Memorial Day 2014

We have so much to be thankful for here in America.  I want to give a special thank you to all my ancestors who fought in the American Revolution and Civil War.  Another thank you to my Uncles Jim and Bill and my Father in Law for serving during World War II, my uncles Luther, Ernest, Sam and Jimmy for serving in peacetime, my cousin Gwyn and schoolmate WC for serving in Vietnam, my cousins who served in Afghanistan, and all the many others who have served and fought that we might have the freedoms we cherish today.

This sampler, I designed 4 years ago, say it all, Faith--Liberty--Freedom--Family--Country.

I am working on another piece, which will be a limited edition pillow kit that honors our tradition of Liberty.  I hope to have it finished and released by the 1st of July.

It has been a good week here at Cherished Stitches.  The goodies I ordered at TNNA market have started arriving.

My French Lace.

My Natural dyed silk fibers.

Two new books.

And then Friday I received my silk gimp fibers from Trish for my Cabinet of Curiosities.  I had stopped stitching on the little mini box top, while waiting for them to arrive.  Now I can't wait to attempt working with them.  I love working with something new.

We had our annual Fowler family reunion on Saturday.  It is always a happy day when I get to see  and talk to family members I only see once in a while.

Yesterday we grilled burgers on the grill and ate out on the deck with my son and his girlfriend.  It was such a beautiful day.  So nice in fact, that Bob and I decided to grill pork chops and eat outside for dinner also.

Also new this week, I have 2 tomatoes on my plant.  I really hope they don't get stolen by birds or chipmunks.

With today being a Monday, I guess it is time to go do more Laudry.   I don't have to worry about lunch, because my cousin sent home a huge plate of pulled pork, and Bob has Lions tonight, so dinner will be a sandwich all alone.  (That is a good thing, no cooking)

Hope you all have a very blessed Memorial Day.

Since I spent the day with my daughter Robin yesterday, working on how to improve my blog and try to get more followers, I thought I better work on it today.  After reading through several blogs, it appears I have a lot to live up to in order to get those followers.  I am told I need lots of photos to make my blog interesting.  As some of you know, and many of do not know, I was a professional photographer for over 20 years.  I still do occasional work in the studio, but have found that I developed a serious aversion to taking photos, once I left the studio.  So, now I must push myself sometimes to even take a camera with me when traveling, whether for Cherished Stitches or for vacation.  I really do like that most of the time I can use my phone and ipad for quick snapshots, when I remember to pull them out.  So, my goals are to take more pictures and make a better blog.

I really wanted to go to the Penn Dry Goods event this weekend, as I so enjoyed the event last year.  But, I have been on the road quite a bit this year.  I just read the Tot Hill Farm blog, and I am so jealous.  Chris has always made a trip into an adventure.  I just love the way she always comes up with such interesting places to eat.  Really looking forward to our trip to Nashville 2015 next year.

One of the things I have been working on this past week, is a class to teach at Nashville 2015.  I hope this is of interest to the shops, as it is something I have been wanting to work on for some time.  As an artist, (yes, one of my jobs in our studio was to do hand tinting, and full oils of portraits), I just cannot resist anything to do with paints.   For the first part of the class, I plan to teach how to distress paint a box.

First I gathered supplies

The Finished product.  

The second part of the class will be a design to fit on top.  I was very excited about working on the Jamestown jacket with simple Blackwork stitches, and plan to work up the top with this style  of needlework.  I have always loved the simplicity of Blackwork, and after stitching some of the smalls for my Cabinet of Curiosities and working on the jacket, love it even more.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.