A Little Like Pennies from Heaven

Dear Alice,
Last Monday we had 'Member Showcase' at our regular Guild meeting. At first I thought I would be lucky to find something that I had done in the past year, since often I give things away before that meeting rolls around for me. I had sent Caiden's newly finished sweater off the week before, I had finished Penny's sox shortly after New Year's Day (but not yet delivered them), I had just finished weaving my first-ever rag rug, and not yet hemmed the ends, and I had finished weaving the Big Bluestem project, but not yet finished the ends and sides as I have envisioned. So...nothing to show? I decided that I could take the "It's Spring Alice!" fabric--after all, it was finished! I carefully unrolled it from the tube I had rolled it on, packed it up and took it along to the meeting. Tuesday morning, when I decided that it should be rolled back on the tube (so as not to become creased where I had folded it) I tipped the tube as I was about to put it on and lo! a roll of paper fell out. "What's this?" thought I. Indeed. Notes from Heaven. Alice, it was the instruction sheet for your crackle weave blanket gamp. Thank you...it made me smile, and it made my day!

In the meantime, I have hemmed the first-ever rag rug. It was merely an experiment. I used Janet Meany's Rag Rug Handbook instructions to get an interesting pattern. Rather than use wool, though, I used cottons, a cotton/linen blend, and even a velveteen (OK, yes, it's too thick with the other fabrics, but it was the right color), and I used quarter-inch seams. Of course those are little bumps all over the rug. That day, though, I tossed perfectionism to the wind and recalled Jean's words as I did it. One of the cards I tossed into the fire on New Year's Eve said 'perfectionism'. I really just wanted to play with the rag rug warp since I had never done one before. Jean had said the day before: "I'm always a bit anxious about trying something new like this, but I keep reminding myself that it's only a bunch of thread, and if it gets too ugly, there's always the wood stove." Don't you love it?

Thanks for the serendipity!
Nancy