Search and Rescue

     I am on a mission.  I am always on a mission of one sort or another.  This time the mission is guided by the "waste not want not" theology with which I was raised.  As I began unpacking new fabric yesterday, I reached for pins to hold the fold on the bolt...and the pin cushion was empty.  In the process of looking for pins, I got side tracked and never went back to the task.  So this morning, when I came into the shop...there were the new bolts of fabric, waiting for me and still no pins.

     Yes there is a peg board filled with notions, and yes, there are boxes of my favorite flower head pins there.  I resist breaking out new pins.  Surely there were some already opened somewhere.  As I sat down at my desk, I happened to notice a pin in the crack of the floor boards.  I found a magnetic Pin Grabber, quite empty and the pin hopped out of the crack on onto the holder.  I didn't stop.  A half an hour later , I had picked up magnetically pulled so many pins from the cracks in the floor board that I had filled the pin grabber.

     We live in such a throw away society, that it is easier to buy new than find what we already have.  Now I know that a little pile of glass headed straight pins really is not big deal.  But it made me feel good, and it made me think about what I waste, and what I  throw out or buy twice as a matter of convenience. 

     I am going through my fabric here at the shop--again !  I am calling it Search and Rescue.  I open a drawer or find a box full of pieces, usually leftovers from three projects....or more.  It is all very good fabric.  I still like it.  I would not think of throwing it away.  Just sitting in the drawer, it becomes a forgotten thing.  So I spend a day, sorting, pressing evaluating and cutting the fabric into usable pieces.  Then I store it so that I can more easily see what I have, and how I might use it.  I already have several scrap projects in mind. 

     I know I am in business to sell fabric and notions.  I also want to sell you on the idea that what you have in hand is a great resource....you just have to know what you have.  I am glad to have you come through the door with a piece of fabric you need help with adding coordinates.  I see my job as helping you with ongoing projects as well as beginning new ones.  Both are important to the success of our business.

      I am also going to help you with your own Search and Rescue.  We will be setting up workshop times here for you to bring in your bundles of scraps and learn how to sort, press, evaluate, cut and store your collections of scraps.  Look for information coming out in our updates, 

      "When life gives you scraps, make a quilt".  That is a sign hanging in my studio at home.  Sometimes I have to sort the scraps in order to have them be something of worth.  This is my year to search and rescue.  What an adventure!!  See you on the journey!!!                         .......Rachel