Stitching for dad

SBQ for the month of June:

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.

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!”

 

I believe this is the first thing I stitched exclusively for my dad.  The USPS had a series of  professional stamps and    someone made cross stitch patterns of them.  I don't remember who put this pattern out or even if I still have it but I stitched it for my dad  after he passed his CPA exam.
 
And, yes, it's a first class stamp that was issued in 1987.  I didn't stitch the piece until 1990 and I remember going to the post office in search of this stamp.  I wasn't sure they still had them but as you can see, they did :)
 
It's still proudly hanging in my dad's office.

Dad is one of those people with a mind for numbers -- birthdates, phone numbers, address, etc.  Me, not so much.  But before he was an accountant, he was an engineer.  I think stitching and engineering are alot alike -- just without all those pesky numbers and ciphering.


 

This is the most recent piece I stitched for dad.  It's one of Laura J Perin's patterns.  In his younger years dad was quite the hunter/fisherman/sportsman.  We had a Brittany when I was little that dad took out hunting.  I have no idea if they hunted duck or grouse or what but this reminded me of that time.  It's a beautiful pattern for a wonderful man.

Beginning ....

Hello and Welcome ..... my name is Marcy and this is my blog. Mostly it will be about my Stitchy stuff but I'll probably be tossing in some Doggy stuff and some Flowery stuff if the mood hits me.


Here are some of my recent stitchy finishes:

The above little stumpwork bird was a class taught at my EGA chapter in 2007. Isn't he cute?

This Scarecrow is a Laura J Perin (one of my favorite designers) piece. I stitched him on congress cloth and just used threads from my stash, except for the overdyed thread used for the leaves in the border.

This little guy is called Tirolean Santa. I forget the designer. I was working on him when my young nephews were visiting last year at Thanksgiving. It was fun because they were interested in the stitching process and offered help with designing the snowflakes. After helping me, the youngest leaned over the couch and asked if I would give Santa to them. How could I resist? Of course, I finished, framed and sent Santa to S Carolina for Christmas.

Now I need to make another one for me.

Skinny Santa is one of the few I stitched in red. I just think he is cool looking. Again, I don't remember the designer but it's one of a series of tall skinny Santas. I'm trying to stitch a Santa collection by stitching a new one each year. He's my 2008 Santa.

These 3 smalls have been sitting around in a drawer for a few years, probably since 2004 or 05, just waiting for me to learn how to finish them into something. A couple weeks ago, I decided to bite the bullet and learn how to do this. I'm so proud!

This is the Mary Wigham sampler and you can see I have lots more to stitch. Now, don't think for a minute that this is my only WIP .... it's the only one with a photo. Perhaps I should take pics of the other ones ... it may give me the subtle nudge to get back to them.

And with that thought, I bid goodbye until the next time and in the words of my favorite little ghouls: