After having been up since 3.30am (yes I do have insomnia) I lay in bed composing this blog in my head. At that time in the morning I sounded intelligent, prosaic, well read, and the words just flowed , but this morning I am back to having trouble stringing a sentence together and making any sense out of it. I will definitely be using spell check today, I've already made loads of bloopers - I'm blaming it on being tired.
I spent an enjoyable afternoon yesterday at Solway Quilters, where we are putting together quilts for disabled children in Romania. A bit like Linus Quilts, all these quilts will be donated from our group to go out to orphanages in Romania. It seems like such a little help, but I know from the literature I've read that they are so welcome, just to add a little colour to a child's life.

My friend Catherine P (see I told you I would mention you!!) gave me instructions on how to make 3D flying geese (just typed frying geese - see told you ...bloopers). A customer yesterday at the shop bought in two pictures of her grandsons and asked us to transfer them to photo fabric, which we did, so that she can make cushions for them for Christmas. Only the day before at the friendship lunch , Ann, a member of Threave Quilters had brought in a beautiful black and white cushion with photos on it and these flying geese, so I thought it would be perfect for these other cushions. I have been quilting for ever, but have never made 3D geese, so no sooner asked than I was shown how to do it by Catherine. Thanks for that. Now I need to make them up to show my customer how to do it.

I do love the fact that quilters are so happy to give of their time and expertise to anyone who asks for it. I think it is really important we share our knowledge, for without imparting how to do these crafts they will eventually die out. Someone said a strange thing to me yesterday about not liking to share how they did things with other people as they would only be "picking their brains" - but is'nt that how we all learn? isn't that what teaching is all about? The joy I get from showing someone how to do something they thought unable to do and seeing how delighted they are, when they produce a lovely piece of work is worth every minute I spend writing out explanations, drawing diagrams and making demonstration pieces.

Whilst lying awake last night I also got quite heated and stood up on my soapbox (metaphorically of course - otherwise husband would have objected) and ranted in my head about the injustice of various people towards Jane Brocket's new book "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" Why shouldn't women be able to choose whether or not to stay at home? hell Mrs Pankhurst spent years campaigning for us to be able to have rights - rights to choose what we do without fear of reprisals or damnation from any quarter after we have made that choice. I can't believe there are still dinosaurs out there who think women should not want to stay at home, they say our lives cannot possibly be fulfilled unless we work, what do they call what we do at home? We don't sit around all day doing needlepoint, but even if we did there's nothing wrong with that either. Oh don't get me started....I'll climb down off my box now. Jane Brocket's blog is lovely, a real treat to read.
Well that's me off to work now, I'm going to Ann's house (where the shop is) to practise the gentle art of selling!!!!! and I may even get a bit of sewing done as well.