That feeling we're feeling.....JOY

This past Friday afternoon all those who purchased the pdf pattern from Tatiana Popova, Tree of Happiness, were invited to Hip Stitch for a meet and greet with Juan Carlos, who begin this wonderful journey of community support for a Ukranian artist and refugee.

We gathered, noshed on food and drink, visited, and were further inspired by seeing Juan Carlos' work on the pattern:

Catherine and Diana, who have been so very instrumental in leading the effort to help folks with their pattern, from choosing floss to setting up the light box for tracing, were there to answer questions.  I simply could NOT have pulled this off without them!

I was chatting with customer Karen, and found myself laughing and smiling and 

finally put my finger on this feeling I was feeling:  JOY.

We were gathering again.  We were catching up and laughing til the tears were forming (at least for me)

Even us introverts, of which I'm one, were....joyful.

And we relunctantly parted ways, with a "see you Wednesday" for those who are coming to Slow Stitching to work on our patterns.  And I'm so glad to say that joy is still with me, one day later.

The world is still kind of hard, and still has much sadness, as I've felt with my correspondance with Tatiana in Ukraine, but I'm thankful we human beings have the range of emotions we have, to feel joy and laughter in spite of what's around us.

Trip to the North Part 2: Make Do & Mend

Traveling north was to see our daughter, in her senior recital of grad school at Bowling Green State University.  A text/picture arrived a few weeks before the trip....the dress was purchased for the performance, but needed alterations:

Easy, right?  A quick hem!

Time was put aside one afternoon, went went to the local quilt shop and picked up some thread, and got home to her apartment where I started by cleaning out her sewing machine.  Yikes. (yes, that's lint)

Got that all cleaned out, put the bobbin case in, then the bobbin, and did a test sew.  Needle broke.  Took everything out again, re-inserted everything, needle changed.  Sewed - needle broke.  Did this ONCE more before it was time for a drastic switch to plan B.  (I can only troubleshoot so far.)

Back to the quilt shop for some Stitch Witchery. Came back to her apartment, and got going:

On the floor, using a portable ironing mat.  Because that's what you do when you're in a tiny one bedroom apartment!

(taking the straps up - this looks messier than the final look:  I intentionally hand stitched a 'satin stitch' kind of look to hold the cut pieces together.)

And well, voila:

And what comes to mind is that line from Ratatouille, where Chef Gusteau says, "Anyone can cook!"

"Anyone can sew!"