Quilt Diva (short story) by Leanne Dyck

Eighteen years ago, when I moved to Mayne Island I had fun joining groups and meeting people. I was proud to clip a quilt guild member's pin to my shirt. Some families play music together. Mine crafted--embroidery, knitting, sewing, quilting. My Icelandic-Canadian grandma taught me to quilt when I was a teenager. Her first step was savaging fabric from old shirts, dresses, etc. No twenty dollar fat quarters for her. I joined the Mayne Island quilters determined to hand sew a quilt--I don't like machines. (It amazes me that my computer and I have developed a more or less amicable relationship.) Then I learned how much work would be involved in my plan. Then I went back to my old friend knitting.

A day before the Mayne Island Fall Fair and parade, I went to lunch with a friend.

"I need your help," she told me. "The quilters need someone to carry the banner."

The quilters are a mighty force on Mayne Island--half of Mayne Island has a membership. It was hard for me to believe that they couldn't find anyone. But my friend seemed desperate.

I felt stuck. I wanted to help my friend, but I'm most comfortable behind the stage not on it. All I'd have to do is carry a banner, but didn't that mean passing myself off as someone I wasn't--a quilter. But my friend had always helped me. And so I marched in Mayne Island's 2017 Fall Fair.

Photo by Tom Hobley

And if you click this link you'll be able to watch the complete performance. Oh, yes, there's singing and dancing and... You've got to see it, to believe it.

As writers, we don't always know what saying 'yes' to inspiration will lead to--will we finish our first short story? Or our fifth novel? Find a publisher? An agent? But it may be empowering to realize that the opportunity to say 'yes' starts with us.