Sew Crafty Friday for February 22

For Sew Crafty Friday today, I decided to do something a little different. I got very little crafting done this week. It has been a tough week for me emotionally and spiritually. I feel as if Satan is trying to render me ineffective. So as a result I have spent much more time in God's Word and in prayer this week. Crafting is important to me, but my spiritual condition is far more important.

So, for Sew Crafty Friday, I decided to share a craft I made quite some time ago. It's the tea towel wall hanging I posted here for Show & Tell last week. At the time I made this project, I also wrote up the directions and a little bit of why it was such a meaningful craft for me. So I'm going to share that here as well. Here's what I wrote:

"For me, one of the most comforting themes for decorating involves continuity. The two themes I find myself returning to again and again are seasonal decorating and decorating with family heirlooms or just 'old things' -- and both reflect continuity. "Decorating for the seasons is a reminder of the comforting Bible promise found in Genesis 8:22 -- 'While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' No matter what else may be happening in our lives, it's a comfort to remember that the seasons will go on just as they always do. As an old poem puts it, 'a day is always coming/when the birds go north again.' Seasonal decorating is a wonderful reminder of this.

"Using old family things to decorate my home is also very comforting. It gives me a real sense of continuity to see and use these things that belonged to previous generations. We have many old things, including diaries, old furniture, partial sets of dishes, etc. But probably the most inspiring in terms of decorating would be some things I inherited from my grandmother -- many of her kitchen utensils and the contents of her sewing basket.

"Recently I came up with a way to combine both of my favorite decorating themes into one craft project: a set of seasonal wall hangings. For each, I used half of a homespun dish towel, narrow-hemming the cut edge so that each finished hanging measured about 11x16 inches. Using fusible web, I ironed an 8x12-inch pieced of old sheet or white muslin to the center of the hanging. Then, with a fine-point permanent marker, I lettered a seasonal recipe onto each one. For winter, I used the recipe for Snow Ice Cream; for spring, a strawberry pie; for summer, Sunflower Cake; and for fall, a pumpkin dessert.

"Then the fun of decorating each hanging really began as I trimmed them with colorful fabric shapes ironed on with fusible web. I used snowflakes, fir trees, snowmen and hearts for winter, strawberries for spring, sunflowers for summer, pumpkins and maple leaves for fall. Then came the family-heirloom touch as I added buttons I'd saved for years, sewed on with beautiful vintage threads.

"Of course, the variations on this theme could be endless [and one of mine was published in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook!] depending on the recipes and fabric cutouts one chooses. For me, these wall hangings will be a wonderful reminder of the continuity of the changing seasons, and of family ties. And my grandmother -- who loved the seasons and faithfully decorated for each one -- would be proud."


How about you? If you have managed to accomplish or even start any crafting this week, then head on over to Waiting for Him and share your projects. Shereen and others will be eager to see what you have to share.

Happy Crafting!