Nancy and Mary Kick It Up A Stitch

Mary Mulari was a frequent flyer on Sewing With Nancy. She and Nancy made exactly 654 television shows together (that is my guess, and possibly a gross exaggeration).

When I was invited to write on the Blog Book tour for Richard's new book, I knew you'd want to hear from Mary...

Mary Writes:

Reading all the wonderful blog tour tributes to Nancy this week reminds us all how special she was, how much she contributed to our lives, and how much she is missed. So many voices on the tour have expressed this all so well. I have been overwhelmed by those of you who have reached out to me, recognizing my loss of a great friend and sewing partner. Blog-less as I am, I am jumping onto Rita’s tour with a report of working with Nancy to present “Kick It Up a Stitch,” the seamsters’ version of Emeril’s kitchen escapades.

It all started at the end of one of Nancy’s visits to my home in Minnesota. I wasn’t paying close attention to the time, so I delivered her to the Duluth airport too late to catch her plane. (Don’t worry…she reminded me of that several times while we were on stage!) While waiting for the next plane, we sat in the vending machine room and began to plot the K.I.U.A.S. program for Nancy’s Notions Sewing Weekend.

The plan was to show a real sewing project from one of our books or patterns and then show a “kicked up” version of the same project. Mixed in was the preparation of recipes that somehow related to the sewing projects. For the first performance, the Beaver Dam High School Jazz Band played during the breaks and prep times of our program. The band director and members were given samples of our food preparations to taste. It was an ambitious program that involved kitchen tools, ingredients, and appliances along with a sewing machine, photocopier, and sewing tools. I’ll never forget the audience shocked response when I diced celery for Newfangled Caviar with a rotary cutter. Then I got to splash Nancy when I turned the electric beaters on high speed for the dessert preparation. Oh, we really had fun and so did our audience. We should do this program again!

The second presentation of K.I.U.A.S. was the one taped for PBS.

 It’s the one you can watch on a DVD or at https://wpt4.org/wpt-video/sewing-nancy/sewing-nancy-kick-it-stitch/. This time the high school jazz band came from Memorial High School in Madison WI.  It was the first time Nancy’s brother Dean and my future husband Doug saw us perform. Nancy’s Blonde Joak Book made an appearance and she had several opportunities to share her favorite blonde jokes and brand names of products, something she never did during a normal Sewing With Nancy program. (see the photo of the apron).  You may have known Nancy to be a serious sewing personality but you saw her fun and humorous side during this program, and also during her live seminar appearances.

Our third show was evening entertainment at the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup WA. The band from a local college arrived at the last minute so we had little time to prepare them for the crazy stage acts of sewing and cooking and taste-testing our concoctions.  Our assistants Judy and Chris brought all the kitchen supplies from their homes in Portland and helped us cook and clean up afterwards. Along with Deanna’s ever-present and valuable help, we couldn’t have done it without all the back stage workers.

Here’s why I want to share these memories with you: These performances were memorable highlights for both Nancy and me. It was so much fun to be silly on stage with appreciative audience members joining us in laughter. Nancy would like you to remember her in this way along with the “real” sewing she shared. After all the heartfelt, moving testimonials and tributes, I believe Nancy would say, “Okay, let’s talk about something else.”

So this was something else, the light and funny side of Nancy.

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And -- OF COURSE I HAVE SOME PHOTOS OF THAT NIGHT IN PUYALLUP..!!

One of my crappy, fuzzy photos -- but Deanna was ALWAYS there, behind the scenes, in this case, with an actual script for Kick It Up A Stitch...cuing the music, and the band, and the props...

It was a sold-out audience that night.  More than 800 people...both Mary and Nancy were nervous.

I hadn't quite learned how to take pictures yet...but here is a long table full of food/sewing props...

The Ya Ya Stalkers were an important part of the back-stage team -- bringing MANY props from their own homes.

Both sides of the room were filled to capacity.

Babylock gave away FIVE SEWING MACHINES that night!!

Were you in the audience that night?

Many people have told me that they never laughed harder in their life....it was shocking to see the FUNNY, HILARIOUS side of Nancy Zieman..and, along with her friend Mary, they created MAGIC for us...

And, tomorrow -- I'm gonna share a NZ story from somebody who was in that audience...