More of Sylvia's Sampler

Rows 4 and 5 are complete and the challenges keep coming! I have discovered that as long as I can do a paper pieced block, I no longer worry about the 1/4" seams being exact. However, row 6 is actually completed although not photographed yet. It was all done with templates or written instructions and they were not EASY! But I persevered, even making one block 3 times before I got it finished to the exact measurements. Anyway, I nearly have half of the blocks done...140 here I come.
We had lunch this week with friends from Rawlins. They were actually teachers I worked with at Mt.View Elementary where I spent 14 years as school secretary. For us, we feel like a family of sorts. It is unusual for a group of upwards of 20 employees to continue to stay in touch after retirement, especially since we all have moved on with our lives. But the glue that held us together was our principal. Together we saw each other through joy and tragedy--marriages, divorces, births and deaths. There were good times and bad times and changes, but mostly memories and each of us with a special quality to hold our family together! Some, like us, have moved to Cheyenne as the need to be closer to Dr's and the other amenities a larger city offers, but when we have the opportunity, we still get together. This year, our dear Mt. View Elementary, along with the other old elementary schools will be closing and students will be together in a new school. Our school was built in the middle of the last century. Needless to say, it had been updated several times to accommodate the changes that come with progress but eventually there aren't enough "band aids" to hold it together. Our Mt. View "family" and friends will be gathering next month to remember the Ol' gal and the good times and to say goodbye to an old friend.

"Friends are like stars--you can't always see them, but you know they are there."