Sewing; Answers; Memories

Still working on the little 9-patches (finished squares are 3") when the mood strikes me. Using up scraps. I have more finished, but don't know if I'll add them or not . After putting these together, I decided to leave off some of them and may just add a border to complete it as a doll quilt (I mentioned earlier that I wanted to make a few doll quilts after seeing some of the charmers on the doll quilt swap Flickr site).Occasionally, I add something to the bee.

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Two possible answers for the flat needle: Kim thought it might be a bodkin for ribbon and Delta suggested either the bodkin or a naalbinder. Yeah, a naalbinder. Or nalebinder or nalbinder (variety of possible spellings).Unfamiliar with the term, I did a google search and discovered that naalbinding is a craft that pre-dates knitting (most of the references include Scandanavian sources) and is also referred to as knotless knitting. Many naalbinders were of bone or wood and often have either large round, square, or rectangular eyes . Whatever this is, bodkin or naalbinder, it will be used as a bodkin unless I decide to take up naalbinding.

links that explain further : Ask the Bellweather, Fabric Follies Two, SigridKitty, video, PDF tutorial.

Kim found a description of the symbol below on Wickipedia - evidently the cross and crown was appropriated by Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Church of Christ, and Freemasons (the Knights Templar group).

Thanks for the help Kim and Rhonda!
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Spent all afternoon with my brothers sorting through stuff at my parents' house. It is a bitter sweet thing to do -- to sort through all of the items--valuable, cherished, trivial, mundane -- that accumulate over a lifetime.

There were moments of such joy when we discovered things forgotten and things that we never knew existed. He has no memory of them now -- or no way to communicate those frail remaining memories.