The Head Girl, Houston, 2009. Course tutor: Yvonne Bodecott. Yvonne started her professional life by completing a Certificate of Education in Home Economics in 1973 at the Yorkshire College of Domestic Science in Leeds. In 1974 she was awarded a Bachelor of Education (honours) degree in Food Science at Leeds University and then taught Home Economics for one year in Paddington, London prior to a succession of international moves and eventual return to the Lake District. In Libreville, Gabon, West Africa, she was the founder and first Head Teacher of the American International School of Libreville which was set up in 1976, in association with the US State Department and the US Ambassador to Gabon, to provide English language teaching in a francophone country (in Mr Ambassador's garage!). She began collecting and designing clothes with African printed cottons while in Libreville. In Houston Texas, she studied American Patchwork Quilting and was inspired by the plains of West Texas and New Mexico to teach the American techniques on her return to Europe. After a brief Winter in Norway, and following the arrival of two children, Yvonne had established classes in American Patchwork Quilting across the area. For twenty five years, she has been expanding and refining her techniques and is now able to offer this expertise to timid beginners or the most advanced practitioners. One of Yvonne's greatest assets is that she is a fully-trained Home Economics teacher. She believes that Home Economics urgently needs to be brought back into the National Curriculum as a core subject, with new training of Home Economics teachers. morceau opened during October 1994.