Home and Away

Hi there Smites, 

I hope you're all well. ​That little interlude was a bit longer than anticipated. Long story short, while we were away in Bali Charlie started to feel a bit ill... by the time we all got home he felt that something was really wrong, and ended up at the doctor. A CT scan and some blood tests later and he was admitted to hospital with appendicitis. They decided to take his appendix out the next morning, but overnight he was coughing, so the nurses tested him and bingo... he won the Covid lottery. It seems there is a thing in young adults (who knew?!) called covid associated acute appendicitis and apparently its likely that is what is going on. The Covid makes the appendix worse and the appendix makes the Covid worse and they can't operate with the Covid (the respiratory issues makes the general aesthetic dangerous). Dump trucks full of antibiotics and pain killers later and we are still waiting for him to test negative and be able to have the appendix taken out, but he has improved a lot and the drugs have all helped.

All this has meant emergency trips to Canberra, and also that I am in Sydney where I can be nearer to him and NOT in Sisters, over 32 hours travel away, where I am supposed to be teaching! Lucky for me Val and her incredible team at The Stitchin' Post have just done a gigantic pivot for me and the students, and I've been teaching on Zoom. That does mean that class starts for me at 1.30am (eeeeek!!) and finishes at 8.30am. I've been teaching, and then going to back to bed and then getting back up and teaching..... 

All of this by way of saying SORRY I haven't given you a Smites post but I've been doing a few little panic pivots of my own. 

My first class at Sisters was Climbing Scrap Mountain, which is one of my favourite classes to teach. Everyone brings their scraps and we make a massive scrap mountain on the floor of the classroom, and then everyone works out of the pile. The pattern for the quilts comes from the workbook supplied for the class - which has nearly 30 quilt patterns in it, all using a precut acrylic template set. It means that everyones quilts are totally and wildly different, and as simple or as complex as they choose, all using the same set of shapes in different combinations. It's a class I took several years to develop, and I've taught it now for 4 years at Sisters and will probably teach it again next year! (I've never taught it anywhere else - but if you want to take it and can't get to Sisters, its available on demand at my website - except that of course you have to work out of your own stash or scrap bucket). 

As I'm not physically in the classroom this week, Val has organised some spectacular helpers and I am there for a good portion of the class on a giant TV, teaching and helping everyone out. Helen has been my helper for the past two days and she made herself a Sarah-on-a-stick which made me laugh very hard when she pulled it out this morning!! :D

All the students have made a fantastic start on their quilts over two days. Please excuse the quality of the pics as they are taken on my iphone of the computer screen - I'm hoping there will be some better ones posted on social media in the coming days. But you can see how different they all are. Such fun. I have massive FOMO.

As I'm not there, the annual fundraising postcard that all the tutors make is here with me and not in Sisters. I'm auctioning it off myself, and then it will be framed and shipped to the winner of the auction - you can bid on it and read all about it at this link

I have another class at 1.30am today so I am going to go now and try and get myself an afternoon nap. Oh and BTW the trip to Bali was absolutely lovely despite Charlie not being very well, very restful and quiet and relaxing. Here's some pics I took for you, including a couple of visits from Mr Nutter's Balinese cousin. Which reminds me to remind you that the Big Woods book is now available for preorder!

Have a great day peeps

Sarah x