What a thrill to walk into the front entrance of the Road to California Quilt Show and see my quilt lit up with bright lights and signs with my name and my quilt’s name on them in bold letters!! I felt like a movie star walking the red carpet!!
My husband, who is my partner, best friend and “bestest sidekick in the world,” took my hand and we skipped a few steps. Then we sauntered up to the quilt like it was no big deal. A “White Glove” volunteer was behind the rope showing the quilt to passers-by. When he was open, we approached and asked him about the quilt. He began showing us and telling us about the artist, turning the quilt back so we could see the label. The label had some tape over it (so as not to disclose the identity of the maker during judging) and I reached out and began tearing it off. The helper gasped, and at that point I laughed and said, “It’s okay! I’m the artist!” Oh, that was fun to see his face! Fortunately he had a great sense of humor and thought we were pretty funny (but probably not as funny as we thought we were!)
That was a special day — one of those jewels of life that is precious. I want to remember to hold it in my heart for the next time I make a huge mistake while I’m quilting and have to painstakingly rip out each stitch so I can then figure out what went wrong – was it my thread? my tension? something stuck in the bobbin? was it raining? was it sunny? was it Tuesday? That’s when I will sigh and stand there, feeling weary, wanting to go watch TV and eat ice cream. But instead I do some neck rolls and shoulder shrugs — and pull out the memory of that wonderful day.
And that will give me exactly what I need to roll up my sleeves and get back to the work I love.
Sharon Casey Art Quilts 