My Friendship with Leila

As a young busy single Mom I was blessed to have many friends who were ahead of me on this life journey we are all on.

Most of these women I met through the Quilt Guild and by quilting for them. When I first checked out our local guild, I only peeked in the door and didn’t stay…I wasn’t quite 30 then and it looked like most of the women there were a lot older than I was. I mistakenly thought to myself that they wouldn’t welcome me.

Oh how wrong I was, and when I ventured back I was so welcomed, and mentored. I loved sitting with these women and watching and listening to them at guild meetings.

When news got out that I was getting a Longarm they were truly excited for me and supportive! That’s when I started quilting for Leila. She at the time was the local Elna dealer and she was determined that I needed the Quilters Dream Pro sewing machine. She kept inviting me over to try it, I kept declining, knowing that I would most likely love the machine and also knowing that it was priced way out of my budget.

Still she persisted and one day when I dropped one of her quilts off to her she insisted that I sit down and try out the machine…so I did. Of course I loved it. Well she had a plan, she said that she knew it was beyond what I could afford but what if I just quilted her quilts for it!

She sent me home with that machine and I love it to this day! She also sat me down and taught me to service my own machines a gift that has served me well many times.

A couple of months ago Leila called me to let me know that she hadn’t been well and was moving to Southern Ontario to live closer to her family. We had such a nice visit.

Leila passed away this week.