01/10/08

I'm just going to tell you that writing '08 is so hard for me for some reason! Especially right now that we are in the 8,9,10, 11 of the month... geesh. I'll get the hang of it eventually, I guess.

Yesterday was busy with school, meetings, grading papers and church. I didn't have time to post.

Today was quite busy, too, but I was able to get much accomplished. I didn't have to bring any papers home to grade so that was a blessing.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I am teaching my students how to sew two pieces of material together to give them an idea of how long it took people to make a quilt by hand (or anything for that matter!). I am almost done with them, but it has been a bit challenging. The Lord has given me a lot of patience. I am most thankful for that. They are really doing great considering they have never done it before, but I am finding how hard it is to teach someone how to sew something! I have never experienced that before.

I brought in my great grandmother's old quilt that she made with her own two hands, as well as her old irons that used to have to be heated by the fire to "work." I got them from Mom. I never met my great grandmother as she passed away when I was around 5 months old. I have heard lots of stories about her. I remember my great grandfather. He didn't pass away until the early '80's. My great grandmother used scraps of old material from clothing that had worn out, as well as feed sacks, to make this quilt. The students had a new appreciation for how that quilt was made and, even though this quilt does not have a lot of beautiful fabrics in it like we see today, they realize because it was hand-maid with what they had, it made it beautiful. That is something I could never have taught them without them experiencing it. It made my heart glad today.

Since I had them, and I had talked about them with the kids today, I was inspired to photograph them. I have always loved old things, as you all know, but never thought to photograph these. Knowing how much these mean to my family I will cherish them. I spread the quilt out on our old farm table... that came from our farm... and went to snapping photos. I wanted to create a moment in time. Not sure if I accomplished that, but I was happy with some of these. I took a lot of different angles but these are the ones I liked the most. (I'll post the other bird pictures later...) Sorry for there being so many. I truly enjoyed myself with that mini photo shoot this afternoon. You can click on each one to make them larger. I decided to upload them the small size to get them all in the post.

I love to photograph with a lower aperature (which causes the background and certain parts to be more blurry) because I want certain parts to stand out. I am not as big on higher aperatures. I realize some photos need it and I need to work on finding ones that do. However, nothing makes me more happy than to see a part of something "fade" and another part "stand out." You can see that if you click on the pictures.

Tomorrow I begin cross-stitch with my students. That should be interesting. I am ready for it, though, because I know what it involved last year. With this being my second year doing it I have learned some things to hopefully help the kiddos. With 24 students I'll have 24 different cross-stitch moments. I know it will be a blast.

I have to help the kids with their homework and figure out what we're having for supper. OH.. and I must go put those clothes in the wash I meant to do an hour ago!!

Enjoy your evening. Find something that is "old" from your family's history and think about who had it and what it means to your family. Our families leave us a heritage and I pray it is a Godly one. We are leaving a heritage for our children... are WE leaving a Godly heritage to them? That humbles me even now as I type those words...