Traditions

It's been a rainy, windy weekend and there's no denying that the autumn season is fully upon us.  I finally got to pull out all of my favorite cold weather clothes and was maybe even justified in buying another new jacket (it was on sale).  It's the type of weather that almost gets you thinking about the holidays and making those plans for the family get togethers.  If you're like me, you love the changing weather and the boots and scarves that go along with it.   Of course, there's also things you love that never change.  Those special family traditions that continue on no matter what time of year it is or what the weather is like.

One special tradition that I've recently been introduced to comes from my husband's family.  Whenever one of the kids gets engaged, one of the aunts hosts a family tea or brunch in honor of the bride.  It's mostly family members who attend the bridal shower and prior to the day of the party, everyone contributes a favorite family recipe or two.  This last shower, I was in charge of collecting the recipes and putting together a recipe book for the bride with copies for each of the guests.  I wanted to do something special and, with the help of my husband and sister-in-law, we put together these books using a mix of materials.

The covers to the recipe books were fabric with a craft weight interfacing added for stability.  I then used a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine to create the binding and to hold the pages together.  Finally, I added a little rick rack to hide the seam.  I think it's amazing when you can mix sewing with paper crafts.  I'd love to make some sewn note cards using this idea.