Doors open...

Here it is friday afternoon, late August. The windows are open. The breeze is sweeping through the studio. A little blue eyed soul on the soundtrack. A couple of sewing machines humming. The dog actually sleeping on his bed. All my fabric unpacked and stacked, neatly for the moment, on my shelves. A world of possibilities at my fingertips. Life is good.  Our doors are open.  A Gathering of Stitches is no longer just an idea. It is now a flesh and blood, concrete and wallboard, furnished and peopled reality.  We opened the doors just over a week ago to a lovely reception from a wonderful group of people. The room was filled with teachers, studio tenants, stitchers of every stripe, enthusiastic supporters. We had some wine and some nibbles. I could see my excitement reflected in the faces of everyone in the room. I collapsed in a heap the very next day, but that night was dreamy.

And now we begin the business of sharing/teaching/supporting others in the world of fiber and textiles. There will be kinks to work through no doubt. I will learn which methods work and which don't the same way I learned a couple of different ways of casting on my knitting. I will experiment, I will test, I will trial and error. Hopefully you all will come along on the ride with me.  I promise it will be fun, and we'll all learn new things. I have already learned that I may have been a bit ambitious in my opening workshop schedule. But that wasn't a bad thing to learn. I am greatly enjoying accustoming myself to this space and how to create within it. I made a tote bag the other day and when I post this little bit of writing I will close the laptop and pull out some fabric...

Can I tell you how good it feels to be at the sewing machine again? I had to take a three month hiatus while I worked on getting AGOS up and running. During that period I comforted myself with the knowledge that the end goal was to build a place where I, and many others, could get down and get creative.  So here we go.

Are you coming along....?