The Journey of the Traveling Bracelets....

Here it is June already and I haven't even posted about a wonderful project with a group of great and talented women I'm doing this year.  Our friend, Lorie Garver, organized two groups of 12 for two round robin bracelet exchanges.  Starting January 1st of this year, we each made a bracelet with one charm and a little booklet telling a little about our theme for our bracelet and pages for each person to write a little something about the charm they are making to add to our bracelets.  On the 1st of each month we mail to the next person on our list of 12 people. We have the month to make a charm according to the theme of the bracelet and to jot down our thoughts in the accompanying booklet.  The books and bracelets were pretty cool to begin with but now that we are half way through, they are really taking shape and developing quite a bit of personality!

I just mailed off Shirley Hall's bracelet to the next on the list and thought I would share some photos with you.  Shirley's theme was sewing....remembering her mother's love and talent for sewing.  It's been so fun being able to add our own memories to the bracelets.  When Shirley wrote about her Mom and sewing, I immediately thought of the times watching my grandmother work away on her Singer treadle sewing machine when I was a kid. She could really make that thing sing! And what wonderful creations she would put together! We lived in California and she lived in Michigan but for a few weeks every other summer I got to spend time at their little cottage at Lake Odessa, MI.  I loved walking to town to go to the Woolworth's to pick out some fabric for matching dresses she would make for myself and my cousins that would be visiting.  We'd even get to sit at the Soda Fountain counter and have a coke...or maybe even a root beer float for a special treat!

Here's Shirley's bracelet and book -- almost half way done since we are going on month 6 :)

Isn't it cool?!  The inside pages are pretty special too with lots of buttons, lace, and goodies sewn in....

and here is my page and charm....

My charm started with a metal bobbin from my Mom's old Singer -- do they even have metal bobbins anymore?  Since Shirley wanted her bracelet to be mostly antique copper or gold, I added some old gold toned buttons from my grandmother's button box, a tiny gold pair of scissors charm, a 'made with love' copper heart, and a few jump rings with glass beads for some sparkle. I really like the way it turned out and how it looks on Shirley's bracelet.  Hope she does too!