Sunday, May 30, 2021

Hands2Help 2021

 The Hands2Help challenge for 2021 sponsored by Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict is coming to an end! It is time to show you the quilts I made and donated! 

I choose to donated to The Little Lambs Foundation this year. 

My True Blue and my Spring Fever baby quilts were sent off in early May! 

True Blue was made using the pattern Traffic Jam by Pat Sloan. 
This pattern is a great use of scraps!

I made this last summer but knew I would donate it as part of the Hands2Help Challenge. You can read more about this quilt by scrolling down the post here
The 2nd baby quilt sent to Little Lambs is Spring Fever. 

This bright and cheerful quilt I designed to look like spring flowers. You can read more about this quilt here.


The last quilt I donated as part of Hands2Help was my Hometown Hero quilt. I gifted my Fresh as a Daisy quilt to my friend and coworker, Megan
.




You can read about my Hometown Hero here.

So that’s a wrap for Hands2Help2021! It was a great challenge! Thanks to Sarah for all her hard work and dedication to this great cause! I’m linking up to the parade here. Stop over to see all the fabulous quilts donated! 

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Hometown Hero

 For the 3 years now, I have participated in the Hands2Help Challenge hosted by Sara @Confessions of a Fabric Addict. This year, Sara added an additional challenge called Hometown Heroes. She requested that each participant donate a quilt to 'someone in your community' that has worked during COVID-19 (front-line worker) as a way to say "Thank you" and "Hang in there, we see all that you do." 

There are so many possible recipients as many have worked tirelessly through this unprecedented time. First that come to mind are those working in healthcare, police and firefighters, but Sara encouraged us to think outside the box as there are endless possibilities. 

Since I work in an elementary school district, I have seen first hand how school teachers have had to work harder than ever before, learning new technology quickly, making changes several times throughout this school year to accomodate students, their families, and administrative directives, all the while teaching their students; remotely, hybrid and/or in-person (and taking care of their own families.)  

For my Hometown Hero, I chose my friend and colleague, Megan. Over the years, I have worked closely with Megan, subbing for her, helping out in her classroom, and even teaching 'long-term' for her when she went on maternity leave.

Megan teaches 1st grade! Here we are together. 
 The picture above is from before COVID-19. The students sat at tables, shared supplies, made projects to reinforce the lesson and were able to move around the classroom. Her classroom is well organized and full of fun learning activities. 
I was working on March 13, 2020 when the staff got an email with 3 hours notice that school would be closing and to prepare their students with enough materials for the near future. That was the last time students would be back in-person until October 2020. 
This school year started with remote learning, first teaching from school.
Then hybrid learning started. Some students attended on Mondays and Tuesdays, others on Thursdays and Fridays while others remained remote. All were remote on Wednesdays. Desks, social distanced with protection screens replaced tables.
All students had to have their own supplies and take home everything daily. 
Everyone needed their own water bottle as the water fountains were turned off.     
Backpacks were loaded and heavy! A lot to ask of kids.

After one month+, remote learning returned. This time, the teachers needed to teach from their own homes. Below is Megan's classroom from her basement.
When the students and teachers finally returned, hybrid looked different as schedules changed weekly so students could attend on alternating Wednesdays. After spring break, most students returned to 5 days but there were still some families that remain remote. 
In giving you a glimpse of what teaching looks like during the pandemic, I hope I was able to convene the fact that teachers have had to work incredibly hard to accommodate all the changes while still teaching their students. It wasn't and still isn't easy. Technology is great, but we all know that there are unforeseen glitches that pop up and need to be addressed immediately. 
Megan spent her time learning the technology so she could make sure my day went smoothly when I sub for her. I appreciate how organized and detailed her plans are which makes my day in her classroom a joy. 
I presented Megan with my Fresh as a Daisy quilt this week (which was also Teacher Appreciation Week!) 
You can see additional pictures of the quilt here
I love my job as a substitute teacher! 
Megan is one of many teachers that have worked hard during the pandemic and are deserving of our "Thanks! We see all that you do!"

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Playing with RED

 The color for the month of May is RED

I was able to steal away a bit of time to work with my red scraps. I made 10 red wonky shoo fly blocks. I really enjoy making these blocks ~ they don't really use up too many red scraps but you can use the smallest scraps for the points. So if you are like me and save little scraps like triangle cutoffs, this is a good use for them! I'm also using quite a bit of cream low volume scraps.

I made 10 red Joy Luck blocks. These blocks use a 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" red scrap and 4 small 1 1/2" square white/black low volume scraps. 

I've cut up several red scraps for my EPP tumbler blocks. I still need to find time to stitch them. 
I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy. 
This past weekend was moving day for my daughter, son-in-law and grandson! They completed renovations in their new house enough to move in. There will always be projects! (It's only about 10 minutes from us.) After almost a year living with us, it sure is quiet here. I do miss my morning greeting 'Good morning, Mormor!', family dinners, and reading books to Magnus (to name a few). I'm still babysitting 2 days a week, but now 1 day at their house and 1 day at our house. We love to go to local parks! Here are some pictures from some recent outings!
Blackhawk Park
Wildwood Nature Center & Park
Wildwood Nature Center & Park
Brentwood

Sunday, May 9, 2021

Slow Stitching

 I have started several projects of hand work in the past year. I have shown you                      my hoop embroidery of flowers which is slowly coming along.                           I also shown my fabric journal for Mindful Stitches. I'm mostly using              it for textile pieces that were orphaned or sample pieces but I've also included                               some paper art and some embroidery stitching.                             Since I haven't given an update in a while, I took some picture of the new pages.

These little plus blocks were samples blocks from a project.

This quilt block and the one below were orphaned from projects.

I stitched a basic embroidery stitches sampler.

I found this stamped and colored mermaid that I made several years ago that I stitched onto the page.

I gathered small smooth sticks on my walks with my grandson and wrapped them in embroidery floss then stitched them into the journal.
I'm linking to Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.

I am staying accountable by posting my April calendar journal!

And a final picture of my attempt at an art photo. 😊
I love dandelion puffs!