Friday, March 30, 2007

Friday Morning, 5 am

My husband says I am now operating on "old people time." I think it is in my genes. My parents get up at like 4 am and can't keep their eyes open past 8 pm. I always know if the phone rings before 8 am at our house, it is probably my mother. Well, she knows I'll be awake. I am usually up by 6:30 or 7:00 and in bed by 10:30 or 11:00. For some reason, I couldn't keep my eyes open past 9:30 this week and so decided to just stop fighting it and go to bed. Of course, yesterday morning at 4:45 am I was wide awake. So I decided to get out of bed and see what I could see on my favorite sewing blogs. Heather Bailey had some amazing pictures using a specialized camera (now why couldn't I have married a photographer instead of a musician???). I am in love with this skirt from Hancock's of Paducah. I don't even like clothing that much. I promised myself I would make it if I lost 10 pounds. I'll keep you posted.I found this site which kept me in stitches (ok, ok, I know that is really a dorky play on words but I've been up since 5 am). I laughed because when I looked at all of those pictures of people's sewing rooms/sewing areas it seems they clean more than they sew. I am very blessed to have a large room for my sewing but because it used to be a kitchen there is a sink and old cracked linoleum on the floor. And lots of cat hair on the rug. And lots of thread on the rug. And my religious education materials for church in a box on the floor. And boxes of the boys comic books. And the vacuum..... Did I mention how blessed I am to have a sewing room? I am and I am thankful. I just wanted to take a picture of the mess and send it in to that site.Well, this morning when I was awake at 5 am I again got out of bed and went to the computer. I try to be very quiet because Mike (being a musician, not a photographer) gets in at around 2 am on Thursday evenings (wait, I guess that makes it Friday morning). Then I thought to myself, "Self, you always complain that you don't have time to sew. Get your rear end in the sewing room." So I did. I feel more and more like my mother every day. I consider this a positive, by the way.The pictures I have posted are of my newest project, which I was working on from 5 to 7 am. This is the preparation for applique'. I have the fishies all finished and am now ready to work on the octopus, star fish and sea horses. I'm a bit worried about the sea horses because of all their small jagged points but without the jaggedness they looked like big snake monsters. Speaking of snakes, check out this quilt.Lastly, the cat pictures were taken by the boys. They have a new love of digital photography and who can blame them. Maybe we'll all take a photography course this summer. They love looking at blogs that include animals, especially if the animal is a cat, so I include all of these cat pictures for the kids who may be looking over mom's shoulder.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Moda Magic

Well, if you remember this post, I promised to show you the finished product. I saw this quilt idea in a magazine and tried unsuccessfully to piece it by first cutting all the squares individually. I also had three extra colors added in which made the whole thing a bit bigger. When I tried to line up the rows, they didn't line up AT ALL. This was not promising. My friend Paulette suggested I strip piece it. I thought long and hard (ok, at least hard) about it and decided it could be done this way. I had to rip and repiece quite a bit but the rows lined up so much better (but still not perfect). Thanks Paulette.

Friday, March 16, 2007

School Fun

It is March and I know that spring has to come soon. The crocuses are blooming in my neighbor's yards. In March I always wish I had planted some in the fall. In the fall, I have so many other flowers blooming that I don't want to spend the money on bulbs. Maybe this year I will remember to buy some.

By this time of the homeschool year the kids and I are starting to burn out. We intended to go to Gettysburg today to finish Nathan's study of the Civil War but the weather didn't cooperate. I'm sort of glad. I decided we needed something new, fresh and fun. Friday is our easier school day and we always start with a Saint Story. Since tomorrow is St. Patrick's day, I of course read the story of St. Patrick. I had borrowed the Mass Kit from our Religious Education Coordinator (the perks of being a teacher) and got it out for the kids today. I think I love it even more than they do. We lit the charcoal in the Censer and added incense to send our prayers to God. We lit the Sanctuary Candle and talked about why there is one in every Catholic Church.

After school work is finished, we are going to decorate little boxes for the Leprechauns to fill tonight. Legend has it that the Leprechauns come out on the eve of St. Patrick's Day and fill any box left in the moonlight with treasure. They will hide the box and if it isn't found on St. Patrick's Day they come back and take the treasure home. If the box is found, the treasure belongs to the finder. Needless to say, the boys are very excited about this. We may also make a few St. Patrick's Day recipes.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Moda Marble

Through our homeschool group, I made a new friend, Paulette. She has gotten the quilting bug and took me to a quilt shop in the wilds of Lancaster County called Burkholder's Fabrics. I was in fabric heaven.

What you see here is the fabric that I bought. Unfortunately, the colors just don't come through very well in this photograph. This fabric is from Moda and is called Marble. There have all the shades of the rainbow. I could only afford part of the rainbow.

I am working on a baby quilt that will have a stained glass window look. My first try didn't work so well, but Paulette gave me some sage advice and I was able to get started again. On the right is the beginnings of the quilt. Once I get all the fabric lined up correctly, I will cut and piece it again.

I'll try to keep you posted. I haven't had too much time to quilt as I have been deep in the throws of obsessing about the education of my children. Now that I've spent a few weeks working out the educational glitches, I should have more time to sew.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Love Art?

As a homeschooling family, we are required by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to teach our children things like Math, Reading and Writing. They also have the nerve to make us teach Fire Safety, Health, Art and Gym. Now, as a quilter, you would think art was up my alley. You would be misinformed. The thing is, I hate a mess. I know it is a character flaw as a mother to hate when my children are so enthralled with a project that they are putting their mind, heart and soul (and in Nolan's case, most of his body) into it. But there you have it. I hate clean up. Yes, yes, I make the kids clean up. Who are we kidding though, 9 and 10 year old clean up isn't quite up to my standards. We are working on it though.

Fortunately, this year we have joined a great homeschool group called Lancaster Area Catholic Homeschoolers. Every Wednesday we go to Art and Gym class for two hours. So I have been so happy keep the mess out of the house.

These pictures are of Nolan making a Native American Wigwam. He made a few Teepee's as well, but I think he enjoyed dipping his fingers in the glue for this project. Nathan sewed a Civil War money belt (he has a nice little running stitch) and we photocopied some Civil War bills to go in it. While taking these pictures, Nolan wanted to know if I was going to put him on my blog. I guess the answer is, "yes".

Nathan would also like to let everyone know that today is his last day to be ten. He informed me last night that he was tired of being ten and was glad that he would soon be eleven. He was going to give the ten away for someone else to use. Don't you love the minds of children?
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