Summer writing and sewing

I only recently realized that to be an academic means that you have to wear several hats at once. The first hat is that of a researcher. If I were to imagine what a researcher's hat looks like, it would be Indiana Jones' fedora, probably because my first love is archaeology* and Vivianna rhymes with Indiana (I can't count how many times has my family called me Vivianna Jones!) The next hat that an academic must wear is the teachers hat, here I think about a helmet that protects the wearer from student apathy and constant questions that could be answered by consulting the syllabus. The final hat that an academic wears is that of a writer. The writer's hat is definitely made of a lightweight fabric perfect for wringing in your hands when faced with writers block. Of all these hats I have to wear, I'm having the most trouble with the writers hat. To further this metaphor, my hat is definitely wrinkled from too much wringing.

As a student, you take courses and have to write papers and exams to get a grade. So as a student my writing was a means to an end, a way to show my knowledge of a particular subject to earn a particular grade. This was the way I approached writing for over 15 years. This year, as my coursework ended and my proposal writing began I was struck by the realization that my writing is no longer a means to an end. It is the end itself. The goal isn't just to showcase my thoughts and research but also to communicate it in an understandable and compelling way. To be a good researcher, I think it is necessary to be a good writer. Why did no one tell me this before!?

As the shock of being a writer wore off, I started working on my dissertation proposal, it is supposed to be finished by the end of the summer. I can say that I honestly understand why everyone says that you should never ask a grad student how their writing is going! (Its usually not going as well as planned). In a way writing my proposal is like forging a giant key that will unlock the next phase of my Phd. Once my proposal is approved I can leave for my fieldwork in South Africa. How awesome and how daunting! It feels like a lot of pressure. I'm trying to take it one day at a time but its difficult not to get paralyzed looking a the mountain of work ahead of me.

By now you know me well. What do you think I have been doing to deal with my stress? Procraftinating of course! Not all of the sewing I've done has been to procrastinate (more on the below), but its all been fun!

Here are a few of the projects I've been working on:

My sister got married a few weeks ago. She asked me to make a clutch for each of her bridesmaids (including me) So I got to work and made 7 envelop clutches using Noodlehead's pattern. This project wasn't designed to procrastinate, but it had the same effect I had to take time off from writing to make these beauties. 

Here they are all together the morning before the wedding.

Hanging out in the sun before their big day.

The really neat thing about these clutches is that they match out bridesmaid dresses!! My sister had the great idea to have our dresses custom made by one of our best friends moms who is a great costume designer. She gave me all the left over fabric and I used them to make our clutches. I made a green one for my sister that matched her wedding shoes!

In all honestly, it was a really long process to make 7 of these clutches. It took me 5 days! But I think it was totally worth it. Here are the pieces of each clutch ready for assembly. Each clutch has a different lining fabric and card pocket!

The next thing I worked on was my mini quilt for the instagram based cotton + steel swap. This is the first mini that I made without a pattern. I just used different elements of quilts that I liked and put them together. The center circle is a paper pieced pattern by Jeli Quilts. The outside Xs are raspberry kisses, instructions found on wooden spoon quilts blog I have to say I love this quilt. It was really difficult to mail to my swap partner.

Check out the hashtag for other beautiful quilts #cottonandsteelminiquiltswap

Check out a close up of the center. Isn't it pretty!! 

This week I decided to work on a quilt just for me. Its an adaptation of the mini I just made and the goal is that it will be a full size quilt. It starts with the same center piece and then I will add many different types of borders to make it bigger. It should be the most intricate quilt I have made so far by the time I'm finished.

Here are 20 blocks in the making that I will eventually add to my quilt. If you look at the previous quilt you will see that these will be rotated and become the Xs to make the raspberry kisses block.

Here's a mock up of what it will kind of look like. I'll share more updates as I go for this one. 

There you have it, all the ways I've been procraftinating in the last few weeks. Including this blog post today! At least I got it all out there. Now to get back to work!!

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*That is not to say that Indiana Jones is a proper archaeologist, he is more like a tomb raider.

Whirlwind of a semester

It has been a while since my last post. I honestly can't believe how quickly the winter semester flew by. I feel like I blinked and all of a sudden its mid may!

Before I share with you what I have been up to I have an announcement:

I am now a coffee drinker. 

Here it is, my first cup of coffee (yes I took a photo)

Yes, you read that right. I now drink coffee. I managed to finish my undergrad, masters, a graduate diploma and the first semester of the PhD without the help of caffeine (although my tea consumption increased over the years). Then suddenly in March this year I hit a wall, I wasn't sleeping enough, had a growing list of deadlines and couldn't really function normally, unless practically falling asleep in class is normal. So thoroughly beaten by the academy, I turned to the Coffee Gods. They heard my cry for help and responded with Lattes, Americanos and regular coffee. With their help I finished the semester which I suppose is better than giving up and turning to the Alcohol Gods.

So what have I been up to? Well, I finished my final semester of coursework for the PhD. This essentially means that unless I decided to pursue another degree later on (which I won't!!!) I will never have to take a course again. Pretty crazy. For this last semester I was taking 3.5 classes and have never been busier. Often times I slept 4-5 hours a night just trying to get all the reading and writing done while maintaining a little sanity. I'm not sure I managed the sanity part, but I did do well in my courses which is great.

Now that my coursework is done, over the summer I have to write my dissertation proposal (a 20-30 page document that explains my proposed research). Once its approved then I can begin my fieldwork in South Africa! More on all of this in the coming weeks

Am I still crafting as the title of my blog would suggest?

Yes! Despite my busy semester, I still found time to quilt and sew. The Instagram community of quilters and sewers I discovered this year are an endless source of inspiration and they are responsible for a big part of my winter sewing. In part because I signed up for some quilting swaps without really considering my huge work load and partly because I was so inspired by their creations that I employed classic procrastination skills (which I like to call procraftination).

Here are some of the projects I worked on and finished throughout the winter semester. 

This was my first mini quilt swap, I love this quilt, it was sooo hard to mail it off to my swap partner, but she loved it, so that made me really happy.  I made a half size version of the Astrodelic pattern by Artgallery fabrics, its a free pattern that is really easy! 

I made this tote bag for a black and white tote bag swap.  I really like the geometric pattern that I created almost by accident. I didn't use a pattern for this tote, but I did use this tutorial for to make my first interior zipper pocket. It was super easy and I find it makes the bag more versatile.

I made this rainbow feather quilt for a rainbow themed quilt swap. I really like how it turned out. This one was by far scheduled at the craziest time, I had to mail it the final week of classes. Scheduling fail! The feathers were made adapting Anna Marie Horner's free feather quilt pattern

Spring Sewing

I took a much needed week off from school and spent a large part of that break sewing, here are the fruits of my labour:

I finally finished my supertote bag. Although it was much more time consuming than I expected, I love it.

I signed up for another swap!! It is supposed to be for a one hour basket. My basket took much longer  to make because I tried paper piecing for the first time. I love how it turned out. If you want to make one, check out this great tutorial by Kelbysews 

I made one for myself, this one took a little over an hour

I made myself a wallet!!!! This feels like the coolest thing I have made myself by far! Its beautiful and super functional. The "Have it all" wallet pattern by Straight Stitch Society was easy to follow, it took me about 5 hours from start to finish, including cutting out the fabric. The only thing I would change next time is to use more/the right interfacing, the exterior flap feels a little more flimsy than it should. (I used what I had instead of what was recommended in the pattern)

Here's a shot of the inside. Isn't it great!!!

Since it had been so long since I did some patchworking (can I conjugate that?) I decided to make a carpenter star. I will eventually turn this into a lap quilt, but I'm still trying to figure out what to add to it to make it bigger.

All together its seems like a productive few months! I have so many projects I want to tackle this summer, hopefully I will be able to get to all of them and finish my proposal. 

Viv