Quiet Day to myself

I had a quiet day to myself today because my boys went skiing without me. I injured my left big toe a few months ago. The bruise underneath the nail has moved up enough that the nail is now separating from my toe. Ouch! I got a lot done though. I slept in a little then quilted one of the charity quilts I pieced at retreat. I will start on the binding tonight. I made another note pad cover and a tote bag, both for potential gifts. I finally finished the bag I cut from the "what was I thinking" fabric, photo above. It made a really cute tote bag. I cut up the rest of this fabric to use as backing for charity quilts. The bag turned out so cute I may have to find other backing fabric and make a few more totes with it instead.

Notebook covers

I've had company and been out of town so I haven't posted for a while. I made these little note pad covers last week. They hold an 8" by 5" note pad. It took me longer to figure out the pattern than it did to make them! These are just my practice ones. I hope to make some fancier ones to give as gifts.

Flu Shot gives 7 year old boy Super Powers!

Parker has always been a bit of a wimp when it comes to shots. My husband and I have both had more than our fair share of crying and whining at doctors offices and the health center with Parker getting vaccinations. So when the note came home last week that they would be giving H1N1 vaccinations at Parker's school on Tuesday, we braced for the worst.

They were offering both the shot and the nasal spray, but warned that anyone who had ever been diagnosed with a list of conditions should not get the nasal spray. One of the conditions is asthma and Parker was diagnosed with asthma as a baby. He has not ever had any asthma symptoms while he's been healthy. But when he gets sick it usually goes to his lungs. Then we have to use the nebulizer and after a few days he's better.

We told him that some kids would get the nasal spray but he needed to get the shot because the spray could make him sick. Then Tony told him a story about how he distracts himself and doesn't look at the needle and before he knows it the shot is over. So Parker decided he was going to be brave, but he took a blankie, just in case.

I worried all day. Kept my cell phone in my pocket all day in case he needed me. It never rang. When he got home I asked him how his day was. He said it was great. Taking this as a good sign, I asked about the shot. He said the needle was tiny and hardly hurt at all. He told me all about the procedure. Then he says, very serious and kind of quietly, the shot has given him super powers! It took some serious mommy super powers not to laugh out loud, but somehow I managed.

So ... have you gotten your flu shot? If you are feeling like you could use some super powers, give it a try. Be sure to let me know if it works for you too!

Visual Texture Homework

My art group meets today. Last month we created some visual texture pieces using black and white copies of textural fabrics. Our homework was to recreate one of our paper pieces using fabric. Here is the paper version I made last month.
And this is my fabric version.

I haven't put any binding on it yet. I did this yesterday afternoon and didn't have time!

Navajo Stocking Ornaments

I have finished the first set of ornaments for this year. I have the others ready for the blanket stitching. These have turned out very cute!

Vase of Flowers

More beautiful artwork by Parker. This one was done at the end of first grade. I bought frames for this one and the monster yesterday morning. They are too good to just put in a box (and bigger than the box I have)!

Yesterday afternoon I made 9 dinners for my freezer plus a 10th that we ate last night. I now have about two weeks worth of dinners in the freezer. Yay!

This morning I started basting my nephew Zeke's quilt. My mom made the top for him and gave it to me to quilt. I realized this morning that she is coming on Thursday and expects it to be ready to sew the binding on! So I'd better go finish basting it.

No school today for Parker, teacher work day, so I won't get much sewing done today. His best friend Jamie is coming over this afternoon and I plan to spend the afternoon tending to them and refilling my freezer with dinners for the coming month.


Since I'm trying to make this blog mostly about art, I'll share this recent piece of art that Parker brought home from school. He was so proud that he received a 4 on this assignment. I'm not sure what the grading system is for the schools around here. I grew up with the standard A, B, C, D, F scale. They seem to do 1, 2, 3, 4 with 4 being the best. According to Parker, 3 means that you followed the directions and 4 means you did more than you needed to. Regardless of the score, I love it!

Hills above Creede

Another photo taken last weekend at retreat in Creede.

Another Charity Quilt

This is the fourth charity quilt I pieced at retreat last weekend. My mom gave me 14 of these house blocks some time ago. I found them recently and put them up on the design wall. Fourteen is not an easy number of blocks to design with so I figured out the measurements of all the pieces and made a fifteenth block. My sister recently gave me some fabrics she didn't want (the planet border fabric and blue setting squares) and I found the green sashing fabric in my stash. The blue setting square fabric has raised plastic-like multi-colored stars on it. It looks cool but is a pain to sew with and you can not iron directly on the stars (they melt and stick to your iron!).

The houses are made from funky bright prints. The green sashing would not be my first choice, but I had enough of it. The planet fabric doesn't go with anything, but again I had enough of it and I needed the quilt to be wider. I call it "Houses in Space." Someone at retreat suggested that I quilt aliens in the windows of the houses. I think I may do that.

Charity Quilts

Here are some of the photos I promised yesterday of the charity quilt tops I completed at retreat. I haven't done anymore on them since cutting the backing yesterday morning. I'm not even sure that I have enough batting for them all.

I finished my 12th Navajo Stocking cross-stitch Monday night and spent some time yesterday figuring out how I will finish them. I decided to use a satin stitch on my machine to sew them to some red wool and finish the edge with a blanket stitch. When I get them done I'll post a photo. They are turning out really cute!

The Canyon

This photo was taken on my walk Saturday up the canyon at the bridge.

I'm still unpacking and sorting my stuff from the retreat. I'll post photos of the tops I completed tomorrow. This morning I cut backs for these tops and I hope to get at least one quilted this week. I already have the binding made for three of the four. I'll start with one of those.

I'm Back

I got home from retreat a little after 3 pm today. I had a wonderful time and got four small charity quilt tops pieced, a couple of blocks for the raffle quilt made and I learned how to play Mexican Train.

These are just a few of the photos I took on my trip. The first is the view up the canyon taken from the just outside the back door of the building where we sew. The one below is of the main street in Creede taken as we are on our way to lunch on Saturday. I took a walk up the canyon later Saturday afternoon and got some nice pictures along way but those will have to wait for another day to post.

Packing

Today I am packing for my guild's annual retreat this weekend. Three days and two nights of sewing, food and fun! I'm taking my new featherweight now that I have learned how to thread it.
I've got a bin full of projects, more than I will probably have time to work on but I never know what I will feel like doing. I am leaving some room in the bin for any fabric or other goodies I may purchase during the weekend. We will stop at a quilt shop on the drive up tomorrow and two other shops will come up on Saturday. There are also cute stores in Creede to peruse.
I've got my list and I'm checking off items as they get packed. In case you are wondering, I am taking a small suitcase of clothes and toiletries. I just didn't take a picture of that. I do have my new camera. You can see a part of my new camera case in the last photo above, on the right of the photo.

No time for play today

I have lots of work on my agenda for today. I've already checked my student's hours for last week. Now I need to email each of them (all 26) to give them their hours total for next week and advice, encouragement or prodding, which ever they need. I also have an exam to grade and an assignment to grade for my other course. In addition, today is an Early Release Wednesday. Parker and Jamie are coming here at noon instead of to Jamie's house this week. I am going on my guild's annual retreat this weekend so I need Parker to go to Jamie's house on Friday after school. I rescheduled my ALEKS class from today to Monday so that I would be home at noon today.

Above is another photo from Monday's full moon rise photo shoot. You can click on any image in this blog to see a larger version.

Full Moon last night

A few shots of the full moon rising over Mt. Blanca last night. I can't decide which I like better out of the last two shots. Which one do you like better? These photos were taken from the little wildlife viewing area off State Street, across from the golf course. The new rock memorial thing makes a great camera stand if you don't have a tripod.

Moon Rise over Mt. Blanca

A couple more shots from yesterday evenings walk along the levy with my camera. Both photos were taken from the same spot. The one below is, of course, using the zoom feature of my new camera. The zoom is amazing and the photo is using only 1/3 to 1/2 of the zoom capability. I learned that too much zoom without a tripod (or some other way to stabilize the camera) yields a slightly blurry image. Moon rise tonight is scheduled to be 4:45 pm. I hope to capture the moon over the mountains closer to sunset when the mountains turn pink and purple.

Eyes

I went for a walk this evening with my new camera. I found this tree with eyes watching me take pictures. Spooky!

P.S. My new camera rocks!