Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Discovering America

One year ago, I opened a new blog and tried blogging in English. It took me some courage, because my English has never been trained or even tried in an English speaking country. My foot has never touched the soil of Great Britain nor the USA or Australia, the country where -- as the family epics were sung to me -- my grandfather's brother fled from a woman who followed him, and they got married. I was an avid follower of my father's reports from America where he travelled around for 3 months in 1955 when I was six. His lantern slide show was my television, my first English words were "new" and "whooosh", the sound coming from a just opened can -- on adverts in "Ladies' Home Journal". This is where I got aquainted with Munro Leaf's "Watchbird" stories and pondered over his "Never-put-backer".
My relationship towards the USA changed in the years of adolescence, but I won't dwel on that. At a mature age of 57 I took up a craft I had learnt from my grandmother: Needlepoint. For 30 years, I had a box of brightly colored crewel wool in the attic, and to my amazement, the moths had eaten only a tiny bit of it. And there was an unfinished baby blocks embroidery with a special woven stitch. I finished it, and more projects followed. I showed my embroidery to blog readers in Germany for about half a year and had two followers.

The internet is a blessing. It showed me that the kind of craft I was looking for does exist, I wanted to expose my modest work to the judgement of embroiderers and quilters who did things I admire. On November 17, 2008, I opened my blog towards the west.

Congratulations to all of you who have been following me and who read it now! Without your advice and encouragement, my attempts to start quilting and cloth-printing wouldn't have got very far. Thank you so much, Ladies! I wish you a happy new blogging year in good health and success.

18 comments:

Marie said...

You have a lovely blog.
Sometimes taking that first step to move beyond
fear is the hardest. The man in my life kept
telling me I should start a blog and I did not do it for the longest because of fear of being
rejected. Is'nt that silly of me? Anyway, glad
to see your beautiful, fun work!

Kay Koeper Sorensen said...

I am so happy you decided to share your blog with your English speaking friends.
I continue to enjoy each and every post.
I marvel at how well you do with our sometimes confusing language.
I'm looking forward to reading it for years to come.

Deborah said...

I very much enjoy your words and your work. You are an inspiration. Thank you for sharing your blog.

jude said...

i am singing for you here.

ArtSparker said...

Wow, I would never have guessed that you have not spent time in an English-speaking country. Maybe some day, and I hope you will come to California if you do...Happy blogiversary.

Phyllis said...

What an inspiring story to read. I love the quilt square at the top and your needlepoint as well. I am hoping this gets published. So many times I have written something here only to find I cannot get it posted. So here goes!

GerryART said...

You have very good English, Eva.
Excellent grammar.
Yep, I do enjoy reading your blog. It transports me to your far away land.

Eva said...

Thank you all! You and so many of the blogging craftswomen have become dear friends to me. Phyllis, I have to apologize, I had applied limited access to my blog, out of fear from spam bots, but I fixed that.

Penny said...

Congratulations on your year of an English speaking blog. I couldnt do German one,Penny in Australia

Rayna said...

Happy Blogiversary, dear Eva! I am so happy I found your blog and that I can count you as a friend and kindred spirit. You have enriched my mornings and evenings (depending on when I read your posts).
big hugs, as always.
P.S. - you do not go to California without stopping here first!!

Diane Cransac said...

Eva you were my first blogging friend and I have so appreciated that. IT's amazing sometimes how much of a parallel our lives run on! I absolutely love the bauhaus project. Your use of colors is wonderful. I also loved watching your birds quilt grow. I'm sorry I havent been by as much. I will definitely have to rectify that!

Deb G said...

Congratulations Eva, you have so many wonderful things to share.

Unknown said...

Happy blog birthday!!! :D

Clare Wassermann said...

I am glad you blog for me here - thank you. Meanwhile this week my husband is over in Berlin on business. Despite my name I am not German but married into a German stepfamily of Jewish origins. An interestibg story there I can tell you...

Kay said...

I didn't know you haven't been to an English speaking country, or even that English isn't your native language. You written English is excellent. And I enjoy your blog for the beautiful work.

angela recada said...

I'm so happy I found your lovely blog. I think I saw your comment on Rice Freeman-Zachery's blog and decided to find out more.
:0)
Your story is interesting.

My father left Germany for Canada in 1955, my mother soon followed and I was born there. We eventually settled in the US, but I remember so well the many trips we took back to Germany to visit my Oma in Neuss. I've been lucky enough to see many other parts of Germany, too, but I've never yet had the pleasure of visiting Hamburg.

Ich würde mich sehr freuen auch mal etwas von Dir zu hören!

Viele liebe Grüße aus Wisconsin, USA,
Angela

Dolores said...

I too am glad that you are blogging and that I found you. I love the fact that you finished the needlepoint. It is lovely.

Judy said...

once again: late to the party am I!!! LOL
I'm so glad that you take the time to write in English. You have become a dear, dear friend to me, and it's truly a blessing to have you in my life.

xo