My Friend Jina!

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Hello farmgirl friends! I just returned from a week in Florida; we go every year with our kids and it’s always the best time. This year it was exceptional in so many ways. Not exactly sure the difference but everything was special. However, there is one thing that will stand out to me as one of the biggest treats and I’m sharing that with you here today. So here is my story (everything in my life has a story attached!!).

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Backing up a bit; 2019 to be exact! I know I’ve talked about Poppie Cotton here before; they are a fabric manufacturing company that I am an Ambassador for. My job is to showcase their new fabric lines as they put them out. They send me the new fabric (usually about 18-22 prints) and I choose what to make, design with it, photograph it and promote it. I started with them in 2019 and they were a very new company just putting out a few fabric lines a year. They have grown incredibly and now have 1-2 new lines a month. I have sewn with every single new collection of fabric, other than just a few when I had too much going on to commit. They are an incredible company to work for and they treat me with the most amazing love and care! (I wrote a blog post here a couple months ago about my grand-baby born stillborn and talked about Poppie Cotton. You can read that post here, if you haven’t already.) Needless to say, the two ladies that own Poppie Cotton have become very special to me.

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I have designed things from journal covers to quilts and when I look back through seven years of projects I’m actually quite blown away at how gorgeous their fabrics are.

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Some of my favorite projects are ones that I have designed and sewn as a special gift for a friend. The Bible journaling kit I made for my dear life long friend Luanne has to be a favorite.

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I try to think of my very favorite Poppie Cotton collection and I always come back to Prairie Homestead designed by Lori, one of the partners. I loved the end result of this Dresden Plate table topper that I designed so much that I actually gifted it to Lori. In return she sent me another bundle of the fabric to make another one for myself, which I have yet to do! But the bundle of fabric is still set aside to make it!

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So now that I’ve talked about all this, let me tell you what this blog is actually about!!! Smile! Jina is one of the two partners in Poppie Cotton. I’ve never met her. I’ve talked to her on the phone, texted, emailed, FaceTimed, done special jobs for them (like cutting and assembling quilt kits and sewing tote bags for quilt market) and many more things. It has been a dream of mine to meet her. She is a kind, generous person that ALWAYS listens to and honors my requests and my ideas.

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Jina and her husband moved to Florida a couple years ago and this year when we went on our Florida vacation I texted Jina… “Are you free to meet up”? She made it happen and we each drove the distance to meet. I cannot begin to describe the experience. It was so incredibly special. You know what it’s like when you just KNOW that you will love someone and you do? We took one look at each and just smiled the biggest smiles and hugged the tightest hugs – over and over!

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We sat outside in the shade eating our Acai Bowls and talking nonstop in the heat, humidity and biting flies! We talked about so many things from quilting, fabric, sewing, business, and our families. Then we jumped into the deep things of courage, commitment, stepping out of our comfort zones, the deep feelings in our hearts, heartache we’ve been through, how proud we are of our adult kids and the way they are raising their children. And then circled back to taking risks to make our dreams come true. All this in just a couple hours time!

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As we went back to our vehicles to say goodbye, Jina had numerous gifts for me (she’s so amazing that way). But one of them was a tiny little journal notebook for “chicken scratch” and it was immediately in my purse.

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But it was the words on the inside that I just keep reading. I love the quote so much. I’m ever so thankful for dear friends in my life that bring so much beauty to me. And I’m so thankful I got to finally “meet” Jina! It was the icing on the top of our many years long friendship.

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Please share with me; a story of a friend you’ve known for years… and finally met in person and how it went! I’m working on a surprise giveaway that I will randomly choose a winner for next month!

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Until our gravel roads cross again… so long.

Dori