A piece of shoe lace…?

What does a piece of shoe lace have in common with some leftover fabric? Funny you should ask😉. As random as it seems, there is a connection, and I can tell you what it is.

A text from my daughter requesting helmet bags sent me searching for enough of an appropriate fabric. Not as hard as I thought as I had some leftover ticking from making quilt bags. Perfect, as it’s very durable. Then the odds and sods sewing drawer had two bobble ends  (ah, like, I have no idea what the heck those things are actually called!). It also had a long piece of old shoe lace and a piece of a leather shoe lace, zero idea where it was from. I save things like that for the day they come in handy, and that was today. 

A few minutes later, I had created ski helmet bags, literally something from nothing. She hadn’t meant for me to drop everything and do it, but it felt like a fun quick project.

And when the fog won’t lift and I am feeling the weight of the clouds, I need all the “feel goods” I can get. I’m also in the midst of two long creative projects. I’m in the middle of two very very long paperwork projects. They will all be worth it in the long haul, but I am not ticking any boxes off quickly and so the quick above felt good.

Which is also what I got when I went “shopping” the other day. Although I got a LOT of fabric, I paid nothing except a heartfelt thank you.

Now, most quilters don’t give their stash away. They somehow naively believe they can sew it all. But sometimes it doesn’t happen that way (honestly most of the time), and so G (of the yearly WOTY card fame) ended up with boxes and boxes of fabric from her friend D. I mentioned that I had to get some fabric for the new little Cruikshank quilt, and she was like, “Come shopping at my house.” Her husband was like, “Bring the truck and was disappointed I didn’t take more!” So we dove into boxes, sort of sorting as we went. I found some starting pieces. In showing her the quilt pattern and detailing the showcase fabric I was looking for as a main, she invited me upstairs into her sewing stash room. She pulled out the drawer and drew out two absolutely 💯 perfect pieces of fabric. Then we found a couple more solids, and I was over the moon. I had helped her de stash and found 11 of the 15 fabrics I need. The bonus point was the feel-good we both got. Her for giving and me for receiving.

There won’t be any finish it Friday posts for a while because in my world, it’s one project at a time, and the big project is ongoing…and ongoing…

So there you have it, whether you wanted it or not, the story of single shoe laces and pieces of random fabric. Plus it’s got a catchy title and first paragraph so that’s another column in the tick boxes.

Bernie