Spring Rains

 

It has been cold and rainy in Florida. Kurt has been gone all week for work and to visit his dad. Sydney is home for the weekend. She is starting to count down days until she graduates from UF next month. Anna is polishing off all of her wedding plans. The first week in May is going to be a lot!

I spent some time sewing together 10.5 inch squares from men's flannel shirts to make a backing for the log cabin quilt. 

This is the last giant quilt that I want to get finished before I collapse the film down to a smaller size. I need to get that one loaded up and then start to work on the binding for Dear Jane. 

It has been years since I did a scalloped binding, that will take a bit of mental effort. I see that the Artemis II astronauts splashed down. That is nice to hear. I am looking forward to a quiet weekend much closer to home. 

How are your weekend plans shaping up?

Long Weekend

 We had Friday off of school for Easter weekend. We don't always get religious holidays, but they gave it to us this year. It is the last long weekend until Memorial day at the end of May, so I am trying to enjoy it.  Thursday, also known as fake Friday, was trivia. We won! It always comes down to the last question, we didn't know it and bet zero. 

Yesterday I brought up the fabric basket where I dump all the leftover fabric for later. I sorted and cut and put things away. It felt good to start fresh again. 

Then I celebrated by sewing some pink. Look how happy those blocks look? Such a softer and less angry version of red. Have you started on pink yet? 

PINK!!

 

Are your ready for pink? A new month means a new color and I am ready for something new. How about you?

I've been trying to get out in the mornings a bit. I had a late start on Tuesday and spent a few minutes to enjoy the sunrise.

A sailboat got stranded on the beach Saturday night. It was stormy with big wind gusts. 

Then we went out tonight to enjoy the Artemis II launch. It was packed!

Coming Home Again

Kurt and I had the best time in Jamaica. Many walks on the beach, a little too much time in the sun. 

There was nothing more urgent on the schedule than a dinner reservation. 

It was just the reset that I needed after getting all too caught up in the worry over having a job next year. 

We got home again late Wednesday which left time for a few more log cabin blocks. I finally had to call it quits yesterday when I ran out of foundation paper patterns. I will need to make a few more copies and then continue to figure out where to go with the design. I think this will be called fractured diamonds. Maybe I will add a few more rows to the bottom to put the red diamond at the break between the first and second third. Then I think that I want to mirror the purple and red chevrons near the right hand side. The whole thing is going to be rotated... so something like this... 

Hmmm. It is all too symmetrical now that I look at it this way. I will keep playing. Maybe if the red diamond is at the first third then the peak of the chevron can be at the second third? At some point I will need to decide on a size. Having some parameters might help. Given that the blocks are going to finish at 2.5 inches, it isn't as large as it seems. I might need to get some graph paper out to do some planning. 

I ran out of red leaders and enders while I was sewing the log cabin blocks, but there is a good representation of red on the wall. Time to go and figure out what color is next! (Just checked, and pink is up next!)

 It has been a lovely week. Spring break is one of the nice things about teaching. How has your red month progressed? 

Spring Break Relaxing with Red

 So maybe red isn't the color that comes to mind when you think about relaxation, but it is a great color for spring break. Kurt and I are (hopefully) off to Jamaica for the trip that was supposed to have happened over Veteran's day when they had that massive hurricane. So far our flight has been delayed 45 minutes due to the TSA issues, but we are patient and hopeful. 

I pulled out this tiny log cabin UFO last week and started adding blocks. I am not settled on an exact layout quite yet, but I had lots of extra red blocks. I worked during the week on adding more orange and yellow. It looks like green and purple are up next. These blocks are paper pieced and each block is 3 inches unfinished with 13 pieces. I used up as many crumbs as I had and then dug into the string bin. After a massive organization for the new year, I have color sorted bags of strings and crumbs in all the colors of the rainbow. 

While putting together the log cabin blocks, I worked a few more red blocks in as leaders and enders. Finding contrasting shades of red for the centers of the dot blocks was not easy, so I went with some alternate colors instead. I don't have nearly as many reds as blues or greens, so there won't be too many more for next week which is the last red Saturday. How are your blocks coming along this month? Misterlinky is below. Please share with us all. This is scheduled for bright and early on Saturday, hopefully it all works as it should because I will be on a beach with an adult beverage and a trashy romance novel. 

How are your reds coming along. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Radiant in Red

 I sewed - on a Thursday! Yesterday was a teacher workday which meant that Thursday felt like a Friday and so I sewed. Crumb strips are so relaxing to make. No measuring, very little cutting. Then I went out and got a massage. Apparently I have a lot of tension in my back. No surprise there. Things have settled down at work though and spring break is right around the corner. My goal for today is to finish up the rest of my graduate school work for this week so that I can slide into the break with no stress. The first chapter of my dissertation was officially accepted! It is actually chapter 3, but it is the first one that I have written. I learned last weekend that all of the necessary people were not part of my Canvas classroom to give approval to my submission, but I got that all straightened out and that means one class is off of my to-do list. I have a haircut first thing this morning and then I will power through the rest. How are your reds coming along? I know that people do red and white quilts, but red is so strong - I think it looks better with other blocks. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Its RED

 

Are you ready with your reds? I found a few blocks ready to come out and play, but my sewing machine was at school this week as we worked on t-shirt quilts using some of our new makerspace equipment.

I made the ugliest quit top imaginable from a box of shirts that had been moving from place to place for many years. There are shirts here from 3 junior high schools and two high schools that I attended along with random other shirts from so many years ago. Mostly I was helping other people to press and trim their shirts. We did a trial run with teachers and then will have another workshop with seniors in a couple of weeks so that they can start their own t-shirt quilts. 

On the work front, my principal has promised me at least a 60% job next year! I was glad to be able to move ahead with planning for my summer boot camp and even ordered a planner for next school year as we began to plan summer workshops and professional development sessions. After waiting for two and a half months to find out whether I would be unemployed, it is a relief to know that I will have a job and be able to finish my doctorate. I am very tempted to just tell him at this point that I would prefer to stick with part time so that I can get a better work and life balance until my degree is finished. I had been waiting on signatures for my current dissertation chapter and those just came through this morning. So lots of good news to celebrate! Have you dug into your red scraps yet? Now is the time.

Last Greenday

Last day of February. Last day for green. Next Month will be red. I was able to do a bit of crumb sewing last weekend. Considering all that is going in right now, that seems like a big accomplishment. Still waiting to know if I have a job for next year. I've been trying to think of other things, but there have been evening events for school three nights this week so I am mostly drained right now. I am going to a quilt show with a friend today. I am excited about that. Join a quilt guild is on my retirement bucket list. How are your green scraps coming along? I know that it has been a short month, but there were still 4 Saturdays, so I hope that you were able to make a dent. Remember that we will have a pastel month later, so you can work with some more of the lighter shades then if you still have some. Misterlinky is below. Please share your February roundup as we get ready to roll out the reds. 

Scrappy Green Weekend

 

It is great to be home again. Sadly, I have not had much sewing time, though my crumbs sit next the machine waiting patiently for a few free hours. They look happy there, don't they? 

I might do a bit of string sewing as well. We will see where the weekend takes me. 

I learned last week that my job has been eliminated by our district and so it is up to my school principal to see if he has room in his staffing budget to save me. I should know before our big junior parent night this week when we roll out the college application process, invite seniors to share wisdom, and have colleges present relevant sessions. I don't feel comfortable promising them that I will be there to help them if I won't. It has all left me feeling a bit unsettled. I am fine with retiring early. I have plenty to keep me busy and would be happy to shift gears if that is how things end up. But I love my job and would love to keep doing it for a few more years at least. I offered to work part time which I think would be a perfect fit. Nothing is decided though, and so sleepless nights and distracted thoughts have me caught in paralysis trying to keep pushing forward with a doctorate that is so dependent on my job that it would be impossible to finish If I were not working.  So I think I need to finish a few revisions on my methodology section and them perhaps some time in front of a sewing machine would be therapeutic. Dear Jane is still loaded and ready, lots of ways to keep myself busy and distracted. 

How are your green scraps coming along? Even though it is a short month, there is still one more green weekend to go. I hope that you are making good progress. Misterlinky is below, please share with us all. 

ScrapHappy Saturdy - Greenday

 

We are in North Carolina this weekend for the celebration of life. We met Christine's family last night for dinner and the actual event is today. Anna and Ryan are here, but Sydney chose not to come because it is Valentines day. I did some sewing of hexies in the car, and combined with what I was able to get done on the bus, there are quite a few hexies to add to the collection. I tried to get my graduate school work done during the week, but there is just a tiny bit to finish off. I will try to get that done this morning before things get rolling. How are your green scraps coming along? I am enjoying seeing the glimpses of spring as the weather finally starts to thaw. There are still a few snow piles here that haven't melted, but it is generally recovered from the record snow.