Memories of Israel

When my time in Israel is finished, I hope to have many special things by which to remember it. Those things will vary, being memories such as pictures, friendships, great restaurants, and beach walks with friends or being more concrete items such as Roman glass jewelry, Jerusalem pottery, Middle Eastern scarves and decor, Japanese cranes ... what? Japanese cranes? How does that fit in with Israel?

One of the ladies in the embassy, Kristi, loves to quilt and has been a part of a quilting group for the four years that she has lived here. Looking for volunteers to join her on a block quilt project, she asked if I was interested and I signed up. Kristi, another embassy lady named Carol, and I picked out our five fabric designs and got to work. Using paper piecing, we each made three sets of our crane blocks, each set containing our five chosen patterns. These done, we got together and exchanged sets, keeping one for ourselves and giving away the other two. We all ended up with 15 different cranes, our five original ones and then five from the other two ladies. As exciting as it was to see the finished blocks, it was even more exciting to sew on the borders and piece them together with the border for the finished front.