If you are in Canada this weekend is Thanksgiving

I hope I am not offending all those vegans and vegetarians out there, but this is what is in my fridge for Thanksgiving dinner here day after tomorrow. A major turkey taking up an entire shelf of its own - all 32 pounds of it.


My husband - the meat cook - told me to buy a big one so I did, now he is all stressed out with the logisitics, but I know he will do fine, always does.


My reasoning is that we have family and kid's friends coming and that all those satellite households, including one son going back to college the next day, will appreciate left-overs.  I think we will have plenty.


It is also time for me to give my thanks for all the great things in my life, and I am going to do that in general and specifically as a sewer.


First of all, and always, at the top of my list of blessings is my family, bookended by my 82 year old mother and my one year old granddaughter who both never stop, are always positive, and see humour in everything. They set the pace, how can the rest of us not be smiling?


And now as a sewer I am grateful for so much:

• The internet. None of my neighbours, co-workers, or friends sew much at all, but the www has allowed me to be part of a community that thinks all of this is as interesting as I do. Think what your own sewing life would be without it. It has been a truly wonderful thing in my life to find out that I have so much in common with women leading lives in completely different parts of the world.
• Multi-sized patterns, and those new multi-cup patterns.
• Bloggers - blogs are my preferred reading these days - I love seeing the clothes, I love the advice. Thank you for sharing your world with me.
• Sergers. Can you imagine zig-zagging all your seam allowances? Can you imagine how home-made that would look? I used to do it so long ago, I can't believe it.
• Stretch wovens, particularly for pencil skirts and pants.
• Online fabric shopping. No explanation necessary.
• Digital cameras - how else would I see what sewers are making otherwise? How else would I post?
• Loop turners and point pressers and seam rolls and those who taught me how to use them.
• A sewing machine with needle-down.
• A husband who built me a sewing room and put a cutting table up on blocks so this tall girl could cut without a sore back.
• Invisible zippers. You can stitch and re-stitch them until you get them right and none of that stitching shows. Hell's going to freeze over before I do a lapped zipper on a dress or skirt again.

I know I am going to think of many more things when I wake up in the middle of the night.

But what are your sewing blessings?