New school...

Tomorrow, I will take my last final of my first semester at my new school.

After graduating- with honors- with my Associate of Science degree in April, I was accepted to a well-known university. I was so excited. After I got my acceptance letter, I cried for a few hours. My fiance probably thought I was mentally unbalanced and that he had made a poor choice in hitchin' his horse up to this wagon.

I spent the next (what seemed like) forever giddily anticipating myentry into my new school. However, as the weeks passed, I got nervous... Then scared... Then flat out terrified. I was worried I wouldn't fit in, that I wasn't smart enough, that I wouldn't make any friends.

And I was absolutely right. The first day of class, one of the other students asked a question so involved that I literally didn't even understand it. Not surprisingly, I dropped that class immediately. Which left me no leeway to drop anymore classes and still maintain my necessary-for-financial-aid full-time status.

The last new class wasn't until the next week... The professor stood in front of us and very honestly told us that only very specific students should stay in the class. The teacher even singled out students who were not at least Junior status as people who might want to consider dropping before it was too late. I stayed in. First because I am stubborn. I won't be having anyone tell me to drop a class because I am not qualified to take it. A teacher tried that in high school. I aced his class. Secondly, the class is required for my major and I wanted to jump in with both feet. Last, but not least, I COULDN'T drop it. School's expensive and I can't afford to pay anymore for it than I already am.

As class progressed, it became very obvious to me that I was in trouble. I got an A on my first test, but barely passed the second... I did even worse on the third. I drove home crying after that one.

I am very fortunate to have many people who thing I am pretty awesome (and they are right). Not least of these is a former professor of mine who is always happy to return a ranting email or text message and even welcomes me back to his class when I have the time to sit in. He is wonderful. And brilliant. Truly a boon to the educational system as a whole. So, when I send him messages telling him how poorly I am doing, I get plenty of positive reassurance that I am fine....

.... Which means the professor is the problem.

Meanwhile, I realized I was struggling in another class, a class that is a lower level class and needed for my other major. However, this class I still enjoyed. I didn't mind doing poorly in there.

And I think I know why. I am kinda sexist and kinda racist.

You see, the teacher of that second class is a man. And foreign. The teacher in the other is a white woman.

I know I prefer male teachers over female. I don't really know why, I just always have. Maybe it's because my kindergarten teacher was a man. Regardless, I like them better.

Also, with him being foreign, I was able brush off my failures in his class as just a difference in how he teaches and how he learns. I am not a bad student, he is not a bad teacher, I just learn differently than he teaches and vice versa.

Perhaps because I can SEE that he and I are so different, I am better able to distinguish where my educational deficiency in his class lies. Because she is a white woman, like me, I have a harder time convincing myself that maybe- just maybe- she teaches differently than I learn.

Ultimately, she and I recently had an opportunity to talk and I really like her. I am even taking another of her classes next semester and I am looking forward to it. She has also informed me that the situation may not be as dire as it appears and that I can safely hope for a B in her class. It's not the As I am used to, but it is better than the D I was afraid I would be seeing on my report card.

Quilting... This is how we do it.

Ok. I don't REALLY know how to quilt, but this is how I do it and it seems to be working out ok, sooo...

First, I make a pattern. I figure out how big I want it to be, how many fabrics I am going to use, what shapes I will be sewing together, how big those will be, etc. I map it all out and then, praying to the math gods and accounting for seam allowances (I like to use 1/2 inch. The only time I used 1/4 inch, which I guess is the norm, the seams pulled apart when the quilt was washed), I figure out how much fabric I have to buy. I always buy enough extra for a whole row of shapes, just in case. (Like, if I think I need it to be 45 inches long and each block will be 4.5", I actually buy about 50 inches, to be safe.)

This is my template for my cousin's quilt.

Once I actually bought the fabric, I drew a key on the side so that as I was following the pattern, I knew for sure I was using the right fabric.

You are technically supposed to pre-wash the fabric to stop it from shrinking once it's sewn, BUT that frays the fabric and is wasteful and seems to be unnecessary. I always choose fabrics that are the same material so they shrink evenly and it doesn't matter.

Now, iron all the fabric. You will be ironing a lot, so I hope your iron is your friend.

Once it's ironed, you can start cutting. The first time I made a quilt, I didn't have a rotary cutter, so I measured every single piece (and I was using 3inch by 9 inch strips) individually and marked it on the backside with a crayon (regular crayon, especially white, irons out of fabric), then I cut out every tiny piece with regular scissors. It sucked. Do not do that. But a rotary cutter and mat. I have a huge mat that I rarely use that I got clearanced for $20. I tend to use my smaller one, though, that I bought at Jo-Ann's. This should be perfect and even has the hard plastic ruler thing that you will need. I had to buy mine separately. http://www.joann.com/dritz-rotary-cutting-kit-mat-ruler-cutter/prd12953/

So, you line up your fabric on your mat, lat the ruler on top, and basically slide the cutter alongside the ruler. I cut my fabric all into strips and then cut the strips into the blocks or strips or triangles or whatever.

Cutting.

I have a note that just cutting out this quilt took 3 hours. And it's a baby quilt. Also, you can tell I was not diligent about ironing. Be diligent about ironing, it will save you trouble down the road. You would think one wrinkle would not make a difference, but they all add up and give you strips that do not line up properly.

Now, I anal retentively mark out my seam allowances. I do not, however measure a half an inch from the sides. I use a mechanical pencil and my hard ruler and measure to that without the seem allowance, the rest is the correct size. Here, I want my strips to end up being 2" wide. This will cut down on a lot of tiny errors that will add up to a too long or too short stripe later on. And you will thank me. The note on this says it took about 8 hours.

Now, iron all the pieces. Again. This is pretty quick and should only take about an hour.

Now, don't judge me. I am obsessive compulsive about weird things and I cannot help it. Once everything is ironed (and all 4 sides have been marked), I pin the pieces at the crossed lines. Like, I push the pin through the crux of the X on one piece and make sure if goes through the crux of the X on the adjoining piece.

I

I do this two pieces at a time, then I put straight pin in so that the run perpendicular to the pencil line, and then I sew them together on the line. I do this by hand. You do not have to do this by hand.

I do not pin together the while strip and then sew it because I don't like poking myself with that many straight pins and the pins can loosen and let the pieces not be perfectly lined up. I don't like that.

I then spend 85 hours sewing all of the strips and then the strips to one another. Of course, if you machine sew, this will be a MUCH faster process.

When I sew the strips to the ones next to them, I basically use the same straight pin method as before, only I use the seams of the blocks as part of the cross section. You want to alternate the directions of the folds. In other words, do not open the seams up, just fold all the seems on one strip so they go up, then iron them that way and the adjoining strip's seams would be folded down.

Somehow I do not have pictures for this. This is my topper, though.

Then, it is time to attach all the layers. This is the part I do NOT do right. Generally, quilts have bindings. I do not like bindings, though, so mine do not have them. When they have them, you quilt all three layers (top, batting, back) in the order they will be used and then sew a binding along the edge to finish it off. I don't like the look or feel of bindings, though.

So, if you wanna do it my way, put the outside facing part (the "right"side) of the topper and the backing so they are facing each other and then the batting goes on the other end. It will now go topper wrong side, topper right side, backing right side, backing wrong side, batting. I hope that make sense. Pin it all together. I pin the edges and in the middle just to make sure it all lines up perfectly. Then, sew the edges. Hand sewing this part takes about 2 hours. You can machine sew it, though, which generally takes about half an hour.

Leave enough of the edge unsewn so that you can right-side out the quilt. Then hand sew that opening closed so the seam is inside. I don't know how to explain this other than it is kind of a ladder stitch thing. Only between each rung, there is only one edge, which alternates. This is the best I can find to explain it. Just ignore that this is for knits... http://knittsings.com/bickford-seam/

Do you feel done? Well, you're not.

Now, you need to secure the layers so they don't shift. You could quilt this (you know, like, sew in a pattern), but I don't because I feel like that would look too busy and because I use plushie backing, it would take away from the softness. And babies like soft. If I were doing a grown up quilt, I would not use the plush and would probably actually sew in a pattern. Instead, I just sew in these anchoring dots at the corners of each square. It's not as time consuming as it seems and the pattern on the plush fabric does a good job of hiding the thread in the pack. I do, however, begin and tie the end in the front so the knot can hide in the seams.

Now, fill the quilt with an adorable baby, and you are all done! Voila!

Almond Joys have nuts

Mounds don't.

Tonight, I baked a chocolate cake and made it into an Adena burial mound. Tomorrow, it will go to my archaeology class with me.

BUT it is after 2 a.m., I will be late for class tomorrow.

Extreme baked goods make me a bad student.