Advent – “Stir-up Sunday” and an unusual project finished.

There was a slight stirring through the morning congregation last Sunday as the minister (my husband) read out the Collect of the Day.

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Those of us “of a certain age” remembered (as did Scott) that Stir-up Sunday was the day all good housewives used to make their Christmas puddings – before lack of time and the heat of an Australian summer made it more of a chore than a seasonal delight.

Traditionally every member of the family took a turn at stirring the pudding mixture, from East to West symbolising the journey of the Wise Men, and made a wish. Being a month before Christmas, the pudding made on Stir-up Sunday had plenty of time to develop its full flavour.

That Collect also reminded me that this Sunday, being the first Sunday in Advent, the frontal on the Holy Table would be changed to a purple one, and I needed to have an important stitching project completed - the transfer of a heavy goldwork cross from an older frontal to our brand new one.

  The exquisite workmanship in this cross was far too valuable to simply discard, even though the background brocade had worn too thin to be used.

So I first carefully cut around the 60cm (2 ft) high cross to lift it off, taking care to keep the goldwork intact. Then I tacked the heavy piece to the new frontal before hand appliqueeing it on.

It was extremely difficult to needleturn the brocade in the angles between these golden rays, but fortunately the new frontal is almost the same beautiful rich shade of purple as the original, and I’m counting on it hiding a multitude of sins!