Compassionate Friends Craft (Update)

Last night, our Compassionate Friends group finally met for our monthly meeting. We had to reschedule to this week from last due to a horrible blizzard last week. I want to start out by saying the craft went wonderfully. I was quite nervous about it because I wasn't sure how much instruction people expected and I didn't have a formal presentation or any sort of moving story to complement the craft. But I think it was meant to be. Allowing for an open interpretation of what the craft meant to the individual was met with enthusiasm.

Typically our group meets in a conference room at a church. But the December meeting includes more of an open social hour in addition to the regular meeting, so we met in the basement of the church. We pulled together several round tables and went about our regular meeting format. Then we broke into the plethora of treats, coffee, and juice. And we crafted our felt ornaments.

My craft partner and I chose an empty round table to circularly display about ten different felt colors, thirty different embroidery floss colors, eight different ribbon colors, many needles, many scissors, and about a dozen templates. I gave a brief introduction about how each person can add their own symbolism to her craft by choosing a template, felt colors, and thread colors that are individually meaningful versus trying to create something just like the examples we provided.

The variety of ornaments was outstanding. One couple created an ice skate ornament because their happy memories include watching their son play hockey. One dad created his own dog template because weeks before his twenty something daughter died of adrenal cancer, she acquired her dream dog -- a huge Newfoundland, which the parents inherited. No ornament looked exactly like any other, even if the same template was used. Each one was uniquely beautiful.

When my craft partner gave me credit for the felt ornament idea, I smiled and said, "Well, sort of. A lot of friends helped me out." I felt as if each one of you was in the room, contributing to the beauty piece by piece. Thank you.