Hope you’re able to spend the day immersed in quilty activities!

This morning I attended a kick-off session for the new Saturday Sampler at Tiny Stitches Quilt Shop. I sat through the hour long infomercial, as the shop owner called it, only to discover that I was supposed to sign up in advance for the project I wanted to make. Silly me, I’d looked at the projects online, but wanted to see them in person before committing to any year long endeavor. This actually turned out to be a good thing. The shop runs two BOM cycles each year. BOM cycle 1 (August start) was closed to new members.. Of course, this was the project that appealed to me! BOM cycle 2 (March start) had limited availability still remaining for one of the projects. My in-person inspection of the available project confirmed my earlier opinion that I did not want to make it, so I left empty-handed. It was not a complete waste of time, however. I now understand how the Saturday Sampler works at this shop. I also got the name of a really good, reasonably priced long-arm quilter who lives nearby AND was able to see actual quilts she’d recently done for a customer (the customer brought them for show & tell).

This afternoon, I’ll straighten up my studio and stream my fave quilty shows on YouTube while I finish up a project:

Stay quilting my friends!

My local school district (and former employer) finally let the dogs back in the schoolhouse! Big Girl and I are joining some fellow CAREing Paws teams at Lost Mountain Middle School at the end of the month.

I posted this on FB, along with a picture of Sadie and me after our most recent visit to a high school in a neighboring district. Now, Sadie and I have received a flurry of invitations to visit former colleagues at their respective schools. Two of my colleagues at a former school won “mystery reader of their choice” in a school fundraising contest. They asked if I would bring the dog and read stories to their classes. This will definitely be a fun visit next week!

Therapy dog activities are finally picking up. We have visits to two colleges already scheduled for April & May. I have at least 5 visits to schedule to different facilities since receiving invitations from former co-workers. I’m excited. This has been the missing piece in my retirement activity puzzle. I have a strong feeling the school based READ program will move forward in the fall.

What about that reading teacher job? I decided against applying for the part-time position in a neighboring school district. The work’s fine. The expectation is a 5 day workweek, even for part-time. No thanks. Should I ever need to return to work, I’d rather have a full-time salary if I’m going to give up my freedom 5 days per week. After conferring with our financial advisor yesterday, there is no need for either one of us to return to work unless we want to.

I did apply to renew my teaching certificate for another 5 years. The Professional Standards Commission determined that I have to jump through one additional hoop to get my certificate renewed. Let’s see how quickly my former school district can verify my professional development activities from 2018-2022.

In addition to private sewing lessons, I host a monthly CraftLAB for a small group of ‘tween stitchy friends. These kiddos either live in my neighborhood or are children of friends and former co-workers. Our sessions last about 60-75 minutes and projects are usually make & take. Some are sewing, some are STEAM related and some are seasonal crafts. I keep a folder of ideas clipped from magazines or freebies I find online. We also look at some kid-specific sewing books such as those from Sewing School. Their current favorite sources of projects are Get Set, Sew from Jane Bull or projects from Curious Jane magazine. Sometimes the kids simply tell me what they want to make. My job is to figure out how to make it, then write the steps/directions so a 5th grader can be successful with the project.

CraftLAB serves the same purpose as the weekly Stitching Stallions sewing club at school did. It allows me to test out ideas and fine-tune projects. I also learn what does/doesn’t work with the kids. This helps inform future classes and lessons that are taught outside of CraftLAB. The journal project was suggested by a private student. She selected the type of journal she wanted to make. I found a free tutorial on YouTube that I used as base to develop the directions. My CraftLAB kiddos saw her journal and wanted to make one for themselves. I tweaked those directions and the journal construction worked much better. I imagine this could also turn into a future kid’s class at the SQTM. Tip: If you want to get this journal done in 90 minutes, then kit everything – including cutting pieces and fusing the interfacing ahead of class. Figure out a solution to help kids keep a consistent 1/2″ seam allowance in advance. I found a sliding guide foot worked best OR a seam guide that runs the length of the machine bed. If you run a weekly after-school sewing class or homeschool group, you can easily extend this project over 3 sessions. Prepare paper patterns from freezer paper and allow students to cut everything out by hand. Yes, the kids will complain, but they need to learn this skill. Or allow them to use Cricut Design Space to create the master cut files for each piece and cut everything out using a Cricut machine. If you fuse the interfacing to the back of the fabric ahead of time, you can use basically any Cricut machine that will cut bonded fabric. This incorporates a STEAM component that they absolutely love.

P.S. The hexie flowers were made by me. I needed one more photo to complete the pic collage in this post. Look for one of these on the front pocket of my forthcoming journal cover!