A Tribute

Today is a special day.  It's my mom's birthday.  Not just any birthday though - today my mom celebrates her 80th birthday.  Quite a milestone.  I am so lucky to have her as my mother.

My mom, Marlene, was born on June 14, 1932; she was the youngest of 10 children born to Hungarian immigrants who came to the United States just after the turn of the century searching for a better life in America.

She had older brothers and sisters that doted on her; my grandmother, my mom's sisters and one sister-in-law and some neighborhood ladies all turned out for this photo when my mom made her First Communion.

My mom attended Catholic grade school; the school was just three blocks from where she lives (as a child and still today!)  In those days, the only teachers in the school were Benedictine nuns.  Those nuns took a liking to my mom, they taught her how to play the piano and how to play the cello, and when she got older, they also taught her how to play the organ. Most importantly, they taught her how to tat! Those of you that follow this blog have seen pictures of my mom's beautiful tatting.  (My mom is front and center in this photo!)

My mom also attended a nearby Catholic high school.  After high school she became a secretary and worked for the State of Minnesota.  Rumor has it she was quite the party girl with lots of friends.  There were Saturday night card parties and afterwards they would roll up the carpet in the dining room and dance until the wee hours of the morning.  And if the party was on a Saturday night, then on Sunday morning the whole group started off their day by going to mass!

In 1961 my mom met my dad and they got married followed by five kids in five years (can you imagine what that must have been like?)  I am the oldest and the only girl.

On December 27, 1970, my dad suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.  My mom was widowed with five children under the age of 10.  As tragic as this was, we were the luckiest five children in the world.  My mom never remarried.  She dedicated her life to the five of us ensuring that we lived the most normal life possible.  We always had good food on the table and clean, new clothes to wear.  We all attended Catholic grade school and high school.  There were music lessons and girl scout meetings for me; my brothers played hockey and baseball.  At Christmas there were many gifts under the tree.  I know that this couldn't have been easy, but somehow she managed to do it all.

Once my youngest brother started high school, my mom went back to work full-time, this time working for the Federal Government; she was a computer trainer for the Soil Conservation Service (you never want to use the word "dirt" around my mom!)  My mom enjoyed traveling around the state of Minnesota and surrounding states to train in the field offices.

I don't remember what year she retired from the Federal Government, but you can see that they had a grand party to celebrate (I'm going to guess that it was about 1996?)

Since retiring she has continued to play the organ at several area churches - she plays for Sunday mass, at funerals, and at school masses.

She has fully enjoyed her retirement -- loves to go to baseball and hockey games (prefers local high school and college teams over the pros); she's a fabulous cook (think apple strudel, dumplings, etc.), she continues to tat, and she loves to travel. (If you revisit my archives from last July you can read a full report on the trip my mom and I took to Austria and Hungary.)

Her world continues to revolve around her children and grandchildren (seven total!)

So mom, on this your 80th birthday, I want to thank you for your love and your support and for everything you have ever done for me.  I wouldn't be the person I am today had it not been for you.  Have a wonderful birthday.  I love you.

My mom will be celebrating her birthday exactly as she wants to -- she'll be attending the high school boys baseball tournament games.  We will be having a big party to celebrate her birthday on Sunday!

Drive By Post

Sorry folks for not being around much - busy time.  In a few weeks I will be able to resume my regular blogging activities.

Just wanted to give you a quick glimpse of what I have been working on; pictures are not the best.

First up - I Sigh Not for Beauty...all I have left is the over one verse at the top and the over one personalization at the bottom.  I'm making progress, but it's slow progress.  Remember, I'm not a big fan of over one stitching!

I pulled out one of my WIPs this weekend.  Remember this one?  The Mystery Sampler from With Thy Needle and Thread.  All I had done was the border.  The alphabet is almost finished and I've made a good start on the tree.  Lots of leaves need to be stitched yet!

Finally, this is a project that I am working on with others from Needlework Guild.  I'll have to share the details in a later post.  For now, you will have to try to guess what this is going to be!

So, there you have it.  Gotta run...late for work!

Missing...

Sorry for disappearing on you! My how time slips away so quickly!  May has turned out to be an extremely busy month for me; I just haven't had time to post.  Put your seat belt on...here we go!

Later in June I will be attending the Tree of Life Samplings retreat and we were sent pre-work and asked to complete it prior to the retreat. The stitching for my needlebook, pincushion, and scissor fob is all done!  Here are some close ups:

I've also been busy stitching away on a few other projects...

I'm going to need to get busy and do some finishing one of these days.

Here's Chessie and Me Glory House:

And the LHN/Shakespeare's Peddler collaboration pieces that were released at the Nashville needlework market:

Finally, I tried really hard to resist joining the Prim Sister's club through the Country Sampler shop in Spring Green, but after I saw all of your lovely posts of the first project I just couldn't help myself.  I think I'm actually going to have this piece framed.  I really like it!

I've also been working on the over one stitching on I Sigh Not for Beauty - all I have left now is the over one verse at the top and bottom.  I'm not a big fan of over one, so I'm doing it a little bit at a time!  Hope to have it finished by the end of June - that's my goal!

So, that's my update.  I'll try not to stay away so long next time.  If you are here in the U.S. I hope you are enjoying a fabulous Memorial Day weekend with your family and friends.  To all in the military - thank you for your service!

The House Is In...

Where does the time go?  Sometimes life sure gets busy; can't really complain though - glad I'm still on this earth to experience it!

It has been a busy spring - it kicked off with the Stitchville retreat about a month ago, followed by another Saturday of stitching with friends at the end of April.  Since re-joining our needlework guild, I've been taking full advantage of every opportunity offered, including their annual meeting which also occurred in April.  All these various stitching events have been fun and have kept me hopping.  My daughter is coaching her high school's girls lacrosse team this spring and we've been trying to go to as many of those games as possible.  Somehow I manage to work full-time too; pays the bills, pays for my addiction.  Yes, it's been a busy time but enjoyable.

Not too much stitching to show, but I do have an update.  I'm close to finishing I Sigh Not For Beauty.  The house is in and I'm working on the landscaping!  The trees are in, the grass will go in next.  This design was originally charted for DMC and I'm using Belle Soie silks.  The house was charted with a dark red stitch and then a lighter red stitch, with the two alternating throughout.  It was suggested that I could divide the pieces of Belle Soie into dark and light sections, but I have to be honest, I don't like stitching with short pieces of floss; the longer the better (but not as long as what Chris uses - Chris, you know who you are!)  I decided to use the entire length of Belle Soie and stitched every other square of the house.  Then I went back and filled in the remaining squares of the house. In doing this, I was able to eliminate the "stripey" look that I normally would have had, and IMHO I feel that the end result looks more like an actual brick house.  I'm happy with it.

So, now I have a story for you about this sampler. You all know Ellen Chester of With My Needle, and hopefully many of you read her monthly newsletter, With My Needle and Pen.  Every year, she selects two samplers and if interested, her newsletter subscribers work on those samplers as a SAL.  There are group leaders who include monthly "assignments" for the SAL.  In theory, everyone completes their sampler and has a lovely finished piece at the end of the year.  (Key words in that sentence are "in theory.")

One of last year's projects was the piece I'm working on, I Sigh Not For Beauty from C Street Samplerworks.  Many of you wonderful stitching bloggers worked on it last year along with the others who were doing the SAL.  Me, not so much.  I am determined to finish it this year though.  Ellen happened to notice that I was working on it and asked me to send a progress photo for her newsletter.  I happily obliged and not only sent a photo of this piece but also two other C Street Samplerworks designs that I had stitched and a nice little article to go with them.  If you would like to read it, please go to Ellen's website for With My Needle and then click on the link to With My Needle and Pen Newsletter (#4, April 30, 2012.)

Now, you'd think that might be the end of it, but it wasn't.  A couple days later, I received an email from Jean at the Attic asking if I would be willing to send her a picture of my sampler for her newsletter.  You see, I had purchased my supplies for this sampler from the Attic.  Remember, it was charted for DMC.  The Attic had done a lovely conversion to Belle Soie silks and a lovely Lakeside Linen fabric.  I happily obliged. It was kind of fun to see a picture of my sampler in the Attic newsletter last week!

Story is not over yet...a couple days later I get an email from none other than Ruth Ann Russell, the mastermind behind C Street Samplerworks!  What a delightful lady!  In our email exchange I encouraged her to publish more of her designs; of those that I have stitched, I have enjoyed stitching each and every one. Many of her offerings were originally published in SANQ magazines, but many of them are so old that they are impossible to find - even on the bay of evil (eBay).  However, when one has connections, sometimes they are successful in locating those very old magazines......there are more C Street Samplerworks designs in my future!

Well, I've rambled on long enough for one day.  Here in Minnesota the sky is blue, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping - I think it is going to be a lovely day!  Thank you for stopping by.  Hope you find some time today for some stitching!

Stitching With Friends

Those who know me well will tell you that I like to socialize.  It's true, I like the socializing that comes with stitching get-togethers almost more than the actual stitching itself.  Since recently re-joining our local needlework guild, I have looked forward to our twice monthly stitching nights.  It's fun to see the projects that the other stitchers are working on and frankly, it's fun to talk about stitching!

This past weekend a group of us gathered at a local quilt shop that rents out its classroom for a nominal charge.   We stitched from 9am until 3pm; some brought a bag lunch and others grabbed a bite at the restaurant located next door to the quilt shop, their food is good and their service is very efficient.

Everyone had a great time stitching, chatting, and looking at each other's projects.  Here are some of the projects that stitchers were working on...

Some worked on cross stitch, some on hardanger, others were embroidering.  It didn't matter what project we worked on - we admired each others work and enjoyed each other's company.  It was a fun day spent doing what we love - socializing and stitching!

A Wonderful Tribute

Yesterday, I attended our needlework guild's annual meeting and luncheon. After the meeting, we were treated to a wonderful presentation by Ann Zemke from Crocus Lane Quilts. I was looking forward to an interesting "chat" but had no idea how profound and moving it would be.

Ann's grandmother, Marjorie Peterson, was an orphan train rider. She, like hundreds of thousands of other abandoned and/or orphaned children, was placed on a train hoping that there would be a family at the end of the train ride that would provide a better life. Ann told about the orphan trains and then shared her grandmother's story with us by reading excerpts from her grandmother's writings. She provided us with a glimpse into her grandmother's life with a quilt that she designed and quilted that tells her grandmother's story. I took a few pictures to share with you...

 This is Ann telling us about her grandmother; the quilt she made to tell her grandmother's story is behind her:

Here is a picture of the entire quilt (sorry, it's taken at an angle); you can see her grandmother's picture at the top:

The middle block includes her grandmother's handwriting; Ann enlarged the original and then traced it onto this block. It says "My Autobiography and Life - Marjorie Peterson":

I took a picture of this block because of the embroidery on the pillow case and the crocheted edging. My own grandmother used to crochet edging just like this on her pillowcases!

This is a doily with tatted edging - not only did Marjorie crochet, but she also knew how to tat!

And this block symbolized Marjorie's love of gardening. The blue house dress and pink apron with the chicken scratch around the bottom also reminds me of my aunts who dressed like this and wore chicken scratch embroidered aprons!

Every block of this quilt had a special meaning behind it. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to hear Marjorie's story as told by her granddaughter Ann! Of course while listening to the story, I was thinking about how I could preserve my family's history in my stitching. I thought about the various samplers that other stitchers have completed and personalized with family information. I think we need to do more of that so that our stories and our legacies live on.

 If you'd like more information about Ann and Crocus Lane Quilts, please visit her website: Crocus Lane Quilts. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

One More Retreat Post

One last post with pictures from the weekend. One of the best parts of every retreat is the opportunity to view projects that have been completed by the retreat participants. This year certainly did not disappoint, there were samplers and needlework smalls all from The Victoria Sampler. I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking!











Another Stitchville retreat come and gone. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to spend the weekend with friends and to meet and learn from such talented designers!



Hope you all have a great weekend! Keep on stitching!