Last Day Off

Today is my last day before reporting back to the world of employment as an elementary school teacher. Monday I have Orientation, and then I finally go to my school on Tuesday. I guess I am ready! I have been trying to get my ducks in a row. My Bernina and Featherweight are both being serviced, my watch is repaired, my car is inspected, my teeth have been cleaned, my hair is cut, so let's go to work!

Saturday I went to a planning meeting for my 40th high school reunion. I went to Cary High School in North Carolina, which is in the same county where I now live. The reunion planning committee has been meeting monthly in Cary. It was so fun to see classmates together again! These planning lunches are very popular- people drove in from as far as Maryland and Asheville, NC. I hope to be able to attend all of the lunches. In the photo I am sandwiched between uber-slim Carol and not-so-slim Wilbert, who was one of the most interesting and humorous lunch attendees. I don't even remember him from high school, but we had a great conversation at lunch!

My new book arrived this week- what an array of inspirational quilts derived from photographs!

Wendy Butler Berns is a talented art quilter. Her method is to enlarge a photo, trace it to make a line drawing, enlarge it to make a master pattern, and make freezer paper templates from it. The freezer paper templates are used to iron on to fabrics. She uses the gluestick technique to turn under the edges. This whole technique is similar to the Sharon Malec patterns I have used for Change of Season and Golden Memories. She has lots of gorgeous quilts for inspiration, as well as some project quilts to make for practice.

This technique works well, but has the disadvantage that the freezer paper is on top of the applique pieces, and you can't see how your fabric looks unless you remove the paper. She offers some suggestions on how to preview your pieces. Great book!

Change of Season

Golden Memories

I've Been Tagged

I’ve been tagged by Nancy H at http://gomomma.wordpress.com/

Here are the rules:
A. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.


B. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

C. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay, now for seven things I have never mentioned about myself in my blog.

1- I used to slalom water-ski.
2- I was terribly near-sighted until I had Lasik corrective surgery in 1999. Now I only need glasses for prolonged reading or close-up work. (But it made it hard to water-ski when I could hardly see the boat!)
3- I once was almost fluent in French.
4- I love the outdoors. (Okay, maybe you know that!)
5- I have a green thumb. One of my houseplants, a schefflera, has been with me for 24 years!
6- I have taught every grade of public school from K-12!
7- I have a terrible sense of direction. Hard to find my way out of doctor’s examining room, find my car in a parking lot, and I could surely use a navigation system in my car!

No tagging- almost all of the blogs I follow have been tagged already. But if you would like to play along, consider yourself tagged!

Remodeling and De-Cluttering

Here is the look of my sunny, cheerful, future sewing room. I finished painting everything except the inside of the two identical closets. The one window faces east, and there is a beautiful sunny glow in the morning! In my old sewing room, the window faced west, and I was blinded by the afternoon sun. In addition to painting, I packed dozens of boxes and trash bags of stuff that was being stored in the two closets and in the storage space behind the knee-wall. DH helped me carry stuff down from the third floor to the car last night.




And here is Sweet Sue, the Suburu, loaded down with Goodwill parcels in the back seat, and trash dump bags in the back. I had no idea there was so much unused stuff in that room! Bryson, if you are reading this, I did save your baseball cards!

And no, I am not throwing away a case of Jack Daniel's...it's just a box!

So today, it is off to the post office to mail Bryson his missing wallet, to the Goodwill, to the dump, to the County Schools office to pick up more paperwork, and back to the doctor to get a mini-physical for my employment. Busy, busy!

Reprieve

I have been shoveling my way through the red tape (or choose your own euphemism for objectionable things that must be shoveled) of a large school system, trying to be able to start teaching on February 20. That is the "start date" I was told a week ago. Hmmmn, that is now two days away and I have no letter of employment, no contract, no nothing. This morning, I called HR, and finally heard back from them after 5:00 PM. They said that the delay was because my "Criminal background check" had just come back. Did I mention that they lost the request for the background check that I signed and had notarized at HR more than a month ago? Anyway, now I am scheduled for employee orientation on February 25, to start on February 26.

So, I am trying to complete a big project before I head back to the world of the employed. One of my goals when I retired (in 2005) was to re-organize my sewing room. That still has not been achieved. My sewing room is one of two attic bedrooms that we had finished when we bought our house. Being under the eaves limits your space, but I had definitely outgrown my little room. We just moved the queen-sized bed out of the second bedroom, and I am going to take over the entire third floor! So this weekend I have been painting the first of the two rooms. It is now a sponge-painted peach with golden tones, sort of like the roses in this photo. This is going to become the new sewing room. When I move the stuff out of the former sewing room, I will paint that room as well. It will be the painting room/book room/non sewing stuff room for my projects. I have purchased a work stand with a slanted top to use for fabric painting or drawing. All the paints and books and other non-sewing or fabric stuff will go in here. All my son's remaining belongings from his old bedroom is going to the Goodwill since it has now been more than four years since he moved out. (Speak now or forever hold your peace!)

So, painting and storage solutions will take up most of my week before it's hi-ho, hi-ho time again. Anyone have an alternative to the Koala sewing furniture? I think it is about time that I replace my tote bags and Rubbermaid containers and get something workable.

Sad Joy

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember that my husband's partner lost his wife Pam to cancer just before Christmas. (A Beautiful Goodbye) Spike called me a couple weeks ago to ask two favors. One was to find a use for Pam's library of quilt books. The other was to ask if I would finish some of Pam's unfinished quilts for him and their two daughters. Wow- I was overwhemed with joy that I could do something that might bring them comfort. And you know I love quilt books. He filled a cardboard carton with her books, and there were only about three that were duplicates of my own collection. I have been reading through these and deciding which to keep. Many of them were bookmarked for certain projects. :( Some I gave to members of my quilt bee, and the others will be donated either to the Capital Quilters Guild library or the public library.

One of the favorites that I kept is called At Piece With Time: A Woman's Journey Stitched in Cloth. This is a lovely book with watercolor illustrations, many charming and inspirational quotations, and a series of blocks that make up a sampler quilt. The author is Kristin C. Steiner and the illustrator is Diane c. Frankenberger. I had never heard of this book, but highly recommend it as beautiful eye candy and feel-good inspiration. I love the style of the artwork, and have been copying some of the sketches for drawing practice.

The UFO's include a partially finished lap quilt with a golf-themed fabric surrounded by mitered framing strips. It is long and skinny, so it either needs more blocks or borders. She also has made some lovely rose and green blocks, which I will use for something for the girls.

Not that I need more UFO's, but you know I will get these done!

And yesterday, I bought another book because I am trying to learn as many techniques as I can to transfer photographs to quilts. This one is called Photo Album Quilts, by Wendy Butler Berns. I think that I learned of this quilt artist from The Quilt Show. Can't wait to discover her techniques.

Valentines Day Recap

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. I spent part of my afternoon getting my hair cut, getting my watch repaired, and delivering Jean's quilt to her. I sat and visited with her and Gary for awhile, enjoying my first taste of Vernon's diet gingerale.

When Charlie got home, we exchanged Valentine's cards. He gave me one of the musical ones that plays "You're Still the One" and also brought home two quarts of strawberries and a lovely bottle of red wine. I made a funny card for him that included photographs of Charlie and me as babies and as young marrieds some time in the early 70's. The main idea was that now he has less hair, but still has nice buns! (True!)

Interesting true fact about my baby picture: it was used as the model for an advertisement for Johnson and Johnson baby products! My dad was a commercial illustrator in New York, and often used Polaroid photos of models when drawing or painting people. This time he loaned my modeling services to a friend who had the J&J account!
I also got Charlie an electric toothbrush for our mountain cabin. Before long, we will have all the comforts of home in our little retreat! Another non-traditional Valentine. Last year I gave him a gift certificate to DaVinci's Pork store!

Flowers and Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! May you spend your day with someone you love. And here is a special hug for my own personal sweetie, who has now been my Valentine for thirty-eight years!

We had a surprise snow this morning, just a dusting really. But my pink and white camellias are almost in bloom, so maybe we will escape this winter with no significant snow here in the Raleigh, NC area.

Yesterday I finished quilting my friend Jean H's lovely applique quilt. It was so much fun to think what to do in each block. I mostly repeated themes in the top, with folksy-looking flowers, hearts, and birds. Perfect for Valentine's Day!