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.   

   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Home Again

 What a long strange summer it has already been!   It hasn't felt much like a break yet, but I am starting to settle into a new summer routine.  We drove back from Virginia on Monday.   It is about 12-13 hours by car and we are getting pretty good at the drive.   When Kurt goes up for work, he will fly, but with all the kids and the supplies we are still taking back and forth, it made more sense to drive.   

With the new job, I am working this summer, but it is a minimal amount.   I have two mornings a week scheduled in the office during June and then I'll bump it up to three mornings a week during July.   So far I am doing most of the normal summer work that I would have done on my own.  What a nice change to pace to have them offering to pay me to do work.  That isn't something that often comes up for teachers.   In addition to college advising, I am also still handling gifted, homeroom and new teachers.   This week I started on the gifted curriculum and paperwork planning.  Next week I will jump into the homeroom lessons.   

That still leaves plenty of time for quilting though.  First up is to start working through the list of three t-shirt quilts that I am supposed to do this summer.   With so many requests piled up, I decided to invest in a heat press.   It makes quick work of getting the stabilizer attached to the shirts which is always the longest and most tedious part.   

The first quilt is a full size quilt for a wedding in July.   So much bigger than I usually make t-shirt quilts, but with the new press I had all of these shirts ironed and cut in not much more than a day!   There is still one more row that doesn't fit on the design wall, but you get the idea.   She is  a fan of purple and lilac, so I tried out three shades.   So far I am liking the lightest one best.   Not sure if I will go with cornerstones or not.  I prefer them for sewing the rows together, but it adds more color to an already busy collection of blocks.   

How are your blues coming along?  Clearly I am not quite there yet, but Anna has moved her things out of the sewing room again, so I can get things set up again soon.   This should have been the last time that she came home again to stay.   She is going straight from her summer job to her new grad school apartment in the fall.   I will shift the sewing studio into Sydney's room when she goes off to the University of Florida at the end of August which will leave us two extra rooms for whoever is home to visit.   That is the working plan in any case.  Things seem to change quickly around here.   

  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Blue Skies

Not lots of blue scraps yet, but plenty of blue skies.   We have worked so hard at the cabin for the last two weeks and it has been so much fun!  I sleep like a log every night and then wake up ready to start again the next day.   Much of the work is just new house things like cleaning and organizing, picking out paint colors.  All much fun.  Then there is the land that has been sadly neglected.  So much trash to haul away and lumber from old out buildings to be burned.   So far we have only dealt with the main three acres.  The upper seven remains untouched.   I haven't taken many photos because everything is half done.  These are a few of the structures which have been taken down.  I am watching the fire now as we try to burn the last of what can be burned and Kurt hauls a load of the rest to the dump.  We have made quite a few trips to the dump and had quite a few fires!   Still more to go, but progress is being made.  

Ready to head home again and switch gears.   I will be working some this summer with the new job and I have a couple of T-shirt quilts to make.  One for commission and one for Sydney to take away to college in the fall.   

ScrapHappy Saturday - Let's do Blue!

 

It's a brand new month!  Looking forward to making some progress on blue.  Why is there so much blue in my bins?   I've whittled down lots of colors, but blue always seems to fill up first again. 

There is still plenty of work keeping us busy in the mountains.  Yesterday we tried to free some apple trees from vines and made a trip into town for supplies.  Then we cut fire wood and made mulch.   The next time it rains or gets too hot outside, I will finish getting the kitchen put together.   Always nice to give everything a good solid cleaning before getting too many things put away.  I will bring a sewing machine the next time we come up and try to find a desk to put it on.   One thing at a time.....

New Month, New Color

I love that each month brings a fresh color. A chance to clear out the leftovers of the old and sort through something fresh and new. So now it is time to put away the greens and dig into the blue bin. Like green, blue is one of those colors that tends to dominate the scrap pile. Feel free to divide and conquer by focusing on the bright and dark shades. Save the light and baby hues for another month. 

 No new photos to share yet as we are running on cell phone data for the moment. The internet people will be here tomorrow though, so looking forward to having more than two bars! I caught a horrible head cold just before the trip up to Virginia and then tried to ignore it and power through. We were all having so much fun getting settled in. Ryan (middle son) is tearing down sheds and Kurt (DH) is trimming trees while I run around behind them hauling rubbish away. It is sorted to be taken to fire pit, compost heap, chipper shredder or cut into logs for the fireplace. I've also been mowing and trying to kill some of the grass to replace it with lower maintenance ground cover. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'll keep working on cleaning out cabinets and installing shelf liner. That will help with the organization as nothing seems to have a home quite yet. We did find some $3 pots at the flea market though, after realizing that we forgot a few essentials along the way.