As part of the 4th year Blog Anniversary Celebration for tierneycreates, I planned to re-post the blog posts over the past 4 years that either had the most views or the most comments throughout the month of October 2017. However I came across this post from my very early days of blogging (my second month, November 2013) when I was still trying to figure what to blog about (I now have a backlog of about 50 things I want to blog about, ha!) that I just want to share. I think there were only 2 comments on the original post and at this point I only have 5 followers to my blog!

This post makes me smile – not just for the Rumi quote that I love, but because it reminds me that soon it will be time again for the Stitchin’ Post‘s Annual Pajama Sale! This is always such a fun event that occurs each November. If you show up in your pajamas between 6:30 – 8:00 am you get 35% off your entire order! I love all our Central Oregon quilt shops but the Stitchin’ Post has a spectacular collection of fabric, especially if you are into modern quilting or you are an art quilter. It also has an amazing selection of yarn and gifts in its adjoining Twigs Store.

Yes it is pretty awesome to get access to this incredible fabric and yarn at 35% off once a year but the best part of the Pajama Sale is the silly camaraderie of a store crammed with quilters in their PJs! The whole small town of Sisters, Oregon ends of filled with quilters walking around in their PJs on their way to breakfast after the sale. I always meet up with a group of friends and we wandered around the sale, visiting with other local quilting buddies and then head to breakfast in our PJs. We always get a kick out of the tourists who are at breakfast and giving us all curious looks like – “Wow this town is really casual. On Saturdays no one changes into clothes to go to breakfast!??!”

Oh apologies if you are tired of me talking about table runners, they are also mentioned in the post below. 

Holding On and Letting Go (11/13/2013)

Saturday 11/9/13 I roused myself out of bed at 5:30 am, changed into my “good pajamas” and headed with friends to the the Stitchin’ Post quilt shop’s annual PJ sale. If you get there by some crazy hour, dressed in your pajamas (and it is crazy cold outside), you get a crazy discount on nearly everything in the store.

Naturally this is something for my hard-core-quilting-friends not to miss. After wandering around a packed quilt shop in the wee hours of the morning, with a sea of women (and an occasional son or husband that tagged along), with bolts of fabric stacked in your arms, it is time to go to breakfast. That is when the real fun begins – flocks of quilters in their pajamas wander the streets of Sisters, Oregon looking for the best place for post-shopping-frenzy breakfast.

There is something so pleasurable about sitting around in a local diner, having breakfast with your friends, in your PJs …with the occasional stare from an out-of-towner who is likely thinking “wow they are really casual in Central Oregon, they don’t even bother to get dressed to go out!”

While at the annual Pajama sale, I wandered over to the gift shop connected to the Stitchin’ Post – Twigs. Nested among artsy kitchen and home decor items, I found a small plaque that really spoke to me. I contained a quote by the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi: “life is a balance of holding and letting go”.

This quote was very timely to me as I am struggling with creating pieces for my Etsy store that I end up wanting to keep for own home! I am fairly sure that the poet Rumi meant something much  deeper than struggling to let go of your hand made items, but this quote is helping me work through the process of let go to achieve my dream of selling to the public…maybe.

I just finished my first Modern Quilt Table Runner for my upcoming Etsy store and I wanted to keep it! The idea of doing table runners for my store came from my friend Marla Jo. I was struggling with the idea of making quilts to sell as they take a tremendous amount of work and you never know how they will sell online. Instead I can make modern and unique art quilt table runners that can be used as either table runners or hung as small narrow art quilts in someone’s home.

Not sure if I am going to sell the first “prototype” Modern Quilt Table Runner or only future iterations (still working through the “letting go” part). Below are a couple photos of it. It is my original design using a single piece of beautiful cream fabric with color variations from light to dark and inserting bands of pieced fabrics. I used an original quilting design.

Let me end this post with a couple more Rumi quotes – they are always food for thought whether you apply them to quilting or to life in general:

“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?” ― Rumi

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”  – Rumi

“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” – Rumi

“Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.” – Rumi

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi

Feature image credit: socialmediapostclub.com