Seeing Squares

For several years now, I have eyed my copy of Glorious Patchwork sitting patiently on the shelf. The quilt on the cover has been in the back of my mind while I schemed color combinations and potential recipients.

The quilt is Kaffe Fassett’s “Jewel Squares” and it’s the perfect size for a baby quilt. Which baby will be getting this one? Mine!! My husband and I are expecting our first child in early June! We have decided to wait until the delivery to know if it is a boy or a girl, so I started looking for gender neutral fabrics at Christmas. This quilt will have lots of teal, orange and red. Plenty of lime, too.  There are several completed versions out there: here, here, and one of Kaffe’s versions here.

This is by far the most intricate and involved quilt I have ever made- at least it gets to stay at my house after it is finished! This pattern requires paper piecing, something I’d never done before. I actually like it, too. Here’s a sneak peek at the process (plus I was trying out my new camera!).

Sewing “blind” is the hard part. Luckily the pieces don’t have to be perfectly sized when you cut them out.

Seam allowances are trimmed as you go.

 All done! Now… only 50 more to go- and that’s just of this size!

 Progress report #1:

A Blocks needed- 68  (18 finished)

B Blocks needed-58 (8 finished)

C Blocks needed- 19 (all done!)

D Blocks needed- 9 (not started yet)

E Blocks needed- 2 (not started yet)

F Blocks needed- 2 (not started yet)

 I’d better get crack-a-lackin’, huh? The patience we learned to have while waiting to get pregnant is certainly coming in handy- this quilt is requiring some of its own!

E is for Emily

[We are going to pretend that my hiatus from writing new posts was not that long, ok?]

Some friends of ours had a baby girl two weeks ago and the quilt I made for her had a little something extra…

This was my first attempt at appliquéing anything on a quilt. I first ironed on some fusible interfacing on the back of the green fabric, and then drew a mirror imaged ‘e’ on the wrong side. I pinned it down (interfacing wasn’t double sided- must stock up!) and sewed oh so slowly around it with a tight zigzag stitch. I think I plan to do this for all future baby quilts! The fabric and pattern is identical to a previously posted quilt, only the quilting was different. It’s the Plain Spoken pattern from the Modern Quilt Workshop book.

(I love the bright pink binding against the green fabric on the back!) 

 A few people asked how I did the Uppercase Living on canvas…. I am certainly not an expert; I just had some beginners luck! I chose to paint the canvas because I wanted something other than white as the background. I coated it with two thin coats of paint, allowing plenty of time in between to dry. Then I placed the expression on and rubbed away. Since the canvas was “hollow” underneath, I had to stack some large books under so I had a solid surface to press against. I found that old high school yearbooks worked well for me. That’s pretty much it. If something’s not clear, just ask.

Glitter Love

 

We’ve had enough days in a row that require jeans and long sleeves that I am officially declaring it “fall weather time.” Yahoo! Two quick and easy fall decor crafts were on my to do list. One was an Uppercase Living expression and the other was a Martha inspired glittered pumpkins project.

The expressions are meant for your walls and we have a couple in our home already. I wanted to be able to re-use this one so I placed it on a painted canvas- very simple. The “GIVE” is chocolate brown and the “Thanks” is a shiny copper. Uppercase Living expressions are great because they are inexpensive and the vinyl peels right off without leaving a sticky residue behind.

The Martha Stewart brand glitter is just awesome. I used her glittering glue to cover three fake pumpkins and the results were even better than I had imagined. The photo doesn’t show how sparkly they are and how nice the color is. One of our favorite comedians, Demetri Martin, has a joke saying that “glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.” So true! It just doesn’t go away.

Peanut Boil

 

My first major in college was photography. Eventually I landed in the education program, where I belonged, but for a short time I planned to become a professional photographer. I still find many uses for my photo urges- in fact, I am taking the pictures at my uncle’s wedding this December. The photo above is of my husband and was taken last Septemeber at the annual Peanut Boil. It is one of my favorites. My husband’s grandparents have hosted the Peanut Boil for 22ish years (no one is really certain of the first year!). His grandfather is from Louisiana where peanut boils were common.

Naturally, wikipedia has the best summary: “Boiling peanuts has been a folk cultural practice in the south of the US since the 19th century, where they were originally called goober peas. In late August, when the peanut crops would come in, unsold and surplus peanuts would be prepared in a boiling, and extended families and neighbors would gather to share conversation and food. Like a fish fry, peanut boils have been organizing principles for social gatherings.”

When my husband’s grandfather relocated to Missouri, he brought the peanut boil concept with him. Each year on the third Saturday in September 50 to 75 friends and family members gather. Their backyard is what I call the quintessential American backyard- complete with tree house, authentic tire swing, fire pit and assorted metal lawn chairs. No other food is served- just boiled peanuts and beer. Several people end up sitting on hay bales and playing music on guitars, banjos and keyboards. It is a fantastic tradition that I was happy to marry in to.

Tonight promises to be another great one! The weather is chilly and calls for jeans and a jacket, making me very excited for full fledged crisp fall evenings.

In Craft Land, I whipped up this little number last night. We are having dinner with my cousin and her husband in two weeks. They have a little girl whom we adore. She has a starring role in another of my favorite photos, taken about a year and a half ago at a wedding reception.

I wanted to bring a little something along for her, but couldn’t decide. Lucky for me, Kathy’s post earlier this week gave me some direction. I’ve been on a bit of a Pink Chalk streak between the pencil roll and the Note Taker, huh?

My cousin’s daughter is not quite ready for colored pencils, but she does do washable markers. I took a walk down fabric memory lane picking out the different colors. What’s great is that when she is ready for colored pencils, they need only swap the markers out! I am pretty much in love with the orange dot (Amy Butler) and red ribbon combo. (However, the anal retentive part of me is annoyed that Crayola decided to make four of the markers scented and, therefore change the marker body to black. Talk about throwing off my system!)

Does anyone else suffer from the “I really should go to bed, but I wonder what the next step will look like” sickness that gets me when I am working on something new? Good. Glad it’s not just me.

Up next for me in Craft Land is finishing my patterns for charm squares. More on that later!

Note Taker

As promised, here are photos of my finished Note Taker. I knew it would be an easy pattern to follow as soon as I saw the quality of Kathy’s instruction booklet. (As an aside…She really raised the bar. Sometimes people are creative but have trouble adequately describing the steps in their patterns, like I ran in to with the Fanshaw Dam pattern. Other people are fabulous instruction writers, but have zero creativity. Not so with the Note Taker instructions!!) However, little did I know how quickly it would go together! I think that the next one I make will have a pieced cover for even more “oompf.”

I heart this button and ribbon…

Book Ends

My book club will celebrate it’s third birthday in November. We are a group of middle school teachers and the books we read range from young adult novels to your normal “book club books” you see on the best sellers list. If you are in the market for a good read, I’d recommend most of the following (there were a couple that I abandoned after giving them my very best try!)…. I bolded the crowd favorites.

Nov. 2004 Big Stone Gap By Adriana Trigiani
Dec. 2004 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim By David Sedaris
Jan. 2005 Winterdance By Gary Paulsen
Feb. 2005 The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini
April 2005 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time By Mark Haddon
May 2005 My Sister’s Keeper By Jodi Picoult
June 2005 The Mermaid Chair By Sue Monk Kidd
Sept. 2005 The Life of Pi By Yann Martel
Oct. 2005 Speak By Lauri Halse Anderson
Nov. 2005 Good Grief By Lolly Winston
Jan. 2006 Wicked By Gregory Maguire
(This book inspired our FANTASTIC FIELD TRIP to Chicago to see Wicked, the Broadway Musical!!)
Feb. 2006 Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity By Elizabeth Gold
Mar. 2006 Night By Elie Weisel
April 2006 The Pact By Jodi Picoult
May 2006 Are Men Necessary? By Maureen Dowd
June 2006 Queen Bees and Wannabees By Rosalind Wiseman
July 2006 Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog By John Grogan
Aug. 2006 The Ruins By Scott Smith
Oct. 2006 The Poisonwood Bible By Barbara Kingsolver
Nov. 2006 Al Capone Does My Shirts By Gennifer Choldenk & The Old Willis Place By Mary Downing Hahn
Dec. 2006 The Devil in the White City By Erik Larson
Jan. 2007 The Time Traveler’s Wife By Audrey Niffenegger
Feb. 2007 The Catcher in the Rye By J. D. Salinger
April 2007 Nineteen Minutes By Jodi Picoult  (The group attended a talk by the author)
May 2007 The Book Thief By Markus Zusak
June 2007 To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee
July 2007 Angels and Demons By Dan Brown
Aug. 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows By J. K. Rowling
 

Coming up next are:

September- A Thousand Splendid Suns ( by the author of The Kite Runner)

October- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

November- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (plus a trip to see The Kite Runner movie!)

 

 

Progress

Remember the Past Times Christmas quilt? It doesn’t look like much, but there has been progress.

 

Grouping the pieces into sets for each of the blocks was more time consuming than I had anticipated. This quilt may have to have a Christmas ‘08 goal!

Quite the contrary, one other project zipped right along today. I made the Note Taker, designed by Kathy of Pink Chalk Studio. Talk about an easy pattern to follow! Not only is it a fun project to make, but her directions are absolutely superb. Here are my fabric choices. It’s a mixture of Amy Butler and a few Denyse Schmidt fat quarters that I’ve been waiting for just the right project to use.

The Note Taker is actually finished, but I will wait for better photo lighting tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek…

Bag Lady

Amy Butler fabrics are simply fabulous. A couple of years ago, I made a purse from one of her lines. It’s called the “Annabelle.” The ultra-low cost of material in the purse was made up for by the time spent sewing the decorative stitches! I estimate it took me two or three spools of thread and close to six hours in sewing those sections. The directions were very easy to follow, plus it was a great excuse to try out the decorative stitches on my sewing machine!

The result?

After I made that one, I decided to make a larger bag as a tote for my gradebook and school “stuff.” This is the “Miss Benson” bag. I did make my bag a little larger than the pattern called for so that my gradebook binder would fit inside with plenty of room for ungraded tests. Larger bag=longer sewing time.  Fusable fleece makes these bags sturdy and able to stand on their own. The patterns for the two can be purchased from Purse Strings Patterns.

 This final purse was made for me by my mother. I don’t have the pattern name handy, but I have seen several like it in books.

“We Cause Scenes”

New and fascinating websites are quite enjoyable. With that in mind, I’d like to direct you to an old favorite… 

Every once in awhile I like to check in on the shenanigans over at Improv Everywhere. If you’ve not heard of this NYC group, make your way over there. Right. Now. You may have heard of their “No Pants” stunts before. On a day in January, Agents (an army of volunteers) get on the subway not wearing any pants. Of course, regular riders are perplexed and giggle. Then at some point later in the ride, a person gets on and, you guessed it, is selling pants. That stunt has happened yearly, like the Mp3 experiments. However, my all time favorites are the “Best Buy” and the “Look Up More” missions. There are videos and photos and you get a well-written play by play.

One recent mission involved red headed Agents protesting at a Wendy’s. Why? Read, find out and enjoy.

Dog Days of Summer

We’ve got a steamy week going on around here, folks. The temp hovered around 100 today and there doesn’t seem to be a let-up in sight. Looking for a definition of what the dog days really means? Look no further.

It’s back to school time (que Adam Sandler singing here). I was at my school today working in my classroom- teachers officially start Friday, but today was orientation for the kiddies and there was work to be done in the room prep arena. I may be the biggest nerd ever, but I just love the first day of school. I do. I adore it, actually. New folders, freshly sharpened pencils, squeeky sneakers. Plus, all of the kids are really well behaved, be it temporarily. Somewhere around the second week that honeymoon ends.

Speaking of dog days, I do know someone who will be none too happy for me to return to school. 

This little buddy will go into system shock when I’m not there to play with and all he’s left with is the sound of NPR to keep him company. Yes, that’s right. We leave good old NPR on for the doggy. That was the husband’s idea, but I like the idea that at least someone’s talking to him when we’re out. Ha!

I’m also excited to continue adding to my book-o-student-quotes. A friend gave it to me when I graduated college and told me to jot down funny things that kids say over the years. Here’s a highlight from last year to tide you over until I hear a new one. [Setting: during a class academic competition, covering all content areas]

Me: “Round one bonus question. Health class. Name the three layers of the tooth.”

Team of students discusses

Student A, in her most sincere voice ever: “We have our answer. The three layers are the enamel, the root and the grill.”

Other students in the room giggle, as do I. Eventually hilarious laughter ensued. What’s funny is that they really thought that was the answer. If you are unsure as to why this is funny, let me direct you.