Silver Linings in a Pandemic

 Fabulous customer:

2 this week: (both on the same day, to boot!)

*A private lesson with Sarah, who was absolutely riveting:  she shared her love of history, combined with her years of service in the U.S. Army.  and it made for a lovely interaction with her.  She taught me so much, and as I told her "it's so nice to get out of my bubble of running this store/fabric/quilting" and just open up to listening and learning something new.

*Phyllis came to me to to learn about our Eversewn Sparrow 20 machine.  She's 88 and has macular degeneration, so she needs a machine that she'll be able to easily use despite her vision challenges.  She is funny, optimistic and a pleasant human being to be around.  We jokingly shared of the perils of aging:  weakened eyes, stiff back, achy bones, but knowing the importance of seeing the glass as 1/2 full!

Thank you, ladies, for choosing to cross paths with me this week - you are silver linings.

Making:

Continuing:

This pattern:  (remember from last week?)

As I began some of the 'collaging' today:

I felt like I was a bit in the mind of Laura Heine, the pattern designer, as she created this.  I LOVE this process!  It's a shit-ton of work with the prep, but as I said in my previous post, that's part of the meditative process of creating, at least for me.  There are plenty of projects that I do that I just want to quickly get them done:  a mask, a pillow cover, a new set of curtains, an easy garment, for example.  But there's something about creating projects that force you to take your time and every step requires creativity:

I especially love that Laura Heine specifically says in the directions: "try to be a little messy when placing your strips...." - after all, perfection shouldn't really be the goal in the creative process.  Make something that your eyes see as lovely.

So, in about 2 hours, I finished this one:

Learned this week:

If you haven't read the latest Hip Stich newsletter, we told customers of the continuing fabric shipment delays and the stress on every level of the production and distribution of fabric.

I have tremendous respect and appreciation for those working on this.  I had conversations with sales reps and a company vice president.  They were apologetic and sincere.  It was important for me to tell them,  "I'm frustrated with the situation, not with you."  

What a world of difference that makes in our interactions with each other, no?