Runner. No, definitely not me.

As in, I don't run.  Unless I'm being chased and am uninterested in being caught.  Today, I would kill to be able to run as I suffered some sort of back trauma early Friday and have been an invalid since.  My time on the computer has been limited as the weight of the laptop has caused problems.  Lapcat has faced limited time as well, much to his chagrin.

I do have photos of the project I completed last weekend.  My mother requested a table runner for her birthday and I had yet to begin it.  I kept asking what colours and patterns she wanted and she didn't answer.  Then she saw the baby quilt I made for my Long-Suffering friends and liked those fabrics, which I happily and thankfully had the presence of mind to stash.  Pattern? She didn't care. So I just started cutting....
....and sewing....
....and playing around...
....until I had this:

No quilting on this one since she wanted it to lay flat.  It's 19x80" more or less and backed in a simple off-white Kona. Hometown by Sweetwater with a mottled green fabric which I purchased long before I began paying any attention to fabric names. She loves it. She's forbidden Father to go anywhere near it with anything that could drip or stain.

Well, I have not managed to get much work done on the papers I wanted to tackle this week.  I may not get to school tomorrow. Profs have been notified, student council meeting regrets sent, and Skittles liberally applied.  I have managed to get some hexagons and kites sewn, however, for the homework quilt.  Nothing like being unable to operate your beloved sewing machine to finally turn you to English paper-piecing.  :-) I'll have an update on that project next post.

Enjoy the Oscars!

Break and Baby (unrelated other than appearing in the same post)

I have literally not touched my laptop since the wee hours of Friday morning.   Count the odd email check and I was 98% offline this weekend.  WOW. Highly unusual. But I was busy sewing.

I finished midterms this week and the midterm break is underway. This is what the last one looked like:

We were given the diagram a week in advance and had to figure out what it meant. In all honesty, it was surprisingly cool for an exam and obviously testing understanding as opposed to memorization. How wonderful to be asked to think instead of regurgitate!

So I decided to call some friends this weekend, long-suffering and patient ones who have weathered my unavailability for months on end and STILL find time for me, but before I could grab the phone, Mrs. Long-suffering Friend went into labour.  (And crap!  I hadn't finished the baby quilt yet...) Fifty-two hours later, (yes, I wrote 52 hours!) Baby Long-suffering Friend arrived.  I swung by Maternity yesterday to meet her and give her the quilt that I finished while waiting for news of her arrival from Mr. Long-suffering Friend.  They truly are wonderful people, Mr.&Mrs. LSF, and I am so happy for them I can't begin to tell you.  I cried.  I do that around new babies.  I just can't help myself.

The quilt was sewn from a Hometown by Sweetwater charm pack and yardage.  I backed it in some Kona, but I didn't pay attention to the name. I finished it just in time for my mother to remark on the colours and remind me that I owed her a table runner for her birthday. In January. Oops! More on that soon...

These clips have begun to appear all over quilting blogs so I picked some up to try.  LOVE them.  I prefer them to the silver "hair barrette" binding clips.  They hold so well and yet, don't cause your hand to cramp by squeezing them over and over again.  So if you've been thinking about getting some, just do it.

I took this weekend off from homework but I've got two papers to write this week. :-( One is definitely trickier than the other and involves researching legal codes and case files. Yuck.  I haven't touched the homework quilt this weekend but I'm sure I'll make time when my brain starts to overheat from APA standards and case law....

Marvellous Mail

It has been (insert adjective of choice) around here.  I've been quite busy with school and assignments are coming due before the midterm break so sewing has been minimal. Then there's always the mild weather and some minor personal catastrophes.  All told, I'm faring well.

But the MAIL has been BOOMING!  All of it has been from a number of people who answered my request for blocks and fabric for my teacher-identity-quilt-project (I must really come up with a better name for it than that...)   I'm still expecting a few more.  Incredible!  The light and my time available for photographing has been hmmmm....interesting? Please bear with the crappy shots...

From Dresden Quilter:

So bright and colourful. Orange and blue are favourites of mine and I have always loved how pink and orange get along.  Like ruby red grapefruit, the inspiration for CitricSugar in the first place... It's perfect.

From Hello, my name is Quilt:

She had a STACK of leftover blocks and was kind enough to send them my way.  There is a tonne of metaphorical value in these blocks, not to mention that they are gorgeous.

From Evidently:

Not a quilter herself, my dear friend had stashed these vintage hand-sewn blocks from the late 1880's for just the right project.  How unbelievably touched I am that she thought mine was the project! Seriously. A great representation of traditional knowledge and passing it from one person to the next.

I also noticed THIS ONE on materials & method.  Totally cool and completely inspires me.  It hasn't arrived yet but I'm giddy with anticipation.

Here are some of the ones that I improv-pieced:

I'm going to start work on the more structured blocks next weekend.  I have some more curves, some flying geese, as well as some paper-pieced Canadian flag and Love blocks planned.  Should keep me busy during the break when I'm not furiously writing a paper or two.

Love is central to why I'm a teacher.  Selvedge serendipity.

And now, I must get back to the books before a college-sponsored pub crawl (yes, I'm too old for pub crawls and skip most of them but this one has crazy carpets and sledding between bars.  One is never too old to go barrelling down a snow-covered hill with one's friends...)  I anticipate bruises tomorrow.