Gifts for all... a free Design and GIVEAWAY!

As promised, my first free design from the series I wrote for Needlepoint Now 10 years ago!

This first design honors my grandparents.  You can read about them below.  I have just become a grandparent so the timing is perfect. The free design is available for download on the right sidebar under: My Family - Download the Series of free designs.

My Grandparents

and for the GIVEAWAY...  sign up to follow my blog and you will be automatically entered to win the fibers for the design!  Look for the Follow button on the right sidebar and put yourself on the list.  This way you will also find out about all that's new around here.

 
From Needlepoint Now:

My grandparents, Abraham, Rita (paternal)  , Moshe and Rivka (maternal), began their lives in Europe. Both sets of grandparents lived a very different existence. Moshe and Rivka lived in a small community and were dreamers.  They believed in the Zionist ideology: the belief in the need to have a Jewish State for the Jewish people. In 1933, my maternal grandparents left their village and their families and made the journey to Israel.  In those times leaving one’s family usually meant never seeing them again.  I cannot imagine the courage it took to make this move, or the anguished parting they had to endure.  Travel in those days was long and difficult and their hearts must have pounded with the fear of uncertainty.  It was, however, their strong beliefs and willingness to sacrifice that led them on that journey towards fulfilling their dreams. 


My paternal grandparents lived in the terror of World War II and the Holocaust. Abraham and Rita were well to do business people and important members of society. When the war broke out, they were split apart. They and their three sons were sent to different places, and ultimately, to different fates.  My grandfather was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.  His son, my uncle Severin, was murdered as well.  At the end of the war, my grandmother and her two sons left Europe for the journey to Israel.   There, years later, their children, my parents, met and made a bond that was to bring their two families together.


The piece I designed in their memory is an attempt to express the different worlds that came together, the mid-life change that came into their lives, whether by choice or not.  The courage with which they built their new lives in a foreign land, all the while still dreaming and sacrificing, is what I placed in front of my mind’s eye when I sat down to design this segment. 




*******UPDATE: Hi all--Genevieve Here--just a note--if you are having difficulty accessing the download, open a google window and use the address bar to go directly to Orna's Blog (ornadesign.blogspot.com). A few people had difficulty but it seems to be the way in which they have been accessing the page. Hope that helps!