Colonels and Generals and Fighter Pilots, Oh My!

Working as a  Kelly Girl in my Newlywed Days living on base at Davis Monthan AFB in Tuscon, Arizona, I was assigned to the newly established DEER Enlistment Program to register all active personnel and their dependents with identification cards.

 Along with a dozen other girls, we sat at classroom desks with our Selectric typewriters and endless forms to be typed without error. Eight hours a day handsome fighter pilots in training waited helplessly in line for one of us to be available.

If they did not have proper documentation, it was our job to leave our desks and enter the secured file department filled with more military men in their handsome uniforms. These were heady days for a 21 year old with her honeymoon wardrobe to be admired.

I most loved about this job the opportunity to work so closely with other secretaries who seemed so glamorous and worldly to me. One had fiery red hair and had been a Las Vegas show girl in the past. One had been an English War Bride. One was a most beautiful Mexican girl who was dangerously flirting with the base Chaplin. I think the overload of cologne in the air affected everyone!

Each day for lunch we were taken by bus to the NCO Club. White linen table cloths, china and silver, it all seemed too good to be true. Salads the order of the day, iced tea with lemon. Conversation always the same.

"I can't believe she's going to go ahead and marry him after what he did to her!" Indignant agreement, "Don't forget he kidnapped her, too!" "Did you hear what the Doctor had to say about it all?" another would add to the conversation. Suspiciously quiet day after day, it was finally asked why I didn't participate in the conversation. I replied, "I'm so sorry but I don't know anyone with such dramatic lives as you all seem to know. I have never known anyone who was murdered or kidnapped."



"Oh, Elizabeth honey. We aren't talking about real people. Don't you know who Luke and Laura are?"

GNOME PARTY !

I have had such fun bringing to life the characters of my Gnome Party.

Crafting for me is the legacy given to me by my mother. What a magical place her studio was for a young girl. Shelves filled with every sort of interesting thing. Drawers to be opened, fingers marveling to sense what the imagination could bring to life.

Nothing was off limits in my mother's studio. Oils taken to paint rocks, background cloths to become doll clothes and hide away places. Brush strokes added after my mother's hand. Never once in my young life did my mother ever speak an unkind word to me.

A quiet girl always alone needed the safety of imagination to create a world for herself. The breath of creativity filling days with joy.

I love my craft room and it's shelves filled with treasures to eye spy. My mother is close to me in this place, and her praise is kind.

GNOME PARTY PATTERNS:

Gnome Penny Rug

 

Traditional Penny Rugs are created from using a penny to draw a first circle followed by consecutively larger circles. Despite the name they are not used as rugs; so don't put your Gnome Penny Rug by your bedside!

Supplies: 3/4yd white felt fabric, 1/8yd red, 1/8yd blue, 1sq. flesh (squares can be used for everything but white) Floss: 5 white, 3 red, 2 blue, 1 black, 1 flesh. Button stitch and whip stitch. Flat scissors and Pinking scissors. Time on your hands!
GNOMES: Cut 15" white circle plain, one pinked. Cut 6 blue triangle bodies and arms, cut 6 hats, PINK 6 beards, cut 6 faces, free cut 6 hands and noses.

GNOMES: Stitch faces, button stitch to Gnome bodies, embroider skirt bottom and hat. Baste arms and Gnomes in correct position.Tack stitch beard in place.BS hat over beard.

MUSHROOMS: Cut 16 red caps, 29 white circles, 16 mushrooms plain, 13 pinked. BS white circles on red cap, red cap on plain mushroom, plain mushroom on pinked mushroom.

BS plain white circle to pinked outer circle. Matching stitches, catch top of mushroom, slide needle underneath red cap, matching stitches tack to next mushroom, slide needle again under red cap to match stitches at top of mushroom to circle again. Repeat this up and down method. Iron when finished.

Please do not pin patterns to Pinterest

Sparrows & Conversation Hearts

The cold of January brings the sparrows to the bird feeder outside my kitchen window. They never come alone!


Ones that can't feather their way in for seed, wait their turn on my railing.

A box of conversation hearts, what could be more sweet?

"Partners In Crime"

Christmas shopping needing to be completed, my mother and her closest friend Mrs. R decided they would combine their efforts with a trip to the Mall.  Mrs. R had a slight "My children are better than your children." attitude. She hesitantly left her son with his Partner in Crime, my brother John as they had been banned from Montgomery Wards for life the previous Christmas. They were only eight!

Not ones to miss an opportunity to eye spy their gifts, the boys hid themselves in the trunk of the car, a screwdriver handy to let themselves out once at the Mall.  It worked like a charm; but the mothers were very slow shoppers, and the boys were bored and hungry. Money for the food court soon gone, the boys returned to the car only to discover their mothers had already left!

With not a dime between them they had no choice but to make a collect call from the payphone in the Mall. "Hi, Mom. Can you come and get us?" "Get you? Where are you??? At the Mall!!!!"

Partners in Crime, brothers at heart, the two boys could not be kept apart.

"Dash-Away All" Penny Rug

  I love holiday baking and thought a penny rug would be the perfect way to capture these memories. Can you see my cookie jar is waiting for my Reindeer Sugar Cookies? He is traced from a cookie cutter I have used for years!



Supplies: 1/2yd white felt, 1/4yd red felt, 1 piece tan felt, 1 piece aqua felt, 2 skeins white floss, 1 skein red, 1 skein aqua, black. Large scissors, small pointed, pinking sheers. Button hole stitch, outline stitch, basting stitches. Print pattern to fit standard copy paper size.

STEP 1. Using circle pattern or 15" plate, trace on back of white felt. Place scallop pieces ABUTTING traced line, trace 19 scallops around circle. Repeat on second half of felt for back piece. Cut out.


STEP 2. Trace rooftops flipping pattern over at fold line. Cut out. With small pointed scissors snip windows and doorways if desired. (Snow on roofs uses pinking sheers, one long piece cut to size)
STEP 3. Using long running stitch, baste rooftops 1/2 inch above scallops allowing room for snowflake circles. Use 2 strands red floss, button hole stitch to attach. (Don't be afraid to gather felt in hand. Turn piece in hand as needed to stitch. Go slow, don't become frustrated!) Snow is attached with tiny single stitches, 1 thread, white)


STEP 4. Following natural curve of rooftops, lightly pencil mark same 1/2" from scallops to create complete circle. Use 3 strands red, outline stitch.


STEP 5. Use one strand white floss, long running stitch to create curve to write "dash-away all" about 1" from red circle edge. Use pencil to write words. Two strands red floss, outline stitch. NOTE: DON'T worry if your letters or spacing aren't perfect. This is why there is a "dash" and little blue snowflakes to "even things out". I call this "CHARM"!!!


STEP 6. Cut 1 tan, 1 white reindeer same size. Slightly trim white reindeer to create icing appearance. Button hole stitch icing to cookie 2 strand white. Apply nose with small tacking stitches, eye can be a bead or black satin stitch. Baste reindeer in place with LONG running stitches 1 strand white floss. SMALL running stitch cookie to background with 1 strand white very close to white felt edge.
STEP 7. Button stitch blue snowflakes where needed to please your eye (or cover any mistakes!) Snowflakes, 2 strands white through all layers.


Step 8. Sew snowflakes on each circle, 3 strands white.
Step 9. Button stitch circles in place, 2 strands aqua. ALMOST DONE!!!
Step 10. Baste finished top to bottom piece matching scallops. Baste together using long running stitches, 2 strands white. Button stitch around all edges, 3 strands white. NOTE:( I also used 2 strands white small running stitches just next to rooftops and red outline of circle to give stability. Optional) Remove all basting stitches. Iron lightly on back of penny rug.

E and Bluebirds

Another heart in the mail! This one is so extra special to me because it is from a most talented and lovey woman, Dee of Lulu at Home. I had a most difficult time opening her beautifully presented bundles.


It is because of Dee as well as Jenny B. of Allsorts that I came to be aware of vintage childrens book illustrations. Both have generously shared their images with all of us. Dee transforms images into the most charming keepsake art that I have ever seen! This button card is calling for a frame and a special place to hang.


Dee hopes to have a blog to share with us in the new year. I hope it will feature her exquisite sewing skills. This heart tells such a sweet story, I just love it!


Dee is also very special to me because, like myself, she became overwhelmed with the social obligations we place upon ourselves in the Flickr community. Worry about not responding to every kind comment, worry about offending others, it all becomes too much. My hope for Dee is that she will find a way to share her remarkable talent with us while finding the right balance for herself. This has been my journey, and I am so thankful to still be here.