Memorial weekend

Holiday and warm weather.   Hooray!

So good things to do on the weekend:

Quilting:   I have been behind on my Blockheads 3  Finally completed a few of them.
These are 6 inch blocks.

Gardening,   grilling,    cleaning,    relaxing,

Kayaking:   I think they would do this every warm day. And although I like being on the water/ I don't like the hastle of loading, transporting, busing, and all the rig a ma role.  Get me to a lake.  I will go in, paddle a while, come back and take out. Done.  This i my daughter and husband.

Covid continues

I know I have been remiss in blogging. Sometimes, life just gets in the way of good things.

That is not to say that there is anything amiss. I have just been busy. Spring cleaning, a little cooking, a Saturday Farmer's Market, and work.

Have you ever wanted to sew, but were uninterested in what you projects were in process?
The other night, I went searching in my boxes of projects and decided on completing this block.
It was created a couple years ago using crayon coloring with layers of color. I had begun accenting with embroidery

And this is how it looks like done. I do think it added a great deal and have decided to make it into a small project: just frame it and quilt it. Another project almost done.

b

I do have a large stack of half pieced hexies for my flower quilt.  Only one more set of 5 fat quarters to cut and sew.  YEAH.  They go fairly quickly as the large triangles are about 6 inches and each hexie has 6 of them. Easy enough.

This is what a portion of it will look like:

These are all the sections that are completed. 

And then I have embroidering this bouquet for my daughter for a long time The project has always been in my take along bag. The background is a crossweave. The design is Jacquelynne Steves. She has free designs every now and again. 

And I did complete the binding on my Wild and goosey blues.  Yes a finish for sure. but I have already shown the photos.

The school year is cranking up before the final push. 3 full weeks to go.  June 5 is my last day. Graduation and prom scheduled for July, tentatively. And although this is the most unusual spring ever.+We still have the typical kids tired of school and wanting to quit. It just seems more so with the added pressure of kids having to learn from home.

But Good News! I did talk with administration about retiring from full time work. This is it for the 5 day week. I think I will sub a little and keep my hands on my National Honor Society club where I am co-advisor.  I need to pay for my health insurance for a while and try to compensate for the economy a bit.  I also feel I need to be able to structure some time in order to make the best use of my time off. ( and not go crazy at home with my spouse).

Back to school

Well, not back at school.  Just back to teaching from my couch.  This week went better than I had hoped. I can really see an apathy in the kids, though. They found out we are in it for the long hall and not being able to return to the building for the remainder of the school year. And the darn weather is crappy and I mean temperature in the  30s and 40s and cloudy with snow sprinkles here and there.  UGH!

Little time doing anything: no sewing, a little cooking, but not much to show since last weekend.

So I HAD to do something to spark my enjoyment in life. And that meant a new project. I have had the materials for 2 months. Just sitting.


Here is the fat quarter bundle I had plus a few Kaffe Fassett fabrics and the accent orange.

This is the pattern I chose to make for my daughter from the bright happy fabrics.

The orange will replace the navy blue in the pattern.

And although I didn't buy the Hex ruler created by the pattern designer, 

I did have this ruler sitting around in my stash.

I marked the cutting edges with tape.

It worked out just fine.

And this is what I have so far: 8 fat quarters completed, and 28 to go

Sunshine usually helps. Sorry, it is still cloudy here.

End of the "Spring" break

 Some bigger things accomplished this week:

First I attached my 2 borders: the 1 inch light blue and 3 inch white.
Then I quilted it myself using my new walking foot. New to me, 35 year old machine. Attachment seems like new. Worked wonderfully.

I just stitched in the ditch for each of the one inch sashings. I think I will just extend it into the border.

Anyone else have a better idea?

The blocks ( 4 in each white block are 3 1/2 paper pieced. I found it on Pinterest.

I believe it is an old Bonnie Hunter from a magazine called Wild and Goosey.

And I assembled all my Frolic blocks together.  I have the edge stay stitched to prevent stretching.  And I have the  first row of borders cut and ready to go. My sizing is  a little off for the pieced border which is to go on next.  ( I should have used the small binding as a coping strip to compensate.)

Distance learning resumes tomorrow. And we were informed by the governor that it will continue through the end of the school year here in Wisconsin

Bummed, bummed, bummed. 

7 weeks left.

And Spring is a relative term. We have been in the 30s and 40s.  Of course, THIS week is to get to the 50s.   And although we had a week off school. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go. Social distancing.

sewing in Spring Break

Happy Easter!  

I very quiet meal was enjoyed on Easter Sunday with our daughter!

I made this cute little bunny ear bags! 

I think they are adorable, but are only 5x7 ish for the body.

We did get a picture of the three of us. 

It is so good to have her healthy after 3 weeks of the coronavirus. 

We miss the grandkids and were supposed to have flown south .

But in the interim, I am sewing some. I have not posted in over a week.

Here is the progress of Frolic. More than halfway pieced.

And I completed another cake mix box. 

This was had much smaller pieces and made 2  blocks.

Here is the back after completing the sewing. It is hard to see, but it made 1 larger unit and 16 small half square triangles. Best Press is my friend to make these come out evenly.

Final blocks

Then I finally finished m 12 heart blocks. 

And I was even able to have a curbside pick up for some more white fabric for borders and sashing.

Lastly, I pieced this top together on retreat in March.

I have been tinkering with hexies to add here and there. 

But I don't like the end products and so am just going to finish this as is.

The photo dulls the springy pinks and yellows and reds.

New projects to bolster quarantine.

Another week has gone by.  The good news: spring is starting to warm us up a little: more like up to high 40s and into 50s midday.  The sun, oh the sun. It does a body good. To see it, to feel it and soak up the rays even through the windows. 

And as I am sure you all are feeling the quarantine: so am I.  Ugh.  I have only gone to the grocery once this week. But I have gone for a couple of walks. It is hard to sit, and have to work on the computer. It drags on.  But  we are getting used to it. Dare I even say that when we have a month more.

I have done a little sewin

Last week I mad this heart out of a varigated swath of fabric. The pattern from guild was wanting 4 shades and I just couldn't get the middle shades to be very different. So I made a second block and then substituted a couple pieces to make them variances a little better.

Then I got hte bright idea to make other colors and prepare a snuggle lap quilt for an agency my husband works with: Healing Hearts. The name is perfect.

Before COVID 19, My DH would attend a dinner for families of relatives who have died or are incarcerated. Then they divide into smaller age groups for some sharing and activities. 

And I bought more colors to make:

Plus I am using this as my Hands to Help quilt for Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

So I have  few more colors to sew and some white to purchase to spread the blocks out.

I really like the blocks.  Making a total of 12 blocks from  colors.

My only other project I have actually worked on is this springy hexie quilt. 

Now, I have pieced the layers into fence, dots, hexie panel and a second go round.

It was a McCalls kit from a magazine.  I bought in online.

But I really wanted to make some additional hexie flowers to add in between.

Slowly, slowly. I am using solids to go with the panel.

Distance learning

Online school started this week. I sit on the couch answering "hangout" conversations with my students. This goes from 8 to at least 4 in the afternoon. And then in the evening I have been making calls to families to help the students get online. Or I have been answering emails and such.

They have been LONG days. Many of the students are trying. Some things go well; and other things not so well. Teachers adapt and we keep going. Oh, and did I say long and tiring.

So Thursday I finally sewed. I finished my Bonnie Hunter setting blocks.  Today I hope to make the corner blocks.
Then it is putting it together.

But just like many of you on your blogs, I feel like a need something NEW.   

Today we supposed to be our quilt show. And of course, it is canceled. We are having the raffle Sunday for he beautiful blue and white quilt from the Edyta Sitar book something about blues. We made it bigger than the one in the book. And a beautiful appliqued border was added: I had made all the bias stems.

GOOD news: Corners finished. It took several hours.  That is not because they are complicated, it is because I didn't have enough pink cut out. After a little specific cutting of the right shape and color, they are done.

Bottom line, DONE!  And assembly has started. Slow and steady!

And then I laid them out.  Toot, toot, to toooooooo.

Drum roll, please.

And then I found these extras.   Hmmm.  This goes to show: I am a VISUAL learner.

I look at the pictures of the directions, read it once, and relay on it for the duration.

Those 16 sets were not just for the setting triangles, silly.

Still, major progress.

Coronovirus schooling

My new teaching station is the end of a couch.  Why because the only table and chairs I like are the ones   I sit cross legged on the couch. It is the teacher in me or just my cold small stature. So the end of the couch it is....at least until I formulate something different. 

I have a box of student folders where I keep track of grades weekly as well as work they need to do.  These I already have been using all year, just brought them home and placed in one box.   I have 3 stacks of think heavy books, these are mostly for me as I am old fashioned and can page through a text book faster in my hands.  I use both my school computer and home laptop. 

We are doing google hangouts already ( our classes start Monday and this week has been planning for that.) But as I am a support teacher, I communicated all missing work to be done this week as a way for them to "catch up".  But not all are taking advantage of that.

So I have worked with about 8-10 kids already. 

I visited school today to get  the textbooks. I was surprised at how emotional  I felt back in my classroom without students. There were a few staff members: mostly administration, office people and custodians. Very eerie. But very sad. Some districts are talking about no school in the buildings for the rest of the year.  While some days are kind of crazy. I don't want the year to end like this.

Coronovirus and quilts

So I had a lovely quilt retreat over the weekend. We were to have stayed in the dorms of a university. But they closed the dorms to everyone .

Good news, we went to a nearby hotel. The rooms were very nice.

And we had a communal small meeting room to sew in.

And sew I did:

I managed to get all my sashings on this quilt.

No borders, just quilting left to do 

This is from the Beyond the Battlefield book by Mary Etherington and  Connie Tesene.

The colors are more vibrant in person: rich and earthy.

Many of the prints are Kim Diehl.

Here are a few of the other quilts made by some of the others:

These blocks are hand appliqued from Piece O'cake  

Pattern is called Aunt Millie's Garden

And I did also manage to work on my setting triangles for Frolic.

Only a few more to get together. 

Coronovirus shuts down the country.

 And yes, I am supporting distance learning for my student starting next week.

This week I will let them know what they need to complete that was already due.

We are to be home as are many schools in many states; our end date is April 6.

Our spring vacation is starting April 10.

This gives me more time to clean my sewing area. And sew, sew sew.

Goosey top

I worked hard at getting this all together  today.  I spent the day getting the last blocks conncected, ironed, and trimmed all the loose threads and leftover corners of paper on the back side. And then it needed a really good pressing and adjustments of a few intersections. 

O.k., correction. I did not trim every single thread on the back. At guild recently a long arm quilter, suggested that it needed to be done to prepare for long arming.   Who sees the back?   

Do you trim all your threads on the back?

Currently it is 39 by 39 inches. After staring at it tonight and even getting it ready for a thin border of white, I have decided to add  a thin border of blue followed by a larger border of white. 

Here is a singular block. And yes, they were paper pieced. 

Goosey blues

Last year in preparation for our guild's yearly quilt show, I started a blue and white quilt: 

And after finishing 17 of these blocks, it sat while other projects took precedence. 

Each of the 4 blue pieced parts is 3 and 1/2 inches making this block 7 and 1/2.

Here is the back, although I have already spent an evening removing the middle paper pieces .

You can however, find the blocks on pinterest ( by Bonnie Hunter called Wild and Goosey)

I was so optimistic to think I could make an entire quilt out of these. 

And I am not going to piece anymore.  I just have too many ideas of projects to make.

So I decided to make a wall hanging size: 

And here it is at this point in  major pieces with more time to sew today.

I think it is realistic to get it done for the end of March.  

Quilt show and a dozen stars

For my Bea et Cecile quilt along, I have my 16 stars done. 

One project done for February! Whew!

Now to assemble and quilt it!

Saturday I went with 2 friends to the first quilt show of the season. 

So inspiring and so fun to get away.  It was even up to the 40s for the weekend.

This quilt was in the back of a booth. All little pieces, but so pretty.

The owner of this store from Richfield, loves working with tiny pieces.

And here are several quilts from the show:

This is a famous building in downtown Milwaukee, the old gas company.

The flame at the top changes colors depending on the outside temperature.

This was a gorgeous Sue Spargo quilt. 

Love the black background and tiny polka dot binding.

And I loved this one.  

You normally see it in solids, but I truly was struck by the use of printed fabrics.

Then I went to a lecture on color and scrap quilts. This is Judy Gauthier from Ripon, Wisconsin.

Her store, Bungalow quilts has awesome bright fabrics. 

She also has 2 great scrap quilt books. She has a system with 3 1/2, 4 1/2 and 5 inch blocks 

So many samples, it was wonderful.

This one was from leftovers of a quilt.

Loved this scrap quilt top with the grunge gray background. 

This is only a section, but it was so striking. 

Of course, I made several purchases for some fabric and patterns.