Life is Good (When You're Retired)

This is just a quick post to let you all know I completed my May goal for ALYOF.  :)

My goal was to make something (using scraps) for a friend of mine who is retiring after 24 years of teaching.  She was the teacher who taught next door to me during my whopping 5 years of teaching third grade.  She was a fabulous teacher, mentor, and friend.  She was always so good to let me come in and rant or bounce ideas off her.  She is the kind of person who is absolutely bursting with energy and is constantly on the move.  :)  When things were going well, or when they started to get stressful, she would just brush it aside and remind us all that "life is good."  She was ALWAYS saying that.

Of course, since I HAD to make her something, I decided to go for some embellished kitchen towels.  I traced the alligator (the school's mascot) off of one of our school t-shirts and appliqued everything onto the towels, then added the ruffles.  I was thrilled to finally have a use for this big huge strip of relatively cheap red fabric that I just can't bring myself to use in a quilt.  :)  Hopefully it works okay as a towel...

I'm not sure if my friend is going to be spending more or less time in the kitchen now that she has all that free time, and her kitchen probably isn't red, but she LOVED the towels.  :D

 I'm linking up with Shanna and Melissa over at the Lovely Year of Finishes party:

My goal setting post is HERE.  My entry was #104.


And now for my June goal.  I've been working on these super fun blocks using Geta's "Building Fun" pattern (which is totally on sale until tomorrow!).  The plan for June is to finish up the blocks and sew them into a top.  I'm crossing my fingers that the stripes aren't too busy...

P.S. Don't forget to go vote for your favorite quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  Voting closes on May 30th!

 You can find my quilt here:  Viewer's Choice
and here:  ROYGBIV