We leave for our long-awaited anniversary trip in two weeks. I can’t wait! We had so much fun on our Utah trip that we agreed we needed to get away more often. Going forward, we’ll shorten the our typical 7-10 day trip time to 4-5 days and try to take Sadie with us. Big girl travels well and more hotels are pet friendly. The Home2Suites we stayed at in Utah made us realize we could travel with the dog as long as we go to places that are dog-friendly. We may even decide to do an RV rental as a test run at some point. Sadie would have loved Park City, Utah! I’ve never seen so many doodle dog mixes in one area!

My yearning to travel is tempered by the uneasiness in the stock market, lack of staff at locations when traveling and high prices of hotels, car rental and air travel. Everything keeps going up, including our COBRA insurance by $200 a month starting in January. One of my neighbors, who is in HR, noted that she’s seen an increase in entrepreneurs who are returning to traditional employment. The #1 reason given – health insurance. I totally get it. I’m so grateful we have access to coverage that meets our needs, even if it is a tad expensive. I keep reminding myself It won’t be this way forever. There are days when the “play it safe at all costs” inner voice implores me to go back to work in January (especially after this week’s stock market decline). Then, the rational side of me reviews our financial plan and weighs the opportunity cost of returning to work right now. Nah, I’m good. I’ll remain retired unless an opportunity presents itself that I simply can’t resist.

Enabler alert: Hobby Lobby is discontinuing its current European-made quilting thread. All of my sewing machines ADORE this thread. IMHO, it’s a great alternative to Aurifil. At $2.24/spool on close-out, you have a good reason to stock-up. I understand from my local HL staff, that a replacement product is forthcoming.

Stay quilting my friends!

At long last – my favorite season – FALL.

Cool crisp nights
Clear blue skies
Colorful trees
Cozy sweaters

It’s like a pause that refreshes between summer’s heat & humidity and the bone-chilling cold of winter. The locals are predicting the coming winter to be quite a doozie. Yeah, it’s about time for Snowmageddon to make an another appearance. Being retired means I don’t have to worry about commuting or getting stuck at school with all the munchkins in case of inclement weather. 🙂

On today’s agenda: fall decorating, a book launch party for a local author and some time behind my sewing machine. Of course, the dog has other ideas…

This was such a fun trip! I took many, many more pictures of the gardens, quilts and wide open landscapes around me than I did of what was going on in my classes. My goal was to take two photos per class – one of the instructor teaching and one of my completed block. I was so intent on getting the hang of sewing orange peel and quarter circle blocks in my last class that I didn’t take any pictures until I had completed three blocks. By then, class was over!

What I learned:
Whirly Blooms: press seams open when pattern uses lots of FG, HST and other pieced units, use a 1.8-2.0 stitch length, “marinate” background fabric only in heavy starch.
Midnight Garden: stitch ‘n flip corners – sew just to right of drawn line (or scant 1/4″ seam if using folded corner clipper ruler), invest in a ruler with 1/8″ markings.
Blooming Stars: always make one block first to see if you like it before you cut the rest of the fabric in the kit, you really only need piecing thread in white/cream, beige/tan and med/dark gray.
Memis Lemons: don’t be afraid of curved piecing, fewer pins actually make the process easier (pin middle and 2 sides only), make sure your middle creases match all the way across so your background isn’t sewn on wonky.

I’ll definitely keep the Memi’s Lemons table runner for myself. Blooming Stars will get completed and put up for sale (and remade in a different color way). Midnight Garden will be completed and kept. Whirly Blooms may/may not be completed in kit form. The pattern makes a beautiful quilt, but I’m not too crazy about the colors in the kit. Anything made from this kit (pillows, throw or otherwise) will be gifted or put up for sale.

For my own teaching practice: Teach one block/technique at a time. Have a finished quilt available for students to examine/photograph and samples of each step in the process to pin on a flannel board (or portable design wall) and demo my process for tricky steps in small groups as students are ready. Plan on 1 hour of student work time per block. Bigger blocks (16″-20″) may require 2 hours. About 20 minutes before class ends, begin wrapping up and reviewing what students learned. Allow 5-10 minutes for Q&A.