Five years ago I received a very interesting gift – hundreds of skeins of embroidery floss! To read all about it click here!
In trying to figure out what to do with it all, I came up with the idea of having a challenge. To read all about that click here!
The response was great. Would you like to see the results? Then please click here ?!
It was great fun, but after all was said and done – I still had a lot of floss left. So what to do? I decided to contact some of the missionaries my church supports to see if they could use it as an outreach. Three of them responded and floss was delivered to Mexico, Sweden, and Estonia. Melissa in Sweden used it to make friendship bracelets with the young girls she was befriending. I didn’t hear back from the others – until now.
Denise, her husband Matt and their daughter Olivia are missionaries in Tallinn, Estonia,
Tallinn was my favorite stop on our Baltic cruise years ago, but I didn’t connect with Denise at that time. Recently she sent me this email:
“About five years ago you sent me a wonderful gift bag of embroidery floss. It has taken me awhile to do anything with it, although I have longed to ever since receiving it! One of our neighborhood girls is wild about quilling (not quilting), which we often do together at my kitchen table, but I haven’t met anyone with the patience to embroider or quilt. That was a big reason I didn’t pursue it. It never sat well with me that such a gift go unused, however, and this fall I decided Olivia and I would do something together, since she just turned 13. We have spent countless hours learning and doing it, and I have to say I wish I had begun earlier! Each hour we spend together engaged in creative handiwork and conversation is time spent for the glory of God. It has brought both of us much joy, and much closer to each other.
Anyways, I am attaching photos of two recent projects. Olivia embroidered a wreath of flowers around her new backpack logo, and I cross stitched a gift for her to bring to the missionaries in Spain, who host a teen retreat for MKs at a farmhouse they own on a mountain in the Basque region. Now that I’ve begun I can’t stop! I have a cross-stitch project of Psalm 23 that I begun 20 years ago in memory of my grandmother, and have finally picked it back up again to finish. It all sits in a basket that I cart around the house, ready to dive into when I have a spare moment or just want to keep my hands and mind busy.
I just wanted to thank you again for the blessing you shared with us. It is like Christmas all over again! Praying the Lord will continue to bless your craft, your family, and your own ministry.”
What a joy to receive her letter and the photos! I wrote back to thank her for remembering me and asked if I could share this with you on my blog. She was delighted.
I then sent her a link to the blog and she responded:
“Enjoyed the blog, and some of the trip descriptions. They sound AMAZING. Germany will be wonderful. We love going there. And my daughter is teaching herself Japanese, so Tokyo is very much a place she is planning to go someday. At least go knowing thank you and hello: arigato (thank you); kinichiwa (hello), LOL. Although I’m sure you’ll get by.”
Olivia is teaching herself Japanese – Wow! At least I know 2 essential words now.
Thank you Denise, for allowing me to share this fun follow up to my Floss Frenzy adventure!
Happy New Year all!
Juleen Jaeger says
It’s wonderful that the time was right for Denise to bring out the floss. What a wonderful and heartwarming story. Happy New Year to all!
Chris Petersen says
Lovely gift. I’m a member of the Crazy Quilters and I also chair the bear program at Angels Grace We use floss to finish the bears so if you still have some that need a home I would be happy to give them a good home. My email is