fabric alert!

It was an innocent errand, really! I had time yesterday, and the dining table was cleared off (two days in a row!) so I had room to set up the sewing machine. Ken has been reminding me that he has a pair of shorts to repair and a couple of pair of pants that need to be shortened. Time to get to work! The dilemma was that I had no thread that came even close to the color of his shorts, a grayish dark green faded somewhat by wear and wash (I'm sure you can picture it perfectly now).

So off I went to Lebanon's one and only fabric store that also doubles as a vacuum cleaner sales and repair retailer (a natural combination, don't you think?), though more accurately, they really only carry quilting cottons. You won't hear me protest! I only needed thread, and found a decent color match within minutes.

At the sales counter, a transaction was taking place that seemed more complex than a house closing. It was going on and on and on... I decided to spen some time looking around, a very dangerous thing for me to do in a fabric store. It didn't matter that I had no money to spend on fabric. My whole being was experiencing inner peace simply by being in the midst of all those glorious patterns and colors. The reality that I couldn't afford to get attached to any of it, however, sent me back to wait my turn at counter.

While I waited (and it continued to be a good long while) I spent some of those many moments looking over what was within my reach. A magazine caught my eye. "NO!" the voice of reason inside me warned. "It's just a magazine," the stronger voice countered, and before I knew it it was in my hands along with the thread.

The bad news is that I can't afford to go shop to make any of the creations in the magazine that tempt me. The good news is that I already have a LOT of fabric. The dilemma--most of it is packed away because we simply don't have the space for it in this house.

But stay tuned. I'm a problem solver by nature, and the little gray cells will work on this over the next few days, I'm sure. After all, Christmas isn't so far away.