a Whirlwind of activity

I had three days off last week & I used them to get ready for our church's Covenanting Ceremony on Sunday evening for our new minister.  (She is already installed part time at another church in the Portland area, so the District would not let us "Install" her as our minister).

So we called it a Covenanting Ceremony.  Well, six of one, half dozen of the other -

But the Saturday before that I had a Spinner Guild meeting to go to.  I had 12 skeins of yarn that needed to be wound into balls, so instead of taking my wheel, I took my umbrella swift  and my  Yarn Ball Winder and my big basket FULL of skeins of yarn.


 




It literally took me the whole three hours to get them all done.

Then when I got home, I had lots of snoopervision getting everything out of the trunk.

We have to really watch Bella - as you can see from the picture above, she disappears into the darkness.  

But she is VERY good at snoopervision - everything that comes out of the car has to have the official BSOA - The Bella Stamp Of Approval! 

Anyhow - getting back to last week and my three days off - I was in charge of putting together the program for Sunday night (from our Minister's Order of Service) and I was also making a new "pew card" Order of Service for regular Sunday services.  Then there was the matter of the "congregational gift" - traditionally a cleric's stole

- which I figured - How hard could it be? 

(Famous last words...)  I had a pattern from our choir stoles - - then we decided to make it in velveteen -

Oh, My - measure three times before you cut once - I was so nervous - (when I told the lady at Joanne's Fabrics that I had the project because I had a sewing machine - she said that she would think about getting rid of that sewing machine... ha ha ---) 

We arranged with a local embroidery company to make the chalice patch (bottom right hand corner of the picture) & I set out to put it together.  The patch had to be hand sewn onto the velveteen, which took longer than I though it would, and if I were to do it again, I realized that I should have put some interfacing on the back - because it lacked - ah, - substance, I guess - but as you can see, Rev. Marcia was very happy with it, and as I told her, if she got nervous, she could just stroke it, kind of like a little kid's 'softie'

Saturday, I also made a couple of things for the reception - Sorry I didn't take pictures of them  - but I made some home-made cheese crackers (yum - and easy, I will make these again) and a cream cheese torte  - (my recipe is easy - you basically whip together 1# of room temp. butter & 1# of light cream cheese.  Line a bowl with plastic wrap or cheese cloth (so you can plate it for serving) then I layer it up with what ever I have - this time I made an olive salad with feta cheese for top & bottom layer and smoked salmon for the middle, but I have used pesto, roasted red peppers and artichokes, any number of yummy things.    Let it chill for a couple of hours to set, but it's best served at room temperature) Serve it with crostini bread or crackers - Left overs are very good on pasta too...

All that said - our Sunday was busy (because we had church in the morning too) and ran late into the evening for the ceremony and reception.  Luckily I had planned for Monday off as well because I was one tired puppy and there was still last week's laundry to do!!. 

So, I'm back - I have some new yarn and some crocheted "finished objects" to show you - and a story about "Bella, the hood ornament" and all the new sleeping spots around the house. 

Later -

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