Where Have I Been?

Hi there cloud friends!  That's a good question where have I been!  Thanks to those of you who mentioned my absence, I appreciate your concern.  I have heard of loosing your mojo for stitching, I have not had that problem but I sort of did loose it for blogging.  I read blogs almost everyday but just didn't post.  I think it was partly due to the fact that I was stitching a big piece.  Anyway all is just fine and I will share my finally finished "Early Americans."  I do need to give lots of thanks to Vonna of the "Twisted Stitcher" blog.  I used her border which she so generously shared.  As I have mentioned before, my DH has done lots of genealogy.  In the process of his investigations, he found that I have 4th great grandfather who fought in the Revolutionary War.  Both is wife and mother did things to help the Army so the DAR recognizes them as patriots as well. I have another patriot in my direct line but I have not included him as I have not gone through the DAR process to establish him as my patriot. When I started this project , I knew I wanted to honor my family.  It again was dear Vonna who suggested I use the middle block to personalize my design.  I adapted a LHN chart called."Old Glory" in designing the middle block.  I have a new found respect for all the wonderful people who design the charts we all love. It was much more of a challenge than I expected!!

 I must share one thing that really impressed me about the charts.  I noticed that there were lots of houses that were similar in color.  I thought I would change a few.  Thank goodness, before I did that I looked on line at the real houses of the patriots.  Much to my surprise, the houses on the chart were very much like the real houses.  The designer at LHN did a remarkable job in recreating the  actual, houses!! I love history so this just made my day!!!!

 Here is my family square.  Capt. Gatliff joined the Revolutionary Army in 1778 so I chose that date.  Again as a nod to history, the dates on all the charts were personalized to the particular person honored in that square. Along with Capt. Gatliff, Christiana, his wife and Martha , his mother are considered patriots by the DAR.

 My final way to honor this design was to frame it in a wonderful frame by my favorite framers at Valley House Primitives!! Janet worked very hard with me to get the perfect frame for my piece. My goal was to have this framed and up by May when I put out lots of patriotic things.  Thanks to Janet, I made my deadline!! This however, will hang in my hall all year around.

 I have stitched a few more things and promise I will do another post before the 4 months it took to do this post. Thanks so much for joining me today.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!