Tag: quilt

Playing the waiting game

February 9, 2024

On Tuesday morning, I officially applied for retirement. A short while later, I received a document outlining additional tasks I needed to do in order to complete my retirement application package. It took some time, but everything has now been submitted. I’ve done everything on my end. Now, as with our health insurance, we wait while everything goes through the prescribed processes. Unfortunately, at this stage, there’s no tracking mechanism in place for me to follow the status online. I’ll actually have to call and speak to a rep to find out where we are in the process – or wait for the mailed document. Maddening. Quilting keeps me focused on other things while I wait.

Yesterday, Sadie & I participated in the Middle Georgia Shop Hop. It took nearly 2 hours to reach our first stop off I-75 with all the traffic getting out of Atlanta. The shops were really busy. A number of vans were taking shop hoppers to the venues this year. Three of the shops were so crowded, I didn’t even look around. I merely had my passport stamped, purchased my blocks and left.

Of course, we made the obligatory pit stop at Buc-cee’s in Fort Valley before heading across the state to the shops along I-85. Around 3:30 p.m., I turned in our completed passport to Hometown Quilt Shop – we were the first completed passport to be turned in! 

Today, I helped a friend spray baste her first quilt and learn how to do straight line quilting using a walking foot. She finished quilting her top right as we needed to pack up and vacate our space at the library so the next group could use it. Perfect timing! She’s going to trim her quilt and make the binding this week. If she’s brave, she’ll try to attach it. I’ll guide her through machine stitching it down and joining the binding ends next Friday.

My CraftLAB kiddos will be stitching with me on Saturday afternoon to complete their cross body bags. I’ve already advised them that the next project will be to work on their blocks for the kid’s exhibit at the June quilt show. Speaking of which, I’d best get started on quilting my own entry.

Can you believe it’s 2024?

January 3, 2024

Personally, I’m excited for what this year brings – summertime means I’ll be officially retired. The next couple of months will be spent jumping through hoops to apply for retirement benefits and keep our health insurance moving along the continuum until retirement officially begins. I’m very thankful for the teacher retirement system advisor who told me about the process to keep our insurance in place in case I needed to leave employment before my official retirement date. For us, this proved to be the catalyst for retiring two years sooner than planned. It has been SO worth it!

Normally, I select a word of the year and make several resolutions for the coming year. I’m not doing that this year. Health, travel and quilting are my priorities. I’ll continue the health and wellness journey I began last year. Travel plans are now being made for summer and fall. FMQ Academy with HollyAnne Knight starts tomorrow.

The first 18 months of retirement have been focused on improving my piecing and walking foot quilting skills. Now, I’m ready to move beyond a loopy meander and do more “custom” quilting on my throw/lap size and smaller projects. The occasional large quilt will still be quilted by checkbook as I have no desire to own a longarm machine. If I get my FMQ groove down, but still have issues with consistent stitches, I’ll consider buying a Bernina 770 or Janome 9480 (with a stitch regulator) as a retirement gift to myself.

Quilty goals: focused destashing, improving FMQ skills and donating more projects to charity.

  • 2024 has been designated as “low buy” year for fabric, patterns, books, and notions. I am intentionally limiting myself to stash based projects that are free or use an existing pattern/book in my library.
  • I have so many flimsies in the pile that need to be finished. I do not have the budget to send everything out to the longarm quilter. Hello FMQ. I can do a loopy meander just fine, but want to up my FMQ game. I’ll spend the next 3 months in FMQ Academy with HollyAnne Knight of String & Story. This is also a test to see if guided, focused practice over time means I can do without a stitch regulator.
  • Several of my flimsies used for FMQ practice will go to my guild’s community service. Any orphan blocks or blocks made while learning a new technique can easily be turned into placemats for Meals on Wheels if I have no plans to keep it for a personal project.

P.S. Sadie and I made 26 facility visits as a therapy dog team in 2023. We’ll definitely be upping that number in 2024!