January Recap

One canal in Bruges, Belgium

We returned the second week in January from a trip to London visiting our daughter. It was a spectacular trip with activities scheduled every day. We saw and experienced LOADS! Kudos to Nicole for putting up with us! I will be sharing a few more posts in the future about our trip.

Teaching wise this month, I reached 82 people. I trained 46 in Healthcare CPR, 10 in lay rescuer CPR and First Aid, 21 in swimming lessons and 5 in a quilting class. Whew!! No wonder there were days when I felt exhausted!

Regarding teaching swim lessons, every session I think, "Wow, that was the best series of classes that I have had yet." Well, this session topped last session! I've taught many swim lessons to a variety of ages and abilities over the last 36 years. Honestly, I do not have a

Fabric ready to stitch for clue #4

favorite age or level. I do prefer teaching participants who want to learn, who try and who follow directions! Last session, I had preschool kids (4-6ish).

This session, I had school age kids (7-11). I had a class of beginners who sort of blew bubbles, a class of advanced beginners ready to swim in deep water and a class of intermediate swimmers who were ready to refine their strokes. Because I like teaching infants to centurions, every session I get a different mix of classes. Sometimes, I wish I could see the progress my past students make; but, occasionally, I will have that student in another class which is on another whole level of cool!

On the last day of the session, four parents made an effort to speak to me directly about how pleased they were with the progress their kids had made and how much their kids enjoyed class. I am so honored when parents make that effort! I also thank the parents for bringing kids to class ready to learn and willing to try!

Heart BOM blocks

Goal wise, I met five of the eight goals that I had listed for myself. I prepared for and lead a stash buster class for one of my quilt guilds. I worked on
clue four of the "Frolic" Bonnie Hunter mystery. I'll start stitching the clue tomorrow. I'm behind which is okay. Making progress is what counts! I've now quilted 11 of the 12 large blocks in my daughter's leaves quilt. I'll spend more time quilting those leaves now that I've finished "The Tea Room" quilt.

Our book club group had our reveal at the end of the month. We had scheduled it mid month; but, we had the threat of ice that day so we delayed the reveal a couple weeks. We met at Cup of Tea which has a wall full of tea leaves in large jars. It is a great place for a cup! A photo of my quilt was featured on the Cup of Tea's daily Facebook post.

I shared our reveal photos with the book's author, Helen Simonson who wrote, "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand." She e-mailed me back asking if she could post the photos on her social media! She also commented on the blog post I wrote about finish. It is cool to have our quilts on her social media!

I did stitch four heart blocks. This is the February block of the month (BOM) pattern for the Mt. Hood Quilt Guild. One block is a sample for my granddaughter as she once said she wanted to make a heart quilt. Two blocks are for a surprise quilt and one block will go to the guild meeting on  the second Tuesday of February.