Gifts

When you think of gifts, what do you think about? I think about all of the unexpected gifts I've been given, which manifest themselves in the most unlikely (to me) ways. I also think about the wonderful gifts I've been given and the people who have given them to me. I'm much more comfortable being the giver rather than the recipient of gifts. I'm often afraid that I haven't done enough to deserve the gift (I know ... sounds bad, but it's one of my quirks). Maybe that feeling makes me more appreciative. 


Now is the time of year that causes me to think about gifts, because I'd much rather focus on what I've been given rather than on what's been taken. Sometimes the only way to make an event and its consequences positive is to look for gifts.


My sister recently gave me a sampler that she stitched. To me, a stitched piece is always an enormous gift. This sampler is even more special because of the meaning behind it.

It's called An Angel for Rebekah, and it was designed by Kam and Barb at Ewe & Eye & Friends about 16 years ago. I was working for them at the time that my younger daughter died, so they designed it in her memory. She used to go to their shop with me once or twice a week to work on publishing charts and putting kits and charts in their packaging. 


To say that she was entertaining would be an extreme understatement, and she made friends of all ages wherever she went. All of us in my family still tell hundreds of hilarious stories of her adventures and exasperating (for us) moments. She's fresh in our minds because she was a gift to everyone she met, as I'm sure your children are gifts to you. Of course, we consider all of our children in our family gifts, but Bekah is our shared gift. Somehow, that makes things different.


To receive my sister's gift of this sampler is especially overwhelming this year, because Bekah would've been 21 this coming Sunday. I'm even more grateful to have this sampler because I haven't been able to get myself to stitch it. I've stitched other things for her, but this one was more difficult to start. It's just one of those things. My mom stitched Rebekah's sampler several years ago, and I wanted to bring it home with me, but my dad wants to keep it for now. I think that's why Sharri stitched it for me. 


So why am I telling you all of this? Since Sharri brought this finished piece to me, it's been on my mind so much. I think I need to share it, so here you are. I want to make certain that y'all don't think of this as just a horribly sad story. It's sad, but Bekah was wonderful, and what I've learned since she died has been so much more than I could ever explain to anyone (more for the memoir). The most important lesson is to learn as much as you can from the absolute worst things that happen, because those lessons are the only positive things than can come from a truly horrific event. I refuse to be a victim of life, and I am determined to live as full a life as possible. Remembering Rebekah by living a positive life is the least I can do. So that's what I hope you all take from this post. 


I think every day of how incredibly lucky I am. I have children, grandchildren, a great place to live, friends, family, a swain, and so many other wonderful things to appreciate. I can't think of anyone I'd be willing to trade places with. We all have hard lessons and difficult times. As my mom always said, "Life is an endurance test." We'd better make it as good as it can be, right?


So how about some gifts for you who read/comment/follow? I have a couple of things from Mom's stash left to give away to you. All you have to do is express an interest in any or all of the following items, and I'll enter you in a drawing to be held on Sunday evening, April 29. I'll be back to tell about the winners on Monday.


First is Blossom Time by Papillon Creations. This is a chart with some fabric that Mom bought for it. The fabric looks like a 28-count evenweave, but I haven't counted it, so it could be 32-count. Mom chose Gentle Art Sampler Threads in antique rose and grape leaf for this project, so I'll include those. Here's a picture:

Also for your stitching pleasure are Woodland Walk and Christmas Stitches from The Drawn Thread. Woodland Walk is a chart only. Christmas Stitches comes with gold blending filament, Mill Hill beads and three colors of silk floss. I'm hoping that there is enough to complete the project, but I can't guarantee it. These two will be given away together. Here are pictures:

Lastly, I offer you my Napa Valley Sampler chart, along with its kitted fabric (I used a different one) and some of the kitted threads (the ones I didn't use). I won't put a picture here, but you can look at my April 15 post to check it out.


I appreciate all of you who read, comment, follow, and trade emails with me. Even if I don't show it often enough or well enough, I'm grateful that you're here. The community that we have here in blogland is a gift we share. Thank you.


'Til next time, appreciate gifts that come your way, be kind to each other, make some fun. 

I've had good intentions. Each day this week, I thought about sitting down to post something, but each day has been so busy. My mom is in the hospital, which is such an extreme surprise to all of us that we hardly know what to do. She hasn't felt well for about a month, and when she went to the doctor, they treated her for an infection. Almost a week later, when she went back, they found some more disturbing things. So poor Mom is in the hospital and we've been entertaining her. In fact, it's hard to say which is worse for her ... being in the hospital or the entertainment we've provided. My brother came into town on Friday, so all three of us have been hanging out with Mom and Dad. I'll update you in a few days, when all of the info is gathered. All I ask is that you bring on all of your good thoughts or prayers or anything else you can muster.

On a happier note, here's a picture from Mom's Day of the three family ATS's. You'll notice that Sharri's finished sampler is in the middle, Mom's is on the left, and mine is on the right. At this point, I could be the next to finish, but now that Mom's sick, I almost feel bad about finishing before her. I know the picture quality is bad, but these pics were taken in Mom and Dad's dark den.

I'm not sure if these are clickable. When I first started blogging, all of my pics were clickable, but lately they haven't been. I can't figure out what I'm doing differently. It would help, probably, if I read the manual that came with my camera, but I have other things I'd rather do. If you have advice for the technologically challenged, bring it on. In the picture below, I tried to get a little closer so you could see Sharri's. As we were laying these out, we started noticing all of the things she forgot to stitch. A flower here, some backstitching there, a missed stitch in another place or two. Sharri is the less left-brained sister. She moves around all over the fabric when she stitches, but I tend to move more methodically through a piece. It's not that I love to stitch that way. It's my fear that I'll be unstitching and restitching several areas because I can't count. Maybe Sharri's more of a risk-taker. Or a better counter.

That's about it for today. I'm gonna allow myself a little time on the deck and then I'm off to the hospital for a while. Only one more week with my sweet little friends at school! Then we teachers pack for two days after Memorial Day (a closing school requires much packing), and it's all over but the shouting. Make some fun.

Let Me Out!

Help! My calendar has trapped me in a vicious vortex of end-of-school events! I'm a prisoner of my schedule! I've missed you all terribly. This morning has been filled with a very little housework and as much blog-reading as I could manage. I decided that I'd better get a post done, or someone will be sending out a search party. While reading, I had some big fat computer issues. I couldn't see the text part of Simone's blog (so I'm missing out on that giveaway), and then another blog I was visiting started that crazy open-as-many-windows-to-this-blog-as-possible thing. What's that about? Is it Blogger? Is it Explorer? Is it operator error?

My morning school, Lewis Ames Elementary in Littleton, Colorado, is closing this year. We are all so sad to leave each other and go to different schools that we've been denying the future. I was rudely roused from my own denial this week when I learned that I've been sentenced to the darkness of hell next year. The administrators of the program I work for are sending me to the only school I've ever truly abhorred (it's the adults, not the students). The deciders (love that Bush-ism) at that school (and don't forget the administrators at the top) make decisions based upon a lack of literacy experience and a belief that a program (rather than excellent teaching) can save their school. Or maybe it's the Magic 8 Ball in the principal's desk! Anyway, I'm in for a summer-long attitude adjustment. I'll have to stitch even more to work out my demons therapeutically and visualize myself doing my best job ever. I think I can, I think I can ...

Ames is having an open house this week, and I'm on the committee planning it. We've been making, baking and painting dough ornaments to give away (pictures to come later), so I've been a busy girl. Our school was treated to a wonderful field trip to Coors Field (home of the Colorado Rockies) this week for a wild event. If you're interested in seeing part of the excitement that exhausted teachers and students (some kindergarteners passed out on the bus ride home), you can look here.

How about a stitchy pic? If you recall from who-knows-how-long-ago, this was what Eden looked like ...
Today, Eden looks like this ...

Hey, there's a little progress. I like seeing both pictures together like that. I started filling in the pond area with some "ripples" from the fishing line. We'll see how that goes. Of course, the swans are gonna need their own "ripples", so making them all work together oughta keep my mind working. I'm not sure where these creative moments (read: wild ideas) come from, but what the hell! Can it hurt to give it a try? Only the unstitching hurts, right?

On another And They Sinned note, my sister finished her journey through Eden (enormous gasp)!! I know! Isn't that exciting? Sharri is now wondering which bank to rob in order to frame it. Hopefully, I'll get a picture for you tomorrow when we go visit Mom.

I'm off to ... 1) enjoy the fabulous sun on the deck, 2) make and bake some more ornaments, 3) remove the hideous debris of the week in my house, 4) savor a Diet Coke with lemon. Two weeks left until I'm set free to roam the golf course and stitch until my elbow hurts.

Happy Mother's Day, all of you moms out there. Make some fun.

And They Sinned and Sinned and Sinned

Before I get started on ATS, I need to answer a question for Jennifer (no blog), who is interested in acquiring the Lo How a Rose chart. Jennifer, go to Staci's blog and try the link she gives on this post. If that doesn't help, please get my email from my profile and send me a note. We'll discuss.

Last night at the folks' house was not just a birthday dinner (with absolutely fabulous red enchiladas and tacos made by Mom), but a true ATS fest. My mom, sister and I all had our samplers in tow so we could examine and compare. First, here's a progress pic for my ATS:

The instructions (I love this design, but I'd really love to edit those instructions) say to use two colors of green and work diagonally to fill in the grass. The diagonal idea just wasn't working for me, so I knew I would fill horizontally. Then I tried the GAST Green Apple, loved it, tried the Shutter Green (I think), and watched parts of the motifs fade into the background. Out came the Shutter Green! So I'm ending up with my sister's choice ... Green Apple it will be. Below is a close-up so you can see what it looks like.

After dinner, we cleared off the big dining table and laid out the samplers. I think I got a pretty good pic, but I'm not sure it's clickable. So sorry if it isn't.

Mom's (Estelle) is on the left (and she started it last Thanksgiving!), Sharri's is in the middle, and mine is on the right. Mom and I are both using lambswool linen, hers in 36-count and mine in 40-count. Sharri's is on an unknown 36-count R&R fabric (which tells you how long ago she bought it). I hadn't realized how much smaller mine is until we had them all together. I love that 40-count fabric. We're all using GAST, and the color differences are really interesting. Even the men in the house were talking about the color differences!

By the way, watching the men (aged 18 to 75) was hilarious. We girls were completely excited, but they didn't get it at all. They looked and tried to appreciate, but they think this stitching thing is just so silly. Go figure ... they like guns. In a rather disgusted voice, my dad said, "It'll probably cost $500 to frame all of those." None of us dared to mention that it'll almost certainly be more than that. Shhhh ... what he doesn't know won't hurt him.

I took a closer picture of Sharri's so you could see the last section. I really wanna catch up. Why? There's no hurry, except that I have a long, long list of can't-wait-to-stitch projects calling my name. And it's not a race, except that I really wanna finish first (not a chance in hell). Mom will probably finish before either one of us. She's not known as Super Stitcher for nothing. So that's the ATS tour. Hope you've enjoyed it. Of course, I'll get a picture when they're all finished so you can celebrate with us. Now I'm off to work on Lo How a Rose because I didn't get to last night. And then tomorrow's Friday!