A Day Worth Remembering

In my book, today was a day worth remembering - one full of blessings - one that could so otherwise have gone utterly pear shaped!  But it didn't.


To begin with I was up until 1.30 am last night (or is that this morning?) and found it really hard to settle from sheer excitement and was up again at 7.00 am to finish all the patterns and last minute prep for my first ever sewing class.  I have a stinkin' cold right now which has been slowly coming on over the past 3 days and I think it picked today to hit it's peak - well I hope it's peaked - sure feels miserable and I'm still popping pills just to get through it. I think it's a good rub of Vick's on the ol' chest tonight.  And as if all that wasn't enough I was scrambling around last minute for another venue - don't even ask! - or class would have to be cancelled.


I have ALWAYS wanted to teach a sewing class - it is one of my dreams.  Sewing was my first love and it still runs pretty deep.  Might sound soppy but it's true.


With all that has been going on I needed a quick prayer this morning and the saying 'hem your day in with a little prayer and it will not unravel' comes to mind.  Appropriate too since we were sewing!  It could so easily have unravelled but faith got me through it. 

Needless to say it didn't unravel.  Hubby managed to find me another venue at super short notice and in my budget range plus I managed to get a hold of everyone to update them.  I usually hate mobile phones but NOT today! Everyone got there, things began to slot into place and it was soooooo worth every bit of effort that I've spent - and hubby's spent over 3 days running up to today.  Turns out he's pretty good at tracing and cutting out patterns as well as the usual setting up tables and clearing it all away again.  I couldn't have done it without him and I wouldn't have wanted to either.  Love that man :-)

We made up a total of 7 patterns in all - 3 turbie (2 sizes included) and 4 box bag patterns (3 sizes included).  This might not sound like much but I had to print and stitch the pattern pockets, type and print off instructions for each, draw, cut and mark up pattern pieces plus create samples and photograph the process to create a 'pictorial' and then save them on to CD.  There may only have been 5 ladies in class - one cancelled due to a cold - I know just how she feels right now :-( but I also sold 2 patterns on top plus took an order for another one for Monday.  Believe me when I say that's a whole lot of work!

But when I look at these photos of the girls busy at their machines and I think about the pretty things they created, I feel really happy because I had some small hand in that.  Not a single person went home without having finished their project and I had some REAL beginners in class.  I love Sara's sewing box BTW.

Jilly was among those, bless her, and since she was late getting there she also had to play catch up as well.  But even she made it home with a finished project.  This was the first time I had seen her wearing the apron I made her last Christmas.  This is one of the next class projects.

I plan to deliberately keep classes small so that I can give more attention to everyone and 5 was a good size.  I could manage 6 but I'm not sure I'd like to teach 2 different projects in the same class to more than that.

Today's class was either a turbie towel head wrap or a box based bag so I divided the tables by projects.  It was a nice opportunity for me to have Pauline along.  We work opposite each other throughout the week and I felt honoured that she was in one of my sewing classes.  She quilts and sews and is extremely good at it - I've seen her quilts and they're just beautiful.  In fact she showed up with a pretty patchwork bag and this sewing machine mat - which by the way I just loved!  I am sooooo going to add in another class with something similar.

Pauline worked with a really pretty floral and gingham style fabric which made up the smallest size bag beautifully.  It had a lovely 'old fashioned' feel to it.

Sara chose the turbie project and here she is modelling it.  I love this shot cos she looks just like a 1940's - 1950's mum in her pinny and headscarf (turbie).  I should've taken a closer shot of her turbie because it was a really pretty Amy Butler fabric - no wonder it looks so glam!

Susan also made up a turbie and yes of course she had to model hers too.  Sorry girls but you know I can't do classes without my camera coming out at some point, sad person that I am I know.  You were all great sports.  I did of course model the turbie myself at the start of the class but ha, ha - nobody had a camera out at the time.  Otherwise I might've been in this post too.

And I think I was most impressed with Kay today out of everyone.  She is a dark horse ya know.  I thought I might have to hold her hand throughout class - mostly cos she kept telling me she couldn't sew -  but nope!  She rose to the challenge and exceeded it!  She did a fantastic job with her pretty little pink bag.  And since this already has a recipient to go to the gift giving has already begun - yay!  That was the whole idea.

And this is Jilly's sweet little bag - a really different fabric choice (repurposed curtains would you believe?) but you know what?  Now that it's made up it's sooo Jilly.  She made the medium sized bag with longer straps so she could take her lunch AND her uniform to work.  I just love that she's gonna be using it right away.

Up until a couple of days ago I really didn't know whether or not classes would run so I decided to ask God to bless this venture.  It wasn't long after that there was a sudden flurry of ladies booking on, one after the other and even one this morning - hence the madness with getting patterns made up in time.  I may not have done much sewing myself today but I was in my element watching everyone else sew.  Oh why couldn't I have been a home economics teacher? 

Then because I was tired and hungry when I finally got home - I think the day was catching up with me (or the pills wearing off) AND because he had just been the best sweetheart of a man - I took hubby to dinner to say thank you.  Nothing fancy - we're not fancy people - just pizza and salad at Pizza Hut but the down time together was still nice.  And as we were tucked away in the corner we took time out to bow our heads and give thanks before we ate - much the same as we do with every meal at home - which felt absolutely the right thing to do after a day full of blessings. 

And as if that wasn't enough, He even provided a beautiful rainbow to lead us home afterwards.  Well actually this is God we're talking about he provided a 'double' rainbow - one for each of us - I was sure mine was the bigger, brighter one LOL!  I just couldn't get them both into shot at the same time but they were there - trust me. 

Did anyone else see these today?  I can't remember the last time I saw one but I stood outside with hubby and admired this one until our neighbour came out and joined us and it was awesome.  God's very much present in our lives right now, leading us both to a new church and when they sang one of the songs last Sunday that we had at mom's funeral - who was very much on our minds - the first year has only just passed - I couldn't help but feel a real sense that He was with us as He always is if we stop to notice. 

Today I stopped to notice.  Maybe that's the real reason why I feel so blessed by today. 

Then again there are also a whole lot of lovely people in this world and today I got to spend a few hours with some of them so a big THANK YOU goes out to you all and especially to Sara who urged me to book dates and teach sewing classes.  Sometimes, just sometimes, I need a push and you were so supportive.  I forgot to tell you how much I appreciated it Sara.

I hope everyone else was blessed by today too.



Big HUGS

Suezie