Thursday, June 10, 2010

Working Away...

1.  Testing.  The boys are testing this week.

Whoopee.

I'm trying to keep it low-key so that nobody gets stressed about it.  So far, so good.  Since testing only takes at most an hour a day (per boy) we have a lot of free time, and we're trying to have a special treat each day :D

We did reading (comprehension) tests on Monday using the McCall-Crabb assessment.  Wyatt, grade 7, is reading at a 10.3 level.  (Tenth grade, third month.)  Tate, grade 5, scored 9.4, and Gunnar, grade 2, scored 8.3.  Woo-hoo!

For the rest of the week we're working through the Stanford Achievement Test, which I have to send away to be scored.  They're doing fine.

2.  Quilting.  Yes.  I got up my nerve to cut.  Agonizing before cutting is nothing new, but working with a "Layer Cake" took it to a new level for me - no room for error.  Last Christmas I asked for - and received - some special Mary Engelbreit fabric.



It's a collection called The Caroler with a Christmas theme, though not all the fabrics are Christmassy.  But - most helpful for me - all the pieces are coordinated.  Dang that stuff is expensive! 

What I have - a Layer Cake - is a stack of forty-two 10" squares and a couple of larger pieces (the red snowflake and the green snowflake.)  Enough to make a nice big cozy couch blanket, but not a bed-size.

But what to do?  Needs to be fairly simple, since many of the prints are kind of large, and it wouldn't look good cut in too small of pieces.  But I hate to "waste" special fabric on something too ordinary (just squares).  Thought about doing something simple, like this:

(Different fabric, similar color palette.)

But the part where eight corners comes together just gives me the shivers.  I've practiced that with scraps and not so sure I have the skills to run with it just yet!

Therefore, the many late nights of searching quilt books and quilt blogs, and sketching on scratch paper.  *ugh*

But now I have a plan.  And it came from a 17 year old boy in Minnesota.  Yah.

Christmassy.  Simple.  And will leave me a few scraps to make a coordinating table runner.

So here is a little, teeny tiny sneak peek.


And now, back to our regular programming.

4 comments:

melanie said...

The fabrics do look very fun ~ Looking forward to seeing MORE than the little sneak peek!

leah said...

Testing- ugh! At least it only takes an hour each day, and you can add in fun activities to keep them from getting bored!

Our local school district only had 11 actual school days in April, and six of those were testing days. This leaves only six actual days of instruction for the month!

The quilt looks exciting- I can't wait to see more of the design you found, from a seventeen year old boy! Love it!

Felicity said...

Well Done to the boys on their fine reading skills! (And to the mom as wel!!)
The quilting looks like a lot of work, but a lot of fun too! Enjoy!

The dB family said...

Eeep! I'm excited to see your quilt!

Gunnar is reading at an 8.3 level? Woo hoo! Way to go! In fact all your boys are doing wonderfully. It so nice to have good readers. I think Gunnar needs to have a little chat with Squirt.

Happy quilting!
Blessings!
Deborah