Ho, Balclutha!

Well, the school quilt is done. It's always a relief to finish this sort of project, I find. It was fun, but I'm glad it's finished. I made this quilt to commemorate the overnight field trip my daughter's 5th grade class on the Balclutha, a sailing ship now permanently docked in the San Francisco Bay. Preparation for the trip and learning about sea life, terminology, and the era formed a big part of the kids' curriculum this year.

Every kid in the class drew a candidate for the class flag they'd fly during their time on ship. So, I took each drawing and incorporated them into this quilt. It struck me while I was working on this how much my process used "new" technology and techniques. I scanned the kids' drawings and printed them onto fabric; I used photoshop to blow up my drawing of the ship and make a final-sized pattern; I used freezer paper to cut out the shapes and spray starch and machine applique to sew them down, and I used good old Wonder Under to fuse other elements. This quilt will be auctioned off at a big school event in a few weeks. Hopefully there are a few 5th grade parents who'll want it badly enough to start a bidding war.

Meanwhile, thanks for all of your nice comments and emails to commiserate and/or offer suggestions on the sleep issue. It's clear that this is not an uncommon issue! I'm beginning to understand why sleep deprivation is used as torture! I know I'm fortunate that I don't have to get up and get into an office at 8am every morning, so that's a plus. (I've been pretty whacked out and watching a lot of movies lately, instead!) I'm trying some different things -- including exercise and diet -- that I hope will help.

And this weekend, I'm launching into a 5 day intensive fabric dyeing workshop with Carol Soderlund that is sure to exhaust me! So I figure I'll be dropping into bed every night and hopefully sleeping like a rock. I've been planning this for a while so I"m very excited that it's coming right up. I set up the room and pick up Carol on Friday, and then Roger and I will take her out for a nice wine country dinner...and Saturday, bright and early, 20 of us will gather to dye yards and yards of fabric.