Returning home after 4 weeks

I have been away from home for four weeks, with the exception of a less-than-24-hrs stopover between coming back from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham and leaving for our trip to the USA .

I saw many quilts in Birmingham, and a few in the USA, but I myself have not done a whole lot of stitching in these weeks. I did knit several pairs of socks. 

And although I had taken a bit of hand-stitching, and I did do a little bit,

mostly it was a period of resting from stitching. Jeanne set me to work on a couple of blocks for the 70,273-project when I was at her house, and if our stay there had not been cut short due to the emergency in her family I might have made a few more in that evening we did not have. But I couldn't.

two blocks I made while chatting with Jeanne
and hoping my son would fall asleep...

My son is at an age right now where he has very little tolerance for Mom taking him tagging along to quilt shows. He was about two and a half years old when I took him to a show in my then function as a regional representative for the German Quilt Guild, and he walked into the display hall, stopped shortly after having gone in about five meters, took a thorough look around, and said to me, „Mom, we can go!“ And he was right about the quality of work we got to see there, I have to admit... but that's is a reason why I don't like to drag him through any of this if I can help it. So I did not go into a quilt show in Knoxville that had opened on the weekend we were there. Nor did I follow any of the quilt trails that I had found flyers for in visitors centers in several of the visitor centers. There were several!

I did talk quilt with Kathy, a little bit, and Debbie, who was not a quilter when we were colleagues in Augsburg twenty years ago but has since become one, took me to the one and only quilt shop I visited during the entire trip, Stitcher's Garden in Nashville.

"Stitchers Garden" - an overwhelming experience. More pictures here.

Jeanne of course talked to me about the 70,273-project, but it has really been a time of distance from quilting.

Looking at some of the finished quilts
for the 70,273-project

So this will be making a new start. I have had thoughts about new projects, I have taken a few notes. And I will get started on them as I find time.

However, the new school year is about to begin,  I am supposed to be teaching again – unless some major changes occurred while I was away and perhaps the new class will not get off the ground? We will see.
Last year's students from Senegal did not get their work permit, which has really upset me terribly and calls for further action in the realm of civil activism, protest, whatever, and I have to figure out how I will position myself to this. That is - they have not been given a permit, but they have also not received a notification that it has been turned down. This means they could not start on the beginning of September, which would have been the first day of school for them, and that means they will not be able to join in on the course any more because no late admittances are allowed. That is a very subtle and petty method of denying them access to education and training. Because they have not been rejected, they cannot protest or sue against it, but also cannot continue.
I kept pretty calm about this all while we were away – except when talking about it to somebody. The way a conversation about this usually would bring me onto the edge of tears shows me how deeply I am involved in that issue. And somehow it feels as if I can only put that to rest when a signifacant change in Bavarian politics has occurred. The fight is not over yet.

However, I will try not get as involved with the new year's students again. I don't have enough strength for that left. I will only be their German teacher.