I’m started an e-Newsletter, (click on the link to sign up please, the first one goes out sometime today. I’m in the midst of changing what I can on the website so that I’m able to put a full on link to join. I’ll be offering some special, book related content and sharing with you the making of the new sewing studio, and offering machine quilting, thread, and color tips.
I’ve shared bits and pieces of a conversation with a few friends that has allowed me a focus shift that I’ve longed for, for a long time. The thing is, that thing I thought I needed, I had all along. Like our dear Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz skipping along the Yellow Brick Road in her ruby heels (why they are called slippers I will never know) with the people who will help her grow most on her way to Oz. Oz is, as we know, that place we are all trying to get, the Emerald City, wherein lives the one who can solve all of our problems. Along the way Dorothy, The Cowardly Lion, The Tin Man, and The Scarecrow face danger, problem solve, and follow the path toward the beauty, and hope of the Emerald City. This journey, while it seems to focus on Dorothy, each individual is finding their own way to courage, intelligence, and compassion/love. These are each skills we get to hone, over time, on our own life journey with our friends helping us, complete with experiences that offer us the opportunity to hone and develop those skills. We might be more like one of the characters, or in some way all of them, seeking that thing that will make the biggest difference in who we are and allow us to achieve some longed for goal.
Like Dorothy, The Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion we, as quilt makers have friends to walk with wherever we’re traveling. The destination, how we get there, and who we meet along the way as just as important as getting where we’re going, or more to the point, where we believe we’re going. When we arrive at that moment, that place, that experience we realize that the getting there helped us, molded us into the quilt maker we are in this moment. As a home machine quilter, with what I believe are weird sensibilities, there is more to explore, goals to achieve, quilts to make, quilters to befriend, and books to write. I feel that next one in my bones. It’ll take a little to get there as there’s a bit of a journey to get there.
I don’t have timing yet for what I want to do however I want to extend an invitation to you here and now. I am going to tape classes that will be available on a platform (considering Teachable and Thinkific). There are a few things that I need in order to accomplish this, oh like a sewing room, so weird that, right an actual place to sew. We are waiting for our house in NY to close and while it’s close we do not yet have a full date for that. Which means that here in TX we can’t make an offer, because property moves so quickly. Sigh. I appreciate the swiftness with which the process takes place however there is that house that I kind of fell in love with with the space. Oh well I would ask someone to hand me a big for the drooling going on. And then there’s the camera, and slightly better lighting. Weirdly I have the fabric and thread. As I set up my studio I will be sharing that in the newsletter and on Instagram.
For the next two Saturday I’m teaching beginner machine quilting locally, to a full class of six at Poppy Quilt & Sew in Georgetown. I love teaching and am looking forward to this sew much. Next up is prep for teaching for the Colorado Quilt Council in August/September. We’re going virtual so this will be fun venture, and we’re breaking the class up to offer students the time to sew and the physical break of being present on screens for several hours. As soon as I know timing of an upcoming Adventure I will let you know. Let’s just say another long time/long term goal.
I am first and foremost a quilter and teacher who loves nothing more than to walk and run with other quilters along the way. Each quilter I’ve been privileged to meet, each quilter I get to meet sometime has an influence on who I am, and what I do. Thank you. Just before my Sweetie and I married I had a beautiful heart to heart with my dad. As many families do we had struggles and hurt that needed healing. Dad said if he could change one thing it would be all the hurt and struggle. I said no. It is that struggle that formed who I am, what I choose to do, allowing me to walk with others in their struggles. As a quilt maker I have struggled learning how to quilt. I’ve walked out of my sewing room in sheer frustration with the whole ugly cry, and I am not worthy, and I can’t do this, and this sucks. I’ve looked longingly into that space with the deepest longings to go back in there and so something only to walk away with a heaviness of heart that defies description for quilting is the space where I find life. Thank you friends for sharing all of this with me.
Happy Stitching,
Teri
who writes from a hotel room in Texas until that new to us home is available
Check out my book here
