Step One? Dress the part.

Since our church is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, a number of activities have been planned. Two were the art exhibit and photography contest that I wrote about the other day. Another was a pioneer-themed vacation bible school had a couple of weeks ago. That was a BIG hit! My three-yr-old loved it! The battle cry for each morning was “Are you ready to pioneer up?” All the kids would scream back, “YES!”

Our pastors as the Cartwrights

It’s especially fitting since our church is a timber frame Amish-built barn…

So, the next celebratory event is the upcoming “Pioneer Day”, featuring a barbeque on the grounds and lots of pioneer-related crafts and activities. Our church offers this as a field trip to local schoolchildren. It’s a big hit each year and now the members get to experience it. The members have been asked to dress the part.

That is what prompted my most recent project: BONNETS!

Bonnet # 1 nearly complete!

This is the first sewing pattern that I’ve tackled by myself. Usually, my mom is my on-site supervisor whenever I break out the sewing machine. But, that’s a bit inconvenient since we live a thousand miles apart! So, I’ve been challenging myself to sew unsupervised, except my cat doesn’t have as much faith and insists on inspecting my progress!

Bergen, my crafting kitty

The bonnet has turned out well for my first completely independent sewing project. Now, it’s on to bonnet number two for my daughter…