Sept 6,  2023

Dear Friends,

Shortly after we got up the other morning, Donna announced that “We need to cut sandwiches today.”

I started thinking, “I think we have enough bread to make maybe seven of them.  We have some sliced Swiss and sliced Cheddar.  Also have some sliced Honey-Roast Turkey breast, but not sure how much.”

Donna says, “the tops should be 66 inches, with the backs and batting at 72 inches.”

My comment with that was “Oh.”  

As long as we’ve been in this quilt shop, which is just over a year, it still doesn’t hit my head instantly that when Donna says sandwiches, she means fabric sandwiches that we use for demonstrations and customer try-outs for our longarms.  Seldom is she referring to a food item.

So it jumps into my head a memory from long ago, which of course I haven’t thought about in 100 years, but you think of more past things as you get older.  Was riding with two older (i.e., old enough to drive) explorer scouts and a couple other younger ones, and they had a discussion about the difference between connote and denote.  Google says, “Denotation is when you mean what you say, literally. Connotation is created when you mean something else, something that might be initially hidden. The connotative meaning of a word is based on implication, or shared emotional association with a word.

So in the case here, if Donna says sandwiches, I should understand, via the connotation, we are talking about a top, batting, and back for use by our customers.  In contrast, the way I take it is the denotation, that we’re talking about a basic food group . . . bread and eatable filling.

So the implication and generalization here is that I need to start thinking first in connotations, and only afterwards in denotations.  Yup, got it!  So the call to action for this time is, Go make a sandwich, quilt it, and then go make a sandwich and eat it.

Chip