Back to the stitching

I have completed another semester (other than wrapping up a couple of things), with my major paper for the term turned in, so now I can concentrate on my stitching for a few weeks. Yeah!! :) I am hoping to complete the Polska Sampler and begin the new project I created recently. I am almost halfway through the Polska and will post updated pics later in the week.

Happy Valentine's Day to All My Readers!!!

I just wanted to post a poem of love on this Valentine's Day. Enjoy!!

love to me means...

love to me means
seeing you with a smile on your face
watching the sun set
with you beside me.
listening to you
when you're upset
understanding your fears
your problems and your cheers.

love to me means
opening my eyes
after a long nights rest
and seeing you there
watching me as i sleep
opening the door to find
a wonderful surprise
the surprise of you standing there.

i never know what you'll say
i never know what i’ll say
thinking of times
we've spent together
brings the warmth to my heart
and looking back in time
to that one moment
when we embraced
always brings a smile
right to my face.

that's what love means to me.

march 15, 1989

New Pattern Idea

I was visiting my grandma (if you read my other blog, this is my paternal grandma, not the one that passed) today and she read me a quote from a book she recently read. I decided to copy it down because it gave me an idea for a new pattern. Here is the pattern (at least a picture of it):

Why Poetry?

My father and I were eating supper a few nights ago and the conversation turned to poetry. He told me that he is surprised that two of his three children are into poetry to the extent that we write. My younger brother and I have both been writing for years and have enough to publish, but neither of us have had the opportunity to do so. I am published in a couple of anthologies through the International Library of Poetry, but it is of course not a paying gig. Anyway, through the years people have asked me why I became so interested in poetry and also who my favorite poets are. Well, I am going to attempt to answer both questions here.

Some of my favorite poets are e.e. cummings, Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, and Walt Whitman. I am sure there are others, but these are the poets who left impressions on me.

Why I became interested in poetry is more complex. In high school English we were given an assignment to write a poem. My poem was one of the better ones in the class, at least according to the teacher, and I found it to be a way to be creative - as I had not really found an outlet for creativity with the exception of band. My senior year of high school, the English teacher gave out awards to her students for various achievements. They were homemade awards on construction paper. Nothing fancy yet her way to show how proud she was. She gave me the "Poet Award". Here is the very first poem that I wrote (sophomore year):

War

Boom...
a sudden, unexpected bomb explodes
wounding people everywhere
among the trees
the streets, the yards
many wounded, few survivors.

Soldiers come in for a counter-attack
hoping to see the light of day
never knowing, always hoping.

War, what a word
always full of sorrow and despair
for people think that war is bad.

Sometimes it's bad
seldom good.

Look at beautiful America
we were freed
from Britain and the Queen
the American Revolution
and George Washington
saved us all from going under.

Let's all be jubilant
Let's all be free
come sing "America the Beautiful"
for you, for me.

spring, 1988

The Beat of Love

The Beat of Love

Every single beat is an
Anticipation for love
Yearning for someone
Searching for the one

The heart is a strong
And wondrous muscle
Pumping rythmically
To the beat of a song

Every time it pumps
The heart makes us aware
Of the life that He gave
And the love that we share.

In celebration of National Heart Month

7 February 2009

Update on Latest Project

As you can see, it's been a while since my last post. With the holidays and working on my thesis I haven't been able to spend much time on the Polska Sampler. I am uploading what I have done so far. Looking at the red against the white background, it is possible to see the patterns emerging through (the patterns are in white, the red floss is the border).

Grandma's 85th Birthday

I can't believe I forgot to wish my grandma a Happy Birthday yesterday! I miss her so much and still can't believe she has been gone almost 16 years now. She is the woman who I learned from the most during my childhood as my mother was a single parent, raising two children, working full time and going to school to become a nurse. Grandma was like a mom to me most of those days. A couple of years after her death, I wrote a couple of poems for her. I will post one here...

My grandma

She made me laugh
She made me cry
And made me laugh again

She taught me values
She taught me love
And her fiery spirit too

She showed me music
She showed me literature
And showed me love once more

She gave me strength
She gave me honesty
My grandma gave me life

The one thing that
I wish she taught me
Was how to get through life
When she was gone

In loving memory of Barbara Anne Langlois
February 4, 1924 – May 2, 1993

July 15, 1993