Hive #4 - September's Block

Greetings from southern California!  My name is Cyndi, and I'm lucky enough to be the queen bee for September.  The handsome guy in the photo with me is my husband of 33 years, Don. He's retired from the Air Force, and I'm retired from teaching.  This photo was taken this summer while I was working in Yellowstone National Park.  Don fishes, and I thought I'd give working in the park a try in order to let him fish all summer.  He fished - and had a wonderful time. I really didn't like the work part - I won't be doing that again - but my days off were fabulous!  We live in Forest Falls, a little town up in the San Bernardino Mountains at 6,000'.  While we live in sunny SoCal, we actually get lots of snow and cold weather in the winter; I often have to use the 4-wheel drive function on my Jeep to get up and down the mountain.

I retired from teaching 3 years ago - for 16 years I taught mostly 9th grade English, with a few other grades thrown in here and there, and for the last 8 years I was out of the classroom serving as our local teachers' union president. That was a full-time job, and while I definitely loved it while I was doing it, retirement beckoned and I jumped on an early-retirement opportunity. We immediately took off for item #1 on our bucket list - a trip up the Alaska Highway through Canada and into Alaska and back. We took our RV and had the time of our lives. Now we take shorter trips (except for this past summer) and look forward to coming home to our place in the mountains.

Don and I have two kids - Theresa (32) and Kenny (30); Kenny is married to Robin, and they'll be celebrating their 1st anniversary next month.  Theresa lives near us, in Banning, and Kenny and Robin are stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico.  No grandkids - yet.

I was a cross-stitcher for many, many years - but didn't know how to sew at all.  One day I decided that I needed to make fabric "frames" for my cross stitch pieces, since getting them framed was way too expensive.  So I decided to get a sewing machine and learn how to sew. After lots of research, I ended up getting a beautiful Singer Featherweight that was in pristine condition. I took a class on beginning sewing at JoAnn's, and started to work on making my "frames."  After a few months, I ventured into a real quilt shop - and the rest is history. I taught myself how to piece, and have since acquired 3 more sewing machines and 5 lifetime's worth of fabric stash.  I really don't quilt - I have several places I go to have my quilting done.  I love the piecing, and am known at my guild as the Scrappy Lady because of all the scrappy quilts I've made. Every meeting I leave with bags full of scraps that make their way into new quilts.

The hardest thing for me to make is anything that requires appliqué. But next to appliqué, the hardest piece to make was the above quilt, called Discontinuity. It's a pattern by Emily Cier of Carolina Patchworks, and I started it in a class taught by Emily at Road to California. Would I make it again? I think so - in different colors - as it wasn't really technically hard. It required a great deal of focus and organization.

My all-time favorite dessert?  Wow - there are so many to choose from. But any time I'm in a restaurant, and Crème brûlée is on the menu, I have to have it. There's something about the crunchy burnt sugar topping that's irresistible. 

What's made me laugh the hardest recently?  It would have to be the most recent episode of "America's Funniest Videos."  There are segments on that show that get me laughing so hard that I cry.  Any time I need a pick-me-up or a change of pace from the dramas that I love to watch, I find an episode, no matter how old, of AFV.

My life philosophy is centered around my three passions in life:  travel, cooking/eating, and quilting:
 
     So many places to see. So many pieces to stitch. So many foods to eat. Never enough time.

 On to the block for this month!  It's called a Weathervane.  I first saw this block nearly two years ago on Elizabeth's blog Don't Call Me Betsy. You can find the tutorial for the block HERE. 

Use Kona white for the neutral, and then use your choice of colors that are from a palette similar to  hers - turquoise/teal, orange,pink, light blue, light green, lavender, purple, gray, burgundy, etc.  I'm going for a look in bright colors like Elizabeth's. Please, no blacks, browns, or "dull" colors, and no batiks.   I'd love it if you could make two blocks!

Hugs,
Cyndi