Autumn Leaves Quilt

You might remember my Autumn leaves WIP back in the middle of July. I was desperately trying to get it finished quickly, and typically I didn't quite hit my deadline and had to issue a present IOU! Once the deadline had passed, I slowed up a bit on it (again typically!) but finally finished the binding earlier this week:

This one was a present for the wonderful teacher at our lovely Montessori pre-school, Little Oaks, who has looked after Theo, Venetia and now lastly Maria throughout their years there. Sam was already too old for pre-school by the time we moved here, but the other three have all loved their time there, it has been an amazing place for children to explore and have fun and grow. I machine embroidered a little message on there:

But I'm feeling very sad about my words at the moment, because I heard just last week that the pre-school is, unfortunately, going to close at the end of September. Despite having a wonderful reputation, and consistent outstanding Inspections, they've really struggled with numbers over the last couple of years, and it's become unsustainable. Situated as they are, in a very rural area, there just haven't been enough local children to keep them going. I feel so lucky that my children were fortunate enough to be able to go there, but incredibly sad that other local children in the future are going to miss out.



It's a place, and a part of Theo, Venetia and Maria's childhoods, that we will always remember, and we will particularly remember the amazing teachers who worked there.

Sally.