Exam week starts

Although this is the stereotype of finals week:





Actually, it's not quite that bad when you're a prof. (It's the week BEFORE finals that generates the eye-twitch). (Image from "Ask Caramel Anything" Tumblr).

I've actually gotten back 'round to the attitude of being able to be flexible and merciful. (Sometimes I lose that during really busy weeks when I feel like I'm being pulled in fifteen directions). 

I give one this morning but it's the Gen Ed class so it's a common exam and therefore machine graded. (Common exam - being one all sections of the class take, and was written in common by the faculty teaching the class. Machine graded to cut down on subjectivity. They are biiiiiiiiiiiiiig on "uniformity" in all the sections of a Gen Ed class here....)

It was a fairly restful weekend. Saturday I came in and did a bunch of research, then I went home and removed some weeds from the garden. Sunday, it was just a little chilly to work outside (Chilly in May is a new concept here) so I worked on quilts. I now have three tops laid out and ready to be sewn together:

1. The super-cute "Hideaway" fabrics one - which I already have the border and backing for.

2. A Bento Box quilt that I pieced the blocks for LIKE A YEAR AGO and never laid out because, honestly, I'm not sure I'm still in love with the fabrics in it. I will put the top together and put the border on it....I wonder if there is some charity that will take unloved tops, just the tops, and do something good with them? I also have a very pink quilt that I made off of a jelly roll that I'm not sure I love. I was thinking of getting it quilted and donating it to Project Linus....but I have to admit, getting tops quilted to give away gets kind of expensive, and I can't keep doing it.

3. A funny quilt made out of a line of really odd novelty prints (one of the featured prints, for example, is vintage cameras). I'm thinking of it as my "Plain Four-Patches are Too Mainstream" quilt because of the vaguely hipster vibe of the fabrics, and because I did it as a "wonky" four-patch (also known as a Flagstone quilt). The best thing? I realized I have a big chunk of a pink stripe in the stash (bought on a closeout and because I kind of liked it) that will work for the backing on this.

So now, when I want to just sit down and sew, I can. Sometimes that's a big of a barrier - I will want to sew but I have nothing ready to go, and sometimes cutting is enough of a pain that it dissuades me from even working on whatever.

I also found a pattern for one of my Jelly Rolls of "sweet" fabrics - this is from the Pom Pom de Paris line (you can see the fabrics here, it's all pastel-y florals - and a piece of fabric to use as the "plain" blocks.

So yeah - I'm making good progress on that "work the stash down" thing. Of course, I still have a giant fabric stash but it feels good to work through some of the projects I have.