A day off

Nancy and I last saw each other at our 20th high school reunion, which was a long time ago. We've known each other since grade school and kept in loose touch over the years, noting family changes and promising to get together sometime. Today was sometime. And what a wonderful time.

We met this morning at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee, which seemed a good middle ground between her sister's in Milwaukee, where she is staying for a few days, and Milladore. We spent a considerable amount of time in the shop and and an even greater amount of time across the street in the Main Street Diner catching up over lunch and a lot of iced tea (diet soda for her).

Nancy was very impressed with the shop -- it is a beauty -- as we took our time checking out every nook and cranny and nearly every book and swapping updates on projects we've made, are making, or plan to make. And once again I was reminded how lucky I am. I have lots of friends who share my quilting and sewing, knitting and crafting interests. I can't imagine loving something as much as I do quilting and not being able to share it with someone.

Just a few weeks ago I spent a great quilting day with friend Sandy. We visited the Heart in Hand quilt shop in Neillsville and The Quilt Yard in Osseo in her shiny convertible. Thelma and Louise go quilting. Sandy had never been to either shop and enjoyed a close examination of all that was offered.

Going to a quilt shop with a friend who shares your interest is a chance to try out ideas -- even dreams -- with someone whose judgment and understanding you trust. It's not just looking at fabric; it's sharing and planning and encouragement and inspiration interspersed with talk about kids and parents and brothers and sisters and friends and old days and future hopes. It is friendship.

Catching up

Summer is flying by whether I like it or not. Our Waupaca craft debut was a bust. Very few sales, but luckily, Karen and I always have fun so all was not lost. In fact, the best part of the day, after realizing that we had made (barely) enough money to pay for our booth and dinners, was finding the reflective "sweet spot" of Karen and Tim's Airstream where we both looked great as our tall and slender selves. We may have felt short and down in the dumps, but Airstreams don't lie.

Our slow sales did not deter our craftiness permanently of course. When aprons throw you off, you just hitch your sewing skills on another project and keep moving. That project is a certain yellow and white quilt that is coming along very nicely, thank you. The proof will appear soon. In the meantime, just sharpen your pencils and calculate the pace of piecing 48 triangles into each 12-inch block to construct a queen size quilt. Divide that number by about 10 years and you'll have the rate of progress on this baby. Now add a hour or two of inspiration with a pencil and piece of graph paper to design a border that will look impressive yet decrease the total number of 12-inch blocks comprised of 48 triangles each and you'll know exactly where I am in this process.