Skip to main content

Happy New Year: I’m all in for 2024



 I said I’d never do this again.

Then I changed my mind!


While finishing my second embroidery journal I thought of the free time I would have once I was done. I dreamed of all of the other things to do: some slow stitch Christmas ornaments, family tree research, reading some books, relaxing.
My 2023 embroidery journal.


 Then I saw all of the blank canvasses posted on my Facebook embroidery groups - including Stitching A Round. That’s when I felt like I was missing out and I started planning a 2024 journal. It also dawned on me that I will turn 60 in November and it feels like that’s worth commemorating. 

My sister Morgan shared the Stitching A Round group with me in October of 2021 and I knew immediately, without hesitation, that I wanted to give it a try. I rushed out to buy supplies and started the next day. I had embroidered a bit in the past and done some cross-stitching, but I literally had no idea what I was doing. (I used a permanent pen at the beginning and made a mistake, so I covered that mess with a big bush!)

I started this journey just one month after my father passed away and it has been a therapeutic way to reflect on life and work through my grief. I gave the 2021-22 journal to my daughter Abby. She loves it and has it displayed in her living room. 

My 2021-22 journal. 

The 2023 journal was a collaborative effort with my daughter Kate and every stitch is about her life: what she ate, what she did with her friends, the weddings she photographed, and of course, the antics of her dog Buddy. (He’s on there at least eight times.) Every few days I would text her something like this: “what about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?” She was tough and gave me some challenging things to stitch. For example, on February 27 she was in New York City visiting an ice cream museum with her friends so she sent me this text: “do six stick figures all holding ice cream cones with a disco ball above us 😂” I will sure miss bugging Kate. 

Disco & Ice Cream 

On Saturday, when I realized that I want to do another one, I decided to change it up and I went to the store and bought green fabric! I swear, I’m living on the edge!!
Ready for 2024!


By Randi Ross Marodi @ randileeross@gmail.com
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A 60-year-old letter from my Mom!

As I celebrate my 60th birthday today my thoughts are very much focused on how much I miss my mom and dad. When my mom passed away 10 years ago, I found letters she had written to her mother while she and my dad were living in St. Louis, Mo. in 1964 and 65. I’m so thankful that my grandmother Blanche saved everything, because the following letter details the day I was born: November 29, 1964. My mother was 19 at the time and my dad was 22. The letter was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. George Phillians, Box 883, Clarksville, PA 15322 with a St. Louis, MO Postmark of Dec. 7, 1964. Although my mom’s name was Roberta, her parents and everyone in her family called by her middle name, Lee, which is how she signed this letter. Saturday afternoon (December 5, 1964) Dear Mom & Dad, How are you? Fine I hope! We are all three fine here. Randi is the greatest. (We changed our minds about how to spell her name. We dropped the e & spell it Randi.) She’s so pretty. I guess I’m prejudiced though. H...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vance Ross: A Lifetime of Service

  Three little pins that were found tucked inside a little cardboard box represent my Grandfather Vance Ross’ lifetime of service. The first is his Deacon Emeritus pin presented to him for years of dedication to the Clarksville Christian Church in Clarksville, PA. He did everything at the church from making sure the pipes didn’t freeze, filling the baptismal pool, to serving communion. The middle pin honors 40 years of commitment to the United Mine Workers of America, specifically Local 668 of Fredericktown, PA. He was a big union man who went over each contract with a fine-tooth comb. Just the thought of crossing a picket line was, in his opinion, a cardinal sin. And the third, a tie tack, recognizing over 40 years of service to Republic Steel, where he worked as a coal miner and later as an electrician. He was on-call at all times, often leaving the dinner table to drive to the shaft so he could fix the fan or get the elevator running. He never complained, he just put on his hat ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vote on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024

Vote: No matter what your political views are, it is of the utmost importance for you to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 and on every Election Day. If you are a woman, this right is something that was granted to you a mere 124 years ago. After I was done stitching this pattern, I decided to dedicate it to my great grandmothers (at least one is a 7x great grandmother) who were never given the opportunity to vote.  The first on the list, Mary Jane McConnell Milliken was a Revolutionary War Patriot who risked her life for the cause, giving water, blankets, and food to soldiers, yet like all women she wasn’t allowed to vote. I may have missed a few, but here are some of the women in my family that weren’t able to vote. All lived in the United States of America after the Revolutionary War: Mary Jane McConnell Milliken 1747-1815 Martha H. Pembroke Ross 1720-1781 Jane Anne James Ross 1736-1799 Hannah Johnson Taylor 1735-1776 Ruth Taylor Bailey 1758-1806 Lydia Miller Johnson 1751-1825 Elizab...
Post a Comment
Read more