Flowers, etc. finished!

I've been very busy recently, but not really telling you what I've been up to. I haven't any idea what I've been posting, but it's time to show you two little projects.

The first is a set of flowers that I've recycled for our church. When our youngest son and his wife got married, I bought and arranged flowers to put on the tables during the rehearsal supper. At the time I had four containers of these beautiful deep purple peonies with some greenery. Both the eggplant and greenery were wedding colors.

The wedding was several years ago--Rory and Meggan now have two girls, 6 and 7. My parents died not long after the girls were born, so I thought I'd use the flowers in arrangements on their graves. I have seven sisters, many of whom put flowers on the graves, so the opportunity never presented itself. However, it's time to make some decisions about the extra things in my studio. Use it or toss it, but no more hoarding it.  

The flowers are too pretty to toss, and they are in beautiful condition, so I decided to re-arrange the flowers and give them to our church. One of the smaller vases was cracked, so I removed the flowers, shared them among the other three vases and tossed out the broken vase. I brought the flowers to church this afternoon and put them in church. The larger vase, meant for the head table at the rehearsal dinner, is now on the floor in front of the main altar, and the two smaller vases are on either side of the back altar. 

The other small project is a group of small, round purses. They are just the right size to hold a set of earbuds and cellphone charging wire. I'm hoping that the colors will be appealing to teens and pre-teens. These will go in my booth at the craft fair in a few weeks. I'm no longer concerned about having enough items. 

Anything that I add to my inventory from now will be beyond what I was planning for. If I do have time, I may make a few more of these little purses and a few more rectangular bags to use as pencil cases or makeup bags so that I can have a larger variety of lower price point inventory, but it's not going to be a huge disapointment if I can't get to it.

I've finally gotten the printer working so I can print some price tags and business cards. I've checked on bags and have enough left over from a previous fair, so that's taken care of. 

Hopefully I can get to a practice run on how my booth will look. I plan to set up the canopy, hang quilts, set up tables and two shelves with small items, and figure out where I'll have a "checkout" area.

Several years ago I had a booth at a festival. It was awfully cold, so I was dressed for the weather, not the occasion. I had not really thought so much about how my booth would look, and though I did a dry run, when I looked at the photos later, I was shocked and saddened to discover my booth looked more like a flea market than a micro-store that I'd like for my brand. 

This time around I want to do it right. Whether there are many sales or I barely make enough to cover my costs, I want people to walk away remembering my booth. Of course, I want their memories to be positive.

But just as much I want my booth to have a clean, modern look. I'll post pictures of the booth after I practice. I think taking pictures and looking at them as I add/subtract ideas and things will help me to see the booth the way other people see it. 

If you have suggestions of other things I can do, I'd really appreciate your input, both now and when I post pictures in a few days. By the same token, if you know of interesting posts or articles that might help me, please send the links either to my email (mary.marcotte@gmail.com) or in the comments below. I need and want your opinions and input.

Because it's already Saturday night--we've been working at our annual church fair--so I'm late to all of the linkup parties. Only a few linkups left open, so I'm extra grateful to them.

Loving these Linkups

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Scraptastic Tuesday (She Can Quilt)

Beta Above and Beyond ~~ finished top

The BHS Beta Club is gearing up to go to convention this week and, WOW, have we been busy! First there's the candidate skit: 58 seconds of screaming props, backdrops and costumes. Then there are the academic competitions: a simple job of convincing students to participate, and creating a test schedule. and telling each kiddo when and where to be, and making sure that they actually GO to the competition. Let's not forget the arts and crafts competition: wood working, painting, pencils, photography, wreath, banner, needle crafts, and many, many more. 

Our kids finally decided that they would make a banner. Since one of the sponsors is the art teacher, she took on this creative endeavor. This means she pushed the kids to develop an idea for the theme (Beta Above and Beyond). 

Next, we gathered the materials and tweaked our idea a bit more. The kids thought about printing pictures of themselves to add to the banner. Paper wouldn't work, though since the banner is made of fabric, so then came printing pictures on fabric. That actually did work! 


So after a test of the fabric, the kids had to come up with a plan for the photos. They used their phones to take pictures of Betas posing to create a particular scene. One standing on another, for example. Since we wouldn't allow them to actually climb or stand on each other, they had to work that out. And they made it work seamlessly!

It would be difficult to tell that no two students are in the same photo, but that is the case. The photo of the girl standing on the boy in this photo was taken at a different time than his. The trick was to have him stand with his hands in just the right place to hold her feet. Then she had to stand with her feet just far enough apart. 

There was none of this business of printing 3 or 4 copies of the pictures. That gets expensive. So the kids manipulated the photos on their phones or on the computer. Once the photos were printed on fabric, we began playing with where and how to manuver them on the banner. 

The earth and the large star were at the front of the line for fusible web and pressing. Then came the kids. It didn't take long to realize that there weren't enough kids. Back to the drawing board to figure out new poses and choose Betas who could hold a pose long enough to get several photos. 

Interestingly, one of the girls immediately had the idea of taking burst shots. That was a bit of a life-saver for the girl in a hand-stand.


And this one? She is not actually hanging from the monkey bars...we don't have any of those at the high school. How ingenious did they get by lying her on a table with her feet dangling, posing her just right (including her hair) and then standing over her on a ladder to get a down shot? 

I was impressed! But what impressed me the most was the way that they brainstormed ideas, adding to the available information, and collaborating like a team. Some of the kids didn't want to be in the pictures, but when pressed to help out, they agreed, especially when they could turn away from the camera. There were no bad ideas, though there were a few that didn't work out as planned. 

Now that the banner top is complete, I've shown them how to make a turned closure, and we have plans for a few of the kids to come over and use the long-arm. I would like to have the quilt loaded on the machine to save time because I expect it will take a while to quilt this 24 X 36 banner. The plan is to quilt the background heavily and outline around the people, stars, and earth allowing them to pop forward. 

It's been fun sharing a small bit of quilting and fiber arts with the kids. A couple of the kids were all in with the photography. One of the girls really jumped into the quilting process and enjoyed manipulating the fabrics. I think that she may be interested in making her own quilt later and plan to encourage her. She could use the machines at school, and I'll help her to get it quilted...if we get that far. Wouldn't that have been worth all the late afternoons?

Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Winter and Valentines

We've had three snow days this week alone.  It's such a rare break to get one snow day, but a total of six in a year is amazing.  Of course, we'll have to make up all but two.  Of course, The reasons for the days off are the icy roads and loss of power.  

But the fun ends tonight: school is set to start back tomorrow.  I'll admit that I enjoyed the time off.  Movies till midnight, sleeping late, sewing all afternoon, peace and quiet.  The kids couldn't drive through the ice, so they called their dad to check on us.

One of the things that I did while we were off was to take care of this box of valentines.  When we were at Beta Convention, students from across the state came into the service project room to create valentines and activity booklets.  The valentines go to Valentines for Vets (which I delivered to the local VA Hospital for disbursement) and the activity booklets will go to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.  

The kids do a great job with the valentines.  Some of them have really heart-felt sentiments and some are beautiful.  As the school in charge of the service project room, all we have to do is provide the materials and make sure the finished products find their way to where they belong.

 Last year I mailed cards out to the three VA hospitals in our state, but this year I didn't get busy soon enough, so they all went to the Pineville hospital on Monday.  The person in charge there will do the rest.  This really helps my club because we have to raise the money for mailing costs.

So tomorrow veterans around the state will receive valentine cards and notes from some thoughtful, sweet teenagers.  Pretty awesome, don't you think?
I hope you and your Valentine have a wonderful day tomorrow.
Mary

One long week!

Wow!  What a long week!  I spent three days getting ready for Beta Convention, three days at Convention, and now at least three days recovering.  It's funny how exhausting having fun can be.   We really did have fun.  I had fun when another sponsor knocked on my hotel door at 1:30 to tell me that one of my students was in the hallway (it wasn't my student).   I had more fun sitting in hard seats for hours during the sessions.  And the most fun?  Packing 42 teens in a bus and driving the narrow streets of Lafayette while they sang (and yelled) at the top of their lungs.  They were happy and celebrating.  I don't know what they were celebrating, except that we were on the way back to the hotel and they needed to find a way to wake up before we arrived.  Who goes to a hotel to sleep?  Surely not teenagers! There's too much fun to be had: texting, TV and movies, and running the halls, and talking on the phone, and....

We returned home yesterday and I slept 14 hours straight.   All I can say is it takes a lot of rest to recover from 78 hours with 42 teens.  Today I hit the studio running and tonight I took the button quilt off the long arm.  It will take a few more days before it's finished, but it's really beginning to take shape.  I started with just a small idea and let the quilt speak to me.  Turns out that the quilt has quite a bit to say!  

International Quilting Day

I hope you enjoyed International Quilting Day today.  I managed to get home at about three from the La GEAR UP Spring Conference in Baton Rouge, so that gave me a few moments in the studio before burning out completely.  I had only seven students at the conference, so it wasn't so stressful as, say, Beta Convention. 

Still, I'd had a full, hard day on Wednesday and am trying desperately to finish up grades for the end of the grading period and this week our standardized testing begins, so there's no break or relief.  In fact, our grades are due on the first day of testing.  No matter, I am determined to see the school year break for the summer, so that means keeping up and moving forward! 

Although I went into the studio with the intention of stitching on the binding for the quilt I made last weekend, when I walked in and saw this fabric that Carla send me, I put the quilt aside and began working on a totally new project. 

Carla, from Grace and Favour,  wrote about these darling Triple Zip Pouches that she's been making lately.  She found the design and directions on Debbie's blog, A Quilter's Table.  I've been reading about them and loving them.

I'd printed the directions for the pouch last week, so it was an easy switch to pick up the fabric and get started.  That poor quilt will have to wait another week for binding!  But the good news is that I started AND FINISHED the project.

Before I show you the project, though, I need to give Carla a huge thank you for the fabric. I love the bicycles!  I wish I'd done as nice as job on my Triple Zip Pouch as she did, oh well.  Hugs and thank you, Carla, for the sweet fabric and for pointing me to Debbie's great design.  And another hug to Debbie for taking the time to post a great tutorial.

 

I did make one change to the final product: I added a ribbon strap so that I can wear it as a cell phone case.  I've lost two cell phones in recent months, so now that I have another (new) android phone, I worry about losing it.  I've tried everything: sticking it in my pocket, in my waistband, even in my bra, and in my bra strap.  Nothing so far has worked...it's too big and bulky.

                   

I made another pouch to hang on my belt but I rarely wear a belt now that I've put on weight.  So, this is another attempt.  If it doesn't work, I can easily remove the ribbon. and use the pouch like everyone else.  If it does work, I can change the ribbon out for a better, stronger strap. 

This is a prototype, of sorts, so I'll let you know how it works.  I have to say, it's nice that it's large enough to easily put the phone in or take it out.  (The first one was too tight.) And I think I'll like having a couple of different pockets, too.



 

 

Thanks again to Carla and to Debbie.  The rest of you should go by to visit them at Grace and Favour and A Quilter's Table. 

Happy International Quilting Day, everyone!

Mary

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

An afternoon at the Baton Rouge Zoo means lots of walking and animals.  We had a wonderful bright day with a bit of wind.  I ended up a little red from the sun and the wind, which was uncomfortable, but a good bath and gobs of lotion fixed me up.

The bright sunshine felt good and the animals were mostly out but napping.  I managed to get a few pictures and thought you might enjoy the beauty of the day.  My students were amazingly well behaved which probably added to the brightness of the day.  Teens can really surprise us if we just give them clear instructions and high expectations.

Richard and I walked around for an hour and saw only about half of the zoo.  I was really tired and wanted to rest a while before getting on the road back to Bunkie.  Driving the bus, sponsoring the event, and chaperoning 40 kids can really take the wind out of a girl.

 

 

 

My favorite picture is this last one.  Too bad I'm so allergic to poison ivy.  Otherwise, posting a sign like this would be a perfect way to ignore the problem of cutting and pulling the miserable weed!  Of course, you'd have to first build a boardwalk.  Oh, and yes, they really ARE letting it grow.  Which means you may want to avoid that area when it blooms.  But don't fret, there's plenty of zoo to keep you busy for at least two hours, and that's walking at a steady pace.  At the very least, take a virtual visit on their website.

Book Review: Just Listen

According to her website, People Magazine calls Sarah Dessen's novel, Just Listen, "A cut above chick lit," meaning it's a book better than most books for young girls.  On this count, I'd have to agree.  

I picked up the book from my library counter with the intent of putting it away.  
Because I do enjoy Dessen's books, I thought I'd thumb through it quickly to decide whether I'd come back to it later.  I read the book in its entirety yesterday afternoon.  

Admittedly, I had to work to finish it before lights out at 10:00 (Rich thinks a schedule will help me to get more sleep) but, honestly the book is neither difficult nor long winded.  I like that in a book, especially YA lit.

Annabel seems to have it all--a modeling career, friends, family, money, etc.  However, there are two things in Annabel's life that are kept deeply hidden: one horrible event that she cannot bring herself to tell and her inability to confront others or deal with uncomfortable situations.  Though she has lost two best friends, fears her mother's weak emotional state and runs from the only boy she has ever cared for, Annabel survives on sheer will power, using her inner strength to steel herself against the unspeakable.  Observing family dynamics and seeing changes in family members and friends strengthens Annabel so that she is able to face her own secrets and fears. 

Definitely a great read,  Just Listen is one I'd strongly recommend to any young adult looking for a realistic novel that portrays serious themes, well-developed characters and contemporary music genres.

Book Review: Vanishing Acts

Imagine being a young mother with a life you love and appreciate when one evening the police knock on your door.  

For Delia Hopkins, the police are a regular thing: she and her dog work to rescue other people.   When the police come knocking on one particular night, however, Delia's life changes forever.

Every bit of her life, she soon discovers has been a lie committed by her father to prevent her mother from finding them.  Delia's name, her earliest memories, everything in her life is suddenly different.

When her father is transported to Arizona, Delia, Eric and Fitz follow him, each for different reasons.  With her best friend and fiancee in Arizona, Delia attempts to save her father, get to know her mother and find herself.  

Picoult's book had me enthralled from beginning to end.  I wanted to know how Delia's relationships with her parents, her fiancee, and her friend, Fitz, develop.  Details of Arthur's life behind bars, Delia's mental state and work, and an underlying theme of alcoholism keep the novel moving and provide shifts in the story that makes it fresh and fast. 

I appreciate the moral issues that Vanishing Act raises and found myself thinking about many of the questions Picoult poses.  This is one book I'll be recommending to students when they visit the library!

Book Review of "Here Lies the Librarian"

Being a librarian is great fun for me.  I really do love my job.  Imagine my reaction when I ran across a book by Richard Peck titled Here Lies the Librarian.  Surely no one would kill off a librarian in book!

Well, that's half right anyway, the librarian in Peck's young adult novel is already dead when we meet Peewee and her brother.  Hum, interesting plot.  What makes it more interesting is that after two years, the city council will finally replace their dead librarian. 


The story is set in the early 1900's when Peewee and Jake hope to become famous as auto mechanics now that the new road is being built right past their house, which Peewee states is "in the weeds."  Enter Irene Ridpath and three of her sorority sisters and let the fun begin. 


You will fall in love with the quirky, down-home characters, their folksy ways and phrases and their first automobiles. 


If you've not had the pleasure of reading one of Peck's many books, let me recommend them all.   I read Here Lies the Librarian in an afternoon and now plan to pick up a copy of The Teacher's Funeral.  

Delay of Game

On Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment in Alexandria.  Dusti, our grand daughter, was visiting for a few days while out of school for the week, so we decided to enjoy our day.  After the appointment we did a little shopping and came home with fabrics and a pattern that she picked out.

She absolutely loves these bold prints, especially the polka dots.  Once we decided on a pattern, she had no problem imagining the little skirt in black and white animal prints, so we added three bolts to the stack already on the cutting table.  The cute little prints on the right are for the little grands.  They will get almost matching capris or dresses depending on what their moms want.  I won't even mention the final cost, but let's just say I could have purchased enough for a nice, large quilt!

So, instead of working on any quilt project, I came home instead to make a few garments for a 12 year old.  She was quite helpful, cutting apart the pattern pieces and separating them into stacks.  The dress sewed up in no time. We had to make a few adjustments so it would fit her cute little figure, but it's rather nice to buy the fabrics and have a finished garment in the same day.

On Thursday I sewed up the shorts.  The pattern didn't include shorts, so I had to put together something on my own, but that wasn't a big problem.  The bigger problem was finding a way to sneak away from Richard and Adam.  They are in the middle of a construction project and needed extra hands.  I still wonder what they do on "real jobs" since it's just the two to them on those occasions.  Anyway, I managed to sneak away a few times--once because I'd gotten so hot they were worried about me.  I just walked my flushed body into the studio and cooled off while working on Dusti's shorts.

Today I tackled the skirt.  The pattern claims to be easy, but that little skirt is a doozie--three tiers of gathered flounce does not make for a fun sewing day.  But in the end I got it tamed down enough to put stitches in.  The flounces are gathered just enough to make them, well, flouncy and in the way.  I pinned each one to another part of the skirt just to keep it out of the way while I sewed.  But didn't it end up looking really cute?  Dusti hasn't seen it yet since she went home yesterday (it's Jolie's turn) but she'll get it this afternoon.  I'm anxious to see it on her.  Richard says it's too big, but he's in denial about how much she's growing.  The dress fit quite well and needed only a few little adjustments.  Here are photos of the dress and shorts.  What do you think?  Do you sew garments?  Leave a comment and thanks for visiting.