Sticky L and Other Musings

My keyboard is not cooperating today.  And hasn't for the past week or so - but I'm not sure why.

The L key sticks.  This is a bummer when your email address contains two of them!  I just tried to sign in to work on this post and I got the message "We do not recognize this email".  Well, no wonder!  You cannot spell global without a couple of Ls!

So now my right ring finger has learned how to really smash the keyboard.  I used to sit three cubicles away from someone who smashed his fingers down on the keyboard.  I always wondered what he was angry with, to type so furiously.  Maybe he had a sticky L too.  I hope that nothing was spilled to make the keyboard stick.  There are only so many words you can type without Ls if you expect your blog to make any sense.

Life is so busy right now I don't have time to blog much anymore.  I feel sad about that because I love to write.  I read Rita Farro's blog every day just for the pleasure of hearing good sentences strung together in my head.  I think it's one of the reasons I love to read - that hearing of sentences pulled into paragraphs and creating chapters of stories...

Today Rita wrote about hobbies, and asked the questions how important are hobbies, and how do you pick them?

So Rita -- my short answer is very important, and I think they pick you!

Since I was able to reach the foot control on my grandmother's treadle sewing machine I have been sewing bits of fabric together.  She made quilts when I was little, and also knitted and crocheted items.  (She made fabulous doilies, but that's another post!)  I watched her and played with her scraps and eventually she let me sew things with that wonderful machine.  I.Was.Hooked.  For good and all.

I think from then on, there has never been a time when I didn't do some sort of needlework.  It has been a God-send.  If I start with necessity, sewing gave me more clothing during my high school years than I could ever have afforded to buy.  It then became a pleasure as I made things for my two babies and my first home.  I branched out into making gifts for others.  It contributed a small amount to my income (like the farmer's wife and her egg money).

It then became a social outlet when I first worked at a fabric store and then joined a guild.  At some point it became a necessity, like breathing.

However, it also lead to reconnection with less immediate family, group projects, and other major fiber addictions like yarn, and beads, and on and on...  I think it must run in families (or packs??) since my aunties and cousins have been bitten by the same bug.

Then I found other sewists - via the guild and shopping activities.  Some of my best girlfriends are sewists, and it has bonded us with sewing to start and moved on to make us more like sisters.  It's good to have such wonderful female friendships.  It helps us through the tough spots.

Maybe it's more of a calling.  A vocation!

Since we moved to the condo, well actually since before then, since I retired from my full-time office job, things have been hectic.  I work part time at a quilt shop, alternating between two and three day weeks.  My 'hobbie' led me to that.  I volunteer at church in several capacities, some of which require some 'homework'.  One of those activities involves our quilt guild.  Was it fate, or ??

This week I need to get my act together and plan some activities for the church quilters sewing retreat.  It's a six hour session instead of a three hour normal get together, so we try to have some fun, learn a new pattern or a new technique, play some Quilter's Bingo, eat and just have a good time.  Since our preschool quilts are done, I'm not sure what we're going to work on... I'll need to spend some time in my sewing room!

This is last year's quilt.

Too bad I have to spend all that time with fabric and patterns... LOL!

I also want to take a little trip to the garden center.  It's finally warm here is SE Wisconsin, and I need some color on my patio.  The deck is gray, the rails are white, the furniture is black.  Not a happy situation... especially for someone who enjoys color!  I have a couple of empty pots to fill, maybe with some geraniums or some Impatience or anything else that might be available.  I have morning shade and afternoon sun.

Time to get a move on it.  DH went out to breakfast with the other 'boys', and he'll be back soon.

Sew on...