WIP Wednesday and 100 Quilts for Kids!

I've been busy doing what I do best--teaching and crafting, working on my masters, hanging out with my dear husband, posting to Instagram, but not blogging :)

But it's time to link up with 100 Quilts for Kids--so I'm back on the blog!

I did manage to use some layer cake scraps to make this little quilt for charity:  It's the first quilt I've made start to finish in 5 days!

So glad I could participate in DC Modern Quilt Guild's cause--these quilts are all going to children living in the DC General Homeless shelter--I just wish it was more than one quilt...

Also on the sewing table is the JeliQuilts Triple Goosed pattern that I started over summer vacation:

That's all for now...I'm off to prep for Back to School Night :)

**Linking up with WIP Wednesday and 100 Quilts for Kids (see the link for more details on how to participate!)**

100 Quilts for Kids

Each summer our guild, the DC Modern Quilt Guild, hosts an annual charity drive gathering up quilts we've made together or individually to donate.  Check out more about 100 Quilts for Kids here!

When I joined the guild three years ago, I started this quilt with fabric inherited from my dear grandmother-in-law.  It's been sitting, waiting for binding, all that time.  (I really hate binding quilts...it's sort of ridiculous.)  Well, there was no "I'm new to this school" or "We just bought a new house" excuse this year--so may I present...the finished quilt!

I've also been busy knitting and sewing up a storm--including teaching knitting classes!  Hopefully many pictures and posts to come soon, but here's a shot of my quilting on one of our group charity quilts :)

 

Reflection and Peace Quilt

I'll tell you right off the bat that this is a very personal quilt to me, and it is the first finish I've ever kept for myself.

Ever since reading an airline mag article about labyrinths and their meditative purpose, I've been incredibly intrigued by them.  The whole notion of turning a quilt into a labyrinth started fall of 2013.  An old college roommate is going to seminary here in VA and she and I got to talking about labyrinths.  She has a beautiful little cloth that is a hand-held labyrinth, and I thought, "How great would it be to trace your hands across a quilt as you meditate?"

I should pause here and say that while prayer has always been a part of my life, it has never been such a part of healing and peace to me as it has been in the past year.  Getting married, moving to VA, and finding a job that really seems "perfect" for me came with more challenges than I expected.  Literally crippling stress led to headaches that became so severe (right before I sought help) that I nearly got violently ill in front of students on a field trip that I was supposed to be chaperoning…It was a turning point.

I've been making a concerted effort to stay calm and trust that God will take care of more things than I often give Him credit for.  That, plus an amazing husband, family, and friends has led me to feel an incredible sense of peace during hectic, stressful situations.  I've certainly had moments when stress got the better of me, but they are much less frequent, and much more under my control.

All of these thoughts and hopes went into the quilt…and they are the reason I included various religious symbols.  I hope to continue to find happiness and peace where I used to find stress and frustration.  And I hope this quilt serves to remind me to take some time to pause, think, and give thanks for the blessings in my life.

I started the design by drawing out a labyrinth on some graph paper.  

Since I could only work with two colors, I wanted them to shine.  Kaffe Fasset's shot cottons were a no brainer.

Then I figured out simple blocks that could be strung together using 2.5 inch wide strips of fabric.

The blocks were sewn into strips and then quarters.

And then halves...

Until finally a finished top was born!

I added quilting to both colors.  Straight lines along the edges of the dark color and a free motion quilted edge for the light.  I made a test swatch for the quilting.  (Photo to come soon…with some detailed quilting pictures too!)

And my favorite part of the quilting…a microstippled "stained glass" medallion in the center :)  It's modeled after the North Rose Window of the Chartres Cathedral in France.  I want to walk their labyrinth someday...

The label, complete with the Hail Mary in latin…an homage to my faith.

And a few finish photos…

More photos here.

Awesome weekend…Much needed...

I spent the Friday and Saturday with these amazing people…

And may I say that the world needs more people like these folks.  Some of them have known each other for years and years and yet they welcomed friends new and old in the same incredibly loving way.   God bless them all.

We were out on the Northern Neck of VA.  Beautiful…but COLD!

Fortunately, there was lots of knitting taking place indoors...

In the spirit of the Olympics, knitters everywhere pull out their unfinished projects to try to make some progress as we see amazing feats of strength, endurance, and speed on TV.

I REALLY enjoyed having some knitting buddies!

I also got to spend some time taking "art" photos of my newest quilt finish.  I've never had a finished quilt long enough to take it to a scenic place. (I tend to finish them right before I need to give them away, AND I don't get out to scenic places NEARLY enough…it's a double whammy!)

This quilt has already traveled with me a bit since I carried it to various social gatherings while I stitched the binding on.

More info to come about the quilt in a later post…but here are the photos! :)

Definitely my favorite…I really loved it out on the river…

Quilting AND Knitting Again!

Oh my goodness...I've moved many, many times in my life.  But our short, local move that started one week before school started and extended three weeks into the start of school was TOUGH!  And, totally worth it.

I spent the week after we closed on our first home painting rooms and installing shelving.  Five fully painted rooms later, we started building IKEA wardrobes, then shortly thereafter the furniture was moved in.  We did everything except for major furniture ourselves--and in short, my husband is my hero...he did so much of the heavy lifting while I was packing, unpacking, or painting.

Meanwhile, I started my second year teaching at the Sci and Tech Governor's School where I teach Biology.  I may have set myself up with too ambitious a plan for the year--I've decided to "flip" the classroom by creating online lessons that are annotated with voice recordings so that we can do more Q&A, activities, and review in class.  Our pace is ridiculous since I basically am teaching AP Bio and Research/Stats to high school freshmen!...and they are awesome...and we all work really, really hard--which generally leads to AMAZING results.

All that is to say that I haven't really been generating a whole lot of crafty things lately.

During the first few weeks of school I did try to finish up my "Entropy" sign for my desk.  I picked it up one morning before work--and boy, did I show how LONG it had been since I quilted.  I needed to add a few inches to the binding, so I cut and ironed one more bias strip and sewed it on--at a 90 degree angle.  I didn't even rip the stitches...just cut off the seam and tried again to remember how to attach strips together so that they form a straight line.   I should've stopped there.

I started decorative stitches along the seams to attach the binding and reached the point where the binding needed to be joined.  And I joined it twisted!

That was it for me for the day, although I'm happy to report I did finish it later that week.  My students love it--nerds that we all are, they love to knock one corner down so that it hangs crooked (entropy is the law that says the world descends into random chaos, after all).

The whole episode also gave my mom and I something to laugh hysterically at over the phone since I used FaceTime to show her my sad, twisted binding.

After a few really LONG, hard weeks I've reached some sort of equilibrium.  During their first test I knit to my heart's content (I can look up while knitting in the round--allowing both test monitoring and sock/sweater knitting!)  I got most of the foot of this sock done and reached a point on what felt like an ENDLESS sweater where I could put the stitches on scrap yarn for the sleeves.  I'm almost ready for waist decreases because I can also knit and read technical articles on my Kindle app.  Life for me is GOOD when I can both knit and read :)

Yesterday was my first "free" day in a long time.  So I pulled out the charm packs of Aspen Frost by Moda and started setting up for the Lil Twister tool by sewing squares together.  Have you used the Twister tool line?  So much shrinkage!  But so cute.

The fabric scraps are also quite extensive.  Ideas for dealing with bias scraps anyone?

The pattern is Stocking Sweet Stocking by Bean Counter Quilts.

Now I'm back to making a lesson on macromolecules.

WIP Wednesday

Yay!  I actually have works in progress to share!

 I finished this quilt top started for charity a few months ago and haven't shared yet.

My great finish in the past week was a baby boy quilt for a friend.  Last week I worked on the quilting and spent our weekend trip to Ohio sewing on the binding.  I plan to work on the label today.

While Katie was visiting I made her a few quick project bags.  A "custom" fit zipper case for her needles from a craftster forum:

And a lined drawstring bag from an InColorOrder tutorial as practice for the upcoming DC area modern guild swap.

 I also finally basted the owl quilt using the student tables in my classroom. (Basting is an issue in a tiny apartment...anyone else have this problem?  How do you work around it?)  I want to get my FMQ skills back up to snuf, then--let the quilting begin!

Upcoming projects:
-Baste and quilt my t-shirt quilt.
-Practice FMQ with a silly project for my classroom.
-Use some fabrics I inherited from John's grandmother to make some of Tula Pink's City Sampler blocks.

Now I'm off for a walk/jog before it starts to rain!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.