Where it all began

Not going to go into WHEN it all began, but where it all began is basically this Month's question for the WIPocalypse stitch along that can be found here:

http://measi.net/measiblog/

In this Stitch-a-long, we pull out projects that we want done before the end of time....so I guess as long as I have LOTS of projects, time will have to continue and the world won't come to an end.

This month's question is How did you begin stitching?

My Grandma Millie (she is holding me in the picture) taught me how to hand sew.  As a little girl I used to spend a lot of time at her house and she had to find things to keep me occupied.  I would spend, what I seemed like hours, making little x's on gingham, or sewing snaps and hooks onto pieces of cloth until they were perfect.  From there I graduated to doing the hem stitches so I could shorten my dresses and pants, I was the short one in the family.  I was NOT allowed to use a sewing machine, everything was always done by hand at my Grandma's house.

As I got better my Grandma would give me potholders and towels to embroider.  I"m sure my Grandma took out the stitches that weren't perfect and re-stitched so it was presentable.  My sister Linda and I would spend houses designing dresses for our paper dolls.  My Grandma's first job as a young woman was sewing in her sister's seamstress shop.

My Mom is a knitter, but also was known to sew or needlepoint, but always said she didn't have the patients to teach any of her daughters.  So it was my Grandma Millie who introduced me to my love of stitching.

I tired a lot of stamped projects, and other kinds of surface stitching, but really didn't care for it, and most of those projects just lingered in half done status until I either tossed them, or put them always for eternity.  It wasn't until I found my first counted cross stitch that I really got hooked.  Getting hooked on needlepoint and canvases is another story for another time.

So what I have been doing since the last end of the month?  Well I finished  the beading on the purse for my youngest daughter and also the small round that will go into the mirror case.  Then started on the tiger that will go with middle daughter's purse in your mirror case.

I'm hoping mounting in small round designs will be simple and I can do it quickly.  The writer instructions seem easy enough.

Other than the weekend at our Southern Cal Retreat the end of September, I've not really done much cross stitching at all this month.  You can scan back and see what I managed to do, and my other small finish.

Sandy