2005 brought a surprise move! Our church was finally able to buy its own building and it came with a parsonage. Unfortunately the parsonage was in dismal condition, but everyone rallied together and we completely rennovated the home from the floor up.
The girls came home from college at just the right time to be involved in all the fun. Along with a crew of volunteers from the church, the girls spent hours cleaning and painting, fixing and remodeling. DH & I were both working full-time jobs outside the home, the girls, along with some of their friends, packed up [ ... ]
Archive for » 2010 «
Dec 18
2010
2005 brought a surprise move! Our church was finally able to buy its own building and it came with a parsonage. Unfortunately the parsonage was in dismal condition, but everyone rallied together and we completely rennovated the home from the floor up.
The girls came home from college at just the right time to be involved in all the fun. Along with a crew of volunteers from the church, the girls spent hours cleaning and painting, fixing and remodeling. DH & I were both working full-time jobs outside the home, the girls, along with some of their friends, packed up [ ... ]
Dec 17
2010
Our empty nest began this year.
DD#2 won an athletic and achedemic scholarship to Notre Dame College in Cleveland, Ohio. She’s such a hard worker! I decided to make another ornament from the college bookstore, so I got a NDC keychain and ornament and combined it with a message in gold on the back.
DD#1 was becoming more involved in college life and she joined the http://www.sca.org/ group on campus. SCA stands for the Society of Creative Anachronism which basically means this is a group of people who love to play dress up (sound familiar?) and recreate the Middle Ages. I [ ... ]
Dec 16
2010
Yesterday’s commitments were postponed because it was only 3 degrees outside, so I turned on the little space heater in my studio, popped in a movie, and went to work. I had so much fun pulling out hot colors! What a way to warm up. This first quilt top is all the colors I hardly ever use. I love how bright and vivid it is!
For the second top, I put the top colors on top of very dark blues. One thing I learned: If you are going to purposely make wonky stars, don’t just do it a little, do [ ... ]
Category: color
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Dec 16
2010
This year brought more changes.
DD#1 started college. She won a full achedemic scholarship to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio which is only about an hour from home. She lived on campus, so during one of our visits I went over to the bookstore and bought a Miami University Christmas ornament and key chain. I used those as the basis of her ornament that year, along with a written message on the back.
DD#2 started her senior year of high school, so I made a graduation ornamnet using the felted graduation cap, the vellum diploma, and a tassel with the school [ ... ]
Dec 15
2010
Last night my quilt guild had its annual Christmas potluck and fabric gift exchange. This year, each person was supposed to get 1/3 yard of focus fabric and two 1/3 yard cuts of coordinating fabrics. It’s fun to participate in exchanges like this because so often someone else picks out some fabulous fabrics that you might have overlooked. I was thrilled when I got these three hot colors! Yes, I confess, I am always drawn to blue first, but these three fabrics are so fun and vivid that I can’t wait to get started. I told the generous giver that [ ... ]
Category: color
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Dec 15
2010
Two more milestones this year.
DD#2 got her driver’s license this year. Unlike her sister, she couldn’t wait to learn! By now, the car they had been driving the previous year had died, so we got her a used Saturn to drive. Her ornament also includes a copy of the key to the car and a copy of her license.
DD#1 began her senior year of high school. I had been reading about needle-felting and wanted to give it a try. I decided to make a graduation cap out of handmade felt. I actually cheated and made two so I would have [ ... ]
Category: family, holidays
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Dec 14
2010
I really liked how the autumn-colored leaves quilt top turned out, so I decided to make another version of it using summer colors. I used an analogous color scheme again, but just used brighter, high intensity colors. Although the photo doesn’t have the best lighting, it’s interesting to see how to colors interact differently with the three backgrounds.
Category: color
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Dec 14
2010
2001 brought some milestones for us.
DD#1 got her driver’s license. She wasn’t really interested in learning to drive, but since DH & I both worked full-time, we needed someone to drive DD#2 to volleyball practice. DD#1 graciously learned for her sister’s sake. Naturally, I had to make an ornament with her license, copies of the keys for the car she drove, and a little red car. The car she actually drove was no where near this fancy, of course! In fact, the wiindshield wipers would go on every time she used her right turn signal. But, it got [ ... ]
Dec 13
2010
By 2000, both girls were now in high school.
DD#1 is my bookworm and she loved the challenges of school. It was only fitting to make some fully functional, tiny books, about 2″ high. On the spine I wrote her favorite subjects. Two of them were covered with fabric scraps from dresses I had made for her in the past.
DD#2 is determined to be happy, even when she faces more than her share of struggles and trials. During junior high and into high school she was always choosing random things that she would bring to school with her. They would [ ... ]
Dec 12
2010
From the time they were toddlers, my girls have loved to play dress up in fancy dresses. We loved to find old prom dresses at the thrift store or at garage sales for them to play in. One year my friend, who has two daughters about the same ages as mine, and I made big slips with lots of tulle for them all for Christmas. That way their skirts would pouf out even more. We even went to a nearby botannical garden to take pictures of them in their fancy dresses. To commemorate those times, I made these fancy dresses [ ... ]
