Dad's Ties-Post 3

Group tie segments

After several work sessions, I finally had prepared enough strips to begin the project. I have a couple extra ties at the ready in the event what I've prepared don't work.

I get to stitch eight panels with eight strips in each panel. Four strips will be ties and four strips will be the neutral fabric. Deciding which four ties went into each grouping took more time than I thought it would!

As I stitched, I thought about the memories I have of my granddad. He was a tall man. He was at least six feet two inches. When I was about five, I thought he had to be Paul Bunyan just in another environment. I thought that because sometimes, he would allow me to go into the metal shop with him. I watched him heat metal and then beat it until it was the right shape. I loved hearing the sound of the bellows to increase the fire and the sound of the water when the hot metal entered it. He was a farmer, a bee keeper, a farrier, an inventor and a business owner. He built a pump manufacturing business and sold pumps all over the United States. He even fulfilled an order to England. He loved to hunt and fish. He was conservative. He was an avid supporter of conservation efforts to improve salmon runs.

Two of eight panels finished

His dad had a small farm and my granddad kept bees for the honey. His father-in-law, who was a short man, taught him how to shoe horses and sharpen plow shears. I don't remember my granddad shoeing many horses especially if the horses were short as the horse would need to raise their leg quite a bit higher to rest on my granddad's knee! 

Later in his life, he developed food allergies to gluten and kiwi fruit. My grandmother baked his bread so that he could have a product that tasted good. He claimed the gluten free products in the store tasted like sawdust. I often wondered why he wanted to taste sawdust; but, I never asked!

He was a man of few words and he had a dry sense of humor. He loved his grandkids. He attended every event they were in from ballgames, wrestling meets, horse shows to school concerts. He took his camera and proudly snapped photographs of his grandkids while they competed and performed.

At the end of the afternoon yesterday, I had stitched two of the eight panels. I'm using a printed foundation available from The Tuffet Source. I ordered a kit from this company and look forward to putting all the parts together. The directions are good with plenty of illustrations.

Also yesterday, I was on line searching for a 12 inch upholstery needle. I didn't order one from the tuffet source because I had planned to borrow one from my friend. Unfortunately, she moved too far away to make borrowing easy! I sure miss our consults and face to face visits. 

Joann Craft and Fabric store had a variety pack of upholstery needles so I ordered it. I even was able to take advantage of free shipping. I hope that my order will arrive when I am ready to attach the button. I've more panels to construct so I won't be at the button point for a few days!