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Deborah Sweet has left the buildng.........retired that is.

1/31/2023

35 Comments

 
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How quickly eight years has sped by.  It seems like only yesterday Deborah Sweet applied for a job at the studio and this past Friday, her last day of work at Encompassing Designs, retirement spirited her away. 

Deborah is one of a kind.  She is talented, intelligent, hardworking, conscientious, honest to a fault and a quality maker of all things.  It was a privilege to be in her company and work alongside her. She was a strong asset to the studio and has left big shoes to fill. She turned 71 this month, hung up her apron and is well deserving of the next chapter of her life.  

I could fill pages with her many attributes but I’ll try to keep it terse.  A thousand words would never be enough to encompass the many aspects of Deborah anyway, for she is a shining star. She was the consummate employee of the week for the entire eight years she graced us with her presence. Customers loved her and I received many accolades as they raved about how helpful and talented she is, how lucky I am to have her, they called her a gem, and said how lovely she is to deal with.  With her artistic background, she knew colour like a second language and created a wonderful line of patterns for the delight of our customers.   

I never worried about leaving the studio in her capable hands.  I depended on her even more in 2022 as Covid, and then Long Covid, stole my enthusiasm and physical health.  If not for Deborah, the shop would have been closed for good and I appreciate her staying the course in my absence. Deborah, Shane and I were like a well-oiled machine, a team working together to offer the top-quality products our customers rely on. 

I walked into the shop Monday morning and it felt cold and foreign. No, it was not the temperature as I shuddered and clutched my fake fur around me.  The air was tinged with a palpable sadness that chilled me to the bone.  Deborah really was gone and I gently mourned her loss to the studio.  I teared up as she drove away Friday afternoon, her last day with us but there was always a hidden hope it wasn’t true but Monday morning’s reality hit hard.  One half of me is happy for the new adventure she is embarking on, the other half of me, the selfish part, wonders how I can go on without her. 

This is not the end of course, like she joked every time I moaned over her leaving telling me “It’s not like I’m dead!”  We are friends and most likely she will stop in occasionally when she is out’n about, we are both avid readers and will continue to swap books, perhaps she’ll hook with us on Wednesdays, perhaps one day go for coffee and a tea when I finally take off my mask in the outside world.  Like all stages of life, things will change and take on a different form.  She is, after all, only down the road a bit……      

Oh well, time to get out those big girl panties and pull them up to my armpits. No more being spoiled with time off, come hell or high water it’s back to working six days a week until the new gals can be left on their own.  In the meantime I will concentrate on getting my mojo back now that I am almost fully recovered from the ravishes of this awful virus.    

All the best Deborah in anything and everything you do.  I’m sure there is a bit of an adjustment to be had on your end as well.  I hope you do all the things that bring you bliss and best of all you can now sleep-in when needed, how glorious is that?  And remember, the door is always open if you’d like to come back in any capacity.  Of course, that’s wishful thinking on my part.  If I wasn’t such an old dog, I could accept change.  I’ll be fine, I really just want you to know the impact you made on Shane and on me and how much you’ll be missed!  

My therapy during this transition period is to madly hook my revamped Funky Fish designs. I’ve added to the two older ones from 2001 for some new patterns and kits for the shop. Who doesn’t love a fun, funky fish?  They are the last patterns Deb drew before she left last week so I want to do them justice.  There is nothing better than hooking to soothe a sad soul and inspire hope of new things to come.  Colour can do that.  It’s like a hug from a rainbow. 

The fish are bright and happy and the borders are an exercise in shapes.  Each one sports a different colour plan but the Poseidon hand dyed wool is throughout the rugs to bring continuity to the project.  The rectangle was first, giving birth to the idea of an aquatic collection, then came the circle followed by the oval.  There will be a fourth, a square with a fish looking front on and perhaps a fifth, a hexagon border rounding out the geometric shapes.   I’ll arrange the collection artistically on the shop wall to create a fitting “splash” of colour and a “swimmingly” fun display.  Stay tuned for updates and photos as I progress with this project.    

Deborah, thank you for all your remarkable years of service and all the very best from Shane, Rasa, Judi, Gregg, Henri, Fiz, Jake and me.  


35 Comments

Changes.....

1/9/2023

11 Comments

 
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I am a sentimental old fool.  I hold on to the past with both hands, cradling the link to save it from the ravishes of time. Letting go of items from the past is outside my comfort zone and add that to my attachment feelings for inanimate objects, well it prevents me from embracing change.    This is my defense……


Years ago, when I opened my studio, I needed a zig zag sewing machine to sew the edges of the patterns to keep them from fraying.  Mom had her mother-in-law’s Singer in storage since Nana became a resident of a nursing home. Remarkably the Singer and I shared the same age so of course we bonded.  It was a workhorse that would sew through pretty much anything you could throw at it, was as heavy as a large sack of potatoes and amazingly, still in immaculate shape.  But what made it even more special than condition and family history was the carved initials of M. Bird on the metal base representing Marguerite Bird, my father’s mother.  In my heart, I was forging a connection with my grandmother through a tangible piece of her past by using it in my present. It was a feel-good association filled with love and pride……until it wasn’t.

Like any appliance or gadget from the past, things were built to last, perhaps spanning the purchaser’s lifetime with its metal parts and gears.  Now under my care, I fully hoped the machine would last my tenancy in the studio, sending it out to the Singer repair guy for a yearly overhaul to ensure it.    

Throughout 23 years in business, we used it every day and from time to time it had to have minor repairs.  In 2022 it came to a decisive halt and needed a new heart, I mean motor, but after one was installed, it seemed to suffer rejection and was the catalyst for all manner of things going wrong. Sadly, that was the end of its former glory.   

It certainly tested one’s patience and dear Deborah suffered through breaking thread that fell victim to the wearing out tensions and adjustments, pressing the thread so it would not move along the route and break.  At our age, threading a needle requires a magnifying glass, nimble fingers, and murmuring under the breath.  But we endured and no matter what the machine threw at us, I had it resuscitated when probably it should have been given last rights back in 2017.   
We now have two new employees who have not worked on a machine of this vintage and trying to get around the four sides of a pattern probably seemed like an on-the-job training test of one’s patience. They both handled it far better than me and my four-letter expletives but Friday was the last straw.  After the thread snapped on five separate occasions on one pattern, I pulled the plug and the old machine seemed to sigh, or perhaps I did, as we both let go.    

   
The online buy and sell sites offered up plenty of second-hand choices and affordable pricing.  I did not need lots of bells and whistles or dozens of fancy stitches, just a straight and a zig zag function.  How to decide from the dozens of machines listed and of course, Covid sat in the back of my mind.  I really did not want to drive all over the county, go into strangers’ homes to test their machines and risk another infection. That, and I worried about inheriting problems prompting the sale in the first place.  So, I opted for a new one and turned my attention elsewhere.  Canadian Tire offered a couple of heavy-duty Singer machines that looked promising.  After work on Saturday, hubby and I made the trek to Bridgewater to pick up the one that best suited our needs. By 5:30 PM it was unpacked, set up, I had wound several bobbins, something the old machine balked on, and I was zipping around a pattern as clean and smooth as a knife through butter. 


Guilt set in while I enjoyed the delightful fruits of my purchase.  Poor Deborah had been wrestling with the old beast for years.  If not for the cherished carved initials and lineage of the machine, it would have been put out to pasture. Sorry Deb, tradition sucks, eh?  To make it up to her I bought the one that has a quick needle threader, so no more squinting and holding that darn magnifying glass.  Also, it runs with lightening speed, not limping on its last leg like an old mare, clipping around the edge of the pattern like a thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby. 

Hopefully this new machine lasts until I retire without giving us any grief.  I am not a fan of all the plastic parts, knobs and accessories in appliances purchased today; they lack character and form and are not built to last in a disposable world.  All I ask is “Dear, lovely machine, please give us a good ten years or until I retire, whatever comes first.”  In the meantime, it is a new machine and a new year, fresh starts for all

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The old Singer.  Sad to see it go but I'll ask the Singer repair guy if he would like it for parts.  I'm sure other machines need donor organs, I mean parts, so it can live on.   
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The new Singer. building new memories....... 
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    Max Anderson, Australia, recipient of my Nova Scotia Treasures rug.  An award of excellence for promoting Canada through his writing.  
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