Friday, January 31, 2025

Odds and Ends at the End of January

I have been grading for hours, but happily, I got the first essays from my online classes graded.  I feel a bit brain dead, so let me just capture some snippets from the past day or two that I want to remember.

--This is the kind of week that makes me wonder what I might accomplish if I wasn't trying to accomplish so much.  I've got a full-time teaching job, a part-time teaching job, a part-time pastor job, and my MDiv program.

--That said, I am coming up with interesting ideas.  My English 102 classes are looking at works by Susan Glaspell that have plots that rely on a knowledge of quilting, which no one has these days.  I woke up Tuesday morning thinking about a quilting bee that could be open to the whole school.  Yesterday, I sent out this e-mail:  

Dear English Colleagues,

My MWF 102 class meets in the same room for my 10:00 class and noon class.  I am planning a quilting bee as we begin discussing "A Jury of Her Peers" and "Trifles."  I'll set up quilts in 206 and since there's not an 11:00 class, I'll leave it set up.  The quilting bee will go from 10:00 until 1:00. 

My plan is to open this up to the whole campus as a drop in quilting bee.  There will be quilts to knot and quilts to quilt and small items that students can hand sew and take with them.  Students can experience quilting first hand and learn about the history of quilting—and my students will then be able to tie the experience to the literature in a way that might feel more real.

I'm thinking that I'll do this on Monday, March 24, but before I plan too much, I thought I'd run the idea by all of you to see if you know of anything else big happening on campus that day.  I like the idea of doing it in March, too, as a great Women's History Month project.

The quilts we'll knot will then go back to my local church quilt group that sends them to Lutheran World Relief, so we'll be quilting for fun, quilting for literature, and quilting for charity.  I'll also have information on Lutheran World Relief.

Does anyone see any huge issues that I've overlooked in my enthusiasm for fabric arts?

Thanks!
Kristin (B-A)

--I've been enjoying hot tea with a bit of warm milk and sometimes sugar.  I still drink coffee in the morning, but I often switch to milky tea. 

--I went to a bricks and mortar office supply store to buy paper and printer ink.  Not special paper--basic paper for printing out the occasional document and my weekly sermons.  Wow--paper has really increased in price since the last time I bought it.  I got a special deal:  2 reams for $16.  Wow.

--Here we are at the last day of the month.  Let me check in on my 2025 goals:

     --I have done a bit of strength training for 20 days this month.  It may not have always been 10               minutes each time, but I came close.

     --I did a lot more poetry writing.  I finished 7 poems, along with a lot of shorter pieces in my                   sketchbook which I'm not sure how to count (5 of them).

    --I've worked on sketching hands and faces.  I'm impressed with what I can do if I pay attention.            Hands are still harder for me than faces.

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