Back to school

School resumes tomorrow for the kids at Caroline's school, and we have been working hard to get the Phoenix Rising quilt done for the principal. So I quilted fast and furiously today, and now all there is left to do is the binding and hanging sleeve. I'll get than sewn tonight, after I get a bit of legal work out of the way.

Although Caroline and I agreed that we didn't want to feature the fire aspect of this theme too prominently, I really like the way the flames at the bottom turned out. I had just bought a few big spools of variegated King Tut thread at the Superior Threads booth at PIQF, and I put the yellow tones and red/orange spools to good use! I stitched a flame pattern in red, then went back through in yellow. I'm not sure the photo shows it that well, but in person it looks pretty cool if I do say so myself!



By the way, Caroline and I spent the morning at school on Tuesday to help some of the teachers move into their new rooms, and we were amazed at how much had been done in less than 2 weeks. The remains of the burned buildings were totally gone, down to concrete foundations. There is so much new stuff there all of a sudden -- some beautiful redwood trees donated by a local nursery (no trees were damaged in the fire, luckily), new fences, the new portable buildings... It was different and a bit chaotic, what with chain link fence surrounding areas that will now be a construction zone, but it's clear that there's an active, cheerful school going forward. I think these two weeks away from school under these circumstances have made even the most reluctant students eager to get back to school and their friends.

And I suspect the moms will appreciate a bit of peace, too.