I love it more

I love this quilt more than the last one I made, how is that possible?  I have to make one just like it for me :)  Red and black seem to be my favorite color combo right now.

This is for another of my students who is struggling with depression and suicide.  She just got out of the mental hospital.  I was hoping to have it finished today to give to her sister, but didn't get it done in time.  Santa's elves will have to deliver it over the break.  I will have to quilt it tomorrow.

Can I say one more time that I really love it?  I know I am going to make one for me.  It is so pretty.  I just love this pattern too because it is pretty, easy and makes a great size quilt.

I ordered the 4 1/2 inch finished triangle for my Studio cutter from Accuquilt and then didn't realize that wasn't the same size as the 4 inch finished triangle.  I am not good with numbers.  So, I cut 4 1/2 inch squares and the triangles didn't fit.  You need 5 inch squares to go with the bigger triangles, in case you were wondering.  The quilt comes out bigger, which is great.  I'm going to make this is red, white and blue for a QOV for February's quilt raffle and the bigger size will be perfect.  I love the black background for making the color pop.

What a great stashbusting project this is too.  But you would't know it from my fabric.  I busted a bunch of reds and there are still a ton waiting to be cut and used.  Which is good because I cut a bunch of 4 1/2 inch squares and wouldn't you know I need a second quilt with red as the main color.  My principal's husband had a pacemaker put in today.  I think he could use a quilty hug.  It was an all of a sudden operation and quite a shock to her.  So, I should have his quilt finished this weekend too.  Then, I have about 6 other quilts waiting their turn.  A couple memory quilts that really need attention.  Those are the hardest to do.  I feel such pressure to make them perfect, when really they just need to be finished and quickly.

Oh, and my oldest daughter came home today.  She will be here 2 1/2 weeks and brought her puppy.  He's mighty cute and gets along well with my dogs.  Nice to have all the kids home and a full house again.  But I do have to squeeze my quilting time in when I can. :)

My friend Sandy's quilts

 I quilted up three of my friend Sandy's quilts this weekend.  I love that she trusts me enough to give me her quilts to quilt.  I love trying out new quilting designs on them too.  Of course, Rebecca the Robot does all the work.  I just push the buttons and babysit her when she needs help moving to the next row or runs out of bobbin thread, but I will take the credit when the quilt is finished :)

This last quilt was one I tried out the giraffe quilting design on before I used it for the quilt for my student who needed a hug.  Turns out she was in the hospital and still is waiting for her quilt.  I have another student who just went into the mental hospital for suicidal thoughts.  I am hoping to get her quilt finished before Christmas break.  If you have time to make a quilt and donate it to your local high school, there are so many hurting kids that could really use a hug.  Just drop it off and tell the front office to give it to the school psychologist.  They will know exactly who to give it to.  Many of these kids don't have parents who are parenting right now.  Our school is in a middle class neighborhood and we have had our homeless population triple this year alone.   These kids are under tremendous stress and really don't know how to process things.  When you hear about the school shootings, people are always asking why?  As a high school teacher, we see the why every day.  Kids need to feel like they belong and that someone cares about them.  If they can't find that at home, they will look for it in a gang, in drugs or alcohol or in the media through violence like the school shootings.  At least someone will notice them for a few minutes.  I don't pretend to understand them all, but many of them have the same needs of acceptance and feeling like they fit in somewhere.

Ok, off the soap box and on to happier thoughts.  Only five days and then break time :)  Which means family time and quilting time!  And time to clean out the sewing room.  Yippee!

A busy day

 My older son had a robotics tournament today.  He is a judge for the younger kids.  Yes, he is weird as he seems.  This is his girlfriend.  They have been going out since 7th grade and are now in 11th grade.  She used to have purple hair.  :)

 My daughter just came home this morning around 4am.  She got about 3 hours sleep this morning, but wanted to see her brother at the robotics event, so we went out thrift store shopping and ran some other errands and then stopped by. You can see he was excited to see her too.  They really do like each other.  It's nice to have kids who are friends.

 This is the big banner she won for getting the Scholar Athlete of the year award.  It's a pretty big deal.  She was pretty proud of the award and didn't realize it was such a big deal until she saw just how big the banner was.  They are going to put her name on it one day too.  She thought it was pretty cool to have it hanging in the gym.  Some of the banners are really old and dusty.  I told her that hers would be dusty one day too as long as the gym doesn't burn down or fall down in an earthquake.

 Here's my son working hard, counting the points the robots earn during the round.  They have to move the balls into and across barriers.

 He takes his job seriously.  The tournament director messed up and did something very wrong.  He corrected her, but her dad is the teacher of the class.  It's hard to correct the teacher's kid, because who is the teacher going to back, the one who is right or his own kid?  You guessed correctly, he backed his kid, the one who messed up the whole tournament.  My son was pretty upset that the rules weren't being followed.  I could see myself in him as he tried to process allowing the tournament to go on even though the rules were right there in front of them saying they had to have 12 teams instead of 8.  The other kid said it would be too much trouble to re-do everything.  Her dad (the teacher) agreed that it would just be easier to keep things the same and since nobody else knew the rules, just leave things the way they were.  My son said, that they should do things the right way, even though it would require changing things and take more time, but it was the right thing to do.  He was over-ruled and had to just let things go.  He was frustrated, but I was proud of him for stepping up and speaking his mind and being calm about it.

The principal said she had watched him earlier and he was being a ref, but also a teacher throughout the morning and was always helping the younger kids learn how to get better.  She is so impressed by him.  Makes me proud.

And as we left the school, there were a few turkeys along the side of the road.  They must have escaped someone's dinner recently.

While I grade lab books

 I was so far behind in my grading this semester.  With three new tachers and one that had only been in our department a year, I became the 'go to' person.  Everyone comes to me to ask where things are and how to do things.  Even the teacher who has been there one year less than me asks how to do things.  I'm not sure if she really doesn't know how to do things or just doesn't want to have to do them.  For example, we have a HUGE lab this week and everyone had a job to do to set it up.  Her job was to make the foul water we are all to purify.  She volunteered to make the water because when a teacher retired a couple years ago, he passed along a recipe list to her.  She says last week at the meeting that she has the recipe box on her desk and if anyone wants to use it, it is right on her desk.  Well, since she has the recipe, why not make the water.  I've made it in the past many times, it isn't hard, I've never used a recipe, just mix a bunch of nasty stuff together, garlic salt, coffee grounds, stuff like that, and the kids have to clean it well enough to make it drinkable.

So, the day comes to make everything ready for the lab and she asks me how to make the water.  I told her she had the recipe box on her desk.  She looks at me and asks where it is.  WITH A STRAIGHT FACE!  I have no idea if she really had a mental problem or she really hates working that much. 

So, me being the dumb one says I will just make the water.  I really don't want her making it anyways because she set up the previous lab for her class and did it wrong and her poor kids didn't get the right results.  I feel bad for her students because they aren't learning, so I often set things up for her, but man is it wearing on me to set up for 6 teachers.

 I'm pretty sure that's what is causing many of my physical and mental problems.  When I talked to the therapist and psychiastrist they both told me I have to stop doing everything for everyone else and start taking care of me.  Grading lab books for 16 hours this weekend was a sure sign of me doing too much for everyone else.  I didn' see the 5 other teachers at my house helping me when I needed it, that's for sure. 

I do have three TA's, students who get credit for helping grade and set up labs, but even with their help, I still can't keep up.  The other teachers are jealous and keep making comments to me about my student helpers.  They keep asking me to borrow my students, but I keep them all to myself.  If it wasn't for those kids, I'd be drowning in papers to grade too.  I have 3 or 4 other kids who come in to help out too.  I tried to get TA's for all the other teachers, but they didn't sign up for TA's and now they are regretting it.  Maybe next time they will listen :)  I'm not as dumb as I look.

So, while I was grading lab books and eating chocolate, Rebecca the Robotic quilting machine was stitching away on these three beauties.  They are for a friend's grandkids for Christmas.  Speaking of, I can't believe it is so close.  I haven't even started shopping yet and no decorating.  My daughters will both be home this year :) and we will have to clean and move things around to make room.  I'm excited to have the whole family home and to go thrift shopping with the girls.  It's much more fun with them around.  They are great bargain hunters.  I'll be rearraging things in the sewing room and moving things around in the shed.

10 more days of school until break. My little guy only has 5.  He gets a three week break, but has to go two weeks longer into summer.  I'd rather have a longer summer.  Let the countdown begin!

4 quilt tops in a day

 and graded 2 boxes of lab books.  I even got this one quilted.  It's a cute jumping dolphin quilt design.  These four are for a friend's grandkids for Christmas.  I'm using up most of my pink/purple/yellow scraps and with the tumbler die from Accuquilt these go together very quickly.  I hope to get them quilted up tomorrow and finished up this week.  I have lots of things on my to do list and more keeps getting added each day.  I didn't even bother to get dressed today.  Everyone needs a day like that I think.

Finished Giraffe quilt

This is for a special student who loves giraffes and burgundy and needs a hug right now.  I hope it fits the bill.  I love the quilting pattern

 This is as close to snow as we get around here.  Our family snowmen, made out of fence boards.  We made these 6 years ago, when my youngest was 3.  See the three buttons on his belly?  He was just a baby back then.  One for each family member and the boards were cut to height for the kids.  Not so much anymore.  I should make some new ones to show how they have all grown.  Of course, I would keep them all as skinny :)  When I showed my daughter that the snowmen were back up, she asked if I had left them up all year.  I'm not that lazy :)  Well, almost.

plugging away

 When I am motivated, I sure can get a lot done.  I have lots of kids needing hugs this winter.  There are the kids in the Philippines through Project Pearls who have lost everything in the Typhoon, who still need to know they are loved, there are kids locally, through the foster care system that are having a big party this coming Christmas season that could use the comfort of a warm quilt wrapped around them and there are newborn babies through no fault of their own who are born into very poor families who will grow up with very little material wealth, but who will know the comfort of a warm quilt when them come home from the hospital because of the many volunteers who have worked to put these quilts together.  So, I'm motivated to work in all my spare moments to get these quilts together and into the hands of kids who need a hug.  I'm so glad I have so many volunteers who are also willing to help me out.  I had a  friend come by this morning and pick up a whole bunch of tumbler blocks and who is working to get more quilt tops put together.  I just picked up a bunch of quilt tops from Carla because I was starting to get low.  I only had about 15 left in the to be quilted pile and when I'm on a roll, I can work through that in a week.  Thanks to Rebecca my robotic machine, I don't have to stand over her, she works happily on her own stitching away while I'm cooking or getting ready for school.  I just finished up about 15 quilts from that massive bunch of backing fabric I loaded.  And the first of the rolls of batting just arrived.  I think there are two more rolls coming still.  I should be good for another 40 or so quilts before having to order more.  Every time I get a 50% off coupon and free shipping and batting isn't already on sale, I like to pick up a roll or two of the Kodel batting from JoAnn's online.  That's something to save money on when you can.  I have the giraffe quilt on the machine today and hope to finish up the quilting tonight.  Time will tell.

My son, the youtube star

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CldYaG7o-GA

 

My son made a video about his trip to Misson San Francisco Solano in Sonoma this past weekend.  He's pretty excited about it and wanted to share it with everyone.  If you have a few minutes and want to see a pretty cute guy tell you all about a California misson in a robot voice, take a look at the link.  Be sure to watch the blooper at the end.  That's the best part. 

You might learn something you didn't know about California history.

Do you need quilting designs? Cyber Monday sales

I don't get a percentage, but I do love saving money.  I needed a giraffe quilting design, and saw that several of the design websites on the sidebar I have listed are having a Cyber Monday sale today.  Just thought I'd pass the info along in case you are like me and like to save some money.  20% off at Intelligent Designes and 25% off at Digi-Tech.  Not bad if you need a couple designs and that's off everything, both digital and paper designs, so if you like pantographs, head on over and check them out.

I gotta get off the computer and finish up those lab books before school starts this morning.  I only will finish one class, but at least it is one class!

not my usual style

But I kind of like it.  This quilt uses the Accuquilt Studio tumbler die, 6 1/2 inch and 4 fabrics.  Each fabric is 1 yard, except the giraffe is 2 1/2 yards since there is an extra repeat on the end as well as the top and bottom border.  There are 13 tumblers across and 13 rows up and down.  I thought it would come out too square, but with the 4 1/2 inch top and bottom border, the quilt is just perfect.  I'm going to quilt it with a giraffe face and hope to get it finished up today or tomorrow.  It is for a former student who has tried to commit suicide twice now.  I had her for two years and she is really a nice kid.  She suffers from migraine headaches and like me, the doctors really aren't doing much for her.  Because of the headaches and not getting help, she has some major depression issues.  It's pretty frustrating at my age, but I can only imagine being 16 and having to go through this.  People look at me like I'm crazy because you can't see a headache and they just expect you to deal with it.  Sure, ok, no problem.  Both times she overdosed on pain meds so I'm not really sure she was trying to end things, just end the pain.  Anyways, I hope the quilt lets her know she isn't alone.  We've talked a lot about her migraines and other things she is going through and I told her next time to just call me instead of trying to fix herself.  I hope she knows she is loved.