball team of women faculty and staff, and we've been whupping up on the sorority girls half our age.  What fun!  We are three games in and undefeated.  I've scored in every game, and last night I even hit a 3 pointer!  I didn't even realize I could throw the ball that far!

- building a chicken tractor.  Have you ever heard that term before?  It is basically a moveable chicken coop.  My kids have been begging for chickens for over a year, and I'm partial to free range eggs, so this weekend I sketched out a plan and we got started.  There are a ton of different types of chicken tractors out there, but the one I sketched out (based on my limited abilities and the materials I had on hand) looks most like this one:

Hopefully we'll have half a dozen chicks by this time next week. 

- reading.  Well, re-reading actually.  I had forgotten how much I love Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper mysteries.  I started at the beginning, and I'm on book 5, Dove in the Window, right now.  Oh how I wish there were a new book in that series on the horizon!

- quilting.  I'm still hand quilting the Charm baby quilt, but the progress is slow, as usual, and I don't want to bore you with more photos of the same old thing.  The same goes for the lap quilt made from bits of my Great Great Grandmother's salvaged quilt - I have just two borders left to sew on, but you've seen that quilt so many times already.

- mining the thrift stores.  I seriously have a problem passing up pretty pillowcases when I see them.  I bought 6 more this weekend, and made myself an apron to wear at the two fairs/events where I'll have a booth this year.  I finished at midnight last night, so no photos now, but when you've seen one apron made from upcycled pillowcases, you've seen them all, right?

- leading my Cub Scouts (of course!).  This weekend was the Pinewood Derby at our Pack Meeting.  We Tigers lead the opening using Sign Language we had learned to ask everyone to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then, those wonderful little Tigers of mine sat still and behaved throughout the whole Pinewood Derby, bringing the Den of the Month honors home to us for the month.  They are such good little doobies!

So, I haven't been idle, but I haven't been doing anything that really warranted sharing, either.  I need to do something exciting so I can put some eye candy up on here.

Change of pace

Oh my goodness!  I have so much going on right now, I don't know if I'm coming or going.  I showed up to karate an hour early yesterday.  How frustrating!  So instead of spending an hour there, we were there for 2 hours, and then still had to come home and do the whole Valentine's Day sweatshop routine!  Here's Jason with the 40 Lollypop flowers we made to give out in his and his brother's classes.

Lollypop flowers for Valentine's Day 2012

Plus, I had a full 4 hours of cub scouts on Sunday, first a trip to the fire station with my Tigers (super fun!  Firemen, like quilters, have all kinds of gadgets and gizmos to make their jobs easier.), then a den meeting, and then off to a handy old cubmaster's house to use his power tools to cut our pinewood derby cars.  By the end of the day, I was exhausted!  Isn't Sunday supposed to be a day of rest?

So I've decided that I need a change of pace.  It is cold and gray, perfect weather to sit and stitch by hand.  I pulled out this lap/baby Charm Quilt that I finished piecing back in October 2010,

pieced a backing, pieced a batting (I used my Heat Press Batting Together tape for the first time, and it worked like a dream! Quick, easy, and I couldn't even tell where it was when I was hand quilting through it!), and plopped myself in front of the TV to quilt.

I wanted to do a big meander stitch, but I know myself too well - if I tried doing that on the front of the quilt, I'd be paying attention to seams and how much stitching was in one particular block - you know, overthinking it.  So I turned the quilt over, and I am quilting it upside down.  I purposefully chose this big polka dot so I could use those as a basic guide - my only rule is to only quilt in the white.  So here's what I'm quilting

Back of Charm Quilt

and here's what it looks like on the other side.

Front of Charm Quilt

It's kind of fun quilting upside down, because I can't tell as I stitch how it will look on the other side.

OK, enough computer time.  All I've been doing at work lately is computer work, and I'm determined to not spend time on the computer at home these days, even though it means I am missing out on everyone's blogs.  Once basketball season is over and my job slows down a bit, I promise I'll come visit, OK?

The most wonderful time of year?

While I am definitely getting into the holiday spirit, December STINKS in the world of college admissions. I am taking files home every night to read, answering 3,167 emails daily from panicked kids who want to know if their second teacher recommendation arrived by the scholarship deadline, and talking to countless parents on the phone to calm their fears about the affordability of college. I love my job, but December is like receiving a mega-dose of work; too much of anything is not a good thing! Especially since my "other life" (wife, mother, quilter) hasn't slowed down at all either.

So while this should be the season of sitting under a quilt, watching Christmas movies while sewing on the binding, very little sewing is actually getting done at my house. I did finally finish the November Birdie Stitches BOM on December 1, but I haven't had time to add the border yet.


I also whipped up this quickie table topper for my dining room table to put my centerpiece candles on. (Thanks for the tutorial, Beth!) The fabrics are the same that I used in my tree skirt last year (my tree stands in my dining room windows). I am still sewing the binding on this, but hopefully I can have it on my table by tomorrow night.


Other than that, no sewing, but I did receive my winnings from the giveaway I won on the House of Wilson. In addition to the Charm Pack, I got these two neutrals and her TV Squares pattern. I think I want to make her pattern with some different fabrics. Anyone have a favorite (free, online) Charm Pack pattern I could make with this City Weekend Charm Pack?


Going out in the mail today will be my package for Leona's holiday fabric swap. I hope that my partner likes these Fat Eighths from my stash. I also made her one of the postcards I made with the cub scouts, and threw in a tissue cover that could be seasonal, but not necessarily. I'll be picking up some chocolate from the chocolatier in town, The Cocoa Mill, to round out the package.


So, since I am not sewing, what have I been doing, you ask? In addition to going to work every day, and maintaining our household...

Monday - take a karate class, read a stack of files at home
Tuesday - Jason's basketball practice, read a stack of files at home
Wednesday - teach karate class, then Adam's basketball game
Thursday - Jason's basketball practice, make cars for parade and cookies for Wounded Warrior Project, read a stack of files at home
Friday - make rice krispy treats for Wounded Warrior project, arrange and march in town Christmas parade with the Cub Scouts
Saturday - Jason's basketball game, go in to work for a few hours, Adam's basketball game, dinner with my brother and his family, get lost on way home from basketball game, read a stack of files at home
Sunday - help kids clean their rooms, visit radio station with cub scouts, go Christmas caroling with cub scouts, read a stack of files at home

Where's the down time in there? Do you see any??? Actually, last night I thawed the Turkey Pot Pie filling that I made the day after Thanksgiving, popped it into some pie crusts, and baked that for dinner, using the spare moments from making something that I had made ahead to sit and watch Akeelah and the Bee with my boys. Jason was in the school spelling bee earlier this week, so I ordered this from Netflix and it was nice to sit in the theater with some popcorn and my two little buddies and just chill for a couple of hours.

But back to yesterday afternoon, when we went Christmas caroling...

We first went to a nursing home in town, sang our whole repertoire of songs, and then caroled down the street, knocking on any door with cars in the drive, on our way to another nursing home about a third of a mile away. What absolute FUN!!! Why don't people go Christmas caroling anymore? People were so delighted, asked to take our photograph, clapped their hands, called to others in the house to come see. It was such a treat! Are you looking for something different to do this holiday season? I encourage you to go caroling!