October 20, 2007

• ….I want to say thank you to Nancy Zieman. Do you know her? She’s the Nancy of Sewing with Nancy, which I watch on public television here at home. I owe her a big favor, and here’s why.

  About 9 years ago, I started researching genealogy online, and through the process I came into contact with Susan Nebeker, Vashon Island, WA, who is my husband’s second cousin. She’s a real expert and helped me learn so much about our shared hobby, while I was able to find information for her here in the Ozarks where her grandmother was born. How excited we were to discover we also shared a love of quilting! And to top it all off, we both had granddaughters, the same age, named Emma. Such fun!

  We became wonderful e-penpals. I printed all her messages to me, shared them with my father-in-law, who was very close to her father when they were little boys,

                                    

  (Above, in 1940, my father-in-law is lower right, and Susan’s dad is second row, second from right. They went on an old school bus from Taney County, MO, with this group to visit the headquarters of the Watkins Company in Memphis, TN…and what a time they had! But that’s another story…)

  and then put them into a folder. When 9/11 happened, Susan was very upset and depressed and fearful. Her messages stopped coming, and I didn’t know what had happened. I tried unsuccessfully to email her through the ensuing years, but I got no response…I guessed she was no longer interested.

  Two weeks ago, on Saturday morning, I was at the fitness center. Had the place all to myself so while I was huffing and puffing on the treadmill, I watched Sewing with Nancy. She was teaching me all about various sewing machine attachments and neat tricks to do with them, and at the end of the program, dear Nancy said, “Today for our Creative Kindness focus, I want to recognize Sue Nebeker of American Hero Quilts.” I about fell off the treadmill! That’s not a common name, so I knew it had to be “my” Sue. Listened to the rest of the segment, came home and got online, and sure enough, it WAS my Sue!

  Go to http://www.americanheroquilts.com to see what she’s done. Though she has MS and can’t do a lot physically, she can quilt. Sue has been the inspiration and driving force for a group that makes hundreds and hundreds of handmade quilts for wounded Iraq war veterans. They are supported by quilters all over the US, and Nancy Zieman has herself been a huge supporter of the group.

  I found her address and wrote to Sue, and in two days I had an email, several pages long, back from her. We have been so excited to reconnect and have shared the intervening six years of our lives. Turns out that Sue had lost my address, her email address had changed, and my messages hadn’t reached her…and time went by. I love having my friend back!

  Now I’ll share two knitting projects I finished this week…more fun!

                         

  This shows my purse before felting. Notice how you can see the individual stitches in the stockinette pattern.

                                  

  After felting (which is something we used to do when we accidentally threw a favorite wool sweater in the washing machine on hot water…voila! Tiny sweater!), you cannot see the individual stitches because they have shrunk. The purse is about 1/2 its original size.

                      

  My niece is having baby Ella Grace in November, so this little cap will be for her. This took about 2-3 hours, i-cord and all. So easy! You make a row of eyelets to weave it through and tie the bow…adds a girlish touch. It’s really the yarn, though, that makes this so sweet.

  Hope you all have a delightful fall weekend!

  • 10:33 am
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