Working Retail at Christmas

It is getting closer to Christmas and people are getting more stressed.... Very often retail worker become the place to vent their stress... It may be that they were to late to get it delivered on time. It may be that they don't know what to get. It may be that they picked the perfect gift too late and it is now out of stock. I could go on but you get my drift. Most of us working retail from grocery stores to department stores, specialty stores or even restaurants know what this time of year is like.

Well beyond the stress is the glimmer of hope. The people who are truly thankful and have gotten past the stress. Some are even looking for ways to make life better for others. I had a man to today get a cup of coffee and left his change to buy purchased of the young retail workers waiting in line. He left money to pay for the next two but it actually covered the next three and a half. A little extra change meant that one lady didn't have to dig to the bottom of her purse. It gave her a smile. Thank you to the man who payed it forward today and restored the spirit of Christmas to the day. Here is to a little hope and joy.

A few of my Wall Hangings with Embroidery

Here are some of the photos I promised to start adding to the blog. This is what I have been up to lately. I have been getting used to my new Brother sewing machine with embroidery features. The first awl hanging, top left, is a raw edge appliqué peace symbol with "PEACE" embroidered below. The size is 17 inches wide by 20 inches long with two triangles on the back for a hanging rod.











The  blue block with a diamond center is a left over block from a runner / wall hanging you will see posted later. It reminded me of a quote which is part of the poem Desederata. I thought that the block had a look of the universe. The size of this block is 11 1/2 inches square.

The red and black wall hang in was also created from some more left over black and white blocks and was my first use of my new embroidery machine. This wall hanger is 25 inches square with a hanging pocket on the back. The word "Hope" is a little brighter than all the rest of the words. I love this type face with its subtle nuances.

You know that there are stories that come with all of my projects. This one involved my use of thread from my wife's sewing room. I used up two rolls of thread on the words "Wisdom, Courage and Strength" so by the time I got to "Hope" I had to change color and the brighter white only seemed natural.

I dropped the feed dogs...

Today (Monday) was the start of a perfect day. I have the day off and my wife has to work. That means I get to use the sewing room.

I have a wall hanging that I started earlier in September. I knew it needed to be embellished and I thought I would use text to fill in the lighter blocks.

The whole piece has relied on serendipity. I started with a few charm pack blocks. I placed two on top of each other, right sides face up on both, and made a cut across on an angle. I traded one side top for bottom and sewed them together. I mixed the blocks with two others and made the next cut across. I kept changing this until I had something like stained glass. I added two sided pieces to the blocks and joined them in a cross shape and added the background. The background is a variety of strips with the idea that a strip continues behind the cross.

I laid out text vertically and cut stencils with a Silhouette cutting machine. I used fabric markers to color in the stencils on my wall hanging. THEN, I dropped the feed dogs and did free motion quilting in the letters. I was only going to color in the letters this morning, but once I got started I couldn't stop and the next thing I knew it was noon. Some time later I had the binding finished and all before two o'clock.

I think the real reason my wife doesn't want me in the sewing room is because I am not getting any house work done...

This is the fifth wall hanging I have done based on the cross. I will share my earlier ones in another post. At some time in the future, I hope to start publishing patterns for some of my wall hangings.