February is Heart Disease Awareness Month

I know I've talked about this in the past - my family has a history of heart disease, my grandfather has had 2 bypass surgeries, my grandmother has a pacemaker.  But the importance of heart health has been reinforced to me during this past week.

One of my high school teachers died of a heart attack on Thursday.  He was not only a teacher, he was an advisor to my graduating class.  I don't know if other schools have advisors, we were a very small Christian school and didn't have a "guidance counselor."  Honestly, any of our teachers were available for guidance for whatever we needed.  But our advisors were the ones who went through all four years of high school with us.  They supervised class elections and meetings and chaperoned our senior trip.

They knew us better than anyone.  As a graduation gift, they gave each of us a paperweight engraved with a character trait they felt each student embodied.  Here's mine:

The trait engraved there is "Boldness."  I'm not certain anyone else would have described me as "bold."  I was smart and shy, and often came across as stuck-up.  I never felt bold - I was always unsure of myself.  Especially as I neared graduation and I felt the pressure to know what I was going to do with the rest of my life!  But Mr. S. (and Mrs. S. and Mr. M.) saw something in me.  The Bible verse inscribed below the trait reads, "When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me." (Psalm 138:3, NIV)  They saw beyond my uncertainty, to a person of faith who was never afraid to ask her Father for what she needs.

I know, I never write like this.  I try to keep my blog happy and light and kind of neutral.  I hope you don't mind this deeper glimpse into who I am.  As my classmates and I are reminiscing on Facebook about Mr. S., most are remembering his sense of humor.  (He gave wet willies to almost every student in my school, although I'm pretty sure I avoided getting one.)  But I will never forget his ability to go from cracking jokes to speaking spiritual truths that he hoped would stick with us.  Don't worry, Mr. S. - they did.

So in honor of Mr. S. and all those who have lost the battle to heart disease (which kills more people than cancer every year), will you consider giving to the American Heart Association?  If you are outside the US, please give to the local chapter of your country's equivalent - I suddenly realized I don't know if there is a Canadian or British equivalent, and I don't want to give the wrong links here.  (I am not being compensated in any way for any donations made through this link.)

Tutorial Tuesday

This week I'll show you how to make a heart-shape out of 2 Ships.  (Again, click on the highlighted "ships" to go to the original lesson if you need a refresher.)  Here's the finished Heart:

Begin by stitching a left-vertical ship.  This time we're covering threads horizontally - begin with covering 2 threads.  Your longest stitch will cover 6 threads, then begin your decrease.  Remember to keep your right side (center) parallel as you're increasing, and your left side (outer) parallel as you're decreasing.

Make that long arm with 5 parallel over-2 stitches.  After the 5th stitch, bring your needle up 2 threads to the right and 2 threads above the previous stitch (leaving that blank).

Fill in your blank with a 4-thread stitch, then do your final 2-thread stitches in the curve.  Now you have a choice.  You can run your needle behind the threads as we've done before, and stitch the other side the reverse of what we've done.  Your other option - stitch from the top down.  To do this, bring your needle up 2 fabric threads to the right, but still parallel to your final stitch from the first ship.  You will then bring your needle down another 2 fabric threads to the right to make your "final" over-2 (except you're doing it first this time.)

Then you'll bring your needle up in the same hole as the edge over-2 from the previous ship.  Cover 2 threads to the right (away from the previous ship).

Now we skip our over-4 and work our top over-2 by coming up 2 fabric threads directly above where we brought the needle down.  On this ship we're stitching from left to right instead of right to left, so this will feel a little awkward at first.

Then work the over-4 we skipped, and stitch your 5 parallel stitches for your long arm

Begin increasing your diamond shape to the left (keep your right - outer - side parallel).  Your 5th stitch will cover 6 fabric threads.  Then begin your decrease on the right - your left (center) will be parallel, and will share holes with the first ship.  (Sorry, I didn't take pictures of all of this because it's the exact reverse of what we did before.)  Again, here's the finished Heart shape:

And the Heart Cross I promised you - you can see that by working up one side and down the other you'll position yourself to easily work the other sides of this motif, without wasting thread.  It also is conveniently 4 Tulips put together, so it would work well in a design that also incorporates Tulips.

And, finally, a look at the Tutorial Sampler so far.  I'm really enjoying putting these shapes together.  Believe it or not, this Hardanger piece was something I started in January of 2007 - I didn't know what to do with the big empty space after I did the Kloster framework!