Praying for Blessings.

Do you know what this is?  It is an origami crane.  I was told the other week about a Japanese tradition of giving people who have been in your thoughts origami cranes to show them that you have been thinking of them.  You would go and see the person you have been thinking about and making for, with a handful of these origami cranes and they would know the precious moments that you have been thinking about them.  The cranes themselves are worthless and not particularly precious but the knowledge of you being in a persons thoughts for the duration that one is made is treasure from Heaven.

I could not believe it when I heard all about this.  In the first year of writing this blog I wrote a post about 'blessings' bracelets , these were bracelets that I had started making with a needle, thread and seed beads.  I started to call them this when I realised that while I was making them I could think and pray about the people I was making them for them.  With every bead I picked up on my needle I was praying blessings (most unknown) for that person.  Then just the other week I made a cushion for a friend who is sick.  This time I knew I was not going to get to see her for at least a week from when I found out she was sick, so I wanted to make something for her that would keep her in my thoughts.  I had the pleasure of giving her that gift today and feel blessed myself by her reaction to it. 

I have been doing a little more crochet this week in a few quiet moments in the evenings. My daughter will be 10 at the end of the month and has quite a passion for all things cupcake, so I have used those moments to think and pray blessings for her and have this to give her on her birthday.

sorry the quality of the photo is not very good - our camera has broken and I had to use my webcam!

I am going to be doing a talk on 'Prayer' to the young people doing confirmation classes with me at work tomorrow and it has made me think about encouraging them to see counting their blessings as an essential part of their prayer life, and the blessings they can ask for on those who linger in their thoughts.

520. Time to make and pray
521. Lunch in the garden with the sun on my face.
522. Energy to get through a busy day with lots of children.
523. Quiet time with my husband.
524. Attending my first 'ashing' service.
525. The opportunity to offer emotional support to a friend.
526. The gorgeous long brown curls on my sons head.
527. My parents having a good holiday and getting home safely.
528. Eating rhubarb from the garden (frozen from last year), just as the first sprouts of this years is coming through.
529. Hubby winning another magazine competition getting us £100.00!

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A Cushion to comfort.

I have been a little busy making a cushion.  I was prompted to start making by discovering a lovely friend who I have not had any contact with recently has breast cancer and has been suffering terribly with her chemotherapy and still has radiotherapy to go yet.  I didn't want to get her flowers as I wanted to make something, and then the idea struck, if she is resting a lot maybe a cushion would be good!  I sketched a design after browsing through some crafty blogs.  I started by cutting felt pieces and embroidering on them.  I already had the felt and thread in my cupboards and I also found a lovely baby pink coloured piece of Aida which I then bonded the doors to before stitching them on.

I then went on a little shopping trip with my youngest to find the material that would make the main cushion cover.  I also managed to find a lovely soft cushion pad.

These are the fabrics that we chose and a lovely bit of ribbon.

 It was the first time for I don't know how long that I made a gathered ribbon to put around the edge, I had quite forgotten how fiddly this could be!

 I decided to bond the Aida to the cotton cover and then stitched around the ribbon leaving a frayed Aida edge.

 I finished the envelope back of the cushion with a couple of ribbon ties which keeps everything nice and secure.

What do you think?  I am rather pleased with it, I can't wait to go and visit my friend and give it to her, this week I have had an awful cold which I would not be thanked for taking round so I am hoping next week a healthier me can go and make us cups of tea.

English Samplers in New England.

While on my travels to Boston USA, I got the opportunity to go and spend a few hours at Boston Museum of Fine Art.  I cannot remember the last time I got to spend time on my own in a museum, only looking at the things that I wanted to look at.  I had hoped that I would get to take my friend Katharine with me but unfortunately when we had it planned I went and had a migraine for the day!  The exhibition I definitely enjoyed the most was confined to one room and it was full of embroidered samplers.  Here are just a small selection with a few close ups - it was incredible that as long as you didn't like use a flash you were allowed to take photographs of everything!

 I find the detail absolutely incredible.

 And adored the sentiments in the paragraph - and it has come true.

These samplers were done by young girls coming over from England as the first settlers were arriving.  I had already known that samplers were done as a way of young girls learning how to stitch and for something to do as entertainment options were severely restricted.  What I had never appreciated before was that they were doing them not only to learn stitches but to remember them as well.  Whereas I can look in books for stitches or look on the Internet to get inspiration when wanting to stitch, these girls had only their samplers to review.  It goes without saying then that those that had the biggest variety of stitching on were probably from the most accomplished stitchers.  When it came later in life for them to be wanting to embroider pillow cases, napkins, dresses, etc they would look to their samplers and decide on the patterns to use.  I far prefer the thought of doing it this way than just looking in books or the Internet as we do now.