Kindness and Skirts

I am not a good flyer.  I hate the idea of being stuck in a tiny metal tube in the sky.  I spend the whole time sick from the motion.  I have to take copious amounts of dramamine in the hope that it will dull the motion sickness and put me to sleep.  I absolutely hate sitting still.  But I do have a few rituals that I do every single time.  I put my apple juice, salty potato chips, water bottle, and Kindle in the seat back pocket.  I make sure I have plenty of sick bags.  I put my headphones in and turn up my favorite music to drown out the noise of the plane, and after take off I start to relax a bit.

After landing, I always check the pocket for everything.  Just like anywhere I go, because I have small children who lose things.  Again with the rituals.

The flight back from QuiltCon was nauseating, even if we did see something burning it's way through the sky and the aurora borealis.  I spent half the flight with my face in a bag.  I was tired because it was very late and I had taken an extra dramamine to try to combat the sick.  I was worrying about making the last bus of the night.  So I can't remember checking the seat back pocket this one time.

Somehow, my Kindle ended up not making it home with me.  Or maybe it did and I left it somewhere nearby after trying to get past the brain fog from traveling and re-entering my daily life.  I know the last time I read it was in Austin.  But when I came home I was reading a "real" book from the library so I didn't notice it was gone until I started getting emails from Amazon that someone was purchasing books in my account.  

I was angry with myself for being irresponsible.  I felt violated that someone was reading my books on my kindle, spending my money, and using the patchwork cozy that I had sewn with my own hands using some of my very favorite fabrics.  I posted a picture on Instagram hoping that maybe someone had seen it.  I filed police reports.  I had Amazon deactivate it.  That all happened on a Friday and a Saturday.  By Sunday morning I was still upset, but mostly with myself for letting it happen.  I was sad that someone would even do that, since it would have been really easy to find out that it was mine and return it.  You know, the right thing to do.

That afternoon a UPS driver knocked on my door with a package.  Inside was a brand-new Kindle with the absolute sweetest note.  I am so happy that my friend included her name so that I could say thank you, (while crying and being generally unintelligible on the phone, because emotions.)  I won't tell you who it is, but I will say that it is someone who I met through sewing.  This world, you guys.  This sewing world is amazing and I am so, so happy to be a part of it.  I'm looking forward to when I can pay it forward.

Of course, I had to protect this kindle, so I found a skin on Nuvango and sewed a new cozy.  This one is LINED with my all-time favorite fabric (the blue VWs!)

Also, I made a few new jersey skirts.  The top is a pattern from Collette Patterns called Mabel.  I used an old nerdy t-shirt from my husband (One up!) The bottom is one that I made up using my measurements and some up cycled thrift store t-shirts.  I love them both!