Identity Quilt Update: Paper-piecing gone crazy

My back is on the mend.  Thanks for the well-wishes!  It's still tricky to sit upright in hard chairs but luckily a number of my classes were cancelled this week and I could take it easy. I missed only one, on Monday, and to be fair, it was an 8am class. While I'm starting to catch up on things put on hold during my incapacitation, I should still be writing papers right now.  But I'm taking a break to show you some of the blocks for the Teacher Identity Project Quilt.

Gorgeous, isn't it?  I didn't make this one.  This is the centre from the one made for me by materials&method.  I love it.

I've been doing a ton of paper-piecing.  I still feel quite new at it but it's an addictive little process and I love the possibilities it opens up. This one is the Love block by Kelbysews (made at 50% of the original size.) It can be found at SewMamaSew.

This matryoshka block pattern was found at this wonderful little Etsy shop after I spied one done at AlaMode.  I used a matryoshka print I'd been hoarding for just the right project.  Well, what could be more perfect?  

The idea behind this block is simply this:  I lived six months in Russia and the experiences that I had there are deeply entrenched in who I am as a person, which affects who I am as a teacher.  I remember very well the tough-love grandmothers who scolded any and all strangers for not wearing hats or for drinking cold pop while at the same time, sharing knowledge about art or helping with directions.

I found a number of other paper-piecing projects to capture my nerd side.  Let's face it:  whatever my interests, excitements, and passions are, they will show up in my teaching. Most of these came from Fandom in Stitches.  Fun stuff.  At this point, I'm thinking the Batman crest will appear as a thought bubble in Yoda's mind.

The Apple logo.  During my internship, Steve Jobs died and I couldn't help but reflect on the impact he's had on my daily life.  My computer, my phone, my music, etc, and a philosophy of being all have a Mac mark on them.  Macs have always had close ties to education as well.

The red block is an interpretation of a potholder design from the latest issue of FatQuarterly.  I'm a subscriber and the collaborative energy behind it inspires me. I've learned a great deal from reading it. Here's the twist:  obviously it's not a potholder. I'm repurposing the design and adapting it to what I need, using the resources I have to suit my goal.  It looks like a pair of darts.  I see feathers. So we'll see how that turns out.

Okay.  The MockingJay completely kicked my A&%! 

I did not tidy it before taking this picture because I want to be completely transparent about my own capabilities.  All that white stuff? Ripped seams.  I took parts of it apart a few times but it still isn't aligned quite right.  And it's small.  5" finished size.  It looks a tad more warped in the photo because of all the seams; it's not lying flat.  Including it because: a) not every plan I have as a teacher goes smoothly, b) I love The Hunger Games and hope to use the books in my class someday, and c) mistakes and challenges are part of the game - admitting my own and learning from them helps me to empower others to do the same.  We learn more from our mistakes and grow more when we are challenged than we do when we are always successful and do only those things that we are already capable of doing.  Plus, the books are about survival and I survived this block.  It'll be a scar in the quilt but I earned it!

And as for my incapability of the last week, I had to do SOMETHING. So I worked on these socks.  I started them in August, started teaching and hadn't touched them in months. I'm past the heels now but it'll likely be a while before you hear about them again. Back to the papers...

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.

Progress

I've made a few blocks so far for my "homework" quilt.  I've imposed a few rules for myself - including an indictment against buying fabric (until it comes sandwich time...) and trying new techniques.  I've made quite a few improvised blocks, sewing things together at random, which I'll save for another post, but I've also dabbled in some traditional ones.

Including some where you'll think I've gone insane.

Yep.

Made with triangular trimmings from the Seville quilt I made for Mum this Christmas...

But it became this. Tiny, but mighty!  The trick to getting it to lay flat.  STEAM.  Much steam.

And there's this one.

Made with the trimmings from binding mitres.  I have no idea why I kept them...

And I tried out my fancy curve sewing foot.  This one turned out great.  Subsequent ones did not and I will need to do far more practice...

Curves scare the bejeezus out of me.  If I offended you with "bejeezus", be glad you didn't hear what I said when sewing the curves....

And then, I played around with the embroidery stitches.  I figured the root of my philosophy on education needs to be in there somewhere.  This phrase is something my mother said years ago when Seester and I were discussing the variances in curfew and rules for each of us.

Bad lighting + Steam iron brown gunk + water to wash out brown gunk = crappy photo.

For every student, the teacher they need.  A little cheesy?  Possibly.  Do I believe it like the naive idealist I am? Absolutely.

Anyone have any ideas on other blocks and techniques I should try?  This is about "learning", after all... :-)  Thank you to those folks who volunteered their time and talents for this project - I'm so thrilled to have you as a part of it!  More progress to come...

A Request

I'm sitting here on a Sunday afternoon, doing homework and organizing my assignments for the term.  Don't be jealous, it's not as much fun as it sounds.  :-)

However, one assignment might be.  And this is where I need your help.

I'm making a quilt based on my internship experiences and teacher identity (yeah, I know it sounds....mmmm...less than academic? But the assignment parameters allow for it so I can actually work destress-sewing into my scholastic schedule and call it achievement.  So, I'm going with it.)

I am sewing it mainly from scraps and what I have in my stash.  I will be doing fairly improvised stuff with a few traditional blocks thrown in. IF ANYONE would like to sew a block or two for me, (or maybe you have leftover blocks you have no idea what to do with) I would love to have them.

Guidelines:
1) Please use scraps - don't go cutting into anything large and precious.  Part of my idea is about using limited resources.
2) Use white or off-white as a background or border.  This isn't mandatory. I can make it work regardless.
3) Size and shape is completely up to you!  Octagons, squares, circles, rectangles, triangles, and hexagons - go nuts!
4)Pop it in the mail by the first week of February.  I'd be freer with the time but I have due dates.

Why am I asking other people to help me with my homework?  Quilting, like teaching, is a highly personal activity and everyone has their unique ways of doing it.  Also, teaching and quilting are greatly enriched and strengthened by community;  I have learned teaching from other teachers, students and community members, just as I have learned skills and gained inspiration from the online quilting/sewing/knitting/writing community I've found online.  With you.

I will be posting progress and explaining my concept as I go along.  And coming up with treats to send back as thanks.  :)  If you'd have the time and energy to contribute to my project, please send me an email at citricsugar at yahoo dot ca or leave me a comment I can reply to.

And now for a random picture of an elephant in a Jayne toque:

Firsts

Today is my first day back at university since April.  It's odd to be on the student side of things again and I miss teaching like it's as important to as breathing.  And it is.  Of course, I'm an advocate of lifelong learning, and wearing jeans on weekdays again, but the adjustment is tricky.  Ready to go there but not ready to be here.  Ah, the hoops.

Tomorrow is my nephew's first birthday.  I remember it well for being so very long a day.  The call came at 12:45 am and after a few hours, they sent her home until the afternoon.  I had four classes (one a three-hour night class) that day on two hours of sleep.  I went back and forth between hospital and class all day.  He arrived at 11:30pm.  On his due date.  And has filled my life with so much love, I can't believe it.  I'm lucky that I get to see him almost every day.


I made him a sweater.  With an elephant.

From Vintage Knits for Modern Babies. Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Elephant instead of bird.

And towards many other firsts, a second.  I was spoiled by Santa this Christmas and found a new sewing machine under the tree. It's a Janome 4120QDC and it's so zoomy!!!  I love it and can finally learn to free-motion.  It's incredibly quiet (my old Kenmore shook and squeaked the house down) and if I can't manage a scant 1/4" seam allowance, I have nothing left to blame but the operator. I have only just started to play around with all the features and what-not but I'm completely in love.

 I named it Oscar.  Yep, I name things.  Usually British men's names.  My phone is Giles. My iPad is Nigel.  There's also a Hamish, a Kenneth, and a Darwin in my life.  There was a Kevin, but it's still too hard to talk about... :-)  I don't name cars; I find it portends their doom.