The story of me
My name is Donna West, formerly Baker, and I grew up in a small town outside of Baltimore, MD. As a young girl my grandmother taught me how to crochet, and to do embroidery. I played with needlework off and on for years, and in my 20s I discovered stamped cross stitch. I made a few thing and hung them proudly on my walls. I worked mainly from kits purchased at Frank's Nursery and Craft, a company that has sadly gone out of business. Then one day I picked up a cross stitch magazine, and was amazed at the number of charts available. I went to Joann Fabrics and bought some supplies and fell in love with counted cross stitch.
Leafing through a magazine one day, I found in the back a list of needlework stores advertising, set up by state. I quickly thumbed down to MD, and found The Stitching Post www.the-stitching-post.com . The next day I took a 20 minute ride over to Catonsville. When I walked into the shop, the walls were covered in some of the most beautiful stitching I had ever seen. I felt like I had come home.
After several years as a customer, I saw an advertisement in their newsletter for a part time sales associate and I jumped at the chance. I had been a single mom for years, my son was old enough to drive and take care of himself (for the most part), and I couldn't imaging a better way to spend a few evenings a week.
I worked at The Stitching Post for about three years, increasing my stitching knowledge, and my stash of charts and supplies. I started entering some of my pieces in the local fair, and always came home with first or second place ribbons for the individual category. I thank the talented framers and staff of the shop for helping me to present my needlework in the best possible way.
I began to stitch samplers in the late 1990s. I loved the idea of a small child sitting at the knee of her mother, or grandmother, or aunt, learning the basics of needlework. I kind of thought of it as my story. I subscribed to Samplers and Antique Needlework magazine, as well as Fine Lines (no longer in publication.) I bought books about girlhood needlework, and was thrilled when, in 2012, I found a copy of Betty Ring's "Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework 1650 - 1850" on Amazon.com for less than $100. When the two volume, cloth bound set arrived, I pulled the first volume out of the slipcase and began to leaf through the first few pages. When I got to the title page, I was overjoyed to find it autographed by Betty Ring. It was not advertised as autographed, and I have a feeling the seller had no idea what he was sitting on. Betty Ring passed in 2014, and I am honored to own this fabulous book from one of the foremost experts on the subject. This is one of my greatest treasures.
In 2002, I had just turned 40. I was department head for Infection Control at the hospital where I worked, my son was in the Air Force stationed in Germany, and I was still working Saturdays at The Stitching Post. On Sunday, March 17th, I was driving home from a day of shopping, and was hit by a drunk driver. Very long story made short, I am now disabled and unable to work. I ended up throwing an embolus shortly after the accident, and had a stroke, which left me totally blind for about two months. Over the months of rehab, I regained some of my vision, but not all of it, I am still considered legally blind. My blindness is in vision field, not acuity, so as long as I am looking right at something I can see it, but don't ask me to tell you what is next to that something.
Fast forward to today. I am now very happily married to a wonderful man named Gene. We moved to Greeneville, TN. in the summer of 2014. We own an old 1920 farmhouse on a little over three acres of land on the south side of Greeneville.
The property had been vacant for a few years when we bought it, so there was a lot of maintenance work to be done, inside and out. Summer time we spend a lot of our time outside, but come fall, we tend to slow down. We are currently scheduled to have carpet installed on the first floor, as the floors are not salvageable, and we don't have the money to get them refinished. Perhaps in the future we can rethink the carpet, but for now it will help keep the house warm and cushion my toes. Once the carpet goes in, we are having a gas fireplace put into the corner of the living room. Last winter was unusually cold for this area, and the only heat source is electric baseboard heaters. We actually had our pipes freeze for about three days, so having a better source for heating will be welcomed. Prior to moving in, we had the water turned on, only to find that all of the pipes were damaged in some way. We had a plumber come out and he replaced all the pipes with hoses. These hoses allow for contraction and expansion in case of freezing, and we were fortunate not to have issues from the three day freeze.
Over the last few years I have purchase several girlhood samplers of my own. None of them are American, as the American samplers fetch quite a high price, but the English samplers are much more readily available. I have worked on three of these samplers, charting and re-stitching them for publication. I have not yet published, as I am waiting to finish this last sampler and will submit the three together. I hope to publish under the name "Smokey Mountain Stitches", as looking out our second story windows the Great Smokey Mountains are easily seen. My only regret at this point is not stitching these in silk. My next project I plan to go old school and use silk threads.
The original piece:
This is done on 60 count linen, so the stitches are very small. The verse is done over one thread, so it is very detailed. It is done with silk threads, and uses cross stitch, chain stitch, and satin stitch. I have not completed the embroidery portions, so there may be other types of stitches. I am reproducing it on 40 count raw linen, so it is a littler easier to work with, but it still very painstaking work.
M work:
I hope to have the remainder finished in the next few months. I just purchased an 18th century Scottish sampler, and hope to complete it next. That one I will make sure I do in silk threads.
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