Rebecca Sower

until the new year

Life is full to the brim and soon will be spilling over.  I know it is so with you as well. 

Although I am not feeling the stress and pull like I have in past years, I know there is much ahead.

I suppose I need to begin Christmas shopping.  This year, like many of you, we are scaling way back and not becoming a part of the circus.  But there is still plenty to do.  Baking,  Preparing.  Scurrying.  I suppose there's no way around it completely.

So I will not pretend that I can continue to update my blog through it all.  This is where I will drop off until 2010.  Oh and there will be much to share then I am sure. 

I am leaving the day after Christmas for an 8-day trip to Haiti.  Suitcases packed full of beads and needles and threads and scraps and supplies.  To sit and share and stitch and create with a group of Haitian women.  I am going to share with them...but I suspect it will be the other way around.  I would ask for your prayers for me and this venture.  And hopefully you will be able to share my entire journey through Jenny's new venture.

And now I will wish you a rewarding remainder of 2009 and a fresh and beautiful 2010.  Each of you are special to me.  Truly.

Unto you

is born

a Savior

{ luke 2 }

the time to stitch

A while back I shared with you a "sampler" cloth.  Where I stitched, sat it aside, picked it up and stitched some more.  And the layers piled up.  I'm pretty sure that piece is at the Somerset offices right now.  And I miss it.  I didn't realize how often I picked it up and touched it and stitched a little more. 

So I'm starting anew.  On a french towel I bought in Paris last year.  I love that heavy stiff fabric.  Kaari gave me the low-down on all the types of linen and hemp and even nettle fabric when we chatted over dinner in Omaha last month.  So now I'm more in love with linen than ever.  You can have your silks, leave the linen for me.

Well, there's cotton.  I can never forsake cotton.  Maybe it's because I live in the southland.  Maybe because this is one of my favorite stitching books.  For me, cotton is more of a heart thing, sort of in my blood.  But linen, just the feel of it makes me happy.

So when did this turn into a fabric lesson?  What I meant to show you is the beginning of my new sampler cloth.  Liking it already.  It will be what I pick up when I am standing at my studio table with that glazed-over-what-am-I-doing-here thing I have going on sometimes.

No matter what your level of stitching, you should make one of these.  There is therapy involved in the touch and feel of it.  And if you have little ones, teach them to stitch.  My grandmother taught me when I was wee tiny.  Oh how I love her for taking that time.