A VERY busy week 1/09

Pooh Corner:
One week this spring, one of our english teachers was soon to leave on maternity leave, so I ask her what is her plans for the nursery. She replied that she was going to use the same as her older daugther and redo her daughter's new room. I asked were there any major theme elements? Winnie the Pooh.
I knew just the fabric and I could not wait to go to Walmart and pick it up. Yes: Walmart. They are in McMinnville about a hour south of home and there is the BEST chinnesse place just down the way. So since I was headed down there for the fabric, I could easily stop and get my favorite Moo Shoo Shrimp with Crab Ragoon. YUMMMY. Well the quilt came together nicely and I backed it in the kelly green Minkey. Mmmm soft.
Back to why it was a busy week. On Monday I take it in to give it away, showing it off to the other quilters on campus, and a councilor comes up to me and says "did you know that one of the math teacher wife is pregnant?" My responce "No, when is she due?" Her reply "Any day now." OMG! So I grill my students and they said: Yes he has his cell phone on and is waiting for the call.
Frantic
Well that puts me into hyper drive and when I get home, after hitting the drive through for Subway so that I do not have to cook. I look at my stash and see what I can put together without having to go to the fabric store. Well this is not that much of an issue. I have probably around a few thousand dollars of fabric in my study closet. Some arranged by color some by fabric line.

Well I put together "Frantic" in 27 hours. Yes I know that one block is upside down but at the time there was NO time to fix it. I also slept, taught school, Mom to 4 year old, and the husband worked both nights. Thank you Cindy for doing bedtime duty so that I could breath and have a glass of wine. To say the least I gave it to him before the Wednesday morning meeting and his son was born that night. My one request to my co-workers a little more notice and I will be greatful.

Summertime Quilts

I don't normally quilt during the summer. There is to much to do that I cannot do in the winter. This summer espically. I took two summer courses to finish up my reading endorsement, my fabulous mother in law came to town to help celebrate B's fourth birthday, took the reading specialist exam and tried to keep my house clean. There were three pending births at school though and so I had to whip out three easy quilts

Pink Elephants on Parade

Here is a picture of a quilt I made this summer. The fabric was brought back from Tialand, a co-worker went there for his honeymood. They will forever have a reminder the trip in thier daughter's baby quilt. Who knows she might have been concieved there.

Summer Daisies:

This bright one was for our reading specialist at school. When asked what her nursery was like she replied "Orange, Yellow and to make it a bit girly we added in Pink. But my favorite color is orange." I was waiting for someone to say that because I was dying to use the border fabric in a quilt but it needed to be for someone who enjoys the BRIGHTS. She loved the quilt!

Turquoise Turning:

The perfect equation for a little girl whose dad is a math teacher/ football coach. He did not know this was coming. And when I asked co-workers they did not know any color/ design requests. So I went with something that was girly without being overly girly.

Pinwheel Roses

This is a quilt I made for a co-worker this winter. The pattern is American Patchwork Quilting Magazine. I used thangles for the half square triangles. This is a relatively easy pattern that looks much harder. The quilt is backed in a rose colored minkie. The green is more in the cream flower print but is not aparent in this small of a picture.

More Choas

Well I just finished with the leftover blocks of Choas and this is the same size as B's Cuddle Quilt. I am satisfied with the quilt there are some changes that I would go back and do. Such as the ladybugs next to the monkeys. I think I would use more of the red and yellow, but then again... But I think that happens with most quilts that I make. I also would change the border and make it a solid to tone down the quilt but the print has really all the colors within the quilt so maybe not. Well I do need input on what color to bind/back it with. So Help! But I do have to send a thank you to the ladies at The Quilted Hill (http://www.thequiltedhill.com/) for some ideas of which fabric would help with the overall apperance of the quilt. They also have the coolest little quilt shop in the area. Just be careful that you are going the speed limit (in town 25 mph) because the police made my last shopping trip REALLY expensive. I thought it was a 35 and was doing 38 mph, well this makes me offically an Oregonian. I have gotten a ticket in either Yamhill, Carlton or North Plains. Three really small towns with really big reputations.

Complete Chaos

TA-DA

Chaos is complete. Well at least the first one is pieced and bordered. First one? There is 24 blocks left over after this was pieced because of making more blocks. Some of the extra came from Cat's request of more green. Though I agree with her and my best friend (another quilt aholic) because the green blocks balanced the quilt. And some of the extra blocks came from fabric yelling at me "Me too." I hate it (OK, hate is at strong word), I dislike it when you have already made enough blocks to make the quilt, then a fabric says I want to come join the party. You say of course you can come (this also happens to my backyard dinner parties.) Then you have more then enough to make the original quilt. I would have happily put it fabric into the quilt in the planning stage if the fabric would have just spoken up at that time. Yes, I admit that fabric talks to me and I talk back to it. But doesn't every quilter hear the fabric voices?

Choas Update

Well Chaos is coming together nicely. I should have it pieced by Friday afternoon. But I wanted to show everyone the progress. So the soon to be owner came home after playing a tournament in California and said she liked the lime green block (A will love that comment). So this morning I had to make more blocks with green in them. Any other color suggestions? Speak now or forever hold your piece (of fat quarter that is) :)

What have I been up to?

Well lets see I have about two more weeks of summer before school starts. I have opened up the laptop and started working on the Science curriculum. I have the calender with what I am going to do each day for IS1, done for 12 weeks, except three days in the middle. I have the first 3 weeks mapped out for Chem 1, so not bad. I still have to write two new worksheets for my chem course but I am hoping to borrow those from the other Chem teacher. But more importantly I have been spending alot of time in my study piecing.

First of all there is Patty's Quilt:

The details:

Pattern: Around the World

Fabrics: Out of stash (Yea), except I had to buy more of the pink because I was one square (Yes, just ONE 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches) short. The fabric line is called Scrap Bag Treasures for the flower prints. Then there is two batiks and two moda prints.

This quilt is for the office manager at my high school. She has decided to take a position at the district office, at the end of this past school year. I will miss her greatly. She is a fellow quilter and was always happy to see each of the quilts that I make and show off some of her pieces. I know this decision did not come easy so I wish her the best of luck. The quilt has a green inner boarder and I am in debate with myself if I should do a 4" outer boarder of the larger flower fabric so I started the next quilt. Which turned out to be the Butterfly Snuggle quilt of the last two postings but I got ahead of myself (it happens alot). I usually only like one quilt on the ironing board at a time but this rule has gone out the window for the

Second is my daugther's Quilt: Butterfly Breeze
The details:

Pattern: Yellow Brick Road

Fabrics: 1/2 stash :) & 1/2 new purchases :s

Colors: Pink, Lavender, white and a bit of light green

Main focus fabric (and outer boarder once I get there): Butterfly Breeze by Lakehouse.

OK so the name is a little tongue in cheek, for the quilt was not a breeze or blissful to make. It is a whole lot of quiet pinks and lavenders with a little bit of green and white to keep it from being monotonous. I cannot stand to look at it right now so the boarders will get put on in a few days. There is only so much quiet that I can stand and I have reached my limit. So I went against my better judgement (again) and started the next one.

Third is the quilt on the ironing (drawing) board: Cat's Chaos

Details:

Pattern: Yellow Brick Road (Yes, Again)
Fabric: 3/4 stash and 1/4 new

Colors: Yellow, Orange, Fushia and Purple

Main focus fabric (and outer boarder): Day Z by Lakehouse

This is using the same pattern (once I get in a rutt I sometimes stay there). Last year (or was it two years ago?) I purchased a set of beautiful hand dyed fat quarter pack. I washed them, ironed them and then lovingly put them in my stash, not knowing what to do with them. So when Cat said she wanted a bright quilt I pulled them out and with the black and brights that I had left over from Catastrophy. The colors are anything but quiet. She wanted a bright quilt and I think I can honestly said she will get her money's worth. I have sewn together all the blocks. I am on the third row out of 8 to put together the center. I am then going to put on purple or yellow inner boarder and then the small daisy outer boarder and it will be complete, just in time for her to go to college with it. She received a good sports scholarship (tuition plus room and board) for softball at a two year community college in California. She is going to be a pitcher for them next year. I do not know what I will do without her as my primary baby-sitter.