When the time is right, the right person comes into your life

I went to the doctor today for my pain management appointment. I was assigned to a new physician's assistant (PA) named Denise. After finding out yesterday when the office called to remind me of my appointment that I would be seeing someone new (this has happened for my last 3 appointments) I was worried. But since I knew it was a woman I was also hopeful that she would be as good as my old PA (also named Denise). In my experiences I have much better luck with female doctors or PA's than I do with male ones. Anyway she is a really nice lady, who actually listens to her patients. She did a physical exam, which I was expecting since this is the first time we've met. She also told me that the reason I am scheduled for an appointment every 3 months instead of every month is because I am listed as not being at risk for addiction, diverting my medications, or anything like that. I already knew this about myself because I am very careful to follow all the rules and only take my medication as prescribed, but it was still nice to know that my doctor's office knows that I am not a risk as well. So it was a great visit just for the new PA, but something happened in the waiting room that made it a truly wonderful and touching visit.

I was stitching in the waiting room like I usually do. Usually the wait can be a couple hours so stitching keeps me occupied and helps keep me from getting annoyed that I have such a long wait time. This lovely older woman came over to me. Her name is Grace. She asked to see what I was stitching. I was working on the Delft Card for a friend in the UK to sell and raise money for cancer research. She said it looked wonderful then asked to see the back. I knew right then that she must be a stitcher because only a stitcher would know that the back of a piece is important. So I showed her the back and I was nervous! With her age I knew that she had most likely learned from her grandmother and mother, add in her accent and I knew she had learned from an older generation in a different country. The older generations, when teaching younger people to stitch, emphasized that they do it correctly, including making sure the back is as neat as possible. Knowing all this I was nervous to show her the back of my work, that it may not be up to her standards but she told me my back was perfect! She started complimenting me on how neat my stitches were, how neat the back was and complimented my grandmother and mother for teaching me. I had to tell her that they did not teach me, that I taught myself. She was surprised but said I obviously learned well.

She then told me how her mom and grandmother taught her to stitch when she was a little girl, back in Panama. She told me she used to stitch a lot and tried to teach her 3 daughters, but none of them were interested. She asked me to put some pieces in the County Fair in October and mentioned how sad she was that there was so little needlework being shown at the fair now a days. I told her about the ribbons I got in the Cochise County Fair back when I lived in Arizona. She said she wasn't surprised because my stitching is so neat.

She went on to tell me that she still had many patterns that belonged to her mother and how she kept them because they were her mother's. She talked about how much they meant to her and had tears in her eyes while talking. Then, she blew my mind! (i'm still very pleasantly surprised!)

She wants to give me those patterns! Can you believe it? Some of her most prized possessions and she wants to give them to me! I still can't believe it.

She said many of the patterns belonged to her mother and grandmother, but since she doesn't stitch anymore and her kids aren't interested, she has held on to it all hoping to find someone who would treasure them to give them to, someone who would use them as well. I almost cried! I will certainly treasure every single chart! I am so touched that she would give me the patterns that obviously mean so much to her, specially since we literally just met! I started to cry a little and couldn't thank her enough. I know how much those patterns mean to her because they were her mother's and her grandmother's. She said that she had watched me stitch for a few minutes before approaching me because she wanted to see if I was really enjoying the stitching or just doing it to get it over with. She said that I appeared to be a true stitcher, one who stitches for the joy of stitching. I told her how much I enjoy stitching, that it is very important to me because I can't work, so stitching gives me something to work for. I kind of see stitching as a job almost, I may not be able to work but I can make beautiful pieces of stitching for people. She understood. So we talked for a little while about stitching, her coming to the U.S., friends, family and lots of stuff. She gave me her phone number and took mine. She said she will call me in a couple of days, after she gets the patterns together. Her husband asked for directions to my house and we talked about being transplanted Yankees living in the south (He is from Maine and I am originally from Mass.) They were great people and I really enjoyed talking with them. I am hoping this is the start of a friendship.

June SBQ

Lee, Lake Stitcher, has posted the June Stitching Blogger Question and here it is.

Tell us about something that you have stitched or plan to stitch for any father in your life.  Maybe it’s for your father, your father-in-law, your children’s father, your grandfather, your godfather, or someone who was or still is an important father-figure in your life.  Why did you choose this particular piece of stitching?   Tell us the story behind it.

 I was adopted at the age of 2 so I will talk about both my adoptive father, who died last summer, and my biological father. I have never stitched for either of them. I have had a few phone calls with my biological father but due to his requests of me (I was 24 or 25 at the time) which were WAY out of line, I never went to meet him and have not talked with him since. My adoptive father and I, well we were not close, mostly because I was not his biological child. As was said at his funeral "He had unconditional love for (his wife, bio daughter, her husband, their 2 sons) ... and was fond of Missy and (one of my bio brothers who was adopted with me, the other who died was not named at all) " So no stitching for either of them. 

I have plans to stitch 4 Tinkerbell squares and then make them into a small quilt for my father in law as he really likes Tinkerbell. I don't know when I'll get them done as I have become a very slow stitcher, but I would like to do it soon. I'm not sure if the charts are good or not as I got them off e-bay, so I am hoping they are decent. I love my in-laws so much. They have accepted me in a way that the family I was raised with never has.


I have only stitched two things for people who are fathers, my DH and a close friend of mine from Arizona, Marty. For DH I stitched the wizard I turned into a wall quilt for him. I did it because he loves wizards and he really liked the design. It took about a year, but came out beautifully. It was my first time using Kreniek braid, blending filament, couching and beads, but I loved the effect!

Marty loves hummingbirds and roses. I stitched a wreath of roses with a hummingbird in the middle. This is one of the designs that won a ribbon at the county fair in Arizona. I was surprised to win a ribbon, but considering how detailed the design was I am no longer surprised by it. I was still fairly new to stitching and from what I have learned since, that was a pretty tough design with lots of floss changes in small areas. He says it hangs in his office and whenever he has moved the office to a new room, this is the first thing to move. I am glad that he still likes it.

Often times we identify our love of needlework and our skills with our mothers or grandmothers or other women.  It’s understandable because often they were are first teachers or role models.  Now let’s think about our stitching life as it relates to our dads.  Is there anything about our approach to stitching that we can recognize as traits of our fathers?  For instance, does your dad (or any other important man in your life) have an approach to one of his interests that you can observe and think, “Hey….if I substitute the word “needlework” for “fly fishing”, we’d be pretty darn similar!”  So tell us about it.

I can't really answer this as I do not know my biological father and my adoptive father and I did not get along very well. But I can say that I have learned many things from my DH in our (just under) 10 years together. I have learned more patience than I had before, how to let things go easier, better control of my temper, and to be more secure with myself along with lots of other things. As for stitching, I would say that I approach my stitching in a similar way to how he approaches reading news articles; read many different articles on the same topic to find out anything you may have missed.

Crap..I have to go..have a doctor appointment in 30 minutes and I'm running late!

See ya!

Wednesday Stitching

After I did the yard work, cooked dinner and such I was stuck in bed. So I pulled out the Delft Card and worked a bit on it. I got the flower half way backstitched. Hopefully I can do more tomorrow and get a picture put up.

Stephanie has completed the backstitching on the rose part of her design and it looks fantastic! I am so proud of her! She has learned very quickly and does a great job. She seems to really enjoy doing it as well. She should put a new WIP pic up soon (on her blog), or even a finished pic as she is very close to finishing it.

I got an email today from Olga, from Olenka's Stitches, in response to my post asking for assistance in picking a color for the words on Frogging Aound. She included a chart where she made the background green (the lightest shade from the pictures I put up of my hand-dyed fabric) and then added the word "frog" over and over in different color recommendations. She did this so I could see what the words would approximately look like in each color. I was very touched that she would take the time to do this for me, just because I asked for help! Thank you so much Olga, I really appreciate it! 3 of the colors she had chosen are in the variegated thread I decided to use and they show up well. It was really sweet of you to chart those different colors for me Olga, it helped a great deal. I could see how the different shades in the variegated I chose would definitely make the words show up as all three shades were the easiest to read on your created chart. Thank you thank you thank you! I hope to get back to the frog in a couple days. I want to finish the card first so I can get it in the mail to UK in plenty of time to allow for possible delays.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how many people posted comments or sent emails in response to my plea for assistance. Thank you all so much! I really appreciate the help. I've told people that stitchers tend to be wonderfully caring and generous people, and I still think that is the truth!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments, they make me smile every time I get one. I am very touched by how many of you read my posts and respond with an encouraging comment, it is truly one of the best things in my life. Thank you!