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Sunday, March 10, 2013

The First and The Latest

Good morning everyone!  It feels really good to have the time to catch up on my stitching and blogging again.  The past month has been so off kilter, beginning with the sad dash to Illinois when Jim's dad passed.  Quickly on the heels of that trip were several days in Tallahassee for work.  I feel like I've been playing catch up for a long time now, but not really gaining much ground.  Still though, I have managed to make some time for stitching.  That's probably what's kept me sane lately!

I've so enjoyed reading all the recent blog posts that were prompted by Nicola's question about first stitching projects.  Mine was a sampler by Vanessa Ann (or maybe they were Shepherd's Bush by then, who knows?)  that I've completely forgotten the name of, but still hangs proudly in my bedroom.



You can tell by the date on this piece that I've been terminally hooked for 30 years now.



My sister Teresa was so excited to get me going with this new hobby she'd taken up, something called "counted cross stitch".    She showed me how all the floss colors had a different number and each color was represented on the chart by its own symbol.  And  it was done on this starchy background called aida cloth that made it really easy to count and see where to make each stitch.  I was a little nervous about it at first, this seemed sorta complicated.


But by the next morning, I was up to the challenge!  We convinced her husband to keep an eye on baby Jesse (who is a daddy himself now these days), put on our padded shoulder jackets and headed off to the Creative Hand Shoppe for all the necessary goods.  The rest is history, I've been stitching ever since.

So now we'll fast forward 30 years for an update on Miss Ann Grimshaw, my latest.  Not a whole lot of progress on her since the last update, given all the traveling and catch up lately, but still enough to have something to share.


I do love this sweet bunch of rosebuds....


...and am excited to have my first alphabet letter in.  I've decided the letters that are initials for family members  - J,E,H,T.M.D and R - will be stitched in the darker skein of Finnegan's Fog, while the others will be in the lighter.


Geez, on closer examination, it looks like that bottom eyelet needs a little repair work.  Don't you just hate that?!

Spring is definitely busting out all over in west central Florida right now.  Pollen is dropping, birds are singing and it won't be long at all before air conditioners are humming.  In the meantime though, Molly and Ruby are reveling in all the fresh grass and pesky squirrels in our back yard.

 
Molly tries to be friendly with them...



...but Ruby just tells them who's in charge.


Here's hoping a bright spring will find its way to your home too!

5 comments:

Catherine said...

How fun to see and hear about your journey into cross stitch! Lovely new stitches too.
Such sweet pups!

Margaret said...

I'm so sorry about Jim's dad. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Love seeing your first piece -- so much fun! And can I say I had no clue Vanessa Ann was SB!!! lol! Nice! My problem is I can't remember what my first sampler was. :D Your Ann is looking great too! And those pesky squirrels. lol! Mia gets driven crazy by them as well.

Julie said...

Nice pieces both old and new.
We have dog called Mollie too. :)

Terri said...

Thanks for sharing your stitching journey beginning!

The dogs are just gorgeous!! Love the pictures!

pj said...

You sure brought a smile to my face as I also stitched this sampler in the 80's with the over one geese, chubby people, etc. I love it and it also hangs in my bedroom as one of my treasures! I just looked and it was stitched in 1982!

My we have come a long way since then! Love you sampler stitching.

pam in iowa