contagious

A couple of weeks ago, Leah asked me to show her how to do hardanger. She reminded me of this request a couple of days ago and was thrilled when I pulled out my needlework pattern and linen stash to get her started.

Scott walked into my office at one point when we had it all scattered about. His eyes got big and he exclaimed, "We still have our patterns?!" You see, I taught Scott how to do cross stitch when we were first married and he got into it pretty seriously. We worked on some projects together and then headed off on his own, stitching a detailed Christmas stocking for baby Jesse and eventually sweeping the Best of Cross Stitch, Best of Needlework, and Best of Show awards for his Angel of Spring and Angel of Summer in the Big E's needlework competition one year. We both stitched a lot back then, but we set the needlework aside when the kids were toddlers and projects requiring concentration and attention to detail weren't as easy to fit into our days. Anyway, Scott only asked that one question, but I could tell from his expression that he'd be stitching again soon and I knew what he'd choose to make too.

Leah and I pulled out supplies, I gave her some directions, and later that evening, her first hardanger heart was complete.

As is her way, she then gathered some more supplies and headed off to her room to do more on her own while listening to a book on CD. She came out the next morning to show me half a dozen hearts that she had stitched in assorted handpainted perle cottons with floss filling stitches. She decided she was ready to visit the local needlework shop to spend a gift certificate she received for Christmas. By the time we were ready to head out, Scott had prepared a little shopping list of the few more floss colors he'd need for his chosen project. ;-)

He took the first stitches while we were at the store, but soon discovered that the intervening years made it much more difficult for him to see the linen clearly. (I noticed this same little challenge when finishing up a needlework project a year ago.) We borrowed a magnifying lamp from my mom and his project is now solidly underway. He chose Celtic Christmas, a project he made about 10 years ago and gave to someone he worked with. Somehow we ended up with enough green linen background fabric for two of these projects and of course we had most of the floss in our stash, so it was easy to dive in again, as he always intended. Leah is into some new stitching projects too, so the father-daughter creative team is on the loose again!