My Favorite Job

In 1993 we moved to Birmingham, Alabama. We stayed until 1996. It was a sweet time in our lives and I loved it there. Our daughter was two when we moved there; I was a stay-at-home mom; the part of town we lived in (Homewood) was lovely and friendly and I had some really nice stay-at-home mom friends. I was sorry when we left.

A few months after we arrived I happened to be in a quilt shop one day (where else would I be?) and saw a notice posted on the door that McCall's Needlework magazine was looking for stitchers to work for the magazine, bringing the designers' work to life for photographing for the magazine. I didn't even know McCall's Needlework was published in Birmingham. I wrote them a letter the minute I got home and sure enough they called me to come in and bring samples of all the needlework things I could do. They sent me home that day with a needlepoint project. This one:

Over the next three years I worked on a number of projects. In addition to needlepoint I did cross-stitch, counted thread work and embroidery. I also did some finishing work for them.

It was soooo enjoyable to sit on my sofa while DD was at mother's day out or preschool or napping, drink Diet Coke, do needlework, and watch tv, and then, get a check for doing it! And then get to see my work in the magazine! I absolutely loved it.

I have specific memories about some of the projects I did. The hunting dog needlepoint, for instance, took hours and hours of work. I remember that I watched the entire O. J. Simpson trial while working on that project!

And these little jewelry pieces caused me to need reading glasses for the first time in my life!

Credit where credit is due: Marie Barber was the designer of the two needlepoint projects. I'm not sure who designed the jewelry pieces.