Hobbies and Crafts

 I've realized that often times, people don't realize what special talents or gifts they have to share with the world. Whether it's out of humility or they honestly don't stop to think of the things they just "DO" as anything special, many people feel that way, and such was the case with Aunt Grace. 

I recently asked her to tell me about anything she has collected over her lifetime, or hobbies she has had. Right away, she told me that she's never had/done anything like that. She then told me that Uncle Austin did. He apparently had quite the coin collection and as silver was going for $22/ounce, they were able to pay for their trip to Alaska by cashing in the coin collection! 

Fortunately, Nan was there with her on our call and asked her mom about all of her counted cross stitch. And we were off and running! Oh yes!!! Aunt Grace has done a lot of counted cross stitch in her time! For anyone who may not know, counted cross stitch is done with embroidery floss on aida cloth using the most basic embroidery stitch: the cross stitch, a series of Xs arranged by pattern and color to create simple or complex designs.

The first project she told me about was the pictures she made for each of her seven grandchildren. They were made to look like old-fashioned "samplers" and have each grandchild's name and birth information:

Matthew & Jaci with their Samplers

While the Samplers were special gifts for each of the grandchildren for Christmas, Grace also made sure the grandchildren know that they were on Santa's list as in 1993, she made a counted cross-stitch of Santa with each of the grandkids' names on his list!

The next special one I learned of was her Lord's Prayer:

Floral patterns were pretty common among her counted cross-stich designs:

I love that all of her major projects include her signature and the year on them; little things that will make them even more special to her progeny through the years.

One year she did a cross-stitch that matches the pattern on her good China. Granddaughter, Lisa, gets the China and will also get the matching cross-stitch.

Following the floral theme, in 2003, she also did a "LOVE" cross-stitch hanging

Aunt Grace has also made table runners for several family members! She's made them using Monk's Cloth doing Swedish Weaving. I got to see one up close when I visited Norm and Elaine lately and, as someone who does embroidery, I was fascinated with the amount of needlework visible on the surface and virtually NOTHING visible on the backside! Gorgeous!

Poor Nan was kept busy during this video chat with Aunt Grace, running around and taking pictures of everything for me so that I could include them in this blog post and her exercise wasn't complete just because we finished with the cross-stitch projects!

As I asked Aunt Grace about her earlier years, I learned that before she was married, she used to embroider dresser scarves and dish towels. I know most of the "young 'uns" who may be reading this will have no idea what a dresser scarf is, but they were very common before the 1960s when furniture began to be made with better, more protected surfaces. Dresser scarves were laid across the top of dressers or bureaus to protect the surface of the furniture and were most frequently adorned with embroidery. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of a dresser scarf to share with you, but Nan was able to dig out some of the embroidered dish clothes!

Not surprisingly, Aunt Grace also used to make a lot of her girls' clothing when they were young. When I asked if she sewed for economic reasons or pure enjoyment, she said, "Well. BOTH!" She enjoyed sewing, but as a young, post-WWII family, making clothes for her growing family helped to ease the budget.

Finally, I learned that not only does Aunt Grace do beautiful embroidery and cross-stitch, she also knows how to knit AND crochet! Most people I know, do one or the other. A fun favorite that people beg her for are her "scrubbies." To make them, she cuts. nylon net into 2" strips and then crochets six strips in a circular pattern to make her kitchen scrubbies. She ocassionally gets a request for larger scrubbies to use to wash cars; for those she uses 12 strips!

The final "non-hobby" project for "show-and-tell" with Aunt Grace was this gorgeous afghan, made of squares knitted in different patterns and sewn together! If I may repeat myself, absolutely GORGEOUS!

Looking at all of these beautiful heirlooms Aunt Grace has created, makes me realize how important it is to prepare to leave something behind for my children and grandchildren. Each of these items are a reflection of her great talent and the abundant love that she shares with each of us. Don't count your talents and skills short. Whether we knit, crochet, collect coins, restore antiques, take photos, sing, play an instrument, write stories or whatever it is we do with our "free" time, it is a piece of who we are and whatever we can do today to ensure that our progeny have access to those things will enable each of them to know us and know of our love for them through the generations. I know we're all blessed to know all we have been able to learn from our amazing matriarch. We love you, Aunt Grace!

Aunt Grace with her hand-
embroidered dish towels; Jan 2021