That time of year again...

Last year I wrote a post about a fund raising venture of our parish. For a few years now, we have been making palm crosses and sellling them to other parishes and also to some schools. The crosses are a traditional addition to Palm Sunday services ; the Sunday before Easter.
The crosses can't be made too far ahead so we have a short busy time for turning palm branches into strips and then the strips are folded into the little crosses. There are always working bees to get the strips ready but most of us collect strips from the fridge in the church hall and take them home and fold throughout the week.
This is a few hundred that I folded at home...

One Saturday 'Palm working bee' I couldn't make it but last Saturday I was there.

Some of the men had been out early collecting some branches...we use the fronds from the Queens Palm....

Stripping? 😉

The number of helpers swelled as the morning went on...

For the first time I asked how much the parish charges for the crosses...we sell them in bundles of 100 for $45 plus postage and many local customers do come and pick up their order. At the beginning of Lent we had orders for 6000 crosses but after more orders came in it was just over 7000! It has become our best fundraiser 😊.

This year I couldn't Palm this off...

For a few years now, our parish has raised funds by making and selling Palm crosses ready to be handed out on Palm Sunday. ( the last Sunday before Easter) Our 'customers' are churches and church schools and it's a 'nice little earner' for the parish. I have never made a Palm cross previously as there had always been lots of others volunteering to do that.

But this year we had orders for just over 6500 crosses, so more volunteers were required. About 3 weeks before Easter there is a working bee to cut and tear Palm leaves into strips...this is some of the bundle of strips that I received.

Two strips are used to make the traditional cross...

Last Monday after work I sat down with the bag of strips and the directions saved on my iPad.

Well I was hopeless I'm afraid to say and put the strips of palm leaves aside (in the fridge) until the next night. I managed to just make 2 on Tuesday night but they looked a bit bodgy...what was happening? I couldn't follow a simple diagram for goodness sake!!!

It wasn't until my day off on Friday that I finally 'got it'...

So by this morning I had a bundle of crosses to hand in...phew! I was a bit worried there that I would be 'letting down the side' for a while!!! Lol

The organiser has said we now have enough crosses for our customers and our parish, so the job is done.