Insanity

As summer winds down and I know I should be putting away my summer projects. Finishing up loose ends. Tidying away the sewing room. Instead I suddenly decided that I didn't want to miss a month of the UFO challenge and that I should really take another look at the July project. I had 8 blocks from a BOM many years ago. I picked a more challenging pattern than I was ready for and was not happy with the way the blocks were coming together. It got put away, and by the time I took it out again, the room it was being made to match had been redecorated. And so it sat and languished. I didn't want to devote a lot of time and energy to a quilt that I have no earthly purpose for anymore. After playing with the blocks, I decided I could stretch the existing blocks by whipping up some Irish Chain blocks to alternate them with. I did that yesterday, and just finished putting them together in a 3 x 5 setting. With the blocks finishing at 12 inches, that only makes it 36 inches wide. Not enough to comfortably snuggle with (unless you are really skinny I guess). So now that I have put this much time into it, I'm thinking that I could make 2 more star blocks of some sort and three of the Irish Chains to bring it to a small snuggle size. I could also just start randomly adding the extra four patches to the sides until I run out. I guess I'll sit here and stare at it until inspiration strikes. Inspiration better not take too long though, there is only one more day in July!

The kids have all been adding their own chaos to the mix. They are tearing up the house to pack for their trip while trying to make sure they play with every single friend and every single game and toy before they leave. Sydney had our new neighbor over yesterday and they played Clue, Sorry, Trouble, Kerplunk, Connect 4 and Martian Matter all at the same time. If only I had waited one more day to mop the kitchen floor! It truly is insane around here. All in a good way though.

Switching Gears

It is hard to switch from full blown summer mode to back to school, but I am looking forward to a new school year. Kurt was nice enough to entertain the kids on Friday with trip to Universal while I went in to work on my classroom. It has been 6 long years since I last had a classroom of my own and I am SO looking forward to it. I wasn't sure if I would move my Marine Science quilts into my new room or leave them in the lab with the aquarium to keep the marine theme going in there. While checking e-mail last week I learned that we hired a new science teacher to fill the part-time slot, so she will be using the lab as her "office". Therefore I hung those in my room to represent the Biology portion of my course load. I also hung up Anatomy posters as well as displaying the models for that prep. Then of course I had to find a spot for the periodic table for Chemistry. I sorted supplies into the storage boxes I made from the Crazy Mom quilts tutorial, although I switched to a sturdier cardboard and used some tape to keep the sides together. They match the little curtain I made to add some color above the outside door.

I had already spent several days going through everything that had been left from previous occupants. I found business cards from a guy who left before I started teaching there, and occupied the room three teachers ago! Untold hours were spent cleaning, organizing, purging, arranging, you get the idea. It isn't done yet, but I do think it is starting to look more inviting. While I am not exactly obsessive about organization, I do enjoy knowing what I have and where it is. Along with all of the physical organization, I also began the planning of courses and curriculum, with rewriting of syllabi and such. Again, I'm not done yet by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like I at least got a good solid start.
The weekend was spent on usual weekend things, birthday party, ice skating, yard work, laundry. Kurt is taking all three of the kids to see his parents next week during pre-planning, so this marks the official last week of summer vacation. Yesterday we had an outing to buy school supplies, and we are trying to make sure that everyone gets to chose at least one outing to finish off the break.

Bliss

Today was a Phyllis day. That is what we call every other Thursday when our housekeeper, Phyllis, comes and works her magic. It is a lovely thing to have something done in my house that I do not have to do myself. I have long ago gotten over the guilt of having help and learned to enjoy every moment.
So the kids and I went got up bright and early, ran some errands, saw a free movie, had lunch out and visited the fabric store. We went to Target to look for new backpacks, and not finding the exactly the right kind, were headed out when I saw that Janet Evanovich has a new book. I've read all of her books, even those goofy "written as" books that they always republish when an author hits it big. They are a funny, quick read with no literary qualities at all. I'm finishing up Emma on my i pod right now, so there is some sort of ying and yang there I'm sure.
Here I sit in my sparkling clean house, listening to my fabric in the dryer, getting ready to dive into a brand new book and thinking, life is good.
Oh, on a side note, I saw one of, my students at the fabric store and she said she tried to get into my first period Anatomy class, but couldn't because it was full. So that is two new bits of information. My Anatomy class is first period, and it is full. I am slowly starting to work my way back into school mode. Maybe I'll log on later and see if my rosters are posted yet and go through e-mail. Slowly, slowly.......

Two Havles, Not yet Hole

I just finished sewing together the blocks for the 2nd half of Sister's Choice. Wow did that take a long time! I really haven't done much else yet today. The second half still doesn't have a border, so I'll take care of that tomorrow. I'm not sure what to do with the corners. Usually my quilts hang shorter than this. Is the corner of a bedspread supposed to be rounded or squared up or what?

Half Quilt

I got half of Mom's quilt put together last night. I don't have quite enough green for the other half of the first border, so I'll either put the other half together and add the border later or run out today for a bit more green. The final border will be enough of the green to make it the right size. Anna's bed is queen sized, so I'll take it up there to see how it hangs. It is supposed to fall to the ground, so the exact dimensions are somewhat important.

I also got a few blocks cut out for my next quilt while supervising swimming yesterday afternoon. I sent those through as leaders and enders while making the top. This is a quilt for my niece Paige and the colors are based on some sheets that my sister gave me to make a dust ruffle. Dust ruffles seem to be a recurring theme around here lately. I'm also supposed to make one for my nephew Zach. If I were a really good sister I'd get those put together and off in the mail ASAP. The kids are standing patiently by the pool waiting for me to come out, so I'd better grab my fabric and go watch.

Blocks Done

Finally finished the blocks for the Sister's Choice quilt! Mom decided that she like the green lattice after all, so I'm using the yellow as corner stones. I made it 8 blocks by 8, so that leaves room for about 6 inches of border all around.

I initially thought that I would use extra squares, but it seemed to blend in with the yellow corner stones. Then I thought about breaking the squares up into patches with some green strips.
It seemed pretty busy, so I also considered using 4.5 inch strips instead, again breaking them up with the green where the cornerstones are.
The other option is a simple solid border. I could also give up on borders completely and just make another row of blocks to make the quilt finish at 108 by 108. I'll let it simmer overnight and see how it looks in the light of day. Tonight I think I'll cut out the rest of the yellow squares and call it a night. Hopefully I'll be ready to sew the blocks together tomorrow. The kids want to go to the zoo, so maybe in the afternoon.

Cushions

I spent most of last week sorting through the scrap basket and turning everything into squares and strips. I'm trying to get the study and laundry room organized again. I'm getting very close to being done with the Sister's Choice blocks, but I got sidetracked.
Kurt has decided he wants to work on redoing the toy room. We've moved out the very scary old couch and replaced it with some chairs for the kids. Now that I think about it, we ordered that couch from Montgomery Wards for our first apartment 15 years ago. When we moved into this house(5 years ago), I had intended to make cushions for the top of the toy shelves. I made a prototype, but Kurt thought it was too flat, and so we've only had the one sad little cushion for the last 5 years. So when the couch made its way to the curb, I grabbed out the cushions and cut them to fit the top of the shelves. Then I spent yesterday sewing covers for them. I was pretty happy with how they turned out, but Kurt constantly fails to be impressed with my abilities. He just looked at them and said, "Yea, but I've seen you make things lots of times." So anyway, there they are, 14 linear feet of unimpressive matching cushions.
Next on the agenda, to do something about the curtains he doesn't like because they are too hard to open and close. I wish getting the kids to pick up all the toys was on the list somewhere, but that seems to be a losing battle. We spent hours up there on Thursday and it was perfect, now it looks (again) like something exploded.

This morning we went to church to watch Anna sing her songs from VBS (vacation bible school) last week. They had a picnic afterward and Sydney has now decided that we should go to church all the time because she likes cotton candy and snow cones, even though she didn't want to sing all those songs about God.

Shuttle Launch (Finally)

We got to watch the shuttle go up tonight. If they hadn't managed to get it up on the next two tries, it was going to be scrubbed, so I'm glad it finally went. It wasn't a fantastic view this time, we barely saw it clear the rooftops across the street before it ducked behind clouds. Sydney is still bummed that she didn't get to see the separation. We turned on the news to see it on TV, but it is not the same at all.

Morning Chuckle

I woke up this morning to find this cut out and placed at my spot on the breakfast table.

Valence or Dust Ruffle

We call these dust ruffles, but Amanda says they are called valences "over the pond". Either way, I made a skirt for the bottom of Anna's bed yesterday. I used bleached white muslin and sewed it right over the top of her old ruffle. It is lightly pleated. I need to get to work on a new quilt for her bed, but for now, she has commandeered the toy room quilt which is called The Shirt off my Back. It is made of shirts and is so soft and comfortable. Her room and furniture are painted and reassembled now, all that remain are the decorative touches. That is the part she is most interested in, of course, but I am happy to have the room fully functional again.
I am getting very close to having all of the blocks done for Sister's Choice. The star points are ready to go, it is just a matter of putting the pieces together now. I would love to have that part done today, we will see how much attention the kids and house and such all need today. Kurt has been at work extra hours lately with a big deadline looming and customers in from out of town. They are hoping, along with the rest of us, to see a shuttle launch in the near future. It has been postponed five times now I think, but maybe today will be the day.