another inspirational piece

This precious little doll was made for me by a very good friend and presented to me naked - she knew I had some treasured family pillowcases, and that's what she was making the dolls for - so she gave the doll to me naked one Christmas so I could choose the pillowcase to be used. It was really no choice, as this was the MOST favored one of my childhood and one I had managed to have on my pillow more times than not (I slept on a twin bed, one of 2 lovely Jenny Lind spindle beds long in the family that I later refinished for our daughter Beth). Saturdays meant changed beds and all clean linens at my house while I was growing up, but I managed most of the time to get one of this pair of pillowcases on my pillow! Who knows why it was my favorite and who knows when my grandmother stitched it - the point is that it was my favorite for years and years. I finally realized how thin it was getting and left it in the linen closet.....and was thankful some years after getting married to be able to take it with me. (with my mother's blessing {it was her mother who had stitched it}) But I kept it in the linen closet and did not use it - just enjoyed seeing it when I got linens out of the closet. My grandmother Nonnie, who stitched this, is the one who taught me to embroider, and I have many lovely memories of sitting with her and stitching on various dresser scarves and suchlike. This after my very young years of sewing straight stitches to spell out my name and various family names to begin my stitching practice. Nonnie would have me write the name out with a pencil on a piece of old sheet and then stitch it. I am blessed by having a few of these still. I am even more blessed to have numbers of linens (like dresser scarves and small tablecloths and napkins and other small items) stitched by my grandmother, some edged with homemade lace or crochet edging. I even have a few things done by my great-grandmother - a length of tatting, for instance.

These are all true blessings!!

(just previewed the post and have no idea where the blue lines come from on the doll picture - they don't exist in reality!! Probably something wrong I did with the camera)

Journeying means . . .

LIFE itself is a journey, rather than a destination - we're all somewhere on the journey. There's no such thing as "having arrived" - duh! We're going from being young to being older, we're a bit further down the road toward heaven, etc. Hobbies like quilting are journeys, too - you have an idea or see a pattern, you fondle your fabric and pull out bits and pieces and make some cuts....then you put some of them together and marvel at the wonder colors and patterns produce! You still don't have a quilt, though - you're on the journey to a quilt, and it is wonderful. You pick an embroidery project like the wonderful Crabapple Hill patterns...you transfer the pattern and find the floss....and enjoy the stitching - again, it's the journey you're on and the journey you're enjoying.
I love the commercial for some kind of celebrity cruising where after having folks comment on their special celebrity treatment there is the man, obviously back in his everyday environment at the window saying, "I look on this as a temporary exile." Well, that's exactly what it is!!! We're here on earth temporarily! We don't live here forever - we're pilgrims on a journey. And, O, how sweet it can be! I am so blessed with my family, my church family, the beautiful spot on earth where we live...and on and on!! Yet wonderful as this is, it's nothing to compare with what's ahead! The journey is often wonderful, sometimes very, very difficult....but it is leading to the best of all possible destinations.

Here are a couple of pics . . . I hope . . .