It’s been a rough couple of days at Tapestry Craft. Mr. Laurie Morris, founder, friend, and father figure to many of us, has passed away. Laurie opened the shop with his wife Ruth nearly thirty years ago and, though his sons run it now, he still liked to pop in and visit. I first met him about a year ago when we were frantically trying to get the shop moved to our new premises in time for the grand re-opening sale we’d planned. That night is pretty much a blur for me. I remember packing wool; I remember painting the walls of the new shop; but mostly I remember sitting in front of Albert’s crappy computer frantically trying to create all the sale signage we needed but had somehow forgotten til the last minute. And it was pouring rain and I’d been running back and forth down the street to Kinko’s – without an umbrella – and stressing that I wasn’t going to get it all done… And there sat Laurie in the corner, sketching on his pad. I’d heard that he was an artist and cartoonist of some renown when he was younger, but at that point I hadn’t seen any of his work. Later that night, he slipped me a piece of paper. It was a cartoon of me. (Click on the thumbnail to see the full version.) How charming is that? The old guy loved to flirt. I’ve had it sitting on my desk at home ever since. Tomorrow morning I’ll go to his funeral and say goodbye. He was a really nice man.