Dear Julia

Dear Julia,

I'm intrigued by your request, and I know how you asked me to respond. However, I've never been really great at following instructions, so instead I've chosen to answer you in this post. Your request for my naming 5-10 best restaurants worldwide got me to thinking what really does make the best restaurant in my opinion. You see, unbeknownst to you and many people who know me, I don't have a great sense of smell or taste. And, you've requested to promote my Healing Grace website, and as an author I wrote about tastes and smells. Very tricky way to live and work. I have now outed myself. A few years ago I worked in a kitchen at a local restaurant and was asked over and over to taste soups and sandwich mixtures to see what needed to be added. I got really, really good at faking it.

Here are a few restaurants that happen to be on the historic square of McKinney, Texas. They all have more than their location in common; they also have the nicest owners. I go back to these restaurants not only for the beautiful food, but because of how I'm treated. Each and every restaurant have personnel who treat customers as family. The chefs easily and kindly accommodate variations on the menus. I walk into each place and feel as if I'm home.

You also asked for pictures on Instagram, but since I don't use it I decided to do things my way -- stitch my pictures. First off, there's Rick Wells' restaurants, Rick's Chophouse and Harvest. Harvest is a farm to table restaurant where the chef made special vegan meals for three of us. Kudos to the chef!

I've lived in many states in the last few years, and no place spells love and nourishment like downtown McKinney restaurants. Karen Klassen owns Spoons Cafe and Spoons Garage celebrating the best of all comfort food like fried okra, meatloaf, and shepherd's pie. Again the owner and her staff are extremely friendly, helpful, and willing to accommodate. I used to have a studio above Spoons Garage, and what a joyful time to be able to sew, drink some downtown coffee, and take breaks in the Garage eating with friends.

There's also a sweet place that has had my heart since it opened over four years ago. I met the owners the night before they opened, and no matter how much they had to do still, they welcomed my friends and me and showed us around. Square Burger not only has a fabulous chef/owner, Craig, but also has around 30 beers on tap. Brandon, another owner, has gotten more compassionate and kinder through the years, and I didn't even know that was possible. The burgers here are gourmet and plated beautifully. I love the texture in each bite, and their sweet potato fries are truly beyond compare. I step inside and feel the love. That to me is the test of a great restaurant, and they pass with flying colors in my book. I know they've gotten all kinds of accolades for their food, but when you get fabulous food surrounded by loving people... well, it just doesn't get better than that.

I could go on and on about the restaurants on the square and their owners. Sandra and her crew have built an environment where I just want to go and sit, gathering in the warmth of everyone in the coolest place on the planet -- Snug on the Square. Thank you, Sandra.

And then there's Patina Green and their fabulous owners. What a treasure they are. You can pick up a few groceries, grab a snack, or indulge in a great meal. And you can shop in their beautiful surroundings.

Take a look at their websites to get a real idea at how spectacular they are and what they've added to the community.

Oh yeah, and before I go, you asked me to tell you how I got my website started. You actually wrote to me about my book, Healing Grace. Long story short -- I write and I stitch and sometimes I combine the two. I've been doing both since I was a kid. I studied creative writing at Harvard and at University of Colorado in Boulder. Lately, I've been doing most of my writing in my head while sewing all day long. I have a business making things for other people from chair cushions to curtains to tunics, tops, dresses, purses, pillows... and on and on. As soon as I figure out to do all that I really want to do, I'll add more writing into my schedule. My websites are Jill Luigs and The Selvage Edge. You can find my online shop here.

I hope this answers the questions you posed to me. If not, you know how to reach me.

Thanks,
Jill

P.S. And one more thing:

I couldn't stop stitching...

hitting the jackpot

I just built a roaring fire and am curled up in front of it with my laptop. The wind is blowing the wind chimes along the porches, and I can see the mountains outside the window. I spent the day at the store selling art and Fair Trade items. I got to listen to tourists' travels and their home lives. Some locals stopped by to give me some silk fabric and colored wire. And in my bag I brought my favorite hummus and carrot sticks for snacking. I was in heaven.

I spread out the silks, ripping them into strips and cutting them into circles. I took a spool of bright pink wire and began shaping them into figures. I've never done this before, and like magic the wire turned into recognizable people that I dressed with the strips of silk. I was pleasantly surprised how they turned out, and those working in the shops around me went nuts over them. How cool was that?!

I've discovered so many ways to make art without my regular supplies. For those of you who don't know, I've been collecting supplies since 1984 when I took up quilting. I also bought into a shop and accumulated a room full of supplies. When I built my house I had a 1200 sf studio on the top floor. For the first time I had a room just for notions, one just for my fabrics, and a large area for my sewing machines and cutting table. I had an entertainment area with stereo and tv with dvd/video player. I had shelves and shelves for my books, and closets full of beads, wires, jewelry-making tools, stamps, inks, paints, etc. If there was something on the market that I wanted, you can bet that it was in my studio pronto. I lacked nothing. I had it all. More threads than some stores even.

Then September 11, 2010 I moved to New Mexico with absolutely none of it. I sold a lot, gave a lot away, and left a lot with family and a dear sweet friend. (Thank you, Molly!) This has forced me into rethinking, recreating, reimagining how I can work with materials I have already or some I can find outside my house. That process alone has stretched me in ways I never thought possible. Today when I was shaping that wire, I had no idea I was capable of making wire look like human figures. Where did that come from? When I cut out dragonflies from magazines I free-formed them. I didn't draw them, I just cut. Was it all those years of thread painting with my sewing machine? I'm sure that has something to do with it, but I also know there's a lovely little place I go when I'm handed little treasures like I was today. I dip into the bags and just create with what I have. I get so much joy out of it that I think I could pop right out of my skin.

So after pricing my little gems and leaving them at the store, I got the kindest offer by a friend who took me to the grocery store so I can have my coffee in the morning. We talked for hours and then she took me home. What an absolutely amazing way to spend my day today. And then tonight while sitting in the living room by the fire, my neighbors came over with drinks, and we just got to know one another. They went home to fix dinner and as soon as I'm done here I'm joining them.

Now, here's another not so little thing that happened when I got home tonight. A dear, wonderful man read my previous postings on my blog and sent me private messages that so warmed my heart. I am one of the most blessed people I know, and I am so very, very grateful.

And just one last thing. On the walk to work this morning, a notion hit me. I wrote a novel years ago that just got published last year. In all the years that have passed since beginning this novel everything that happened to my main character ended up happening to me except ONE thing. And that one thing is coming to pass. You see, in the novel the main character is a woman named Grace. At the time I wrote the book Grace and I had two things in common: we both worked in our husbands' offices, and we both quilted. Grace did something dramatically different than I had ever tried at the time. She met a male artist back east, and he painted on fabric that she would sew together. When she returned home to her husband, that male artist sent her boxes of painted fabrics that she then created art with. That is the ONE thing that has not happened to me yet. However, on my walk to work this morning I realized the offer that a male artist made to me. He's sending me a box of fabrics that he's dyed. Here's something I never thought of when I was writing that book. This wonderful man who lives back east is not only sending me his dyed remnants but he's sending a batch of homemade cookies too!

And that, my friends, is what it's like to hit the jackpot!

First Interview

I just sent in the information for my first radio interview about my book. According to the information that I was sent it will air on Thursday evening (March 18th) at 8 pm CST. It can be accessed via phone at 724-444-7444, Talkcast ID: 39674# and non-talkcast members press 1# after the talkcast ID. You can also go to http://www.talkshoe.com/. It's Tina Ferguson's show, and my first of many interviews. I'm lining them up now as I type this.



Today is a mission on keeping myself focused on what I want. I mean a very conscious effort. Not that I don't do this anyway, but today seems imperative. It feels crackly, this energy. I don't know what to make of it, but what I'm discovering is that all that used to work for me is no longer working. At all. Not at all. I now must really work in this life, play in this world totally differently. How do I do it? How do I show up and be genuine when sometimes I don't even know who I am? There are mornings when I wake up I feel numb as if the person I was when I went to bed is no longer here and the person that wakes up is someone I need to get to know all over again.



The physical reality is so flexible and malleable to me. It doesn't seem nearly as dense and heavy. It feels like I can close my eyes and change it. I can sit still and breathe in the divinity that I am and the physical shifts. Suddenly a phone call or a person shows up, words are spoken that are answers to questions I didn't even know how to phrase.



This moment I focus on breathing in the calmness, the peace that I truly am. I am the eye of the storm. I am and that's all that matters.