From Mother with love

(click on pictures to enlarge)

This year for Christmas my mom made me, my sister, and my sister-in-law each our own quilt wall hanging. In addition to the quilt, we each got a shelf on which to hang our new quilt.

She did such a good job matching not only our personalities but also our houses when she picked our individual designs. She even included the history behind each of our quilts.

(Be sure to click on these to see the hand quilting)

My quilt is a sampler quilt which she hand quilted. I opted to hang it in the kitchen, and I use the shelf to hold some of my favorite things.

I will try to get pictures of the other two quilts. They are just as beautiful as mine.

My sister's quilt has embroidered flowers on white squares with a light green fabric in between. The flowers were patterns printed weekly in the newspaper back in the 1920's. I could be wrong about the date - I didn't get to read her history. But what is really neat is that my great grandmother saved these patterns and had made some of them but was missing a few. My mom did some research, found the missing patterns, and embroidered them all. How cool is that!

My sister-in-law's quilt is more similar to mine but with one design. I believe hers is the bear claw pattern, and it is done in deep, rich, dark colors which will go perfectly with her house. Her quilt was Megan's favorite because she loved the colors.

My mom is amazing and talented. I am convinced she can do anything - seriously, I mean anything.

A few Christmas's ago my mom made my sister and I lap quilts in a crazy quilt pattern from material she had saved through the years. This wasn't just any material though, this was material from clothes she had made us growing up.

I love to sit and look at the fabrics in this quilt. I can remember wearing practically every fabric! Seriously, I wore my clothes and then my sister's hand-me-downs!

My mom was pretty frugal with patterns too. When she got a new pattern she would usually make me two or three versions and my sister two or three versions. Which meant I ultimately wore six versions of the same pattern.

That was fine if you like the style - but that wasn't always the case. What was there to like about the "dog ear" collar phase from the early 70's. I have a school picture in which the collar on my dress is so long it extends past the bottom of the picture!

We were very well-dressed girls in the 70's though, thanks to Mother's sewing. We always had ponchos, handkerchief sleeve shirts, dresses with empire waists, stretch-in-sew short sets, and matching Sunday dresses!

But I digress, I was talking about quilts.

My mom also made me the quilt on our bed, and she made the quilt on Megan's bed. She is working her way through the granddaughters - making them each a quilt. She is on number three out of seven.

Considering my brother and his wife just added two girls in less than three years, she should have opted to make the boys quilts.

There are only three of them!

Throwback

You gotta try it!
Instant flashback to the 70's.
One sip and I was a little girl again with a Dorothy Hamill haircut.
Time travel in a bottle.
Definitely worth the $1.49.

Mr. Varsity

For Christmas this year we got Joel his letter jacket.

Isn't he handsome?

Joel earned his varsity letter last year in basketball and this year in soccer. He will varsity again this year in basketball, so he will get a chevron at the end of the season. His graduation numerals (12) have been ordered and hopefully will be in soon.

His favorite part of his letter jacket though is the round conference patch on the back! TCM had a great soccer team this year, and they proved it by winning their conference.

Joel made honor roll this first semester and has proven to be a valued leader at school. He is on student council, in ensemble, choir and band in addition to being on the soccer team and varsity basketball team.

His most proud achievement though . . .

he made pro bowler status on the Wii!

Santa's Helper

Did your packages arrive on time for Christmas?
Have you hugged a FedEx employee lately?
I have!

New Year - New Blog!

Happy 2010!

Instead of turning over a new leaf, I started a new blog! Farmer's Daughter Cooks



Stop by and sit a spell.

Top 10 Christmas Presents

Leave it to Brian to bring me out of my blogging hiatus! While not being a member of the "boys' toy club" means I wasn't officially "tagged" to participate, reading the Brians' (What My Dad Saw- Yesterville Toy Room)posts on Top 10 Christmas Presents made me do some reminiscing . . . .

#10 Play Kitchen

While this is not exactly what our play kitchen looked like, it is pretty close. I have vivid memories of playing with our kitchen with my sister. The sink really worked! You could put water in a pan below the "sink" and the faucet would somehow magically pump it out - kind of recycling it. What was even more amazing was that Mother would actually LET US put water in the sink! Many hours of my childhood were spent playing "wife and mom." I guess it paid off!

#9 The book Giant Stories



While I don't really remember unwrapping this book at Christmas, I think it was a Christmas present. Even if it wasn't, this book is hands-down one of my all time favorite books. I am pretty sure it was a book my mom ordered from The Weekly Reader. The pictures were awesome and stories were just a little scary. I would love to have this book again!

#8 Fisher Price Dollhouse



My sister and I played with this dollhouse for years. What a classic! Role playing at its best. We bought Megan the 90's version of the Fisher Price dollhouse and she spent hours upon hours playing with hers. This has to be one of the all time best toys Fisher Price ever made.

#7 Sunshine Family Dollhouse


While not the Fisher Price dollhouse, the Sunshine Family dollhouse ranks high with me because it was such a surprise for me. I saw it in the JC Penney catalog and fell in love. I never dreamed that I would actually get it for Christmas! Pure 1970s fashion and theme - the Sunshine Family was the original "green" family and I LOVED them!

#6 Colorform set


I can still smell them! I loved my Colorforms. So much fun and creativity and reuseability! Great toy. Why don't they still smell the same?

#5 Super Jock

While not a real sports fan, I can remember wanting this toy REALLY badly. It was probably 1977 or 1978. My sister and my dad and I played with this toy a lot. It even survived long enough for my little brother to eventually end up playing with it.

#4 My doll Stephanie

While not a huge doll fan, I do still love MY first doll. Purchased, as most of our toys were, from the JC Penney catalog, this doll is big with kind of crazy wild blonde hair and sleepy eyes - you know the kind where her eye lids close when you lay her down. She even cries when you move her back and forth - can anyone say "shaken baby syndrome." lol The crazy thing about Stephanie is her name. I named her Stephanie - why? I don't know. I don't like that name and never have. Sorry to all the Stephanies of the world.

#3 Yellow Housecoat


This was a beautiful yellow robe/housecoat brought back from Florida for me by my mother's parents. I am quite sure that this housecoat singlehandedly started my love affair with bed clothes! It was nothing shy of beautiful and I felt so special when I had it on.

#2 Dusty and Nugget


This is the only toy I really remember asking - no begging for from my parents. I truly thought I would die if I didn't get this toy for Christmas. I am certain that is was the TV commercial than ran during the Brady Bunch that hooked me. Dusty looked amazing and Nugget - well, he looked real. That year my mom ordered a lot of stuff from JC Penney's. Enough stuff that she had a large box full of Christmas presents in their bedroom covered with a quilt. I am more than embarassed to admit that one day while under my older sister's not-so-watchful eye, I sneaked a peak under the quilt. Seeing Dusty and Nugget in the box was too much for my 8 year old self control. I spent the better part of the afternoon playing with them - neatly putting them back in the box before my parents got home. I hope my mother doesn't read my blog.

#1 Emergency MEGO Playset


Considering Emergency was my FAVORITE TV show, this toy was my FAVORITE toy. John Gage and Roy DeSoto were amazing! And while the MEGO company didn't do that great of a job capturing their awesomeness, I played with this set quite a lot. Rampart, This is Squad 51!

Merry Christmas!

Home today!

My girl is coming home today!