My First Stitch

I did not grow up in a sewing family. My Mom did not sew. My grandmothers did not sew. The sewing gene does not flow through my veins. In fact I had a strong dislike for all things related to a needle and thread... or anything else related to being indoors for that matter. I loved to read, but I prefered to lose myself in the pages under a tree. In high school, all the girls took home-ec. I shuddered at the thought. I crumbled at the feet of the principal and begged him to let me take shop. He took pity on me and I was thrilled. My apologies to my husband who married me even thought I could not cook back then.

Looking back, I get the feeling that the good Lord was quite amused by that feisty teenager. He knew. He knew that one day I would be sucked into becoming domestic. He just quietly sat back and let me gallavant through those carefree years.

So how did I, the welding torch yielding teen, get to this point?

It started after college...in a feedlot...in Idaho. DH and I both worked at Simplot Feedlot. I worked in the office and sat in a little room dispensing various feed mixtures into the trucks that pulled up below me. There was a lot of free time and a sweet girl that trained me told me that she would cross-stitch in between trucks. I imagine I looked at her in horror at the thought. She probably patted me on the shoulder and said, "There...there...it'll be alright." Then she lent me a book of patterns and I was hooked. This was in the 80's. This was my first project:

It looks very 80's. The little wooden hoop with lace and bow make me laugh today. It brings back good memories...and not so good memories of the smell that accompanies a feedlot. We weren't there very long before we were wisked away to run a ranch in New Mexico, but the friendships that we formed from back then continue and here I am, 25 years later, still stitching. When I asked for a sewing machine after our first child was born, I'm pretty sure my Mom thought I had taken leave of my senses. I still cross-stitched some, but I loved making clothes for the kids and somewhere down the line, cross-stitch was put aside.

I've been running across various blogs and feeling nostalgic when they share their beautiful cross-stitch  projects. I haven't sross-stitched in over 10 years. I've given lots and lots of them away, but today I pulled out some that I still had. I even took a piece in for framing when I had to take DH in to pick up his truck yesterday.

And...last year, I saw a piece that I had to make for my in-laws. I worked on it for a few months and then put it aside when the days became longer because by the time we came in in the evening, it was all we could do to eat, shower, and fall into bed. However, I am determined to give this to my in-laws for Christmas this year so I try to sit and stitch a bit in the evenings.

Here's my current project and this is where I left off last April:


My father-in-law is crazy about bears and this little fella's kinda cute! It's 16"x16" so I'll be stitching on it for a while.

And here are a few oldies. This one hangs in my kitchen:


And this one was in the cedar chest, but I dug it out and am looking for a spot to hang it. I thought the laundry room, but the laundry room is our front room, our mud room, our collection spot for every glove and spur and coat and hat and pair of chaps and it just doesn't fit. Besides the only wall in there is cinder block and it's a bear to get  nail in it.

See, I was drawn to quilts long before I ever even thought about making one.

Thanks for letting me meander down memory lane. I still have some pieces that I never framed and I think I'll take a piece in every month and get that done.

Here's my progress on this little guy for the month of January:



There's so much subtle shading in this piece. The white part has about 8 different shades and I bout went cross-eyed trying to work on his little body. My eyes simply are not what they used to be.
I'm hoping that this'll keep me accountable! :)