I have a cousin who once handed me her business card, a simple white rectangle, emblazoned in black letters with her name, address, phone number, and the descriptive phrase, “Domestic Goddess.” That made me laugh then, as it does now. She IS a wonderful cook and homemaker, and a world-class grandma. She sent me a letter recently with some pictures and included her new card, “Domestic Goddess, retired.” She’s a widow now.

I love her sense of humor. But I have to tell you I had a glimpse of a true domestic diva the other day when I flipped channels on our TV and saw Martha Pullen, sitting at her sewing machine, telling her audience the proper way to stitch white zig zag onto lace using the zig-zag stitch on a sewing machine.

Are you familiar with Martha Pullen? I used to subscribe to her magazine, Sew Beautiful, and she always wrote the most uplifting letter from the editor, complete with scriptures. She also has a program on public television called Sewing With Martha.

If you’re at all interested in sewing, you’ll love everything about Martha. Here’s how I first heard about her. I had a close friend a few years ago who was REALLY into heirloom children’s clothing. She talked about Martha Pullen this, Martha Pullen that every other sentence. Our first two children were the exact same age, so we spent a lot of time talking while our kids played. Finally, I admitted to her that I didn’t know how to sew — even though my mom had shown me a few simple things growing up. Sewing machines just scared me!

We saw an ad in the newspaper for sewing machines, and she said she’d help me pick one out. So we went shopping together, and I came home with a nicer one than the ad offered, but she assured me it was a good price. Then I went over to her house once a week, and she taught me how to turn the machine on and not be scared it would bite me, thread a needle and wind it around all these places on my machine so it would sew, trace and cut out a pattern, and make a little sundress for my daughter. It was full of all kinds of weird mistakes, but I took her picture wearing it, and it made me so happy that I made something!

Then we moved. Oh, how I missed that friendship. We moved to the country, and I didn’t have any friends for the first several months. So I tried to keep sewing to give myself something creative to do, and it gave me an excuse to call my old friend and tell her what I was making. Thinking back, I realize that’s what kept me trying to sew — I wanted to keep finding a reason to connect with her because the first thing she always asked was, “So, what are you working on?”

I finally discovered a store about an hour from my house that taught smocking and embroidery lessons, and I went and took a few classes. I was the youngest one in my class. It was me and a few sweet grandmothers — who were all excellent seamstresses. I kept stabbing my finger and bleeding on the fabric. I felt like I had two left hands, and I couldn’t keep up. It was so embarrassing to ask the simplest questions!

But this is all I had to do to keep myself occupied while we adjusted to our new town. Finally, we found a church where I made some friends with moms of young children, and I made a few friends who also liked to sew. One Easter, we all went a little crazy and bought a bunch of fabric. I taught one friend how to smock, and there were four of us who all made matching clothes for our kids. It was a fun time.

Those were simpler days for me — and who knows? Maybe someday I’ll get back into it. It really is exciting to make things with fabric and thread — and it can be a joy for young women to see their creativity blossom into something beautiful to wear. Right now, I DO NOT have the patience for it. That hobby requires keeping up with so much STUFF. (Fabric, notions, patterns, magazines with ideas, crafty this and that…)

Since God has blessed me with three daughters, I don’t want them to grow up being scared of a sewing machine like their poor mom. One of the best things my friend taught me is that even though babies and little girls will outgrow their dresses, dolls never will! So one day, I’d love to make doll clothes. Maybe that day will come when I’m a grandmother. What a happy thought!

For now, I’ll sneak a peek at the domestic queen herself, Martha Pullen, and see what she’s up to. And say a prayer for my friend who is on my mind today, who I still miss very much.