May Finish Mostly

I was so close to finishing off my May UFO. I used a straight line grid with cream thread and a walking foot for the middle. When I got to the border I decided to do some swirly circles in pink to play off the polka dots in the outer section. I was down to the last little section of quilting when I ran out of bobbin thread. As I watched the last of the pink thread wind onto the bobbin, I thought there was enough there to finish off the quilt if I used that on the top and switched the bobbin thread to something else. The tensioning looked a little off, I could tell it was too loose. Instead of stopping to fix it, I just kept turning up the tension dial and powered through. How many times have I kept pounding away at something that didn't look or feel right to have to undo it all at the end? You would think I would learn my lesson by now, but apparently I'm a slow study. By now the fabric store is closed, so it's too late to run out for more of the dark pink thread. I'll still get the binding put on, and save that last little section until I can get out again. So, not quite an on time finish, but pretty darn close I think. It's not my favorite quilt of all time, but it was fun to think about and it's not sitting in a tub waiting to be finished. I'll pat myself on the back for that.
Ryan has cub scout camp this week. He is packing his little bag now with all the things on his list. It is all day at a nearby park, he went last year and had a good time. The girls and I are going to head over to Orlando for a little shopping. Tomorrow night is our last Girl Scout meeting of the year and I need to pick up some badges for our awards ceremony. I thought we'd check out Ikea while we were over there. I've never been, but people tell me it is lots of fun.
I'm still trying to switch into summer vacation mode. So far I've had school work to do everyday, so It doesn't seem much different so far. I'm sure it will hit me by the middle of next week that I have hours and days of freedom to savor. I am enjoying the fact that this is Sunday evening and I'm not feeling the dread of thinking about what needs to be done to get ready for Monday morning.

OK -- Serious sidetrack rant here -- I'm noticing that all of my quilt pictures look like little quilt mug shots. I love the decoratively draped shots people post of their quilts in lovely setting with perfect light. I even love the little quilts with feet photos that people post while their loved ones are holding up the quilts for them. Why do my pictures all look so clinical and sterile? Maybe I should find a quilt photography class. Maybe I should worry less and quilt more.

Indecision Leads to Action

I couldn't decide on what color to make the border for Things Quilters Think, and so added several borders instead. I think the excess of color on the outside somewhat detracts from the hodge podge of pattern on the inside. I just need to put together a backing and I can begin to cross this one off the list. I've been listing to a podcast of Pride and Prejudice which is just about to finish. I have the movie recorded on the DVR, and I think I'll watch that when I am done. Maybe I can be sewing down the binding by then. After that I think I'll check and see if the number of the June UFO has been posted yet. I've been following along with the monthly UFO challenge at Patchwork Penguin and it has done wonders for encouraging me to finish things off.

In Need of Opinions

I finally sat down and put the Things Quilters Think Blocks together. It is apparent that this was an evolutionary quilt. I can think of several points along the way when a cohesive plan might have made it seem a little less jumbled. I don't mind jumbled, but it does have me stuck on what to do with the borders. My fabric stash is not as extensive as others, so finding the right shade of a certain color never seems to work out for me. So although I do like to use what I have, I'm not opposed to buying something new. I see a lot of red in the quilt, but wanted to try to tie together all the different fabrics. I pulled out several multi color prints on black, because those are supposed to work as neutrals you know. I read it in Gwen Marston's last book, so it must be true. I tried those out with both red and pink. I also tried some mottled solids, thinking that might calm down the variety of blocks a bit. I really had a darker color in mind, like the purple from the center square, but the closest thing I found was a fat quarter of the purple on the left side. Maybe I should just find out what that purple is and order some of it. It came from a sewing themed charm pack, I'm sure I have the label somewhere or other. So, votes, opinions, options? Help me out please. This is my May UFO, so I have only two more days before I'm supposed to cross it off the list.

Anniversary

Kurt and I went out last night to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary. 15 years, yikes -- I won't even talk about which birthday it is! We got a sitter and made reservations at a restaurant that sits on the river. We sat out on the patio and it hardly rained at all. The rest of the faint hearted diners bailed out and we had the whole place to ourselves. It was very relaxing. Today is the first official day of summer vacation, I made the kids come in and hang out in my classroom for a bit because I had a student coming in to serve penance for excessive tardiness. After that is was home and into full summer vacation mode. Ryan and Sydney are both off on play dates, Anna is hanging out in the toy room and I've been puttering with some cleaning and organization in the laundry room.

Finished

School is officially over. I've been wandering in and out during post planning and puttering around. My new classroom hasn't been vacated yet, so I am limited as to what I can accomplish. So this afternoon I came home and made some little storage cubes to put in my classroom when I do get it. I used a tutorial from crazy mom quilts. After making the first one according to the pattern, I decided to add some little handles, but other than that, it worked out very well. I really enjoy all of the ideas and tutorials that are out there, free for the taking. I have so many ideas floating around in my head that I don't feel like I ever need to search for a new project. On the down side though, there will never be enough time to try out all the terrific patterns I see.

Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone is having a happy Memorial Day. Our weekend has been busy celebrating Sydney's birthday. We were a bit worried about the idea of a swimming party in the middle of a weeks worth of nonstop rain. I spent hours planning back-up activities and games in case the weather was too stormy to be in the pool. Miraculously, the rain stopped just in time for the party and everyone swam the afternoon away happily.

Sydney has been busy since then playing with all of her new toys. I think she likes having a birthday party. When she was younger we would just double up on Anna's party and have a cake for Sydney as well. Now that she is a big 6 year old, she wants to have her own party with her own friends.

We spent Saturday morning out getting a haircut and doing the last minute shopping. We went to Snip-its, a kid themed haircut salon. They did a great job on her hair and finished her up with ribbons and glitter. What could be more fun than that?

Today Kurt took the girls ice skating so that Anna could try out the new outfit she got for her birthday two weeks ago. Her lessons were off for a couple of weeks and she was anxious to show off her new ensemble.

I have managed to get a little time in on the sewing machine, but mostly I've been ironing and organizing. I'm just about ready to get the blocks for Things Quilters Say sewn together so I'll be sure to get a picture of that as soon as it is ready.

We have burgers on the grill now, and I think we'll be able to get them in before the rain starts again. It's been beautiful all day, I'm sure all the parade and picnic goers are thankful for that.

Noah, Send the Ark!

It's been raining hard all week and we seem to have reached saturation level. We really did need the rain, but golly, I think we could call it good enough already. Monsoon season marks the end of wildfire season and we have several months before hurricane season, so all is well.

I've been very productive at school recently, which seems to leave me incapable of doing anything by the time I get home again. I'm steadily crossing things off the list, which is a good feeling when there are only 2 days of school left. I even figured out how sync the list on outlook. Making to-do lists is some sort of strange coping mechanism to counteract frenzied running around in circles that I sometimes get caught up in. I will sometimes even start a new to-do list with whatever the last thing was that I just finished so that I can cross something off the list and feel a sense of accomplishment. That's not weird is it?

We have another birthday party to host on Saturday. If I ever start my life from scratch again, I'll try to remember not to have all my children in May. It's like a birthday party assembly line around here. Anyway, Sydney is 6 and is having a swimming party for all the other 6 year old girls in the neighborhood. I am so hopeful that the rain will end before then, but just in case I'm going to start googling indoor party games. I seem to have enough energy left to google, so I guess I'm not totally spent yet.

Little Projects

I was wiped out after the sleepover this weekend and didn't feel like working on a project. Instead I decided to putter with some small ideas that I had been turning over in my mind. The first was a water bottle holder.

It's not often that I get to start a conversation with the question, "What is the formula for the circumference of a circle?" After figuring that part out the rest went together likety split. I need to seriously work on my finishing touches. I could not figure out the buttonhole feature on my Bernina so I ended up really messing that part up royally. I guess I could get out the manual or something, but that seemed like too much work. Anyway, it is reversible with a little strap to hook onto a bag or whatnot.

Next came a case for my I-phone. I did a google image search and ended up with an idea based on this tutorial. I made one out of flannel and a scrap of fabric for practice and then tried one out of a bit of silky fabric that was hanging out in a drawer. It's basically just a long piece of fabric folded into thirds and seemed along the bottom two edges. The top just flaps over to hold the phone in. I thought about coming up with some sort of latch but didn't want to wreck what I had already done. The first one was just a smidge bigger than the second and it holds the digital camera nicely.
Today was the last "regular" day of school. Exams start tomorrow, but I don't have any until Wednesday so I'll go in and finish up my end of the year stuff.

Sleepover

Not a lot of sewing has gone on at my house lately. Last weekend was Anna's sleepover party, this weekend was the Girl Scout sleepover party. It feels a bit as if we have opened a hotel for 9 and 10 year old girls.

We had all sorts of badge activities planned, but the girls just wanted to swim. We definitely got the swimming badge well under control! Dinner was Tacos in a bag with ice cream in a bag for dessert. Breakfast was pancakes and muffins in a bag. (I guess you could say we had it all in the bag:). We did do some badge work after swimming and before the movie, so I guess we were somewhat productive. Three girls were fast asleep before the movie was over and the rest spent the wee hours of the morning chattering away in the toy room. This morning brought more swimming and they were all out the front door by 10. Now I'm in need of a nap and a visit from a cleaning lady. She was just here on Thursday, so I guess I'll be the cleaning lady today, right after my nap that is.

I've had an occasional odd moment to putter in the sewing room. I worked on a pattern for a water bottle cozy before graduation yesterday, and on Friday I snuck in and did some cutting and organizing of happy block kits. Nothing photo worthy unfortunately. I did get my Things Quilters Say fabric panel in the mail, so I should be able to get that quilt moving along soon enough.

Monday is the last full day of school for me. Tuesday starts finals and those days are early release for everyone. I've been in massive cleaning and organization mode at school, getting prepared for moving into my new classroom! I don't want to seem too anxious, so I am waiting patiently for the current resident to pack up her belongings before I settle myself in and find a home for my stapler and my tape dispenser. I get so much joy out of the little things in life.

I hope everyone is doing well, I've had time to read all my usual blogs, but not much time to comment. Just one more week and I'll have time oozing out of my ears -- comparatively anyway.

Home Stretch

Graduation is Saturday. After that it is only one more day until finals start for everyone else. I've taken my quilts and posters down and started to clear out my desk. I'm officially done teaching anything new, it's just a bit more review and then all the loose ends to tie up. So close to the end -- like the last couple of miles of the marathon when the worst is past because you know how soon it will all end.