Roller Coaster

The school for autistic children that is part of my daily life will be leaving the church at the end of the summer. Autism is on the rise, the school is growing, and the Sunday School space will no longer accommodate their increasing population.

Moving is expensive and the school has embarked on a variety of fund raisers to foot the bill. Of course I offered to help. I had pieced this top prolly four or five years ago and it was just sitting. I pieced it prior to taking The Pledge, so it is entirely from Rouenneries fabric. And I like it a lot.

I almost never do a binding in a light fabric, but with all of the dark brown, it seemed to be the right thing to do. Clicking to enlarge will show the different fabrics better, as well as Mary Ellen's lovely quilting.

The pattern, I think, came from "Fat Quarterly," and was called "Roller Coaster." At the time I made it, I had in my mind a roller coaster that was in Willow Grove Park, an amusement park near Philadelphia; that coaster was called "The Alps." So I always thought of this quilt as "The Alps." I hope its raffle will bring in a nice amount towards the move.

I suspect the school's director and employees feel as though they are embarking on a roller coaster. Moving a school sounds a daunting task; add a couple of dozen autistic kids and "roller coaster" seems too tame a label.

The school was closed for the last two weeks for a break and the church building was way too quiet for my taste. I was delighted to welcome them all back on Monday, and dread the thought of the end of the summer when they move out. The church is actively seeking another tenant and is close to an agreement with a start-up day care operation. Which sounds a bit tame compared to Gina, Alfred, and the others I've come to be so fond of.

Golly, I'm gonna miss 'em.