A Cotton Cross Stiched Bag

Do you have a little gift from a dear friend which you and children have lovingly  used from time to time for more than 35 years?

I have this little cotton cross stitched bag from a good friend Jenny - the wife of an Iban pastor (who later went on to become the President of the Iban Conference of Sarawak).

Jenny was a role model to me in the early years of my marriage when my family was residing in Sibu. She taught me many things a mother-in-law would. And she was good at sewing...which I was not because I was too busy marking test papers. She was a favourite "aunt" of my children. Once she said the dearest thing to a struggling mother "At least you have bathed them before dinner and they smell so nice!!"




This bag is good for carrying a Bible and Sunday School stuff as well as a bottle of milk.

And we love it even though at times there were stains on the bag. After years of regular washing the bag turned beige and later little white spots appeared.

Recently I washed it again with some new kinds of detergents and it got quite clean. So I am using it whenever I need a smaller bag to hold my reading glasses and as bottle of water as well as two library books.

This bag has served the family well. It can be said that it has served 3 cycles of 12 years of the Chinese Zodiac !!  May be I could even bring it to a new country one day - to hold my small groceries - a small loaf of bread and other small things...

And the bag has been so well made that there is no single tear and not even a stitch out of place!!

Cross stitch is back again in fashion. Vintage is even better!!