327- Show and Tell

So are you wondering why I have a picture of all these cute *ickle first's* bums? If you look very closely you will see my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top in the middle of all of them... and under it are half a dozen assorted quilts that I brought in for *Show & Tell*!

This is the second year that Miss Lewis has invited me to her classroom to show & tell about my quilts. The class has just completed a unit on quilts where they learned all the different shapes. I am always amazed at how much they know. Last year I even learned what a rhombus is! And this year I learned what a quadrilateral is! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?



I just love going into Camille's class. I love children! If I could go back and have a *do-over* (which I wouldn't- for so many reasons!!) I would make sure to get my teaching degree so I could work with these delightful little ones all the time.

After Miss Joanie's *show & tell* the children were off to singing time. Just down the hall is a kiva room where they have group activities. It has a nice rotunda ceiling and the sound is beautiful. Just imagine 175+ 1st graders singing their hearts out! One of the seven (yes, 7 first grade classes) teachers plays the piano beautifully! I set my quilt basket down in the hallway and stayed to listen to them sing... it really doesn't get much better than children singing; and I not ashamed to admit they made me cry!

Kiva- Part Trois

As promised, oh so long ago, I finally have photos of Camille's kivas in her classroom with her little first graders. They seem to be very useful and the kids all get a good view of what is being taught.




















Notice that they have their folders on the bookshelves behind.

Kiva- (Warrior Princess) Part Deux

OK, well maybe you had to be here to get the title. I was feeling very pleased with myself and thought, "Shera... wait, Kiva - Warrior Princess!! Yep, that's me."

I've been blessed with the ability to look at what someone else does and then copy it. That was the approach I took when I did the drywall in the bathroom last year... I'd never done drywall, but I knew what the end product was supposed to look like. (How hard can it be?)

When we moved to our house on Columbia Ave I watched the carpet men put the carpet on the stairs. The bottom two stairs were exposed on the edges and the carpet guy did something like this. You know, roll under the edge and staple the heck out of it. Kind of like binding a quilt, but with bigger pins ;)

My original plan was not to carpet the sides of the kiva, but the remnant of carpet Camille bought was 9' x 12'. With tricky cutting I was able to carpet the sides. I think it looks better than the wood sides (I couldn't get paint grade plywood at Home Depot) and it will be more user friendly.

I got some wonderful feedback from my sister/niece Cindy.

• You make me laugh... "How hard can it be?" will be on all our headstones when we die. But you know, because of you the kiva is a reality. Both Curt and Kevin wouldn't have magically combined efforts to make it happen without you! You are a project manager extraordinaire!

You just have to love it when your family members are your biggest fans!

I also got a question from another niece, Sarah, who teaches as well. I thought it might be nice to answer some of the questions here.

• The finished size of the kiva is 24" tall at the highest tier, 60" wide, and 48" deep. (That makes them small enough to fit through doors and the back of pickup trucks)
• The teacher who's kiva I measured said she could get 15 children per kiva. We've made 2 kivas.
  
• The cost for building materials for the 2 kivas was about $225.
• It is very helpful to have talented family who help you out when you're in a fix... but you could accomplish this project with a few power tools and lots of gumption!
• If you want more particulars, send me a message...
  

Stay tuned for Kiva- Part Trois- In the Classroom!

Kiva Plans

What is a kiva you may ask? Well, don't do a Google Search (prior to today's posting) and expect to find anything that even resembles what you are looking for if you work and teach in the Alpine School District! The classroom term kiva means a small tiered seating arrangement used during group instruction.

• The true meaning of a kiva is "a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and above-ground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies."

Since Camille began teaching a year ago she's wanted to have a kiva for her classroom but we've had a difficult time locating plans (and for me, I wasn't even sure what it was supposed to look like). She'd pretty much given up hope for getting one this year since school starts in 2 weeks.

Earlier this week I went to help Camille prepare her classroom for the new school year and finally got to see a kiva in the flesh, or in this case, in the wood. As soon as I saw it I said "How hard can it be?" I took some rough measurements and came home and sat down to start drawing up plans. It didn't take long to for me to realize that I had no idea what the frame of this kiva should look like... great, now what?






Then it hit me like a bolt of lightening!!! Duh! Your son-in-law is an architect!! So I called Curt and asked him for some help. He started sketching and 3 days later I had some rough plans! Yay... How hard can it be? (Are we starting to see a pattern here?)








Camille, her friend, Katie, and I went to Home Depot to buy the needed lumber and supplies (make note, don't send a Momma to do a man's job... I got some totally tweaked 2 x 4's). I called Kevin and asked him if he would transport the supplies to my house and loan me his tools so I could build these bad boys.









But Kevin did my one much better! He brought his tools AND himself AND his wonderful expertise as a framer and woodworker.













Even with Curt's plans, I know I would have been a little out-classed with this job... but "How hard can it be?"









Apparently if you have a wonderful and talented family it's not so hard after all. I sat in the garage (it was quite hot, do I get credit for that?), was minimal help to Kevin but lots of moral support.









Now all that is left for me to do is sand, stain and carpet the treads and risers (notice those technical terms?)















And THAT is something I can do... likely all by myself without any additional help from wonderful family. I will keep you updated with the finished project!

So stay tuned for more updated photos of the finished kiva.