More community projects

Yet another project finished! Last weekend we had the woman from Dingwall Trust (care homes for children) come along to pick up some quilts. I really wanted to get this one finished and off my UFO list and I'm really happy to have one of my quilts go to Dingwall. The kids love them. It does your heart good to hear how our silly hobby of cutting up fabric and sewing it back together can comfort a child.

I arrived at the guild meeting 20 minutes before she came to pick up the quilts and I still had to stitch the binding down and sew a label on it! Two wonderful ladies helped me and we got it done just in time! Then Liz took this photo for me as I didn't have a photo of the quilting. As we were waiting for Liz to get her camera, I was chatting with the woman from Dingwall and I told her that I called this my stress relief quilt. I made this when I was a bit stressed at work and just needed to unwind by doing something that didn't require any thought. I wrote about how I made it here. http://layer-upon-layer.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/my-stress-relief-quilt.html

She asked me who I thought it should go to. I said that I intended that it should be a quilt for a boy so maybe a little boy who is angry with the world. She said that they have just taken in a seven year-old who lost his mum and she thought that maybe it would suit him. Then I pointed out the quilting pattern that looks like lollipops is actually inspired by the movie Tron, where the characters go into the computer. 'Ah yes,' she says,'this will be perfect for him!' As I said, it does your heart good!

Here's a photo of the top before quilting. By the way, that quilting pattern is called Cyber Echo.

Well, first day of the school holidays and I've got lots of sewing to do - and lots of prep work for next year! I'm teaching a class next year using iPads. This will be a class of about 16 students that are very weak in maths, perhaps with learning difficulties, behavioural issues etc. They have been having a lot of success with these students in the intermediate school so we want to carry that on at secondary school. I'm looking forward to it but it's a lot of planning.

Then yesterday I found out that I'm going to be an ESOL teacher for one period of the week. Have I ever done that before? No, but I'm game for anything! The way our timetable works, if you teach two junior and three senior classes, you are one period under allocation so you have to pick up a lesson somewhere else. I've taken a reading class before (go to the library and read quietly - I can do that) and remedial maths tuition. The ESOL department want me to teach quilting instead. How exciting is that!! Imagine, the Ministry of Education are going to pay me to quilt! Well I hope they are going to pay me. I've gone from a fixed term contract to permanent staff so I had to fill in a new form for Novopay. My readers from New Zealand will have heard how the new payroll company has stuffed up pay for teachers. I haven't been affected - yet!

And I leave you with a photo of my daughter's name badge that she made for the guild she joined in Doha, Qatar. She seems to have abandoned her blog - after persuading me to write a blog! It's based on the traditional knife-through-the-heart tattoo. I can't say I've ever understood that image (maybe Melanie can explain) but I think her take on it is very amusing and I love it. That's my girl!!