WHY?!

Why is it that we are now almost at the end of fourth quarter and my students are still putting incomplete work in the "turn in" box?  This blows my mind. Do they want Zeros? I don't think they do because when I put it back in the "unfinished work" folder, they hop to work on it. It's fourth quarter. The system has not changed once all year (or for the last three years, for that matter.) They are clearly marked, always referred to properly, and in clear view. Grading work becomes an exercise in sorting unfinished and finished work (and not just "finished" by my standards.)

/end rant.

Redeux.

Today, as I was enjoying my third cup of coffee and working on a project that I actually need to work on, I was thinking, "Man, I have brilliant things to share with the world. I should jump start some life into the ole blog." So I quit working on what I actually need to work on, and decided to work on this - something I do not have time to work on.

Keeping a blog, for me, is a way to give back. Yes, give back. I am an avid blog reader. Chances are, if you've ever posted your blog on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, your gchat status, or anything else, I've added it to my Google Reader list. You don't know this because I don't comment often. I'm one of those. It's because I'm extremely nosy. I love to know what's going on, even if I don't actually have any reason to care. This drives Sean insane. Insane.

One of my favorite things about my job is Mondays. Mondays, I said it. What I love about Mondays is asking my students, "So, what did you do this weekend?" I'm not asking because I'm polite, and not (usually) because I am concerned for their safety or happiness. I'm asking because I'm genuinely curious for no reason at all, but my curiosity must be satisfied.

My students usually respond with silence, boring answers, or "I can't tell you because you'll 'send' me." (I work at a very special school where there are several junior jail cells for students when they act out physically or are socially inappropriate in other ways. Obviously fighting, but also swearing, saying disrespectful things, talking about gangs, drugs, etc, all gets you "sent.") I try to convince the kids to tell me anyway and swear on a stack of Bibles or Qur’ans, whichever appeals more to them, that their secret is safe with me. More often then not, I get the boring answer: "I got my nails done." "Nothing." "Slept." - those are their safe answers. Nevertheless, every Monday, I'm there bright eyed, bushy-tailed, and super annoyingly happy that it's Monday asking about their weekend.

It's time to give back. What am I doing this weekend? Nothing. What did I do last night? Slept.

t-shirts!

I made my brother, Isaac, t-shirts for his graduation gift. It sounds a little lame, but money is tight and I knew he'd love it. (He loved it.)

First I exacto'ed out a stencil. That's just poster board cut to fit through my printer. I had to download a font, as I don't own Office, but that wasn't very difficult. 

Thunda Chunda is the name of his production cooperative. He makes videos and skits and stuff and puts them on Youtube and Facebook. Some of them are pretty clever, especially the ones he makes when he's not overwhemed with schoolwork.

Then I taped it up as tight as I could and put newspaper down to protect the carpet. 

This is the trial run shirt.  You can't see them too well in this photo, but there are many smudges. Also I left the stencil on while it dried for several hours. Sort of ruined the stencil. Oops.

I made another stencil and produced this beauty. This is the one that'll fit him and the final product. I sent him both shirts and the stencils. Perhaps he'll want to start tagging his territory. 

sundresses!

In an effort to constructively use some of my fabric over the next few months (but not necessarily buy more...) I've made my niece, Hazel Ora, several sun dresses for the summer. She's 1, so it's pretty easy to produce something her size out of smaller bits of fabric. I typically buy fabric in lengths of 1 yard or less for quilting purposes. I try to only buy larger bits when I have a specific project in mind and know that I will need more of that particular fabric.  

Here are the dresses I have made so far. I made them a couple months ago, so who knows if I'll get around to making any more of them. 

The last two are the same dress, just reversible. 

Sally Mae (my sister) & Hazel at Hazel's birthday party.

i love the backing!

i love the backing!
Originally uploaded by raezlee

the quilt is done. and those aren't basketballs. they're pies.

lil' nephew

The quilt I'm making for Lil' Nephew is going so quickly!
Here's the progress.
(The lighting/color is a little off, but I liked how warm it looks.)

I finished the super-secret-project. It was a regular Christmas miracle and can now be unveiled. It's a quilt for my brother and his wife. It's their (late) wedding gift. Technically it's not a quilt because I tied it instead of quiting it together. But I don't have a long arm machine and I really doubt my machine and I could've quilted this successfully. 

(please excuse my apartment.)

And today I finished a quilt for my friends new baby.





The brown is flannel (so soft!) pieced very carefully from an almost-too-small remnant. Easily the most challenging part of this quilt (besides actually finishing it.) The green is one of my favorite small print fabrics of all time.