More relaxed...

...with every passing day.

Each minute spent at my new school seems to be having a calming effect on me.  Normally, as school gets closer, I cannot free my mind for a moment from the swarming thoughts of children incoming.  It's not exactly worry, more of an overwhelming, consuming crush of new ideas, inspiration, hopes, and dreams.  One cannot help but think about one or another aspect of teaching.  Now, approaching the middle of the week of "teacher workdays" (read: overlapping meetings mixed with prep time when you can find it), I'm feeling a bit less worried, a bit more confident, and (a great relief to me) more and more able to enjoy my time at home with my new hubby!

I've tried to sew a little each day.  Mainly I've worked on projects for school (I can justify spending time on those easiest!), but soon I'll be back to quilting the charity quilt and the bunny quilt.

I've made some quilty labels...I liked the idea of labeling the parts of the room with animals instead of group numbers.  And my awesome sister-in-law gave me the idea of posting the scientific names of the animals along with them.  And so I give you:

Loxodonta africana

Chelonia mydas

and Hypsypops rubicundus

They're so fun!  The dolphin, snail, and salamander are in cue to be quilted.

I even think my stitches are getting a bit more even:

I also felt like my room of mismatched furniture--we're about to undergo renovation and will have a BEAUTIFUL building with new furniture--needed a facelift.  So I made a ruffle curtain.  Anyone else hate attempting to sew really long, straight seams???

I love that you can hide things behind it...invented storage!

I also love the curtain because when people walk into my room I can figure out if they love craft or not based on their response to the table ;)

I've also done a lot of knitting while listening to guest speakers...

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday; there's always such great inspiration to be found there.  I hope to write again soon!

Trying Echo Quilting--New Classroom Project

In honor of freshman Bio, and because I felt like making more cute cartoon quilted animals after the bunnies, and because I need practice echo quilting...I have a new project...

I came home and drew up some designs:

Then used Pellon's Wonder Under fusible to prepare the pieces after tracing them on my lightbox (aka our windows).

All the pieces are fused:

And the turtle is quilted and ready for binding.

I am even okay with the way the back turned out!

I'm so glad I decided to do this...it'll make great little breaks (and FMQ practice) as I work like crazy to get the classroom and plans ready!!!  I really love that it's almost all made with scraps from my grandmother (in law) that really helped inspire me to start quilting.

I'm linking up with TNT Thursday at Happy Quilting by Melissa.  Her blog is great; be sure to check it and the other projects out!

Tomorrow is my first day on site at my new school.  I'll meet other new teachers and some of the staff.  I'm nervous and excited!!!  I really want this school to be my home for a long time!

WIP Wednesday

It's my last week before returning back to professional development and teaching.  I've been keeping busy quilting...it's been so much fun!  I'm really looking forward to meeting a community of quilters here in Northern VA.  DC Modern Quilt Guild is hosting an event this Saturday, and I'll be there working on some of these things perhaps...

The charity quilt for 100 Quilts for Kids:

I've started quilting it using the circuit board pattern from the Free Motion Quilt Along.

The other bunnies have faces...which do you like best?

I like this one (although I hope he looks shy/embarrassed but not sad!)

And the quilt top is almost finished...I made some log cabin blocks for the four corners of the outer border.  I just need to cut the four strips of white and sew it together!

I'm enjoying them so much I'm not sure what I'll work on next...
I could keep working on the hexies...

 

Or pick up the owl quilt again...

 Or another baby quilt that will allow lots of free-motion practice

Or maybe a modern quilt for myself:

My sister starts her first teaching job tomorrow!  My heart goes out to her as she starts her biggest WIP yet!

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday, Quilty Embellishment Day, and the Free Motion Quilting Project (even though I'm quite a few weeks behind!)  Check these blogs out...they're wonderful and so are the projects people are linking!

Many works in progress

I've been having a blast with my new ("old") sewing machine--a Janome 6500 that I purchased used--and my adventures into all kinds of quilting techniques.

After finishing up a quilt top that was in progress for two years (on an old Singer), I still didn't feel comfortable quilting but knew I wanted to do more...hence, the Janome...a lucky find my mom made while scoping out a Janome dealer in town.

My first quilt top I pieced was a baby quilt in purple with multi-colored squares and dots. I tried to free motion quilt swirls in the borders, but was infuriated with thread breaks. After changing needles many times, I found that Inspira 90/14 quilting needles (mostly) solved the problem. Then, I started reading the free motion quilting project blog. Her posts about thread lead me to try Isacord...and although I've purchased a few other threads to try (Superior, YLI, Aurifil), I haven't felt the need to try them yet.

Now I'm working on a transportation themed baby quilt with all-over stippling, detailed small-scale stippling around some of the pictures, and fun swirly borders. I'm hoping to quick bind the project using this tutorial from Quilting in the Rain. But, I want to use a decorative stitch like Leah from Free Motion Quilting.
After taking my machine classes, I really wanted to try an applique project. Here's Hooterville by Brandywine Design. It needs a few more blanket stitches around some owls, but I'm ALMOST ready to piece it together! I stopped working on this to practice free motion--oh, and that whole job/apartment hunting adventure that happened mid-February. I'll pick it back up soon I'm sure...now that I'm feeling less intimidated by the idea of quilting it.
Other things to be working on include:

• A tree skirt for Jamie--the pieces are cut, they just need to be pieced and quilted.
• A scrappy quilt that I started piecing as an all-over free motion practice quilt (before finding the awesome transportation fabric.
• A quilt as you go project made with the Bold and Beautiful line from Benartex to showcase some center-fill designs made by free motion quilting in pink on black. (This will be mine all mine when it's finished!)

Now I'm off to wrap up some french toast for the freezer and quilt!