I'm still here

My oldest just left this morning to go back to college and I have a second to come up to breathe. We had a great time with her being home, I just wish I didn't have to turn in grades on Tuesday morning. For some reason this year I have been doing more grading of papers at home. I changed my schedule at work so I'm not a late start teachers. That means I start work the same time as all the other teachers and get done at the same time too. I don't have as much time in the morning to get work done while everyone else is teaching. Now, when I have time to grade, everyone else is done working too and they all want to talk. Of course, I'm exhausted from teaching by the afternoon and don't really feel like grading papers either, so enjoy the excuse to chat instead of work. That gives me about 45 minutes extra a day less grading time which has to be made up somewhere. I found out where today, when I spent from 9am until 7pm grading papers and I still have more to do. I'm going to work for another hour tonight and what gets done will go in the grades tomorrow. Whatever is leftover will continue on into the next quarter.

I had to take a chocolate fondue break today and dip some fruit in chocolate or I never would have made it through the day and I also found 15 minutes to cut fabric and sew it back together again. I am determined to get the binding on those 10 or so quilts that have been sitting on the cutting table for months waiting to be finished. They are doing nobody any good sitting there. I haven't found the perfect fabric so I'm using the next best thing...fabric that I can find and that sort of goes with the quilts. Done is better than perfect!

Last week my washing machine went out on me. I guess it was about time. My parents bought it for us when we bought our first house 13 years ago. It stopped agitating and spinning. It would fill and drain and make noises, but not spin. I called a repairman and it was going to cost about $200 to repair and $500 for a new one. I wondered how long the repairs would last before something else went out on it so decided to get a new one. All the places said it would be another week before they could deliver so I headed to the laundry mat. 11 loads of laundry and 3 hours later, I spent about $25 for the week. I knew I couldn't afford to go without a washing machine for another week so went to the local apliance shop and they delivered one yesterday. I spent about $50 more on it than the big box stores to get it delivered the same day, but it was worth it! I've done 5 more loads of laundry in the new machine today. I don't understand how anyone can live without a washing machine. Makes me want to make friends with people who don't own their own washers so they can come over to do their laundry.

I won it!

Well, finally I found out today that I was the winning bidder on the quilt I made for my son's preschool class. I was totally bummed after coming home on Friday and not getting the phone call. I bid $40 for the quilt (they actually put two together for the bid) and they said they would call the winning bidder. Well, since I didn't get a call, I figured someone had outbid me. I was happy they got more money, but sad that I didn't get the quilt for my son. Then, on Monday, I asked about the quilt and was told that they thought I had gotten it, but would get a phone call during the day. Again, no phone call, so I figured I hadn't won it.

Well, today I showed up and was told that yes, I had won the quilt! I took the one that my son had worked so hard on re-arranging the squares on and gave the other one to the teacher whose square was in it. She was very happy to get the gift. Of course, I was asked to make another one in the spring for the room mom who does so much for the class and I agreed. I enjoy making these and they do turn out really cute. The kids all saw the quilts for the first time when I picked up my son and they all wanted one too. I told them I would be back to make more quilts with them. I can see this will be quite the project this year! Now that the teachers know how to have the kids draw on the fabric, I can see many more quilts from these kids.

The other pair of quilts sold for $65. So, I helped make $105 for the preschool class.

more fabric

Last week I got a call to come and pick up some batting. There was a surprise bag of fabric waiting as well. Look at all of the great kid prints in there!

Preschool quilts #3 and 4

Well, I've been quiet lately because I've been so busy. I just had to get those last two quilts finished for the Country Faire that is tonight. Here they are and I'm pretty proud of how they all turned out. This was really an enjoyable project and I can't wait to do it again. Maybe not so many quilts in a week's time, but I like the children pictures in the quilts and the bright colors make me happy. I am happy with how the corners match on the blocks too. I'm seeing improvement in the quilts I have been making and I think I am ready to start trying some more difficult patterns.

I am going to try to do some half square triangles coming up soon. Those things scare me and I don't know why. Maybe because I haven't tried them, or maybe because there seems to be so many steps and so much measuring and so much numbers. I don't like numbers very much. That's why I teach science, not math.

Oh, and my oldest comes home tomorrow from college for a week. They are on the semester system and have a Fall Break. I can't wait to see her again! I've missed her so much.

Binky Patrol Sunday

Sunday, the 12th was our Binky Patrol meeting. We meet the 2nd Sunday of the even months. There were two ladies who came and hung out with me most of the time and several others who came by for a little while and dropped things off. I always enjoy catching up with everyone and finding out what everyone has been working on the past two months.

Here are some of the blankets and preemie hats I collected. These will go to the local hospital for their program called A Baby is Coming. They give a blanket to each mother as she graduates from the child education class as an incentive to keep coming to the classes.

Quilts in Kazakhstan

http://tnlfickess.myphotoalbum.com/slideshow.php?set_albumName=album02

You have to look at this slide show of the quilts the my group sent to Kazakhstan. When I saw some of these at church on Sunday, I started to cry. Just look at the faces on these children. These are orphans and I just wish I could take them all home!

It feels so good to see the quilts in the hands of children who love them. I especially love the pictures of the boys with the quilts wrapped around their heads. How much better that fabric looks on a child, than in a bucket in my shed, not being used. I just wish there were more hours in the day!

And on a sad note, my high school lost another student. His name was Ray Britton and he graduated in 2002. He died of heart failure. This has been a very tragic month for our high school.

Girls State Quilt #2

This is the quilt I finished on Saturday for the Girls State Raffle. The picture came out a little dark, I might have to take another one, but it is reds, whites, blues and is about 48x60.

Preschool Quilt Tutorial

Let me start by saying this is not my original idea. I got the idea from Alycia at Alycia Quilts on the left sidebar. Check out her website and help her make a Quilt of Valor! She has a goal of 400 quilts by next May. She has about 200 of them now (130 are quilted) and could use all of the help she could get. When I asked her how she made quilts with her kids, she told me what she did. Since I like to see things as well as read about them, I thought it might be nice to share with everyone in words and pictures how I took what she told me and applied it to the quilts I made with my son's preschool class. I also learned a thing or two on my own that might help you avoid one of the biggest problems I had with these quilts.

1. Prewash your muslin fabric. Don't try to wash a whole 25 yard bolt at one time. Cut it into manageable size pieces, maybe 1 yard each, but not tiny squares either. Dry it in the dryer on the hottest setting. You want it to do all of its shrinking before you get started. I made a nap mat cover for my son and didn't wash the muslin first. The muslin shrank way more than the other fabric I used and now it is all wonky and crooked. It is only a nap mat cover and nobody really cares, but for a quilt, you don't want your muslin squares shrinking tons and making the quilt all crooked.

2. Iron the muslin after it comes out of the dryer if it is really wrinkly. Mine was pretty nice, but having wrinkles in the squares makes it hard for the kids to write on.

3. Tear off pieces of freezer paper. I tried this a couple of different ways. I cut squares of freezer paper the size of the finished squares I wanted and then ironed them onto the fabric and that was ok, but I'm in this for speed. The way I did it was to tear off a piece of freezer paper about the length of my ironing board. Then, I cut a piece of muslin the length of my ironing board and cut it in half the long way. This was with the 45 inch wide muslin. With the 36 inch wide muslin, I left it whole and ironed two pieces of freezer paper to it, one overlapping the other by about an inch. I ironed the freezer paper to the muslin. The freezer paper has a paper size and a waxy side. You will know which side to put down on the muslin. If you try to iron on the wrong side, it will stick to your iron and ruin it. Be sure to iron on the paper side of the freezer paper. This stuff is really cool!

4. Take your freezer paper/muslin combo to the cutting mat and using a rotary cutter, make squares the size you want. I cut my blocks 9 inches. Again, I was going for speed, so I laid the paper/muslin combo over on itself and cut through several layers at one time. The freezer paper is exactly 18 inches wide so that was really nice for cutting.

5. When you have enough squares (make a few extras just in case) let the kids draw on the using crayons. I used Crayola crayons. The really cheap crayons like Rose Art I wouldn't trust. I bought mine at WalMart for 20 cents for a pack of 24 crayons. They weren't on sale, they are always this price around here.

6. Here is where the hard part comes in. Try to get the kids to keep away from the edges. They will want to draw right up to the edge, but you will need 1/4 inch for the seam allowance and whatever they draw or write at the edge will disappear under the seam. Get them to write their name in the middle of the square if possible. Depending on the age of the child, this isn't as easy as it sounds.

7. When the kids are all done drawing, turn the paper/muslin squares fabric side down onto a brown paper grocery sack. Iron them to get the excess crayon off and to set the crayon into the fabric. Do not use the same part of the grocery sack over and over because the crayon will just go back onto the fabric if you do. Move the sack around for each square that you iron. Be careful not to iron too long or you will burn the paper! Also be careful because the paper gets really hot and holds the heat longer then you might think. I burned my fingers a couple of times trying to move the squares off the ironing board.

8. When you are ready to sew, peel off the fabric from the muslin and sew just like you would any other fabric. Make sure you aren't sewing the squares upside down ;)

9. I cut my sashing fabrics 3 1/2 inches. These quilts came out about 43 x 60 inches a perfect size for curling up on the couch with or taking a nap.

10. If you would like to make one of these for QOV, please make them 4 blocks by 5 blocks so they are big enough for the wounded soldiers. You can send them to Alycia for her QOV project at the address listed on her blog. You can even make a quilt top and she will do the quilting for you. Think of how much fun it would be to try this with your child's class. Have each child draw a picture, thanking a soldier for their service to our country, or a picture of what it means to be an American.

I'm going to have my son's 6th grade class do this. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

preschool quilt #2 finished

Boy does it feel good to get so much done in a day. Two quilts done, almost start to finish. Well, not counting all of the cutting, but most of the sewing of blocks together and the quilting AND the binding. That's something to be proud of.

Now, to cut the binding for the Girls State quilt and get that one checked off my list.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the two quilts made for the little girls of the Richmond Police officer who was killed last weekend. My friend from work is planning on going to his funeral and I was hoping to have her take them to his mom (their grandmother) to give to the little girls. His mother works as a teacher in my district, so if I don't get the quilts done by tomorrow, I can get them to her through district mail and she can get them to the little girls later, so I'm not too worried about this, but would like to try at least.

Tomorrow is Binky Sunday. We meet every other month and I can't believe it is time again. I'm trying to figure out a project for tomorrow's meeting. I think I'm going to try something with half square triangles. Those things scare me! But, maybe if I do them in a public place, where there are experts to help me along the way, I can overcome my fear and make something that works.

preschool quilt update #2

I got one quilt done so far and the second one just needs the binding put on. I have 8 squares for the third quilt, but there are a couple of the kids that I'm not sure who they are or where they came from. The teacher gave me a list of the kids in the class and there are two blocks with names that aren't on the list! So, I needed one more block for the second quilt and just added in the 'mystery' child block and hope someone knows who this child is ;)

I'm going to put together a tutorial for making these quilts tomorrow in case you like this idea and want to do this with your child's class or even your own children. It is really easy and fun. This was not my idea so I hope nobody gets mad at me for sharing something they came up with. Alycia, from Alycia Quilts (on the left side bar) shared how she does her quilts and I took her idea and added my own twist and this is what I ended up with. I'm really happy with the results and I hope that these parents will bid on the quilts and they help raise some money for the preschool.

My little guy helped with his quilt. He picked out the two boys on either side of him because 'they are nice and don't hit'. Then, he put his teacher's square under his because he wanted to be next to the teacher. I may have to bid on this quilt myself!

This is the first quilt, ready to go.