A Sweet Hobby

I remember the day, around 1962, when my mother came into this very living room and sat beside me on the sofa making me turn off the TV.  I was not pleased.  She had a sampler she had sewn when she was a child.  Why she would think I, her wild pre teen would care, I don't know.  I still see it - a home made counted cross stitch design that said 'Search the Scriptures'.  Of all the lame things to say, mother asked me if I would like to make a sampler too.  I think she was in the mood to share something with her daughter and that was what she came up with.  In a burst of uncharacteristic cooperation, I said I would like that.

Mother got out a piece of fine muslin from her fabric box.  Together we used a pencil to mark Xs in the shape of words.  Mine said, 'Love One Another'.  I was given a hoop and red thread and set to work.  Mother and I had a great afternoon together, laughing and sharing.

And that was the start of one of my favorite hobbies.  I loved cross stitch.  And it didn't take me long to finish a piece.  When I was thirteen my Pioneer Girl leader announced that she had started a business - glory be, a sampler company!!  And it was just up the street.  My father drove me over and I thought I would faint from the joy of it.  A warehouse full of printed cross stitch kits.  I chose two and remember that they cost about $3 each.  They were finished within two weeks.  He took me back.  And I picked the biggest, hardest one there - St. Francis of Assisi Prayer, 16x20, half inch letters.  It took a year off and on.  It hung in my parent's house until I got married and it moved to my house.  I have no idea where it is now.  Then I did an alphabet sampler with a flower for every letter.  My daughter has that one.  In my thirties, depressed, overwhelmed, my father knew just what would perk me up.  He bought me a crewel kit of a Hummel child thinking it would give me encouragement.  That was followed by three more Hummels.  In the following years I would take a piece of muslin or lawn and draw a picture or a poem and just free lance it.  I carried a 5x7 square of aida cloth with me at all times and would sooth my social anxiety by doing poems and Bible verses.  I can see myself, my busy hands on my lap, weaving the needle in and out, while trying to look like I was listening.

And then I stopped.  Never picked up the needle again.  I think life got too busy and overwhelming for hobbies.  When the girls were here last summer and we went through the cedar chest, they exclaimed over the many needlework pieces, almost fifty, that were stored there.  When they went home, I couldn't get embroidery out of my mind.  So I went out and bought a large length of aida cloth and looked up some counted cross stitch patterns online (something my mother didn't have).  And started to stitch.  And stitch.  And stitch.  Pictures and words and alphabets.  I have a quilt made of embroidered Bible verses, 14 samplers of all kinds.  Just started #15.  I love going to Michael's and ruminating over thread colors.  So many more than I had in 1965.  What am I going to do with them?  Nothing.  Roll them up in a tube and when I'm dead my girls will find them and say, "What the heck?"  Or maybe they'll value them as I did my mother's work.

I know that at some point, like Forrest Gump, I'm going to be done and just stop.  I only have one piece of aida left so maybe the time is coming.  How sad.  But until then, I'm having a ball.  Thanks Mom.