Happy Blocks

I'm in the early stages of another project. I don't remember if I've already mentioned that another Girl Scout troop is helping out a local women and children's shelter for their gold project. I, of course, couldn't help asking if they needed any quilts. After the fun of our 40 nursing home lap quilts for Christmas, I felt the need for a new project. Mary has directions for happy blocks on her blog, and I was thinking of kitting some of these up and trying to get lots of other troops involved in the project. Each troop who participated could sign up for a kit. The brownie troops could use a meeting to put the blocks together and then send them back to me. The junior troops could make the blocks and then put them together to make a top. I think the older girls could even layer and tie the quilts before sending them back. It's all in the planning stages, but I'm mulling over all the options now. Each quilt would need 80 9 inch happy blocks, which should be easy enough for a troop to do during a regular meeting. I'm going to put one together for practice and give it some more thought. They have 23 beds they are trying to cover. For I'm taking my Scrappy Irish Chain to donate. I guess that's 22 more to go! No time to ponder right now, Camporee is this weekend and wild preparations are under way.

Quilted

I just polished off the quilting on Yes We Can. I doesn't show up at all in the picture, but it is fairly detailed. I did a meander with blue in the blue parts, and red in the red parts. Then I put waves and loops in the red borders, outlined the stars and put stars in the blue star border. The striped part got a little zig zag effect. I still need to do the binding. I think yellow will work. There isn't any outer border because the size was just about right as it was. A stopping point for the eye would have been nice, but it already has that border after border look to me.

Shuttle Launch

Almost forgot about the shuttle launch! The kids were watching a movie and I had dozed off in my favorite comfy chair. I heard the countdown on the Florida Today web site and ran out the driveway just in time. Kurt took this shot just as the external fuel tanks seperated. That usually happens about the time the sound hits us. The sound on take-off is just a low grumble. When it lands again there will be huge window-vibrating sonic boom. Anna was just a baby the first time I heard one. I was up feeding her at 3 a.m and had just dozed off (I'm sensing a common theme). I thought something had blown up next door. Kurt jumped out of bed and we both ran around trying to figure it out.

3 B's today

I got the Yes We Can quilt bordered backed and basted. If things are calm tonight I'll get at least some basic stabilizing quilt lines put in. I got all my school work finished on Friday, so for once there is nothing hanging over my head even though it is a Sunday night. I have a lab all set up for Forensics tomorrow, but the physics teacher needs the room, so I think I'll have them share and compare a web quest they did on Thursday. Chemistry is in the depths of gas laws right now, so it is just problems and more problems. Add to that some time to pass back papers and organize binders, and we should be good to go.

Anna has been engrossed with some new "pet" frogs that she found in the yard. Here she is with Bubbles and Uranus. She had another one named Goliath, but he peed on Sydney and so they let him go. There was also a lizard named Liz, but he bit Ryan and got let go as well. Kurt took all the kids out today to shoot off model rockets they have been building while I finished painting the bathroom. I started it eons ago, but left the part that needed a ladder for later. Later took a while to get here. This afternoon was OM again and tonight we are going to watch a movie with our pizza.
I hope everyone else had a productive weekend. I know Amy had power chord issues and Amanda is in the midst of moving. Julie is busy with and injured daughter, but hopefully other people had quilt related progress.

Another Week Gone

I don't know if it's the economy, or job uncertainty or just general anxiety, but everyone seems grumpy. Friday was an inservice day, and several of the faculty forums turned into general gripe sessions. Work hasn't been my happiest place lately, so it's easy for me to fall in with the crowd. I've even been too discouraged to quilt! I always try to be a glass half empty-try to make the best of it sort of person, but I'm just feeling tired I guess. I stayed at work late on Friday to get everything finished up for the end of the quarter, so I felt good about taking some time to dive back into something quilty this weekend.

I had decided a while ago to put some more words in the borders of my inauguration quilt. I was virtuous though and finished of my January and February UFOs before hopping back in again. I've got some mile a minute blocks I'm going to try out for the cornerstones, and then maybe a skinny yellow border to wrap it all up. I don't want to make it much bigger, it's about the right size for the foyer spot right now. Kurt is a little concerned about making a big political statement so close to the entryway, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Happy Monday

Nothing quilty today. Grades are due at the end of the week and I'm working on finishing everything off. I got a nice head start today because such a large proportion of my students were gone in forensics that I showed a movie. They thought that was great and I got lots of papers graded. Then I went to the butcher to try to get blood for a serology lab. They thought I was a vampire and told me it was illegal to sell blood. Seriously -- do I look like a vampire to you guys?
Tonight was the Girl Scout team meeting and I got home just in time to kiss the kids goodnight. Maybe I can get a little done on the b and b quilt tomorrow. I'd like to get to a point where I can pick it up off of the floor. So close.

Big Sigh

I don't know why Sunday always ends with a big exhale of exhuastion. I don't feel like I accomplished much, but I've been frantically busy. Such is life I suppose. I got a bit of cleaning and laundry done. Sydney and I planted some herbs and flowers in the yard. We had a series of playdates. When there were a few down minutes here and there I got some sewing done on the buttons and bowties. I'm hoping to finish off my March quilt before April arrives. Most of the blocks were already cut and the circles were prepped, so I don't have that much more to do. I just sewed everything that was ready to go and I'm almost finished. I've laid it all out and I think I only need 5 more blocks to make a twin sized quilt. If things stay calm for a few more minutes I can pull some more nickel squares and pair them up for circles.

While I was puttering, I found a charm pack at the bottom of my 5 inch square box from the sock monkey line of fabric. I had completly forgotten it existed. So I pulled some coordinating 2.5 inch strips to turn those into happy blocks. Honestly I need to pull out my school work and power my way through some grading. I gave tests on Friday and collected labs on Thursday. The quarter ends midweek I think, and everyone wants to know where they stand. And of course, the same thought hits me every Sunday about this time, I'd better figure out what I'm teaching this week. Big sigh as the cycle continues.

More of the Same

Sydney had a field trip Friday to a petting zoo about 45 minutes away. She was so excited and walked around for days talking about all the things she was going to do on her "best day ever".

She rode a pony and held a chick and a duckling, and is apparently quite adept at milking a cow now. Not bad for one day.

Every time the weekend rolls around, I think about what a nice break I have to look forward too after a busy week at work. It never seems to work out that way. Yesterday Kurt's parents got into town for a quick overnight on the way to a cruise. This morning, he took Anna to ice skating while I dropped off the cookie paperwork and took Sydney and Ryan to a beach clean-up. Then he went to drop them off at their boat while I supervised assorted playdates. Tonight Anna is having a friend sleepover and we've just gotten back from taking them all to see the school play. I did have time though, to finish the handstitching on Happy Chains, and to pull out my March UFO.

It's fun to pull out something that has been sitting for a while. It all looks so happy and neat sitting in it's little project box. Stacks of finished blocks, and pre-cut pieces sit there, just waiting to be turned into a finished quilt. Trying to remember exactly what you had planned before it all got put on the back burner is always a fun trick. Sometimes the thought process is obvious, but often it just makes you wonder exactly what it was you were thinking way back then. More often than not, you get a glimmer of why it all got stored away for a rainy day.

This one is called Buttons and Bowties. I started with some circles that I pieced to try out a technique I had seen a couple of times on Simply Quilts. I was having so much fun I decided to build a quilt around those blocks. Not just wanting circles, I combined it with a combination of two sizes of bowtie blocks. The bowties are all dimensional, even though I used two different techniques . The big ones use a nifty folding technique that I also saw on simply quilts ages ago. Not that I can find those directions anymore. I'm not sure how I'll do the quilting without sewing through all the 3-D effects, but I'm sure I'll think of something. I followed a link a couple o days ago for a one seem 3-D flying geese block. Maybe I should make a border of those to fit the theme.

Remember This?

One of the fun things about being a Girl Scout leader is revisiting the games and crafts of childhood. I get to play and make things and get messy as I introduce the girls to all of the fond memories of my youth. Last night we learned to make friendship bracelets. I had to find a youtube tutorial to remember how they worked, but I got the hang of it pretty fast, and so did the girls.

Look at the concentration of Phoenix's face as she works on hers. I had the girls all put their strings in rainbow order so that I could use the colors to give directions. "Everyone pick up the red and make a 4 as your cross over the orange. Now pull the red under the orange and back up through the loop. Pull tight, good. Do it again. Now put down the orange and pick up the yellow." Some of the girls got it right away and even started to anticipate the next step. We didn't quite get finished, but I told them I'd have a special treat for anyone who brought back a finished bracelet next time. Now I'd better think of a special treat.

Nothing quilty last night obviously. I am going now to dig up some scrap binding for the Happy Chain quilt. There is a division meeting this afternoon and then I promised one of my students I'd come watch the softball game. The house is a mess and the laundry needs folding, but I guess that's all part of life as usual.

A Day Late

If this were a leap year I would have been right on time with my February project. Still, I'll take one day late to be able to check off a finish. The grid quilting took a little longer than I thought, but I'm happy with the way it looks. I tried some feathers in the border and they are well.... interesting. I still have to put on the binding and I will be officially done with my second UFO of the month. I think I'll pull out buttons and bowties for March. It is also full of bright, random colors.

Any suggestions on a name? I've been calling it Scrappy Irish Chain, but that isn't a terribly creative name. Maybe something simple like Happy Chain or Happy Scraps? For some reason Just the Scraps Ma'am pops into my head, it must be the pun wars we've been having at dinner.

Anna has broken out with some sort of hives, maybe an allergic reaction to a different bodywash I bought. If it isn't better by morning she'll have to stay home from school. We've given her some benadryl, which helped the hives, but made her pretty sleepy. I'll get some sub plans together just in case. I hope everyone had a great weekend.