no fabric, paint or glue in this post...

I finished my online Intro to Braille class. 

This covered basic braille. I took a picture of my cheat sheets.

I used these to double check my work. I always wanted perfect assignments to turn in. That never happened. 

BUT, I did receive an A- for my final grade!

To write braille, you use a braille writer. It will make the raised dots on your paper or card stock. It looks like an old fashioned typewriter.

Except, there are six main keys. You use the first three fingers on each hand. 

A is...first finger on your left hand or cell one.

B is...first and second fingers on your left hand or cell one and two.

If you push down your first finger on each hand you get a C.

This is part of one of the assignments. I had to take print words and write them in braille.

This is where I used the braille writer simulator on the computer. 

Keys FDS were cell 1, 2, 3 and JKL were 4, 5, 6.

It even made click click sounds. I thought it was pretty cool. The more you do it, the more automatic it becomes. Your fingers just know what keys to push down...like keyboarding.

The other part of the assignments were putting braille into print. This is easier for me. I am faster at reading braille than writing it.

Next up....contracted braille. Sort of like shorthand. Things like ST, EN, SH or whole words become one symbol. There are almost 200 of them. That class will take a little longer to complete.

   

a couple things...

It would appear I haven't been doing anything. But really I have.

I just haven't blogged it.....

Better do some catch up stuff.

Postcards......

I was in the grocery store checking out the Hershey display. There was a NEW candy bar.

"What's with this airy chocolate bar?"

A friend of Crispy's was running the cash register that morning. He said it was good and I should buy it.

"What's wrong with the plain old Hershey bar?"

He told me I should try something new.

"But I really like my regular Hershey chocolate bar. I'll just buy that."

I picked up the original and put it in my cart and started to walk away.

That's when he said....

OH, come on, live life dangerously.

and then it hit me, I could use the wrapper to make a postcard with those words on it. I went back and picked up the new candy bar. At home, I ate it as I looked for letters. I still need to mail it to him. 

I am not sure what I will do with the next card....

I may keep it, I might mail it away.

mini scrap book......

One day during recess, I took a picture of each child in preschool. It was near the end of the year and I wanted to make a small book for the teacher.

Every once in a while, the kids had given me what ever they had drawn/painted/colored....

"this is for you!"

Thank You!

Sometimes there are things with no name and everyone said,

"it's not mine"

I took those things home with me too.

I cut a bunch of cereal boxes, then painted them with a sponge. I cut up "artwork" from the kids and glued them in the book with mod podge.

To keep it simple, I didn't embellish with anything else.

In the book, one side is decorated, the other side is a picture.

I need to get this in the mail. On the last day I told the teacher to watch her mail. She would be getting something. I didn't think it would take until July to start working on it. It was simple enough, but other projects kept getting in the way.

I want to make myself one....but it is further down on the list of things to do.

postcards from cereal boxes & magazines.....

The library wanted to do something fun and different. They asked me about doing something with scrap booking. I told them I was having more fun making postcards using cut up cereal boxes and magazines.

They didn't really understand....couldn't picture such a thing.

So I made some samples. 

Yes.... this would be cool to do. A date was picked.

Today was the day to make them at the library.

Two ladies were there waiting for me. When the one found out it wasn't postcards that involved sewing......

well.....

she left.

That left two of us, we got busy cutting tearing and gluing it all down with mod podge. Ann made one and I made two more.

Then 5 girls came in. They were ages 8-11. They really got into it.

Two of them were sisters. They argued. The older one said the younger one couldn't do puppies and use the word 'love' because it was her idea.

 Younger sister was a little worried. I told it didn't matter who's idea it was, she could make one too.

& that is exactly what she did.

Another one wanted to know if she could make hers into a book. She had made 5 of them.

Yes, that would be fun.

She called it 'funky people'

We need to do it again. The librarian working today wants to play next time. Plus, we didn't even make a dent in the pile of old magazines the library had on hand.

block lotto blocks.....

I love these blocks......
They are for July's BLOCK LOTTO !
While you need to pay attention to what and how you are sewing, they are still fun and easy to make.
the seams don't always match and that's OK.
I have added these to my mental list of future blocks to use in a quilt.

Minnesota Twins ballgame.....

We made our way to Minneapolis for a Twins game. It was our first trip to the new stadium & it was all pretty awesome......

The Twins were playing the Milwaukee Brewers. My sister said, "hey! a cheese-head!"


"Where?"


"Down there!"

"I see him!"
Wow!... a cheese-head in person. I have not seen one before.....
(Except for Karen, she is from Wisconsin. But she doesn't walk around with cheese on her head.)

We were surrounded by cheese-heads. All around us were cheering Brewer fans. That would explain why our section was so quiet during most of the game when the Twins were leading. But in the 9th inning, things fell apart. The Brewers went and made a bunch of runs.

OH NO!!!! 

Our section got loud with all their cheering.

The Twins ended up losing.  No matter, it was still an exciting game and we had fun.

Happy 4th of July!

happy birthday Karen.....

Karen turns 50 on July 4th. I made her a wall quilt.

(this is her blog)

We are going shopping tonight and I will give it to her then. Right about the same time this will publish.

The majority of the sheets I have came from Karen. She is busy working on her own sheet quilt too.

The words are stamped with paint. 

I am also in the middle of a doll quilt...

I am using dry sheets to make the string blocks.

& then there are the 9-patch blocks....

I'll start sewing these up just as they are. 

I think I will be done with sheet sewing for a while. I am looking forward to working with plain old cotton again!