Visit to Florida

Hubby & I went to Florida for a short week last week. He had a conference in Orlando and I got to spend some time with my family.

It was gosh-durn-it hot with temps in the high 90's and a heat index above 100.

I visited with my friend Valarie - we hadn't seen each other in ages!






I saw lots of birds on my walks around Lake Hollingsworth with both my cousins and then again with my mom.









I got to visit my dad's apiary and saw some bees.












We then spent some quiet time at our hotel in Orlando playing in the pool (and with the giant slugs!).





Fun times all around!

Because They Wanted It

So some of my students have discovered my blog. I'm ok with that, really. I post only occasionally and it's mostly about sewing and boring-to-a-teenager stuff. But they were wanting to know when I was going to post about THEM.

They originally found my blog by googling the words "peach Nehi." I had written an ode and included a picture of myself with a bottle of peach Nehi that I had found while on vacation in Kentucky. Well, apparently now, when you google the words "peach Nehi," my picture comes up with a link to my blog. (Word to those of you fellow bloggers - if you don't want to be found, be careful what you post!)

So here's my "Ode to my Middle School Students":

It was real.
It was fun.
But was it really fun?
Yes! Of course it was!
It was middle school!
And you know the most fun part?
It's OVER!
You've graduated.
moved on.
physically, anyway.
Oh, you know you'll be back to visit.
Especially that first year of High School...
When you're the "low man on the totem pole"
the "small fish in the pond."
Just to get a taste of what it was like to be the big fish.
And we'll be glad to see you.

Working on Green Bed Quilt

Here's some photos of a green quilt in progress right now. It's partially laid out on the floor of the spare bedroom and partially on the sewing table downstairs.

The floor of the bedroom is the only place I have large enough to see all the blocks laid out, so I have to carefully transport them downstairs so they can be sewn correctly. I've developed a number pinning system that seems to be working so far.

My only problem has been that even after lots of calculating, the top is turning out to be wider than the backing. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong, but this means I'm either going to have to shorten the width of the top or add some border panels to the backing. Which is the lesser of two evils? Probably narrowing the top. I think I've used up all the green backing fabric that I had and I have no idea where I got that shade of green. oh well.

Little Stitches

I got this new Amy Butler book a few weeks ago and have yet to make anything from it. I love all the ideas, but haven't tackled any of the projects because most of them look a bit complex to me. Or perhaps I'm hesitant to make "baby" stuff.

Babies scare me. They are small and fragile and so far they have always belonged to someone else. (thank goodness!)

What I really want to do is make an adult version of those kimono-style pj's on the front cover for myself. so cute! I think the thing I'll make first, though, are the fabric building blocks. Those look super fun and it would be easy to include a free-pieced letter on them, too.

Collaborative Quilting

So I volunteered my sewing services to my school for a charity auction and then realized I had so many other projects going on that I would never get anything done. So what is my solution? Recruit unsuspecting victims to help me out!

Mwahh haa haa haa! (evil laugh)

So I convince my work friends Kristie and Lynn (both fairly new to sewing) that we should start a "Stitch-n-Bitch" sewing club and have some fun crafty time together outside of work. They agree, but of course... little do they know what they have just agreed to!

I wrangle them over to my place and pitch them the idea. That together we create a wall hanging quilt to donate to the school's charity auction the next month. It was to benefit our school library which will be undergoing a very large overhaul this coming summer.

To my surprise, they agree. So I decide rather than tempt fate by bossing them around even more, I let them pick a pattern, a theme and some fabrics. They chose to create a "calendar quilt" since that meant that we would only have to make 12 blocks. We each picked a month or two to start on and dove right in.

Bless her little heart, Lynn, we found out, had never sewn a thing before this. Kristie had only started sewing last summer and claimed to be deathly afraid of quilting, but she is a whiz with figuring out patterns and the mechanics of most sewing machines. We started slowly, but as they got the hang of it, we quickly created a fabulous quilt.

I was really happy - as were they - with the final product. We each made some of the blocks and then I quilted and bound it. In the auction it sold for 175 dollars! Wowwza!

Next month, a full bedroom set! (just kidding)

Unknown Doo-Dad

My grandmother Kelley was a collector. Depression glass, yarn, costume jewelry, you-name-it. She had closets and rooms full of stuff that she probably hadn't seen in years. When she passed away, my folks inherited a large wooden cabinet full of tiny drawers. Most of the drawers were filled with either buttons or spools of thread (all sorted by colors).

While home for the holidays this year, I raided the cabinet looking for some treasures to use in my sewing adventures. I came across these costume jewelry-looking things. I wasn't sure what they might have been used for, but I thought I might find a new purpose for them.

They have a retractable/extendable little rod on the back. It pushes out longer and then retracts back to it's original length. Do you know what this could be? I'd love to hear if you do!

Thanks!

Homage to Heke

I love my thithter, I really do. We don't always say it or show it - not nearly as much as we should. We live very far apart most of the time and have for a very long time now. But I always enjoy seeing her.

This year we were both able to be at home with the folks for Christmas. It was a short but fun visit. I hear all about her younger men (hee!) and I pretend I'M the older sister when I tell her about my life being married and settled (neither of which she is right now...).

She is a super cool, vivacious, silly, intelligent woman. I like to joke that we are ying & yang. I teach children and try to nurture and foster a love for knowledge (that's middle school teaching glorified). She helps to design video games to rot their minds. Well, not really right now. She's moved on to more socially responsible gaming projects, but I like to joke about it just the same.

Every time we see each other there's always the first big hug, the sneak "booby attacks" (don't ask), and of course, when we part there's the obligatory airport self portrait.

I wanted to write all this down just because I don't say it out loud enough. I love you Heather! You're the betht thithter ever!