Family Outing

Today was the free day at Kennedy Space Center for local residents. We usually try to go every year. Even though we normally would have skipped the bus tour, there are two space shuttles out on the launching pads now, which doesn't happen very often. I tried to get a picture of both shuttles at the same time, but the angle on my camera just wasn't quite wide enough. It usually gets pretty crowded in the afternoon and the lines get kind of long. This year was really crowded right from the start. Kurt couldn't figure it out, but to me it seemed pretty simple, the economy is bad and people are feeling poor, so anything free is appealing. The parking lot seemed pretty full as we headed out, I hope they find room to put everybody.
I put the binding and hanging sleeve on the Sirenia quilt last night, so I took that along for the car ride and got almost all of the binding sewn down. I'll take that to school tomorrow to join the others in the marine science series. I ran out when we got home and dug up an area of grass so that we can have a tree planting ceremony during Girl Scouts tomorrow night. It is the second half of our eco-action badge and we are honoring Wangari Maathai of Kenya who won a Nobel peace prize for her efforts in the Green Belt movement. We are also making recycled paper, so will be a nice messy night.

Chaotic Progess

This is the chaos that a day of quilting can cause in an otherwise wide open room. I think if I had a football stadium full of floor space, I would still find a way to use it all! I laid out my chaos blocks in one spot, and sewed them all together. I trimmed the dogears there, so I moved over to the foyer to lay out the backing. Then I basted in the middle of the room, leaving that sticky from the spray baste. I really should go outside to do that, but the weather has cooled and the house is wide open.
I decided to quilt some loop-de-loops in black thread to work off of the polka dot theme. It came together in a hurry and was fun to do.
Here's the finished quilt, I just need to sew down the binding, which is a red stripe that was leftover after the patriotic log cabin quilt. Kurt still doesn't think the elderly will "get" this quilt, but it's going to the nursing home right along with the rest. I think the variety of prints and colors will stimulate their minds. I still need to work on some sort of uniform label to go on all the lap quilts. Maybe something with a space for the girls to write in their names.
After that I grabbed the Sirenia quilt which has been basted and patiently waiting since the Olympics ended. I was puzzled over what thread color to use, and ended up using a combination of teal and lime green because I had part of a spool of each leftover from something else. I did mostly some random outlining and some little snails in the squares around the word.
Here's the finished quilt, it uses Lazy Gal Tonya's free form letters and has relevant Sirenia terms quilted into the border. If you haven't tried letters yet, they are so fun and a little bit addictive. This one will live at school with the Starfish quilt and the Shark quilt. I still need to do a hanging sleeve and a binding for this one, but that shouldn't take too long.
I've got the Hurricane Road laid out now, and am working through how to piece the backing. It will probably need to be presses again though, and I don't feel like ironing tonight. I might finish the organizing and putting away that I started last night. I've still got some scraps to sort through and that's a nice thing to do in front of the TV. I've got all the bins out with crumbs and strings and strips of various sizes and I'm tossing the scraps in as I go through them. Maybe I'll give up on all that is productive and just do some mindless crumb chaos blocks. They are also really fun and a little bit addictive.

Chores

The kids all decided they wanted to earn some money this morning and asked for some extra chores. So Ryan did some weeding, Anna vacuumed my car and Sydney swept. Does this mean that at some point children actually become useful? Is it possible that eventually they may do more cleaning than messing up? Well, maybe not, but I'll take any help I can get in that department.
I had a 5K yesterday morning, so Kurt took the girls to their first day of ice skating lessons. They were doing beautifully until Sydney took a head dive at the end of the lesson and almost lost a front tooth. Thank goodness they are still baby teeth, because it still looks a little iffy in there. He dragged them to volleyball and then we took turns with the afternoon birthday parties. There were two this weekend, and strangely enough, they were both bowling parties at the same place. One was at 12:30 and one was at 3:00. So that took up most of the afternoon.
I did manage to get the manatee quilt bordered and spray basted, so I'll save that for my next big batch of quilting. I pulled the Dad's Plaids blocks out again, maybe I'll get those put together today. All of our weekend chores have been carried out with the weather channel on in the background. We're still watching Fay, it doesn't look like it's going to be that bad all the way over here on the East Coast. Still, there is the concern that she will, "pull a Charlie" and make a dash across the center of the state in our direction.

Lucky 8

I had a good day at school today. There was a computer training session in the morning, but then I spent a lot of time planning and coordinating with people as I randomly bumped into them. I'm spending a lot of time with the new chemistry teacher. She's got lots of questions, which I'm trying to answer without telling her what she should do. We also have a new math teacher who wants to line up our syllabi so that we are teaching some of the same topics at the same time. He doesn't have his course planned yet, so he wanted me to just tell him when to do the topics that overlap. I don't know if I'm just very persuasive or if everyone else is just accommodating, but hey, if it gets the job done then I'm all for it. The math and science teachers all went out to lunch as a group. It's nice to spend some time with people socially. I think it makes it easier to work together.
I spent the afternoon doing girl scout things. Did I mention that I caved completely on the school coordinator position? I have a pathological inability to say no. In my own defense, I did say no at least three times. If only I had been strong enough to say no just once more I would have been home free. So I called all the leaders today to get contact info and updates on the status of all of the troops. I'm going to send an e-mail and try to get people to volunteer to help out with the registration booth on Wednesday. The way the schedules line up this year, the public school registration day is the same as my first day of school. So I guess I'll finish teaching and then go over to sit at the booth in the afternoon.
I watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympics this evening while finishing up my Sirenia quilt. Kurt was helping out with artistic decisions, so it ended up much more symmetrical than I had planned. I think I'll add a dark blue border to the outside and it will be about the right size. Kiribati just appeared in the parade of nations! Kurt had never heard of it, but I read a whole book that took place on a Kirabatian Island! I think it was called The Sex Lives of Cannibals. It was hilarious. We've got the globe out, and are looking up all the countries that are unfamiliar. I wish the kids were awake, they are fascinated with maps and would get a big kick out of all of the flags. It's getting late now, and I'd better call it a night. I'm supposed to run 12 miles in the morning starting at 6. I'd love to start later, but I don't run that fast and it gets hot after the sun comes up.

3 2 1

Count down. I'm trying to get to bed at a decent hour tonight. After bribing the kids with ice cream to clean the toy room, they were so motivated that they begged for just a few more minutes of cleaning time. Then I took a little time to work on the Sirenia quilt after I got everyone to bed. I'd love to sew into the wee hours and get it finished up tonight. Instead I've stuck it decoratively to my portable design wall (formerly known as science fair boards). I'll get everything picked up off the floor before I turn into a pumpkin. The babysitter should be here by 7:50 so I can head into school for a brand new year.

Last Day

This was the sight that awaited me when I rolled out of bed this morning. All three of the kids were huddled around the computer playing Super Chuzzle. You get points every time you get three in a row. They have discovered that if you click on certain chuzzles repeatedly they will burp or explode. What could be more fun than that.?
Because this is officially my last day of summer vacation, I decided just to putter around the house rather than trying to finish anything officially. I"m pretty caught up on laundry, the house is in decent shape, and the kids are all entertained. They are excited to have a sitter tomorrow, and Kurt is coming home on the redeye.
I made the letters for my next marine science quilt which is sirenia -- those are the manatees and dugongs. I'm going to go for a porthole effect and set the manatee fabric in circles into squares of each of the colored fabrics. Then to turn it back into a square I'll add sashing strips with piano keys of the colored fabrics. That's the plan anyway. We'll see how it comes together. I ran out to Home depot today and bought some wooden dowels and hooks so I can hang the finished quilts in my room at school. I think they will brighten the place up.

Ice Skating and Odds and Ends

Tonight was the boyscout back to school bash at a local ice skating rink. Anna loves to skate and took lessons a couple of years ago during the summer. Ryan has skated once or twice at a birthday party, and Sydney was a first timer. Anna went out and skated like an old pro. Ryan cautiously worked his way around the rink, slowly and methodically. After the first trip around I got Sydney a walker and she took off like a maniac. She went fast and fearless in every possible direction. She would fall down and then hop right back up and go again. The only time she cried all night was when I told her it was time to leave. Now she wants to take skating lessons. I must admit, it's a better fit for her than ballet. I'll have to check out the times for the next session and see it they are full yet.
Just two more days left until it's back to the grindstone. I finished up the binding and hanging sleeve for Chondrichthyes and added an extra hanging sleeve on Echinodermata. I'm not sure how, but the original sleeve ended up on the side rather than the top. I picked up some hooks so I can hang them in my classroom. I think I have the perfect place in mind. I got a call from the upper school principal today asking if I would be willing to teach an extra class this year. There are only two sections of regular chemistry and they are already over capacity. So, they've added another section during 4th period. So far there are only three students in it, but they can try to shift some of the others over before school starts. Even though I'll have an extra class, they are during the first four periods of they day, so I'll still be officially done teaching by 11:17 on a normal day. Not a bad schedule at all.
I'm down to one child tomorrow. Anna is in gymnastics camp this week and Sydney has her next to last day of preschool tomorrow. We've had at least one child at the same preschool for the last 6 years. It's going to be very emotional to see the last one leave. It will be very nice though, to put them all on the bus in the morning and have them all at the same school for the next 4 years. I'll try to talk Ryan into coming to school with me for an hour or so to do some decorating and organization in my room.

Sharks are Done

I just finished sewing the binding on the chondrichthyes quilt. Wow did it come together fast. Admittedly, it is a very simple design but I'm still happy with a finish. So that makes 2 in the marine science series. I couldn't help going online last night and browsing at Hancock's of Paducah for more animal themed fabric. Actually, now that I think of it, plants would work as well. I've never seen bacteria fabric, or protists for that matter. Maybe mushroom are out there, I really should be fair to all the kingdoms I suppose. I've still got penguin and manatee fabric sitting in wait, so I suppose I shouldn't be in a huge hurry to shop for more fabric. Somewhere I saw a box jelly quilt that Lisa Boyer had made with some sort of bias strips. Now that I think about it, I have some snakes and maybe a rooster or two as well. OK, I' stop before I get carried away.
Kurt's gone again. He'll be back on the redeye on Thursday just in time to miss my first day back at school. He was nice enough to arrange a babysitter though until he gets home. I think the kids and I will go to CiCi's pizza for dinner, I try to save special treats for when Dad is out of town. Then Anna needs some new sneakers for school. She's hit a growth spurt recently and outgrown everything. Maybe she won't be the shortest in her class this year!

"Artsy"

I felt like starting something new yesterday, so I pulled out my marine science fabric collection and pulled some bits for the next phylum quilt. I probably shouldn't call them phylum quilts because some of the groups are classes and and some are orders, but that's beside the point I guess. This fabric has sharks, so it represents the cartilaginous fish. Their official name is chondrichthyes. Wow was that hard to spell! I had to keep looking it up as I made the letters because couldn't believe how many h's I had to make. It's turned sideways in the photo so you can see the letters. I had a beautiful pair of c's and an o, but when I held them up next the quilt, I realized I could only fit 8 letters down the side. So I went back to the drawing board and cut the strips smaller. I think they are about 3/4 of an inch and even then, I had to trim everything down to get it all in. The letters are less deliberately wonky than last time in that I cut all the strips straight, but I still get a pretty wonky feeling when I look at them. If you haven't done any free form letters yet, you should really check out Tonya's tutorial. They are just way too much fun! I'll get the last bit put together today and I should be able to get it all layered up. I have been working on a scale/fin shape for the quilting, I don't know how it's going to work out.
I got up and ran 5 miles this morning with two of my running partners. I felt pretty good, especially considering I did 10 yesterday. But with Kurt gone this week, I won't be able to run until Thursday night at the earliest, so it was good to log some miles. I really should do some laundry today and maybe get the yard mowed. Some days I ponder the exciting drama that is my life.

Marching On

I spent bits of the day sporadically stitching down the binding on the "echino thingy" quilt. I was ALMOST done when naptime hit. I decided I'd rather save the binding for sitting next to the pool and watching the kids swim, so I sat down to get started on the quilting for Dresden Plates. I had orriginally planned to outline each wedge and then fill in the background with a grid or a stipple. I got halfway around one plate and decided stitch in the ditch is way too tedious. Instead I decided for overall unmarked free motion. I was going for a double loop kind of thing that is supposed to look sort of like an olive. I don't know how much it looks like an olive, but it was kind of fun to do. I've ordered the pajama quilter DVD that I keep reading about, so maybe that will lead to some new ideas in free motion quilting. I'd better get back at it,or nap time will be over and the kids will need me for something. Kurt has gone in to work again, so it's just women and children again.

Cross That One Off the List

Peg at Happy in Quilting has issued a challenge to finish 5 projects before the end of July. I've got one done today. With my recent basting frenzy, I should be on track to finish that many by the deadline. After today's finish, I still have three quilts basted and waiting patiently for quilting.
I quilted the starfish quilt today! Small quilts get finished so much faster than big ones. Do you think I could convince the kids to sleep in really tiny beds? I used a free form wave shape that is supposed to suggest water. Then in the sea urchin squares, I outlined each of the little shapes. I tried quilting some words in the two extra borders, it was harder than I thought. Detail work like that is when a stitch regulator would come in handy. I'm in envy of Amy's new machine which is one step up from mine, and came with the works. Still, how often do I need to write out holuthuroidea in quilting stitches? (I know I'm a total nerd -- no need to comment on that :). The only part I couldn't figure out was how to dot the i's and cross the t's (literally). So I picked up some little glass beads that should do the trick. I usually avoid anything dimensional in quilting and scrap booking, but this is definitely a wall quilt, so I'll go out on a limb.
I had plenty of time this evening that I could have sewed down the binding and finished the handwork, but I was going a little stir crazy and escaped from the house for a while. The kids do fairly well for a while with nothing structured going on, but by the end of the week we were all a little grumpy. We had already done most of our regular summer outings earlier in the week, so today was a home day. There aren't many weeks when we don't have SOMETHING scheduled, this just happened to be one of them. So I took a field trip to Joan's fabric and checked out their new line of Legacy quilt fabric. I didn't buy much, because I'm trying to finish projects right now, not start new ones. I did get a yard of fabric called "running eighths" It has 8 different coordinated patterns all printed on the same piece of fabric. It seems like a nice way to get a variety of prints without having to buy a ton of fabric. I also used my coupon to get a ruler holder which then motivated me to spend some time tidying up. I have everything ironed and put away now, except the current works in progress. I'm in a class next week, Anna is flying to visit her grandmother, Ryan is in Chess camp and Sydney will be in school all day. I'm guessing I won't have as much time for quilting, so getting things picked up a little bit seemed like a good idea.

Basting Bash

I've been basting myself bloody this evening. I still have the OC left to go, but I ran out of safety pins and decided to call it a night. It's so frustrating, because I remember buying three extra packages the last time I was grocery shopping. I don't think I could have used that many, but I turned the laundry room upside down and couldn't find any more pins. I was planning on getting some serious quilting done tomorrow while my husband hung out with the kids, but now it looks like he's not going to take his day off. He is usually off every other Friday, but they have a deadline coming up, and have all been working a lot of late nights this week. I hope he is able to at least take Saturday off. I'm enjoying spending time at home with the kids, but It's nice to have some adult company as well.
We worked on cleaning the toy room today and then filled up the rest of the day with play dates. Anna had two friends over this morning, and then Ryan had someone over this afternoon. It's great that there are so many kids in the neighborhood. It's so nice to have people knocking on the door to see if someone can play.

Quick Finish

I just finished up the star fish quilt. From start to flimsy in a single day, not bad, not bad. I didn't have enough of any of the fabrics to do all the parts, so I ended up doing a lot of mixing and matching. I'll definitely be doing more wonky letters in the future.

New Project!

I've been collecting ocean related fabric since I started teaching the class two years ago. I've never taken the time to do anything with it until today. I had my first official day of summer vacation, and one of two that will happen without the kids. So what could I do but celebrate by spending some quality time with my sewing machine?
I have been wanting to try out Tonya's free-form letters for a while, so I spelled out the scientific name for star fish and paired it with this sea urchin fabric that I bought on ebay. I think the sashing may be too wide, but I'm pretty happy with the letters considering this was my first try at wonky anything ever. I had trouble with the angled letters, but the straight ones were pretty straight forward.

I still have whales and sharks in the series and I saw some adorable sea turtles at Hancock's of Paducah online last night. So I see whales, sharks and turtles quilts in my future. I think these would be adorable hanging in my classroom at school. Too bad I'm not teaching marine science next year. I'll have to start thinking about what I can do do forensic science.