Kicking it Old School

Ok this one I created when I was a teenager. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was a kid. I don't know why I did, if I look back I remember that I always loved their large old home bustling with people coming and going. They had nine children and lots of friends, who stopped by without prior notice as good manners would dictate. Every day was open to opportunities for something flavourful to happen.

My grandmother's eldest sister, Aggie was such a sweet old lady, she was hard of hearing, wore horn-rimmed glasses, and had a penchant for a cold beer. She was also the woman who opened up my experience to needlework. Her and my grandmother both enjoyed needlework. Aunt Aggie would come over and spend a weekend with my grandparents occasionally, she had been a widow for some time and she enjoyed coming to my grandparents home as it was the home that her and her husband, uncle Charlie had built in the 1920's. My grandparents bought it from them just after WWII.

She would sit in a comfortable chair in the livingroom and bring out some needlework and sew away. I would sit and watch her and my grandmother both, asking questions about the neat fabric stretchers they used to hold the work taut. It wasn't long before they came in with a box of projects and asked me to pick out one that I liked. I chose one that wasn't too big and had some pretty flowers on it. I worked on that project for quite a few months before it was finished. In the process of working on it, I even managed to stain it with something unforgiving. When I was finished, I took a long last look, and promptly forgot about it.

In 1991, just after the birth of my first daughter, my mother brought out a wrapped package and handed it to me. With starting a new home, my mother wanted me to have something very special to hang on our walls. It was my first needlepoint. It has hung there ever since. Thanks mom.