Wednesday, June 9, 2010

SBQ for June

I haven't answered an SBQ yet because I was too preoccupied with the goings on around here but I have pondered June's question.

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. 
And because a simple one part question is never adequate, let’s go some more:
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 have never stitched anything for my dad (who has been deceased for about 20 years now) but I did knit him a sweater.  Long sleeves, blue sport weight yarn, with cables.  I wonder where that sweater is now?  I'll have to ask my mom.  He probably never wore the thing which is the way of so many garments that I knitted.

When I first started cross stitching he did see some of my charts and was quite interested in it.  He thought it was pretty cool that someone could make a business out of designing and printing the charts.

What I find really exciting is that his father did needlework and in my mom's living room hangs a self designed and somewhat stylized needlework picture of a house and trees.  I really need to get a picture of it the next time I am there.   I am hoping that someday it will be hanging in my house.

I've never made anything for my husband.  I kind of think he wouldn't appreciate it.  I don't say that in a mean or angry way, that's just the way he is.  If it's not a bike or skis it's not going to wow him.  I don't know if substituting the word needlework for mountain biking works.  We both have a passion for our hobbies but one is so sedentary and one is so active!