Embroidery

When I was in elementary school I learned how to embroider in school.  I'll never forget coming home from school and the excitement of knowing how to do something crafty.  I guess that was my first endeavor into any type of sewing.  My grandmother lived with us at the time and she could crochet so we came up with a little Christmas project that we could do together.  She bought men's handkerchiefs and I would embroider the person's initials on them and she would crochet a scallop around the edges.  I wish I could find just one of those handkerchiefs that we made together.

The instruction booklet for the Quilted Butterfly

Many years later and my daughter was staying with her grandmother, my mother-in-law, for the summer.  Lethia was an awesome woman.  I don't think there was anything she couldn't do.  When my daughter came home that summer she brought with her several embroidery kits.  My mother-in-law had these kits left over from many many days gone by.  She said they used to have hostess parties back when she was young and they'd sit around and embroider these little squares.  My daughter and I embroidered a few of these together and then like projects do they were pushed to the back burner.  My daughter became a teenager and embroidery wasn't any fun anymore.

A package of one of the Hostess Programs that has never been opened.

Now fast forward to today, or should I say about 3 weeks ago.  I was going through my craft stash trying to sort things out and I come across these embroidery kits.  Immediately my mind went back to Lethia and I began to cry.  I couldn't look at them without crying.  However the more I thought on it I decided that I would embroider these little squares by hand (all in red thread my new found passion) and then I would somehow make a quilt out of them.  One that we could have and cherish forever.

The package that hasn't been opened is for a Daisy pattern.
It has the thread, needles, instruction, and printed muslin.

Tonight it's seems that I was having trouble getting settled.  My nerves were really bothering me and my mind was going a hundred miles an hour.  I didn't feel like pulling out the sewing machine, or cutting out anything, but then I remembered those little squares.  For the last few hours I've sit here trying to remember how to do a basic chain stitch.  I could hear my grandmother's voice in my mind as she would say "Now hold the thread in a U and put it around your needle" She would tell me to hold it tight so I wouldn't lose the thread.  Memories....

The hearts my daughter embroidered many years ago

The heart I embroidered tonight.  

A few minutes ago my daughter walked into the room and she remembered the little project that she'd started many years ago.  She asked me if I still had the squares that she'd embroidered with her grandmother, of course, I said Yes.  She pulled them out and began to look at them.  I could tell by her face that she was hearing her grandmother's voice just like I did.  You never know what kind of impact you will have on someones life.  I was thinking tonight as my nerves have settled down how my mother-in-law would tell me "To just stay steady with the boat." and "Don't give up" she'd say, "God is just about to move".  I've needed to hear those words again but she's so far away.  I wouldn't bring her back if I could but tonight God let me hear those words in my mind by looking at a few pieces of embroidery....

~Blessings
Krista