“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” & the Good Times I’ve Had

Dear Friends and Readers, once again I am back.   My absence is well expressed by Sam Cooke who seems to know my pain.  Nobody knows the computer trouble I’ve seen!

For the past several weeks, my computer has been crazy, only occasionally and unpredictably usable.  I felt mute.  On my i-phone and Kindle, my fingers just bumble around the tiny keyboards and I grow frustrated very quickly.  I NEED my pc.

After running every virus checker, malware and spyware program known to the high-tech internet world, my fabulous tech savvy husband wiped the hard drive clean and reinstalled every single program.  And at last, it seems that all is well.

But amidst all this aggravation, we’ve had some really good times and I’ve done some sewing.  For a very special bridal shower I embroidered 46 dishtowels for guest favors.  I’ve known the groom-to-be since before he was born and this 35 yo fella has always had a special place in my heart.   So now that he has found the love of his life, the wedding is a major event for us.

I was so rushed finishing the towels that I didn’t take pictures.  But they really did turn out nicely.  Each one was different, featuring a heart, love birds, or love/wedding themed designs.  It was fun to stroll through my design library.  As usual, my prewashed, starched and pressed stash of dishtowels from All About Blanks came in handy.

We’ve just spent a weekend with our daughter and  her family.  Our two grandchildren, just like yours, are beautiful, brilliant and charming.

Two little anecdotes about 3.5 yo Vivian Rose, whose reputation has spread far and wide.

She’s become interested in American Girl dolls so I promised her that we would give her an AG Bitty Baby for Christmas if she were very good.  I assured her that I knew she would be our good girl.

Ever so solemnly she looked up at me and replied, “Nana, I will be very good……but a little…..”  “A little what, Vivi?”  She smiled, “I think I’ll be just a little bit bad.”

Then her parents shared a similar story.  Vivian spends a lot of time at the home of her great aunt/other grandmother who adores her.  The little gal had left a trail of toys and quite a mess after she finished playing there.

“NanNan” reminded Vivi that she needed to put the toys away.  Three times she reminded her.  Vivi just shook her head no and then finally laughed.

NanNan began picking up the toys and said, “It’s not funny, Vivian.”  With an impish grin she replied, “Well,  NanNan, it’s a little bit funny.”

She doesn’t look very wicked as she left to go trick or treating with her brother.

Soon I’ll have a post about a recent sewing weekend at our house with Vivian, her brother, Alastair, and two of their friends, all ages 3-9 years old.  Every one of them was positively rabid about machine embroidery.

3 yo Vivian observing and encouraging, 5 yo Joseph embroidering and 7 yo nature boy Alastair supervising.

The entire weekend they rotated between my 3 Brother machines, embroidering more than 20 fingertip towels during the weekend.  It was exhausting but so much fun to see their enthusiasm for machine embroidery.

Soon I will report about a terrific class on Brother’s PE-Design 10 embroidery software.  It was offered at my favorite store in the whole world, The Sewing Studio in Maitland, Florida.  Brother educator Michelle G. had some fabulous samples, including this sepia John Lennon photostitch project. The entire surface is covered in stitches.

This technique intrigues me. I must try it.  This 14×14″ piece has about 500,000 stitches.  Whew!

So Dear Readers, now that  you’ve read my tale of woe and can see that I’m back having fun sewing,  I hope you will stop by again soon.

So what have you been doing these past few weeks?