What is it About a Suitcase?

Patchwork Illusions quilt – STACKED AND WRAPPED By Karen Combs

This is a beautiful quilt.  Absolutely no doubt about it.  And it should be; it was made by a real working fiber artist.  Karen Combs is a traveling fiber arts teacher, author and designer.  And this gorgeous work of Karen's hands and heart has been stolen.  This beautiful piece and all its sample-case brethren, along with everything Karen needs to teach a class, were taken through the broken window of her rental car when she taught in New Braunfels, Texas, this weekend.  That suitcase holds a lifetime of Karen's work, and is totally irreplaceable. 

Ask me how I know.

If you live in Texas, or anywhere else where the quilts could have ended up, please, please please, help Karen look for her lost loves.  And keep looking.  The two sweaters I got back were found by a knitter in a thrift store months later, because she never forgot what happened to me.

What a world.  I'm hoping that Karen will receive the love and kindness of her friends and students the way that I did when my samples were stolen.  The Knitters are Good.  And the Quilters are, too. 

Do your magic for dear Karen, won't you?  Send her your love, send her your righteous indignation. Send her your prayers for peace and comfort.  And if you quilt, or know somebody who does, buy a book (or two) from her, because replacing all her work is going to cost a fortune, when she's brave enough to start.  Can you imagine even the cost of a case big enough to hold a quilt collection?  Take it from me: the very best thing you can do to help is to buy books, tools and fabrics from Karen, because without her samples she's likely to lose precious teaching jobs, like I did. 

Click to go shopping at Karen's Store.

Please spread the word to keep a weather eye out for the quilts.  Close ranks around dear Karen like you did for me.  She will learn, like I have, that the power of love is greater than the agony of loss.
 

Counting Crows, Counting Friends

This morning, the Fed-Ex man brought me love in a box.  The dear sweet friends over at Knit Picks had this sample made for a catalog shoot a while back, and thought I should have it as a replacement for the original red one that was stolen.  I really can't express my surprise and delight.  It's yet another example of the kindness and generosity of Knitters.  What a very special gang we are.

The Counting Crows pullover was the first design I made for The New Stranded Colorwork.  I knit it before there was a book, or even an agreement to write one.  I remember announcing to the Smallies that I was going to make a sweater with crows on it, and asking them to decide who it would be for.  They bickered for a while, and then between them, came to the realization that if the older one got the sweater first, then the younger one would get it as soon as it was outgrown.  Not a bad bit of logic, and I remember being proud, both that they were clever, and that they both liked the sweater design that well.

Neither kid ended up wearing Counting Crows.  It was away at the publisher, and then rolling around in my sample case for so long that they both outgrew it before either one got a chance.  But they both still love it, and were delighted to see this new incarnation of it coming home to roost.

Thank you Kelley, Alison, Melissa and Stacey.  Today I'm counting my blessings, and I'm counting you each, twice.

Wanna Go Shopping? STOLEN SWEATER UPDATE

This post is for my friends in the Portland, Oregon area.  This morning I got an e-mail from the lovely and dear-hearted Elif, who was in the Broadway Goodwill last night and found two of my stolen sweaters.  Tina, the manager of that store says that they sometimes send sweaters out to other stores when their racks get too full, so there is a possibility that others are waiting to be found in other Goodwill stores.  If you are free to do so today, and find yourself in the vicinity of a Goodwill store in the Portland area - won't you please help me to take a look for them?  If you are lucky enough to find one or more of the stolen pieces, please take them to the store manager and ask them to hold the piece(s) until I can come collect them, then just drop me a line at mary@maryscotthuff.com. Rewards will be given to Elif, and anybody else who helps me make a recovery!

Thank you my friends!

Love Mary

PS - the sweaters Elif found are the Wedding Belle, and Being Koi.  Bless Her.