One friend wasn’t able to join us this week. That’s why the brown table w/a small sewing machine is missing in the bottom photo. Her parents confirmed this last night about 9:30 p.m. I have an extra kit, which can be my project for August bee group meeting.
Two of the girls have been with me to quilt camp in Carrollton. They each completed the majority of their blocks today. I fully expect completed rows, and perhaps a quilt top out of them tomorrow. I have a little pressing and pinning homework to do to help the remaining camper be able to complete her 42 blocks tomorrow.
Anyway, I joined the masses at Hobby Lobby today to buy 16 yards of backing fabric. It averaged out to be $7.35 per yard because I picked up two batik fabrics. Still better than my LQS.
Back to school time also means time to refresh the first aid kits for my sewing tote, car and home. This little 3″x4″ pouch holds assorted bandages, waterproof tape, alcohol wipes, antiseptic wipes, antibiotic ointment, hyrdro-cortisone cream, burn gel, cough drops, pepto-bismol chewables, sudafed, mucinex and ibuprofen. It takes care of any minor first aid needs I’ve encountered at classes, sew days and quilt retreats. Of course, if you slice your finger with a rotary cutter deep enough, you might want to head to urgent care ASAP. This first aid kit probably won’t do much in that situation!
The original pouch was swag received from a therapy dog visit. It came with bandages, a packet of first aid cream, an antiseptic wipe and individual packs of aspirin and acetaminophen. I merely added the items I like to have on hand. My car kit is a repurposed Welly box outfitted with an expanded assortment of everything listed above, plus a few other things.
The little individual medicine refill packets are available at most drugstores or from Amazon.com. You can find tiny pill baggies in the pharmacy and bag your own headache and cold med tablets. Tip: a nurse advised me to stick with bacitracin zinc as my antibiotic of choice and avoid triple antibiotic creams like neosporin because many folks can be allergic to it.
Today, I took the last dose of prednisone. Thank goodness! I’m ready for my sleep cycle to get back to normal. Most evidence of my allergic reaction to the insect repellent is completely gone. There’s still some redness in the areas that reacted the strongest, but it’s slowly fading away. Mosquitos are still biting. I purchased a bottle of Cutter Skinsations with DEET 7% to use when working in the garden. Zero reaction and no mosquito bites either.
Our weather forecast is calling for heavy rain most of the weekend. Sadie and I ran took advantage of this morning’s dry window to run errands. We passed several schools and a teacher supply store on our travels. The parking lots were full. Then, I remembered that local school staff report on Monday for preplanning week. Has it really been five years since I reported for what would become my last preplanning week as a public school librarian? Indeed it has.
Fast forward five years. There’s still some semblance of back-to-school prep that takes place in my life around late July. I take advantage of back-to-school sales to stock up on school supplies, reward trinkets and books we’ll use in the R.E.A.D. program and CraftLAB. This weekend, I’ll be finishing up the final few details for quilt camp. We start Monday at 10:00 a.m. in my basement sewing space. Instructional planning is a lot more fun when it’s on my terms and my schedule!
Not much teaching took place spring semester because life and the quilt show happened. For fall semester, my teaching schedule includes CraftLAB, a monthly sewing group at the Midtown Library and a machine maintenance class at the quilt museum in Carrollton. It feels good to see my teaching calendar active again.
I’m also collaborating with a local indie pet supply store to host a personalize your pet’s stocking workshop in early November. I’ll teach students how to add their pet’s name to a cuffed stocking or create a personalized hang tag using a simple backstitch and embroidery floss. We’ll see what happens locally, if anything, after that. I’d love to find a spot where I can teach classes a couple of times a month. I don’t mind paying a modest fee to use the space, but I have zero interest in opening a full-blown stitch lab in a retail storefront. That ship has long since sailed.
Come Stitch With Me 