18 May, 2018

Many Hands

As I prepare quilts for tying this coming Sunday afternoon, for the monthly meeting of our women's service group from church, I am reminded of how we spent our April meeting. We are Lutheran, we are a liturgical church, and following along with the service in the hymnal can take many "markers" to keep one on the correct page. Some people tear little scraps of paper from their bulletins to mark the order of service, hymns and Psalm before worship begins; some fumble to quickly catch up, and some work ahead holding the upcoming page with their finger so that they will be ready. So, last month, as a service project for our own church, we made hymnal markers that would slip down into the binding of the hymnal between the pages and the hymnal's cover. We used grosgrain ribbon in five liturgical colors and went to town. I figured out a way to save money and use up cardstock that I already owned. Cutting the cardstock into strips twice as wide as we needed, we stitched the ribbons, side by side, onto one half of the short end of the bookmark. Then, these bookmarks, were folded, lengthwise, to cover the stitching and ribbon ends and glued together with glue sticks. As you can see, we set up assembly-line style and each person had their own step to perform as the bookmarks moved on down the line. We enjoyed chatting and each others' company as we worked, the time slipped by pleasantly and all too quickly! Many hands, and cheerful hearts, make light work! We are blessed, also, by a local quilt shop, to be allowed workspace to meet when their shop is closed, one of our members is an employee there. Being a tiny mission church, we still do not have space of our own and are exceedingly grateful for the generosity displayed by this small business!
The ends that were to be slipped into the hymnals were cut on a gentle curve to ease in the insertion.
No, we're not cheerleaders; we're showing off the 70 bookmarks that were completed in less than two hours! We had a wonderfully productive afternoon, made all the more fun by our youngest helper!
The next Sunday morning the bookmarks were placed in the hymnals and are being enjoyed by all! This was a simple project that has long-lasting benefits; perhaps the greatest is the joy of working together to accomplish a common goal, developing friendships and involving our youth so that they have ownership in the project too! 
I didn't lose my place even once last week! 
And, I couldn't help but notice that those afore-mentioned bulletins are remaining intact too!😉
Life is Good!

4 comments:

Janet O. said...

Very clever idea, Mrs. G, and it looks like the process of creating them was a wonderful "community" experience! Bravo!!

Tracy said...

The green book! At my old church we used markers like that in the green book. My current church prints the service including the hymns in the bulletin.

45th Parallel Quilter said...

VERY clever idea ... I'm one of those people who is always flipping around and looking at my neighbor's book to see what page we're supposed to be on. Might have to suggest this for our Fellowship group!! Linda

Carol K said...

Your post reminded me of Pastor Tim. "Many hands" was one of his favorite sayings.