Guilty quilting

I had so much fun getting back to sewing yesterday that I snuck in some sewing today, too!  Gonna have to double up on the recommendation letters tomorrow to make up for the time I spent sewing today, but it was worth it!

I revisited my On Ringo Lake quilt - I only had 31 blocks pieced, so I assembled another block today.

18 to go!

Meanwhile, I got to looking at my Leaders & Enders Challenge on the design wall

and decided it needed sashing and cornerstones.

I like it!  I'll let that marinate on my wall for a while.

And, I made two travel tissue covers for a co-worker who will be going to her grandmother's funeral on Tuesday.  Just wanted her to know I was thinking of her.

When asked, she first indicated a blue that she liked, and then said red, so I made her one of each color.  Only the blue one has tissues in it, though.

I'm hoping I can find a few moments to sew regularly this week, but most likely, it won't be until next weekend, if I am staying on schedule and doing the work I should be doing.

I'm linking up with Oh, Scrap and Monday Making.

Lessons learned

I really shouldn't wait so long between blog posts.  So much happens in even just one day, that waiting almost a week means I'm bound to leave things out.  Perhaps you readers don't mind, but my blog is my online journal, so I hate to leave things out.

Anyway, last Friday's memorial service was painful, as expected.  My entire office shut down for several hours and walked over to attend together.  I armed us with "mourning tissues", made in black, but with musical notes lining the inside to honor my late friend's love of music.

the raw materials

The finished product.  I was kinda bummed that you couldn't really see the musical notes.

My tissues were almost gone by the time we left the church.  I'm going to miss him.

On Friday afternoon, Jason left for his first camping trip as a Boy Scout (as opposed to Cub Scout) - 3 days of fishing further up in the mountains.  He came back on Sunday half-frozen and reeking, but smiling from ear to ear.  Then, later on Sunday afternoon, I caught him practicing his cast in our yard. It is safe to say he is hooked! (pun intended!)

While he was gone, I had hoped to get lots of sewing done, but of course, I didn't.  Friday night I didn't feel well, and neither did Donald, so we cuddled together in my bed watching Mrs. Doubtfire on TV until we both fell asleep.  On Saturday morning, I felt better and took him to the doctor for some medicine to make him feel better, too.  Then, it was off to the Cub Scouts' annual Bike Rodeo.

Donald has the red helmet, blue sweatshirt and green bike.

Next, we delivered the baby quilt and bib to my co-worker.  Good news, Ella should be able to come home this week!!!

All washed and ready to welcome the new babe!

It'll be a while before she is big enough to wear this, but I wanted her to have it anyway.

Finally, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying crafts and food with some friends as we prepare for another friend's baby shower. By the time we got home, it was all I could do to brush my teeth and crawl into bed before falling asleep.

Sunday, we picked up Jason and drove him to the gym at the university for a shower, since I wanted to take them somewhere before heading home for the day.  After a quick lunch of Mexican, we drove out to Cabin Spring Farm where they were having a two-day sheep shearing and fiber arts celebration. What fun!  My kiddos really took to weaving.  In fact, on the way home, we stopped to buy an old picture frame from Goodwill for Donald to make his own mini loom, per his request!

I thought the peg loom was fascinating and watched for quite some time.  She was making rugs out of cut up wool clothing.  She had another basket full of "t-shirt yarn" that I was coveting!

There was wet felting...

This is going to be a gorgeous rug!

As well as a woman needle-felting, but when I found out she was from Maine, too, I got to talking and forgot about taking her photo.  She made the neatest needle-felted dolls - fairies and mermaids and all manner of creatures.  I know next to nothing about yarn and wool and what can be done with it, so it was a true learning experience for me.

I had the opportunity to fondle some alpaca fleece, too.  Oh my goodness!  I just wanted to roll around in it, it was so soft and luxurious!

But we couldn't stay forever because I start back up with the after-school program this week.  This time, it is only 4 weeks long.  I learned some valuable lessons from last time:

• limit the class size: I only have eight K-2nd graders this time - yay! 
• set realistic goals: I ordered 14" square pillow forms, and the kids are each going to design their own patchwork pillow. We are using 2" squares and designing on an 8 x 8 grid. (yes, I know that makes 12" finished pillow size, but this was the pillows will be nice and plump!)
• keep everyone's work separate: I bought 8 new, sturdy pizza boxes from a local pizzeria, and inserted a 14" square piece of batting in each.  Each child will have a box to keep their project in.  Hopefully we can be more organized this way.

Here's my sample pillow top (E for Erin, not yet quilted).

I'm going to mock up some more on paper grids for them today.  I kinda wish we had an odd number grid (7x7 or 9x9) because sometimes you want to have a center for your block, but oh well.

It's going to be a crazy work week for me this week, too, long days with a ton to do.  Two more months...only two more months. Then I'll have more time to enjoy this...

This was taken on the road to my house this weekend.  My house in the one on the left at the tree line.  I LOVE living here!  So quiet and pretty and peaceful...paradise!

Lesson of the day: Stick with what you know

First of all, we have a winner in my Blog Hop Party Giveaway - Lisa C! - She has been emailed, and hopefully she'll get back to me soon with her mailing address.  Thanks, everyone, for playing along!  I see I am not the only one with hordes of UFOs lurking in every corner of my sewing room!

I've decided not to continue with the after-school program, Ready To Quilt, next marking period.  It is unfortunate that its beginning coincided with my Hurricane Sandy project, but the result is that I have had virtually NO TIME to quilt for myself in the past 6 weeks.  No many Christmas projects coming out of my sewing room this year!  I hadn't really considered how much prep time would go into this.  Shame on me - having been a teacher before, I should know better.  But I guess I always taught older kids and adults, people to whom I could just give instructions and let them go.  Perhaps during the final marking period of the year I will do it again, or maybe next year - it is a 3-year grant, and I have a standing invitation to return whenever I want.

I say this because while Saturday was busy with me gone ALL DAY, I was home all day on Sunday.  Time to quilt, right?  WRONG!  I needed to come up with an activity for the kids to work on by hand while I worked with them one-on-one on the machine.  That's what I did last week, and it worked wonderfully!  I had them play Quilt Bingo while we sewed the blocks together for our fair quilt.  I drew a 5x5 grid of 1.5" squares on a paper, copied one for everyone, gave them all a glue stick, and then dumped my tin of 1.5" scrap squares on the floor for them to choose from.

(and I nearly cried - with 30 kids that's about 750 1.5" squares that I can no longer use in my scrappy creations - oh, grow up, Erin, and share nicely!)

I created cards with categories - colors, stripes, stars, hearts, dots, animals, solids, 5 colors or more, something man-made, etc. - and let the kids take turns calling out the games.  The winners took home an embroidery hoop and a needle - we're about done with those, and I don't need 20+ embroidery hoops.

While that happened, we sewed together the quilt top (well, they sewed the blocks into rows, and then I sewed the rows together at home).

A and D are up there, my co-worker just has short arms. (hee hee!) Z will be in the bottom row, along with the name of the school and the name of the workshop in smaller letters that they colored and embroidered.

For today's meeting, I figured we could make something that the kids could give as a gift this holiday season.  Maybe a necklace, like this one I found at The Cottage Home.

I like it, but I struggled getting my beads into my little fabric tube, so I know the kids would, too.  Moving on...

Maybe this beaded necklace from MommaGoRound?

I couldn't find beads as big as hers, so with my little beads, it was pretty fiddly.  I could do it, but I don't know about the little ones.  Back to the drawing board...

A ric rac bracelet like this one from Elizabeth Abernathy?

This was easy and fun, but all I have is yellow and black, and don't want to have to go ric rac shopping today. Hers in red and blue, though, is super cute!

I have felt, so maybe some felt barrettes, like these from The Purl Bee? (by the way, there are also some rose barrettes there that took my breath away!  I definitely plan to try to make some of those for my niece!)

Not bad, the kids could do this for sure.  But what if they don't have a woman or girl in their life with HAIR to gift it to?  What if the females in their family look like me?

This is me (with my super short hair) working with one of my favorite students on our denim rag quilt 

Donald said he could make some for his cousin, which got me to thinking, I need to give them an option that would be useful to everyone.  Everyone I know has a NOSE, so how about tissue holders - they are always a hit on my ETSY shop and at craft shows.  I just need an easier version, maybe with the felt that I bought for the barrettes.  Using these holders from Martha Stewart as an inspiration (had to change the size, though, to 5.5"x7"), I came up with this.

But, darn it - I don't have enough felt for everyone!  What I DO HAVE, however, is lots of denim scraps from our denim rag quilt project, so I whipped one up in denim, too.

OK, by far my favorite project of the day!  I love denim!!

Whew!  That's a lot of prep for a one hour class!  See why I will be taking a break from it next marking period?  All that searching for the perfect project, and I should have just started with a project that I know and have made dozens of times!  But it isn't just about the results, it is about the process - and the process was fun!  If you are inspired to do some sewing with a little one in your life, I hope you find all the links useful!

Ahoy mateys, there's a giveaway!

I had a couple of goals for yesterday - to finish another green pillowcase shopping bag, to put borders on my Birdie Stitches BOM quilt and to finish the book I was reading.  The shopping bag got done...

but the quilt borders didn't because a demanding little pirate shanghaied me and pressed me into service to make a Jolly Roger for his pirate ship.


I also finished reading my book.  I read Riel Nason's debut novel, The Town That Drowned. 

Some of you probably know her from her blog, The Q and the U, and all of her wonderful selvege creations.  She's made more Halloween quilts than anyone I've ever heard of!  So, from her blog, I knew she was clever and creative and talented, but reading her book has really solidified my awe of her.  It was AMAZING!

The setting was described in a way that I could visualize where everything took place.  The characters were believeable, complex and human and diverse.  The plot built up to a climax that had me forgetting to breathe and then sobbing out loud.  My nose ran for a full hour after finishing the book.  And while the book wasn't about quilts, they were weaved in here and there, fun details to remind me that quilting is her favorite hobby.  I highly recommend the book to anyone looking for something to read.  And to start things of, I am giving away my (once read, but otherwise new) copy of the book.  (because I'm going to buy 3 more copies for myself and family members and try to get them signed!)

Since I missed the gift exchange with my guild, I'm adding my gift to this giveaway - a bundle of Laurie Wisbrun's Urban Circus scraps, a winter travel sized tissue holder, and some Ghiradelli chocolates. 

To enter to win, simply leave a comment.  Be sure I have a way to get in touch with you.  I'll leave this open until the end of my first day back at work (Tuesday, January 3rd).  I'll need something to look forward to at the end of what is sure to be a LOOOONNNNGGGGG day! 

Happy New Year, everyone!

The EASIEST thing I have ever made!

Not too much sewing going on. I think all the travel and karate build up and painting my basement burned me out, and all I've felt like doing lately is curling up with a book. My regular readers know that cozy mysteries are my books of choice. I finished the second Leann Sweeney, Cats in Trouble book, The Cat, The Professor and The Poison. Enjoyed it!


I have another Arlene Sachitano to read, but they really aren't my favorite, even with quilts involved, so I'm sitting on that one for a while. Instead, I picked up Farm Fresh Murder by Paige Shelton, the first of the Farmer's Market Mysteries. Enjoyed it!


Now I'm reading one of Maggie Sefton's Knitting Mysteries, Dyer Consequences. There's a certain formula that works for me:

• female protagonist


• making it on her own with a home business or crafting business


• character development! I don't just want to know what they do, I want to know why and how they feel about it and what scares them and what their sense of humor is like! (I think that's why I don't like Arlene Sachitano's books - there isn't much character development)

Anyway, I forced myself down into my sewing room and started working on some Christmas presents. One is for my sister who periodically reads this, so I can't share a photo, but I also worked on some stocking stuffers. I was thinking of making snap shut change purses, and I probably still will, but I also found a tutorial for a travel tissue case. I started with one for myself, since I hate when the plastic wrap crinkles up in my purse and then the tissues appear dirty.


Oh my goodness! If this wasn't THE EASIEST THING I have EVER made! Even with the boxed corners, which, I think, makes it look much more finished (and cute!). It took so little time that I made two more while timing myself. 18 minutes from start to finish to make a pair! No way!

So I made 5 more - IN 35 MINUTES!!!

Folks, if you are looking for a quick stocking stuffer that uses up scraps and takes practically no time to make, look no further! I followed the tutorial found here. Tonight, I'm going to change my thread and make some light colored ones (I had black thread in the machine, so these were all with dark fabrics). I'm addicted! I'm almost hoping people get the sniffles so I can offer them some tissues!

Are you dressing up for Halloween? I'm going to be a nun. Not sure I can pull that off, because I sure as heck am not a saint, but I'm gonna try! And I need to hang up Jason's Halloween Quilt. Remember this, his first quilt from two years ago?

I added it to the Quilting Gallery Weekly Theme Quilt Contest. Take a peek, and if you vote for him and he wins, I promise that HE will get the fabric winnings! He is already letting me know that he needs to build his stash! Love it!