I have epiphany's on occasion, those light bulb moments when your head is raised from the immediacy of the now and you can see the light above the thread balls.  If we stay in Cali-I need to work part time.  I was exploring teaching in the quilt kingdom to prepare for the possibility of a move to the northwest.  I knew I wasn't going to learn a whole new system to work in education at this time in my life if we moved.  However, prepping for classes, subbing 2 or 3 days a week, doing prayer ministry 1 day a week, program's chair for our guild and just life in general has made me entirely too busy, to the point of stress in the middle of the night.  I knew some changes were coming-they had to.

I went away for my annual retreat to the green woods of Julian with two good friends who have made the pilgrimage for 15 years.  We stay in our respective motor home, 5th wheel and cabin during the day, reading, studying and, in my case, sewing.  Then we meet at 4 to go into town for dinner and fellowship and return to our individual dwellings around 7pm to do the same.  I always come back rested and refreshed.  I worked on Celtic Solstice as I finally had the 5 million 3.5 inch squares pieced.

My conclusion is:  I make much more money working in the district occasionally than I do teaching a quilt class-as much as I like it.  I probably won't take on another class and that will lighten my load tremendously.  There is a lot of prep involved and I am making quilts just for the teaching rather than the joy of it.  I also am not, NOT going to start another large project until I have finished four, FOUR that I have in progress. I have honestly at least 15 unfinished quilts and hangings-that is just silly.  I have enough material to supply a small country with individual quilts-that is just wrong.  So, I am going to start making quilts for my family (who want them), and friends and then we will see where I am at that point.  I also hosted our last speaker, Lenore Crawford so I am officially done as Programs chair-YAY!!! I had fun but glad to be finished.

Speaking of Lenore-I took this 2 year project to her class and made significant progress over the two days-i didn't have ANY material on it when I showed up at the class:

I think this is the kind of work I would like to do-I have a lot of finishing to do on this piece but I love the process and it is easier on my neck. I am thrilled that the flat piece of Kaffee Fassett dotted fabric actually looks folded and rounded.  There-that's it-my epiphany-quit 3 things before I take on 1, finish 4 things before I start a new one! School ends on the 18th of June so I have the summer off and enough time to quit one more thing before I start again in Sept. Jesus usually has to put me in a corner before I can see the path-I love Julian-God is so good to give me a wooded quiet corner.

My sweet sister in law will be here for a short visit from Utah-can't wait to see her and our nephew and his family tonight for dinner here-so I better get busy!

Flying Free

This will be a class at the Crazy 9 Patch in June but if I don't get the sample to them in the next day or two-nobody will sign up for it.

This pattern and the XBloc rulers are by Patricia Pepe who gifted me with the pattern and small ruler (I already had the 6") when she visited our guild this last year.  She is a wonderful presenter and great teacher and is very reasonable.  She is also a really nice lady who was flexible, funny and very easy to work with.

I am planning a simple quilting pattern and hope to start that process this afternoon.

I just finished this Mother's Day gift for my DIL.  It is the kids handprints made to reflect each month of the year.  The backing is orange plaid flannel.  I think she will like it.

The sashing and border fabric was from 1 piece of fabric that had alternating rows of buses and boats.  The boats were in the waves that was an unplanned addition as a frame for the quilt blocks.  The binding had flags on black.  I used Inktense pencils and permanent fabric pens for the rest.

Our guild has our last workshop this next weekend with Lenore Crawford-can't wait!  I tried to sign up for Asilimar Empty Spools but it didn't open until 20 min after it was supposed to and I had a dentist appointment.  I quickly filled out the form the minute it opened but my scanner wasn't working so took it to the dentist where my friend tried to fax it for an hour-no luck-busy, busy, busy.  So, I took it to the church office where they scanned it and sent it for me.  I only had one choice, Susan Carlson.  If i don't get in there she also teaches in AZ and Montana and Maine where she lives.  It is much less expensive for the other locations so travel expenses would  not be prohibitive.  We''ll see!