Enabling my daughter

In an earlier post, I mentioned my daughter saw a piece, Max's Moon, in The Stitchery catalog and was intrigued enough to ask how difficult I thought it would be to stitch. Her last experience with cross-stitch was some two decades ago when, as a Junior Girl Scout, she had participated in a special badge program I had helped develop with the Rockland Historical Society called Little Women of Early Rockland. I still have the small sampler she stitched then hanging in my bedroom. Since Max's Moon is stitched on black aida, I also ordered the Twelve Cat Sampler and a wolf piece, both stitched on white aida. I figured she should start with a piece on white first. I recommended the Cat sampler, pointing out that there is no need to stitch it as one large piece as charted, it would make a very nice set of 12 ornaments or other smalls [little pillows, stand-ups, door knob hangers, pinkeeps, whatever] ... and would make great practice before tackling Max. I also recommended that, once she has stitched these kits, she go the "chart only" route and kit the pieces up herself ... quality control being the reason. Also, I am hoping to convert her to evenweaves and linen eventually.

In any case, the kits arrived from The Stitchery in yesterday's mail and I set her up with a packet of Piecemaker needles, her own embroidery scissors, a little zippered tools case, and the Black Cat Biscornu that may be seen in the June 28th post. I zig-zagged the edges of the white aida that came with the Twelve Cat Sampler. Last night, she went directly from work to the appointment for facial and massage I had set up for her, so we didn't have time to start stitching ... that treat is reserved tonight. The poor kid has been home from the West Coast only three weeks and has been so involved in house-hunting, opening her new office and starting up all the summer camps for the Mad Science franchise she manages ... putting in 12 and 14 hour days, 7 days a week ... she really needed the facial and massage. She goes back to Oregon next Wednesday, to help Martin pack up their household goods which will be sent East by container service [train and truck], sell one of the cars, pack the two dogs and seven cats in the remaining car and drive cross-country to be back for the first week of August in time for my grandson's christening. Talk about stress!!!

I shall be pleased to have her only an hour's drive away instead of two connecting flights across the breadth of the entire country. We should be able to see her every few weeks instead of two or three times a year. Of course, Sean, his wife, Christina and my grandson, Liam, are still stationed in Washington state ... so there will still be some long distance travelling in my future. At least, my younger son, Danny, lives a mere 15 minutes from the house, two towns to the south and west.