Well the retreat was yet again a wonderful time away just chatting and catching up with friends while we busily tried to get through as much sewing / knitting / painting / stitching etc as we could.
My position for the weekend was not too different from last year … and even though I thought I was being more selective in my selections I think I ended up taking even more up than last year.

This year my focus was to get some sewing done.. to finally finish my sampler quilt top and then see what happened. Friday saw the quilt top finished without too much effort but a lot of whining on my part about how hard the mitred corners were. I know they weren’t that hard but they were fiddly. I am quite surprised at how large this top has turned out it is well and truly at least a DB size and is now proving to be quite a daunting prospect for quilting.

I thought I had ideas about what I wanted to do for the quilting but really I am still at an incredible loss as to where to start. Just how are you meant to go about selecting a quilting design.. I think the technical aspect of it I will be able to work out but the design selection… that has left me completely at a loss and not just for this top.
The other big achievement for me this weekend was I started and finished the space quilt kit that I picked up at Pick up Stitches in Kyneton… the thing that tipped me over the edge finally in starting quilting. I mean really who can go past space and glow in the dark stars! Friday afternoon and evening was all the panel trimming and getting the pieces ready.. lots and lots of measuring to be sure before cutting as the kit did not have much excess fabric if I made a mistake… in some instances there was no room for error. There is one alteration in the fabric which is a substitution of a deep purple border rather than a bright orange around each of the picture panels I mean really there is no way I was putting bright orange in this quilt.

Saturday I got everything pieced and stitched together and then Sunday before having to pack up and go I managed to get the borders done… so there we go a completed top form start to finish in one weekend… that sure was a surprise.

As with the other one I have no idea where to start with the quilting on this… the centre panel is one large piece so just in the ditch won’t be enough it will need some kind of filling design… what and how to do it.. that really is the question. Maybe I’ll ask my head of science (who is a quilter) to help me with some inspiration and help. I know that if I don’t take these in to school on Monday for show and tell I’ll be in trouble 😀

In addition to these there was a little bit of stitching (i’ll update a picture of violet soon I promise), some reading, and absolutely no knitting … woops.
There is already talk of doing this again next year but we may try a new place I have a lead on a similar set up down at Apollo Bay… stitchy retreat with a view of the ocean.. Yes Please!

So last year the usual suspects and myself went on a little retreat you may have read about it here.

Well all good things should happen more than once and we all decided that a repeat of the even was in order. For a while it looked like the place we went to last year would be booked out but fortune favoured us and well we got a booking for this coming weekend. It has been a long slow buildup but finally it is the eve before the retreat and I am uber excited.

I have packed way too much stuff (not everything) but still way too much. There are at least three no four quilting projects o_O some knitting and even some stitching as well as a whole bucket load of food (and we said we would take it easy with the food this time lol). The tequila, lime, cointreau and salt are packed, cider, wine and even some non-alcoholic beverages are along for the ride too.

What will I work on…who knows? Originally I had hoped to sew some garments this weekend but I have been very ill for just over a week so didn’t get myself kitted out enough for that really (aka no zippers, interfacing and all the essential bits to make a garment all garmenty).
So… what does that leave me with.. A LOT!
I have packed the space quilt kit that tipped me over the edge on the whole quilting thing even though I haven’t even started it yet, my hexie templates and fabric for the quilt I talked about last post… my sampler quilt to hopefully finish those corners and the spare fabric from said quilt to make some extra blocks for practicing the whole final quilting stage. Hmm there is also a Jinny Beyer table runner kit and that’s just the quilt bits.

Last year I thought I packed a lot.. this year well I’ve simply out done myself .. it’s good to have options though .. right?

So wish me luck who knows there may even be a few updates on projects long forgotten when I get back.

This was where I started from last year.. I hope we all fit around the table this year 😀

I am a big fan of optical illusions, as a teenager I often traced or copied numerous pieces of M.C. Escher’s art into my diaries or just coloured in photocopies of them. I really can’t remember how many times I have played around with the devils and angels metamorphosis. It isn’t just Escher’s work though I have always loved looking at images that create optical illusions. Some work on me some don’t because of the whacked out focal problems I have with my eyes but to me all are fascinating… the way that the brain can take a set scope of information and twist it and interpret it in different ways.

What does this have to do with anything… well since falling down the rabbit hole of quilting I have toyed with the idea of doing a tumbling blocks quilt, there are a number of beautiful examples that can be found here. I also had in my mind that the next quilt I did I wanted it to be in reds/ greys and blacks and be predominantly made from a single repeating block. So skip to a few weeks ago (ok maybe longer) with a need to procrastinate from a number of other things including tackling the mitred corners on my sampler quilt border and it became imperative I play around with quilt ideas NOW!

I had a puzzle box template and a variety of different templates for pieces hexagons from when Sharon and I visited the Australasian Quilters Convention so I decided I could feel good about my purchases and start using them. I played around with the scanner and photoshop trying different layouts for hexies until frustration drove me to coloured pencils and some old school cut and paste. I think it really was essential to map out how this design was going to look on paper first as the effect is all in the shadings of the fabrics and the way the pieces come together.

Sharon and I were set to have a sewing day so a detour to GJs for some retail therapy and stash enhancement saw me determined to select fabrics for my design. It took a long time and eventually I came home without two of the colours I needed (the lightest grey and the mid tone red) thankfully a quick rummage through my stash sorted out that problem by providing the perfect light grey batik and a blood red fossil fern that was exactly between the other two I selected at the store.

After seeing them together I am really happy with the colour choices. The hexies are ~6inch final size once pieced (including seam allowances on each outer edge) and I have decided to do what I think will be a 10 x 12 hexie quilt. 120 in total and so many corner seams to line up will be tricky.

I’ve started cutting the pieces and have decided to cut everything out before starting to ensure I have ample of each of the fabrics. Last thing I want is to get almost to the end and discover I don’t have enough and the fabric is no longer available. (I have already ordered an extra yard of the light grey as I only had 1 yard in my stash and it was short by about 20cm from what I needed).

As you can see in the above picture I did sew one hex together to see how my fabric selections worked. It was a tricky beast and I will need to figure a few things out if I am going to be happy with the results.. you can see on the bottom point where the red and grey join that one of my seams is not quite right… something to work on. The colours though I am super happy with and think it will make a really impactful design once all 120 are tiled together. The 3D effect will hopefully be truly visible giving that optical illusion I was after.

As of today I still have quite the ways to go with cutting. The light grey pieces (240 of them ) are completed with about 100 of the mid grey done and 55 of the mid red. Holding the templates and cutting makes for very sore hands after a while, about 120 pieces in one cutting session is my limit so there is a long way to go before the construction of the project really gets going. Yet another very long term project to add to my collection. I guess I’ll need to stop procrastinating on finishing that sampler top and deciding on some quilting designs to get it all finished in between hexie hell.

Hello … me again. I’ve put down my work for today and decided I might try and catch up on a few details of the past two weeks.

You’ve seen the framing and the quilt blocks but how about some pictures of stash enhancement and some amazing inspirational quilts. Two weeks ago Sharon and I decided to indulge our latest hobby and attend a day at the Australasian Quilt Convention. While we didn’t have time to organise to attend any of the two day classes or even the one day ones we did intend to sit in on some of the seminars (note I say intend).

We got in at a reasonable time somewhere between 10 and 10:30. My intention had been largely to get a couple of tools I felt would be useful for my emerging plans for new quilts (after the class one is finished of course). I was also on the look out for sashing inspiration or backing for the class quilt. While I love looking at all the fabrics at the shows the ones I like are not usually available in lengths at the shows so I find myself with a large number of fat quarters that I am still wondering if I will ever use.

Well you know what they say about intentions. I did get the tools I was after, a 12.5″ square ruler as well as some strip rulers in various widths but then there was also a bunch of templates, diamonds, hexagons etc. Within the first half hour I had spent what I had intended to be my entire budget for the show lol. I even went back later in the day and picked up a curved nine-patch template thanks to the quilt displays.

Against all my best intentions I also found myself picking up quite a bit of fabric, a lot of the pieces were half metre or 60cm cuts which are nice but of course a few fat quarters jumped in as well… who can resist skeletal dinosaurs?! no me that for sure.

After the first round of stalls we ran in to one of the ladies I work with (technically one of my bosses I guess she is the head of the senior science faculty). We sat down and shared what we had bought and had a quick chat over coffee before heading our separate ways for more stash enhancement. I had also taken a long my blocks from the class for a quick bit of show and tell. It is interesting seeing people’s reactions to my colour choices, they certainly couldn’t be considered conventional or conservative I guess but I didn’t think they were that wild or out there especially on the sampler… Oh well I guess people will be even more weirded out later when I start pulling out more of my Halloween / skeleton / goth style fabrics. Each to their own and lets face it I am used to being a little left of centre 😛

A good portion of the day was spent looking at the display quilts there was an amazing display of 12×12 art pieces as well as a section devoted to Quilts brought over from Korea. Sharon and I took lots of photos for inspiration, I was particularly interested in seeing the different quilting patterns to try and get some ideas for what to do with my sampler once the top is fully pieced. I am thinking of hand quilting using different motifs but at this stage I have no idea which and how to go about planning which ones would best suit the blocks. Or perhaps I will just go an all over design this time with just something different on the borders and sashing… only time will tell what the final decision will be. rather than putting the images all here I have uploaded a selection of them to flickr. You can see them in full if you click through on the mosaic. There really were some amazing pieces there, well beyond where I ever hope to be but inspiring all the same.

Next Year I think we might try and sign up for a couple of the classes. There were some great looking beginners courses and two day courses dedicated to particular techniques and patterns that looked like they would be really helpful.

Well despite my best intentions it is over two weeks since my last post and boy has a lot happened since then.

Lets start with the patchwork shall we… While I didn’t get any more blocks done before my last class I have been very busy in the intervening time. This weeks class was the second last and it was all about sashing, aka lattice. So that meant all the blocks needed to be ready to start putting everything together. Well cue panic of course as is usual around here I had been busy and not done enough homework, it was going to be a mad dash race to the finish line if I was going to be ready for class. Thankfully Thursday was the ANZAC day holiday and I made a conscious decision not to do any work and just concentrate on getting blocks done. I had 4 I needed to get done and the ones I wanted to do were not all that simple. A lot of pieces and or curves!

I cut and pieced my heart out and come Thursday night I had all but one block done… of course if I had thought about it I would of realised there was no way I would need all my blocks for the class but at least it made me do a lot of catching up.

So what were the final blocks to round out my quilt top ?? lets see…

As you can see I forgot to get a picture of this one on it’s own before starting to get my sashing attached. Woops This is also the case for a few of the others.

Next up Drunkards Path (2): My second curved piecing block and let me just say… the second time was not better.

I was in a bit of a rush getting this done. I am slow at piecing .. yes even using a machine so trying to get 4 blocks done in a day was a big ask for me and this one suffered for it. It is a little wonky and may need to have a small black border added (I’m talking 1/2 an inch at most in total) to even it up. I am rather happy though that regardless of wonkyness my centre circle seems to line up pretty well 🙂

And then there was: The fan

I love the look of this piece and it was one of the ones I was wanting to learn how to do in the class. It is done with foundation piecing and as Nic observed about this technique it was somewhat wasteful of fabric. Being one of the last blocks I did though I was able to use up some of my larger scraps rather than cutting new pieces for this block.

and finally lets take a stroll along the: Garden Path

I am rather happy with how this turned out. With so many little half square triangles I was sure I was going to mess up the alignment and all the points but when I pressed it all at the end I had to admit that it wasn’t too bad for a beginner. The overall block didn’t even need much trimming to add the sashing down the sides.

One of my biggest concerns was choosing what colour I was going to use for the lattice… decisions are never my strong point. I had found what I thought would be a great choice on a recent trip to Kyneton with a mottled purple from Kona Bay oh how I love their fabrics) but laying everything out on it I wasn’t convinced (picture below).

It is always hard with purples particularly trying to show the colours in photos. I asked for other people’s opinions but was still uncertain. The pother choice had just been to go with solid black and up until I started cutting the strips on Thursday night black was the winning colour. If you look at the block pictures above though you can see I had a change of mind at the last minute and went with the original purple.

Today I have spent a little time sewing on more strips and the more I do the more I think I made the right decision. I may have to sew a fine black border around the two drunkards path blocks so the purple doesn’t disappear into the lattice but they could probably do with that to balance out the wonky bits anyway.

Oh and one last think if you have been laying attention you will realise I have only shown you 15 blocks. I finished the last block today.. I’m still stunned I’ve managed to get this far.

So what was the last block.. well it was the foundation piecing block from the class a crazy patchwork style block with mitred corners and a checkered border. All in all not too shabby and a great way to get rid of those off cut scraps (just don’t look too closely at the square border )

So there you have it… the beginning of the end. The homework before next class is to finish the lattice piecing to join all the blocks and then we will start with the borders.

Well it’s Thursday… not just any Thursday though, it’s a second Thursday which means tonight is another quilt class.
I have really begun to look forward to when these classes are on, it really is just nice to put everything else aside for a few hours and spend some time catching up with Sharon while we potter about with fabric.

Our fabric choices and styles are certainly different to the other ladies at the class but hey I’m used to that. My tastes have often been a little left of centre where other people are concerned. Before I pack off to the class tonight though I thought I might share a couple more homework blocks that I’ve done since the last class.

These are Clay’s choice (one of the first blocks I intended to do) and Sawtooth. The pictures are a bit strange.. it is all overcast and gloomy here today so I had to use the flash (and I used my smaller camera), it did show up the swirlies on the black fabric though. They don’t stand out that much under normal light but they do give a lovely textured look to the fabric rather than a flat black.

Both blocks were basically done using earlier techniques rather than the curved pieing from the last class, I liked the look of them though so thought I’d go back and add them to my quilt. This brings my total of blocks to 11 so far.

I’m going to see if I can get another one cut before tonight’s foundation piecing class but I don’t have long so we’ll see.

Fingers crossed tonight goes well 😀

Here we are again endings and beginnings…
March saw the deadline for the blanket come around a lot faster than expected with the mother to be heading off on maternity leave before the en of term. I dropped everything else in a last ditch bid to get the blanket finished, washed and blocked not to mention dried in time to hand it over. Surprisingly I actually managed it,but the photos I have are not the best, taken in a rush in fading light. I only did 45 repeats of the shale pattern compared to the 57 recommended but blocked it was larger than the specified size anyway. Final size was ~41×51″ plenty big enough for a baby blanket. The lace work opened up nicely and the wool relaxed to be super soft and squishy. The mum to be loved it and has promised pictures with the baby eventually.

The quilting course still marches on, however, we have been told that the store is closing down in June. It is sad to see another local craft store closing it’s doors but in many ways I find it hard to justify the increased price in many of these stores not to mention that my tastes are rarely catered for. The place up the road where the lovely Miss Sharon and myself have been doing our course is one of these stores. Most fabrics are around $25 a metre and the selection is of very traditional fabrics in browns and florals. There are a lot of American Civil War reproduction fabrics and 1930s reproductions. While pretty in their own right they certainly aren’t the fabrics I would be buying.. and believe me I have looked. I do have a great fabric store I like to go to over in Brunswick but still while it has a fantastic range they rarely stock the fabrics that I am drawn to that I can find online.

Anyway discussions of the benefits and drawbacks of online shopping in the craft world the class has continued over march with two new techniques and a number of new blocks. Not quite the 12 I was hoping for but I am now up to nine blocks completed with two more cut and ready to piece… maybe even today.

The blocks done this month were:

                                    Flying Geese                                                                                  Symmetry in Motion

Dresden Plate                                                                                             Card Trick

Falling Timber

The curved piecing on Falling Timber was a challenge it is a block that would be easier to complete hand sewing I think. So much easier to control the fabric than using the machine. As much as I like the speed of the machine I’m likely to try hand piecing at some stage… there is always Moonglow to try though that still seems way out of my league skills and time wise.

All up there are 9 blocks now:

The light this morning was very bad for picture taking but you get an idea of how they are looking all together. The next lesson is foundation piecing… hmmm wonder how that one will go, another challenging class I suspect.

Strangely enough I even managed to get about 500-600 stitches in Rose of Sharon. It still feels like I will never get her done but I am determined to keep pressing on. So that I can finally get her framed and out of my house.

So all in all my Feb goals came close:

1. I would love to get to 18 completed blocks but really I would be happy if I could make it to 12 that in itself will be a feat. Only 9 completed but still not too bad.
2. 43 repeats of the blanket (Eeeep) 38 completed as well as the edge, cast off and blocking .. Woohoo!
3. 100 stitches a week on Shaz – Maybe not each week (it was more of a last minute binge) but ~500+ completed.

I know February is a short month but wow that went fast. I have barely com up for breath over the last few weeks and the constant go go go is taking it’s toll. I have been barely able to stay awake lately which has made any craft time etc after work nigh on impossible.
I would have done my wrap up for February a little sooner but well I was stuck in the wilds of Victoria on Year 7 Camp last week. Ok not so wild we were only in the Dandenong ranges (about 1.5 hours out of town).  While it sucks being on call 24/7 the camp is generally a great chance to spend some time with my students outside of the stricter confines of the classroom, which for the students generally means a cognitive conflict or two about what their teacher is like.

I think the Quote of the week last week was “Miss you’re just not like other teachers…”

All in all it was a bit of fun, a lot of exercise (dropped 0.8kgs yay!) and generally exhausting week. I had to come back a day early in order to attend a conference on the Friday that was going to outline changes to the Year 12 curriculum for this year but unfortunately not early enough to allow me to attend the second of my quilting lessons.
The lovely Miss Sharon spent the day with me on Saturday though taking me through what was covered in the class… Dresden Plates.. can you say Applique!! eep not to mention funky new rulers and SO many pieces. Sharon’s quilt is looking fantastic and I am loving the way that the blocks look so different when put together in different fabrics. I have loads of homework before the next class but there is also a long weekend before now and then so who knows… I may just catch up.

So what did get done in February.. I thought I had kept my goals simple

1. 25 repeats of the blanket … nope! but I did get 14 repeats done and it is looking good (even if I do say so myself)

2. Was to put 100 stitches each week in to Shaz… The first couple of weeks went really well but then the wagon and I parted ways. But I am not ready to give up yet and March is a new month 🙂

3. Last but not least .. my homework for the quilting course. Technically I didn’t get this all done in Feb as most of it was completed yesterday but seeing as it was before this update I’m just going to roll with it and include it :D.

I managed to bring my finished blocks to a total of 4: The Ohio Star (From my last posting)

Churn Dash

Jacob’s Ladder

and finally Annie’s Choice

So in total I have four blocks. I was a little concerned about hte fabrics but I do love how they are coming out. I have removed one of the fabrics from my palette (the grey smoke pattern) but hopefully since I picked up a bit extra of all the others this week I will have enough to get me through the rest of the blocks. Borders, and sashing… I’ll worry abou thtat when I get to it.

So with February quickly fading in to the blur what are my March Goals?

1. I would love to get to 18 completed blocks but really I would be happy if I could make it to 12 that in itself will be a feat.
2. 43 repeats of the blanket (Eeeep)
3. 100 stitches a week on Shaz

Basically a repeat of the previous goals for Feb but with loftier crazier ideas. All of which really need to happen if these projects are going to get done when they need to be.

Why yes.. I am mad!

Well this week I have finally taken the plunge. After sitting on the fence for ummm probably close to ten years now… or even more I have started to learn to quilt.
I t really has been something I have always wanted to do, I’ve often picked up fabrics here and there and even a number of quilting patterns have turned up in my stash over the years. For one reason or another though I always put it off. NOt this time though, armed with a beginners course that I got for Christmas (ok got myself for Christmas) and the company of a good friend I am tackling my fears and getting started.

The first class was this week and while it was a bite strange and stressful with the idea of meeting new people and everything that goes along with that the overall experience was quite fun. There was a lot to cover in the first class with learning how to use our rotary cutters, cutting accurately and figuring out how best to get our machines set up to do nice accurate and neat seams. Patchwork by hand would be much simpler I’m sure but I’m certain the process will speed up eventually.

The first block we did was an Ohio Star and we concentrated on getting all the pieces cut and ready then on piece the triangles together. I have had to unpick a couple of the seams and redo them because I wasn’t happy with the ones I did at home after the class but I have completed the first part of my homework and finished piecing my first block *hooray* 😀

The top Left hand corner seems a little out of alignment so I may need to redo that but for now I am just happy that my points seem pointy and the seams are pretty much lined up… All in all I would say I’m pretty happy for a first effort.

With the course it is classes every two weeks with homework in between. This fortnight the homework was to complete this block and attempt one other that uses the same piecing and cutting techniques. If we want to make a queen sized quilt then we may want to make more (I am thinking about a Queen sized but we will see how I go).

I’ve looked through the patterns we were given and cam across Jacob’s ladder and clay’s choice which are high on the list of additional blocks I may try for this weeks homework.

There is also Annie’s choice although it is all triangle piecing and cutting and I feel it would be a touch more fiddly so it may be an option for when I have built up more confidence.

I know I was overseas for most of it but January just seems to have flown by. It has been super busy but loads of fun really (all except for the back to work aspect of course).
There was a night out seeing the wonderful Mr Neil Gaiman chat about his books and upcoming projects. I was rather a good fan girl and even purchased three signed books to add to my collection: Anansi Boys, Coraline and other short stories and a copy of American Gods. There was also a short excerpt of his upcoming book “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”. It was a lovely night out though it was odd to see people fixate on film adaptations of his work and his more recent episode of Dr Who (The Doctor’s wife and an upcoming cyberman episode) rather than his more prolific writing career.

Earlier this week on the 30th it was time to go see Cirque du Soleil’s latest offering in Australia “Ovo” as always it was an amazing night out and a much appreciated return of their show to the big top rather than the arena style that they used for Saltimbanco in 2012. I would say that this show is definitely up there as one of my favourites if not the top. The costumes and performances were stunning as always and the storyline blended really well with the clown acts this time. There was so much going on on stage it was hard to keep track of it all making it always interesting and surprising.

At work things have been nuts with the new building almost complete but of course we have had to move in already so there are builders, mad stressed crazy teachers and a few hundred students all busily moving about. As there always is with new builds there are a lot of things that aren’t quite right, some rooms where the power points aren’t working, network issues and the rest. We’re stumbling through though and the new space is so much nicer than the old building you can’t be too grumpy about it. I just wish I got to teach in there more, but with most of my classes in the lab areas I may get to teach in the new areas for 2 lessons a week if I’m lucky.

As you can guess with such a busy routine since getting back from the trip I haven’t had too much time for craft but there are a few things bubbling away in the background. I have done a few more repeats on my simple shawl but truth be told it hasn’t progressed far.

I cast on a new project… it was meant to be Umaro but I had a look at timings and figured the Shale baby blanket may be a bit faster… fingers crossed I was right… So I have cast that on. It will be a really hard ask to get it done by April especially with school camp approaching fast but I am going to give it a go. It is in Bendigo 10ply luxury in Ghost which is a lovely soft grey. The recipient doesn’t know if she is having a boy or a girl so I figured a soft neutral was probably the best way to go but didn’t want white or cream. So far there is 4 repeats completed of the pattern with a suggested 58 complete the blanket…. eeeep. I think I need to do a repeat a day on average which is 4 rows. It is doable but may be a tight squeeze.

There are a few other crafty plans that will keep me busy in February as well.

I have a resin jewellery workshop to attend as well as starting Quilting classes with the lovely Sharon on Thursday nights. There is a small quilting store just up the road here and I discovered late last year they offered a beginners quilting course and well jumped in feet first. Quilting is something I have been toying with for years but kept chickening out of… not anymore. The quilt design for the class is a sampler and truth be told it is probably not my style but it will be a great introduction to the different techniques and open the floodgates to starting some more complex (i.e Jinny Beyer) quilts that are more my style.

Before I headed overseas I had a bit of a shopping spree at GJ’s in Carlton and got what I thought would be my fabrics for the quilt… problem is now I can’t remember exactly what my plan was and I am not so sure about my selections. Woops. The fabrics below are the ones I picked up and of course the colours are not really representative as purples are so hard to get accurate in pictures.
I’m not sure now if I should be madly trying to get more fabric by the 14th or if I should just go with it and see how it turns out… time and effort involved will probably result in the latter option I fear.

The last great plan for this short month is to get back to Rose of Sharon. She is my focus goal for this year and I really need to make sure she keeps ticking over. So to make sure that happens I have agreed to do a SAL of sorts where I will do 100 stitches a week. It isn’t a strict SAL and really the 100 Stitches a week is my minimum goal but I need to be realistic and there are going to be weeks where even that few will be tough. The picture below is Shaz as of the beginning of Feb I’ll probably only update her once a month rather than each week so hopefully the next time you see her there will be a significantly larger portion of that left hand column completed. 🙂

So lets break it down into some formal goals:

February Goals

1. 100 stitches per week on Rose of Sharon
2. 25 repeats of Shale blanket
3. Keep up to date with all my quilting homework (this will be hard I suspect)