TRÉ R and D: In the studio with Tré Lilli: Inglenook Quilting Bee: A new member

Meet Ms Lizzy - she brought a stack of fabric strips and she sewed seams while I pressed and pinned strips together. She managed to get two panels the size of the one she's holding sewn before the bobbin gave out.

This week at Inglenook, I arrived with a machine that was donated by a guild member. I knew that Ms Annie wasn't going to be joining us and I was pretty sure I was going to be the only guild member that morning. There was a lot of activity at the library, and I noted that two utility workers were waiting for the library to open when I arrived. Shortly after putting our room together: opening closets, pulling out the big cutting table, setting up the iron, the sewing machine, etc, a new member arrived. The lovely Ms Lizzy came walking in with the most beautiful smile upon her face. Not recognizing me since I wasn't there the week before, she walked into the room and sat at a table, seemingly waiting patiently for someone she knew to arrive. I introduced myself and she got very excited to begin.

Ms Lizzy had come the previous week with her sister, who is a quilter and Ms Lizzy said that her sister wanted to get into hand-sewing and hand-quilting and wasn't interested in working on a machine. Ms Lizzy however, was so happy to find us and talked a happy streak as she sewed seams into her fabric strips. She told me that she had gotten into crocheting a few years ago and had made one of her children a bedspread. When the other children saw the bedspread, Ms Lizzy got a long list of requests. She told me she was now working on the last of ten bedspreads and that this last one was a queen-size. She also told me that she used to hand-quilt and that she still has a contraption that attaches to the wall so that you can roll the quilt up and away as you go. She even said there is a quilt still in the contraption that she started many decades ago.

When women tell me stories such as these, I beg them to let me visit their homes and they always say no. Would that I were a ladybug and could hop into Ms Lizzy's purse in order to see this quilt up close and personal.

It was exciting to have a new member and though we missed Ms Annie (and prayed for her husband who was having a procedure that morning) we talked and laughed and sewed for most of the morning. Twice we had young men walk into our room and ask what we were up to. I tried to convince both men to sit and sew a seam, but one was shy and the other was one of the utility workers I had seen at the beginning of the morning. The utility worker strayed and started speaking with me about sewing and fabric and Jeraldine walked over and said, "Now don't be flirting with us and messing us up from all the hard work we're doing. If you want to sew, fine, if you don't, get on your way". As I blushed a shade of purple, I grinned big, thinking of my great-grandmother. She certainly would have said something as direct and it made me want to hug these sweet women who have become members of an extended family for me. Jearldine didn't scare the young man away though and he just grinned and asked if we could go on a date sometime. It wasn't until his co-worker came looking for him that he finally left, but not before promising to come sew with us on a day off. This got the ladies talking about men and beaus and while I tinkered with our new Singer and it's sensitive bobbin, I listened to stories of first dates and flirtation and sweethearts from many decades past. As with every week, our three hours flew past and it was time to leave before I managed to get the machine properly threaded. I'm hoping that Sharon, the guild's bee keeper and a fixture at Inglenook will be able to attend next week and will have some savvy with the machine that I don't yet have.