no template tutuorial & big sobby mess

When I need a shape I don't have, I make one out of paper.

Pin it on and stitch around it.

Here, I've filled in with Ribbon Candy.

Curlycue feathers around the outside.  Pretty.

The big sobby mess is me.  I'm a Pisces, so I'm emotional at the best of times.  

I have been trying to get my head around the most awful thing.  There was a murder last week - brutal, multiple stab wounds, sexual assault.  The victim was my high school physics teacher.  She was ... 73?  

I was in school for 14 years, if you include kindergarten.  I only remember 3 teachers.  (I apologize now, to all my friends and relatives who are teachers.  I know how hard you try.) Mr. Sabourin, the french teacher.  Mmm - school girl crush.  Mr. Dalgleish, my teacher for the 2 years I was in the enrichment program.  He used to do fun things with us, trying to keep our interest and challenge our thinking.  And Mrs. Gleave, rest her soul.

I have thought of that woman so many times over the last near 40 years it is silly.  I'm pretty sure everyone who knows me has heard me say:

     "I had a physics teacher in high school who always used to say 'a short pencil is better than a long memory' ".  She was SUCH a character.  Didn't think twice about embarrassing her students (me included).  But funny, too.  She used to check if we had comic books hidden behind our textbook if she actually caught us READING our textbook.  The only day she ever missed class was to stay home for the vet when her horse was sick.

My friend lost her husband to cancer a few days ago, much too young.  I feel so, so, sad for them.  Then the shock of the murder - it was just all too much.  I'm not sleeping well, I'm distracted, and still can't think about Mrs. Gleave without imagining the horror of her last hour on earth.  Then squashing out a few more tears.  I don't understand who would do that?  Why?  I just don't understand.  It is so senseless, and so ... permanent.  A life gone forever.