Upcycling Class

Last year, I did a class with my then-students on upcycling. Recently, I realized that I'd never posted on it, and I figured, why not?

There's a local store called the "Center for Creative Reuse," and most every Saturday during that six week class, I took a trip there or to Salvation Army to get some supplies.

We did a series of fantastic projects, and the kids really enjoyed it! I'll just show you a sampling of the results.

We made some t-shirt bowls and rugs...

And some candle holders and photo-holders from old CD cases and wrapping paper rolls...

I got about 30 frames from Salvation Army, and we made a series of real-cork-boards...

And as a finale, we made terrariums with old glasses, to throw some sustainability in the mix!

Here's a shout out to all those kiddos, who I miss dearly. I'm thinking of you!

Quilt Top #4 - Grayson

Well, I took a month off.

And it was wonderful.

I needed that.  I really needed that.  I remembered why I loved creating in the first place - the job of seeing something completed!  The texture between your hands!  I missed that.  Focusing so much on making things for Christmas and this blog really sucked a lot of the joy out of it these past few months, with everything else going on - knitting began to feel like a chore.

Alas, here I am, ready to return to the blog!  You must know that I still am mostly working on Christmas things, and so I'm still going to have trouble making my weekly post time because of that, but I feel much more ready to take on the challenge now.

The school year is underway and I'm back on my feet!

And so, without further ado, today I present you with my most recent quilt top, for one mister Grayson.  This is the final of the four quilts I'm planning to complete for the next generation, hopefully to present around Christmas, but since I know those little buggers won't see these posts, I'm gonna go ahead and show you!

I chose the "Jitterbug" pattern from another quilt book, also by Pam and Nicki Lintott, called "Layer Cake, Jelly Roll, and Charm Quilts."  This was my first non-scrappy style quilt, and though I like the way it came out, I still wish I had been able to find a good background color that wasn't white.

Well, hopefully I'll get to quilting these last two soon so they can be done in the next two months, but in the mean time, I'll be back to a mostly-regular Wednesday post! (This relaxation on the schedule is to keep my own peace of mind!)

PS: If I know you in real life, could you please comment on this post?  I'd like to know whose Christmas gifts I can post here and whose I can't!