MacThayer

Dear Madamekelly,
Thank you for recognizing that the LA Quilter and I were good friends. We'd met 15 years ago at a quilting class, and have been "best buddies" ever since. Which is why it was so hard to hear from her that my quilt was destroyed and she was admitting it was her fault. Very stressful for both of us.

So I took your advice. There had been a silence between us since the incident, except for that one e-mail saying she'd quilt as many quilts as I wanted if it would help. So I went to the computer, sat a bit and said"No, darn it, I'm doing this as person-to-person as I can. I want her to hear my voice, and I want to hear hers. So I picked up the phone and when she answered, I identified myself. There was a long pause. "Can I help you? she asked timidly. And I launched right in and said "You said that if you could help me out with this quilt, you'd do anything you could. Is that still true." "Yes, what do you need." "I need you to come over and spend a Saturday with me and help me put this quilt together!" There was a pause and I could hear crying in the background. "I'll do better than that," she whooped! "I'll come on Friday night and stay for the weekend, and we'll finish that quilt!" "Awesome! And then we'll celebrate! How about Champagne and a slice of "Death by Chocolate" cake?" "Oh, you DO know the way to my heart girlfriend." We must have been on the phone for two hours, laughing, crying, catching up. It was lovely. The scary thing is that our friendship could have ended -- over a quilt. Now it's going to be mended back together -- by a quilt. And all of that wasn't possible until I had the courage to pick up the phone and really deal with the situation. When I think of what I could have lost, in terms of the value of a quilt, well, a quilt is a lot easier to replace. Yes, I know, we pour our blood, sweat and tears into these quilts; I certainly do. Sometimes I do as much "unsewing" as I do sewing, if you know what I mean. But if this process doesn't turn me into a kinder, more patient, more understanding human being along with producing a form of art, then why am I doing it? Have I never done a perfectly stupid thing in my life, and didn't even think about it at the time? (Yes, and I still feel badly about it because it hurt someone I cared for dearly.)

OK, off my soap box. Thank you again so much Madamekelly. I am very grateful to you for helping me to both solve the problem and save the friendship. With her help, we can get it done and LA Quilted and to Michigan in time for my sister's Christmas before leaving for Alabama. It's the best outcome possible. She's coming next weekend. I just want to know how YOU knew she was my friend. I deliberately left that part out because I wanted an honest response to the situation, with no conflicting feelings about friendships. And I honestly would have treated any LA quilter the same if we'd been working together for a while. So how did you pick up on the friendship? Just curious.

Thank you everyone!