Baptismal Towels

 My dear friend Melissa is making plans to baptize her daughter and I volunteered to make the baptismal towel.  My mother made up this pattern for the towel and the embroidery motif.  She used to make all the baptismal towels for our church and when I was in Jr. and Sr. high school, I made them as part of my community involvement for 4-H and NHS. 

 I hadn't done hardanger in a coon's age and I can tell my eyes are changing!  Holy cow!  Hardanger is not difficult, but you need to be able to SEE where you are stitching!  My mother has all but retired from hardanger (she does beautiful work) due to eyesight and gave me a banker's box full of hardanger fabric.  I've made a couple of these and am listing them in my Etsy shop.

And I don't think I've formally introduced you...this is Zak.  He is my brother's 3 legged beagle we are fostering for a year or so until they build a house and get out of their townhouse in Duluth.  He is a sweet dog and we've all made the transition from 1 dog to 2 fairly well.  Fortunately, we are kind of halfway between Duluth and the rest of the family so he sees his old family quite a lot.  Here he is watching them drive away out of the front dog window.  Unlike Lopi, who would just try to lick and play with an intruder, Zak is a watch dog.  Any unusual sound or people walking on the sidewalk across the street or activity outside and he is loudly baying.  He keeps a close eye on things which is nice when you're home alone.