Memories

Every Christmas for the last six years, my mom and sister and I have created an ornament to give to everyone at our family Christmas gathering. I have just over 30 aunts, uncles and cousins on that side of the family alone! In past years, we have done ornaments with bells, old family Christmas photos from the 50’s, snowflake cutouts, etc. This year, my mom outdid herself.

My grandparents are no longer alive. Around the time of my grandfather’s death, my mom and her siblings were sorting through the house and dividing up family treasures. My mom came home with several old quilts, all made by her mother or her grandmother. One of them was in poor condition in several spots. This year, my mom decided to cut out the spots that were in good condition into 35 Christmas tree shapes and create ornaments. This way, everyone gets a piece of this quilt and it gets a whole new lease on life.

To top the tree off, she used a button from my grandmother’s botton box. They are all so unique! My sister nabbed the one pictured above for Eleanor’s ornament- its sparkles are hard to see in the photo, but it is extra special.

Each year, we attach a laminated tag to the ornament with the year, “________ Family Christmas”, and a word. We have used ‘believe’, ‘hope’, ‘wish’, etc. This year? “Memories.”

These ornaments are so special. It was wonderful seeing the look on their faces as they opened the gift and realized what the ornament was this year. I look forward to pulling this one out of the box for years to come!

Do you have a similar tradition?

Name Badge Album

A family friend made one of these for me as part of a baby gift. When I realized how she’d made it, I thought, “Genius!” You can make one yourself, just use clear name badge holders (either horizontal or vertical) and some thin ribbon. Mine has seven badges. She even put little pieces of scrapbook paper in them as a background.

E is for Emily

[We are going to pretend that my hiatus from writing new posts was not that long, ok?]

Some friends of ours had a baby girl two weeks ago and the quilt I made for her had a little something extra…

This was my first attempt at appliquéing anything on a quilt. I first ironed on some fusible interfacing on the back of the green fabric, and then drew a mirror imaged ‘e’ on the wrong side. I pinned it down (interfacing wasn’t double sided- must stock up!) and sewed oh so slowly around it with a tight zigzag stitch. I think I plan to do this for all future baby quilts! The fabric and pattern is identical to a previously posted quilt, only the quilting was different. It’s the Plain Spoken pattern from the Modern Quilt Workshop book.

(I love the bright pink binding against the green fabric on the back!) 

 A few people asked how I did the Uppercase Living on canvas…. I am certainly not an expert; I just had some beginners luck! I chose to paint the canvas because I wanted something other than white as the background. I coated it with two thin coats of paint, allowing plenty of time in between to dry. Then I placed the expression on and rubbed away. Since the canvas was “hollow” underneath, I had to stack some large books under so I had a solid surface to press against. I found that old high school yearbooks worked well for me. That’s pretty much it. If something’s not clear, just ask.

Glitter Love

 

We’ve had enough days in a row that require jeans and long sleeves that I am officially declaring it “fall weather time.” Yahoo! Two quick and easy fall decor crafts were on my to do list. One was an Uppercase Living expression and the other was a Martha inspired glittered pumpkins project.

The expressions are meant for your walls and we have a couple in our home already. I wanted to be able to re-use this one so I placed it on a painted canvas- very simple. The “GIVE” is chocolate brown and the “Thanks” is a shiny copper. Uppercase Living expressions are great because they are inexpensive and the vinyl peels right off without leaving a sticky residue behind.

The Martha Stewart brand glitter is just awesome. I used her glittering glue to cover three fake pumpkins and the results were even better than I had imagined. The photo doesn’t show how sparkly they are and how nice the color is. One of our favorite comedians, Demetri Martin, has a joke saying that “glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.” So true! It just doesn’t go away.

Peanut Boil

 

My first major in college was photography. Eventually I landed in the education program, where I belonged, but for a short time I planned to become a professional photographer. I still find many uses for my photo urges- in fact, I am taking the pictures at my uncle’s wedding this December. The photo above is of my husband and was taken last Septemeber at the annual Peanut Boil. It is one of my favorites. My husband’s grandparents have hosted the Peanut Boil for 22ish years (no one is really certain of the first year!). His grandfather is from Louisiana where peanut boils were common.

Naturally, wikipedia has the best summary: “Boiling peanuts has been a folk cultural practice in the south of the US since the 19th century, where they were originally called goober peas. In late August, when the peanut crops would come in, unsold and surplus peanuts would be prepared in a boiling, and extended families and neighbors would gather to share conversation and food. Like a fish fry, peanut boils have been organizing principles for social gatherings.”

When my husband’s grandfather relocated to Missouri, he brought the peanut boil concept with him. Each year on the third Saturday in September 50 to 75 friends and family members gather. Their backyard is what I call the quintessential American backyard- complete with tree house, authentic tire swing, fire pit and assorted metal lawn chairs. No other food is served- just boiled peanuts and beer. Several people end up sitting on hay bales and playing music on guitars, banjos and keyboards. It is a fantastic tradition that I was happy to marry in to.

Tonight promises to be another great one! The weather is chilly and calls for jeans and a jacket, making me very excited for full fledged crisp fall evenings.

In Craft Land, I whipped up this little number last night. We are having dinner with my cousin and her husband in two weeks. They have a little girl whom we adore. She has a starring role in another of my favorite photos, taken about a year and a half ago at a wedding reception.

I wanted to bring a little something along for her, but couldn’t decide. Lucky for me, Kathy’s post earlier this week gave me some direction. I’ve been on a bit of a Pink Chalk streak between the pencil roll and the Note Taker, huh?

My cousin’s daughter is not quite ready for colored pencils, but she does do washable markers. I took a walk down fabric memory lane picking out the different colors. What’s great is that when she is ready for colored pencils, they need only swap the markers out! I am pretty much in love with the orange dot (Amy Butler) and red ribbon combo. (However, the anal retentive part of me is annoyed that Crayola decided to make four of the markers scented and, therefore change the marker body to black. Talk about throwing off my system!)

Does anyone else suffer from the “I really should go to bed, but I wonder what the next step will look like” sickness that gets me when I am working on something new? Good. Glad it’s not just me.

Up next for me in Craft Land is finishing my patterns for charm squares. More on that later!

“We Cause Scenes”

New and fascinating websites are quite enjoyable. With that in mind, I’d like to direct you to an old favorite… 

Every once in awhile I like to check in on the shenanigans over at Improv Everywhere. If you’ve not heard of this NYC group, make your way over there. Right. Now. You may have heard of their “No Pants” stunts before. On a day in January, Agents (an army of volunteers) get on the subway not wearing any pants. Of course, regular riders are perplexed and giggle. Then at some point later in the ride, a person gets on and, you guessed it, is selling pants. That stunt has happened yearly, like the Mp3 experiments. However, my all time favorites are the “Best Buy” and the “Look Up More” missions. There are videos and photos and you get a well-written play by play.

One recent mission involved red headed Agents protesting at a Wendy’s. Why? Read, find out and enjoy.