Card making...

Over the last three weeks, several friends from church have gotten together three times in my sunroom to make cards. 

Let me back up a month or so...

Our small group has a card ministry, where we send cards to people who might need a bit (or a lot) of encouragement. Sometimes congratulations are in order, or birthday wishes for a special birthday (like our friend Jack's 96th in May) are appropriate, and there are any number of random justifiable reasons we come up with to send a card to someone(s).

I think it was early September when Martha, who has been heading this card ministry, mentioned that we were running low on our supply of cards, and if anyone was inclined to buy some more and donate them, that would be great.

And I said, "Hold on!"  

I had been thinking of this for months, but the time just never seemed right for some reason.

I explained that I would love to make my paper supplies available and invite everyone to our house to make cards.  With autumn right around the corner, I knew our sunroom would work great for this.  I was given the go-ahead to take charge and plan it, and a few weeks later, it had finally cooled down enough that the sunroom was comfortable for this endeavor.

Not everyone was exactly excited - in fact one lady asked, "Can I just contribute postage?"   "Of course", I chuckled.  Honestly, I almost talked myself out of doing this when I wasn't sure if anyone wanted to join me, but my friend, Jean, became my encourager and sounding board.  Letting me borrow a table, showing up early, and bringing some of her supplies.

Now, I'm going to show pictures of all my paper crafting stuff (and a few things that were brought by Jean and some others), but please understand that this is the result of decades of accumulating most of these things.  I did buy some fresh glue sticks, and a few packages of embellishments, but largely we were using 20-30 year-old stuff.

Scrapbooking in the 1990s was my gateway to collecting paper supplies, and then card making came along, and I not only collected papers and various embellishments, but I also occasionally bought blank card sets whenever I found them on sale.  And all along the way, I found reasons to buy various colors of card stock.  

Keep in mind, too, that as a homeschooling family who was involved in three co-ops over twenty years, this kind of stuff is very easy to accumulate - for craft purposes, for making all kinds of signs and handouts, and finally making each son's graduation announcement cards.  

Did you not make your graduate's announcements?  While I can't speak for every homeschooler, we are (obviously) made of a fair amount of do-it-yourself stock, and I suspect most homeschool moms collect a lot of things that a mom whose kids are in a traditional school simply doesn't.

I was also in charge of organizing some homeschool events for the larger homeschooling community several times and pretty colored papers and card stock were often employed.  When looked at through decades-long lenses, it makes complete sense that I had all this stuff.  People that have only known me for a few years (as most of these women do) are understandably confused and perhaps amused.

For a long time, I've kept this stuff thinking I'd be a fun grandma who made crafty things out of fun paper and colorful cardstock with her grandchildren.  While it's becoming absurd to continue to hang on to all these supplies, I can't deny that I really do love decorative papers, and at least the idea of making things with it all - even if reality is something different.  

Anyway...  the moment had arrived (or so I thought) to use up a bunch of this stuff.  I set up tables and arranged all the papers and embellishments, pens, markers, scissors, glue, paper cutter...   am I forgetting anything?  Oh yes, wet wipes (for gluey fingers), paper towels, stamps and stamp pads...  

I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

Before everyone arrived, the set up was fairly orderly and ready for us to get to work.

This was actually week two, but the room started out more or less in the same degree of order each week.

When my friends arrived they were amazed, perhaps a little dazed.  And I heard one gal say, "It's like a store!"

I didn't know whether to take that as awe or a good natured admonishment.  I decided it was well deserved either way.  

Near the end of the first afternoon of card making, Kim R. said, "When are we doing this again?"  

Being a bit exhausted from setting it all up, and helping people find what they needed that afternoon, I think I said, "Oh, I wasn't planning on doing this again."

But several commented at how much fun they were having, and I immediately reconsidered.  As they left, I was planning on a second card making day the following week.  I just needed to pick the day. 

I picked the following Wednesday and it was supposed to be a gloriously sunny 65 degree day - which would make the sunroom a comfortable low-70 degrees, and the windows could be open if it got a little warm. 

But Hurricane Isaias had other plans, and by the next week Indiana was hot and humid in the high 70's, and with rain I wouldn't have been able to open the windows for relief, so I rescheduled to Friday.   Friday was a little cool, but it was tolerable, and at the end of that day, it was suggested we do this yet again.

I was ready this time, and offered up the following Tuesday.  It ended up being perfect weather for our final card making afternoon.

Several still wanted to continue doing this, but I was feeling the need to reclaim the sunroom, and we had made enough cards to surely last us through the winter and into spring (if not for the entire next year!)

After the first week when seven of us made 20-some cards, and I knew we'd be getting together again (and I was kind of prepared for a third time) I set a goal of us making 100 cards.  I figured I'd make up the difference between whatever the group made, and that final goal.  We ended up being about seven cards shy of 100 when we finished the third card making workshop.

I just took stock, and see that I made around 30 cards in total (I don't think they all made into the picture below).

My favorite technique (which I came to late) became gluing down an assortment of scrap papers, tearing some of the edges, creating a fun texture.

All in all, card making was a successful endeavor, and while I'm not sure I'm up for doing it again very soon, I think I will consider it in the future - simply to use up more paper supplies.  

It is my plan to make family birthday cards for the next year, and make some for sending out as my own random "thinking of you" cards.  

I've even been giving some thought to maybe doing some scrapbooking again.  Nothing like what I did when the boys were little, but something.   Maybe.

A photo doesn't quite convey the textural effect of these scrappy stripy cards, but I'll end with my favorite:

Doily gifting...

It's hard to believe I've not been in here in a month's time (again), but it is a fact.  And it's not like there's not been anything to blog about.  But one of my favorite blogging topics is my Year of Project updates, and while I've been making things, most of what I'm working on are gifts, and until they are given I'm not posting about them.

That said, I've finally given two people doilies I've had finished for a while, but was waiting until they had actually been gifted.

Yesterday Greg and I enjoyed a beautiful day driving to Kentucky and visiting my sister and niece and her husband in Louisville.  We got lost in some very old parts of this city because we didn't trust GPS for some reason, and while that delayed our arrival by about an hour, we saw some gorgeous old neighborhoods of Louisville.  I became confused, though because in our drive through the city, we would find ourselves in yet another "downtown area" but clearly not in the heart of the downtown Louisville.  One of these small town-looking "downtowns", was strikingly similar to Fountain Square in Indianapolis.  If you know, you know.  

The confusion finally evaporated when my nephew-in-law explained that Louisville actually includes a lot of small towns.  Then it clicked.  Indianapolis is the same.  If you're from Louisville, and I get this wrong, correct me, but I understand from reading online, it is called Louisville Metro.  We live a little ways from the Indianapolis Metroplex - which we frequent often for doctors' appointments and shopping.  Understanding Louisville in this way, suddenly all the little downtowns made sense.  And all the important-looking signs designating a village or neighborhood were, I realized, very similar to the signs we see when we drive around, in and out of these little towns, as we make our way to various destinations within the Indianapolis Metroplex.

While we were feeling stressed to have gotten ourselves so far off the trail, I am glad to have seen such a variety of neighborhoods.  And later, when driving to our niece's home (on the far east side of Louisville), we enjoyed beautiful forested areas.  Louisville seems to have it all!  

After lunch doilies were finally gifted and the recipients appeared to be delighted with them.  To my relief, it was a success.  While I love crocheting, when making gifts (and even more so when I've been paid to make something), I find it stressful wondering if the recipient is actually going to like the thing I'm making.  There is so much second-guessing and some figurative hand-wringing...    I truly don't know how makers who rely on their various talents to earn a living cope with this stress.  

I'm going to take a number of posts to show the recent doilies I've made - just so I can keep some blog fodder in the file, which may help me not disappear for another month.

Today, I present a new-to-me doily pattern called Rosaline:

This is my second textured Grace Fearon doily.  I feel kind of good about the fact that she classifies this as an "Advanced" doily. I finished this a few weeks ago, so maybe I'm forgetting, but it didn't strike me as all that difficult.  The crisscross cables (I think one can all them) made me a little nervous when I started that round, but I just trusted the instructions, and my recollection is that it worked fine.  I think I would not mind making another one of these someday.

And that's all for this YOP post!  To see what other YOPpers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry by clicking the image below.  One will need a free Ravelry membership to visit our group page, just so you know.

My heart goes out to those who suffered damage and loss to Hurricane Isaias.  We've finally shed ourselves of its rainy remnants and are looking to have a couple of weeks in the 70's before the late fall chills chase us inside.  What a gift that feels like!

Experimenting with different size hooks...

Noticing that my crocheting with thread has become very tight lately, I decided to give a larger hook a try.  Normally, when I crochet size 10 thread, I use a 1.5 mm hook.  It's just what I've had available to me.  This time, I used a 2.5 mm hook (because I had it in my arsenal).  

Surprisingly, Doily #57 (from the book, 99 Little Doilies) was still  three quarters of an inch smaller than the pattern indicated it should turn out.  For what it's worth, the pattern called for a size 1.65 mm hook, and the pattern indicated the finished doily should be 7".   Mine measures at 6 1/8".  If I had crocheted this with my normal 1.5 mm hook, I have no idea how much smaller it would be.

As I was making the above doily, I wasn't liking how limp and "holey" the whole thing was feeling as I crocheted with a bit larger hook.  But once again, blocking with starch makes everything better.  The doily isn't stiff, but it has a bit more body than before blocking.

As pretty as the color in the photo is, it isn't true.  The thread used was Curio, size 10, in the color Sagebrush.  The real color is a pretty sage green.

And that's it on the crafty front.

One more 90+ degree day this upcoming week, and then I'm counting on a cool down.  This time of year is so odd - I feel dreary of summer, but, at the same time I can't believe it's nearly over.  Since most of my readers appear to be in the northern hemisphere, I hope you're enjoying these last days of summer!

Summer Splendor...

I suppose my YOPing buddies may be thinking about now that I've flown the coop!  Truth is, I'm working on crocheting some gifts, but I don't want to show them here before they are received.  

But taking a break recently from the gift-making, I decided to make something for myself - just so I could jump back into the YOP group with something to show for my absence.

I can't seem to get enough of the doily called Summer Splendor (by Denise Augostine Owens), as this is my fifth one!  

In case someone tries making this doily, I thought I'd mention I changed the final round on this.  On Round 26 was changed thusly:   sc, ch2, sc in each ch-2 space, and I replaced the chain-5 loop with a 3-chain picot in the middle of each scallop.

I'm chomping at the bit for autumn, so making this in the deep orange-y color, Papaya, seemed appropriate.

I've been thinking of taking stock of all my unfinished projects and maybe start giving some progress reports on them, but that seems like creating a job for myself.  And the last thing I want is to turn my hobby into a job...

I hope you're enjoying these last weeks of summer.  It's pretty nice and green here in central Indiana, as we were spared the worst of the rains that this part of the U.S. got almost two weeks ago, and had no flooding to speak of in this area. Prayers go out for those who are still cleaning up from those record floods.

Jack ...

We lost a friend a week ago, and while emotions have normalized, the first few days after Jack died, my heart felt like it was broken into a hundred pieces.

Jack was 96 years old.  He'd only a few months ago given up driving, but he'd been steadily failing in health since his wife, Ruth, passed two years ago.  We watched the decline.  I told myself to count each encounter as precious, and I did, but now I feel I didn't have nearly enough of those precious encounters.

Early in the summer, when we learned Jack went into Hospice care, I enlisted the prayers of my Bible study friends to pray for Jack's comfort and peace in whatever days he had left.

After Jack passed, one of those friends asked me how we knew Jack.  It was a pleasure to tell her, and I've decided to record it here.

From 2016-2020, I was a very part-time companion caregiver for Jack's wife, Ruth.  The story of how I came to be Ruth's caregiver is in this compilation of things that I've been up to in my "retirement".  And I've written a few times about days spent with Ruth that can all be found here.

Ruth had mild dementia at the time, and needed someone to be with her when Jack wasn't home.  When Ruth's regular caregiver was going on vacation in 2016, she contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in filling in for her.    

While I knew the other caregiver (through a Bible study I'd attended for years by that time), I really couldn't quite understand why she had asked me to fill in for her.  But after a long conversation, I finally said yes.  And that began an enrichment in my life I never could have imagined.

Ruth continued to play the organ and piano for a number of years after dementia began to steal her memories.  Sometimes we played duets, Ruth on the organ, me on the piano playing with one hand, trying to keep up.

While I had conversations with Jack during the years I cared for Ruth, I mostly got to know him through conversations with Ruth.  While Ruth's short-term memory was nearly nonexistent, her long-term memory was largely intact.  And because Ruth would forget a conversation shortly after having it, I got to hear the stories many times.

I learned that as a young serviceman in the Navy, Jack used a two-week leave to attend a residential Bible study in another state.  There he met Ruth, and I can only imagine how quickly they fell in love.  In Jack's last months he joked that he wasn't sure if he had paid for Ruth's meals when he took her out during that time.

Jack and Ruth married.  In time, they adopted a son, and had two daughters that they raised in Illinois.  Ruth told me often how they took in an aging aunt, building a room onto their house for her to live there.  According to Ruth, Aunt Di helped with the children, and she enjoyed the safety and comfort of a loving family. 

Jack built an auto repair business, and eventually sold it.  In his "retirement", Jack and Ruth decided to relocate nearer their daughters, and they moved to our little town in Indiana about 22 years ago.  After moving here, Jack worked at a funeral home, served as a church elder, enjoyed playing basketball, taking cruises with Ruth (they especially loved Bill Gaither cruises, I think).  Since I came to know Jack and Ruth late in their lives, I don't know anywhere close to what all Jack did in the 86 years before we met, but what I am confident of is that he and Ruth both lived full and faithful lives.

When I met Jack in 2016, it was obvious even to me that he had slowed down significantly from his younger years.   He was still working at the funeral home.  He was a joke teller extraordinaire, and he often treated people to dinner.  We (and many other friends of Jack) were invited a number of times to have dinner at the Hibachi Grill at the assisted living community where Jack and Ruth had built their retirement home.

When Ruth required full time nursing care, Greg began to become friends with Jack.  They, and a couple of other men had regular breakfasts together (or maybe it was that Greg joined the already existing "breakfast club").   Jack had quite a social life.  It seemed to me he met someone for breakfast, lunch or dinner almost every day.  In fact, the morning after Ruth died, Greg and some of these men had their regularly scheduled breakfast date with Jack at the diner they frequented.  

Speaking of the diner - Jack was such a beloved regular there, the waitresses gave him a birthday cake and gifts when we gathered there with other friends for his 96th birthday in May.  In fact, Greg introduced Jack to the whole diner and asked them to join us in singing Happy Birthday to him.  It was quite a sound that rang out, and several came up to Jack as they were leaving to thank him for his military service. It was such a fun and sweet celebration.

My apologies for turning the camera upside down at the end of the video above.

Over the summer, Greg and I visited with Jack (each of us separately, usually) and because talking had become difficult for him, we just spent quiet time with him. 

There were a few points while in Hospice care that Jack gained some strength, and he was able to drive a scooter in the halls of the assisted living center he had recently moved into.  When he felt up to it, he enjoyed going to the dining room or bistro.   

Truth is, though, Jack lost his appetite many months ago, and by the time Jack was in Hospice care, he was eating only a few bites each day.  But if he felt up to going to the dining room or bistro, he enjoyed meeting friends there.

It was my deep honor to be able to spend some time alone with Jack, as it turned out, the day before he died.  He couldn't talk, and mostly he slept, but when he opened his eyes, he gave me the gift of looking at me, and letting me know he knew who I was.  His hand squeezing mine as he drifted back to sleep was another precious gift. When Greg came in a little later, he woke up again, and it was clear he knew who Greg was too. 

It was my plan with Jack's daughters that I would also spend some time on Thursday with Jack.  I was honored to be asked.  I was looking forward to spending more time with him, when I got the text close to midnight Wednesday night that Jack had passed.

Just like that.  It was over.  No more visits.  No more Jack jokes.  For Jack, no more missing Ruth, no more breathing struggles. No more lonely hours.  As many people as there are who loved Jack, and even with daughters deeply devoted to caring for their father, there were undoubtedly many lonely hours missing Ruth.

Everything about my relationship and friendship with Ruth and then Jack feels like a gift. I feel changed by those two people.  And I am so grateful for it.

My faith instructs me that we will meet again someday, and I am looking forward to it.  Today, there is a hole in the shape of these two beautiful friends that I navigate around as I do everyday things. I'm waiting for the disappointed feelings to fade as I pass the corner where I would turn to enter their retirement neighborhood to visit. 

So many life lessons, I expect, are yet to be discovered because of viewing life now through the prism of Jack and Ruth's influence.  

I think it's fair to say, Jack and Ruth lived their lives generously, humble and true to their Christian faith, never imagining how deeply they were leaving their mark on this earth and in many hearts. 

Goodbye for now, friends.  Until we "meet again on that beautiful shore".