First of the Month

Orange cat

Happy Fourth! Where did June go???

Last month I trained:
3 Water Safety Instructors (3 YTD); 11 students in swim lessons (YTD 34); 17 lifeguards (25 YTD), 7 lay rescuers in CPR--pediatric and adult/AED/First Aid, (7 YTD), 29 Basic Life Support CPR (160 YTD)-- This is a total of 67 for June (total 295 YTD)!! I'm glad I'm tracking how many people I'm teaching this year as I had no idea how many people I reach!

Finished cat block

I also completed a block for our guild's outgoing president. The rules were to make a cat or a chicken; use orange fabric and then coordinate it with a purple or a blue fabric so there would be some cohesiveness between the blocks. The size was to finish at 10 inches or less.

I found a paper pieced block on Pinterest which will finish to six inches. It is a Kim Nobolin pattern called the V-Neck Kitty. Originally, I had planned for my cat to be facing into the quilt; but, then I decided that I would embroider a few details to the face.

I'm glad I added the details as I like the personality the face gives the block! The outgoing president has a dry sense of humor. She received many blocks. She will have fun putting them together in a quilt.

You can see what I did with the blocks guild members gave me when I was president here.

Because I taught so many programs/classes, I wasn't able to stitch the borders on my truck project. My plan is to work on that project soon. I'm feeling fortunate, however, that I had gift projects and clothing projects on my Finish-A-Long list. Sunday, I posted my list for this quarter. You can read it here.

When I only had 10 minutes or so to stitch, being able to sew a seam or two was great. Following a pattern and reading what the next step is does have its benefits! In the coming weeks, I'll be posting about my progress. I'm actually finishing items on my list that I worked on last quarter. What a great feeling completing a project brings to my heart! (I also like seeing my project tote become less full!)

I've been participating in the Finish-A-Along group for a couple years. Anyone can participate. Click here if you want to learn more. Right now, it is the time to link up your finishes. I've been enjoying the "eye candy" of many finishes and marveling at the ingenuity of the projects.