Beyond First Time Quiltmaking, Quilting, and Dancing!

On Monday, October 3, 11 students (one wasn't available for the photo) and I completed two weeks of foundation paper piecing through the Lifelong Learning College. It was a treat to teach such enthusiast students! In the first week they learned to foundation paper piece using the "Cartwheels Quilt" pattern by FreshlyPieced, and in the second week they learned to string-piece fabric strips onto telephone book pages. Samples of both blocks are in the photo.

Overachiever Cindy completed her Cartwheels Quilt top by the second class. I was tickled to recognize a few of my fabrics in it which she'd bought from my garage sale table sponsored by Quilting Guild of The Villages. She made those scrappy prints look smashing on her background of solid orange. 

Being in the midst of a big makeover of her master bathroom, Cindy shared that she's been referring to this quilt as her Home Depot quilt. That orange. Too funny.

I keep quilting my Bay Area Modern block-of-the-month quilt. It sorta seems never-ending, but that's because I don't work on it often. Lately I've been quilting the background which is lots of "Cs," as in the letter C. They look bubble-ish.

Sunday evening, October 2, was a Line Dance Social. These are held at about quarterly intervals throughout the year. A line dance instructor reserves the big room at a rec center, and then for three hours leads dancers through about fifty line dances while everyone nibbles food, chats, and dances as they choose. 

I wanted to participate in all Helen's line dances because: 1) I attend her classes and know all the dances she teaches; and 2) I wanted to test my legs. Two weeks ago my cardio-vascular doc, Dr. Q. told me that after testing it appears that blood flow through my femoral arteries is as near to "normal" as it has been in three years (What good news to finally hear!) I determined to push myself to dance every dance during the three hours. I did! That was 48 line dances! After starting the evening with about 80 dancers, 10 of us stuck it out to the end. Admittedly my legs ached, but the feeling was definitely from tiredness, not from pain. A big yay and praise God!

Just so you know that line dancing isn't always about country (as I imagined before I started doing it), here is a video clip from early in the evening. Most of the dancing we do is to modern music, with the occasional oldie or waltz.

If you note that there's a lot of pink, there was. Helen invited us to dress in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month - a month that became significant to me in 2013. Related to my own invasive ductal carcinoma, the cancer is in remission, and I continue to take daily Arimidex as a five-year course of treatment.

Life is good! Linda