Begrudgingly Back to Blogging after Bonaire

My sewing machine was in the shop for weeks. I was out of the country and underwater for a over a week. Boyfriend is working 16 hour shifts. With 3 days notice, I took over teaching summer classes, mid-semester.

...These are all moderately legitimate excuses for my lack of blogging enthusiasm. But the truth is: I should be blogging because the only thing actually in my brain is "It's summer and I don't wanna!" Here we go.

Since my sewing machine really was in the shop for weeks, we begin with hand sewing. This is for Mug Rug Revival.




Then I really was out of town and underwater for over a week. Before we left, one of our three hens laid an egg!


Oh gosh, I love Bonaire! This is the view from the dock. Do you see where the water gets darker just past the boats? That's the coral reef! It goes down to about 150'!!!


Oh, and there are wild iguanas everywhere.


If you want to see underwater footage, here is a video Eliott (one of my friends/dive buddies/roomies in Bonaire) compiled with the best of his GoPro footage from the week. The boyfriend and I were the lighting technicians for the octopus footage! This video also has footage of my favorite fish ever, the honeycomb cowfish. It changes color!


If you don't want to watch all of that, and/or want to see more octopus footage and also a slipper lobster (that I spotted!) that didn't make it into that first video, check this one out.


The chickens seemed pretty happy that we were back stateside.


So much so that they even helped me with some hand sewing.


Especially Eglentine. She was all about it and hopped up in my lap in an attempt to help tackle dog-ears.


Then they just wanted to sneak inside and/or wander away.


Oh! Our tomato plants are kicking ass! Clockwise from top left, Red Phoenix, Juliet, Sweet 100, Black Cherry.


Then I made some taco salads to deal with the random leftovers that I found in the fridge upon arrival. All of the tomatoes went into this.


Now that the boyfriend is working 16 hour days, I'm trying to keep him eating well. Dang engineers. Left to his own devices he would live on ramen and cheese. Luckily the pork tenderloin, Greek potatoes, and roasted veggies convinced him to eat real food.

Dresser Runner Finish and More

I finished my Lovely Year of Finishes goal for April: My EPP table dresser runner! I love it! I ended up doing FMQ inside the stars and added 1/4" echo quilting around the stars, by hand.


I love the way it turned out! In case you are interested, the dresser is called Hemnes from Ikea (their solid wood line).


Now that my Hemnes is protected from scratches, I can start covering it with rocks to avoid any accumulation of clothes on top of my dresser. This is my favorite hunk of fluorite!

In case you want to see the progression of this project, here are all the links.
EPP blocks being assembled
Front complete (LYoF goal link-up post)
Basting done
FMQ done
Hand quilting done

I also made progress on the 241 tote I'm making for my secret partner in Super Swaps.


And lastly I am going to leave you with my new plants from the San Antonio Cactus/Succulent show this past weekend. The two on the outside are both Haworthia limifolia var variegata, and the one in the middle is a Haworthia truncata. I had never seen the varigated limifolias before and I was torn between the two but settled on the left one. My boyfriend's mom could tell I was agonizing over making this decision and then second guessing myself once I had made it, so she bought me the one on the right as an early birthday present! Thanks, April!

Spring Break: Part One

I am so thrilled to have a break from teaching for a week! My car is in the shop, so I am stuck at home and have been working hard to maximize my time, which would explain the project riddled, photo-heavy post. I'm going to try and be brief. It would also explain why I'm done with both of my LYoF goals for the month: My Pantone challenge quilt and my STBS tote bag. Both are in this post.

I finished the front of my Pantone challenge quilt. Here is a close-up fabric shot to see the Radiant Orchid-ness. Mmm, shot cotton.


Here is a shot of the whole front. If I have time to quilt it, great, but at least as a front, it is enterable. The top is 48" by 48". Once it is quilted, I am planning on binding it in that green color between the leaves.


I made my first Spoonflower fabric! Woot! You can find it here. It is a 19" x 24" map of Middle Earth. I have uploaded several different orientations and sizes, if you are interested.


I got the panels made and quilted for this round of Secret Tote Bag Swap.


I even finished the tote bag and made it to the post office to get it in the mail before my car went into the shop.


The boyfriend and I made some blueberry cornmeal pancakes. The cornmeal pancake might have been my favorite pancake ever! Recipe is here, but we didn't coat the blueberries in sugar.


I started on my mug rug for the March Mug Rub Revival Swap. I made up a paper pieced pattern for the block and will hopefully release it soon.


We also made a key lime pie and topped it with tequila lime whipped cream. (Recipes here and here)


We also made some spinach, caramelized onion, & mushroom grilled cheeses. I might whip up a recipe post for these.


Then the chickens were 27 days old and I caught a photo of two of them mid-flight.


We also made some Guinness stew and it was amaaaazing. Recipe here.


Then there were the dulce de leche stuffed cupcakes...


That turned into salted caramel cupcakes! Recipe post for these is in the works.


Then the chicks turned 4 weeks old. Here they are looking huge and waiting patiently while we clean their cage.


And here they are in their new cage with a perch! One little lady is even testing the perch out.


And we grew some broccoli.


Pfffew. I'm exhausted. Have you also been busy? If so, what are you working on?

Nosebleed

On Wednesday I had every intention of buckling down and getting a bunch of prep work done for all the classes I'm teaching and then going to the gym. ...Then I got a headache. After a while of that, it turned into a nosebleed that just would not quit. That made me realize that I would get no work done during my 6 hour break between classes, so I drove home pinching my nose and finally got it to stop after a while at home. I still had a bit of a headache, so work and working out seemed out of the question. That of course left napping or sewing but I'm an insomniac so if I took a nap during the day there would be no chance of sleeping at night. Logically I chose sewing!

I finished basting the houndstooth "quilt."(FYI, it is a "quilt" and not a quilt because it will be the upholstered cover of the cushion on my cedar chest.) This might just end up being my Lovely Year of Finishes goal for February.

I also successfully made my first mitered corner/self binding napkin! I have tried to do this several times and it always comes out as a horribly lumpy mess that doesn't look squared up at all. Maybe my heart wasn't in it before because this time I read through many [10+, so not joking!] tutorials and fiddled with 3 attempts out of cheapo fabric before I could do anything that even remotely made me consider trying it with nicer fabric. It still isn't perfect, but if I make a few more, it might very well get better! Here is the best corner of the four.

And here is the backing/binding fabric. It is roughly a 14" square, which means I started with a 12" front square and a 16" backing/binding square.

The napkin was needed to complete my little lunch silverware rollup thingamajig since I love to take my lunch. Here it is all rolled up and adorable. Oh gosh, I love these lambs.

This is what it looks like from the inside with rip stop nylon for the lining. I need to whip up a few more of these since they are machine washable and will get thrown in the laundry upon my return home every day. Here's hoping the lambs and elephants get along!

On a completely unrelated note, it would appear that winter is officially here in South Texas since it *almost* froze last night!  Despite the frigid weather facing us, this was a view from my backyard this week. I am very proud of my sunflowers. They just get bigger and better every year, though this is the first year they have decided to pop up again in winter.  Luckily it is cold or else I would be outside not getting anything done.

EDIT: Please help! I am making a baby quilt for my bff's brand new daughter and I need some input on which color layout to choose. Here is the fabric (crosshatch for background and black for binding) followed by the two possible layouts. Which do you prefer: Left or right? 

Thank you so much for your feedback!

Grading Mania!

I love the end of the semester because it is the end of the semester which means I get a break from teaching. I hate the end of the semester because it means I have such an insanely large pile of stuff to grade.

This semester, I stumbled upon papers from two students who obviously cheated since whole paragraphs are IDENTICAL. I have a warning in my syllabus about academic dishonesty and plagiarism, so I know I should report them, especially since they are college students who need to learn about the real world. 

I have no idea if I should report them or not. This is the first time this has happened to me, and the paperwork seems daunting. Ugh. Any opinion?

Anyways, now for happy crafting stuff!

I finished the April and May blocks for Color Bee Shocked.

This is the April block for Caryn. It is a GIANT block, 24.5" unfinished!

Here is the May block for Karrie. This one is also large and ends up being 17.5" unfinished. (The group used this tutorial over here.)

I also mailed out my pouch for the Pretty Little Pouches Swap. Here are the two sides, with some goodies.

Lastly, I was able to eat some Brussels sprouts from my garden! Yipppeee!

Now I have to go back to work at grading. I should really try to have everything graded by Thursday afternoon since I am going on an amazing road trip to Texas Star Party, the best Astronomy viewing party in the world this weekend! I will try to bring pictures. :)

Three Jobs?!

I officially have three jobs again. Which means this is going to be a short post (I always say that...). So now I can say that I am an adjunct professor, a scuba shop employee/dive leader, and the newest addition to the list is swim teacher. I am teaching Baby & Me swim classes, which is terrifying! Anyways, on to crafting!

I finished potholders for a former professor/mentor of mine who is now a friend.

Then there was the craft sale. Here are a few photos of my booth. I didn't sell too much, but it was fun! I ended up finishing 20 grocery bags, 10 purses, 5 zipper pouches, and like 10 potholders. Plus all the other stuff I had been selling for a while.

I also finished the potholders for Potholder Pass! These bad boys are already in the mail.

Here are close-ups of the stitching:

Then I finished the April block for Get Your Hex On.

I had some luck in the garden and was able to eat snacks from my tomato plants this morning. Spweee! I even setup a bunch of tubs and trash cans since it rained for the first time in a year.

Aaaand, I finished the April block for newBEES.

I also worked on a washi dress and stuff for Pretty Little Pouch Swap, but neither of those are ready to share! Woot! I'm off to bed. What have you been working on?