It takes a Village

     I spent Labor Day Monday packing suitcases for my trip to The Villages here in Florida for a lecture and class.  If you are not familiar with The Villages, it is a senior community in central Florida, about 50 miles north of Orlando.  It is definitely not your average senior community.  First of all it is HUGE and growing.  It is well planned, active and filled with incredibly friendly people.  Those people are fond of saying that if you are bored at The Villages, it is your own fault.  That is not too hard to believe if you spend even a few minutes talking to anyone that lives there about the classes and clubs they enjoy.

    My reason for visiting was to present a lecture to the guild and teach a class using my Scrap Crazy 6" templates.  This program was scheduled and canceled twice because of the pandemic.  Third time is a charm!  I was just glad to be out doing what I love.  The 100+ members that attended the lecture were warm and welcoming, especially considering I arrived with a carload of trash bags filled with quilts and boxes of disorganized materials.  The air conditioning in our mini van died the day before the trip.  That would be the mini van that we own ONLY because it makes it easier to haul everything to classes/lectures/shows.  The idea of going old school with the windows down for the 3+ hour drive in 90 degree weather wasn't all that appealing.  At the last minute my husband decided everything I needed would fit in our smaller car.  We unpacked and stuffed, wedged and squeezed what should have been organized in suitcases into smaller trash bags to make it fit.  Never a dull moment around here!

    Despite being a bit discombobulated when I arrived an hour early for the lecture everything went fine.  I think everyone enjoyed what I had to offer and I certainly enjoyed interacting with the members I had a chance to meet.  Now I am back home, unpacked and I have everything, well mostly.....sort of.... for the most part.... put away.  

    Time to jump back into the thick of things and get some sewing done.  My stack of nine patches from the summer Nine Patch A Day challenge is waiting to be put together.  I have finally decided on a setting for them. If you aren't a member of the Nine Patch A Day Group on Facebook, come join us!  It is a private group.  It is not private to exclude anyone.  It is private because of Facebook rules.  Unlike public pages, private groups can share files.  That allows me to upload handouts or diagrams.  Everyone is welcome!

    This is the setting I have chosen for my 6" blocks.  What you see here is an assortment of my scrappy nine patches stuck on my design wall in no particular order.  I'm trying to decide how to fill in the "holes".  This is going to be a wall hanging for my daughter.  White seems too stark.  Black is too dark.  Grey would be an option, but her walls are grey. Hmmmm.... any suggestions?  Feel free to comment.

    This one is going to spend some time on my design wall while I consider the options.