Thursday, October 22, 2015

They're Golden!

You may recall that in July my family attended a special reunion in Nova Scotia. My three siblings and I, our spouses and children all joined my parents to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.  The four families chipped in and gifted my folks a weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake complete with tickets to a musical.  I wanted to do something a little longer lasting, though.

>50th anniversary table cloth

I made them a fun quilt for their 40th anniversary featuring hand drawn and crayon-coloured blocks by most family members. That quilt hangs proudly in our family cottage.  This time I opted for an embroidery project.  I hemmed a yard of white Essex linen and took it along to Nova Scotia with me for everyone to sign using a Frixion pen.

50th anniversary table cloth
My parents are the original Sybil and Tom...I'm sure Downton Abbey fans will ask ; )

The middle dedication was prepared in Word, printed and then simply traced onto the linen. The flourishy thingies I found in free clip art online.  I first tried to stitch it with metallic embroidery floss, but that was a disaster. It looked awful, I couldn't knot it without huge lumps and the metallic threads frayed off the rayon core thread like crazy.  Luckily a friend provided this gold coloured rayon floss that worked beautifully.

50th anniversary table cloth

My favourite 'signature' on the table cloth is by the youngest member of our family, my four year old nephew. After writing his name, he looked up at me and said "I'm thinking about a maple leaf". I asked him if he'd like to draw one and look what he drew, from his memory! He never took the pen off the linen and looked up at me after he drew each line. Adorable.

It is a difficult thing to photograph well, but you get the idea of this gift. There is a round table in my parent's front hall that I thought this would suit perfectly, and that's where my mom has put it. They are currently cruising in luxury around Italy, Croatia and France. That sounds like the perfect way to celebrate 50 amazing years!

9 comments:

Leanne said...

That is a lovely gift, and congratulations to your parents!

ES said...

A fab maple leaf :)

Rike Busch said...

An amazing and unique gift!
Greetings from Germany, Rike

Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts said...

Oh, wow, 50 years. That's amazing! This is such a special gift, and will just become more precious with every year. A beautiful snapshot of your family right now.

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Perfect. A very touching gift. I can tell you I know it will be cherished. I would love this kind of gift immensely.

paulette said...

A wonderful heartfelt tribute to 50 wonderful years of marriage! Well done, Krista! Your parents will treasure this forever!

Unknown said...

What a wonderful gift! I love your nephew's signature. So sweet.

Debbie said...

Very very cool!

PinkGranny said...

What a beautiful keepsake!