Back to School

So today is my first official day as a contracted teacher. I have been going to training all week, but today is the first day that I HAVE to be there. We have four (that's right FOUR) inservice days before the kids come to school on Wednesday. I am nervous and excited about going to school today. I have met the office staff and my department chair but no one else at the school. It should be an interesting day.

On the knitting front, I finished two dishcloths for my kitchen. They are very cool. Pictures will be coming. I was excited about how fast they knit up. The pattern (I used the ballband dishcloth pattern, free on ravelry) was easy to memorize so I was able to pick it up whenever I had a break at work and knit a few rows. I still have a ton of one of the colors and not enough of the other to do anything with. I think I will get another ball of the variegated and make two more just so I have a bunch of them around. I've also thought these would be great housewarming presents, or wedding presents, or happy tuesday presents because they are so easy to knit and very useful. I am excited to see how they wash as well. Ok, I should get ready to go....

Random thoughts

1. Why is McDonald's sponsoring the Olympics? Really? Am I supposed to believe that if I eat McDonald's I too can make it to the Olympics for an athletic sport? I don't think that Michael Phelps makes a habit of stopping by McDonald's on the way to the pool...
2. There is a new commercial out for JCP (I think) that is a mock of the Breakfast Club. Pretty funny. Except the target audience (teenagers) probably won't understand the commercial because they haven't seen the movie. A hit and a miss JCP. Really should have thought that through.
3. I found a blog last night called Knitosaurus (oh yeah, a link!) and I'm TOTALLY jealous that I did not think of that name first. I add -osaurus to everything. Laz-o-saurus-rex, Pudge-o-saurus, etc. Mostly when referring to my crazy half dinosaur dog.
Off to bed. I have a big day tomorrow. BOM starts and then I get to go back to work. Oh yeah. Every American's dream....

AHHH

I have been busy reading new blogs today and realized a few things. One, I should have been working on the border of my pumpkin quilt. The sewing machine is plugged in and rearing to go, but here I sit like a very lazy person. Two, I do not post enough pictures on my blog. I have been trying to work on it, but not having my own digital camera (well, I do have my own, but the charger was lost in one of my MANY moves these past two years and I have yet to find a new one, so it is dead and I have nothing to charge it with. LAME) is a bit of a roadblock to that. Three, I do not post enough links on my blog. Clearly I talk about things in my blog. And OBVIOUSLY it is very interesting so you would want to look at it or read it or whatever, so I should post links on here.

SO...anyway. Here are a few goals I have for myself for this quarter (or semester...we will see how it goes)
(Random note: Being a teacher makes you think in terms of school years forever. You can not escape it. January is the middle of a year to me.)

1. Learn to sew more of my own clothes. I hate clothes shopping and I like sewing. So this should solve that problem. Maybe.
2. Make my blog way cooler. (See notes above.)
3. Finish (and by finish I mean have it quilted and on a bed) at least one quilt.

That is all I can think of now. I should have a knitting goal, but I am not sure what it will be yet. Plus, I don't want to set the bar too high...I do want to accomplish my goals.

Valley Quilting

Leah and I ventured out to the three quilt stores in the valley today. It was quite the trip! It was raining hard core but that didn't stop us from finding all of the different shops and even the yarn shop in Wasilla. Everything was quite nice. I was very impressed with the selection that Sylvia's Quilt Depot carried, there were fabrics there that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I didn't do too much damage to the bank account...kept it under $100 which is pretty good having gone to 4 quilt shops (we also went into Dina's in ER. They have a TON of new fabric and some of it was too cute to pass up. The new fall line from Sandy Gervais called Pumpkins Gone Wild is AMAZING) and a yarn shop. Leah also got all of her shop hop blocks which is always fun. Frito got to go to dog daycare for the day which is always a good time for him (and for me because he is tired!). Everyone was pretty excited to see him again as they really miss him there. And who wouldn't? He is probably one of the most amazing dogs ever. :) Not that I am biased or anything.

I found out last week that I actually get to start back to work on Monday. AHH! I have three days of training BEFORE our four inservice days. So that was a bit of a bummer to learn, but I guess it is good I go back to work. Every day I go is one day closer to payday! And quilt store sale day! If only payday came first...but I probably don't need THAT much fabric. I'm going to go work on the border for my pumpkin quilt. If I can finish one project I won't feel too bad about starting another one.

Spooky

I buckled down today and sewed all of my jack-o-lantern blocks together. I am teaching this quilt as a class in October. I still have to make the candy corn border on it but I'm pretty proud that I got this much done! I am almost done with my kuspuk. I just have the hand sewing left to do. I'm getting ready to take Frito on his afternoon dog walk then I think I will sit on the porch and finish it up. How exciting! I have been pretty productive lately, which is good since I have to go back to school in 8 days. :( But on the plus side I will have real money to spend at the quilt shop soon, which is very exciting!

Charm School

I went out to the quilt shop in ER to go to Moda U. Moda U is a club that is run by Moda fabrics where you learn about new fabrics and over the course of a year you get the directions to make a quilt top. So it is kind of a block of the month club. ANYWAY, today Moda U was about charm squares (5" squares of pre-cut fabric) and all the different ways to use them. I accidently spent a lot of money. Class was really inspiring! :) I got a new book called "Charmed and Dangerous" which has different table runners and two full size quilts made from charm squares. So I got christmas charm squares to make one of the quilts and 60's reproduction charms to make the other. I'm not sure if I'm too crazy about the 60's fabric, but they are cute and it isn't something I normally make so who knows how it will turn out.



I have my last kuspuk class tonight. Hopefully I will get it done!

Last Day

So today was my last day working at the quilt shop. It was sad for a few reasons. One of them being that now I'm going to have to go to actual work. 13 days and I have to report to middle school. As a teacher. A career. I'm grown up. I bought a bunch of stuff before my shift started and have a ton of projects planned. Probably too many.

So I don't know if any of you have noticed, but I go in spurts with my crafting. For example, when I was still living with the in-laws all I did was knit. It was pretty much impossible to do anything else. Now that I have my machine back I have been sewing all the time. I started a table runner the other day and almost finished the top tonight. I probably would have it done but I messed up on one seam and then decided to be done with it for the night. It is late. So I am heading to bed. Be on the lookout for pics of a completed table runner soon. It may also be up for grabs as Weston doesn't like things on the table....