Summer is almost here. It’s upon us. The magazines are screaming. Roll up your sleeves and fire up the grill. It’s time to entertain!
May I offer an alternative? Instead of entertaining, offer hospitality. The differences are not subtle. When we entertain, we are often ruled by our pride. When we offer hospitality, we are inspired by charity. Entertaining seeks to impress. Hospitality seeks to minister...
Please join me at Suscipio to read the rest.
Last winter, I learned to knit. It was a great, grand, and glorious thing. I loved plunging headfirst into the world of knitting. Such nice people I found there! Such beautiful projects I found there! I discovered great joy and enormous peace in knitting. And I loved creating beautiful things for the people I love.
I joined my friend Ginny's Yarn Along with unbounded enthusiasm. Those Wednesday posts were my favorite and almost always, I found time to read everyone else's Yarn Along post. Endless inspiration and eye candy.
Alas, I sneezed. And wheezed. I am very allergic to animal fibers. I knew this, of course, before I began to knit. But I thought I could knit around that fact. I could. Sort of. I would find a pattern I loved and head off to translate it cotton-ese. I knit beautiful handspun cashmere generously provided by the best knitting mentor a girl could ever hope to have. Eventually, even that made me itch and wheeze. I persevered in the cotton department. After several months of nearly manic knitting I developed tendonitis. Ginny is a dear in-real-life friend. She pointed out that knitting cotton is especially tough on one's tendons. No kidding.
Around this time, another friend was encouraging me to learn to sew. As I began to explore the world of sewing, I discovered a beautiful fact: those who sew speak the language of cotton. They don't look at cotton the way that knitters do. They love cotton! Embrace it! Revel in it! Here was a way to create I could acutally jump into with wholehearted gusto.
I learned to sew. I am learning to sew. And as my enthusiasm has grown, so has my desire to "talk sewing." A few weeks ago, after being quiet for a couple of weeks here, with nothing really to say, sewing came bubbling up out of me. I posted pictures of my girls' handmade Easter dresses and pretty much begged you to talk sewing with me. And you did:-)! I visited some new-to-me sites and saw such pretty things. One of the dear ladies who read that post wrote and asked if I'd consider a linkup party like Yarn Along, for those of us who sew.
What a great idea...
I ran it past Ginny and she said go for it!
So here I am introducing to you needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo and a brief description of what you're up to? Are you reading something wonderful, a volume you just can't put down? Are you listening to the audio version so that you can sew and read at the same time? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much. Please come back every Thursday and share with us!
Here's a button for your post (you can even choose your color), that way we can find our way back here to see what other people are dreaming up to do with needle and thread. Go ahead and put it in your sidebar, too. If we want to talk sewing and reading on a regular basis, we have to spread the word!
And if you're knitting instead, or knitting as well, please be sure to stop by Yarn Along and tell my friend Ginny hello for me:-)
This week, I began to stitch the embroidery in the center of quilt squares. I'm putting together a quilt that's a hybrid of two sewalongs at Clover and Violet: Embroidery 101 and Garden Steps. This is a very longterm project. I packed three squares to take with me to Florida last week, but I never got to them. I did finally pick up the embroidery this week at home. I've never really embroidered before, so it's a bit rough, especially at the "learning curves," but I think I am going to like it! (Isn't that a great embroidery hoop? I read about it on Pretty By Hand.)
I read several books during Lent. If you were away from the 'net and missed it, pop over and see what I had to say about the fabulous Style, Sex and Substance. Then, I didn't read at all last week as I hustled around like crazy. Now, I'm sighing contentedly into reading The Jane Austen Guide to Happily-Ever-After, a book which was recommended to me by a lady who reads my blog and thought it would suit me. She was right. I'm very much enjoying this modern-day application of Jane Austen civility. And, since endless pictures of my Kindle aren't very much fun, here's a peek at the actual book cover.
What are you reading and sewing? Leave a link to your blog so we all can see or upload your picture to the needle and thREAD flickr group.
Rebecca's Papa has wandering feet. He packs up the family in a covered wagon and they head to Oregon. Along the way, Rebecca gathers scraps of fabric from family and friends, meaningful mementoes of their journey together. When they arrive in Oregon, she quilts all the memories into a lovely blanket. The book was inspired by the pioneer quilt pattern "Wandering Feet."
We had a wonderful time with this one. I sat with a handful of 5 inch fabric squares on my lap and handed one to each of my three listeners every time Rebecca gathered a scrap for her collection. At the end, I added a few more. Then we sat on the floor, they did a little trading, and designed their own small quilts. We stitched them all together for some very lucky baby dolls.
Photo credit: Evelyn Hockstein for the New York Times. Used with Permission.
Photo credit: Evelyn Hockstein for the New York Times. Used with Permission.
More books on the Oregon Trail theme:
If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon
If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon
An entire {free} unit study on Pioneers and the Oregon Trail
More books on the patchwork and quilting theme:
Eight Hands Round: An Alphabet Book (pioneer life told through 26 quilt patterns)
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
For a detailed explanation of our Storybook Year and a long lists of ways to talk about books, click here.
I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo and a brief description of what you're up to? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.
I'm Elizabeth. I'm a happy wife and the mother of nine children. I grab grace with both hands and write to encourage myself and others to seize and nurture the joy of every day. I blog here with my daughter, Mary Beth, a wholehearted young lady on the brink of adulthood.
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