Sewing Day

My oldest daughter and I declared last Saturday a joint sewing day.  The opportunities we have just for that purpose are few and far between.  Whenever her schedule allows for a time of communal sewing I grab at the chance.  As with all other designated sewing days we had more than just sewing on the agenda.  Among the items were a visit to Life’s A Stitch Quilt Shoppe, coffee, lunch and of course sewing.

Bag Lady Days

First to be experienced was fabric shopping.  In a previous post I shared about Life’s A Stitch “Bag Lady” shopping days.  The March “Bag Lady Days” were a bit unusual.  To spice things up they encouraged patrons to wear pj’s.  Yes, I said pj’s.  If you were courageous enough to appear in pj’s you were entitled to an additional discount.  Who doesn’t like to save money?  I thought it was a really cool idea.  My daughter . . . not so much.  Of course I had no intention of just wearing my pj’s.  It’s winter, it’s cold and they never said you couldn’t wear them over your other clothes.

First Up

The sale on Saturday started at 6:00 a.m.  We made it our goal to meet by 6:45 a.m.  I thought that was a reasonable expectation but I knew adjustments would most likely be warranted.  Surprisingly we were not too far off.  The first thing I did, after entering the building, was unzip my winter coat and proudly display my pj’s.  The gals behind the counter enthusiastically shared in my delight.  We encouraged one another for following through.  My willingness to participate earned me an additional 5% discount.  Yippee!   We easily killed ninety minutes shopping for fabric and browsing the racks of quilting books and notions.

A Toasty Cup of Coffee

Next was coffee and our ultimate goal of sewing.  After pausing for a warm and inviting cup of java we headed back to my home to commence sewing.  Typically we busy ourselves with independent projects.  This time we decided to work alongside each other creating a hand-made name tag.  Quilt guild ladies take great joy in extending their sewing talents to the construction of a name tag.  Some guilds even reward their members by offering a chance at a door prize just for wearing one.

Easy-Breezy?

Constructing a name tag seemed like a very easy task.  I think we both thought it would take relatively little time to accomplish.  What seemed like an easy-breezy project turned out to be an extremely time-consuming job.  Of course the tendency for both of us to be perfectionists and obsessive over-thinkers might have had something to do with it.  We approached the project with the same enthusiasm and expectations one might have for a quilt.

As Different As Night and Day

Stitch by stitch, square by square we painstakingly assembled our name tags.  Even though we used the same pattern for inspiration our name tags were as different as night and day.  I used my business card for my inspiration.  Although I will most likely continue developing my idea I’m quite pleased with my finished project.  Here’s a couple of pictures of my very first name tag.

So what do you think?  Send me a comment.

That’s A Wrap

Well that’s my contribution to this week’s WIP link-up.  Thanks so much for visiting.  Follow this link to Freshly Pieced for updates from my fellow quilters.