Manger

It is amazing how an insignificant thing like a manger, a feeding-trough for animals, can have such important meaning. Luke mentions the manger three times and this is the most known: “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

From the day of His birth, Jesus was destined to die on our behalf. To accomplish his work as Savior, Jesus offered his body and blood as a sacrifice for us and by accepting that sacrifice we find salvation.
In the words of our Post Communion Prayer:
“Eternal God, Heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. ...”
Thus, it is fitting that the Savior, at the start of his life, would be placed in a feeding-trough as a sign not only of who He is, but of how He will fulfill His purpose and effect our salvation.


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Krippe

Es ist erstaunlich, wie eine unbedeutende Sache wie eine Krippe, eine Futtertrog für die Tiere, kann so eine wichtige Bedeutung haben. Lukas erwähnt der Krippe drei Mal, und dies ist die bekannteste: ". Und sie gebar ihren ersten Sohn und wickelte ihn in Windeln und legte ihn in eine Krippe, denn sie hatten sonst keinen Platz für sie in der Herberge" ( Lukas 2:7)Vom Tag seiner Geburt, Jesus war dazu bestimmt für uns zu sterben. Um seine Aufgabe als Erlöser zu erreichen, bot Jesus seinen Leib und sein Blut als Opfer für uns und durch die Annahme dieses Opfers finden wir Erlösung.In den Worten unseren Abendmahlgebetes: "Ewiger Gott, Vater im Himmel, du hast uns gnädig als lebendige Glieder deines Sohnes unseres Erlösers Jesus Christus angenommen, und hast uns geistige Nahrung im Sakrament seines Leibes und Blutes zugeführt ... "Somit ist es passend, dass der Heiland am Anfang seines Lebens in einem Futtertrog plaziert wurde als ein Zeichen nicht nur dafür wer Er war aber auch wie er seinen Zweck erfüllen und unser Heil bewirken wird. 

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Hope to have the pattern written in a few days. I need daylight for the pictures to be good. 

updated 12/27/2015:
And here is the PDF "Manger" for you to download.

Please do not sell the patterns of the ornaments. If you give them as gifts, please always include the explanation of the symbol.

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I am also a lacemaker and am working on what I have dreamed about for quite some time:

the Chrismons in Lace Series.

This is a design by Brigitte Bellon. She is incredible generous and allowed me to share her pattern here with you for your own personal use PDF “ Manger “

Here is my finished lace for my Advent calendar:

The Making of the Cross-Stitch Chrismon Adventcalendar

My sister-in-law Jane has stitched the most beautiful things in the 40 years I am married to her brother ... but not lately. When I asked her about it (with a certain thought in my mind) she told me that she only likes to do it with a purpose, not just for the sake of stitching. No need to hang anything on her walls any more. I asked her whether she would stitch something for me.
James is one of five and the siblings had arranged to meet in Windsor England (their hometown) in January 2015. I assembled a "kit" and sent it with him. I had cut the little AIDA squares and it only needs three different DMC colors. I had found 15 different Chrismon patterns in these books:

In May Jane came to visit and it was an opportunity to stitch the rest of the Chrismons.

I designed 9 so there would be the 24 needed for the Adventcalendar. I had to hurry to stay ahead of Jane. I will share my design here later too (have to make nice drawings first).

After Jane's work was done, it was my turn. I borrowed last year's raffle wallhanging from the lucky winner to test the size, discovering that this design would not work.

But I had bought a pattern which I thought would work and went to work.

At that time I was not very familiar with paperpiecing so I cut the pieces ...

... numbered the fabrics I was going to use

... and cut the pieces with the 1/4 inch seam allowances. I used 505 spray basting on the back of the paper pattern so it wouldn't slip on the fabric. It worked really well.

Trying out the size. I think it will work well.

I bought 24 of the little round frames at a craft store. Ladies at an ECW workshop cut out 24 circles from quilting batting the size of the white backs and also the numbers drawn mirror image on the back of the cream fabric prepared with iron-on material.

The green circle got running stitches all around.

This part was easy: green fabric circle good side down, batting, white back, pull tight and knot. Iron on the numbers.
The layering: frame front down, clear plastic circle, stitching face down (cut into a circle by using one of the clear circles for fussy cutting and drawing around it), a circle of batting and the back. Since I made a booklet with the explanations I had to be sure to put the correct number with the Chrismon.
Still laying face down I pressed the back down and dripped super glue all around but carefully and sparingly.

The finished wall quilt. My husband is holding it up.
It can be used year-round without the Chrismons.

Advent calendars are originally a German custom. Ornaments are numbered from 1 to 24 which means you turn # 1 over on the 1st of December (#2 on 2nd of December etc) to reveal (in this case) a Chrismon, a symbol which reminds us of the real meaning of Christmas.

On the back is a pocket with a little booklet explaining each day's symbol.

This is the ECW (Episcopal Church Women) of St Martin's 2015 raffle. For a donation of $5 you get 1 chance to win this treasure (yes, I am very happy with the results) or for $10 you get 3 tickets.
The money raised is for a good cause and ... you could win it. Somebody will go home with it (or gets it mailed) !!! If you would like to have a try, you could mail a check to:
St Martin's Episcopal Church
Attn: Christa
9000 St Martin's Lane
Richmond, VA 23294
I promise I will take care of it and your ticket(s) will be in the box. The drawing is on Sunday November 15.

If you would like to make one for yourselves and have a question, feel free to contact me.

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A Christmas project

You know that one of my passions are Chrismons. At the beginning of this year I started the "Chrismons in Lace series". Here is the first page published in the Heartland Lace Guild newsletter.

Brigitte Bellon liked my idea and was incredibly generous with her patterns. She gave us permission to publish them and is supporting us/me in many ways.

My problem was how best to show-case the Chrismons. And here is what I came up with!

One German tradition is the Advent calendar. I found a picture of this quilted wallhanging on the Internet. No copyright violation because it is a free pattern.

I printed it large and calculated ... the size of the Chrismons ... the size of the squares ... how many squares and half squares needed. I placed dots and numbered them 1to 24.

It took quite a long time to decide how to handle the advent calendar "doors". I will not go into details of the ideas I had contemplated and discarded.

The wallhanging is finally done. I attached faceted crystal beads to hang the circles. They look a little like dew. That way it could be hanging year-round.

I even made a little one for the church bazaar.

Finally all the circles are done and December 1st arrived.

December 1st = The Crown

December 2nd = The Dove of Peace

December 3rd = The Latin Cross

December 4th = The Rooster

December 5th = Star of David

December 6th = Butterfly

December 7th = Descending Dove

December 8th = Wheat

December 9th =
Soooooorry. This is how far I got.

There is one on the pillow and almost done. I also still have several patterns from Brigitte Bellon, so no shortage there. And I have several ideas too. All I need is some time. Don't think it will be completed this year.

I think it is pretty good looking so far anyway.

I can't say it "loud" enough: THANK YOU to Brigitte Bellon in Germany for all the wonderful patterns. She was and is always so generous sharing her patterns. All the above designs are featured in the Heartland Lace Guild newsletter Pillow Talk. And I still have some more. I love her designs in the clear and elegant forms.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Brigitte.

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Alpha & Omega

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)This is mentioned in the bible several more times and has been used as an important Christian symbol for Jesus Christ or God, often combined with other Christian symbols, from early Christianity and even appear in Roman catacombs.

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Alpha and Omega sind der erste und letzte Buchstabe des griechischen Alphabets."Ich bin das Alpha und Omega, der Anfang und das Ende, spricht der Herr, der da ist und der da war und der da kommt, der Allmächtige." (Offenbarung 1:8)Dies wird in der Bibel noch mehrmals erwähnt und wurde als wichtiges christliches Symbol für Jesus Christus oder Gott benutzt, oft zusammen mit anderen christlichen Symbolen, vom frühesten Christentum und ist sogar in den römischen Katakomben zu sehen.

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And here is the PDF "Alpha and Omega" for you to download.

I have also made a VIDEO explaining what I mean with the up-wire and down-wire. Please let me know whether you find this helpful or what I could do different.

Please do not sell the patterns or the ornaments. If you give them as gifts, please always include the explanation of the symbol.

I would love to hear from all who are using my patterns. It would be nice to know that my efforts are not in vain. You find my email address on the pattern if you have any question about it. Happy to help.

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updated 04/23/2015:

I am also a lacemaker and am working on what I have dreamed about for quite some time:

the Chrismons in Lace Series.

This is a design by Brigitte Bellon. She is incredible generous and allowed me to share her pattern here with you for your own personal use PDF “Alpha & Omega"

Here is my finished lace for my Advent calendar:

Posted with Blogsy

Material list and request

I had written the following blog some time ago but never posted it (can't remember why). Well, here it is.
While I have your attention ... if you do use any of my patterns, I so would like to hear from you.  Better yet, I would love it if you would send pictures (of your group, your Christmas tree, your church' Christmas tree) and a little article what you and your group are doing, any suggestions, links to patterns somewhere else, I would be very grateful and would like to put it in a blog!!!

THANK YOU!

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Oh oh, my supply is dangerously low. Time to fill up "my stash". So I updated my Excel-spreadsheet and thought I share it with you since it is done anyway.

First version: ornaments by alphabet

Second version: first the small ones, then the large ones in groups.

I hope you find this helpful. Also, I was made aware that one of the patterns didn't open. I have fixed that. If you ever find a problem or mistake, please let me know. You find my email on every pattern.

Yearly Tradition

Working on the Christmons to give away ... to all the children in the church ... and also for my own personal gift-giving. This year I made 80 of the shell. The shell is especially significant to us this year since it is also the sign of the "Camino". This spring my dear husband James made the pilgrimage from St Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostella walking 500+ miles. He wrote a Blog every day if you are interested. It was an incredible experience for him.



And in July our first grandson William was baptized, also a very meaningful event for us. 

Some lovely ladies in the church strung 56 for me - a big time saving for me.

First Sunday afternoon in December we had a workshop at the church. The Chrismons needed to be wrapped in the acid free green tissue paper. And then we each made a big Chrismon for the church tree. This is the best way to learn if they would like to make the smaller for their gift-giving at home.

When we were done we marched into church and hung the new additions. It's a good feeling for all.

The 2nd Sunday of Advent was "Chrismon Sunday". We had mailed the cards (explained here) about 10 days earlier and had blank ones ready for those who forgot (which is usually more then half ha-ha).
This is how we do it so it is fun but the service stays dignified: Our Rector explains the Chrismon symbol to the children during the children's sermon (I would have liked to take a picture but was't sure I should). Then he says a prayer over the Chrismons and asks The Lord that "...bless we pray these Chrismons and grant that those who look upon them may have their hearts drawn to things which can only be seen by the eye of faith through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN"

Just before the end of the service I slipped out, stood at the exit and gave each child his/her Christian ornament. Since we moved here in 2008 this was the 6th ornament. The children seem to love it.

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