Light shining in the darkness

It has been an emotional week for anyone close to Coffee and her family. A Crafty Coffee was no different and there was a definite sense of a community pulling together in crisis this morning.

The group has taken to spreading over five tables or so now, there really are quite a number of us when we get going. I saw a beautiful quilt being unpicked in order to help it's creator to have the confidence to pick it back up and work on it again. PW was in charge of that tutorial. In terms of other work, I was aware of some knitting and crocheting, but more than that ... CONVERSATION.

People were obviously keen to find out how the Reynolds' were bearing up after the news of W's illness, but they are also keen to help. KB brought along some home made cards as Coffee had requested that I bring in some thank you cards for her (people have already been incredibly generous). There was a buzz about what we could do for the boys, what we should craft. IW has taken it all in hand, we are going to knit/crochet a surprise for both of the boys. All at ACC seem keen to contribute and I think it will be something really special.

As you all know, we had to postpone the Crafty Day owing to the Race for Life. It seems more than just coincidence that I ran the race (in 29 minutes) and had a text shortly after crossing the finishing line to tell me that W had been admitted to hospital for tests. By the evening, Coffee and sent another message to say that they had a leukaemia diagnosis. The Race for Life is an emotional event with many people running in support of ..., in memory of ..., or in celebration of ... It became even more significant upon hearing this news.

A Crafty Day WILL still happen, we are obviously going to have to shelve the idea until September at the earliest but if any of you would like to help 'make it happen' please come forward. I am DREADFUL at organising but BRILLIANT at having ideas and at doing as I am told.

I will attempt to keep the blog updated over the coming months in Coffee's absence. I hope you will all find it useful and will maybe start to add your comments?

xxx

It's been too long!

It has been far too long since one of us made the time to post a blog. Sorry for that.

I imagine that most of you will know by now that Coffee (Emma)'s eldest son was diagnosed with leukaemia on Sunday (11th July) and that they have a virtually solid six months of hospital encampment ahead of them. The entire family are very receptive to prayer and are graciously accepting help where it is appropriate.

As for us at A Crafty Coffee ... where do we fit in? Well, since we have really begun to gel as a community, let's look out for Sue and Sheena (the Mums) particularly.
There are some suggestions floating around of what we could craft for the boys, something matching, something completely machine washable etc. Hopefully this morning we will make a final decision on this and get cracking.

A Crafty Coffee will continue to meet throughout the summer, we anticipate depleted numbers from week to week as people take family holidays but also, some increase as people bring their little crafters to participate.

I am sorry for the reflective and solemn nature of this post.
I am sure I am not the only one who is 100% thankful that we have such a loving community here at ACC that we can all support each other through this and other tricky times.

Love Crafty x
(and Coffee of course)