The tune is one of those ditties we learned in nursery school (The Farmer in the Dell).

I did it. I signed up for the July retreat. I’m going to sew and spa for three days. Aahhh…

Seriously, though, it’s been a challenge to find a retreat that offers: 1) private accommodation options, 2) project(s) that appeal to me or the option to BYO projects and (3) reasonable costs.

You have to really dig, but such options do exist:

1. Lutherridge offers a Quilt Camp in April near Asheville, NC. It’s a BYO projects retreat, offers private rooms and has reasonable costs. The catch? There are only four private rooms available. Of course, they were the first ones to go!
   
2. Camellia Palms Retreat Center in south Alabama offers instructor led retreats in a restored old home on a lake. Private rooms available, reasonable costs, but the project offered for the weekend I could go was not something that appealed to me.
   
3. The Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell offers a quilt camp with the Gees Bend ladies. It checks all the criteria, but is not during a week I can go.

Really need to get away from it all for 2-3 days? Pick a spot spot within a 2 hour drive, reserve a hotel room and create a DIY quilt retreat.

This is totally my jam – teaching 9-12 year olds how to sew while incorporating a technology component.

Today, the girls applied HTV letter appliqués that I’d cut out on my Cricut Maker (font: MADE Sunflower about 5″ tall). I demonstrated how to use the Cricut EasyPress and let them apply their own appliqués under my supervision.

I collected their color choices in advance by sending out a 2 question survey using Survey Monkey.

The girls began their sewing classes about four weeks ago. They had 3 weeks of Sewing Machine Bootcamp where they made small projects and learned how to operate a sewing machine with Miss Margo and Miss Nancy. Today was the first of 3 project based classes.

Didn’t they do an AWESOME job?

P.S. This is a great beginner project and can easily be extended to meet the needs of a more “advanced” sewist in the group. It took us 1-1/2 hours from start to finish, including photos and clean-up time. Attached is a copy of the lesson plan for our Simple Stuffed Pillow project.

A former assistant principal texted me this. He knows me well. This is the only thing that might persuade me to return to the schoolhouse.

I’ll admit it’s tempting. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching reading. And the job’s part-time. It’s also with a different school district.

Hubs is fine with whatever I decide to do – go back full-time, part-time or stay retired. I have no desire to return to full-time employment. I’ve turned down one part-time job offer. This is a slightly different situation because the position comes with pension service credit and health insurance at employee rates once again.

I’ll think about it. The job fair’s on March 18th. It wouldn’t take much to update my resume and contact my references.