I LOVE MY JOB!

 In fact, I have always loved my job. First, I was a student. Then I was a United States Marine Officer. And then I was a Tax Professional for 35 years with H&R Block. All of those jobs taught me life lessons and I really loved them all.

For the past 9 years I have been able to expand my quilt career--which first started in 1989. I love teaching all over the country, to groups large and small. And locally. It is fun and the friendships that are built with this kind of job are priceless.

Here is what I am working on right now. In just a few weeks I am teaching AETHER locally so I am really pushing to get the sample done.

Some of the petals laid out on the background. When all 100 petals are done I will make the final decision about who goes where:

I came up with the best way for me to make the petals quickly, for turned edge machine applique. I will teach this method in class: 

A closeup of how the petals will lay--they will be machine appliqued to the background: 

The pattern is called "Aether" by Patty Murphy. The pattern is available locally at Southern Charm Quilting. I named mine "Sunrise, Sunset", since I don't really know how to pronounce Aether:

Aether by Patty Murphy

The other fun thing I had to do this weekend was approve the Scrappy Plus Quilt Kit for the class I am teaching on a Stitchin' Heaven Cruise two months from now. As the cruise was supposed to happen last year, I made the test quilt from a different kit. Here is the one I made at least two years ago, Scrappy Plus:

The other day I received the NEW KIT, the actual one students will get in class. I had to count every piece, verify the size and number of pieces was correct, and be sure the pattern was included. Happy to say, I did that and all is well. They even included the page of Pressing Instructions I wrote for this quilt as there were none in the pattern and good pressing makes for a good quilt.

I love these fabrics--especially the grays and low volume prints, I never seem to have enough of them:

After counting everything I turned the packages over so you can see MORE of the fabrics:

Wouldn't you love to have someone cut all your fabrics for a scrap quilt and label them in cute little baggies? All you have to do is SEW!

I am also happy to report my knees are better. The doctor thought I just rushed back into my power walking too far, too fast, after 5 days off during the super cold weather. He did say my 10 year old replacement will eventually need to be replaced--they don't come with a lifetime guarantee, unless you don't live very long. Since I plan to live many more years, I have that to look forward to. For now, I just have to build back up to my one hour, 5 mile pace.

Let's quilt.

Barbara