More February Fun

We are enjoying a very wintery three day weekend here in beautiful Mt. Shasta, CA. Brrrrr! As you can see, the birds are fluffed up trying to stay warm. 

These cute little pincushions are made from plastic bottle caps. I made them to give as gifts to friends.  The link below is to Craftysylish where you can find easy to follow directions:

 http://www.craftstylish.com/item/945/how-to-make-pretty-pincushions

  This next picture is of the unembellished crazy quilt block I will be sending off on a round robin for others to decorate.

I recently joined the Yahoo group, Crazy Quilters International. What a fun, busy group.  There are lots of wonderful links, blogs, and a message board. They also host swaps, challenges, contests and round robins. I'm sure there is more too, that I have yet to discover. If you like this kind of thing, it is very exciting.

 Finally, I want to share this blast from the past- a handmade, crazy quilted skirt. The entire thing was sewn with feather stitch using double knit fabric. 

Tammy spent nine months sewing this skirt and then she wore it to a friend's wedding.  As you can see, 40 years later, it still fits! Way to go Tammy!!!

February Fun

You know you have too many cats       

when this is what you see at 

feeding time in the morning!

As an elementary school teacher I enjoy the month of February but find it incredibly busy and short.  The beginning of a new month always makes me hop to change student calendars, seasonal themes, and bulletin boards. Here is a list of typical primary subject matter for February:

• African American History Month
• Ground Hog's Day (No, I am serious!)
• Chinese New Year 
• The 100th Day of School
• Valentine's Day activities, including a class party
• Focus on presidents, especially Lincoln and Washington
• Money

I want to share the clever artwork done by students in neighboring classrooms celebrating Abraham Lincoln.

 

 A directed draw of Lincoln by two students of my friend and first grade colleague Kathy Jewell. The Lincoln on the right is crying because he is sad about the American Civil War.

These next two samples are from the

class of my next door neighbor and 

first grade colleague, Marni Posl. I love 

the difference between the two as they 

show the range in ability. 

They are both charming!

I recently discovered and

joined a wonderful Yahoo 

Group, Crazy Quilters 

International.  On their blog

they have these wonderful 

covered boxes that 

members made for an 

exchange. I joined 

too late for the exchange

but I love the idea. I 

decided to try to make 

one for my mother for

Valentine's day. I just 

finished it tonight! I learned a 

lot and can't wait to try it again!

Happy Valentine's Day Mom! I love you.

Monday, Blue Monday....

Roxie In Bed

Ahh, Monday mornings....

All of tmy pets can tell when the weekend revelries are over. They are glum as they feed at 5:30 AM, knowing that walks, hugs, and playtime will not commence again until around 4:00 PM, a long time away.

 At school last week I had a first grader tell me that he wanted me to show him how to draw a mouse. Others chimed in, asking for mouse drawing lessons. Do you see why I love my job? Who gets to have this much fun at work?

My cabinet doors needed some brightening up so we made these silly mice.  I had the children write, in sentence form, the name of their mouse and what it likes to do.  I chose to share these  because they were produced by two of my "at risk" students.

Finally, I want to share the sampler I made at my embroidery class at Weston's in Mount Shasta. The class was fun and Micky Weston is  a warm and gentle soul and a wonderful teacher.

If one was to make assumptions about the kind of women who would attend an embroidery class, one might think it would attract a rather mild mannered, unadventurous sort. Oh boy!! You would not believe the stories! These women are   ANYTHING but mild and boring!

Embroidery Class Sampler

January 30, 2011

It was snowing and now its raining today. We are cooped up inside.  So what better to do than begin a blog?

I have to start with my dogs, Roxie and Mik.  

Roxie is our Jack Russell terrier and Mik is our beautiful ridgeback mix

Now that my daughter has gone off to college, Roxie and Mik are my babies! 

I take embroidery classes at our local fabric store and would like to share what I have been doing.  Since I am an elementary school teacher, I thought it would be fun to make an old fashioned sampler to hang in front of my door. It took me about 6 months to finish but I am very happy with the results.

My latest passion is crazy quilting.  I began learning about crazy quilts a few weeks ago. The square I am working on is one foot square and was originally going to be a pillow but now I'm not so sure. I'm now thinking of it as more of a fabric and embroidery collage.... 

The silk fabric that I used looks rumpled. I can see that sewing the seems with a machine will be neater than doing it by hand.  I have a friend who is going to help me work on my skills with the sewing machine.

At school this week my first graders were learning about matter.   We made solid matter collages (LOL!) that I put up for display in the hall.  Hope you like them.