Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Be Prepared
Today I drove past our local fire department and they always have a sign out in the yard with some "tidbit" of encouragement. Today it read "Be prepared, plan ahead, so it won't happen to you". Now I am not sure what they meant by "it" but I knew too well why it struck me today. I was returning from looking all over town for Pearl (Perel) Cotton Embroidery Floss.
I live in a rural area on a large lake. However there is a good city town about 12 miles from us. There is a new scrap booking shop that is quite large and well stocked. They sell DMC Floss in every color, but not Pearl. Then there is an older established fabric store that teaches quilt classes and really has quite a lot of fabrics and supplies - actually a large storefront on main street. No floss there at all. Then there is a newer quilt shop and they were closed this week for vacation. The last resort is also an older established craft shop and they too carried 2 very large racks of DMC floss but no Pearl. Now the Walmart (a super Walmart I might mention) recently quit carrying fabric at all and also took out most of the craft section which also included all the DMC floss.
Now why would a person drive around town some 30 miles to get a couple dollar skein of floss? Well, I am repairing my son's quilt. This was the first quilt I had ever made and it was for his graduation from high school 9 years ago. The piecing was a new experience but to machine quilt a queen size would have been daunting and I didn't have a long arm quilter in my area. So I decided to "tie" it to get it finished. Well after 4 yrs of college and the other 5 in Manhattan and San Diego, it is a well worn quilt. A quilter can't ask for much more that to know their hard work is being put to good use. But 9 yrs of laundromat washings and travels (I think he even took it to Australia for his study abroad semester) - well, the ties needed to be redone along with a lot of other worn seams. I considered that it now needed to be quilted but the fabrics were so worn and he now has a down comforter, so I decided to re-tie it. I got to the last row and ran out of the Pearl Cotton Black that I had used. I am now aware that the closest place to get it will be Winston Salem and that is 35 miles from here - 70 up and back. So "it" happened to me - I was not prepared before I started. We were just in Winston Salem a few days ago to take our boat up there for repair and if I had looked into this project before, I could have gotten it then. Or, if when I bought the black I had, I had bought more than 1 or 2 skeins. A very frustrated way to learn to "be prepared and plan ahead" so IT won't happen to me. I wasted a whole morning but I learned a lesson too - because I can't run into a JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby or Michael's I need to plan ahead when I am working on a project. That floss will have to wait until we pick up the boat later in the week. For now I will quilt the wall hanging I had wanted to get finish by this weekend. It will go on a high dormer window wall in our entry. Is that making "lemons out of lemon aid"? I hope so. I have included a picture of the Irish Chain and the new little wall hanging.
Wendy...trying to make every moment count
I live in a rural area on a large lake. However there is a good city town about 12 miles from us. There is a new scrap booking shop that is quite large and well stocked. They sell DMC Floss in every color, but not Pearl. Then there is an older established fabric store that teaches quilt classes and really has quite a lot of fabrics and supplies - actually a large storefront on main street. No floss there at all. Then there is a newer quilt shop and they were closed this week for vacation. The last resort is also an older established craft shop and they too carried 2 very large racks of DMC floss but no Pearl. Now the Walmart (a super Walmart I might mention) recently quit carrying fabric at all and also took out most of the craft section which also included all the DMC floss.
Now why would a person drive around town some 30 miles to get a couple dollar skein of floss? Well, I am repairing my son's quilt. This was the first quilt I had ever made and it was for his graduation from high school 9 years ago. The piecing was a new experience but to machine quilt a queen size would have been daunting and I didn't have a long arm quilter in my area. So I decided to "tie" it to get it finished. Well after 4 yrs of college and the other 5 in Manhattan and San Diego, it is a well worn quilt. A quilter can't ask for much more that to know their hard work is being put to good use. But 9 yrs of laundromat washings and travels (I think he even took it to Australia for his study abroad semester) - well, the ties needed to be redone along with a lot of other worn seams. I considered that it now needed to be quilted but the fabrics were so worn and he now has a down comforter, so I decided to re-tie it. I got to the last row and ran out of the Pearl Cotton Black that I had used. I am now aware that the closest place to get it will be Winston Salem and that is 35 miles from here - 70 up and back. So "it" happened to me - I was not prepared before I started. We were just in Winston Salem a few days ago to take our boat up there for repair and if I had looked into this project before, I could have gotten it then. Or, if when I bought the black I had, I had bought more than 1 or 2 skeins. A very frustrated way to learn to "be prepared and plan ahead" so IT won't happen to me. I wasted a whole morning but I learned a lesson too - because I can't run into a JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby or Michael's I need to plan ahead when I am working on a project. That floss will have to wait until we pick up the boat later in the week. For now I will quilt the wall hanging I had wanted to get finish by this weekend. It will go on a high dormer window wall in our entry. Is that making "lemons out of lemon aid"? I hope so. I have included a picture of the Irish Chain and the new little wall hanging.
Wendy...trying to make every moment count
Monday, July 27, 2009
new beginnings
Isn't it wonderful to start something new? It does come with it's apprehension but for the most part the anticipation and challenge of diving into a new project is exhilarating. We have high hopes for how it will all turn out. Well, this is a new beginning for me - this blog. I have been wanting to get one started for some time. I have all the normal excitement about this new adventure. However I don't want to forget the process. So much is to be learned along the way. We get so excited about the finished product, like a new quilt, that we begin without much consideration for the journey. Then sometimes the journey gets all messy, we find ourselves frustrated and maybe we never even finish Oh, that "f" word !! Well, I'll give consideration to finishes later, right now I am exited about starting. I am not sure where this will take me but I hope I can enjoy it and maybe help someone else along my journey.
...making every moment count ~ Wendy
...making every moment count ~ Wendy
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