Books quilts and sewing

Careless with Pins

I really haven’t talked to much about the person in my life that is such a large part of everything I am and do, my wife Kay. She has nurtured my creative side from the first time we met and has only gotten better after 16 years. We both like to discover our inner artist and support each other in all our endeavors.

I am not being coy when I say that I wish that I had as much talent as she does, but what I don’t have in talent I make up for in patience and sheer tenacity. I will do something and have it turn out wrong 10 times and once I’ve finally got it right do it a couple more times to ensure I understand why I have to do it a certain way.

Along the way, or as I like to think of it, on my path to creative enlightenment I create messes of epic proportions. Think for a minute what a guy does to a garage and calls it “neat”. Our sewing/living/dining rooms sometimes look like a cyclone has blown through and deposited neat (and sometimes not-so-neat) stacks of fabrics, thread, scissors, and yes… pins everywhere.

I do not even pretend that this doesn’t happen and I’m actually really good about cleaning up once I’ve finished a project. I have to give credit to my wonderful wife however for knowing that this is part of my ‘method’ of creativity.

I also, in smaller circles, talk about this amazing but often invisible cleaning fairy. The fairy comes by after me when I’m not looking and deposits items back where they belong. If I wait long enough, the fairy will clean the entire room while I’m not looking. This joke came about one time when I caught my wife cleaning up after me. She was picking up some items that I had left out because I was still using them. Instead of making this fact clear, it came to me as a funny moment when I stayed her hand from picking said object up and said “You don’t have to clean this up Kay“. She informed me that it wasn’t going to clean itself. I then told her that if we wait long enough, and leave the room the cleaning fairy will come and do it for us.

She game me that look like I was crazy until I explained that it had happened earlier that same day already. To which she replied that it was her and not some ‘cleaning fairy‘. It was then I saw the light go on and got smacked! We have joked about it ever since.