One Last Project

 Before we ring in the new year I wanted to get one last project under way.  I still had the blocks from September to piece together.  It was my month for Do.Good Stitches.  The blocks were still trickling in close to November, so I finally have all of them.  I like how it turned out.  

Finished and Sent Off

In the mix of the holidays I was also trying to get a quilt done.  I decided to pull out my walking foot for the quilting.  My only sadness is that some of the fabric got bunched on the back.  I thought I had pinned it well enough, but clearly I was mistaken.  I love the big block look though.  I may have to revisit this quilt pattern.

Flooring!

You know you're getting old when you get this excited about new flooring.  I'm so excited the backroom now has a floor!

The first picture is at about the half-way point in the project.

The project meant the kitties couldn't be down in the basement for about a week, and they took full advantage of ravaging the upstairs at night.  That is, when they're weren't cat napping.

It's so nice that they can sleep down there now.

That Pretty Much Sums it Up

 2020 represented in an ornament:

Big Blocks

 Erica Jackman has a series of large blocks that I really love.  They're fun to put together.  I needed a bigger baby quilt than usual, because the baby is already 6 months old.  These blocks are 24" each.

Finally Finishing Something

It's been almost 2 months since I completed the quilt top, but life has a way of being crazy and getting in the way.  Plus, Joel has been working from home a lot more because of Covid, and he uses my sewing table as his work office.  Since my friend is due this month I thought I'd better pull myself together and finish this quilt.  Nothing quite like a due date to force a finish.  It seems that's about the only way I get a quilt done these days.  

I bought this fabric originally for my nephew's baby quilt and this is now my fourth quilt using it.  Sadly, this is the last of the fabric except for a few scraps.  I was feeling almost a bit nostalgic about it.

I love the shadows from a late Fall afternoon.

2020 Ornaments

 This year's ornaments have mostly a Star Wars theme:

Little Man: He wanted BB8

Little Lady: Her exploration of cooking and baking this year is represented in this ornament

BB and Little Guy wanted light sabers.  That pretty much fits their personality as well.

We obviously needed to get an ornament for the new kitties.  Stella's ornament fits her personality.  Her curiosity is going to kill my Christmas tree.  I can already tell.

Luna's ornament showed up saying Smokey.  When we reached out to the seller he said the customization was for the year - not the name.  What in the world?  It made us laugh so much we decided to just keep it.  We've playfully been calling her Smokey when she gets in trouble.  

This is our ornament from our New England trip over the summer. 

We have a 2020 ornament coming to memorialize this crazy year.  It's not here yet.  

Professional Excitement

 After a full year of working on it, my piano/voice and voice only curriculum are completed!

At Kansas City School of Music the kiddos don't use the typical method books for beginning piano.  Scott and a couple of other teachers came together and designed their own curriculumn that combined all the things they liked for the different method books.  The binder contains the equivalent of the primer level and level 1.  It spends a lot more time on prestaff notes while focusing on technique and form.  My task was to come up with an equivalent for voice.  Young vocal students are required to learn piano at KCSM, because Scott values literacy.  He wants the voice students to be musically literate which is often a problem with vocalists.  About half of my students are combination piano and voice students.  I also have several students who originally came to KCSM to learn piano and then decided they also wanted to practice voice.  They continue on with their piano teacher and I start teaching them voice.  I put together a separate binder for those students.  It's taken a lot of time and revisions, but I finally have a finished project, and all of my students now have their respective binder.  I'm sure I'll have to continue to revise it as I use it more, but I'm thrilled to have such a large undertaking done!