The Twelve Days of Christmas

I have always loved the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'.... even more so after I read about its actual, historical, origins several years ago. Did you know that it had a very serious purpose when it was first written? Because Catholics were severally punished and often times put to death for practicing or sharing their faith..... privately or publicly... they created this musical allegory to instruct their young people in regards to the great love that God had for them. What a way to witness and carry the message of Christ on to future generations! I may not be a practicing Catholic, but as a christian, I admire their determination to teach the message of the Good News of Jesus to their young and to those who still don't realize just how "good" this news truly is. Here's some of the words to the song along with their original intent:

1. Partridge in a Pear Tree= Jesus Christ, Son of God
2. Turtle Doves= The Old & New Testament
3. French Hens= Faith, Hope & Charity
4. Calling Birds=The Four Gospels, which sing the song of Salvation
5. Gold Rings= The First Five Books of the Old Testament
6. Geese= The Six Days of Creation
7. Swans a-Swimming= The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
8. Maids-Milking= The Eight Beatitudes
9. Ladies Dancing=The Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10. Lords a-Leaping= The Ten Commandments
11. Pipers Piping= The Eleven Faithful Apostles
12. Drummers Drumming= The Twelve Points of the Doctrine in the Apostle's Creed.

Maybe some of you are already familiar with the original meaning and intent of this song, but as I shared above.. I wasn't until several years ago and it has made me enjoy listening to this particular song even more so today than when I was a little girl.

So now... after sharing this information with you, I thought I would share one of the latest projects that I have been working on. I saw a book, written by Fons and Porter entitled, "Best of Fons & Porter Tabletop Quilts". I thought that the picture on the front cover was pretty cute, but I wanted a more elegant table topper for the holidays than what was presented in the book... hence, my version of this table topper is shown below.. notice the Partridge in a Pear Tree:



I used quite a bit of metallic thread in each design and had no problems at all as I used, "The Amazing Thread Guide" that I shared with you in a previous post. (I did not even need to use a metallic needle or slow my machine down!) It worked beautifully!

Here is the book that I was referring to:



More to come in future posts Have a great day!