As Nemo would say..."first day of school! First day of school!"
Those words (in a Nemo voice and all...) echoed through my head as I woke up today. It was a smooth first day. Maybe it's just that my husband has a calming influence on me, maybe this school really is less intense than my last, maybe the kids jive better with me than others have in the past, maybe I'm finally becoming a "veteran," maybe it's all the above.
Lots of hard work to prepare for the day and lots more hard work to go. It's always a sprint to the end of the year. But before I go quilt a bit and read lots of Ecology...here's some of what I've been working on in the beautiful, unencumbered month of August:
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| Curtain to spruce up the table (and hide stuff!) |
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| Finished the bunny quilt top |
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| Began quilting my first 100 quilts for kids quilt |
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| Back of the bunny quilt sandwhich |
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| My favorite...the bunny faces :) |
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| Began some EPP hexagon flowers...another first! |
This will be my first month joining Fresh Sewing Day
Lily's Quilts also has a "Small Blog Meet" for those of us with fewer than 50 followers. That describes my tiny blog well. I'm looking forward to checking out the other "small blogs" and you should too! See the list here:
Also, I FINALLY pulled out a UFO (UnFinished Object) to work on again in honor of UFO Sunday at Leah Day's blog. I have a surprising amount of quilts in progress and laid aside considering I've only been quilting about a year. I pulled out a very fitting quilt considering my August theme of "animal" quilts (unintentional I swear!)
It's the Hooterville Quilt!
What made me lay it aside? I knew my FMQ skills weren't where they needed to be and probably got tired of blanket stitching around all the fused applique pieces. Luckily, the stitch was still saved in the Janome's memory bank (that poor machine needs a name now that I'm so fond of her...suggestions?)
After an afternoon break from lesson planning yesterday, here's the progress:
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| Some owls needed eyes and a few pieces of stabilizer torn off. |
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| Lots of stabilizer...this was early in the process... |
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| They made it to the design wall! |
I'm in love again...and now I can actually FMQ with some confidence. By the time this top is finished, I'll have quilted the charity quilt and bunny quilt too!
Progress will be slower during the school year to be sure, but it will be progress!!! Here's to all of our progress and a big thanks to all the people out there in blog land inspiring me to keep going!
you have been busy !love your bunny quilt and love the photo of the toilet :) also love your echo quilting and hooterville is so cute - I'm doing epp hexies as well - they're very time consuming :) visiting from Lily's Quilts
ReplyDeleteI knew someone would mention the toilet ;) Funny enough, the bathroom is the only place with floor space large enough for laying out a quilt sandwich.
DeleteWow, I am amazed and impressed. You have done a lot this last month. All just wonderful. Thank you for being a teacher, and a high school Biology teacher at that. I am sure I made my HS biology teachers job harder.
ReplyDeleteblessings, jill
visiting from lilys quilts
I have to say I love the owls! They are just adorable. Out of curiousity, did you create the pattern for them yourself?
ReplyDeleteI did not. The pattern is Hooterville by Brandywine Design http://www.brandywine-design.com/shop/Patterns/p/Hooterville-sku-M11.htm
DeleteAubrie, I LOVE your animal quilts. Awesome job with all of them.
ReplyDeleteAubrie. Your work is beautiful and I really love those EPP hexagon flowers. The fabrics are lovely and I have made many of those blocks in my time. Of course, I "cheated" and machine appliqued them to the background fabric (using monofilament thread). I love teachers! I'm a former high school math and English teacher and my oldest daughter (Audrey!) teaches English. happened on your blog thru the posting by Leah Day.
ReplyDeleteWow, gorgeous. your quilting is amazing. I have just bought a new machine because my old on didn't allow me to Free Motion Quilt, and I have to say I am still struggling with it. I wish I could quilt like you. Something to aspire to. Gorgeous owls too.
ReplyDelete