A swap

I love online swaps. There's something liberating about making things for other people who you don't really know - you get to work outside your comfort zone with pretty much no fear. Cool :)

I made this little quilted place mat for a Flickr swap. It's unlike anything else I've ever made, and I love it. The appliqué was cut by hand out of black cotton fused to steam a seam, then sewn to a pieced background (the idea was to go for a sunset look).

It's currently flying all the way to the west coast. I hope it makes it there soon!

Smudgy sky

Sunrise, November 25th

My little Guide

Katie officially moved up from Brownies to Guides tonight. That's further than I went in the organization (I enjoyed Brownies but was way more into gymnastics). She's still really loving it, I'm glad for that.

Baptism day

We didn't have the little ones baptised as infants, for many reasons too boring to get into here.

The kids attend a Catholic school though, and learning about Catholicism in religion class, and watching their classmates receive sacrements, they began to express a desire to be baptised themselves. We started preparing in August, and today was their big day. It was low key, 6 kids in total who for whatever reason found themselves in situations similar to ours. And it was beautiful. Afterwards the deacon rang the church bells to announce the occasion to the community.

I'm glad it happened this way. I think the kids will be more aware and more appreciative of the church having made the decision to join themselves.

Morning Glory

Sunrise this morning - Nov 14

Generations of crafty

My paternal grandmother was crafty. More than crafty really, incredibly artistic. She did wonderful drawing and illustrations (including some beautiful pieces on birch bark) she sewed, she knit, she crocheted. She was amazing.

A while back my dad found this in a box of her personal items that had been untouched since before she passed away in 1999. It would have been written in the early 40s. Howard was my grandfather, Bunny was my grandma. I think it's simply incredible, not only was she crafty, she was sly and funny and a decent poet.

I miss her, and I'm proud to carry on the 'crafty' for another generation.

(Click on the picture to see it large enough to read the poem and enjoy the drawings)