Our Quilt Guild held it's last meeting for the year on Tuesday evening. Someone, in her infinite wisdom, decided to change the venue! This meeting was to be held all the way out in Ajax, about a half hour drive from my place. To make matters worse, it was to be a pot luck dinner and I was supposed to bring a dessert - enough for about 6 people. That should not have been difficult, but I had no time to bake or prepare anything. I had been busy in my garden all day! I did not want to show up without a dessert! What to do? What to do? I decided to do the only thing any conscientious, hardworking gardener, covered in soil and dirt, would do! I decided to stop at Tim Hortons for a box of Timbits! I hate it when people are so lazy and just buy something stupid, like Timbits - those little dough balls laced with oil and fat! Yuk! But what could I do? Ordinarily I am a quilter! But after the May two-four weekend, I turn into DADA! SUPER GARDENER! I can think of nothing else than the plants in my garden! My nails get dirty and chipped! My hands won't come clean anymore! They are hard and calloused and dry! My skin gets tanned from too much exposure to the sun. I forget to drink water and get dehydrated! And my feet get so filthy that I must wash them before entering the house! Like my hands, they will probably never be clean again! Not until the arrival of the first frost anyway!
I tried my best to look like a quilter for the evening! I took a shower and cleaned my nails! I changed into clean clothes, put on a quilted vest, combed my hair and brushed my teeth. No one would be able to see that my first hobby had taken second place to my new hobby! But try as I might, I was still late getting to the meeting. And on top of that, the meeting was to start half an hour early, and I had half an hour farther to drive to get there.
As I was getting into the car I realized that I was out of gas! What else could go wrong? On, no! I had no money! Not even the $2.25 for a pack of 20 Timbits! So I stopped at the bank machine, went to Timmy's, and got gas at the only station that still puts it in for you! After all, I didn't want my hands to get dirty again!
I could only drive slowly along highway 2. I had to fight rush hour traffic combined with construction all the way to Ajax! I parked my car in the last space outside the church and as quietly as I could, went inside and sat at the back of the room. I hoped I would be inconspicuous, but some members had already seen me and started waving! I waved back - sort of low down - to avoid making a spectacle of myself. Our president was speaking at the podium. I waited politely until she was finished. As soon as I could, I handed in the two quilts I had made for quilts from the heart (quilts that will go to charity), paid my dues for next year (I will again become a quilter in September!) and put my Timbits on the dessert table, being careful to do so when no one was watching!
Aside from the pot luck, the highlight of the evening was a singing quilter, named Cathy Miller. She and her husband, John Bunge had come to entertain us! They sang songs about quilting and the special things that go with that. It made me feel proud to be a quilter, even if it is for only half the year!!! Most of their songs made fun of what we do - like buying too much fabric, having a stash, avoiding housework in order to quilt and disguising new fabric purchases so as not to evoke the wrath of our families! It all sounds so crazy when someone sings about it! Included in their lyrics were acronyms like UFOs (UnFinished Objects), PIGS (Projects In Grocery Sacks), and WIPs (Works in Progress). We all enjoyed it immensely! At the end we gave them a standing ovation, in the hopes that they would do just one more song. But, alas, they didn't. It was time to go home! It took me until after 10:00pm before I drove into the driveway. As I reflected on the evening, I was glad that I had conquered all the obstacles in order to attend the last meeting for this year! It had been most enjoyable. Good food, well except for that box of Timbits someone had brought! Good company - quilters are the greatest! And..... I still had some cash left over from my trip to the bank machine. I had a car full of gas, a box with about 8 Timbits left in it, (I saved them to have with my coffee the next morning) and a case of hiccups from laughing so much during the performance! Tomorrow I will spend that bit of left over cash on some more plants. After all isn't that what every gardener needs- more plants? Just like a quilter needs more fabric! It makes me glad to be a quilter AND a gardener!
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