I don’t always have a ton of time to sew. When I do get time, it’s usually little spurts and I have to be very intentional.
This week I’ve been working on finishing a Christmas quilt for my family and a Christmas gift for a friend. Monday morning Anne decided she wanted to help so I taught her how to calculate binding. She measured each quilt, figured out the perimeter and then used the calculator to divide that number by 40. She was able to tell me how many strips I needed for each quilt and she was able to practice her fourth grade math skills. I’m very proud of her.
This morning I took 30 minutes before I left for work and sewed the bindings to each quilt. Now I need to decided if I’m going to finish them by hand or by machine. How do you like to finish your quilts?
Today is a day to give thanks. I have much in my life to be thankful for: family, friends, a job that allows me to not only do what I love but to also provide for my family. I have so many blessings in my life.
Right now one of my many blessings is the return of my creativity. I mentioned before that it’s been a rough year. The events of the year took a toll on me that I never expected. I have been working hard to pull myself back up and recently threw myself back into quilting. I showed you my Christmas tree quilt top last week. This week I want to give you a sneak peek of a new pattern I’m working on.
I love paper piecing. The precision of it, the intricate designs that come from it. I also love curves. Both of these things used to intimidate me so much, but not anymore. Not only have I conquered paper piecing, but I also helped my awesome middle school students to conquer it.
All of these blocks are now completed and are in the process of being turned into bags and pillows. One more blessing in my life, I get to share my passion and love for quilting with the next generation of quilters. These kids are so talented!
I hope everyone is having a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.
I’m not a huge fan of early holiday decorating. For my own house I usually stick to a pretty strict Saturday after Thanksgiving rule. However, holiday sewing is a totally different story. With holiday sewing you pretty much have to start early if you want anything finished by Christmas.
I’ve spent the last week working in my off time (5:45 in the morning for 10 minutes) to get a Mini Quick Curve pattern put together. This pattern is from Mini Wonderful Curves by Jenny Pedigo and Helen Robinson. This is the second quilt I’ve made from the book, my last blog post had a quilt from the book too.
I love seeing the trimming pile!
I was able to make the whole quilt top from my stash which is always a huge win in my world! I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.
The Giving Tree
I have to say, with everything that’s been going on, and let me tell you, it’s be a hard hard year, it feels so good to be sewing and quilting again.
Hello my fellow sewists, quilters and all around crafty people. I have been absent. For a whole lot of life reasons. Here are some of the things that have changed in my life since I was last active. My dear Anne is now a beautiful 10 year old who is going to be in her 4th year of the Nutcracker Ballet, she now plays piano too, and she’s become quite the artist.
I am now a full time Middle School teacher. I teach English Language Arts, Beginning Quilting, Advanced Quilting, Marketing CTE (Career and Technical Education), and Enrichment. I also finished my Masters in Teaching last December and walked on stage (with my Anne) this past May.
My husband is home and simply amazing. I’m so blessed to have such an awesome life partner who stood by my side while I went through the craziness of finishing my Master’s.
I almost missed it! Ok, I totally blew it, but I’m only 30 days late!
Things have been crazy for my family the last two years. I am happy to
announce that I have finished my teaching credentials, I am gainfully
employed, and I finished my Master’s degree too!
I am now teaching English Language Arts to 7th graders, Career and
Technical Education (CTE) Marketing, and I also teach sewing and
quilting!!!! I am so blessed to have found such an amazing school to
work at.
There hasn’t been much sewing the last couple of year, but now that I
am done, I have managed to actually complete something. I finished a
quilt for my mom this week! Spike hasn’t been used in such a long time,
I’m sure he was in shock. I before I started I gave him a good and
thorough oiling because it had been so long. Here is the quilt I worked
on for my mom. It is her design and I think she did an amazing job!
Here is a close up of the quilting. I did flowers that followed the
pattern of the fabric on the white material only. Sorry for the color
quality. It is winter here in Washington and we don’t see the sun much,
so natural lighting isn’t really an option around here…at least not
until Spring.
I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. This weekend I plan to finish
loading another quilt for my mom and once that is finished I have a
quilt from my friend Susan. I’ve had it for far too long but she has
been super understanding with my schooling situation. I spent the last 5
months working on my capstone project and my first year of teaching. To
say that life has been stressful is an understatement. Next weekend I
am going on a sewing retreat with a friend to celebrate my graduation. I
have a project all picked out, I just need to finalize my fabric
selections. Hopefully now that school is done, I will be a much more
permanent figure around the blog. I am also over on instagram, so feel free to check out my project progress there too!
