Friends who Stitch Together...

My friend and I took a class at a local quilt shop last week. She just had a birthday recently, and I wanted to do give her something unique and fun as a birthday present. When I saw the class information in my inbox, a light bulb went "!!!", I had to book our spot for the class.

I have been sewing for a long time, but I hardly ever take classes. I am a self taught sewer through books and trial and error. To tell you the truth, it is a bit of a hassle to go to another location to sew and I become a bit anxious when I don't know what to expect. Though, I must say the class was so fun and relaxing and I learned quit a bit of things that I didn't know about.

Pine Needle is my most favorite shop around here and the class was taught by the talented Sandra Walkman. We learned how to make English paper pieced coaster and it was such a delightful class! My friend loves to learn new things and taking classes, I knew she would enjoy a gift like this.

This friend of mine is special to me. We have been friends for more than 16 years. I feel like she came into my life when I really needed a friend; I mean a true friend.

I had a great set of friends in Japan, where I was born and raised. Even though my parents moved a lot, I made many great friends in my high school years and I still keep in touch with them. When I went back a couple years ago, they did a mini-reunion for me and got together to catch up a few times within the two weeks I was there.

For a few years after I moved to United States, I really struggled... I missed my family and friends, and I didn't speak English at all. I used to be a very chatty person and love to tell jokes and make others laugh, but I couldn't do that in English. I felt like my true self was locked up somewhere inside of me and I had a very hard time getting to know people and making friends. Usually, well, at least from my own experiences, people aren't that patient with you when you don't speak their language.

My friend and I met, when I was at the point that I could understand most of what people were saying and I could kind of speak English, but I wasn't very confident, also, I was a little afraid to even give it a try. Who would like to make yourself look silly or feel dumb, right? At the time, I was twenty something, but when I speak I felt like I sounded like a toddler.

Because of her kindness I slowly opened up. Eventually, I didn't care if I sounded dumb, English became a tool to communicate with her. She was very patient with me, and if I made mistakes or mispronounced some thing she would teach me in a way that it was very natural. I didn't feel belittled or judged by her at all. Mr. TRH did that for me too, but we girls need friends, don't you think?

She is a pretty private person (no blog) so I won't tell you too much about her, but she has been such a blessing to me. She has been there for me when I needed a shoulder to cry on, or to share great news with. I learned so much from her and have tremendous respect for who she is and her values. I hope she feels the same way about me too.

Over the years our lives have changed quite a bit, so we don't see each other as often as we would like to. I feel like we are different in many areas, yet we have so much in common. One of the common threads is "quilt making". I think the saying "Friends who stitch together stick together" is so true. When we sit and chat, while our hands are busy working, I feel like we can start from where we left off.

I think, well at least for me, it is hard to come by such a good friend... I want to make sure that I nourish our friendship so it will last for a long time.

Do you have such a friend? What do you do to nourish that friendship? Let me know if you have special ways of doing so, I think we can all benefit from your experiences. :)