God Bless America

pillow or wallhanging made from hemstitched guest towel.  I wish I had known  then how to rotate the “o” is God so it didn’t look like Gad.

I hope all you Americans are having a fabulous time celebrating our nation’s Independence Day.  We certainly are.

The pictured  pillow or wallhanging (I just can’t recall which) sums up my hopes for our country.  Made years ago for a Sewing at the Beach auction, the pillow features a bean stitch alphabet from a new digitizer in Britain.  I added the waving flag and flowers. Sadly, while moving my designs from one computer to another,  I have lost both the entire alphabet and the name of the designer.   If any of you have any information about this, I would love for you to share.

At the time this project was stitched, the largest embroidery frame on my Brother 2001 machine could not accommodate the entire design.  So more than one hooping was required.   I wish I still had the alphabet so I could make an identical pillow or wallhanging for my home.  It would be a breeze with the 9.5 x 14″ hoop on my The Dream Machine.

After driving all night, we arrived home at 6:30 a.m. today after spending a  week in the North Carolina mountains.  With  our two younger grandchildren, 2 yo Vivian Rose and 6 yo Alastair and  their parents it was delightful family time and a cool retreat from Florida’s summer heat.

We did see fireflies!  They certainly were not plentiful but Alastair counted more than 100 each night.  I wonder if he stopped counting them because that’s as high as he can go.

Vivian looked adorable in her firefly outfit with glow-in-the-dark bugs.

Today, our son’s family joined us for more family fun.  But I am just too exhausted to download and post the photos of our trip and our delightful day.

For many years, when our children were still at home, we hosted a huge July 4th picnic and celebration  (scroll down to bottom of post) at our home.  In  comparison to that, this year’s our festivities were very low key.   Our home didn’t look quite like this, but it felt like this quilt by Marcia Layton.

Marcia Layton’s quilt from her pattern Patriot’s Corner, on display at Lakeland, FL Quilt and Sewing Expo 15. See this post for more of Marcia’s quilts and a free machine embroidery yo-yo design.

As I write this post, I am praying that God will continue to bless America.  I pray that our precious children and grandchildren (yours and mine)  will live out their lives in freedom and liberty.  It was so hard won and is so costly to maintain.  Thanks to all who serve now and have died in the past for what we enjoy and treasure today.

Our children and grandchildren are all off to the fireworks.  My exhausted dear husband and I are off to bed.  God bless America!

You might enjoy this beautiful video featuring the variety of beauty across our country.