After some mailing snafus, my partner has received her package so now I can show you what I sent to her for the IG Spooktacular Halloween Mini Quilt Swap.

This is the sneak peak I had shared on IG while I was making the top.  The colors are off but hopefully she wasn't able too figure out what it was going to be.

 I have plans to make for me a full sized Swoon quilt so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the pattern for one block as it turns out 24" square and be able to showcase some fun fabrics at the same time.

For the quilting after much thought and auditions of design options, I chose to go with a simple but very effective squared spiral.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I didn't mark it at all and just eyeballed it for spacing and as it turns out that I like that method better, for this piece at least, as it isn't 100% symmetrical and to me, it just adds to the charm.

I used a bright purple with spiders print for the backing and love the way the quilting shows on the back. And Dang Nabit! I realized when I uploaded the pics that in my hurry to mail it off, I forgot to add the label.  So very sorry Julie.  If you want you can add a pretty embroidered one yourself.

Although I had wanted to make her another small goodie to go with the mini quilt, I just didn't have time. But I did find some fun Halloween things to send to her.  Silly socks are always appropriate.

Since I love Halloween and could buy up all the decorations and cute goodies for me, it was tempting to keep these for myself.

I guess now I officially have a photo bomber.

I had a lot of fun making this mini quilt and really hope my schedule lightens up soon so that I can create some more.

So if you are wondering just why I've been MIA since the end of August (no blogging, no IG, practically no sewing, nada), other than the usual back to school craziness and my work schedule change that goes along with that this year, the main reason is because of Girl Scouts.  In the spring my GS council asked me to take on the volunteer job of Troop Organizer for my local area.  That means that I keep track of the girls who want to join a troop and get them placed into one or help organize a new one. This is huge for my service unit (local community) as we have 70+ troops and over 600 girls.  Our council serves girls in 15 counties and my SU is the biggest one of all.  The busy season typically runs mid August when school, and therefore scouting too, is getting ready to start back up through November though there will be a few new requests during the rest of the scouting year.

To say that it has been insanely busy so far is an understatement.  I knew this would be a big job but I didn't know just how big.  As of today, 76 girls have been placed and 6 new troops have been started.  There are currently 22 girls on the waiting list and 5 more troops in the process of getting going.  Because I believe in the power of Girl Scouts in building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place, although this position is taking a lot of my otherwise free time, I feel that it is worth it.

We have one more open house this coming week and I'm sure that will add more new names to the list to be placed.  One reason that I agreed to take this position is the fact that it isn't a year round job for the most part and trust me when I say that I'm looking forward to the down time.  I really want and need to get back to my sewing.  I finally got into my studio yesterday and am working on a different sort of baby gift for a friend and have started working on a quilt that has been on the frame way too long.  Hopefully I'll have it finished this weekend.

Whatever is going on in your life, I hope that it makes you happy.