A Big "Thank You" to all my Friends at ECOT!

Here I am, enjoying my retirement, spending a sunny day on the porch, when the mail man brings a special surprise from my teacher friends at ECOT.  They sent a lovely card along with a gift card and encouraged me to use it for quilting - not that I need any encouraging with that!  Big smiles all day!  I really appreciate their thoughtfulness and generosity.

When I use this gift for a quilt, it will have to be diverse, colourful and designed to work well together; just like our English department.  I am going to miss working with my dear friends but hope they will stop by my blog to say hello.

Tomorrow is the Columbus Quilt Show and I'll be travelling down on a bus trip with my QBees.  Material Girl, a little quilt shop in Dover, Ohio sponsored the trip and I'm so looking forward to seeing all the quilts and visiting the vendors; looking for more retirement stash.  Of course, I'll be blogging about it.

Another Big Thank You to my Dear Friend, Jan.

As if I'm not already blessed with so many good things, Jan, my friend since high school, invited me over to go through her quilting "stash" since she is moving to Florida and wants to get rid of some stuff.  When I am there she insists I take her serger machine.  This is unexpected and again, deeply appreciated.   And I'm sure, with the help of my sister-in-law, Michelle, we will "serge."  Hopefully!  Isn't it cute?  

I think this quote from Oprah sums up how I feel today!

June is Bustin' Out All Over

QBee Day at Miss Carol's from Sweet Peas and Possum

I feel like singing "June is Bustin' Out All Over" when the day is full of sunshine and roses.  The corn is almost as high as an elephant's eye . . . Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Corn is about knee high

  A perfect weekend to head south to Plainfield for a sewing day with Miss Carol, Barbie and Gina.  My daughter, Earlene, came along to work on her very first quilt ever, a jelly roll strip quilt!  I'm so happy that she is quilting with me even though her machine was being a pain at first.  Miss Carol got it straightened out and sewing right. 

Earlene working on her jelly roll quilt using batiks

Hooray for the red, white and blue!

Gina and her Flag quilt that she is hand quilting - big stitch.  Neat pattern!

Miss Carol with her Tumbler Flag Quilt.  It looks like it is waving in the breeze.  

 Barbie has been busy sewing quilts . . . 

Brick and Mortar with Christmas material

Red Bird Quilt

Barbie's colorful quilt - Wow!

Miss Carol's UFO's - Show and Tell!

Brick and Mortar - Looks modern.  I like it!

Shark Quilt.  Nice pattern for a feature fabric.  

What a great way to kick off my retirement; quilting with my daughter and my QBees.  I'm looking forward to many happy, summer quilting days at Miss Carol's studio.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

It's official!  I have turned in my resignation and it's safe to post this news on my blog.  In about three weeks I will be retired from teaching.  It's a big step to retire and especially difficult since I have the perfect "work-at-home" online teaching position.  In spite of being able to work in comfy sweats and skip wearing make-up, I wanted more time to spend with my family, and to, as Mrs. Dilly-Dally would say, do what you love, do dilly-dally.

Janome Memory Craft 6600

To celebrate my retirement, I felt that a new endeavour was needed.  I wanted to try  some free-motion quilting.  That led to the purchase of a new "retirement" machine - a Janome Memory Craft 6600.  Anyone out there in blogland own one of these?   Of course I don't know how to use all the buttons yet, but I'm taking a class later this month.  Fun, fun!

The little mug rug is my second attempt at free motion quilting.  I've been practising, but have a long way to go yet.  This 6" Ohio Star Block is from a free pattern for Random Ohio Stars on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Blog.  I added some borders to make it mug and cookie size.  It's for a young friend in our swim class, Beth, who has been  doing a long-term intern-ship at Children's Hospital.  She lives in West Virginia, so will be leaving our class in about a month.  The Ohio Star is to remind her that she has friends in Ohio and the wavy quilting represents the choppy water (swim aerobics)  We make lots of waves!

If you look real close at the pink material in the star, it looks like water droplets.   The back has wavy pink, yellow and blue lines.

New Beginnings:

At the end of each school year, I always read Dr. Seuss's book of Oh, the Places You'll Go to my students.  This year as I read it to the kids for the last time, it took on a new meaning for me, and I'm looking forward to my retirement with a sense of hope and adventure.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” 

― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!