Teaching

I think I may have mentioned that a Facebook friend is opening a studio/art gallery.  This is something that I have dreamed of doing myself.  Unfortunately, someone else beat me to it.  Fortunately, it is someone I know and a friend.  The nice thing is, she has asked me to teach a class.  She has also offered for me to take a class of hers for free.  I am hoping to go to her floating lantern class next Friday and see how she runs a class.

I am considering teaching a quilting class.  I have made a few small quilts and one large one that fit my full size bed.  I feel like I have enough knowledge to teach the class, but maybe not enough confidence to actually teach someone how to quilt.  My friend Liz sent me to the quilt pattern she used when she gave her class.  I am starting a quilt for my kids with the pattern she sent me to.  It's from Elizabeth Hartman at http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2011/03/mod-sampler-redux.html.  I let my twins pick out their fabric with some help from me.  I figured, I better make the quilt that I am contemplating teaching.  We chose the following fabric for the two quilts:

Eva Rose's material

Thomas' choices

I am also looking at some other types of quilts to teach.  I love the cathedral windows, but it may be a little complicated to teach in a class environment, but then again, it may be fine as long as I have the right equipment.  It looks so much harder than it is, it just involved folding and ironing.  The nice part is that it doesn't necessarily involve machine sewing.  You can hand sew or machine sew, which may open it up to more people who may not have a sewing machine.  I have also thought about teaching English Paper piecing, another hand sewn quilting project.  Then of course there is hand piecing in general, but I haven't perfected that as much (not that I've perfected machine piecing).  There is of course traditional machine piecing that I can teach.  I am thinking quilting classes may be what I teach, but I need to feel more comfortable teaching it.

Simple pinwheel block

Hexagone English paper piecing

Hand Stamped Thank You Card

Dresden plate machine stitched, hand appliqued

butterfly dresden plate english paper pieced hand appliquéd

English paper pieced hexagon not sewn together yet

English paper pieced hexagon made with 6 pt diamonds sewn together

English paper pieced hexagon like the above yellow one but sewn together

1/4 dresden plate mug rug

The above pictures are just a couple of the different projects I've made using tutorials that I think I could teach others.  I don't have a picture of a cathedral window, but I could make one up very quick and throw a picture on later.  These are some of the things that I love to make using both hand sewing/piecing techniques and machine piecing techniques!

Just a few thoughts to get down so that I can contemplate what I feel comfortable teaching.  I love to make everything on here, I just need to figure out what I want to do first.

Amy

More On English Paper Piecing

I'm still amazingly addicted to the idea of English Paper Piecing and I'm still spending time researching what I can find.  I have a few projects in the works.  I joined an English paper piecing quilt a long, with the goal to make a sampler quilt.

This is for block number one

I guess I haven't taken a picture of my tumbling blocks for quilt block number two, but it is in the same colors just the tumbling block pattern.  I made the six point diamonds a little bigger than I was supposed to, so I think I am just going to make three instead of six tumbling blocks.  The current month is eighty-one half inch hexagons in a diamond shape.  Not looking forward to sewing them all together (or even cutting out eighty-one hexagons), but I am looking forward to seeing these all come together.

It's amazing.  Just when I think I've seen all that you can do with regards to shapes and english paper piecing, I find something new.  I now have two more blogs that I am following because of english paper piecing projects.  I looked at getting the book "Pieced Hexies" by Mickey Dupre, but decided against it.  I'm rethinking that decision, since I think it may be helpful to have for creative ideas with hexagons and english paper piecing.   I think I tend to be to concrete when it comes to shapes for english paper piecing.  I'm thinking that if I can just think outside the box, I may be able to come up with my own shapes and designs.  Love the internet, social media, and having the ability to learn all about things like this.  

I also want to keep learning about handcrafting history, especially quilting including hand piecing and hand quilting.  Along with that, I want to learn more about the creative arts and how they affect both your mental and physical health.  I have read about and talked with people who are able to do some amazing projects, but you would never expect it, looking at their physical condition (severe arthritis for example).  I also plan to continue with my goal of creating forty things for others (handcrafted) before I turn forty-one.  I am  also hoping that I can get the courage to teach a class at my local art/craft studio that will be opening this summer.

Lots of goals and projects in the works.  I really love sewing.  I wish I had more time to spend making things, learning how to make things, teaching others how to make things, teaching others how being creative can benefit them physically, mentally, and even spiritually.

Have a fabulous day.  Until next time!

Amy

BTW-going gluten free has been easier than I thought it would be.It hasn't been easy, but I am doing it and actually following through with not eating gluten.  I had a little trouble a a graduation party I was at, but I was better than I would have been if I hadn't been doing this challenge!

June, Summer, and New Things

June 1st, I embarked on a huge challenge.  Ok, it's a huge challenge for me.  My fellow blogger Iris, at http://thedailydietribe.com, asked me to take part in a gluten free challenge.  I think I've mentioned here that, according to an IgG blood test (some say it's faulty), I am sensitive to many food items, including gluten.  This is one thing that I have had a hard time eliminating from my diet.  I wasn't sure that I was going to take part in this challenge, mostly for the fear of failure and the fact that it was 6 months long.  I ended up deciding that my health was important enough to challenge myself, and I thought that this would be a great way to have support through something that is so difficult, at least for me.  Day 1 was great.  It was hard but I had a gluten free day.  Day 2 was really good, but we went to a graduation party, and I couldn't say no to cake and corn bread.  What was good is that I only had a very small piece of both of those things.  What is also good, is that I didn't go back for more. In the last 2 1/2 days, I have had less gluten then I ever have in even just one day.  Though it hasn't been horrible, it hasn't been easy.  I am hopeful that I can follow though and be healthy.

This is also important since I have that crazy gene mutation making me more at risk for breast cancer and I don't plan on having preventative surgery.  I just found out that my mom's cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer and the gene mutation and she is not yet 53.  She is the youngest diagnosed that I know of, 13 years older than me.  I have met with doctors and nurse practitioners and I think my food sensitivities are something I need to focus on so that I don't put more stress on my body.  I am also hopeful that going gluten free is going to help with my weight issues.  I am hopeful that it will help me know my body and what my body needs.  I am hoping that I will lose weight as a side effect of eating healthy.

As I've mentioned, I turn 40 this year.  Sometimes, I have a hugely hard time with this, other times I am absolutely fine.  This weekend someone actually asked me if I was mom or grandma to my kids.  Yes, I could have a grandchild, but I am only going to be 40.  I didn't think I looked that bad.  I actually went out and colored my hair after that comment.  I was thinking about not coloring my hair again, but with how I've been feeling and then that comment, I decided that I needed to color my hair.  I mentioned that I was thinking about doing 40 creative things to donate during the year I turn 40.  I got the idea from 36 quilts in 12 months (http://dailydog.typepad.com).  What I haven't decided is when I should start.  Do I want it to be 40 things within the calendar year I turn 40 or a year from  when I turn 40?  If it's the calendar year, then I can say that I have started, but I only have 6 months to finish 39 more projects.  I made a quilt square for the Boston bombing victims.  If I wait til I turn 40 I have a full year to go to complete this project.  I'm leaning to being able to finish before I turn 41.  Maybe, to make things easier, I can have it be 40 projects before I turn 41, starting the calendar year that I turn 40.  That means, I can count the quilt square and have a little more than a year to complete the rest of the 39 projects.

Now, I've written about Wishcasting Wednesday and putting out your dreams to the universe.  Well, a facebook friend of mine (friends literally from facebook alone) and an artist, is actually starting one of my dreams here in my town.  In the next month, she will open a gallery and studio in the center of town.  She has asked me to teach a class or two, and I am so flattered, but so nervous.  My introverted, shy self is having a hard time thinking that I can do this.  I will probably take hep up on this offer some day, but I need to work up the courage.

Within the dream/passion piece of things, I am still thinking about doing something at my farmer's market with regards to crafting for charity.  Again, I need to get up the courage to do this.  I would love to have a table and collect things that people create and donate somewhere locally.  This will help go along with my goal of creating and donating 40 items before I turn 41.  How cool would it be to spend a Saturday morning creating and collecting things to donate to others to make them more comfortable or so that they know that someone is thinking of them.

These are just a few of the new things in my life.  Here's to completing the goals that I have set forth for myself.

Amy

Hand Piecing and Traditional Ways of Creating

I've written about how I am addicted to English Paper Piecing.  Along with actually making things, I love to read about how to make new things, the history behind it, and now especially with blogs, I love reading about other peoples experiences with creating the things that I am learning about making myself.  While I was reading about English Paper Piecing (EPP), I started reading about how people love to hand sew pieces instead of using the paper templates that are required when you use EPP.  I was interested in hand sewing as a portable project prior to learning about EPP, but then I thought EPP was an easy, more accurate (at least for me) way to piecing things together.

Now that I see how much people like hand piecing, I am interested in trying it again.  I have, once again, done a ton of research about how to actually do it.  I think it will be a great way to sit with my husband and watch TV, sit outside with the kids while they play (I had actually bought a smaller sewing machine so that I could sew outside, but that would only be at out our house not at places like the park or when my daughter is at speech therapy), and [what I feel is even more important] a connection with the past.

I love the idea of having a connection to the past.  Of course, sewing machine have been a part of sewing and quilting for a while now, but hand sewing is a connection to the past when there wasn't electricity, an actual sewing machine, or even the finances to buy a sewing machine.  It is a connection to the past when people created quilts, not for their beauty, but for the warmth and comfort that a quilt can bring.

I love learning about the history of handcrafts.  I've been  thinking about what I ultimately want to do with my life, career wise, and when I think about what I am passionate about I come up with a couple of different things.  I actually do like being a social worker, but what I love about being a social worker is partly the mental health piece, but ultimately I love the getting to know someone while doing their social history.  I love being creative and crafting and learning about crafting.  I have been trying to figure out how to combine my love of crafting, creating, and social work as a career.  One thing I came up with was going back to school for art therapy.  I then thought about maybe becoming an art teacher and using my social work as a secondary piece to my career.  Then, one day while I was driving, I thought about how awesome it would be to be able to interview crafters and then either report on it in person, or even better write an article about it.  The only problem is, I don't know that there is a calling for something like this.

How awesome would it be to actually interview someone about a handcraft that they love.  I would get a chance to do the interview piece that I love about social work, learn more about a craft and how/why someone loves their craft, maybe even learn a new craft myself, and then pass than knowledge on to others more likely in writing (since I enjoy writing more than being in front of a group of people).  Maybe I could do it as a small educational piece too.  I could teach others about the history of a craft and why it is so attractive to some people.

I think I will continue to learn about different craft and their history.  I like a lot of the modern crafts or the modern spin on things, but ultimately I love the traditional crafts.  I wish I could better put in words why I love the traditional crafts, but I guess it is just the history behind them.  I'm not sure that this will ever be a career, but I would love to make it more than just a passing hobby.

Amy

Angelina Jolie's Decision

I can't remember if I wrote about this in the past, but I am positive for the BRCA2 gene mutation.  I found out about 1 1/2 years ago after my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and found out that she had the gene.  Thankfully, she is doing well after her treatment.

When I found out she had the gene and decided to get tested, I thought about my options if I was positive.  Before I got my results, I decided that I would not get prophylactic surgery.  After I got my results and since, my decision has wavered a bit, especially when stories like Angelina Jolie's come out.

Over the last couple of days, I have been rethinking my decision not to have surgery.  I thought about the fact that I have such little kids.  I thought about the pain and suffering that my grandmother went through.  I thought about how my great grandmother, my grandmother, my grandmother's twin sister, and my mother got breast cancer.

I also thought about what surgery would mean for my body, my mind, my identity.  I thought about (and still think about) how going immediately into menopause would affect my body.  I thought about how my identity would change knowing that I would have parts of my body removed (as silly as it sounds).  I thought about how much piece of mind I would really have even if I had surgery.  Would I have less anxiety or would I still worry that I would get cancer even after having body parts removed.

I honestly feel like this is such a personal decision.  What is right for me isn't necessarily right for everyone.  What is right for Angelina Jolie isn't necessarily right for me.  I think that all options should be looked at and weighed out.  For me not having surgery gives me the option of changing my mind later after having time to think about it.  If I have surgery, I can't change my mind!

Right now, my choice is to eat right (more on the pH diet), exercise, work on the mind body connection, work on my stress level and how I deal with it.  I think doing this will not only keep me healthy and hopefully decrease my risk for cancer overall, but will also get me healthy to have surgery if I chose to do so later in life.

I am going to be forty this summer.  Things may change as I get older since my family seems to get cancer later in life.  I may change my mind about having my ovaries removed after I go through menopause.  I may change my mind if I find a lump.  Right now, I can't have surgery without having cancer.

My life is telling me that I need to look at the different things I believe in.  I keep thinking that I need to make changes in my professional career so that it goes along more with my beliefs.  I need to make sure that I look into more education that will help me have a career doing things I believe in and love.  Loving what I do and believing in what I do will help me with my lifestyle changes also.

Amy

I've Been A Little Busy

This week, I have been a little busy.  I got my sewing machine out and started sewing!

Marathon Monday, a day that I always look forward to, took on a whole new meaning this year.  Almost every year, my husband and I would go into Boston and watch the marathon.  We usually would stand on Commonwealth Ave, right where the runners would come out of the tunnel, and cheer the runners on.  We would watch the elite runners and then some more, and then we would head off for lunch then hang out in Copley Center.  For the last 5 years, since we have had kids, we have only watched it on television.  This year the kids are 5 and 4 and I thought about heading into Boston later in the day to just be there and take the kids in.

This year every thing changed.  Now that the Boston Marathon Bombing has happened, I'm not sure that we will go in again, especially with the kids!  This week, I was reading my email and I was directed to the Boston Modern Quilt Guild and found out that they are collecting quilt squares to make into a quilt for the Boston Marathon Victims.  I was so happy to have found this because I had been wanting to do something like this or be part of something like this.  Even though I have a bunch of material, I needed to buy more in the right colors.  I ended up making a 12.5 x 12.5 courthouse stairs block in blue and yellow and bordered it in a medium grey.  I actually love how it came out.  NOw I need to mail it off  in time!

"Quilt For Boston" quilt block

While I was on the Boston Modern Quilt Guild's website, I saw that they were also collecting "flags" to display, which are going to be displayed at the Museum Of Fine Arts.  I went on to make 2 "flags" for "to Boston with Love".  They didn't come out as good as would have wanted, but I am going to send them off anyway.  Again, this is something I wanted to do and was able to create something that will be part of something bigger and hopefully help the city of Boston and all who were affected by the Bombing.

"Quilt for Boston" and "To Boston With Love"

I have become a huge fan of youtube.  I have found that they have a ton of videos that I can learn from and just enjoy watching.  I was looking something up on Monday and found a "10 minute quilt block". It was a video by Suzanne McNeil.  I have to admit, she is not usually someone I enjoy watching, but this time, I loved the block she was demonstrating.  She also has a "5 minute quilt block".  The best part is that it can be turned into a faux cathedral window.  Monday was my husband's 55th birthday.  I wanted to make him something special and wanted something quick.  This was perfect.  I spent Monday night working on it and was able to get 4 (20 in) blocks sewn and sewn together as well as the cathedral window sewn too.  I had planned on doing 2 more blocks to add to it and finished those yesterday.  I showed him the quilt top last night and he was happy with it.  Now I have to decide if I want to make it bigger.  It was fun, easy, and quick, and I will be making these blocks again soon, most likely for my kids's quilts.

"10 minute quilt block"

I'm very impressed with how much I have completed this week.  It felt great to make things and have things either get completed or mostly completed.  My son has been going to speech with his sister and this morning I was able to finish basting my english paper pieced diamonds for one of my son's quilts.  Now I need to sew them together and make stars and then sew them onto the background. 

English paper pieced stars

 I am feeling like I am finally making progress!  I think I may be using the "10 minute Quilt Block" for the other 2 kids' quilts.  Will post more when I have pictures completed.

Amy

Trying To Be Healthier and Product Review

Over the last few months, my healthy lifestyle has given way to laziness and unhealthy eating.  This is partially due to the fact that I had months of back pain that resulted in treatment for a herniated disc.  Over the past 6 months, my pain has caused me to have the inability to exercise and even cook the way I like to.  As I write this, it feels like just a bunch of excuses, but I really was in a lot of pain.  About 1 month ago, I was treated for the herniated disc and now only have slight pain here and there.

Now that my pain is pretty much gone, I am trying to regain my healthy lifestyle.  One of the things that I have done is limit my coffee intake and increase my tea intake (I wasn't drinking any tea and I was having multiple cups of coffee and cream a day).  Recently, I had a single cup of coffee and decided to try some VanGogh Caramel Vodka with some NuNaturals chocolate liquid stevia.  This was the first time I tried it and it was really good.  Along with the chocolate stevia, I was given (by NuNaturals) a bunch of other products to try.  I love the liquid Stevia.  I love using the vanilla, lemon, orange, peppermint, and chocolate in my tea.  I also love using the lemon or vanilla liquid stevia in sparking water with some lemon juice to make a healthy "soda".  It's the best drink to have when you need your thirst to be quenched especially in the hot weather.

My husband and I have been using stevia for years as a healthy way to eliminate sugar, yet have some sweetness in things that we enjoy.  I hope to be able to try out some of the other NuNaturals products in baking.  In the past baking with stevia was difficult as there was always a horrible after taste.  I haven't experienced  any after taste with the NuNaturals products that I have tried.  Other than the liquid stevia, the other products that I have tried and love are the fast dissolving stevia tablets and the individual stevia packets.  The tablets are great even in iced drinks.  I love keeping a bottle in my car or purse and using it when I get iced tea out.  I use the individual packets in my husbands tea every day.

I am working on changing my eating habits so that I can lose some weight.  I have never been this heavy and I don't want to get this heavy again.  I am having trouble with making changes, but it will happen.  I need to eat less food, eat healthier food, and start exercising.  I am working with PT and need to get better at actually doing my exercises.  I am doing better, but need to do more.

I will continue to use NuNaturals in my tea and hope that I can eliminate coffee.  I need to limit my caloric intake and start eating healthier foods.  I need to increase my exercise and strengthen my back so that I don't hurt myself again.

Amy