31 Days - Day 28

Today I am thankful for different talents.  This one is harder to write because the last thing I want is to sound braggy but I am thankful for the different gifts and talents that God has given me.

Hannah helping and learning

I'm thinking of being able to sew.  Last night I whipped up a Little Red Ridinghood cape for Hannah - the girls watched/helped as I laid out the fabric and drew out the hood design and cut it out, sewed it together with the cape and added a button.

There were lots of questions "What is that? What does a seam ripper do? Will you be able to see the marker?"  Ending with glad exclamations of "I look like Little Red Ridinghood!"

It took about 15 minutes but with everything right there it went very quickly and it was fun to show the girls how to be able to make something quickly.

They've helped me before with making quilts (passing me the squares and keeping them in order, then laying the finished strips in order to keep the pattern), helping me pick out different materials, looking at different designs.  I hope that they will learn to love creating and sewing as much as I do.

I was talking with a lady at the thrift store yesterday - I try to make a point of talking to her whenever she comes in.  She has it very hard and gives a lot of herself to her daughter (who is in her 20's and has very special needs) and another girl (the same age with other special needs) as well as a son and a husband.  She is not a believer and is very closed to the gospel - but she'll talk with me.  I think I'm one of the only people that she can talk to about the situations at home and the struggles she has trying to get doctor's to help with the girls.  A few months ago, she even hugged me when she was leaving.  This was huge!  So I make a point of dropping whatever I'm doing to talk with her.

The first quilt I gifted - I love every piece of fabric in this quilt.  It was something new for me to not just do squares and to this day is still one of my favourites. 

As we were talking yesterday, she was looking at a dress that she was maybe going to have to alter to fit her daughter for her Halloween costume.  She told me that she has 4 sewing machines but never has the time to do it.  She also mentioned that she would love to learn to do a patchwork quilt - just for her self with no deadline or reason, just because it would be something that she would like to learn how to do.

I right away offered to teach her.  Not that I'm an expert, but I can certainly share the basics of quilting.  What a great ministry opportunity!  It made me very thankful that I have been given that gift and that I can hopefully share it with this lady - to spend some quality time with her - with no work distractions and teach her.  If you are reading this and think of it, please do pray that Jennifer will take me up on the offer to teach her and that I would continue to have opportunities to talk with her.

This one was done in a class.  It is called 'Cracked Pots' - it was a lot of work but interesting how when you break things down into more manageable pieces it comes together quickly.  I kept this one for myself.