I got an email from Keepsake Needlearts, advertising the Diamond Jubilee. They have a page or so of "British" patterns and things for the Anglophile needleworker.
Me: "Hey, dude, I'm going to stitch you this."
Dude*: "You just the hell better not."
I'm kinda glad he said that because you know how I feel about the celebrity face in cross-stitch. But I'm also the kind of person who doesn't understand hanging a picture of the queen or the president or the pope in your house. I mean, it's not like you're related. (Anyway, I'm sure that some people have very good and patriotic or religious reasons for doing so.) (I am still allowed to be all freaked out when I go into someone's house and have to walk by the Pope on my way to the bathroom.)
*Some newcomers may not be aware, but the dude is a transplanted Brit.
*Some newcomers may not be aware, but the dude is a transplanted Brit.
Really? He didn't want you to stitch that beautiful likeness of QE for him? Go figure.
ReplyDeleteIt could be worse: there might be the expectation that you'd hang a photo of the Pope in your office as well as at home. Hence, there'd be no escaping the reactionary old patriarch. Of course, I haven't met the expectations no matter how many photos I am given as gifts by well-meaning priests or parents of my students. I wouldn't give Benedict house room and I have banished the "official" photo to a shelf in the Religious Education Library/Copy Room where I needn't see him every time I look up from my desk or computer station. I might have hung a photo of John XXIII in the office, as the only recent Pope a good liberal Catholic could embrace but I expect I'd be the only person who'd actually recognize the face or know his story. I seem to be surrounded by the incredibly young: folk for whom my life experience falls into the category of ancient history.
ReplyDeletewe had Nixon on the wall. I come from a family of Quakers and liars. I kid! Well - about the Nixon part.
ReplyDeleteWhat about one of the other designs I saw? Wasn't there one with a crown and corgi???
ReplyDeleteOh my - someone will really stitch this?
ReplyDeleteYou are so lucky: unlike me, you have lived several recent weeks in blissful ignorance of this thing's existence.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he would prefer the snl cast member fred armisen as qe in cross stitch? Lol!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Ireland in 1979, every home I visited had a photo of the Pope and JFK.
ReplyDeleteLOL It is a, as you said, "it's not like you're related" concept that I agree with when it comes to hanging up celebs or people of influence. I remember being in a neighbor's library one afternoon and asking her why the Mr. of the house had a (rather large) painting of George Washington up on the wall. She said it was inspirational. Some reason or other, George Washington did it for him. LOL In THAT, I understand why they have them hanging up. But what is the inspiration for the "Pope on the way to the bathroom"?....ROFL...hmmmmmmm
ReplyDelete"...on my way to the batheroom," and down the way there just may be Johnny Depp or one of those vampire people. Sometimes it's kind of creepy when they ARE related!
ReplyDeleteexcuse me, but I AM related to the Pope!!
ReplyDeleteHAHA!
"It's not like we're related" is EXACTLY what my Nana said when the Queen sent her and Grandad a Diamond Wedding card!!
ReplyDeleteNana appreciated the family cards much more.
I'm torn about whether to stitch something or not, after all she's only the 2nd monarch to reach this milestone. Maybe just a nice little crown motif for my scrapbook...
I didn't really understand why someone would stitch a remembrance of William and Kate's wedding, but they did.
ReplyDeleteI'll have a mental picture of you stitching the queen for a very long time. Just the thought is pretty funny.
By the way, one of my I'm-not-a-robot words is "forkeyou" ... hahaha.
I am stitching something for the Jubilee as a memento, as I am proud of the royal family, but I am not a royalist. When they do something stupid of course i wonder why we have them, but the Queen is just great, don't know why but she just is. BTW I wouldn't stitch the portrait though, I prefer the Flag!!!
ReplyDelete