A Work in Progress

In March, I was given the opportunity to take an early retirement but I decided not to take advantage of it for several reasons. I thought I just wasn't ready to be home all the time and then there was the pesky problem of health insurance for our 18 year old daughter and 20 year old son. But I tell you, almost from the moment I let the school district know that they were stuck with me, things have gone south. I have been overloaded with paperwork and too many meetings. I've had to discipline a third grade student for a bullying remark (not my usual role), and had to deal with another student who tends to lash out at me when asked to do work. I'm sick of all the people I work with and how some of them can't cut the parents any slack. Looking forward to the weekend and trying to keep in mind that we only have 30 school days left.

I posted here about my son's 20th birthday. Here are the front and back of the Turning Twenty quilt I made for him using mostly fabrics from Moda's Atlantis line. The back has a panel from the line in the center and I also used parts of another panel for the front of the quilt. My son is hoping to work in marine biology so he loves the quilt, but it's awfully bright for me since I'm more of a Kansas Troubles kind of girl.

I could offer a lot of excuses for not posting in the last two weeks, but the fact is, I've been just plain busy. The spring and fall are the busiest times at work for me since I have lots of reports due, and I've been putting in some extra hours writing those reports and meeting with parents. I have also been getting an application ready for a supplemental position at my job. It hasn't been all work, though. I took a class from Betsy Morgan with my sampler guild and I took a class from Linda Hahn with my quilting guild (I took the New York Beauty class--more on that later, but just have to say her method of sewing the curves is so slick. I've done three blocks and all are perfect.) And snuck in a night out with friends from work. I've also been on a bit of a buying spree for quilt fabrics and these showed up on my doorstep last week. There's the Rural Jardin line from French General--perfect for making a quilt for my daughter who is going to a college whose co...

Remember how I said I was going to able to live with my initial and the year being off center on bottom panel of the the PFH (Etui) ? Well I lied. It does bother me and today I saw another way to finish the bottom at my sampler guild meeting. I like it a lot better than what I did, so I'll be frogging. Will this project never end?

This post isn't to announce my retirement, but to celebrate that I am finally finished with the Project. From. H*ll. (Others may refer to this as Petit Sampling Etui.) I started this in January of 2009 and finished it last Saturday night. I actually probably stitched it twice if you count all the frogging I had to do on this thing. Honestly, I considered giving up stitching at several points during this project. But now it's done. And yes, I know that my initials and the date aren't centered in the hearts, but this panel is on the bottom of the box and no one will see it and I've decided I can live with it. It may be awhile before this appears in a finished form. A woman in my sampler guild did her own finishing and said it took her about 80 hours! I'm planning to have this finished professionally if I can find someone to do it at a reasonable price. Thanks so much for all your comments about my retirement decision. Ironic...