Heart Note Alley Finished

It is with much pleasure, and a bit of sadness, for me to present my finished Heart Note Alley:

I first saw this design in July 2011 and shared it with my mom. She loved it! She loved flowers, especially irises. She helped me pick out the fabric and loved the purple color scheme the model had been stitched in. Unknown to her, I planned to present the finished piece to her for either Mother’s Day or her birthday. The SAL began in August and I eagerly began stitching this gift for her. In September my mom became ill and passed away later that month. Her passing was unexpected and very painful for me. She was my best friend. She had always been there for me, especially when I had cancer. I could not have made it without her encouragement and love. Now for the first time in my life, I am without my anchor and at times I have felt adrift. There were moments when I thought of abandoning this project and not finishing it. Some times while stitching on it I became so overwhelmed with sadness and grief. But I kept stitching until it was done. I am glad I finished as it will now be a beautiful reminder of my mom.


I want to say THANK YOU to Kathy Bungard, who designed this lovely piece. I thank her not only for sharing this design with the Sticklounge group, but for also contacting me and offering to graph the wording I wanted to stitch on the large iris band. I had wanted to stitch something in tribute to my mother, but was unsure of how to go about it. I had a general idea of what I wanted, but since I am not very good at recharting, I had decided to put it off until the end. When I posted pictures of my piece in the Sticklounge group, I had many people ask me what I had planned to stitch on that band and I would tell them my plans. One day Kathy emailed me and offered to graph it for me. I emailed her what I wanted and shortly after she sent me a new graph with the dedication to my mom. I confess when I saw it, I cried. Not only at the sadness of seeing a memorial to my mom, but also Kathy’s generosity. I’ve always said that cross stitchers are some of the nicest people in the world, and Kathy proved that once again. Here is a close up of the dedication to my mom:



The dedication was the last thing I stitched on this piece. It took me two days. Not because it required a lot of stitching, but because it was so difficult for me to stitch the words. I shed a lot of tears and had many wonderful thoughts of my mom.