Michigan Lansing Mission- New President, Catch a Glimpse of Steve Hess

Quality verses Quantity

Clean and pitch, clean and pitch. I’ve been trying to wade through cupboards, boxes and drawers with a few target ideas in mind.

· Know what you have (sounds simple, but after 50 years of life . . .)

· Save only what you use or have a strong sentimentality towards

· Organize so that if someone else were to find it they would know what it is and why you saved it

One of the stacks was a pile of pillowcases. My grandmothers each made me a couple of beautiful sets, they were labor intensive and I wondered if I should even use them when I first received them. I think it was the right decision to wear them out with use. The rest of the pillowcases are simple pieces of fabric sewn together and given to my kids mostly for Valentines Day over the years. They were enjoyed for a brief period of time and discarded, as they should have been.

The lesson learned from the pillowcases can be transferred to many things. Value often comes with quality not quantity. No surprise here, right? There is a time and place for a quick fix but I know my behavior reflects that the corners were cut too often. Quality does matter.

Cleaning and organizing is good for more than the obvious organization. It's good for sorting out why you do or do not do things in life. I'm happy for the reflective moments to sweep cobwebs from inside my head.

The Foundling Hospital, Women, Babies and Fabric

Without question I have a few themes weaved into to my soul that I think are a part of me from the beginning of time : Women and textiles. Sounds strange, but I love them both and somehow they come together at so many crossroads, many out of complete necessity and need and the other for beauty. I was directed to this story from Janet Gleave, my dear friend. I'm so grateful she thought I would be interested.

In 1741 Thomas Coram a philanthropic childless sea captain opened a “Foundling Hospital” in London for babies up to one year old. The requirement for entrance was simple, that the mother was single and unable to take care of the child. The mother’s hope was that she would come back for the child when her circumstances improved, something that rarely happened.

What does this have to do with fabric? When the mother left their wee one at the hospital in order to identify their child on their return they would leave a swatch of fabric that they would match up later (most could not write, but fabric was something everyone had access to). This collection of swatches has become the largest textile collection the world has to offer. The Foundling Hospital was open for 213 years.

You can view a few of these precious pieces by going to the online exhibit called Threads of Feeling. Look to see that each piece of cloth are all different depending on the station in life where the mother came from- rough, thick cloth to delicate embrodiary. Notice the music in the background, it wasn’t lost on me- it is a song that was sung in the 1780’s. I needed a tissue . . .