And Sew It Goes...

As far back as I can remember, I have sewn. Probably starting off in grade school, going to my FHA meetings at Opal Bennets house. My first project, a cotton elastic waist skirt. White with black polkadots...I can still picture it. Makes me smile to think about it. Sewing has always been a constant in my life, no matter what else was going on around me. I made my daughter's clothes until till she hit Jr High, of course then it would have been totally embarrassing to wear home made clothes!!! I'm not sure what it is about sewing that I like, I just do. Making clothes, quilts or just goofy crafts, I love it. When I'm sitting there sewing on my fancy computerized machines, I think about my great Grandmother and how her head would spin if she could see the new things to make what was their chore, oh so easy. The tools, the gadgets and the fantastic fabrics they have now. No more feedsack dresses, although those fabrics cost more than new ones now! It all just makes me smile.

Here is my terrific sewing studio. I heart it! I could have cleaned it up better for the photo, but this is the normal state of things....when you're busy, who has time for cleaning. It's a terrific space and thanks to John for letting me redo the whole basement just so i could move to a bigger space. It is greatly loved and used.

Ahhh, the toys!!! This is my computerized Brother Disney Embroidery Machine. It's way smarter than me!!! But i have fun with it anyway.

OK, it's bragging time. My first quilt I ever made was a Red, White & Blue quilt. I made it to fit on the end of our porch for a 4th of July party, thought it would look cool....it did. After that I decided to enter it into the Winnebago County Fair...wholly cow, I not only got first place, I also got Best of Show. Not that there is a lot of competition there, but it was still special to me since it was my first real quilt. It holds a special place in my heart. Here is the BOS ribbon. cool huh?

The quilt is pictured below.

Here are other ribbons from various quilts at the fair.

These are my quirky thimbles and pin cushions. What started out as a "nice" thimbles only collection, got carried away with goofy ones our service guys would bring back for me. So, if you can't beat em', join em'. Now I have thimbles from all over the world, they are all special to me. I also have some in the Motor Home from our travels across the states.

Is there a Chicago Bears fan around here?!?! I thought so! These are things I made for Kerri, and anyone that knows her knows what a true blue fan she is. The first shot is her wallhanging I made for her office. It's enough to make the men fans jealous and was great fun to make.

This is Lucinda Dorinda! She's Kerri's cabbage patch doll from High School, all the girls use to haul them around with them when they were doing flag competitions. At that time she had a Hononegah flag uniform on, but has moved on to the Bears. She's totally cute.

And this is Kerri's newest quilt, hopefully to be done by her birthday in Oct to keep her warm through all the games.

This is one of my favorite wall quilts. It's just cute.

And there is nothing better than passing on the tradition to the little ones. Here's Emily with one of her projects for the school fair. BTW, the tradition seems to skip a generation....odd huh? lol