Today I had a lovely visit from a woman I first met when I was a teenager. We were friends for about five years, then lost contact when we each married and followed separate paths. Imagine my delight when I discover she is living about 20 minutes away by car from the place where we are making our home for the next 12 months! Her name is Julie and she is incredibly creative. Thirty years ago she was very quirky, particularly compared to the shy, introverted, unadventurous person I was then. I treasured the purple and orange crocheted bootees with their leather thonging ties she made for my first baby, Lauren, in the 80's. They were unlike anything I had ever seen before, particularly as it was just the beginning of the era of starting to dress babies in "non-baby" clothes e.g. sweatshirts and denim, and colours other than pink or blue. Today Julie is an accomplished artist, living in a home she designed and built over a four year period with her husband Gary, a painter and potter. The house has adobe exterior walls and paper mache interior walls and is full of creative ideas put into practice. We have rekindled our friendship, each bringing to it a wisdom and experience that we have much pleasure in feeding off and soaking up. I talked through my idea of the embroidery sampler with her and she gives me fresh ideas - lining up the embroidered dotterels (which represent my family name) in a border, even maybe using the swamp bird stitch from tukutuku panels. Maybe making individual samplers focusing on the girls in the family and the rich heritage of sewing and craftwork that has been passed down to me? Maybe making a series of samplers to tell the stories?
Thank you Julie . . . I am so loving being around you again!
