On Wednesday January 20th, I finally got all the pieces to start the Anniversaries of the Heart series by Blackbird Designs. I am doing it on 30 count Barley Corn Linen with all the called for DMC floss.
Snow Garden is the first chart I'm doing. It is for my sweet son, Jonas. I thought it was appropriate because he was born in January and on the day I started it, I drove to Chattanooga to buy him dinner for his birthday. It isn't quite his birthday, but he was off. We had burgers at Red Robin. It was a fun if quick visit.
my first stitches
getting startedBlock #1 Snow Garden was dedicated to my son, Jonas and his family, wife Keri, daughters Tuesday and Annaleigh and son Isaiah. I picked him for this block because he is my first born and he was born in January. Then I was looking at the chart and it had a peacock on it, which is his wife's favorite. I did the lettering in orange for his beloved team the Tennessee Volunteers. It was also appropriate because he and I share a hate for cold weather. We both love the beach and warm weather.
Block #2 was Valentine Rose. It was dedicated to my sweet daughter. 
Her birthday is actually in August, but they block for that month will be dedicated to my parents because their anniversary is that month. I decided to do Valentine Rose for Taylor because she is so much in love for love. 2020 was a horrible year for her. Her marriage ended because her asshole husband cheated on her. But she still believes in love. I love that her name was too long to fit the space. It makes it so real. I love how this block turned out. The more I stitch on linen, the more I like it.
It doesn't show much but I put a little Kreinik in the vase so it simmers a little. I also made the C, L and S in gold since those are my initials. Love how the block turned out. Now on to March.
Here is March's anniversary block. It is called A Wish for You. It is dedicated to my father's parents, Walter Elias and Sadie Emma Edens Sykes. The year of my grandmother's birth is a guess. They never registered her birth so they were not sure of her year of birth. It is interesting that they died on the same day exactly ten years apart. The A on the door is for Alzheimer's disease. My grandmother began showing signs of the disease in the early 80s. By the time my children arrived, she was a body in a hospital bed. She remained that way for many, many years. My grandfather would not consider putting her in a home. He took care of her at home with help from my mother mostly and some home health. He said her married her in sickness and in health. I'm so glad he had 10 years after her death to do the things he liked best. He was an avid bowler. Extremely intelligent. He didn't go to school past the 8th grade but while my father was in college, he would read his books and tell him what they said. My grandmother never went beyond the 3rd grade. While not well educated she was an extremely artistic woman. They had a ceramic shop behind their house. She taught the classes while he poured the clay and made the pieces. My Mom worked their some until she got tired of being treated like slave labor and went out and got a job in the real world. I was close to my grandfather. I discovered after I had grown up, he wasn't very nice to my mom. I have some great memories of him though. He taught me to make his famous Chocolate Pie. While we putting the pies in the oven, we dropped one on the door of the oven. He scooped it back into the pie pan and said that one would be ours to share. He gave the recipe to me and he gave a copy to my mom. But the one he gave my mom, he left out an ingredient, on purpose. We grew apart as I aged, mostly because my Aunt's family started hanging out over there a lot when my mom refused to go and pushed us out. I know they were not the greatest parents to my father. She was especially violent with him. It was a hard life for him. Unfortunately, he carried some of that into his raising of his three girls. We all felt he really didn't like women, because of the way he was treated by his mother. I remember one story he told, she came home and found his standing on the stove. Without asking any questions, she pulled him down and beat him. Then she asked what he was doing standing on the stove. He was cleaning the wall for her. 
This is the house they lived in when I was going over there. The ceramic shop building is still standing, unfortunately you cannot see it from this pictures. The large window on the left was a den area. My grandmother had a silver Christmas tree that had a color wheel that would shine on it. I loved that tree.
Her birthday is actually in August, but they block for that month will be dedicated to my parents because their anniversary is that month. I decided to do Valentine Rose for Taylor because she is so much in love for love. 2020 was a horrible year for her. Her marriage ended because her asshole husband cheated on her. But she still believes in love. I love that her name was too long to fit the space. It makes it so real. I love how this block turned out. The more I stitch on linen, the more I like it.There was a bonus block for February. I wasn't sure I would get it done in February, but I did. I love this chart! It is so cute.
It doesn't show much but I put a little Kreinik in the vase so it simmers a little. I also made the C, L and S in gold since those are my initials. Love how the block turned out. Now on to March.
Here is March's anniversary block. It is called A Wish for You. It is dedicated to my father's parents, Walter Elias and Sadie Emma Edens Sykes. The year of my grandmother's birth is a guess. They never registered her birth so they were not sure of her year of birth. It is interesting that they died on the same day exactly ten years apart. The A on the door is for Alzheimer's disease. My grandmother began showing signs of the disease in the early 80s. By the time my children arrived, she was a body in a hospital bed. She remained that way for many, many years. My grandfather would not consider putting her in a home. He took care of her at home with help from my mother mostly and some home health. He said her married her in sickness and in health. I'm so glad he had 10 years after her death to do the things he liked best. He was an avid bowler. Extremely intelligent. He didn't go to school past the 8th grade but while my father was in college, he would read his books and tell him what they said. My grandmother never went beyond the 3rd grade. While not well educated she was an extremely artistic woman. They had a ceramic shop behind their house. She taught the classes while he poured the clay and made the pieces. My Mom worked their some until she got tired of being treated like slave labor and went out and got a job in the real world. I was close to my grandfather. I discovered after I had grown up, he wasn't very nice to my mom. I have some great memories of him though. He taught me to make his famous Chocolate Pie. While we putting the pies in the oven, we dropped one on the door of the oven. He scooped it back into the pie pan and said that one would be ours to share. He gave the recipe to me and he gave a copy to my mom. But the one he gave my mom, he left out an ingredient, on purpose. We grew apart as I aged, mostly because my Aunt's family started hanging out over there a lot when my mom refused to go and pushed us out. I know they were not the greatest parents to my father. She was especially violent with him. It was a hard life for him. Unfortunately, he carried some of that into his raising of his three girls. We all felt he really didn't like women, because of the way he was treated by his mother. I remember one story he told, she came home and found his standing on the stove. Without asking any questions, she pulled him down and beat him. Then she asked what he was doing standing on the stove. He was cleaning the wall for her. 
May's block was made for my sister, Karen. She passed away in October 2018. Her birthday was in May so this was perfect for her. Plus it had a lot of purple in it which was her favorite color. The initials on the right are for her husband, Bill; her son, Jeremy; and her grandson, Billy. I also put in a small seal. That was her married name and she collected seals. I miss her everyday. She was the kindest of us sisters. Loved everyone even the people who were mean to her. She was unable to have children so she and Bill adopted Jeremy when he was 14. He was one of the children who were featured on the WBIR program "Monday's Child". The program highlighted older children who were looking for a family. For Karen it was love at first sight. Bill died when Jeremy was a senior in high school. She loved her job at UT in the Athletic Ticket Office. The world is sadder without her.
This is the June block. It is called Happy Birthday, which is perfect since it is dedicated to me and my birthday falls in June. I changed a lot of things. It called for lazy daisies stitches and I didn't want to do them. I put the year the piece will be finished 2021. In the banner, I put three things I really enjoy - reading, sewing and pickleball. The initials at the top are my kids, Jonas Blake and Taylor Courtney. My initials are on the right side. I think it turned out okay. It was hard to do because it was dedicated to me. Plus the small pictures in the banner were done one over one. I hate doing one over one. lol
July's block is for my nephew, Jeremy Seal, his wife - Jennifer and his son - Billy. Jeremy was adopted by my sister, Karen when he was 14. He was featured on WBIR's Monday's Child series. She wanted him immediately, but he was taken by another family with a son around his age. It didn't work out with that family and Karen got him. He has been a great addition to our family. We love him so much. The anchor on the piece is to honor his time in the navy. He was on a ship when 9/11 happened and was immediately sent overseas. He is extremely talented in drawing, graphic design and working on cars. Jennifer works with Young Williams and they both love dogs. Billy is currently attending UT and plans to follow his mother, Marisa into computers. He is brilliant and so handsome. 
I love, love, love this block. The design was so much fun to stitch. It is dedicated to my parents, James and Sallye Sykes. Their wedding anniversary is August 11th and this year will mark 65 years. Amazing for two people that don't really seem to like each other. They meet on a blind date. Their college roommates introduced them. They both attended Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. They married the year Mom graduated from TTU. Dad had one more year. They are the same age, but Dad had to sit out a year due to illness. They started life together in a tiny apartment in Cookeville. When Dad graduated, they moved to Huntsville, AL. They lived there until 1959 when they moved to Manchester, TN. Dad had an interesting career. He started out working on the rockets that NASA was using to get into space. When we moved to Nashville in 1969, Dad decided to go the law school and went into law. He throughout his years played in a band (drums), did some professional photography (including developing his own photos) and played golf and tried out for the senior tour. Mom stayed home with us girls until Marian was in high school. Then she went back to work, first in an insurance agency and then for the Secretary of State in downtown Nashville. She worked for several year at the Tennessee Performing Arts center. It was great because she got to see so many wonderful performances. Mom is also very creative. She made our clothes when we were growing up. She took up painting later in life and was quite good. When she retired, she took up quilting and is an amazing quilter. We get our need to volunteer from her. She stays busy, even now, at the age of 86, almost 87.September's month is dedicated to my sister, Marian.
The Final Bonus Block(s) - In the last chapter of this series, there is a bonus block that takes up the final two spaces on the fabric. I decided to go ahead and do them in September. My fear was I would run out of time in December and not get the project finished. It had a quote on the blocks, which was done one over one. I hate one over one so I decided to just add my parents last names. I thought about adding the first of initial of everyone in the immediate family, but I don't think it looked good.
It took quite a while to finish, but here it is. I love the blue house.
Here is this month's block. Dedicated to my Mother's parents - William James Simms and Zettie Florence Tittsworth. They were married on 9/20/1916 (you can see the date on the bottom right border of the piece. William was born on 2/4/1879 and Zettie was born on 2/19/1898. He died on June 14, 1950 and she on July 27, 1978. I never met him, but I loved my Granny. She was a spitfire. Was a great cook. My cousins and I loved playing at her house and stealing cupcakes before she finished icing them. Delicious! The pattern is named Pumpkin Farm which I felt was appropriate since he was a farmer and she kept the farm for a few years after he died. We have been back to the homeplace a couple of times. It is a beautiful house.
This is the home where she moved after she sold the farm. This is where I remember playing as a child with all my cousins. 
The red quilt blocks were made by my Granny and I got the box of the completed blocks when she passed. I carried that box around for many, many years until my Mom retired. She added the plain blocks and then hand quilted it. This is always on my bed and is one of my most treasured things. 
This is the old home place. Isn't it beautiful? I have never been inside but would love to see it.
This is a quilt I made of my Granny. It was gifted to my Mother for Mother's Day, but she gave it back so my Dad's smoking would not ruin the quilt. 
This month's chart is dedicated to my Mother's siblings. The initials are the first names of the children: C - Cameron (he passed away at a very young age), E - Eston, P - Parker: then an 11 year gap M - Mary Ann, S - Sallye (my Mom) and finally F - Fred. I love that the house looks a lot like the home they were raised in. Such a wonderful stitch. Sadly only one chart left. I'm going to hate finishing this project. It has been such a joy.My December block is complete. It is dedicated to my Grandchildren -
Tuesday, Annaleigh and Isaiah (my son and DIL's children)
Dax and Ali (my daughter and SIL's children)
And finally the finished product - finished on 12/7/2021
Here is the completely finished piece!
