Heat, Rain and SBQ

There hasn’t been a great deal of stitching done around here for the past couple of weeks, so I don't have any pics to share. I was traveling last weekend and this, and while I’m usually able to get in a little bit of stitching during the week, it’s usually not much.

I was in Northern Virginia and eastern West Virginia over the weekend. It was a great trip; the temperatures were absolutely sweltering, but we still had a good time. We went to Wolf Trap last night to a concert by Rain, a Beatles tribute band. My guy is a big Beatles fan from way back; me, not so much but I really enjoyed this. Well, apart from the heat. One of us had it in her head that the temperatures would cool down significantly when the sun went down so she wore jeans and a shirt with ¾-length sleeves. Biiiig mistake! I didn’t feel quite so bad after I realized that the poor guys on stage were hotter than I was. We were in the third row (!) and I could see that they were sweatin’ big time! They really sounded a lot like the Beatles and the guy who was "George Harrison" did a version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" that just brought the house down. Oh my gosh, was it terrific!

A few weeks ago, Lee posed the following Stitching Bloggers 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.
I’ve stitched a couple of things specifically for my dad. Several years ago, I decided it would be a cool gift (Christmas or birthday, can’t recall for sure) to stitch his initials on some handkerchiefs for him, so I did. I forget how many there were, but I used iron-on transfers and them embroidered the hankies, each in a different color. They were stitched with satin and stem stitches, no cross stitch. My dad is one of the founding members of their local volunteer fire department and it’s something that’s very important to him, so a few years ago I stitched the Hinzeit “Fireman” design for him. I had it framed along with a picture of him in his fireman’s uniform and gave it to him for Christmas. There’s also a piece that I didn’t stitch for him but that I had framed and gave to him, and that’s a stitched version of the poem “High Flight”. That’s the one that begins with “O, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth”. It’s a great poem. Anyway, Dad always wanted to learn to fly and took flying lessons for a few years, although he never got his pilot’s license. I stitched the piece back in the mid-80s, on light blue 18-count Aida, and gave it to him several years afterwards.

Part 2 of the question was this:
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.
That one’s kind of tough, but I think my dad and I are a lot alike in that when we get interesting in something (like stitching or flying!) we tend to jump in with both feet and go for it full-bore. My paternal grandmother was kind of like that as well, so maybe I get it from her via him!

Have a great week and happy stitching!