Fandango!

Wow! It's been too long since I've blogged - I've been thinking about it everyday, but haven't been able to put my latest stuff up because all of it has been made for people's birthdays and other celebrations. Which of course, because I've been so busy and sort of backed up on presents, means that I make them late, then have to wait until I've sent them to be able to post them and talk about them. But finally, I can show off my latest endeavor with embroidery.

My most recent gift was inspired by a beautiful art piece Chris and I got for our friends Jesse and Anita for their wedding present last year. It was a metal piece made in Latin America (I can't remember exactly where) of the joyous fandango image. I love the idea of that image as a celebratory symbol of a marriage and the hope that a wedding inspires in it's participants. One of my oldest friends from high school, Katie, who I love very much got married earlier this year and unfortunately because of time and too much on my plate, I never got to make her a gift for her wedding. But I had always had it in my mind that I would get around to doing something for her. So I found one of my Sublime Stitching patterns of the fandango wedding image and made Katie and John's present. I hope they like it and I hope it blesses their home and marriage so that they are "together forever!"

But I don't just want to talk about my work here. I also want to use this blog as a place where I can share the craftiness of my friends too. So, to that end....

My neighbor, Darlene is amazing at knitting and crocheting and recently finished this piece that she made for her mother's birthday. It is such delicate work and I am absolutely in awe of her patience and skill. I especially love the feelings it inspires in me to look at this piece. I don't know many people who had really crafty women in their families. Growing up I knew plenty of people whose families were "artists," but not "crafters." But my family is chock full of them.

When I was young and was living with my grandparents for a time, my grandmother had a sewing room in the basement and my grandfather had a workshop in the garage. Grandpa would cut out wood squares and rectangles for me to glue together to make birdhouses while he worked and Grandma was always either sewing something or painting something. Eventually they moved to Florida, built another home from the ground up and started a small business called Our Place, which were beautifully crafted wood pieces, including puzzles, clocks, toys and boxes. They toured around craft fairs throughout the South and did pretty well.

Anyway, the women in my grandmother's family were all crafters of some kind or anther: knitting, crocheting, tatting, embroidery, etc. My mom inherited a huge store of great and great, great grandmothers' and aunts' doilies. I have inherited a bunch of them and really see them as art pieces to be cherished.








I think the women in my family were so talented and I am incredibly thankful that I got whatever gene is responsible for love of crafting, which I am sure I inherited from all of them. To see the care and love that Darlene put into her mother's doily make my heart sing because of the craft, but also because it invokes nostalgic feelings and feelings of pride in women who do this kind of art, like the women in my family. And Darlene, who I am so lucky to live next to. She's such a wonderful woman, not only because of her craftiness, but because of who she is as a person. I just adore her, simply put.