the newest addition to the quilt family

the fish lasagna quilt: mixture of machine and hand-quilting - background is machine quilted - this quilt started as a fun quilt for lasagna and then i felt like it was just a good background...decided that because all of the fabrics were "asian" fabrics, that i needed a good "asian" theme - a koi and moon...



a bit closer to the head: you can see some of the hand-quilting



and the eye...i messed with the eye...using #8 Pearle cotton with some sparkly stuff with it woven (satin stitch) and then back-stitched to define the eye...if you know me, you might have expected to see two eyes on the same side of the head, but i just couldn't do it and make the fish still look more real...sigh.



around the bottom edge are hand-stitched symbols for "water" and "koi fish" and the elemental symbol for "water" (not pictured, but think of an upside-down triangle)





around the top edge are symbols for "air" and "wind" and then the elemental symbol for "air" (not pictured, but it is a triangle with a horizontal line through the top)


the following should be turned 90-degrees clockwise, but couldn't get it to happen at this point...oh, well, you get the idea


i am really happy with how this turned out and i am proud that this is my work.

peace.

link to simon's cat (C)

I love this guy and his cat "simon's cat" on youtube!



easy to get caught up in his stuff - my total fav is:



have fun being brainless.

peace

so, ok...

now i had "spring break" and that was busy, but different kind of busy.

i had a job interview in Winter Haven, FL - Polk State College. an up-and-coming community college that has had something close to 10% growth each year for the last few years and they are looking for (tenure track!) professors to start in August. i was excited by a phone interview...then they called about an in-person interview and i was over the moon...i was also lucky that it was spring break last week and i was able to fly down on thursday and then back on friday. they are reimbursing me for travel and so all is well. i am really excited, but i am trying not to obsess about it. there are a few other people who are also being interviewed for this position. i am hoping i made a good impression and indicated that i am really excited to jump in and get busy with the job. i am keeping some fingers crossed just in case.

i was also a dork because i forgot to send them a thank you card while i was home...fonda ended up sending me one and i just sent it out this morning. i, of course, didn't write it out before writing on the card and had to make a few changes to the card before it could go out...thank god i bought some cardstock. fonda made it and it is pretty and she did some edits to get it ready to go to them - like a "thanks so much" and a swirly to cover a blip...if she would have just waited until i got my hands on it, she wouldn't have been worried about a blip. : )

now i have to send out the receipts so that i can get some kind of reimbursement. i really do not know when they will make the decision, but i am going to remain on some kind of pin or needle until i hear thumb-up/thumb-down.

oh, i have made 2 quilts since i have been here - one for quilts for kids and one for my housemate's new grand-baby (to be born soon). they chose the fabric and i made it. want to make some kind of blankie for gma and ggma using the same fabric, but i haven't gotten to that point yet. also, i have my fish lasagna quilt-top done, sandwiched and envelope-stitched now it is pinned and i will be stitching the waves/wind soon...and i have donna's quilt picked and re-pinned to be sewen and sent to her...one of these days. i am happy about being able to quilt the darn things, mostly i have been doing straight-line quilting, but for the fish lasagna quilt it will be some free-form waves...maybe today...sigh...

i think i am ready for the next week's classes and lab so now it is all about getting things done so we stay ontime for the end of the class and not too rushed.

wanna quilt more than read for class, but i understand the process...also the stress about the job in FL. i have gotten so many rejections and then to have this interview and then that kind of stuff...anyways...all i really need to do at this point is keep breathing and there is nothing else i can do at this point, but keep wishing : )

peace and breathe...i will post pics of the baby quilt soon, forgot to take a photo of the quilt for kids quilt. and then the fish lasagna.

crazy busy

i have been crazy-busy with school. trying to keep one chapter ahead of my students...i think i am actually about 3 ahead of most of them, but i need to make plans for the next chapter for the next class...actually now that i am thinking about it, it seems like a good time to finish the last chapter and do the next lab and then do the next chapter on thursday...hummm...sounds like a plan. i am having the best time teaching! i want to figure out different ways to get them into the plan, but i am having a bit of difficulty with that, as i think i am aiming too far above them, this is biology 111, and many of these people haven't had any kind of advanced biology classes, or at least not in the last 5 years or so...hard to know what to expect from them. i always thought i didn't want to teach little kids because i really have no idea where they should be (can they tie their shoes yet?) and now i am seeing something similar, but with "adults" - ranging in age from 18 - 55. i really would like to be able to take a few steps back and see if they are really struggling with the material or if they are just not applying themselves...who knows. but i am enjoying the teaching anyways - busy though i may be.

i miss being with fonda too, this long-distance stuff is for the birds - i hope to find a full-time job sometime soon and we can make plans to move (wherever) and get resettled into our lives. it will happen, just as the job will happen...i just need to remember to keep breathing and keep looking for good jobs : )

i so want to sew...i have gotten a quilt from "quilts for kids" and i have made the top, but i need to now pin it and quilt it. i don't have a good place for pinning yet, but i am heading to the floor of the living room...maybe tomorrow night or tuesday morning. so i have not been doing much but refreshing my memory on cell stuff and membrane stuff - crazy how the understanding of things have advanced in the last 15 years!

below is a picture of an egret i saw just as i arrived some evening. it was hanging out on a slough near the parking lot at school. it really didn't like me watching it and getting close, so the picture is not all that great, but it was chowing down on some tadpoles, i think. it hung out for a while.



fonda and i also went to southport, NC. really cute town, not too far from where i am living in leland. we found a neat old cemetery there and took some pictures...when ever i saw this stone all i could see was "...Jane...laughter..." i think mom was hanging out and snileing (nod to mom). i know it said "...Jane...daughter..." but i keep thinking of mom laughing. thought i would share the image.



and another taken in the same cemetery, but looking up at the live oaks (they are such cool trees!)




and one more from our trip the day before heading to southport - we went to wrightsville beach, just east of wilmington and saw some neat clouds, i guess i have been trying to keep looking around me and seeing what is happening in nature.



enjoy the pictures and i will (hopefully) be posting some quilt photos some time soon. peace for now.

neat clouds yesterday

there were some neat clouds yesterday and i managed to have my camera with me (rareity)...



i was shopping for fonda and the temperatures were cold...20s...the day before had been in the 50s. grrr. but i had a good time and got more than what fonda wanted : ) so a good time was had by all (me).

also went to the beach and got snowed on:



really it was more like sleet - balls of snow-bits. some nice waves, but i didn't stay long...wishing for long underwear. but i had my hat, scarf and gloves on along with both pieces of my "3-in-1" winter coat that kept the wind off my body, but not my legs - burrrrr.

bought a space heater for me at the kitchen table (house is set @ 64F). love it! but my writing hand gets cold : ( i will figure it out soon and spring is only a month or two away, right? *fingers crossed*

like living here in Leland, NC. fred and shari are my roomies and sera will soon be joining us - i think they like the idea of having a pet without the bills required by having one. i will like having here around...i miss my kitties, still wish we had fewer, but that will likely happen through attrition (maybe - didn't work well when steve was eutanized, though).

peace for now, back to the school stuff. : )

classes start in a week...

and i still don't have a place to stay...but i have a lead or two. i am going to contact a rental agency in holden beach and maybe i will be able to rent a vacation house for the spring. i think that the rent will quadruple after memorial day, but i am hoping that i can swing it for the semester at relatively cheap...this is not going to be a profit-making opportunity, but i am hoping this is not a loss-situation. i will be getting a lot of experience with the teaching "from scratch" there are no basic notes for the class, just that we need to go through about 25 chapters within 16-17 weeks (yikes!).

went to try to find a table today to take with me to use as a sewing table...the tables are very expensive...the five-foot table was almost $60! and then we found a six-foot table (folding-plastic) for $40, but that is too much for what i need. i will probably end up taking the three-foot-square wooden table that i was using as a desk in the middle room.

and this is near where i will be living...took the picture with fonda when we went down there last week (thursday). what fun!

OMG!! A job!

well, i have accepted my first true teaching position...it is PT (2 classes, 6 hours/week each) and it is ~3 hours away, but i will be teaching for the whole semester! i go to meet the department chair on thursday (yay) and we will get classes set up and the paperwork done, etc. i am a bit excited - i have downloaded the official syllabus and after thursday i will be developing my own and starting to make the lectures, etc.... i am just a bit excited and f is sleeping...YAY!!

breathe - now i need to find a place to stay on the days i will be staying over - i do not enjoy the idea of a 3 hour commute/day so i need to find a place to stay...who knows - maybe this will be the foot in the door i need to stay in the area (actually it is closer to the ocean and near SC boarder) - still looking for a full-time position, but as doc suggested: this is a good way to see if this is really what i want to do and the other jobs will wait for me if they really want me...so here we go...classes start on january 7th, but my first class will not meet until the 10th (monday). YAY!

this picture just makes me happy - cowfish


peace!!!