Coverlet Birds

After I finished stitching the first Colonial Gatherings Club Kit, I knew I wanted to stitch more coverlet designs.  Digging in my stash I found three coverlet designs:  Coverlet Birds by The Scarlet House, Overshot Heart by Barrick Samplers (Carriage House Samplers) and Harry Tyler's Lion by Heartstring Samplery.  I started stitching Coverlet Birds on Sunday afternoon.  Tanya (The Scarlet House) had finished her coverlet birds into a pin keep and in looking at the finished pin keep it looked like she had used some over dyed trim for the edging of the pin keep.  More stash digging and I found some hand dyed bamboo chenille by Crescent Colors.  Finding the right linen became the next challenge.  More stash digging and I found a remnant of what I think is Birds of a Feather linen which closely matches or at least does not clash with the over dyed  chenille.  I did not have the Needlepoint Inc blue fiber Tanya had used, I substituted with another blue in my stash--one in the Williamsburg blue family.

On Monday my life took an unexpected detour.  I was diagnosed with a detached retina and scheduled for surgery on Tuesday.  You can thank me later for sparing you the details.  At this point, there are more unknowns than knowns.  The docs do not know if or when or how much of my vision I will regain.  There will be a second surgery for more repairs and the docs will begin treatment in my left eye hoping to strengthen the tissues and prevent a detachment in my left eye.  What caused the problem?  Being severely nearsighted for years and years finally took its toll on the tissues of my eye.  "You can only stretch a rubber band so far before it starts to develop tears and breaks."    

Yes, I have shed more than a few tears both of the controlled and uncontrolled variety.  I am a firm believer in things can always be worse.  No matter how bad my situations have been at times there is someone who is always so much worse off than me.  There are thousands of people who function with vision in one eye and thousands who function with no vision.  

Someone at church recently commented to me about the depth of my faith.  There are situations in our lives that are totally beyond our control, only the Great Healer can make things whole again.  This is one of those situations.  Kind thoughts, prayers, humor, helpful hints are always appreciated.  

This piece will be stitched!  It will serve as a humble reminder to appreciate the gifts I have been given.