That I Can Do

I wasn't at all in the mood to go, but I went anyway, to my quilting meeting. We were having a charity quilt work night and I was supposed to bring a mat and rotary cutter and ruler to cut fabric. I was feeling so physically and emotionally drained that I thought, "I'll just bring the stuff, but I don't think I'll be up to doing anything."

My day had been rough for me with stuff going on that caused me to cry and cry and wonder when I would ever stop. Worn out with all that weeping by mid-afternoon, I finally laid down and graciously fell asleep. Sleeping brought an end to the crying. But I still felt wrung out, limp, like a wet dishrag. I woke up with barely enough time to get to ready to go to the meeting. I couldn't find my car keys. I couldn't find a new blade for my rotary cutter, which really needed to be changed, but I finally got out the door.

I came in to the meeting a few minutes late, and said to one of the ladies, "Well, I'm here." Then I stood there for several minutes just taking in what was going on.

A small group of ladies were gathered around a plastic quilt frame working on tying a quilt. Plastic quilt frames move and assemble easily, and tying is a method of quilting that lends itself to being done by groups and is fast. By the end of the evening, that group of ladies would complete tying the quilt they were working on.

Various other parts of the quilting process were going on around the room. Someone was ironing, one lady sat behind a sewing machine, another quilt frame was set up and some more ladies showed up and started working on tying another quilt. I was not feeling like tying, or socializing much. Most of the time I would enjoy that kind of easy flowing conversation, but not this time.

Finally someone asked me to cut some fabric, and with a little discussion over just what was needed, I said, "That's something I can do." I accomplished that in a few minutes, and then pressed the fabric with a little mini iron that was barely working. I don't always iron my clothes, but I do like to use an iron when I'm quilting. I handed over the fabric strips to the lady who was sewing and she said, "Diane, what's the matter?" I said, "Does it show that something is the matter?" And she was so good she didn't ask me what was the matter. I couldn't begin to explain really. She suggested I do some hand sewing to finish off the binding on a quilt. Again I said, "That I can do."

At the end of the evening I was glad I had gone, and it did feel good all of us working together to do something for other people.