Appreciation comes in time
Many years ago when I was a young married woman, my mother made a comment that has stayed with me all my life.
"do without it now and when you get it, you'll appreciate it all the more".
I have lived by that thought ever since.
It all started with a folding card table and set of 4 chairs. This set was a dark green. The padded seats had wear tears and the table was a little wobbly....but Mum bought it for me for $20. We had that table and chairs for a very long time. The table disappeared quite a while ago, but the chairs lingered around the house for many years after. I have good memories about that table and chairs. Mum was right. When we replaced those chairs with lovely oak dining chairs, I loved those new chairs and appreciated them all the more.
We inherited a two seater hide-a-bed when we got married. The bed was horrible and the foam in the seats was starting to disintegrate and we had "foam sand" everywhere. But when we bought our first "real" couch, I was so very proud and I still have that couch!
I waited a very long time in our marriage to buy our first home......you guessed it!
Looking back on my life, I see lots of times when we did without, or spent the least amount of money to make do, but when the time was right, we so much appreciated it.n The experiences in my life have been the same.
I've just "officially" joined the Handi Quilter family as one of 3 new Canadian field educators! We spent last week in Salt Lake City and were treated like royalty and welcomed many, many times by all who worked there.
I purchased my first Handi Quilter machine, a Sweet Sixteen in 2009. I had been quilting for years on my domestic machines and a mid-arm and found that since I was quilting bigger quilts, I didn't have the throat space to get the quilts through. I so appreciated the extras that my Sweet Sixteen gave me, the needle was right up front (very good visibility) and the machine was turned sideways, so I never hit the "wall" when quilting. I was enjoying quilting customer quilts on this machine and "pooh-pooed" the idea of a stand up longarm machine.
I soon found that I couldn't manage the extra large quilts I was quilting on my Sweet Sixteen. I fought the idea of growing to a stand up longarm machine for a very long time. I finally visited a friend and "played" on her machine for an hour and was hooked!
I've had my Avante for 3 years now. I love it! I will sit down occasionally on the Sweet Sixteen to work on a smaller project just because my first love is pushing the fabric around. But, I can easily quilt a very large quilt (100" x 100") with ease.
Now, I'm upgrading again! I've waited a long time and at our recent training in Salt Lake City, we were taught how to use the Pro Stitcher Software! My Gosh! I'm hooked on all the things that software can do! I've ordered it and can't wait to play.
So, back to my original point of this post, when we do with out, when we struggle and fail, when we struggle and succeed and finally get it, we appreciate things all the more. I look back on my life as a quilter and teacher and see all the struggles and failures. I also see the step by step progresses and am so thankful that I had those experiences.
As I start this new adventure, I can see what has come before in my life. I am prepared (I hope) for my new experiences as a Handi Quilter Educator. I appreciate all that has come before and can't wait for what is to come.