I love it when the physical things in my life have meaning embedded in them. Several months ago I started thinking about how I wanted the covers of my notebooking binders to have a significant meaning to me because they have become priceless treasures and I wanted the binder itself to reflect that (this probably isn’t important to everyone but it is to me).
I looked online for various options to purchase but just couldn’t ever find anything that felt like the right fit.
I finally bought some linen fabric because linen connects me to my great great grandmother whom I feel close to. She grew flax and made it into linen. She then used that linen to sew and embroider aprons which she sold in order to keep her family together during a very difficult time. Without that, her children would have had to become servants in other households in order to survive.
So now I had the fabric and I started to make a couple binder covers. I was going to keep them plain but it just didn’t feel complete. I put them in my closet and just continued to sit on the idea. Eventually I went back to the drawing board and tried to find some good ready-made options online again. But nothing.
I finally settled on wanting some flowers on the cover because I love that anthology (in Greek) means a gathering of flowers. All of the flower ideas didn’t seem to feel like the right thing though so I just kept waiting.
Then a few days ago, as I was looking for something else entirely, I ran across the idea of flower hammering. I had never heard of it before but I knew instantly that this was it! I would use the literal flowers from my own garden and transfer the flowers onto the linen fabric. I have mentioned this in previous posts but my garden is very special to me. It has been a place of healing for me so being able to use my actual flowers on my binder covers feels so special.
So with all of that, yesterday I made my first cover. After washing the fabric, and pre-mordanting it with alum, I used marigolds and cosmos from my garden and transferred the dye and shape using the flower hammering technique. I used this video tutorial.
I also decided to finish off the circle of the wreath with some embroidery. I wrote out the word florilegium in cursive and then embroidered over it. Florilegium also means a gathering of flowers, but in Latin.
I am really happy with how it turned out.
When I finish the second cover, which will be similar, but also different, I will share it too.
I shared about this on the Mothers of Influence group and I really appreciated my friend McKenzie’s comment about it. She said “…it turned out beautiful! I also love that you put personal meaning into it. I’m sure that’s what God did too when He made us and this Earth”
When I read her words, they really struck me. I really love the way that she worded that about God putting personal meaning into us and the Earth. I had never considered it in that way before and I love that thought! Her words, combined with Patti Rokus’s words from a video that I recently watched really stood out to me. I loved when Patti said “The rock art is a new hobby for me but I didn’t always feel like an artist. You also have gifts and talents inside of you that have not yet been discovered. I’m excited for you to discover all of who you really are. It’s a journey of a lifetime to come to realize all that God has given you and to find out that you are so incredible that God doesn’t want to live without you. Every one of you.” I have always known that God wants me to return to live with Him because He loves me. But I hadn’t ever thought of it quite in this way before… I am so incredible that God doesn’t want to live without me (and that applies individually to every one else as well). My Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother embedded personal meaning into me and each and every one of their children and creations. McKenzie and Patti painted a beautiful picture for me with their words and have given me a lot to feel awe and wonder about.
Perhaps when my Heavenly Parents created me, They wanted to embed in me their love for lambs so they inspired my parents to name me Shelly. They knew that in my 30s I would finally discover the meaning of my name and They would be so excited to watch that whole story unfold for me.
Perhaps my love of details, of family history, of gardens, and of making connections were all embedded in my soul by my Heavenly Parents when They created me. Perhaps They love these things as well and wanted me to reflect those passions of Theirs.
