Serger Lace

Did you know you can use a Serger to make lace?  I was looking for information on tension adjustment and discovered it.  Unlike a blanket edge or a hem that goes around and around, this little dress on DD's AG Kailey Doll is actually a dog dress so there was some stopping turning and heading back. I really like the design though.  I think my thread stash needs to swell a bit to include these heavier threads so I can do it more often.  Don't you agree?

Today is the Great American Teach-In.  My theme is What Makes You, You?  I have sheets of paper cut into squares which each child can draw whatever they like.  Ideally they will all have colored pencils so the medium at least will be the same, but if not then when I scan them in I'll just have to hope I can color adjust the tones evenly.  This will be a custom printed panel as I did when DD was in VPK.  Wish me luck!

Teacher's Crayon Quilt Done!

Crayon Quilt Finished Front

I just finished up the Great American Teach In Crayon Quilt that I made.  I call it Art from the Heart and I will send it to school on Monday for my daughter to give to the teacher.  I really struggled with hand making the label this time as I just didn't feel up to all that stitching, so when a friend suggested I just write the label, I considered it and knew it would get the quilt done.  Which is something I really needed to do so against my own grain I just did it and called it done.

Crayon Quilt On Reverse

The quilting is glitter stitched with each student's name in Superior's Metallic thread, the one they had on sale for $1.50 a spool.  They still have some if you'd like to pick up a spool or 20.  Look under their "Try Me Specials".  I found that when I followed their directions everything worked nicely.  Rick rack runs in two solid strips at the top and bottom which actually helped to bisect the quilt to make the pre-marking easier to gauge.  I also quilted each crayon in the ditch so it appears to pop unto itself.  Then I filled the remaining areas of each crayon with thread matched to each strip in loops and stars to resemble doodling.

The Students names were something I really wanted to make sure were right.  So I left the tags that had each child's name on it from when they selected their strip during the Teach-In, and I kept those tags on until I had completely finished all of the quilting on that strip.  I double, triple, and even quadruple checked and if that's a lot just think of how the child would have felt had I messed up their name?

Crayon Quilt Name and Pencil Detail

The pencil is a point of pride for me and is in the teacher's selected colors.  I did not applique this independently and instead worked with many pins as I quilted it on.  Trust me I was poked enough times to make me question my sanity.  At the tip of the pencil and at the eraser, the pencil is independent and loose from the quilt creating a bit of a 3-D effect. Now if you look you'll see a bit of blue thread , How did that bit of thread end up on that final name?

The Quilt is topped with matching Prairie Points and loops behind them for hanging on the wall.  For some reason it seems  to me that it will be easier for a teacher to hang loops vs. a sleeve. The sides are traditionally bound which created a challenge at the two upper corners but I like the result and would make the same choice if I had it to do again.

This quilt is quilted rather densely so it took me more than my usual time to quilt it.  Also I found the metallic thread to be nearly impossible to "snap" into my self threading needles, so instead I had to work in good light and thread it into the eye myself when tucking the threads ends in.  Good thing it's a single thread instead of a woven one.

Sure hope the class likes it.

Beginning Quilting on Crayon Quilt

I told myself when I started working on this quilt that I needed to take many photographs.  But the best laid plans of a quilter will often find you with your lap blouse and even hair full of bits of thread.  Currently I have stitched in the ditch of all of the crayons using the color I plan to quilt that strip with.  I have also handwritten the names of each of the children on their selected crayon strips.  My next step will be to quilt over the names with glitter thread.  I've never worked with such a fussy thread before so I've been planning every last detail.

Of course I didn't plan that we would still be full swing in the process of putting up our Christmas items.  So far we have four days invested.  We're decorated outside with lights, inside the tree is up and decorated, and the stockings are hung but no trace of the holidays can be found in terms of garland nor are the other rooms in the house decorated yet.  I haven't even started on my Christmas cards yet.  What bearing does this have on quilting?  Normally nothing except the boxes are piled up in front of my newly shortened, for the holidays, quilt frame so I can't get at it until some of the boxes...  Yes, I knew you'd get it.

What have you been up to lately?  I've missed you what with all this mess clutter, not to mention holiday deadlines.

Crayon Quilt Piecing in Progress

I've been working on sewing the strips together for the Teacher's Crayon Quilt.  These are strips that the children selected as being their favorites when I went to the Great American Teach In the other day.

 So far I have the strips sewn and pressed.  All of the prairie points are made for the crayon tips and I've started working on the teacher's pencil.  So far I really like the pencil.  I went with a different pink than the one I'd planned as this one matched a bit better and I knew when I turned the tube I'd made the right choice.  Doesn't that pink scream eraser?

For the quilting I'm going to be quilting the students names onto their strips (hence all those bits of paper at the top of the flimsy).  Currently I'm planning to find the center and mark each strip with my Sewline Pencil and then write in the name with the pencil before quilting it. I am considering using gold glitter thread for quilting the students names.  I've never quilted with glitter thread before, but I think it would unite the crayon colors nicely so it's worth the try.

I don't think I will be working on this much more until after Thanksgiving.  DD was firm well over a month ago that we always host Thanksgiving so hence we will again this year.  What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  I think perhaps the best thing would be to simply sit at the sewing machine and give thanks for finding this passion of quilting in which to bury myself in.  ;-)

Art From the Heart

Teach In Quilt Strip Layout

Today at the Great American Teach-In, I attempted to show the first grade students in my daughters class, that art is made with our hands, mind, eyes, and hearts.  To take that one step further is to say that because art comes from your heart it is pure and good no matter what it looks like nor what others might think of it.  I think I lost them a little on that point but guess what?  As I'm making a quilt from the strips the children picked I get to reinforce that point when I make the quilt label.

Teach-In Thanks

I am now I'm the proud owner of a Certificate of Appreciation as well as a school mug.  One of these days I'll hang all these letters and so forth up in the sewing room so that I can marvel at them.  The mug was a surprise as I truly didn't expect anything.  I met a fellow quilter while at the school, and we all know it's nice to meet someone that thinks like we do in our travels.  I also met a mom who had met my daughter, currently her daughter is in DD's class last year, believe it or not she proceeded to tell me about my own DD without knowing I'm DD's mom.  How about that.

I am really looking forward to getting started on this quilt.  As a strip quilt I doubt it will take long and it is sure to be fun so I started laying out the children's fabric strips right away.  I wasn't sure about the layout of the fabric, so of fussing over it to long, instead I went to my leftovers pile and looked for a strip that matched what the teacher told me her favorite color is.  She said blues to greens.  Thereby I picked the strip that runs across the bottom of the upper picture to make the applique teacher's pencil and I think that helped pull the colors together.   I think the appliqued pencil will be thicker than that as I plan to make a tube and then applique it on that way running at an angle over the bottom right corner of the quilt.  No one picked grey so that will be good for making the metal that holds a pencil on and I have a pretty pink polka dotted fabric for the eraser.  I'm not sure about a wood color for the sharpened part but I should be able to come up with something and the lead point should be okay too.

My Visitor Before the Teach-In

The Great America Teach-In is tomorrow and I think I'm ready.  This is how I envision the strips to come together.  The top will be prairie point binding to give the crayons their points.  I will be adding a fabric to the bottom of the quilt of a currently unknown color and appliqueing a pencil in the teacher's favorite color with her name and the class information on it.  It is sure to be a fun time.  The quilting is my favorite part of this quilt as I will be quilting each child's name onto their selected strip so instead of a traditional crayon label it will be the child's name stitched onto the fabric they liked best tomorrow.

This morning while waiting for the bus to come I spotted a visitor on my neighbor's fence.  I think it was going after a snake the way it danced around on the ground.  This hawk stayed long enough for all of the children at the bus stop to see it and better yet long enough for me to run inside after the bus departed to take these pictures for you.  This is a fully mature red shouldered hawk and likely a year round resident here.  Still it is amazing to see such a powerful hunter so close up.  I'm so glad cameras have zoom!

The Great American Teach In Fabric Strips

Look at this wonderful rainbow of fabrics.  Aren’t these strips amazing?  As I mentioned the other day my friend Vicki sent me fabrics from her stash for the Great American Teach-In which is coming up this November; between her package, my stash, and a bit of shopping I came up with these 44 beautiful strips.  I think that’s a nice number for 20 children to pick their favorite from what about you?  My goal is to sew the strips the children select as representing themselves together and make a crayon quilt. Then I will quilt each child’s name onto their strip much like a Crayon label.   

So now I ask you, do you see any colors that are missing?  I’m showing you the fabrics two ways so you can see for yourself.  Does anything stand out in your mind as a color that isn’t visible as a choice?  I would hate to think of a child looking at the range of fabrics and not finding a particular color that came into their mind when I say art.

Now mind you that black fabric that is by the fabrics will be joining the strips too, but it’s an extra wide fabric and I want to wait to cut the strip until after I take what I need from the yardage for the Christmas Quilt-a-long tomorrow.

What is the Difference?

Now I was going to start this post saying I didn't have a very productive day, but the more I thought about what I had to tell you I'm certain it was a productive day.  So you decide, but keep in mind your only option is to agree with me.  First there was 10 days worth of laundry...

I helped DD with her homework.  She has spelling words each week this year, just like clockwork.  She is still on the learning side of the reading hill so when the spelling list comes home I know she doesn't know any of the words, and that causes me a bit of turmoil.  After all, I have one week to not only teach her how to read the word, but how to spell it as well.  I know she'll hate me if I make her write the entire list of ten - five times each and everyday, and there is a part of me that feels without proper reinforcement that wouldn't stick anyway.  So I've been trying to dream up new and different options to present the words in a fun way.  This is what I came up with last week that DD liked so much we did it again this week. I tell DD the word and she finds the letters for the word and puts them together.  This week I also added writing the word down on a piece of paper after it was spelled out, as I thought that would reinforce the connection between the capitalized Scrabble letters and the lower case letters she needs to use on the spelling test.

Tiny looks very disinterested, but she was really just waiting for the right moment to spell her own word. She singled out the letters TELC, which shockingly  seems to stand for language fluency matters in multiple countries.  I have only read two of The Cat Who mysteries so I'm not going to bother thinking she's smart; I already knew that.

After homework I was completely tuckered out, and settled in on the couch to start a new book.  I was to tired to read and ended up sleeping while DD curled up in my lap to watch "Powerpuff Girls" episodes that I record for her every night (they don't come on here until 10:30 pm!).

When I woke up and felt in much nicer spirits so I finished folding the last load of laundry, and started to pin Tropical Waves on the quilt frame.  I had actually started this project two other times. The first time I discovered that the uptake leader is bigger for a reason and mine was in the wrong spot.  So I had to switch all those around.  Then when I pinned it the second time I only thought I started pinning at center, but had really started at the 3/4 mark so I had to unpin everything.  Needless to say after that I walked away and let it sit for a couple of days.  Yesterday the pinning went much more smoothly with the only hiccup being some hamburger helper noodles stuck to the bottom of my pot and trust me no one cared.

So you see how can you call that an unproductive day?  Yet that was how I felt; perhaps it was due to the nap, or the matronly laundry that I somehow forgot I did.  I think we judge ourselves to harshly sometimes.  I didn't get that quilt quilted, I didn't do this or that thing that I needed to do.  But the question becomes what did you do instead?  A nap?  Cooked dinner?  Study?  More to the point, remember that all those things matter too.  Regardless of how you intended to run your day, enjoy this one no matter what it throws at you.

The Cute is in the Details

Today I made this little tote for my daughter's teacher.  I started out with the hint of an idea on Stephanie's Blog which you can see here.  I knew I wanted to make mine with the dashed lines but I wasn't really sure about size until I sat down with the scrap of Warm and White batting that I'd planned on using and found a scrap of white about the same size!

Teacher's Christmas Tote

From there everything was easy.  First I basted and then sewed.  Yep quilting first!  Then after I did the blue quilting lines I went back and added the red as sort of ah opps I forgot!  Then I hand - yes hand stitched the dashes.  After I squared that up everything came naturally.  I really wasn't in the mood for making straps so I pulled out a cloth tape that had seen better days (like the days before I cut it in half with the rotary cutter!)  I saw those numbers and thought perfect Math!  So they became the straps.  It really helped that when I cut it I cut it around 28 inches which makes a nice drop.

Detail of Quilting with Tape Measure Strap

I knew I needed to add a way to close it but the french seems were already looking thick so I thought a toggle would be great here.  Didn't have any toggles on hand but I did happen to have a button with the liberty bell on it so that added the final touch.  Not bad for a teacher's Christmas tote if I do say so and better yet that I made it from start to finish in one afternoon!

Liberty Bell Button

First Day

Waiting

Today is the first day of school here and off dd went on the bus.  She wanted to go wait on the bench her daddy placed by the bus stop a full 20 minutes early!  Luckily I was able stall her a little bit.  How's that for backwards?

Hope she has a great day!  I was a bit surprised to see she has a lady bus driver, but that's nice too, and even though the school said the bus would be late, she was right on time (to the minute!)

So whatever will I be doing while I wait for my little (place your choice word here) to come home?  Well honestly I'm planning on cutting fabric for her Patisserie Waltz Quilt and taking care of a couple of hiccups in my fabric order.

Or perhaps I will do a bit of freemotion quilting on the Christmas Row Robin?  As one parent alone there's no telling what I might get myself into. 

Bye, Bye!