Midsummer Daydreams



It's July.  Is your glass half full, or half empty (of ice cold lemonade that is)?    To a teacher, that's an interesting question. You might be of the mindset that the summer is still in full swing, another month and a half or so of fun in the sun, and lazy summer days by the pool with a good book (not a text book, of course).  Or, you could look at that question from the opposite viewpoint, that the summer is half over and the new school year looms large in the not too distant future.

 

I, personally, sit on the fence.  I love the summer for its creative freedom, but I also love being a teacher with the promise of a new year coming up, new students, new projects, a whole new beginning.  So either way, I enjoy the place I'm in, whatever month it is.  Yes, and when I was a student, I actually enjoyed doing homework and did it as soon as I got home from school.  Some things never change I guess.

 

Since I am enjoying the glass half full of my creative freedom, I have done lots of projects so far, and finished a few that didn't have time for during the school year. 

 



I like to try a few new things over the summer and combine some old techniques or materials.  Like most crafters, I sometimes find myself wandering aimlessly through the craft store in search of materials that speak to me, often finding, after I have purchased them, either that idea didn't exactly work, or through trial and error, I came up with a better solution.  So, those materials get pushed to the back of the drawer until I rediscover them at a later time.




My puppy, yo yo quilt

 

 

In my latest baby quilt, I wanted to add something special that would give it a little spark, in addition to my hand painted puppy squares.  I always like to include some hand painted squares for a personal touch.  At first I was going to use lace as an accent for  the quilt, but couldn't get enough of the exact type I needed. I thought about using embroidery, but didn't exactly know how I would incorporate that, and then I thought about using yo yos, those lovely little puffs of gathered fabric that I wrote my first blog post about, that I made a vest and purse out of in my high school years, that I taught my sewing club girls how to make into flowers by adding buttons in the center.  How could I have almost overlooked that wonderful technique?  So that was it, my quilt accent.  I searched for ways to attach them to a quilt and found one using a blanket stitch with embroidery floss.   That looked very pretty, so I thought I'd give it a try.

 

Yo Yos made by my students

 

 

I made lots of yo yos in white and coordinating colors.  I love making yo yos!  They are very therapeutic and I highly recommend making them!  I played around with the placement of the yo yos once they were all done, and decided to stitch them to the corners of each square.

My next venture is to add crocheted edging to the baby quilt I am currently working on.

 

 

Paint Can Baby Shower Centerpiece

 

I also created a baby shower centerpiece for my artfire shop that I had sketched out a couple of years ago when I was creating some baby shower centerpieces for someone having twins.  I kept that idea in the back of my head until I stumbled upon a paper mache paint can last week and just knew I had produce my idea and here is the result!

But, I haven't forgotten about the half empty portion of the glass setting on my work table.  I have already started filling it with lesson plans and lots of project ideas for my students in September.  Being on the fence, sometimes, is a very a good thing! Refills, anyone?