Summer Begins ~ NOW!

It's finally here, my first day of summer!!!

My end of year gift was a memory scrapbook, a page done by each student, precious!

I was so ready for today, I'm tellin' ya. We had a fun week for our last days of school, with field day, swim party, "clean the room" day, word searches, hidden pictures, classroom game afternoon, awards day and party, and while you as a teacher try to juggle all those balls in the air, you have cum files to complete, conferences, report cards, walls to strip bare, completed work to turn into books for them, kids that are as wiped out as you, and sometimes it is a bit overwhelming. Thanks to Larry for some beautiful created certificates, Ginny for 2 full days of help only another teacher could do, and Jerry to help pull down posters, scrub and pack up, I'm home today and still in my gown at 9 a.m. and reading my blog buddies posts! Yea!! I may get that old Google Reader list back down to zero, yet...

Saturday, we participated in the Southern California's Quilter's Run, and put 200 miles on our car going to 14 participating stores. I was really wanting to be a "party pooper" (mainly because I was just pooped, lol!) but Beth, Jerry and Larry prevailed and we actually had a great time, all without the aide of a GPS, man, it was too funny at times! Beth and I are hoping to do a few more places this week, and the guys will join us again for next Saturday. (but I will borrow Jeff's GPS next time!)

Now, we mostly only spent money on the gas and our lunches, but Beth did get some cherry prints to decorate and use in her new kitchen, and I fell for this patchwork print, too-o cute to pass up! The fat quarters had to come home with me too, of course...:-}

I found them at Fresh Picked Fabrics, and bought for Beth and myself their quilt square kit (each participating store was giving a quilt square pattern, but you could buy their fabric kit, too). I laughed when I got it home, and couldn't find the checkerboard fabric for the center of the flower; they gave us pieces of black and white to make a 50 square patchwork piece- Ha! I'll be looking for a checkered piece next time out ~ grin!

Oh, and we found these little thread snippers. When I lived in Japan as a girl, my Momma had several pairs of these and they are great for having at the side of your machine when sewing. I had to get those, just 'cuz they gave me a happy thought of my Momma...does anyone else have those times of talking and sewing with family? I love the heritage I share with others of you.

More power to those who learned to sew without the guidance, I wonder if I would sew? I was so impatient with imperfections, I'd wad up a dress I'd made a mistake on, and I'd see Momma later, seam ripper in hand, gently picking out my botched project. I have to admit, that taught me so much, including to do the same thing for my daughter Lydia, and others.

Another thing I greatly appreciated too, was her advice to walk away and come back to it later, that problems had a way of solving in our mind when we would lay it down. I see sewing as a puzzle, and try to fit quilt pieces in place. Do you do that? If it's a pieced square, I find myself breaking it down in my mind, seeing if I can come up with the solution. All that to say those little snippers took me back to sewing at my Momma's side. *vbs*

Here are those "15 minutes of sewing" pineapple blossoms, I'm up to 16, and going for 20. I have a puzzle in my mind, figuring on how I'm connecting them. Stay tuned....

Now this came in the mail last week, and I haven't even emailed a thank you to my friend Jodi for it, and the inspiration she wrote to me on a card that came, too! Thank you, Dear Jodi! I'm blessed to call you friend.

I'm waiting on some red and white charm squares to come from the exchange with Karen of Sew Many Ways and some polka dot charms to come from Wendy of Sewing in the Wendy City, both of those were right up my alley. Other than that, today's goal is to move the sprinkler around the yard, ha,ha! Oh, and I'll go to quilt class tonight, too.
Ah, this is a good Monday, I hope yours, is, too!




"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee...O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever." Psalm 118

Pineapple Blossoms and Other Thoughts ~

The last post (my goodness, 10 days ago!) showed pineapple blossom squares,

congrats to those lotto winners.

They are such a neat square, I just had to make some of my own, tee-hee! As you can see, they are not all complete,

but I've been trying to do that 15 minutes here and there kinda sewing, since I'm stealing time from sleep sometimes, but mostly from finishing all the SCHOOL stuff... I'm getting there... s.l.o.w.l.y...

Now this is a table runner for Michelle, my 2 days a week, in the class "mom helper".

She was an office manager for 20 years, and she has done a spiffy job of keeping most homework recorded, grading tests, filing and all that classroom organizing necessity "stuff".



She loves butterflies, I'm hoping she'll like this, too!



I went to You Tube for a video help, and found, "Mitered Binding for Different Angles",

since these are not at 90 degrees.

It really assisted the completion!

Saturday, we went to Beth and Jerry's new home to help with cleaning and painting cabinets, cupboards and shelves. It makes it so nice to move into clean pantries....
Sunday was church.
Monday, school and quilting class.
Tuesday, retirement of a teaching friend of 21 years.

Wednesday, I went to the 8th grade chapel to do a gift presentation to my students of Kindergarten who graduate this year (our school goes from preschool to 8th), and it's always a touching time for us. I read to them the "poem" by Robert Falghum. Let me share this with you here~

All I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do
and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not
at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.



Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
Think what a better world it would be if
all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about
three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put thing back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you
are - when you go out into the world, it is best
to hold hands and stick together.

I also remind the grads what I wrote on their Kindergarten report card, and that is:

1. something I appreciated about them personally,
2. I enjoyed having them in my class that year,
3. I love them (I write that each year, truly!) with my name, and then this verse:

Proverbs 3:5,6 "Trust in the LORD with all you heart, and lean not on you own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."


We could learn from this, couldn't we? I hope you hold someone's hand today. I'm sending love out to you all!

Monday's Design Wall

These were Pineapple Blossoms from Bonnie Hunter, finished for the Block Lotto for May. Other than that, I'm working Second grade classroom projects, like averages, book projects, end of year awards, you know, that kinda stuff.

School is out June 17. SoOoOoo ready for summer, but so-o-o many things to do to close up the year. Ah, well... just wanted to say hi.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone ~

This Week ~

I've been wanting to post the roses Larry got for me the day before Mother's Day. They lasted through the next week! I took this picture on Sunday, May 15th (also being our anniversary).
I could tell a little story on Larry here. He's always been tenderhearted towards me on our anniversary. On our 20th, he upgraded my 1/4 ct. diamond solitaire to a 1 carat total wt., with the 2 side stones being 1/4 apiece and the center a 1/2. He's a sweet guy, extremely thoughtful, and a great listener.

I digress. Roses. I love flowers, I often give cut flowers or arrangements, but seldom do I allow the purchase for myself. I'd rather have a plant, or perennials to bloom in the yard. My thought is that they will hang around longer. Larry thinks garden flowers are not romantic. If our anniversary falls on a school day, he's likely to have flowers delivered to the school. (The ladies in the school office think he is the best...I agree of course.) One year, I saw the bill for the 25 roses he sent to me, and let me just say, they took him to the cleaners!! I talked to him about what that much money would have bought in real life (I know, about now some of you are saying how terrible I am), and reminded him that when he comes with me to get flowers we go to a flower mart, or Sam's Club, rarely to a florist. Shoot, that costly arrangement wasn't even in a special vase!

So, fast forward 10 years. These beautiful, long lasting blooms? He went and purchased them at Albertson's Grocery store. And they stood beautifully for almost 2 weeks, amazing. I love him. He doesn't give up on me, and we both continue to learn about each other.

Here are pictures of a few antique quilt tops that were shown in our quilt class. They had such interesting fabrics in them!

~ ~ Well, this is a hard share, you may not want to keep reading. . . I felt the need to write it out for myself. Forgive me for the indulgence. ~ ~

So, May 15th was a special day that I shared for many years with a teaching friend, Jacque Ryan. We worked together for 20 years, she taught in our school's individualized learning center. Our school has morning devotion meetings, and for about 12 years, I belonged in a small prayer group on Wednesday mornings with Jacque, bff Beth, teaching partners Donna Davis and Ginny Bakan, and our friend Ginni P. There was also a few others, but over the years we were the 6 that stayed constant. We'd pray, share little gifts on seasons, have "teas" usually done by Jacque. Her birthday was the same as my anniversary, so we'd share cards each year. She has many homemade items that I'd give to her, or sometimes she would purchase from me (as I had a craft business called "Pure Heart").

The last thing she got was a rag style quilt (similar to this one) that she commissioned from me. Hers had more red florals, and no yellow (she loved Victorian, roses, reds and pinks, but yellow was "just ugly", she said, lol).

Jacque arrived early to school every day, usually before 7 a.m. She made the coffee in the teacher's lounge. If I went to her classroom before school, I'd usually find her reading. Books of her choosing were Women's Devotional Bible, Victoria magazine, or garden books. Country Sampler sometimes, but her style wasn't as primm as my art was. She was a good teacher, I'd seek her advice on my students with learning difficulties.

I missed her when she left 2 years ago, it was abrupt, and we didn't have a proper party or goodbyes. I've spoken to her only 2 times in this time passing. Well, 3, if you count Thursday night's visit. I was told 10 minutes before school started Thursday morning that Jacque had cancer, and was in hospice. I told Ginny, she was able to visit Jacque, she was comatose. How hard it was to hear! Jacque had only been told on Mother's Day it was stage 4. I cried every time I wasn't in front of my kids that day. It was also the day that we had our school wide musical, so I was at school until after 9 pm. Ginny had said that she could be visited at any time . . . so I went. Her grandaughter and ggd's were there, her shift, I guess. I was so glad to visit with her and tell her of the times that we had prayed for them all. Jacque never stirred. I held her hand as I've done before, in prayer. This time, I didn't let go for the whole time I was with her. I was blessed by the opportunity to tell her gd of my love for her precious Grandmother. We shared a bit, I prayed with her and the oldest ggd. We hugged and I left. I was so glad to have stopped by.

Jacque went home to be with her Saviour that night. What if I had not gone? I didn't get to be with my Momma. I didn't get to go to Daddy. Some day, I hope to see them all.



We have four more weeks of school. It seems so long, even for California, but oh, well. I'm so ready for the summer. I'm closing with some photos of another antique quilt top that was shared, it's so cool, again with such tiny pieces and well done. I wonder if the creator had always planned to finish it...?

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is." Jeremiah 17:7

Quilt Finishes

Just showing a few finishes. Seems like the quilts always get given away in a hurry, and I never show them bound.



This one was a simple 4 patch with a border and cornerstone sewn on only 2 sides, not all around.




For some reason, the men who see this one choose it as one of their recent favorites in the completion. That's cool, since it's going to Ginny's oldest grandson Weston, who will be 14. Funny how time passes, I remember when his momma was in 3rd grade...!

Can you see his name sewn into this one ?

The cowboy quilt was a hit with the girls at quilt class this last week.

Ginny was so cute holding it up, peeking over the top.






Remember the "neighborhood" exchange Beth and I participated in? This is my house, but not my quilt top!



One of my "neighbors" is working on her quilt, and she built a little park in the middle, love it!
Speaking of my friend Beth, and Jerry, we have shared anniversary dinners over the years, and went to our favorite fish restaurant, Market Broiler. Theirs is May 17th, and ours is May 15th. Tomorrow! We have been married for 35 years.
w.o.w.

Hope your weekend is going well, too!

Happy Mother's Day ~ in Flowers

This is the only creative thing I've done for a week:

this was my sample for the kids

For Mother's Day, the students painted a water color floral arrangement. Ginny inked in their artwork lines, and we put them into a black 8" by 10" art mat.

Wednesday was Teacher Appreciation Day, and I was blessed with this pink miniature rosebush, a bouquet of peach Gerbera daisies, and this sweet orchid.

Lydia's church had a beautiful Ladies Tea today, her pastor's wife and the women of the church had made the church gorgeous, with borrowed teapots, cups and dishes, tea cozies, everything!! It was over the top, and a blessing to attend.

The floral arrangements with the lilies came from there today, they sold them at the end and we were happy to purchase.




When we came home, Larry had these roses waiting for me on the counter.

It's a garden in the kitchen! I love the blooms everywhere. Tomorrow, I'll be directing the Ladies Choir in the morning service, we're praising the Lord with our "joyful noise"!
I'm hoping you all have a wonderful Happy Mother's Day!