To those of you who would say the world is going to hell in a handbasket, let me offer you a rebuttal:

Today, when I checked the little library in my front yard, I found a quilted heart. Yes, a heart that is quilted. Apparently, I’m not the only person in the world to find a quilted heart. If you search Facebook, you’ll find all kinds of testimonials from people who randomly FoundAQuiltedHeart. It’s a thing.

It’s a thing that warms my decidedly un-quilted heart, to know that people are out there making stuff, as IFoundAQuiltedHeart.com says, “simply to brighten the day of a stranger.”

Thank you to the stranger who brightened my day.

In further heartwarming and day-brightening news, a friend forwarded an email about a maker event described an “assembly of our fellow tribeswomen to strengthen our community by sharing our individual gifts, preserving our harvest, and trading some good and useful things.”

The event works like this: You bring your handmade/homemade creations and swap them for other people’s handmade/homemade creations. Suggested items include fresh eggs, kombucha mothers, knitted goods, and honey.

I’ve been looking for a new kombucha mother, ever since the untimely death of my beloved symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, and I’m thinking the maker swap this summer might be my chance to get back in the ‘buch biz.

So, now I’m scratching my head about what useful item I can make to trade for a SCOBY. Maybe some egg holders? I haven’t decided yet…but I’m pretty sure it’s going to require/enable me to buy that scroll saw I’ve been wanting.