In retail there is the festive holiday season that is followed by a couple of months of desperate checking the lack of deposits in company bank accounts. So, just after Christmas, 2014, while I was at the shop making more lotion in the middle of the dead season and wondering if people would ever grace our threshold again, I heard Bev in the shop talking to a customer as if they were old friends and delighting in each other’s company. Curious about what might be the cause of all this unseasonable merriment, I asked them if they were old friends and they looked at me and smiled indulgently, saying no, they had just met but were enjoying their time chatting with each other. Rosemary would come into the shop fairly regularly after that. She bought things and kept us talking and laughing during that dreary season. One day she came in with a paper bag held lightly in her hand. Inside that bag were six beautifully quilted baskets. She said they were gifts for all the “girls” at the shop.They were charmingly made of two lavender fabrics and could be used for ever so many things – including storing sewing gear.

So, then I wondered, just who is this woman? I set out to ask her, and this is what she told me.

Rosemary is from Ohio but has been moving about the country, spending several months here and several there with her husband as he follows assignments to fill needs for medical laboratory technicians at hospitals around the country. My sister-in-law served as a relief nurse before she and my brother married. I remember she had to think long and hard about giving up that life of travel to marry him, so I knew about those opportunities for nurses. Through Rosemary, I learned that health care workers of many professions provide temporary services throughout the health care system all over the U.S., way beyond the needs for nurses. As it turns out, her lab tech husband does way more than that, but I digress.

Rosemary had been sewing so long in her life that she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t sewing. Her mother taught her first, followed by her home economics teacher who taught her the finer aspects such as tailoring. That led to jobs doing alterations. One of her favorite jobs was working for ten years as a wardrobe manager. “It was totally challenging” she says. After semi-retiring she took on projects such as hemming 1,000 pairs of pants. Yes, it got tedious, but she hired some people to help and made it work.

As if sewing and managing wardrobes wasn’t enough, nearly 10 years ago she started putting on High Teas. The first one was in her home for nine people. She served the tea on snack sets, on which she served the food including soup, little sandwiches, scones and tea, of course. The word got out that these beautiful teas were being served in Rosemary’s home. At the height, while still giving these teas at her home, she served the tea in three seatings of 25 people at a time. She would sew tablecloths and napkins as well as decorate for the teas. The latest High Tea she served was at her church for 120 guests. Over the years she has collected enough china tea teacups to serve all her guest along with the snack sets.

In case you are wondering, she had help from her best friend, Sandy, her daughters and friends. And here’s where her husband, the itinerant lab tech comes back into the picture. She credits him with helping her the most of anyone. He’s beside her “helping fetch, carry and do whatever needs to be done.” I wish you could see how her face lights up whenever she speaks about him.

Rosemary is a hairdresser and has worked in health care for many years. Having no grandchildren of her own, she has “adopted “ a grand-daughter, Amanda, after taking care of the girl’s grandmother. On one of the days Amanda came by for a sewing lesson and to have tea she asked Rosemary if she would be her grandma – “It was impossible to resist and she has brought so much joy to my life”.

The quilted boxes came as a result of her seeing them at a Bernina store. She located the pattern and last May started making them. At first they were made for a fundraiser, in which she and the sewing angels of Amazing Grace Pillowcase make pillowcases for children in hospitals, nursing and shelter homes. She made the quilted boxes for door prizes. They have been very popular. Because she fell in love with our store and bonded with a couple of our staff members she appeared, one day, with the bag of quilted boxes and we went crazy over them.

Rosemary knows about hard work. She grew up on a dairy farm and said she has a lot of respect for farmers. It’s not often we farmers hear someone voice the recognition of the work that farming demands. In many ways, she has created a life of grace and caring through her kind heart and her excellent craftsmanship. These beautiful quilted boxes are just one piece of evidence of her creative life.

Written and photographed by Sarah Richards