94 Blossoms for Nonna

My husband’s grandma turned 94 in January. The first generation of her immigrant Italian family to be born in America, she earned her GED at age 75 and has only in the past year or so stopped baking everyone’s favorite knot cookies and rolled pizza. The kids love to visit her, since she always has some treat for them and she’s the only person they know who lives in an apartment.  She’s also very tolerant of their hooliganism. They just love her!

We know, though, that she doesn’t need more “stuff” in her life, so each year we try to send something consumable or photos of the kids for her birthday.  This year, Princess Thundercloud wanted to make something, so we came up with the idea of a garland containing 94 blossoms. She could easily hang it in her living room for her birthday.  When it comes down, it takes up very little space, too, so that’s a plus.

It’s kind of hard to visualize, I know, but a garland of 94 flowers stretches over ten feet…it was a photography challenge!

We spent a very happy afternoon using various punches and dies to cut out all the flowers.  Then I simply sewed them to a piece of ribbon.  We used some 5/8” wide satin to give it a little heft and a little shine.

The hardest part just may have been forcing myself to sew a random selection, rather than an obvious pattern. But I persevered!

When it was finished, we coiled it up inside a small box I had stashed away, then placed it in the mailing box and filled the empty space with colorful shreds.

We had such fun making it, and I sure hope it brought a smile or two to Nonna’s beautiful face!