Finished!

I'm finished with my Teacher Induction Program, the step new teachers in California are supposed to take as new hires, after completing a credential program and student teaching. I kept putting it off, then ignoring it, content to work part-time as a teacher tutor, afraid to take on a class of my own.

I did it in one year, intensive style. A lot of work, but it was authentic work.  I learned stuff. And I teach better.

Now I can keep teaching in California, and have to renew my credential every three years. Except we're planning to leave California!

While I was submitting all my digital forms and records and observations and reflections and assessments and everything else, I finished a quilt, too!
I bought these fabrics, already cut, and registration to to a class from someone who'd signed up for too many classes at Quilt Con. Thanks, Kathleen of Kathleen Quilts!

Ah, Quilt Con! That was such a fun adventure!
I got to hang out with the lovable Cindy Wiens of Live a Colorful Life. She showed me around, and made me feel appreciated and clever. Can we hang out again, soon?

So many wonderful quilts, and lectures, and workshops, and people... but that was in February. I'll just show you this fun, fake tattoo from the Cotton & Steel booth:

Libs Elliot designs quilts using computer code. She also has a new line of fabric, which my kids will love. She's soft-spoken, kind, and adorable:

Her workshop, For the Love of Y-Seams, means there are a lot of angles to fit together in this quilt pattern. Weight of Love is only available in Libs' workshops. Here's my version, though I can't take credit for the fabric choice.

Quilted with lots and lots of de rigueure straight lines on the diagonal.

I don't even like gray, but I had plenty of grays in my stash to make the back of the quilt. I have to admit, gray works well with this quilt. A few leftover triangles made a cool hexagon to anchor my signature and date.

A few more leftover triangles came together for these complementary pillows.

Those fragmented hexagons! I like them!

I wonder where this quilt will find a home. Any ideas?

On my holiday break...

I'm a student again (taking graduate-level classes to clear my teaching credential), and you know what that means? Procrastination! Lots of it!
And I'd better not procrastinate my reading and writing assignments with anything fun, like sewing, or reading a good book, because I know I'll get so absorbed that I won't stop until I'm finished. So I waste a lot of time on facebook, Words with Friends, researching which blinds to replace the kitchen window covering...

But while I had a break from school, I had fun with a few projects.

I finished this spiderweb quilt! The blocks were from the Stash Fabulous Bee and the Stars In Their Eyes Bee, so there is great variety of interesting fabrics.

 

That's one colorful quilt!

 I had thought about adding partial blocks to complete the circles around the edges. I had thought about an over-all quilting pattern. I fussed and puttered over the block arrangement.

A black and white striped binding is always a winner!

Finally, I just wanted it finished! I love the free-form chrysanthemum quilting in the spiderwebs (my friend says they look like umbrellas on the beach!), and the stars in the stars.

Here's the back, with another star as the signature block.

I used another leftover block to make myself a Sew Together bag. I can see why they're all the rage! It was really fun to make, and to see how all the parts fit together.

That was after I'd made a Sew Together bag for my granddaughter, for Christmas. She loved this Tula Pink fabric when I bought it in Pittsburgh last summer.

Here are a couple other projects I cleared off the WIP list:
Cushion covers for my sister's kitchen table:

She's going to get foam inserts, which will look very sharp.

Joining the California pillow, another tea towel pillow featuring Oregon (where two of our kids live) and Washington (where the Pittsburgh family will be relocating).

Back to school now, back to work. I have a list of projects to work on when I am procrastinating schoolwork. That's my New Year's resolution strategy for satisfying down-time.

While I keep vigil for the mailman...

Here's another UFO (unfinished object) from the closet. I wanted to sew something, but didn't want to start on a new project. (More on that, later.)

I was part of a swap; lots of little squares sewn together and sent to one another around the US to make scrappy patchwork quilts. Then I got tired of the patches all crowded together, and re-shaped them into asymmetrical blocks and sewed them together. Then I got tired of the whole thing, and put it away.

I mindlessly sewed some neutral strips around the edges, then wondered why I had bothered with that. Then I got distracted by all those little pairs of squares that had been saved with the quilt top. Had I meant to use them as a border? A scrappy binding?

Now I thought I'd like to just sew them up as a traditional patchwork.

Then I quilted them, using one of my favorite designs. As I'm sewing, I see all the little wobbles and inconsistencies, but when it's done, the overall design takes over. My not-so-circular lines appear as lovely, interlocking circles.

Even better once they've been washed! (Yes, we're in a drought, so it had to wait to take a ride with a full load of laundry.)

I sewed two panels back to back, to make a pillow. No piping, no zipper, because I wanted to see the checkerboard pattern all around. I'll just stuff this one, and sew it shut. When it needs to be washed, I'll un-stitch it and redo it, no big deal. Nice, summery colors, soft, squishy, ahhh.

The quilt top? It's back in the closet. I'm clearing the deck, getting ready for this to come home:

A year ago, I took a workshop to learn hand applique, and made this big panel. (Pattern by Piece o' Cake) Then I sent it off to its travels to the different members of my Stars in Their Eyes quilt bee. Each one, in turn, has added to it, and today it's supposed to come home to me via USPS! I have no idea what I'll get, but I have seen what we've been adding to one another's tops as it's been my turn on their travels. I'm trying to keep my mind open, to be ready for anything, but really, I have great expectations!

I've been home for a week...

I spent five weeks in Pittsburgh, PA with my daughter, son-in-law, and 7-year-old granddaughter. First of all, let me say that it's wonderful to be loved by this little family, and to be welcomed into their home for such an extended stay. (Don't you hear a lot of stories about families that don't get along so well between generations?)

The little family.

 Second, let me express gratitude to my husband and youngest son, who support me spending time with our extended family, despite leaving them on their own. (They miss me, but they get along fine without me!)

Sitting on the front porch, enjoying the summer rain,
complete with lightning and thunder, and a double rainbow!

Third, since we leave so far apart, I'm glad to have the opportunity to really have relationship with my granddaughter, more than just a visit.

Admiring the community garden,
which Bethany and Max helped to found.

Now I'm home, with a little time before school starts and I go back to work. I've been enjoying time to myself, and getting reacquainted with my sewing space. I started by making some asterisk blocks for Sue, in our Stars in Their Eyes sewing bee. As usual, I got carried away and made more than the two expected, because it was fun to play with prints for the background fabrics.

Red and aqua on gray.

I wanted to make a gift for my cousin, who is getting married this week. (I know, the invitation said no gifts, but I just can't show up empty-handed.) I'd purchased this tea towel to make into a medallion quilt, and thought it would make an attractive cushion. When I started working with it, Ralph really liked it, and I started thinking maybe it's a little too kitschy for my sophisticated cousin. When I added the zippered back, I accidentally turned it so the zipper cover faces up (a dust catcher-ugh!), and that decided it. This pillow is staying at home.

Tea towel becomes a quilted cushion.
I even made the piping.

See that zipper cover facing right?
It's parallel to the top edge of the pillow front.
Too bad I didn't check before stitching around the pillow three times!

So I decided to make a set of cloth napkins as a gift. I used Penny's tutorial at sewtakeahike and tweeked it a little to get the best cuts from my fabric and still come up with a 16" napkin. The center is linen, and the punctuation fabric is a nod to my cousin's love of writing. To me it's also symbolic of the reminder to pause, to listen, to appreciate when sharing a meal. I love the mitered corners, thanks to Penny's easy-to-follow directions.

Aren't they sophisticated?

I'd sure like something to share for Show & Tell at this month's quilt guild! Just before I left for Pittsburgh I took Debbie Maddy's class to make her Labyrinth Quilt. Simple construction, it would be easy to make just using her pattern, but taking the class was so worthwhile! Debbie was entertaining, and full of really effective tips for cutting, sewing, and arranging fabrics. Here's my quilt in progress, now I'm working on quilting it.

Oh yes, I'll be back with more photos from Pittsburgh! I just want to live in the moment, you know!

So, what do you think, are the napkins a good gift? Is it okay to bring a gift when the invitation says gifts aren't expected? Can I wear a black dress to the afternoon wedding in the city? 

And what about that pillow, made from a retro-style tea towel? 

Orphans, the fabric kind

It's the end of the school year, and Friday, May 24 was my last day of work for the school year, part-time intervention teacher for kindergarteners. No, wait, there was testing to be done, so I was called in to work the next week, and Thursday, May 30 was my last day. Oh... more testing, so I worked again on Monday, June 3, and that was my last d.... except that tomorrow is a mini conference day so I'll work as afternoon sub in kindergarten. And then I'm officially on summer vacation!

With all this off-and-on schedule, I've been snatching opportunities to tackle and finish small projects. I really enjoy being in the 3x6 online quilting bee, and I'm part of a really friendly hive again this quarter. Since our hive is specifically making star blocks for one another, and I've been making stars for the last few rounds of the bee, I was happy to find a star block that's a little unusual, but still not paper pieced.

I figured out how to make it after seeing it on Karen's Flickr! photostream, and found some focus fabrics for the centers, and knocked out the blocks in a weekend. Fun! (If you want to see them in more detail, visit my Flickr! photostream.)


In the last quarter of the 3x6 bee, our hive was so friendly, we formed our own bee, Stars  In Their Eyes. For May, Lisa requested X&+ blocks in a specific color scheme, intended for a baby quilt. These blocks are really fun to make! I wasn't satisfied just making two, because I was eager to see the effect of putting them together, so I made four. (To see the gorgeous quilt Lisa made with her blocks, look here!)

The X&+ blocks are so addictive, I decided to make some for myself, and to use up some of my scraps that were starting to overflow my scrap pockets:

I keep scraps in shoe storage pockets, hanging on the door.
You can see the greens overflowing here!

I cut scraps and kitted them up, and started making blocks.

I kept making blocks until I had so many, I had to make more, so there would be enough for a bed-size quilt. I think they lose a bit of their charm when there are so many, but I'm still planning a quilt big enough for a bed, a very utilitarian quilt.

Laid out on the floor for effect, not sewn together yet.

June is Sam's month for our bee, and she asked for Union Jack blocks. After cutting on the wrong lines and making one too small, I successfully made these blocks, and I think Sam's quilt is going to be very charming!

That too-small Union Jack block wasn't going to languish in my orphans basket. I quilted it, piped it, backed it, and stuffed it, and made it into a little cushion. 

Pebble quilting and kelp quilting finished this mish-mash of leftover parts, and it got made into a pillow, too. This time with a zipper.

Detail of quilting. 

The scraps from my zig zag quilt top also got made into a pillow cover. I may be late to the party, but I love how arranging the half-square-triangles by value (light/dark) creates the diamond design. 

Pillow back with zipper, quilted in diagonal grid.

Scrappy binding, quilting echoes the flowers on the backing.

Here are my no-longer orphan pillows at home with their family of LWR quilt and other cushions. 

Meanwhile, I've been giving sewing lessons to Gabrielle, initiating a new sewist into the stitching community. We started with a pincushion, then a shoulder bag, then a pillow cover with a zipper, and here she is with her first dress! I'm so proud!

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday!