Stitching for dad

SBQ for the month of June:

Tell us about something that you have stitched or plan to stitch for any father in your life. Maybe it’s for your father, your father-in-law, your children’s father, your grandfather, your godfather, or someone who was or still is an important father-figure in your life. Why did you choose this particular piece of stitching? Tell us the story behind it.

Often times we identify our love of needlework and our skills with our mothers or grandmothers or other women. It’s understandable because often they were are first teachers or role models. Now let’s think about our stitching life as it relates to our dads. Is there anything about our approach to stitching that we can recognize as traits of our fathers? For instance, does your dad (or any other important man in your life) have an approach to one of his interests that you can observe and think, “Hey….if I substitute the word “needlework” for “fly fishing”, we’d be pretty darn similar!”

 

I believe this is the first thing I stitched exclusively for my dad.  The USPS had a series of  professional stamps and    someone made cross stitch patterns of them.  I don't remember who put this pattern out or even if I still have it but I stitched it for my dad  after he passed his CPA exam.
 
And, yes, it's a first class stamp that was issued in 1987.  I didn't stitch the piece until 1990 and I remember going to the post office in search of this stamp.  I wasn't sure they still had them but as you can see, they did :)
 
It's still proudly hanging in my dad's office.

Dad is one of those people with a mind for numbers -- birthdates, phone numbers, address, etc.  Me, not so much.  But before he was an accountant, he was an engineer.  I think stitching and engineering are alot alike -- just without all those pesky numbers and ciphering.


 

This is the most recent piece I stitched for dad.  It's one of Laura J Perin's patterns.  In his younger years dad was quite the hunter/fisherman/sportsman.  We had a Brittany when I was little that dad took out hunting.  I have no idea if they hunted duck or grouse or what but this reminded me of that time.  It's a beautiful pattern for a wonderful man.