Stitching Pieces & Progress

 Here is one of the the twelve blocks that resulted from today's piecing.....

 along with some others peaking out below it.

I started with this using small pieces of fabric to label the rows I had cut over the weekend--actually finished this part of the cutting this morning.

and progressed to this...

 until I got to these:

The blue green squares for the X across the blocks work just as I had hoped--and I'm looking forward to seeing more "trails" as I get the secondary blocks made.

These are the best pictures yet to show the lusciousness of the fabrics I'm using.

Much slower progress than I had hoped for.  But all this was accomplished with all sorts of interruptions, including, over the course of more than an hour, traveling over some back roads I'd never seen before--from which there appeared to be no outlet. (Country roads are a lot easier in the Midwest where they are set out in squares with no mountains to interrupt them!)

I'm hoping tomorrow will be a good day, but I know it will have its challenges.  My schedule has me teaching as many as four classes at once--I rather doubt that is possible.  Many essential materials disappeared while I was gone.  We have a new principal, and she wants to know which ones I need, but I'll have to get with someone at another school to determine that since I don't remember the names of all the books.  (The sad thing is that there were at least two sets there since the previous teacher had left a partial set and I'd left everything--because those things belong to the district, not the teachers.)  Sadly, I think I'm just in survival mode. It's next to impossible to be sure students are as productive as they need to be with so much missing.  And then there are the headaches and the nausea--so I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I'd meant to take pictures of some of the colorful trees in our community--but I left home without the camera.  This is one of the most colorful autumns we've had in years.  If the weather cooperates, there should also be some balloons airborne as I pass through Albuquerque tomorrow morning.  The trick, of course, is keeping ones eyes on the road and avoiding the misjudgements of drivers who watch the balloons more than the road.

I forgot I had this picture of Sweet Teen, taken right after her hair appointment last month.  Yes, she was happy.

This is homecoming week in our community.  And homecoming during senior year is a pretty big deal. Lots of activities--including Friday night football, Saturday morning parade, Saturday night dance, several girls for a sleepover--and then we'll need to be at McCall's Pumpkin Patch to park cars Sunday morning.  (Proceeds to benefit her civics classes' fundraising for a trip to Washington, DC next spring.) I do hope I can get some more sewing time--and another blog post or two.

Linking to Judy's Design Wall  Monday and Connie's Free Motion by the River ).

Happy quiltmaking....