Wall art up

I ended up just adding a couple borders and  putting a back on the Eric Carle panel as it is hanging over a door to another room, so is basically a curtain. We have no plans to use this door, and it could be disruptive if kids are peeking in at that class as they choose books. 

I really wanted to use this old bookcase that was left by the previous school, but the outside and top was so stained and discolored. I love the runner on it!

 I got my wall art hung yesterday.

The front corner of the room. I also moved some books around yesterday to even out the shelves. When I unpacked, I wasn't sure how the books were going to fit on the cases I had, so I put more on the shelves than is good for browsing.

Grouchy Ladybug

 Last year I made some wall art and pillows using fabric featuring the author Eric Carle's books. Recently I found a new release in that series featuring the Grouchy Ladybug. I thought it was so cute and knew I could make something out of it to match what I had already made.

 This fabric is the same border, over and over, with these cute sayings. The background is white, not a very good picture!

 I also got a panel of the ladybugs, just because I knew if I didn't I would regret it.

 I cut the borders apart, sewed them back together putting the Grouchy Ladybug picture in the middle of one of them, and hemmed them. I am going to use one on a bookcase, and the other on a table, I think. Unless I think of something else when I get to school tomorrow.

I still have another panel that I bought at the quilt show last year. I have a window between the library and a classroom that I want to cover, so think that it will do the trick! I measured the window one day, but forgot to bring the measurements home so I think I will take it to school tomorrow so that I can see what I need to do make it work for that space.


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I finished quilting GerriAnn, now to get the binding on.

Unpack library ✓

Yep, I'm jumping for joy, because I unpacked the last box yesterday. You might remember what it looked like when I started. I also marked everything that needs to go away (most of it furniture left by the last school) so that when I come back on Monday it should look pretty nice.

This is the back half before I put the books on the shelves on the back wall. Yesterday I had all the "to go" stuff stacked in front of them, so couldn't take a good pic.

 I got the books on those back shelves on Thursday. They are part of a special library that the teachers use.

 Ahhhh......now this is looking good!

 I spent some time prettying the place up.

 Still need to hang my Eric Carle wall art, they are sitting on top of the bookcase right now, hang some posters and do some more straightening up. There are more pix on the Roosevelt Library Facebook page if you are not sick of this already!

Going to head up to load and start quilting the GerriAnn quilt. I'm excited to get it finished.
Happy Saturday!

GerriAnn.... and I won!

I finished sewing the borders on the GerriAnn quilt so she is ready to quilt. I love her, she turned out so cute in all browns.
 Now I want to make Ellie the Elephant...but it will have to wait awhile.

I found out that I won an Aurifil thread sample pack from Mary at Molly Flanders blog! I am so excited to see what colors I won and have a chance to try the Aurifil threads. I will take a pic when they come.

Saga of the unpacking....yesterday wasn't such a great day at school, as I fought with the shelves and bookcases all morning. The cases are just a little different in size, so I had to match up the shelves with the cases. Doesn't sound like it would be hard, but it was. 3 of the bookcases were so close in size, maybe within an inch of each other, so I had to play around with each shelf, to figure out which case it belonged in. Luckily I had a better day today... I unpacked about 100 boxes and have most of the student books on shelves now. I have been taking pix, but keep forgetting to download them at school. So you'll just have to take my word for it!

A new project....GerriAnn

 I am making a baby quilt for a customer using one of the  BJ Designs adorable animal quilt patterns, GerriAnn, the giraffe. The pic above is the background, upside down.

Since the pattern is for a wallhanging, it is too narrow for a baby quilt, so I made it wider.

 I debated what to use for the "ground", but since it is for a baby gift, I decided these were too bland and too purple.

 You need to have 4 different fabrics for the giraffe, a light, light medium, a medium dark and a dark. Plus one for the hooves. I didn't want there to be lots of difference between the colors, but wanted some fabrics with movement.

 It seemed like it took a long time to trace, cut out and press the 33 body parts on to the fabric.

 I was worried I would mix up the pieces after I took the paper off, so I peeled back the paper where pieces joined and just iron-tacked them together. That helped a lot. I had added a little extra to the parts that would go underneath and marked them with 2 dashes, so it was easy to match them up.

 I also added a partial tree and extra grass to the quilt. Since I made the top 10" wider, it filled it in a bit.

I have the first border partially sewn on, hopefully I will get it finished tonight!

On the school front, I am still plugging away at putting the books on the shelves. No pix today as I didn't download them on the computer yet and the camera is at school.

By the end of day 4, you can actually see the progress...

 I took this picture before I left Thursday night. It really was better than what it was, but hard to see it if you haven't been in the middle of it all week. I spent Friday moving things around so that I could line the bookcases up in the back half of the room.

 Ahhhhh, open space at last...this is basically the same area as the above pic, just a little to the left.

 Bookcases in the back lined up in rows....getting there...

 Well, I had to put the boxes somewhere out of the way!

 And here too! But they are organized somewhat now. Really they are!

 Plus I can see the floor!

Monday I will be able to start unloading boxes again.

I plan to start a baby quilt this weekend...so I might have something besides moving to post tomorrow.

There are books on some of the shelves....

Lots and lots of boxes of books. The first day I spent most of my time turning the boxes around so I could see the labels. Bookcases that are just sitting there. In the wrong places.

I had to move boxes so that I could find the ones I needed to start unpacking first.

The more books on shelves, the less boxes sitting around.

It's a start.

Busy day and fun in the mail!

Tomorrow is my first day back at school, so I have felt a lot of pressure the past few weeks to get all the things finished that I haven't done yet this summer. Of course, it never completely happens, but I have been working to get everything ready for my fall quilt class schedule at least.

 I did get some of my models hung today. They had taken down the hangers during a remodel, so they had to be rehung....and it took longer than usual.  I sewed the binding on the St. Marks quilt before I hung it...wish I would've taken my camera for a pic, but didn't. I will get a decent pic of that quilt...I will...I will....

On my way home I stopped and got ink so I ran the rest of the lists when I got home. I had a nice little surprise in my mailbox too, 2 new books! I love making the letters and ordered Tonya's book so I would have the BIBLE of letter piecing.  Plus I am dying to try this kaleidoscope quilt in the newest Ricky Tims book. Looks like fun!

Penny helped me figure out how to open my Works files in Word yesterday, so a big THANK YOU went out to her. I was doing the happy dance....did you feel the earth move?

Tomorrow I get to begin the process of unpacking all those boxes (330 or so) ...that I packed up in May. You might remember my post about that. To be honest, I'm not really looking forward to it, but it has to be done. I packed in order, and marked the boxes as I went, so once I get things arranged, it should go pretty fast. I hope! It took 2 weeks to pack it, how long do you think it will take to unpack it?

St. Marks and a paperwork Sunday...

I finished quilting the St. Marks Quilt yesterday. They seem to come to life after quilting, don't they? I need to get the binding on now.  Maybe then I can get a decent picture of it. I took this after I got it off the machine.

Later in the day, my daughter and I went to see my mom and dad. Mom fell in the garden Friday night and broke her wrist. After a trip to the ER she came home with a splint. She is doing well, though it is sore. She will get a cast on Wed.

I have spent most of the day getting ready to post my fall quilting classes. Lots of paperwork involved, and I have hit a few snags...one of which is I ran out of black ink. The other is that I need to figure out a way to convert my Works files to Word. I have some older files that are in Works format and my new computer doesn't have works. Any ideas?

A little craziness in my life.....but I have the letters caught up!

I have spent the past few days quilting as well as trying to figure out what is going on with my computer. My computer "died" the other night. I took it in and it was determined it wouldn't be worth fixing. So I bought a computer Thursday, but took it back last night because it started to repair itself...on it's own. Now I think that computer is too smart for me! Actually I guess it bogged down while trying to do an update, that is what the guy at the store told me. So it tried to fix the problem. But I don't want a computer that has problems the first day I own it. So I took it back and got a different one. We'll see how this goes.

 I got my letters all caught up for the Red Letter Quiltalong (aren't ya proud, Lynne?) in between quilting yesterday. Love the P... if it looks like it will be too squat after the seam allowance, I can move the left "leg" over to the right a bit. I hope it works like this, though.

I like the quirkiness of the Q, though the hole in the center turned out smaller than I wanted. I still like it, though.

 Love the R!

 Not so sure about the S. Lynne hasn't shown us the S yet, but I was on a roll so I looked back at some of her Ses and gave it a whirl.

 An easy peasy T. What could be easier?

 Here are all of my letters so far. I forgot to put the lil girl up with them. Only 6 left, though I may redo my S after I see Lynne's tutorial.

Here is the St. Marks quilt. I went up this morning and did a few rows, shouldn't take long to finish it now. This panto is pretty intense, so I have to take breaks every few rows or my back starts complaining.  I love the thread I am using, it really blends well. I am pretty excited to see it finished. I have the binding made, so it will just be a matter of getting it sewn on.

Last Tuesday Sew-in for awhile....

 Yesterday was the last Tuesday sew-in for awhile for me since I go back to work at school next Tuesday. I put the borders on the Twister quilt and finished the Mini Twister as well. I ended up using some of those leftover 2" pieces in the border.  I forgot to take a pic of the Twister with borders, but will soon.

 Diana has been finishing the quilts she was working on during the retreat....

 Laura has been working on these blocks all along, she finished the borders yesterday.

 Dianne is making a costume for a friend, so that is what she worked on.

 Brenda is back to quilting after 3 months off. She had a major injury to her wrist in a car accident and is just now able to sew again.

 Kim finished the last blocks for her Sampler #13 quilt, here is the layout.

It was a great day and I am going to miss these sewing days in the weeks to come.