One of my oldest and dearest friends, Tess, has a knack for finding great books at yard sales and church book swaps. Recently she gifted me this great old quilting book - in a practical sense its a HORRIBLE book, but the content is actually pretty inspiring to me. I was really pleasantly surprised to find this note inside the front cover -- it's pretty hillarious and sweet. The gentle teasing mixed with a bit of admiration and affection is spot on. It's easy to imagine the mennonite lady somewhere in central PA with remarkable canning, sewing and gardening skills that was given this book. Notice the Pennsylvania Dutch: 'schwester' = sister.

Part of why its such a perfect note is because it reminds me of Tess and her own gentle teasing balanced by her undying loyalty and affection. She's the kind of friend I'm super grateful to have. Her perfect gift reminds me that being excited and inspired ignites other peoples excitement in what you're doing. I love that my friend who could care less about making things can still be engaged with my practice at the moment. I can't tell you how many great clippings and links my grandparents and other family members send my way. Making things isn't just a selfish obsession of mine, but it becomes what connects me to the people around me. Everytime I send a quilt on its way to someone new I'm lucky to know that they're going to use it, love it, talk about it.

And the colors on the cover -- I mean so good -- what more can I say?