Nothing to post

Thursday and Friday were filled with back-to-school activities.

We had a staff breakfast on Thursday, followed by a district wide staff meeting. I didn't have any other meetings to attend, so I headed home until lunchtime. Our district has been very generous with providing breakfast and lunch on that first day back. After lunch, we had another brief meeting. Then, I was able to head home to work on my online training sessions.

While watching my training sessions, I managed to knit three dishcloths. I had 14 to complete, ranging from 15 to 25 minutes each. I had until January to complete them, but I like to get them out of the way so that I don't forget about them! No, I didn't get them done in one day. I worked in spurts through Sunday.

Friday morning, I helped the new elementary librarian work on setting up the library. In the afternoon, Dave and I helped daughter Carol move Drama Club supplies back into their designated areas. There was renovation work done over the summer, and everything had to be moved out for the work to be accomplished. Naturally, it all had to be moved back!

Saturday and Sunday, all of my free time was spent making beaded pens for the middle school and high school students. Nothing new there.

Today, I'm heading in early to help the new elementary librarian. After that, I'm headed in for lunch duty. I hope to get some crafting done this afternoon. Making beaded pens was fun, but I'm done with that!

Blocks

 

Yesterday was so busy, I forgot to post on my blog! I finished sewing the last three strip sets in the morning. The next step was to cut the strips into 10" squares. After that, I layered the blocks with batting and batting so that they're all ready for quilting.

My math skills are not the best, but I knew something was off with my squares. I should have had an inch or two left after cutting each strip set into squares.

It wasn't until I was stacking the blocks in layers that I realized I had cut the squares at 10.5". I'll have to do some trimming before I start the actual quilting.

We have back-to-school meetings this morning. I should be finished around 10 a.m., but the full-time staff members will be working all day. Monday is the first day of school. We're starting about a week later than usual because of improvements being made at the elementary school over the summer. I'm really looking forward to my daily strolls around the cafeteria!

Starting over

 

I finally gave up on my Criss Cross bookmark over the weekend. I must have taken out the stitches on the end eight or nine times. I never did figure out what I was doing wrong. I finally snipped the threads and decided to start over.

My sister Janet loves rescuing bits and pieces that Mom and I have decided to discard. I'm not sure what she does with them, but she's welcome to all of my mistakes!

I started over using the same thread as my mistake piece, size 20 Hakelgarn, hand-dyed Buttercup from LadyShuttleMaker. I'm taking it slowly with the hope that I tat everything correctly this time around!

Last night, I sorted my jelly roll strips into eight groups of five.

The pattern that Joanne and I are following has the strips going from dark to light.

In the pattern, the fabric strips are a gradation from dark to light in shades of gray and brown.

My jelly roll doesn't have the same type of shading, so I just sorted them the way I thought they looked best.

I managed to sew together five of the eight strip sets before calling it quits for the day.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish sewing together the strip sets. Maybe I'll even start cutting them into 10" blocks!

Finished!

 

I finished my four patch pot holder quilt today! I am so pleased with the way it turned out. 

Note: Mom asked, so I looked it up. I started this July 20.

Again, I love the way the different quilting patterns show up on the back.

After dinner, I laid out the strips for my next quilt. Daughter Joanne and I are going to make the same quilt pattern. She organized her strips last week. I'm not sure when we will actually start, but at least I'm at the same point as Joanne.

Tonight... back to tatting!

Break

We had a break in the weather today... no rain! Unfortunately, we have a chance of rain every day this week. As long as we don't have any more storms for a while, I can handle more rain.

For tatting, I decided to stick with Curds & Whey from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. I decided to try some Serafil thread that I purchased several years ago. Tatting with polyester thread is not as enjoyable as working with cotton thread. I found it harder to close my rings and keep them closed. As pretty as this thread is, I think I'll save it for something else.

My sister came to visit this weekend. While she worked on making Christmas ornaments, I worked on my four patch quilt, I was inspired to keep working after seeing the four strips sewn together.

Since we were having so much fun crafting, I finished another strip. I have two more to complete, and then I will be able to finish the quilt.

As for Janet, she finished six ornaments this weekend. I wish I had taken pictures!

Thunder storms

We have had thunderstorms every day this week, not as wild as Tuesday, but enough to keep me off of my computer!

Dave has been busy cleaning up branches that fell during Tuesday's storm. There was so much more than I initially thought. Luckily, we had no other damage.

We're expecting more rain soon, so I thought I'd get a quick post in before shutting down my computer.

I finished another Curds & Whey bookmark from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. This one is in size 20 Lizbeth #180 Honey Drizzle.

Between storms, I managed to sew together the first two strips of my four patch pot holder quilt.

Yesterday, I managed to sew together the third strip. 

We're expecting more rain soon, so I'll be signing off. Hopefully, there will be some clear time this afternoon!

 

Stormy weather

We had some terrible stormy weather today, with tornado warnings at 10:30 this morning.

We had several large tree branches come down, and we were without power for about six hours.

Our damage was minor. My daughter's friend in Indiana had a tree fall on her house. Most of the house is destroyed.

As of 4:30 this afternoon 95% of Lake County, Indiana was without powers. This has been an unbelievable summer for storms.

Luckily, I got a little bit of crafting time before the storm blew in and knocked out the electricity. I was so happy that I managed to join the binding properly this time.

It is fun to see how the quilting designs look on the back.

I only have one more block to join to this strip. I think I'll probably try joining the first two strips together before moving on to the third strip. 

Let's hope that we're through with stormy weather for a while!