Sun signs

It was sometime back in the 70's that I got hooked on embroidery. My interest bordered on addiction, but one that was at least healthy and more socially acceptable than some of the other stuff that was going around at the time. I was a big John Denver fan back then, and was especially impressed by an embroidered shirt he wore on one of his albums ("Spirit".) I really thought it would be cool to be an embroiderer to the stars! Not to mention, profitable! But maybe Mars was transiting my second house, or whichever planet it is that influences finances, because it wasn't meant to be.

I was especially fond of embroidering on denim. It was a nice sturdy fabric and just about any color scheme looked good on it. I loved bright colors and creating my own designs, but I was always more into the process than the product. I rarely wore what I stitched.

An exception to this, however, was a pair of my favorite jeans. I decided to do a few flowers around the bottom of the legs. But I got carried away and stitched an entire garden with all kinds of flowers--some that I'm sure weren't in any botanical books. I got very good at stitching vines too. They swirled around the flowers and up the side seams.

I worked for a large company and spent my time in the lunchroom stitching. My workmates watched my progress and looked forward to the day I would be finished. I wasn't sure when that day would come, but I figured the jeans would tell me when I'd done enough. They did.

My friends started egging me on to wear them to work. We wore pants to the office back then, but not jeans. I finally agreed to wear them, even though I was always one to follow the rules and I knew it was a bit risky. And......wouldn't you know, that was the day I had to hand-deliver some important papers to the president's office. He was forgiving though. I guess he knew I was a little bit wacky anyway, since he'd been over to my office once before and commented on the nice pumpkin--real, I might add--that was sitting on my filing cabinet in February.