And, Repeat

Today was a repeat of excessive heat. It didn't go much better at school except that now the students know how to get back to the library without being escorted which saved some time.

For breakfast today along with our eggs we had Caramel Nut Danish from Aldi. 

When I opened the package I found this...

 I guess you only need the walnuts on one half. It was good anyway. 

The heat and lack of rain are not good on the crops and lawns around here.

And, I am seeing more of these every day as I drive to and from work.

https://www.pixoto.com/images-photography/animals/insects-and-spiders/wooly-worm-crossing-the-road-5556879491596288

And, it all makes me realize that fall is coming. I don't mind fall - the cooler weather, the pretty leaves, pumpkins. But, it reminds me that winter is just around the corner. I do not like winter. I think I would not mind winter so much if I didn't have to get out in it.Winter means ice, snow, inside recess. Oh, inside recess is not fun. My head hurts just thinking about it.


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Oh, Monday

I'm glad it's over.

My school district, along with others in this county, released early because of the heat. That means we have to get all the students to the bathroom during recess because they get on buses right after recess. Today, because of the heat advisory the students went to the air conditioned library to watch a video. This is all new to them and it was a difficult, chaotic undertaking. I am glad it is over.

When I left school I went to my friend's house to get my copy of the block for our Exchange quilt.
I am doing block one of The Christmas Traditions quilt by Debbie Roberts. Clicking on the link will take you to Amazon where you can see the quilt on the book cover.

I am using a Round Robin piece from years ago as my medallion instead of the medallion in the book.

I am using black as the background and solids instead of Christmas prints. 

Clicking this link will take you to the Chino Valley Quilters page where you can look at their blocks.

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Edit: Blogger is doing weird things. After I published my post I noticed some small type in one area and lots of space between lines at the bottom. I thought I fixed those things, but every time I edit it gets worse. Sorry.

I May Be Crazy!

I can't believe I started another project!

But.... my husband saw this on Facebook and really liked it soooo....

I purchased the instant digital download at ImInStitches13.  

I ordered the yarn and started today.

I knit reasonable well. 
I have made scarves 






 








 








and hats 













 
and mittens

and sweaters for big people and little people.




 
 

And all of those things in miniature.

























 


I have finished items other people started. 

But, I haven't crocheted anything before. Oh, I take that back. I have crocheted a cover for a travel cup to help absorb the condensation from cold drinks. But, nothing big, until now. My husband thinks this should be a fair entry next year. It took me 35 minutes to do one row. One row! This project will take a while.

A weird thing happened to me yesterday when I was printing some things for school. Some of the ink cartridges needed to be replaced. When I opened the new box of cartridges I found this...

Every package had been opened. Even more weird is that I didn't notice it at first. I thought the package I tore open opened easily and then noticed the yellow tab was inside the package, not on the cartridge. I installed it and printed. The page looked good. I started to open the next package when I noticed they were all open. The way these are open is not how I open them. I tear down from the notch at the top of the package. These are cut across. It appears is if they were used because the yellow tab had been removed and was missing in all the packages except one. I couldn't figure out how this could happen because the box was sealed. Then I turned it over.

It's been taped shut. I did not notice that when I bought it, but you can be sure I will check for that from now on. I no longer have the receipt or I would return them.

But, even weirder still is the fact that I went ahead and installed all these opened cartridges and they are working. So far. I don't know how long it will last, but ink is on my shopping list.

A Long Week

School started for me on Monday with 2 days of Teacher Institute days. Aides are scheduled to work half days those two days; I got to work full days (because I need the time). These two days went better than I expected them to. One of my duties is getting the bus check-off sheets and special bus tags ready for the teachers. I also make book bag tags and attach them to the students bags. I am not going to go into all the details, but will just say it takes a long time to do this. After working many hours of overtime last year my principal finally understood that I need extra time to get all this done and let me work full days. I was much less stressed this year and let her know how much I appreciated the extra time.

Students started on Wednesday. I was very glad to see Friday. The first week... or three... of school is always chaotic until the students learn the routine. Many of these kids have not been to daycare or preschool so they haven't learned the fine art of lining up in a straight line, not cutting in line, waiting their turn, having to sit and listen, following directions. I could go on, but I won't. I am not looking forward to Monday.

Today I am playing catch up. I feel like I haven't gotten much accomplished, but I have. I have the fourth load of laundry in the dryer, I've done work for school, and played with fabric.

We have the students line up by class in the gym after PE and recess. The color printer at school is out of some of the ink colors so I did it at home, and also laminated them.

I am also making a sign for my room so the students know where my room is and with the times I have students. Occasionally someone else needs a quiet place to work with students and want to use my room so I like to post the times I am working with students. 

My quilting group finished our exchange at our last meeting and then decided what to do for our next exchange which will begin in September. I gathered my fabrics and got them into my bag. 

We are using a pattern that uses a medallion with 12 inch blocks around it. 

My fabric is all solids this time.

My medallion is from a Round Robin I participated in years (30!) ago and never finished. It measures about 40 inches which would make a nice wall hanging. I made the Feathered Star block in the middle. Four more borders were added by the Round Robin participants. I don't have much wall space in my house and had thought to enlarge it to be bed sized, but life got busy and I never got around to it. So now I am! 

On a sad note, this little quilt that I made for my great-niece due the end of August will not get to by used. Last week when my niece went for her doctor visit there was no heartbeat. I am so sad for her and her husband.
 


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Still rearranging

Over the last week this wall went from
an aquarium full of fish and all their accessories. 









 

To an aquarium empty of fish, accessories and about half the water. 











To fabric organization!

The ribbons and coats belong to my son. 

This is taking longer than I had hoped. I had wanted this room organized and ready to be used as a sewing room before I went back to school, which is Monday, but it will get there eventually. And, just in case you think it appears to be mostly finished, here is what the other side of the room looks like.

Still some tweaking to do, but I am happy to have a bed in there that can be used. Once the boxes full of my sons things leave this room, it will be easier to figure out how to make the best use of the room. I want to be able have the embroidery machine set up for embroidery all the time and the other machine set up for sewing. I am thinking of putting another 4 foot table in there by the bed that could be either moved away from the bed or folded down when we have overnight visitors. I will probably be trying different things to see what works best. 

For now, I am going to take a little break and go sew!

A busy week it was

I posted on Monday that this week would be busy, and it was.
Tuesday I made the planned trip to visit my son and take him some things for his garage sale (which they are having next week) and the seven fish from his aquarium. He had gotten some aquariums set up and was ready for them. He called me last night to let me know that one of them has not survived. I am not surprised by that, but hopefully the rest will be ok. My parents decided to come over too. My mom has been clearing her house of unwanted items and we all decided it would great to get rid of our stuff and hope they kids make some money off of selling them. We had a nice lunch and then GF went to work and my parents headed home. My son needed to few things from W-M so we did that, then I headed home. It was a full day.

Wednesday I had a fun fabric shopping trip with the quilt girls. I got some backing fabrics for quilt tops I have finished.
The purple piece on the left is from Joann Fabrics and was purchased pieced. It is flannel and Minkee-type squares. It will be a baby quilt for my great-niece due the end of this month. Since I have finished the other one this one will be given at Christmas.
The middle piece is the striped Ombre quilt and the one on the right is Fading Charms.

I also got some more fabric to make covers for the dog cushion (which they and the dog seem to approve of). GF loves Halloween and Christmas, Son loves anything hunting, camo, nature. I was thinking ahead and remembered to get zippers to match the fabrics!

Yesterday was quite a day.
It started out with the funeral for our neighbor's mother. She had been suffering from dementia for several years and had gone downhill quickly over the past few weeks. While it is sad to say goodbye, she is now at peace. 
We had to finish up some more family stuff that started on Monday. Long story and very frustrating, but today's events went better than expected. 
However we came home to a bathroom sink that had not drained in the 2 1/2 hours we were gone. It had been running slow for some time, but had always completely drained. Several years ago my husband had a plumber come to the house to replace the pipes as they are old and clog easily. The plumber replaced some of the pipe, but said the pipe from the sink to the basement did not need replaced and that he had 'some stuff to clear it right up' and would be back to do that. He never came back. The draining situation has only gotten worse. So at 7:00 last night we were taking things apart and trying to clear the drain. About an hour later it was working. Lots of water all over the basement floor and a mess in the bathroom. We did a quick clean up and I will clean more thoroughly today. But, first I have an appointment for my back-to-school haircut. My husband is running around to a bank, another bank and the farm office still working on getting the mess straightened out that his father created over 30 years ago. It all came to light when my MIL passed. The ladies that are so helpful (really, they are) at the farm office and said our situation is not unusual. Good to know we aren't the only ones, but still frustrating. Especially when FIL refuses to give information or hides it and lies about it.
Tomorrow will hopefully be a quiet day and Sunday is one last trip before school starts with my quilt friends to a quilt show in Indianapolis.

It's going to be a busy week...

... starting today. I have already had the oil changed in my car, dropped off paperwork at the farm office, took care of paperwork at school, and filled the car up with gas. I will be going to visit my son tomorrow. Wednesday is a fabric shopping trip with my quilt friends, Thursday we have a funeral, Friday is hair cut day, Sunday I will be attending a quilt show with my quilt friends. Monday is back to school for the staff. After that my time is limited. I am not usually very motivated to do much of anything by the time I get home so my quilt time will be limited to the weekend.

Today I need to gather as much as I can of no longer needed/wanted items. My son is having a garage sale this coming weekend and I figure I can get rid of some stuff and maybe they will make a little money. There is a Goodwill in their town if they have anything left, or a nice, big dumpster behind their apartment building. 

This weekend I finished up this little quilt.

The picture is kind of dark. The background is off-white, almost white. I love the striped binding.

I also made a bed for my son's dog. He has anxiety/stomach issues. Occasionally he makes a mess and last time he ruined the bed that they use in his crate. So I made another for him that is washable. It has an inner pillow encased in a waterproof cover with a decorative cover on the outside.

I pieced batting scraps and layered them until I thought they were thick enough. I stitched them together in several spots so they the batting layers would stay together if this part ever needs to be washed. I covered that with a case made out of on old mattress pad.

I made a zippered cover for the pillow out of a waterproof baby crib mattress pad. It zips closed. Hopefully this layer will protect the pillow from needing washed. 
Then I made a decorative cover by quilting a cute beagle fabric onto the remaining part of the old mattress pad. It also has a zipper closure. 

I think it will be fun to make more decorative outside covers - maybe for each season. I know GF loves Halloween and Christmas. I think it will also be nice to have an extra cover or two for when this one is in the laundry. 

It seemed like a lot of work, but I hope it works so their dog has a nice cushion when he is in his crate. Or the car. They only crate him when have to leave him home alone. He likes to have a cushion when he travels in the car. He settles right down and sleeps on it while they are driving along. I think is makes him feel more secure.



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A Little of This...

...a little of that. 

I have been working on a little bit of everything.

The baby quilt on the frame,

this small counted cross-stitch project which I plan to make into a Christmas card instead of the ornament suggested,

and, more paper piecing on In A Pickle. 

Stitching, trimming, 

pressing, 

done. 

 Thirty more to go.

 

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What I Am Working On

School starts for me with 2 days of Teacher Institute days on August 20th. Students begin August 22nd. I know once school starts and we get settled into the routine I will enjoy the students. But, until them I am not looking forward to going back. Part of my duties are making the check off sheets for the teachers that shows what each student does at the end of the day. Some ride one bus, some ride another bus, some get picked up right at dismissal and others stay with me until the last two late buses arrive. Registration was August 1st and each student is required to fill out a transportation card that lets the district know where they live, if they will ride the bus to/from school, or be picked up and by who. I don't have the information from the transportation director yet. Also, there is an orientation day on August 20th for parents and students to meet their teacher, bring their supplies and confirm contact and transportation information. So I really can't to anything until that second TI day. And, there are always, ALWAYS, changes during that first week. It is my most dreaded duty. I have been having bad dreams about it for a couple of weeks now.
Of all my other duties (there are a lot) my most favorite is RtI time. I work with the students who are struggling in Math - number recognition and counting mostly. I have to access them weekly, but I try to plan activities that are fun for them while they learn about numbers. I found some nice file folder games at the end of last year, but didn't have time to get them together so I brought them home to work on.

Different ways to show numbers.

Strip puzzles help learn number sequence. I have these in other fun pictures too, like dinosaurs.

I also have another quilt on the frame.

This will go the my great-niece who is due the end of August. It is the very first Frivols by Moda - Kindred - that was available August 2015. You can see that I like to let my projects marinate for a while before I finish them! I could not find it in stock at any of the sights I checked, but if you are interested, or are not familiar with Frivols kits, you can learn more about them here.
 

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Now It's a Bed

It's made and has a quilt on it.

My son usually isn't too impressed with my quilts but he once told me this quilt is 'cool' so now it is on his bed.

I also got new curtains. This room gets morning sun so I wanted to protect the fabric from possibly damaging sunlight. I got curtains that are light blocking as well as a little insulating. I don't expect to be in that room every day once school is back in session and will keep those curtains closed most of the time. I need to get some kind of tiebacks as they did not come with the panels.

Around my yard this morning...

...the Hibiscus has a bloom.

 There is a bud about to open on the other side.

These poppies and zinnias are so colorful and bright. A nice way to start the day.

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