Start From Now

Students started classes last Tuesday, September 1.  I am always disappointed when school starts before Labor Day because in my mind that holiday is part and parcel of summer vacation.  This year was one of those years when the first Monday in September came too late to wait for school to begin so back we went, with gorgeous summer weather continuing without regard for where we need to be between 8 and 3.

The room I'm in this year is even smaller than I originally thought.  It is not half the size but one third the size of a regular classroom.  At nine feet wide and twenty-seven feet long there are limited options for room set-up.  I do have a small desk in the back between the file cabinets and the bookshelves.  At just a glance it is obvious that there is only room for one small table, one teacher, and a couple kids at a time.

The good news is that there is a second door to the room in the back that goes between our room and the computer lab.  Past occupants had covered the door with shelving and supplies, so I didn't know it was there.  Now I keep the door open most of the time, which helps dramatically with air circulation.  I appreciate the natural light I can see through the windows in the computer lab.

The back door makes is easier for me to come and go, which I do often.  There will be times when students are in the lab for classes or testing, but once I figure out the schedule I will have what I need on the cart and be able to do what I need to do.

My current perspective took a few days to evolve.  When I first saw my space for the year I was crestfallen.  I knew I needed to devise a plan to make it work for me, which is when the importance of the second door became apparent.  I have perfected slipping out quietly to make copies, get necessary materials and information, and take on additional duties.

The other thing that helped, at least it did when I started the process on Thursday, was to register for a course that starts tomorrow.  I am reminding myself of the benefits of learning with other educators as I sit here with a five-page syllabus in front of me trying to remember how to be part of a group discussion online.  We do have three classes in real life; the first one isn't for a few weeks and can't come fast enough.  My first thought tonight was that I wasn't ready to make this commitment.  My second thought was that if I don't do it now I may never decide I'm ready.  My third thought was to write a post about it because my fears look less threatening in black and white.

So much has happened this year that has left me feeling vulnerable that I've forgotten how it helps to write, not about the details necessarily, but about the feelings that come with the ups and downs of daily living.  I remembered tonight and feel better already.

Last Tuesday, as I headed out for the first day of school, I loaded my stuff into the car and climbed into the driver's seat.  There on the steering wheel was an envelope, blank and unsealed [Ken's trademark move in case I want to use the envelope again].  Inside was a card with a sepia toned photo of a woman walking along a railroad track while balanced on a rail.  The words above the photo are:  Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new beginning.

Isn't that perfect?

Trade-Offs

I go back to work tomorrow....  I had a different plan.  I was going to teach reading last year and then get a job as a classroom teacher.  I applied for jobs and did get one interview, where the principal was encouraging but didn't offer me the position.  I will continue to apply for classroom positions, but the clock has run out and for now I need to return to the job I had last year.

Some things have changed.  There will be no lunch recess duty for anyone because there will be no formal mid-day recess, which is a good thing.  Classroom teachers will be responsible for taking their own students out for recess during the course of the day.  I like that I will spend more time teaching.

Another thing that has changed is the location of the literacy classroom.  The room this year is half the size, a long narrow room with no windows and just one door at one end.  There is space for only one teacher so I will hit the road and work with students in their grade-level classrooms.  That's okay with me; I will enjoy being out and about throughout the day.

I very much wanted my own classroom this fall, but there are trade-offs that work to my advantage.  I haven't had to go into school yet because I don't have a classroom to set up or curriculum to align with standards or lesson plans to write.  I have squeezed every last moment out of summer vacation because there literally isn't anything for me to do to prepare for students.

During the school year I will have plenty time to dedicate to taking a graduate class or two.  My certification is up for renewal next summer and I still need continuing education units toward that.

Perhaps the best trade-off is that I will have the flexibility to be available when my daughter needs me in November.  She has given me the okay to share that she is pregnant.  She is an independent woman and capable of doing this on her own, so I am on deck to help how and when she asks.  It has been fun to be in on some of the preparations.  I do my best to maintain a calm exterior, but between you and me I am wicked excited!

Sometimes I make plans and the universe has a better idea....    

August Transition

The first few years I taught I looked forward to and dreaded summer in equal parts.  I looked forward to unscheduled days with my kids, warm sunny weather, time to do the things I enjoyed, and the chance to catch up on all the appointments and home maintenance I didn't have time for during the school year.  I would hit the ground running the day after school ended and go full tilt until the day school started up again.  I wore myself out and never felt like I got everything done.

At some point I figured out that I couldn't save all the fun stuff or all the chores for the time between school years.  I was curious to see if I could remember to live that lesson this summer.

It helped that Ken and I left on vacation just two days after school ended in June.  The trip was literally a "break" in my routine and took us to places we hadn't been before.

It was a summer for a variety of firsts.  Ken and I bought season tickets to the Maine State Music Theater, a slate of four performances at the theater on Bowdoin College Campus.  The musicals this summer were The Full Monty, Sister Act, The Music Man, and Young Frankenstein.  We enjoyed each one and the fun story lines were especially appreciated.

The two quilting retreats were another first for me.  Each experience took me out of my comfort zone and gave me the opportunity to stretch.  It was fun to learn new techniques, meet quilters and designers whose work I admire, and work beside women I wouldn't have met otherwise.

The retreats gave me something else too ~ the joy I feel when I create and sew.  I had forgotten that just twenty minutes of sewing gives me a chance to change gears and recharge.  Even working at twenty-minute intervals projects move forward, and during the time in between I'm thinking about and planning what comes next. 

I haven't rushed to finish anything this summer.  Like quilting, life is a work in progress.

Slow Stitching block for Color Quilt

Block in Completely Cauchy style

"Roberta" block for Color Quilt

Slow Stitching Retreat

The Slow Stitching Retreat, made possible by Samantha Lindgren of A Gathering of Stitches, happened this past weekend in Washington, Maine.  The setting was a picturesque camp, complete with cabins, lodge, fire circle, and paths through the woods.  We were privileged to spend the weekend with Chawne, groundbreaking quilter of Completely Cauchy, and Carolyn Friedlander, talented designer of fabric and patterns.  We learned techniques together, had meals together, and enjoyed the slow pace and slow stitching together.  The weekend was made all the better for me because my daughter was able to attend, too.  She and I rarely have time to sew together, so we made the most of the opportunity. 

The porch of the lodge, perfect for rocking and slow stitching

The barn, where we asked "How small can we go?"

Lots of room to work in the barn

My small log cabins made of Shot Cotton, 2.25" square unfinished

Work space, with good light in the lodge, to cut applique

Basting stitches in red, applique stitches in off white

Appliqued halfway around the outside edge

Finished "Roberta," at 15" square my smallest quilt yet

Again, I came home from a quilting retreat with a new perspective. 

It never occurred to me that I could get so much satisfaction in going smaller in my quilting; I am using techniques I learned this weekend in my work started at the July retreat.  I will share that project in my next post. 

I have always shied away from applique because I didn't know where to begin, much less how to get a pleasing finished look; now I know where to begin and with each stitch I am more satisfied with my technique.

I have been sewing since I was a little girl.  In learning as I go I didn't learn the secret to how to thread a needle, which Night Quilter explains here, or any of the various tips I've picked up while working with other sewers.  It's fun to share stories and ideas and shortcuts.  It's fun to ask, "How small can you go?" and watch quilters finish complete blocks that are smaller than 3" square.  I'm sewing the skinniest strips I never imagined because I picked up hints on how to do that this weekend.

I realized months ago that this summer was going to be different from what I envisioned.  When Chawne mentioned this Slow Stitching Retreat on her blog, I followed the link.  My daughter was able to go, so we made plans.  Return visits to Samantha's blog turned up the Quilters Color Weekend.  I am grateful for the timing of these retreats and for the opportunity to work with the teachers and quilters I have had the pleasure to meet. 

Sometimes change needs a push....

Imposed Interlude

I'm back online after almost two weeks of internet trouble.

It started with an early morning thunderstorm.  The internet went out for several hours.  Then it came back intermittently.  Over a period of days I made several attempts to troubleshoot with tech support.  When I reported there was static on the phone, it was determined that a lineman should be dispatched, which took several more days.

By the time the lineman arrived Wednesday morning the internet was completely gone and the phone was all but unusable.  The good news was that everything up to the pole was in good working order.  The bad news was that something was definitely wrong in the house.  It wasn't his job to diagnose inside problems but he made phone calls to tech support to check numbers to narrow down where the problem might be.  He suggested we upgrade the underground wiring from the pole to the house.

I left for a long weekend and returned to find Ken had pulled new wire.  The good news was that the connection on the outside of the house produced a perfect signal, confirmed when Ken hooked the modem up outside.  The bad news was that there was still no internet in the house and there was still static on the phone.

We started troubleshooting inside, checking connections in phone jacks and locating where the wire comes into the house.  With the help of a mirror, we pulled the wiring up and out of the junction box downstairs.  One of the wires had broken off.  It's a wonder we had internet and phone for as long as we did.

It has been a solid day and a half with internet connectivity and static-free phone service.  Do I dare say the problem is solved?  It's good to be back.

News from the Slow Stitching Retreat coming soon ~

Connecting The Colors

Thirteen years ago I knew I wanted a yellow kitchen with blue accents.  It was the only combination that felt right.  When we moved to our current house, I duplicated the wall color and added even more blue~

The windowsill above the kitchen sink

This past weekend those colors were front and center in my second color palette, along with splashes of different shades of purple~

Yellow & blue tables side by side make me smile

A year ago orange started showing up in my wardrobe and decorating choices.  I hadn't paired it with aqua but that combo, with splashes of green, is the basis of my primary palette~

The bottom left corner says it all

So I shouldn't have been surprised when I surveyed my fabric choices on Friday as I thought about what I wanted to sew with on Saturday.  I had grabbed the prints that most appealed to me for a project, along with pieces I had that most closely resembled solids.  Turns out I don't stash solids but buy them as needed.  On Saturday we shopped at a locally owned fabric store before we began sewing with quilter Heather Jones.  The only fabric I bought that morning that wound up in my squares was dark orange~

"Coins" on the left; "Log Cabin" on the right

Upon reflection, I saw that all the fabric I used from home was given to me by my daughter.  She often cleans out her stash so I have lots and lots of her "seconds" on hand.  It turned out that what looked like random selections went together beautifully, a point brought to my attention through my primary palette~

The paint chips hone in on what colors stand out

Yesterday I re-oriented the room where I sew.  Eight years ago the room was primarily a guest room where I used my sewing machine.  Three years ago I started calling it my sewing room.  This week I ordered a new table and have plans for a design wall.  Yes, the room will still be a nice space for guests, but primarily the room will be my studio.  I didn't know I wanted such a space until the weekend with color.  Now I know....

Quilters Color Weekend

That's the official name of the retreat.  People who are on Twitter can put a hashtag in front of that and follow the "goings on" of the weekend.  Yesterday the idea behind our work here got a bit clearer.

The air cleared a bit so I got a better photo of Islesboro from the deck~

That's the dining room from the deck~

Here is the room where we are working~

This is my work space~

My area includes the floor where I laid out my collage.  My assignment before I came was to pull together images from magazines and elsewhere that appeal to me, to not give a lot of thought to why I like what I selected and to not try to make the pictures fit together.  That was our work yesterday, to lay out our pictures in a way that makes sense to us.  It took quite a while, and this is what my original collage looked like~

I was surprised at how the colors flowed from one into another, when color is not what I focused on when I selected the pictures.  It turns out that was the point of the exercise, not to think about it but to go with what naturally appeals to us.  I was even more surprised when I learned I could separate my original collage into three separate collages where the colors looked like they were destined to go together~

Then I matched squares from paint chips to each collage.  This collage process is what Amy Butler, our leader yesterday, uses to design fabric.  Her work is more intricate than what we accomplished in one day, but the basic steps are the same.  She repeatedly asked us to trust the process and follow the steps, and by the time I saw the potential for three collages she had me convinced.  Then I pulled out the fabric that I brought from home just because I like it, even though it's not the colors or the pattern I would normally select.  I honestly thought maybe I could finally do something with it this weekend~

Here's my primary collage - the one that came first in the organization of images~

Uncanny.  Then I looked at the edge of the material and realized it was designed by Amy Butler.  Quite the trip, this journey through color....