RSC 2014 November

I am amazingly close to being caught up with all the colors for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. It is truly shiny.

I do not do Block of the Month (BOM) quilts or Quilt Alongs (QAL). I am so limited in the time I have to quilt, that 1. I need anytime I can eek out for quilting on my own projects and 2. I can never keep up the pace.

The exception has been the RSC. I was delighted to find a QAL I could do! I chose a simple block: Snowball. 

I’ve been keeping up…until school started and I had to go back and work. August is surely the bane of my existence! (You can find woesome posts singing the dirges of August here: 2014, 2013) When August rolls around, about three months of my own life disappear under stacks of paperwork, meetings, trainings, assessments, and inservicing teachers. Believe it or not, I’m a teacher. Sometimes it takes me two hours to answer my email for a day. I have an inordinate amount of paperwork. I would love to just teach, it is a joy, my passion. I think I spend almost as much time doing non-teaching tasks as teaching.

But I digress. As for the RSC, August was light green and September was orange. I was able to pick out my light green and orange scraps. 

For October, the color was light blue. I've patted myself on the back and have done a little dancing because I got it done. I just didn't get it posted. And now, here they are:

This month is browns/greys maybe blacks. And I made those also! As for August and September and the fabrics I picked out...there a tragedy unfolds as I can’t find my orange or light green fabric!

I’m a great believer that if you search for something and just can’t seem to find it, then stop. It will show up sometime soon. For me, it translates into months or years before things show up.

Now that your hanky is perfectly soggy, here are my November blocks! I now see that I have a plethora of stripes. Oh well, I liked all the fabrics when I chose them and so they remain!

I'm hooking up at RSC 2014, you can mosey over there by using the button on the left sidebar. It's a great deal of uniquenesses to see what blocks everyone has been making!

Here are the fabrics that I have in each color: At least one novelty, a plaid and a vintage fabric

The Evil School Monster Has Captured Me!

An Illustrated Story....

There I was, sleeping blissfully. The alarm clock rang. What’s this? An alarm? What is this all about? A prank?




I turned back over to go back to sleep, when oozing out from under my bed came a sludgie, gelatinous monster. Ooh, ick, he was slimy. It made me shiver and shudder; a gasp may have escaped my lips.

I pulled the blankets down from my head and opened my eyes. Oops, I didn’t tell you I dove under the covers. Uh, well, you know…minor detail.

I stuck out my chest, stiffened my upper lip and took a hard stare at this putrid mass of scummy crud. Somewhere in all the rotten slop dripping from his body, I saw a… oh no! Please, no! It was…it was…a textbook! 



And all of a sudden it hit me. It was August 10th, 6:00 a.m. and horror of horrors! My first day back at school.

Yes, that horrendous monster grabbed me before I could chain myself to summer, and drug me behind him. He gave low, growly chuckles as he jerked me along.

He reached my school office, swung the front door open with a screeching, jarring scrape. He picked me up, and as slime ran all over me, he chucked me through the door. Satisfied, the monster hurled the door closed with a satisfied grunt.

Dear readers, I have been locked in the school dungeon ever since. I’ve barely seen the light of day. But someone, I think a student of mine that I had once and liked me, let me come home for Thanksgiving.


Thankful, indeed! I get to see family, eat real food that has no mold on it and actually, amazingly get to quilt!


I have done so little quilting in the dungeon. There was no material, but sometimes the bread was hard enough that I could cut it in squares. I hoarded those until I had enough to sew together with loose threads from my clothing.


But here I am! I’m not going back. Uhh, okay I go back in 6 days. But it seems like forever!


Kind readers, beloved family, and devoted friends, fear not! I have seen the emptiness of the dark pit where I do not blog. It has haunted me as I have gone on a long quest to find a way to blog during the months of August to May. All I have come up with is that I must to blog.

My conclusion is that there will be the school year edition of the blog and the summer and school break edition of the blog. School year will be leaner, but it will be there as often as it can.

Maybe by doing this, I can stop looking at things and thinking “I’m going to write that in my blog.” Or doing something quilty and wanting to share it with my blogland friends.

I will tame the nefarious school monster and live happily in both realms of my life: school and not-school.

See you all soon!

The Common Culprit, or "All Who Wander..."

I recently got a most surprising and sweet email. It was from someone who was reading my blog last summer. When I was writing a blog. She wondered what had happened to me. She was checking, hoping I was fine. Wow.

I can't tell you what a quandary I've been in. I love my blog. I love all the quilty and crafty blogs I read (pronounced red).

But before I get lost! again. I have to inject that I love the movie, You've Got Mail! I cannot count how many times I've watched it--and who would be interest anyway. I command you that if you haven't ever seen this movie, get it, view it, feel happy. Repeat anytime you want to feel happy.

Not my husband...too old.

One more thing, but those who read my blog know, I digress. My husband still gets his email through AOL! It was the big thing in the 80's--1980's not 1880's! I swear sometime my hubby is
buried back in the 1940's, a decade he loves. We just got cell phones. I was getting a newer one, but get this! Hubby was getting his first!

Meanwhile back at the ranch!

I've written a couple of people who posted a lot online at a quilting board. No one ever answered. But I really wondered what happened to them. And now my friend emailed me. And then...the quandary.

One side is I absolutely adore blogging and quilting. Put that together and you've got the charisma of peanut butter and jelly!

On the other side, I teach and am so dang busy and worn out that I hardly quilt during the school year. Now I love blogging almost as much as I love quilting.

My last four months---is that all it's been? It feels like years! I've been like this:

That's me there waving my arm! Help! Help! How do I get out?

So we come to the common culprit of where have I been and why haven't I been blogging.

I'm amazed how worn out I am at the beginning of a school day.
It takes me an hour to hour-and-a-half to write an average sized blog.
That's too much time.
All summer I kept thinking of how I can continue blogging for 10 months of the year.
I thought of a plan, but August came, and the big tsunami wave hit me and I did have a brain cell left to think of the plan.

Then the email.
Somebody cared.
Someone who actually liked my blog.

It's all you really need, you know. I was so energized that I decided to put the plan in to action. I have time in the evening if I don't watch all the hours of TV. Actually I don't watch that much and most of it is from Netflix or Amazon. Then there's baseball and basketball. But I digress.

Thank you, my blogging friend. You got me going.

Maybe someday I will share how miserable teaching school is. Actually I love my students, it's all the other stuff.

But here I am! I could give all of you a great big hug.

Now to make it official:

I can't display what I'm working on right now because it's a secret.

But I have been doing a L/E with it. L/E = Leader/Ender. Bonnie Hunter is one of two of my quilting muses. While you're working on one quilt, you start each block (etc) at the sewing machine with a piece of another project, then end with another piece of project. You're making two quilts at a time.

I'm working on a Bonnie quilt called Sister's Choice. It's scrappy. I started out with colors I had used in another quilt: Log Cabin Neighborhood.

It's 20x20.

Then as I started pulling out scraps and sewing them into nine-patches, I thought: I shouldn't make something in the same colors. I decided to liven it up! I added turquoise and purple into the mix. Now I don't know how it's going to turn out. But in for a dime, in for a dollar!

Here's Bonnie's Sister's Choice Quilt:

Ain't it purty?

Here are 5 of my blocks. It takes 140 nine patches that are 10" finished with the outer part of the block. I've got 145 done. Chug, chug, chug.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

Boy Howdy. If you ever want to know if you've gotten all the little threads off a nine-patch, just scan it in on your computer. Those little buggers show up mud on a white carpet!

Now proudly announcing:
I'm hooking up with these wonderful blogs to share my stuff. Mosey over and look at their stuff!
(Badges in right column!)

Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday
Show and Tell Tuesday
Linky Tuesday
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
We Did It Wednesday

Stash Report Week 12

Yikes! Judy at Patchworks Times reported that next week will mark a quarter of the first year and how is our stash going? Well, mmmmm, what an interesting question. Did you know that a duck's quack doesn't echo,* and no one knows why. I don't know where somebody found a duck in an echo chamber, but people do strange things...

Now, where was I? Oh yes, Judy. I have to tell you, Judy is a great person. Her blog is full of neat quilty stuff but also things about her "homestead." Her friendly chicken, Miss Hattie, who follows her and her husband around. The planting of many, many, many fruit trees. You can reach her by clicking on the Patchwork Times badge on the right. In fact, that's where you'll find the stash report.

Oops...that was what this post was about. Yes, I haven't done well. I'm in the negative. Okay, I just thought that as soon as I get started on the BIG project, the numbers would start climbing. It's all Judy's fault, I could have easily reported my stash report, but she had to mention the first quarter of the year.

The only fractions I am good at are thirds. You see I have to send out trimester progress reports. If you're a math whiz, you'll know that trimester indicates 3 time periods. At the beginning of March, I sent out the second trimester progress reports. I know that I am 2/3rds of the way through the school year. Are you impressed with my mathematical prowess?

Lets' see...now where was I?  Oh yes, fractions. Did you know that 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts? It makes me wonder. The copy machine at the schools I work at are always getting broken. Makes you think, doesn't it? Of course, the number 23% is a representation of a fraction that is 2/3. That is also the same fraction that marks how far I am in the school year.

All right. I just stop putsying around.

Here's My Report

Stash Count Week 13

Used This Week:  1 yd, and that ladies and gents, is a move in the right direction
Used 2013: 15.5

Added This Week: 0 yards!
Added 2013: 31.5

Net 2013: -16 yards

Just to take the sting out of it--here's another incredible and amazing fact: In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.*

Hook up with Judy at Patchwork Times to see others Stash Reports. Click on button in right sidebar.

Say Good Night Gracie! (look it up if you are younger than me!)

*source: 193 Funny and Interesting Facts

Getting It Done

You know the saying...A day late, a dollar short. That's me. Monday is the day my husband works until 6:00 pm. This gives me 3 hours home alone which is always my quilt time. It's wonderful to quilt for a whole 3 hours straight! Last night I had to do my favorite task: Budget. It took the beloved 3 hours. Then at 6:00 when hubby was home, we scrounged around for dinner. At 7:00 we settled in to watch "our team" Sacramento Kings play basketball. I was so tired from my first day back at school that I went to bed at 8:00! So, no blog.

Without further ado, here's my Getting Her Done list for January!

1.  Get Spider Web quilt top finished and sandwiched.
     All blocks are finished, need to put Fray Check on red fabric that turned out to fray amazingly fast. Sew blocks together. Put on borders. Sandwich.

2.  Get Bricks and Stepping Stones finished and sandwiched.
     I have the top finished. Put on borders. Sandwich.

3.  Finish Marie's Square in Square. 
     This quilt was done Quilt As You Go, my first attempt! I need to  hand sew the last column. Put on borders. Attach binding.

4.  Start my son & wife's wedding quilt: Double Wedding Ring. 
     My son and his wife had a 6-week engagement. So very nice of them in letting me make a wedding quilt! I am using the Quilt Smart piecing to make it. It's basically paper piecing, except they provide the patterns printed on a very light woven material-which I can't remember the name. I already have the material. So it's getting it started, which might just be sewing one piece onto the foundation! At the same time, start my #1 daughter's quilt as a Leader/Ender.

This is fairly ambitious for me. I am back at work; I'm a teacher. I don't get much quilting in during the school year. I am committed to quilting at least an hour a day. Hard to do, but I am especially committed to starting the DWR (Double Wedding Ring) and working furiously to get it to them on their first anniversary, June 7, 2013.

Let the quilting begin!

Christmas Carol Countdown: 17 Days to Go!

The school kids are hyper all the time now. They're bouncing off the walls and can't wait for vacation. Whenever one of my students says to me, "I can't wait for Christmas!" I have to chuckle inwardly. You think the kids are anxious...the teachers are chomping at the bit!

School is like a massive sugar high these days! Lots of high spirits and squirrely-ness and exuberant behavior. If we can only survive eight more days!

One of the activities in our family's advent countdown was the Balloon Stomp. It would definitely fit the activity level I see at school. It easy peasy too! Every player gets a balloon and blows it up. I think there was a rule of not putting so much air in it that it pops when you look at it! Get some yarn and cut a 18-inch length. Tie one end loosely around your ankle and tie the other to your balloon. Each person can decide the length of yarn between ankle and balloon, the only rule being that the balloon has to touch the ground. Experience has taught that the closer the balloon is to your ankle, the easier it is to defend.

The goal of the Stomp is to break everyone's balloon by stepping on it with your foot. At the same time, you must protect your own balloon. The winner is the last person who has an unpopped balloon.

One person yells "Go!" and the madness begins. It's wild, it's crazy, it's a madhouse. Boy, is it fun! My kids have fond memories of this game and that's the idea. Memories and traditions. Glue that holds us together.

Amazingly enough, I just heard this song two years ago. The great Louis Armstrong originally did it. I actually heard it done by Garth Brooks, but when I went to find it on iTunes the only version I could find was Louis Armstrong. And what a version!

Searching for it on YouTube, I found this incredible video someone put together. It has fantastic editing. There are clips of Armstrong himself singing the song interspersed with period cartoons. It's a treat! Sit back and enjoy: "Zat You Santa Claus"