A bookmark stitched by Stephanie, from Nouveau Encore Designs. Pattern by Textile Heritage.

Welcome to our Extreme Reader / Extreme Stitcher series where we profile people willing to go to great lengths to read and/or stitch.

Meet Lauren as she tells us her story.

Twenty or so years ago, we moved to Florida from New Jersey. One of the things we were not accustomed to was the power outages during some of the severe rain storms.

Late one afternoon, I was sitting in my living room stitching when the power went out during a storm. Knowing it would likely be a while before power was restored, I pulled out my little book reader light and clamped it to the stop of my stitching frame. My Dad looked on in shock and amusement. He asked, “You’re not really going to stitch with that thing, are you?!?” My reply was a resounding “Yes!” and I continued to merrily stitch away for the next hour or so until the lights came back on!

Can you imagine stitching with just a pinpoint of light? There wasn’t even a deadline; no rushing to get the project finished before the birthday cake was served or anything. Lauren is an extremely committed stitcher!