Wow, long time no posting! This week I took a substitute job that will last for the next 6 weeks or so. It's at a nearby middle school, in their library. I love books, reading and anything like that, so this is great for me.
The school is way overcrowded, and not in the most affulent area, and many of the kids are reading far below grade level. I have been pleasantly surprised by the behavior of most of the students. Middle school students have such a bad reputation in that department, and a few of them deserve it, but most of them are fine.
This week we will be testing the incoming 6th graders to determine their reading level, so we can help them check out the appropriate books. Last week I learned to give the tests. They are on the computer, but still have to be monitered. Once that's all done, the students can actually begin checking out books!

Quilting projects

These are some quilts I made while I was a member of a group at church that made quilts for Hospice and other charity groups. The quilt group has since folded, but I have continued making quilts. These are all lap size, about 50" x 50".

This quilt was made from some fabric my friend Kathy gave me. She used the flamingo fabric for dresses for her girls when they were young. It is backed with pink fleece, which makes it very soft and warm.

This is a simple 4-patch using pink and purple fabrics. The backing is flannel, and has the pink breast cancer ribbon on it.

This is a "string quilt" which uses lots of small bits and strings of fabric that aren't much use in anything else. It was fun to see the huge box of scraps that I have actually getting smaller!

Check out my Slide Show!

Steve and I went to our nephew's wedding over the weekend. It was a very pretty wedding , and we had a lot of fun.

Steve with his mom and sister (mother of the groom)

Me with my mother-in-law, and sister-in-law. We all showed up in the same color without any pre-planning on anyone's part. I guess great minds think alike!

Sewing projects

I took a bunch of pictures of recently completed projects last night. These were worked on over a period of several weeks, and were not all completed at the same time. I have been sewing since I was a young child (thanks, Mom, for teaching me!), but got away from it for a while. I bought a new Viking sewing machine last year, and enjoy sewing so much more now!



This is a skirt/top that I made to wear to my nephew's wedding this weekend. The top is a wrap style, but close fitting enough that it doesn't gap open ( a common problem with wrap style clothing). The skirt is just a plain straight skirt. I'll wear silver jewerly and shoes with it. I originally bought this fabric to make a dress to wear to my daughter Jacki's wedding two years ago, and ended up buying a dress for it. I did make all 5 bridesmaid's dresses, and a lot of other things for their wedding, and ran out of time to do my own. I love the dress I bought for her wedding, and it went well with her colors so all was fine. It was a good feeling to make use of fabric I already had for this dress.


.I made this skirt last spring, and had been looking for some coordinating fabric to make a blouse to wear with it. I really didn't want tan, because I thought that would wash me out. I finally found this deep garnet red silky fabric. The skirt fabric is a linen/poly blend and the flowers are embroidered, not printed on. I love the scalloped hem!This top was a trial run to see if I liked it, before I made one out of expensive fabric. I do like it, but it is more bare than I usually wear, so I don't know........The fabric is a very thin cotton, with some embroidery and sequins on it. It came from Wal-mart, and was very cheap, so I don't know how it will hold up, but it will serve its purpose as a trial garment.This is a table runner that I made after falling in love with the floral fabric at my local quilt shop. I used some of my fancy maching stitches to do the quilting.Clermont Sewing - Classes

What have I been doing? Among other things, I painted our master bedroom. I have been talking about doing this for a few years, and after our experience painting Steve's new office last week, I was inspired to go ahead and take on the project. The red wall took two coats of dark red paint, and is faux painted an even darker burgandy. Jacki came down and helped with the faux painting. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and wonder why I waited so long!
Paint used:
Ralph Lauren Devonshire (tan)
Ralph Lauren Venetian Red (base for red wall)
Ralph Lauren Picture Gallery Red (faux Paint on red wall)

Homeward bound!
Day 15 June 30

After a sleepless night, caused by rowdy drunk neighbors in the campground, we got the motorhome turned in at the appointed time. Since we had several hours until our flight left, we walked several blocks to get lunch, and to a quilt shop that was on Old Seward Hwy. We had a nice visit with the owner, and then walked back to the rental place, to catch their shuttle to the airport. Our flight left Anchorage at 5pm, and we got into Orlando at 7am July 1. It was uneventful except for one lost piece of luggage, containing ALL our dirty clothes. That's ok, I can do laundry another day. There were many people in the lost luggage line. Apparently Alaska Air doesn't have such a good reputation with luggage. Our connection time in Seattle was very short, and I think that's what caused the problem. It did show up the next day, thank goodness.

We just scratched the surface of what Alaska has to offer, and I'm sure we will go back. It was a wonderful trip, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!