Pittsburgh Trip

Last week I traveled home to Pittsburgh to visit my parents.  I took along the patriotic piece I made for my Dad and gave it to him the first night. He really liked it which made me very happy. I had him put on his favorite veterans cap to take his picture with it.

These two have been married 64 years.  Isn't that something?!

My brother, from MA was visiting at the same time with his wife.  We haven't seen each other in about 5 years and it was so nice to be able to visit and catch up and enjoy each other's company. I miss them so much.

Say cheese.

My Mom is a 24 year cancer survivor.  Ovarian cancer.  She and my Dad are both miracles to still be here.
The year my Mom went through her cancer treatments I taught her to cross stitch.  It made her very nervous and her tension was incredibly tight to begin with but I coached her through every time I went to visit her.  After much fussing. she completed this wonderful sampler.  I love it and think she did an amazing job considering it was her first piece......and last LOL.

The same year of her treatments my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.  They had a big, fancy party because they were unsure of the future.  I searched and searched for a sampler for the occasion and eventually found Lauren Sauer's sampler.  Changed all the wording to fit my parents and added their 3 children's initials and birth dates in cartouches at the bottom.  I remember that it stitched up pretty quickly and was a fun project.  Amazingly it is still offered for sale.  It is called the Guarnieri Sampler.

It was a great trip.

Marsha

Round Robin

Last Friday night was Keepsakes Framing and Stitching, my local LNS, first Friday of the month stitch in.  We pack ourselves into the shop on folding chairs or around the one big table to stitch and laugh and even do some shopping.  One of our stitching friends has fallen ill from a stroke and is in the process of a slow recovery.  We wish Pat lots of good will and hope she recovers her ability to live alone and stitch again.  A round robin was started for Pat and I was thrilled to be asked to stitch a row. This is my first round robin and I hope to do another.  It's harder than you think though.  There's the size issue.  The color issue.  And most important, what the heck to stitch.  I went through all my freebies and found a couple possibilities.  I had one I was sure was perfect but when I started graphing it out and could see it wouldn't work.  So, I started pulling books from my bookshelf.  I have way more books than I thought, which was a nice surprise. I had one or two to flip through when I pulled this one out.  I believe Ellen Chester had told me about this one last fall so I had ordered it but didn't really look through it.

 

Here's the back of it.  All of the samplers shown, are charted in the book plus other motifs.

When I saw this, I knew it was the one and luckily it fit.

When I was in the shop Friday night, I found a Lizzie Kate chart with the saying 'Fear Less, Hope More'.  I was going to use that but it just didn't fit.  The saying, however, stuck in my mind and I knew I wanted to use it but switching it to put the positive first.  Hope More, Fear Less.  And you have to be fearless to make yourself do all the work in recovery.

So here is the wonderful round robin so far.  Lisa, The Inspired Stitcher, did a blog post about her part.

When I arrived at Keepsakes on Friday, Barb, the shop owner handed me a birthday gift bag from my secret stitcher.  My birthday isn't until the end of the month but I love celebrating a long time. Here are my goodies.

A sturdy horn book.  I love bees and now have a cute bee needle keeper.  By the Bay Stitch an Inch chart Summer Part I.  A Mary Englebright card and a Barnes and Noble gift card.  I was spoiled and I love it. This wonderful stitched ornament heart was also included.  The colors are soft and pretty and I especially like the rosy ric rac stitched around the edge and the gold heart charm. Thank you so much secret stitcher.  I love everything.

I hung it with my other secret stitcher piece in the kitchen so I can see it every day.

Thank you for your comments I read them all and appreciate the time you take to leave one.

Marsha