It's been dark, rainy, dreary. A few days ago we had a burst of flurries foreshadowing a week of predicted snow starting tonight, so I laid in stores of food and fabric.
When the going gets tough, the tough turn to color and quilting! So I made a few more stars in the baby quilt for my niece.
And yesterday a friend who is new to quilting came over to plan a first project to make with her brand new sewing machine. We cut out squares in mouthwatering oranges and cool blues, greens and purples for a table runner. So far, so good.
Then an hour of anxiety and laughing followed as we tried to figure out how to thread the machine, wind the bobbin and get started. Her machine is nothing like mine, which is a 30-year-old Bernina, and instruction manuals in tiny type give me anxiety attacks, so I wasn't much help. Here she is with one hand on the thread and the other hand on the manual. I'm holding my breath. She'll do fine, because she always does.
I came across this picture and it looks exactly like so many of my friends! Haven't we all sewed more than we should have without bobbin thread? I sure have.
I need laughs like that, because I've been backsliding a bit lately. I blame it on the gloomy weather. I know that color is the best therapy, so that's the plan.
We had a full moon the other night -- the Wolf Moon. Our yoga teacher led us in some moon salutations. It was nice to be in the companionable company of other women, all of us showing up week after week for Joy's class and urging each other through the dark months.
Have a colorful day
It is good to have friends and laugh!!! Funny story..WELL, NOT REALLY!!! I ran into my neighbors garage door this past week!!!! Worse part was I had to tell hubby about it!!!! Cost us almost $1000!!! Turning into insurance would have raised our rate up to 10% for the next 3 yrs! UGH..hasn't been so pleasant around our house this week!!! Hard to even sew...but I did!!!! I'm lovin the colors you and your friend are working with!!!! Love, love, love!!! Hang in there...always someone else has more problems than you. At least I'm hoping that's the case in my situation! HA
ReplyDeleteThe best advice I ever got about grieving is to forget that crap about the stages, it is not a 12 step program to no grief. Rather it is an up and down journey that often revisits previous steps you thought you were done with. And that you will never be 100% "over it". How could you be about something that was so important to you for so long? It's perfectly fine to backslide and always carry with you a bit of sadness. I found that greatly comforting.
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you how glad I am that my yoga class is back up and running after several months of nothing while our teacher searched out a new "home" for us. I was definitely feeling it, the loss of that weekly companionship, that place where I could go and forget about everything going on in my life and the world for just a bit. I'm glad you have such a good teacher and fellow students surrounding you.
Nice that you were able to help your friend get a start on learning how to quilt and use her machine! Color is the best medicine, for sure.
ReplyDeleteAs for your "backslide", I find that having gone through a loss, you feel echoes around that same time for at least a few years. My losses have been the deaths of family members, but any major loss or major life change leaves a similar echo as we near the time of year that it happened. With time, it hopefully will diminish. Those wonderful friends who surround you with love and support will get you through this time, bless them!
I feel your friend's pain at working on a new machine. Yesterday I had to get out my manual to see how to thread it, and I had just used it a couple days ago!!
ReplyDeleteAs for the backsliding, it's all part of this process. And the gloomy weather doesn't help. It will get better, and you will get stronger and your life will be much richer and happier, and you'll have longer stretches of being without the pain. But will it ever go away? Even 26 years later, just this past week something out of the blue reminded me of the pain and it all came back. But it was temporary- just a flash. I can now look at it, be thankful for the life I have now, and then put it back on the shelf. Just know it's normal where you are at now. And I promise you, it will get easier. XOXO