Meet Heather (and Her Roving Network of Reporters)
Hi! I’m Heather and live smack dab in the middle of Illinois with my husband and our eight cats — all of whom think I require their help to stitch and organize my stash. Demeter, who is the black and white cat flirting with you below, actually is a useful part of my preferred stitching accouterments.
Oh, you want to know who the rest of the specialty-fiber-providers are? Okay, let’s go from left to right and down in rows. So that’s me without the fur, and then Reba is the black cat who looks like she’s missing an ear. That’s because she needed surgery on it several years ago, and when it healed it stayed folded over. Reba was Todd’s cat before we met, but that ear is my ear, paid for out of my stitching account, and I love it. It suits her quirky, crotchety personality. Next is Chess who spends most of her days in pretty much that same position, which explains why she is so fat; really, she hardly eats a thing. Magic is a long-haired, muted tortoise shell, and Charm (on top of the comics) is a short-haired tortie; they were our wedding presents to each other as kittens. Demeter was a feral mother we fostered with her kittens who decided she liked living in our house and being spoiled. We both fell for her flirt — thank goodness she’s not fickle! Lucky and Easter were both skittish kittens we fostered. Lucky bonded with Easter and me, but didn’t outgrow his shyness nearly enough to become adoptable. Meanwhile Easter took so long to overcome her own skittishness and become adoptable that Lucky and I would have suffered broken hearts if I took her to PetSmart for adoption! The day I saw Dumbledore I knew I had to quit fostering kittens, biological kitten clock or no. All I did was look down into a cage filled with about six nearly identical white kittens with soon-to-disappear gray spots on their foreheads. Then I caught sight of Dumbledore’s unique features: his beautiful blue eye and his gorgeous brownish green eye were gazing up at me, as he cried louder than I have ever heard any kitten of such a tiny size say, “Meoooooooooowmm!”. Nope! There’s no selective hearing with this male; he’s completely deaf!
I have a B.A. and an M.S. in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University and spent eight years doing security investigations for AT&T and Lucent Technologies in order to support my cross stitch habit. I’ve also enjoyed working for the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Parole Board, the United States Postal Service, in home construction, and — quite obviously — in feline rescue, among other things.
I first picked up a needle at age seven when my grandmother drew Xs in a geometric pattern on some fabric and taught me how to cross stitch. From there, I moved on to stamped cross stitch but quickly found I preferred the designs available for counted cross stitch and needlepoint. As a member of several needlework guilds, I try to attend classes whenever I can; these are always so much fun, but never last long enough or occur often enough!
I’m here to help you on your journey in stitches, but I’m also really excited about this opportunity to learn from you.
Please stop by anytime; I’ll leave the OTT light on for you. 
Technorati Tags: Heather Orn, Heather L Orn, security, investigations, Michigan State University, criminal justice, Lucent, AT&T, cats, kittens, feline rescue, Dumbledore, Easter, Demeter, Chess, Illinois, stitching, USPS, United States Postal Service, stitch, needlework, cross stitch, needlepoint,
