Going to School in PJ's

I remember once having a vivid nightmare as a child in which I had to go to school in my pyjamas. This week I started my new temporary teaching job and on Day 2 I found myself teaching in PJ's in aid of the Children in Need charity. I think it will be rather nice to know all of the children's names and what I will be teaching in advance. I will teach in school 2 days in one week and three the following week. The other teacher and I will leave each notes, email and meet up sometimes to discuss progress. This will go on until February 2013, by which time I should know what quilting commitments I have. 

My children had two days off school for teacher in-service training so I did not spend much time in my workshop. I wrote some Houston thank you postcards, caught up with emails and did some proper cooking. 

I managed to complete two simple customer quilts. On one of them I tried out a simple feathery template that I had chosen for DIY quilters to use and I was really pleased with how it turned out. It was not exciting to do but I should think that most novice quilters would be thrilled with it. I intend not to do any more customer quilts before Christmas as I will be busy enough and want to spend all of my workshop time working on patterns or my new projects. 

I did some initial research for one of my top-secret-for-now projects - I will only hint that it may involve trees and some Scottish folklore...

On Friday after school I drove down to Edinburgh to stay with a lovely hostess so that I could give a talk on Quilts & Travels to Thistle Quilters. They were enthusiastic, most welcoming and very impressed at the three cases full of quilts from the past 6 years. I had taken along the Scottish yurt panels, a selection of bed quilts and a few small projects. I was quite surprised at how much stuff there was myself, especially considering that some other yurt panels are in Wisconsin, other quilts are away at shows, some are in cupboards or on beds and yet more have been given away!

I felt obliged to make a detour to IKEA on the way home where I picked up a couple of Christmas presents, meatballs with lingon-berries, and impulsively bought a white leather swivel chair from the bargain department. 

On Sunday I ruthlessly tidied out my thread drawers as they would not close after I tried to fit in the new reels from Houston. I was tempted to carry on and sort out the hidden horrors   of trimmings and paints in other drawers but that would have taken a very long time. Instead, I intend to cut some of my new fabric to make a small start on "B'elzebub". Mind you, if I order some black wadding then I might be tempted to quilt on a piece of Scottish deer hide.