Silver Linings in a Pandemic

 At Hip Stitch: 

Maria

Maria came to take a class in September - garment making. During a break in the class, she and I wer e chatting in the kitchen. We have a storage cabinet in the kitchen where there's a collage of photos of customers from over the years. Suddenly Maria stopped talking and said "that's my daughter!" Sure enough, her daughter, who is now a freshman in college, was in a picture when she was......6? Holding a sweet little doll she made at Hip Stitch!

Now THAT was a really neat moment!

Making this week:

The sweater is looking like a sweater!  Bring the time change and the cold weather on.....I'm ready for you!

Learned this week:

Remembering how much I LOVE to teach, but during a pandemic, the choice I made to move to private lessons from teaching a group was a GREAT decision.  I've been doing exclusively private lessons for about 6 weeks now, and have taught folks how to use their machine, how to read a pattern, how to sew curves, how to make alterations - giving individual attention to someone and following them on the path they're on is so much fun - in these mask wearing days, it's much for meaningful to sit side by side and make eye contact and have a geniune conversation!

Silver Linings in a Pandemic

 Charming customer: 

 (this week I was the customer!)

Gayle

While visiting my daughter in Bowling Green, Ohio, last weekend, we were walking down Main Street (yep, there's a 'Main Street' in this wonderful little town), and stopped in our tracks when we saw a signboard out in the front of Coyote Beads that had something along the lines of "just in from New Mexico". Wait.....what?? We went in to this charming shop full of gifts, jewelry, candles, and lots and lots of other goodies. We met Gayle, the owner, who travels to New Mexico a few times a year to shop for HER shop (she had just returned a few weeks ago)

What a great shop - a wonderful, gracious owner - and YAY for another small business that is surviving the pandemic!

Making this week:

The blocks for Mountain High  are DONE!

One row is together (they're put together on the diagonal - can you see the one all connected?)  I'm loving this quilt!

Learned this week:

Time for silence.  When I sew, knit, putz around the house....or am at the store....there's often music playing.  Or a podcast going when I'm at home.  And music is fun and motivating, and a podcast is entertaining or educational or both.  I've been learning to live in comfortable silence now and then.  It takes a concentrated effort, and makes me uncomfortable for a few minutes.  But then my brain calms and settles, and thanks me.  And hey, the creativity is still there!

Silver Linings in a Pandemic

 Charming customer:

Kathy

Kathy is a kick-ass independant woman who solo travels around the country. She has grown kids, raised them on her own, and now just, well wanders. (See her FB page HERE)

She's absolutely sweet and charming and gracious and was a joy to meet. We hope to see you again, Kathy, if/when you make your way through Albuquerque in your travels!

Here's the profile pic on her page:

(doesn't this just make you want to hit the road?)

Making this week:

The sweater is coming along - a body, a sleeve.

Knitting on the airplane flying to Ohio to visit my daughter, knitting with my daughter in her adorable tiny apartment, and more knitting to come on the flight back to ABQ tomorrow (a few tears while knitting because time with her was too short).....the sweater is coming along!

Learned this week:

Man, do I love the younger generation!  Being around my grad school daughter and her friends this weekend gives me such hope and confidence that the world will be ok.  Yes, they're very different than me at that age, yes, so much has changed in the world.  But this is THEIR time - they have the energy, the intelligence, the caring for their world, the passion to make a mark, a difference.  It's quite breathtaking to be a witness to it all.

Plus, any kid of mine who is a full-fledged adult but still gets just as excited as I do about spotting frogs in a pond is my kind of person:

Silver Linings in a Pandemic

 Charming customer (from a few weeks ago):

Mildred!

Oh my gosh, what a treat to meet Mildred, who was in Albuquerque recently for the Senior Racquetball Championship!  She fell in love with the “Chuckwagon Charlie” kit we have, and I enjoyed helping her pick out fabrics to make it customized to her taste.

In the process of chatting, I learned about why she was here, and she very modestly told me all the winnings she took!  How awesome is that?! 

(I couldn't successfully link the page to her info, but if you google "Senior Racquetball Tournament Albuquerque", you can find your way to her.)

Making this week:

Knitting!  The cooler weather beckons....

This sweater:

With this yarn:

Bottom picture taken against a backdrop of a peek of Aspen trees in the beauty of Northern New Mexico.  A fall drive was a balm this past week.

Learned this week:

Bloom where you're planted.

A reminder to take in the here and now and appreciate what's right in front of me.  (Don't we all sometimes long to be somewhere else, at another time, maybe, where it may seem things would be.....better?)

I didn't attend the Balloon Fiesta this year, but I made a point to stop and linger and gaze while looking at the balloons in my driveway each morning.

I drove (well, my husband drove, I knit)  to northern New Mexico to just see Fall.  And it didn't disappoint!  Smaller, less traveled roads,  unplanned stops (the Vietman Veteran's Memorial in Angel Fire.  Profound. Sacred.)

I've live in New Mexico for over 30 years.  Even after all those years, I remind myself to bloom where I'm planted.  How lucky I am to be planted here.

Silver Linings in a Pandemic

 Charming customer this week:

Doris

from Westchester County, NY.  (near Yonkers, she told me)

She and her husband were here for the Balloon Fiesta.  They were New Yorkers, with just a touch of an accent.  We had a lovely visit, and my favorite part was when she said “I’ve got to stop feeling guilty when I buy fabric,” to which her husband quietly nodded his head and smiled.  And I leaned across the counter and said, almost in a whisper, “were you raised Catholic too?”, and we had an immediate connection.

More and more, I feel quite lucky to have folks like this drop into my life, into Hip Stitch, and be the seeds that plant happy memories for me.

Making this week:

I've FINISHED!

Well, the top, that is.  It'll get quilted in the next few weeks.  I've grown in my love for it as it transpired.  And, once quilted, dare I say it might be stunningly beautiful!

Learned this week:

When you're an adult, it's VITAL for your mental health to play with children, if at all possible.  I have the joy of spending time now & then with a great niece and nephew, ages 6 & 4.  

(Now, I'm speaking as the AUNT when I say how joyful it is.....I have been there as a MOM in the trenches and know it's not the same)

I spend time with them studying ants and anthills, coloring, playing make believe, reading books, having deep discussions about things like:

*what makes a mean kid mean?

*the importance of 'please' and 'thank you'

*what does (insert word) mean?  This week it was the word 'overkill'

*why the dark is suddenly scary when it wasn't last week at bedtime. (yes, I'll crack the door open for light)

Here they are, playing on the new "Dreamland" Play Mat, complete with roads, a bakery, a castle, a pizza parlor, candy shop, and more, for much enjoyment by little ones (and an aunt!)