Don't Quilt Your Day Job

My sister is younger than me and way way cooler. She just is. It's alright you can believe it too. I know it's hard to wrap your head around the idea that someone could be cooler than my John Denver, Gary Sandberg, Crosby Stills and Nash lovin ass but hey would I lie to you? Growing up we were complete opposites, so opposite in looks and personality that no one ever even believed we were related. I was tall and had straight blond hair, where she was short and had dark curly hair. She hung out with a huge group of friends in high school and was known to get caught once or twice or ten times by the cops for underage drinking. Where I was known to hang out with about 10 tree hugging guitar players quietly drinking MadDog and lighting incense, you know for the ambiance of course. I would have much rather have preferred to fade in while she has always wanted and succeeded at standing out. Like most siblings growing up we pretty much wanted to forget the other one existed or else truly believe that the other one was adopted.

She moved out to Seattle Washington about 10 years ago with my Mom and got her degree in Fashion Design from the Art Institute of Seattle. She is fiercely talented and ever since she got her first sewing machine has known that that how she wanted to make a living, by creating something, anything. I seriously can't sew a button on and craft glue and Velcro are my best friends. She moved to New York City to try her hand at fashion out there, she loved it there, and adapted quickly. I would have took one look at the subway maps and booked a one way ticket back home. You get the picture we are different in every way. She stayed with a friend of hers in Brooklyn and soaked up as much of that culture and lifestyle as she could. The cost of living, the sheer number of people wanting to get a break in fashion compared with the actual number of fashion jobs and I think just a honest homesickness for the west coast brought her back to Seattle a couple of years later.

She got an apartment in the city, fell in love and set her sites on not having to ever have to work for "the man" again. Since her love of sewing and designing was evident to anyone who she came in contact with, from her homemade shirts, or purses, to just her unique artistic style, she decided that making quilts, yes that's right I said quilts, with an edge was right up her alley. She created this website, thought up a name for her business, Don't Quilt Your Day Job and set to work turning the quilting business on its head, or side, or is it ear? She has been featured in numerous trade publications and was even in one of my favorite magazines Bust Magazine. Random House has even been in contact with her to write a book on the new faces of quilters. She is sooo immensely talented and loves what she is doing and to say I envy her drive and her passion about something is an understatement.

We were never really close growing up and really not so much even now, not in a bad way just in the way that we both chose completely different paths in life. She is outgoing and literally can walk into a grocery store and fifteen minutes later come out of there with dinner and know where the hippest and coolest party is going to be that night. I on the other hand still say hippest and coolest, and prefer my own little handful of friends to keggers on the balcony. Her cats are her babies and is a wonderful aunt to my own kids but I know she is glad to have the time to herself when she leaves. I consider my four kids at least six months of birth control after a visit with them. She will be a great mom one day but is in no rush to start her "grownup" life and I admire that quality in her the most.

She'll hate that I am talking about her like this but outside of my kids I don't talk about my family outside of my own kids much so I wanted to share some cyber love to her with all of you. Watch for her, Kim Thomas is her name, one of these days Angelina Jolie's 10th kid will be covered up in a .Don't Quilt Your Day Job quilt and we can all say we knew her when