Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Rounding up Orange

I finally got some orange blocks sewn last weekend.   Everything is cut, it is just a matter of sewing up the last bits.   We got a bit carried away with clearing out Sydney's room.  The plan was always to rotate her furniture up to the main bedroom and then convert her first level room with attached bathroom into the sewing studio.   Most of our old furniture went up to the cabin where the leather and oak seemed more fitting.   We are still working on putting all the pieces back together.  Kurt decided to invite all his work friends over for a launch party on Monday morning, so now the disaster of our furniture rotation plan needs to get fixed sooner rather than later!   

Sydney sent us a first day of school photo.  She started classes at the University of Florida on Wednesday.  Still waiting for more details on how everything went.  So far she needed a new computer because hers was full, then dropped the class that needed the giant program installed on her computer and added a new class about sustainability which should be more relevant to her major.  There was also some mechanical gator riding mixed in with exploration of the new campus and photos of food from the dining hall.   

The sky was exceptionally orange on Thursday.  I usually wait until the sun is coming up for my daily sunrise photo, but I was in a hurry to get into school that day because there was a lot going on.   Kurt was out of town this week and staying at the cabin while working out of the DC office.  He is home now though and can help try to reassemble the disruption that we started last weekend.

Light blue is the color for September, just in case you couldn't polish off blue the last time.  If you did manage to deal with all the blue earlier this year, then this is the perfect time to start catching up or assembling.  The end of the year is right around the corner!

 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Empty Nest Edition

 

Sydney moved into her college dorm on Thursday.   We have officially moved out the last of the children.  What a strange feeling to have just the two of us rattling around the house together.  Good thing we still like each other!

I did manage to finish the binding on her t-shirt quilt just in time.  She was very specific about which quilts to include and where to put them.   It starts with her daisy girl scout shirt and ends with senior powder puff.  So many memories!

Work hasn't settled down quite yet, but it has been lots of fun learning how to do so many new things. It is a huge change to have time in the day to cross things off of the list rather than trying to get all the extras done while teaching all day.    

The orange scraps have been waiting patiently for their turn.  So far I have stacks of nicely trimmed strips and squares along with a handful of partially assembled blocks.  I think I will get a little bit done this morning.  When Kurt gets back he is going to want to survey the disaster area that was Sydney's room.  It is going to be my new sewing studio, but some work needs to be done first.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Nothing Rhymes with Orange

 

The first week of the school year is officially done!  It is so nice that we almost always start on a short week. Such a huge change to not be in the classroom every day.  I am having plenty of time with the kids though, and they are starting to come in for help with resumes and applications.  Lots of training so far and figuring out what I am supposed to be accomplishing.    

The family was all in Virginia this week moving Anna into her new apartment at Virginia Tech.  She is having fun getting settled in.  Because she was in dorm for 4 years of undergrad, this is her first apartment, and she is full of questions about how to do things like setting up electricity and getting and Wi-Fi router.   Sydney will move into her dorm on Thursday and we will officially be empty nesters.  What a strange thought!  All those years of raising kids and having them around all the time just to suddenly have them all move out.

ScrapHappy Saturday - And so begins Orange

 

Counting down the days until school begins for real.  I think things might calm down a bit then.  I am probably wrong about that though.  I have managed over the years of RSC to curate a nice collection of orange.   A few are already trimmed into squares and strips for my blocks this month.   I will have some time to sew orange today, but I also need to make the flags for our homerooms.  I will probably pop into work for a bit and try to get some things ready for the start of school.  We will train the teachers on homeroom Tuesday, the day before the kids come back.  Then we will meet with homerooms every day for the first week which should give us a chance to start decorating our flags.  I had a 4 hour training session on Thursday when I finally got a full picture of how the new job is supposed to work.  All summer I kept asking when the training would begin.  Somebody dreamed up the job, funded the job at every secondary school and that somebody had have a clear vision of what  we are all supposed to be accomplishing.   So now my head is full to bursting with new information and things to do.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Last Purple weekend

 

Just two more days left in July.   I am working frantically steadily to get caught up.  I think that I can!  Though everything looks like a bit of a mess at the moment, all the pieces are in the works and the scraps have been sorted and cut.   Now I can spend today and tomorrow getting everything sewn together.  Many have already guessed that August will be orange this year.  I used to struggle with orange, but through the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I started to enjoy the variety and spark that it adds to quilts.   I have a reasonably sized basket now and I have tried to work it into quilt backs and bindings this year to keep bulking up the scrap supply

It is a busy time at school right now.  Surprisingly there have been so many teachers in for pre-pre planning.  For me that has meant lots of running around and checking on new people, meetings to discuss curriculum and training sessions of various sorts.   Official pre-planning will start next week which will mean lots of meetings.  We are all still defining my new job together, so it has been lots of fun with new things to learn.   Today is for sewing though!  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Catching Up

Working hard on getting caught up before school starts again. I have three days before teachers are back for pre-pre planning. I think I can knock of blue and purple in that time.  Last week was busy with leadership things and training before the official beginning of the year.  This year is strange because in addition to the usual mandatory pre-planning time, there is also pre-pre planning.  It is entirely voluntary, but they will pay teachers who want to come in early to set up their rooms and get a head start on lesson planning and curriculum.  

There were a few good sunrises this week.  We even managed a morning beach walk yesterday.  It gets so hot though that by 8 am we were both dripping sweat.  I got a haircut yesterday and have an appointment to get an eye exam on Monday.  All the things teachers squeeze in during summer break.  We even met friends for dinner!  My teacher friend who is also wrapping up all the loose ends before the big transition back to working life and her husband who likes to mock us for talking about school too much.    

ScrapHappy Saturday

Summer is going fast! I've been working on getting Sydney's t-shirt quilt finished before she goes off to college. I should have the blocks all sewn together this morning and will run out for some backing fabric.

I am working three mornings a week in July, getting things ready for the new job.  Its been incredibly busy, but so nice to have time to do all of the things that they have always expected teachers to do outside of regular work hours.   There is an extra option for paid time in the classroom before the start of preplanning this year, so hopefully we will all be able to prepare for the new year together.   Next week I am running a welcome training for our new teachers.  So many fresh faces!  The old guard is fading fast.   Our newest Florida education issue is not being able to have any books in the classroom that have not been approved.   They think they will have an approval process in place by January though.   I am feeling bad now about leaving my library of biology novels for the new teacher.  I will have to go and make sure she hides them away until we find out which books are banned.   So far we have been assured that it is still OK to wear rainbow colored shirts, but other districts have already warned against that as well.   Probably a good time to NOT be in the classroom right now.  I am sure I would say something inappropriate and get myself in trouble.   

I did find some more sewing time this week to make these "unpaper towels" for Anna's new apartment in the fall.  After looking through several tutorials on Pinterest, I decided to use flannel on one side and extra t-shirt fabric leftover from the quilts on the other.  After measuring paper towels, I decided to cut the flannel to 11.5 inches and lay it on top of the oversize t-shirt backing fabric.  Then I sewed along the edge of the flannel, leaving a gap for turning and trimmed the backing fabric even with the flannel.   I even made a basket to hold them from extra 6.5 inch squares of the flannel.  I think the flowers are quite festive and went well with lots of different colors of extra shirts.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Purple

It has been a fun vacation week in the mountains.   Each day I go out and pick some of the local  Virginia Wineberries.  They are actually a nonnative invasive, but the berries are pretty tasty.   

I had enough to make some jam.  I've never canned anything before, so that was fun.  I am not sure that I did it entirely correctly, but time will tell.   There were so many seeds!  Next time I will have to try a seedless version.   There are enough frozen berries thought to take home and try to make some wine.   That is something else that I have never tried.   

We are still trying to get the piles of lumber under control,  This one was practically gone until we went to clear just a few branches that were falling into the driveway.   

Last time we were here we cleared all sorts of vines and dead branches from a group of apple trees down at the base of the driveway.  We were pretty sure the trees were all dead.  We were shocked to find loads of apples growing happily on most of them.    

We also had plenty of time to go to a local winery though, so it hasn't been all work and no play.  We will head out bright and early in the morning.  I have a nice stack of hexies to keep me occupied when it isn't my turn to drive.   I will try to pick out the purple ones first!

ScrapHappy Saturday - Holiday Weekend

 Happy Holiday weekend for those in the US.   We watched fireworks last night at the nearby 4-H campgrounds.

It has been a calm week full of tasks such as taking the dog to the vet and getting Sydney scheduled for wisdom teeth removal.  

I did have some sewing time though and whipped up this mini quilt for a friends birthday.   Then I got carried away with the leftover nine patches and spent two days sewing the rest together into random color combinations.   

We are at the cabin this week and waiting to see how the weather will turn out before deciding on inside or outside chores for the day.   Either choice is likely to start with a trip to town for supplies.  

July is all about purple this year.   I hope you can find an opportunity this weekend to dig into your purple bin and sew what you can find.   

   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Last Blue Saturday

 My big accomplishment for the week was finishing off this t-shirt quilt.   

It is huge.  She wanted it full sized and it is large even for a full sized quilt.   We were both bad at editing though, and ended up keeping fronts and many of the backs from the shirts as well.   I finished up the binding during an all day marathon of "The Flight Attendant".   The lead character just kept making one bad decision after another. I guess it does help you feel better about your own life not being a total train wreck.  

Sydney's t-shirt quilt is waiting patiently on the wall.   Hers will be twin sized to live in her college dorm room.  

Another beautiful day has begun.  It has been brutally hot in the middle of the day, but the mornings and evenings are still idyllic.   That means more time to sew in the middle.   

Given that this is the last Saturday in June, I will mention that July is going to be the purple month this year.  Which is perfect for me given all the little purple bits I have leftover from the t-shirt quilt.