A Puppy from my Past

Years ago (no need to get exact with numbers & ages), I learned a little about ceramics by making a ceramic puppy for a Girl Scout fair entry. It was exciting to make something that wasn't out of popcicle sticks or salt dough.

I got to go to the ceramic shop and pick out something, then take it back to the house where my aunt taught me how to clean up the edges and paint the eyes. I even got to learn to a painting technique of dry brushing to accent the brown with white to make it look more like fur.

I don't what or if I placed on it when I entered it in the county fair that year, but I remember it being a chance for me to take on something new and to learn new techniques. It still sits on one of my shelves, initialed and dated on the bottom.

4-H Woodworking

Bulletin Board

Book Shelf

I grew up doing woodworking, I took a cedar chest to state fair, I helped with 4-H State Fair judging, and I taught woodworking basics at camp. It seems the carpenter bloodline showed through. 4-H gave me great opportunities to build things and to learn new woodworking skills. It also let me build things for my room at the time, many of which I still use.

The blue bordered bulletin board was a 4-H woodworking project that I made for my room in elementary school and now use in my Craft/Sewing Room. At any time it can be holding any selection of instructions, patterns, sketches, projected (completed or in process). It was made with my woodcutting advisor in his wood shop, using the same pattern his daughter had used to make one before me.

 The year I made my bookshelf, most of the kids in that project had made a full size bookshelf, but I had a small bedroom and limited space. Instead, my advisor helped me come up with a smaller shelf that could hang from the wall or sit on my head board. (My bed at the time at build in bookshelf as the headboard and the width was perfect to sit this shelf on top of it.) I got to learn about making drawers. The shelf now holds many of cookbooks and herb books, a treasured piece that I use everyday.

The basket was a Club 4-H project on trees. We did all sorts of tree projects and activities; that included tree planting, trips to see the process of apple cider and maple syrup, and creating something from wood - in this case it was making baskets from wood strips.

My Cedar Chest

I learned how to work with wood at a fairly young age. Some of my fondest memories from my childhood were spent with my grandpa in shed he used as a woodshed and later working with him in his garage workshop. He was a perfectionist, better to measure twice and cut once.

As I stood by his side, learning to measure, cut, sand, and build he kept alive a long family tradition of woodworkers and carpenters in his grandchildren. Over the years he helped me with 4-H projects, including the building of my cedar chest in middle school. The rounded top cedar chest that had been carefully laid out and pieced together on his screened in front porch, got an outstanding at my county 4-H judging and was sent to State Fair. The day I went to state fair with it, we invited my grandpa to go with me and my dad, after all the time he had spent helping me build it. It sits in my bedroom and is in constant use.

My grandpa is gone, but I hold the memories of our time together close.

Camp Tales - A Girl & a Drill Press

One of the benefits of working at camp as an Arts& Craft Instructor, was being able to teaching basic woodworking to kids 9-14, a good portion of them never having any previous experience with it. This was especially true with many of the young girls. It was nothing too difficult; hammering (for string art), wood burning, sanding, and the drill press (for wood games using golf tees and wooden squares pre-cut for them). I had safety lines, safety goggles, and strict rules about no one using the drill press without my supervision and wood burners needing my supervision or the supervision of one of my counselors or other staff.

I was exposed to woodworking young through my grandpa and 4-H, debating in Middle School of becoming a Shop Teacher. I took woodworking projects in 4-H and even built a cedar chest that went to State Fair (for another story). I even helped with 4-H woodworking judging at State Fair one year (a great story for another time). I wanted my campers to be safe, but I also wanted them to know that the basics were attainable.

One sunny afternoon, I had the usual mix of boys and girls in the Craft Hall ready to take on the drill press. A little girl of about 9 or 10 crossed my red line into the drill press area, safety glasses on, her sanded & marked piece of wood in hand. She didn't act too sure about the powerful machine she had watched others use & was now standing before. I went over the basics again, encouraging her that she was just as capable of this as anyone else. There was no rule that said girls couldn't do woodworking or handle power tools. We lined up the first hole to be drilled as she took a hold of the handle, slowly and gingerly pulling the drill bit down into the wood, making the hole. As she raised the handle and released, I watched her change as her face lit up. In an instant, something changed and suddenly the little girl timid about a power tool knew that she could do it and knew that she had done it. There was excitement and a realization that come about in drilling that first hole as well as a truth that she was truly just as capable as anyone else. That day a little girl was introduced to woodworking and maybe to the power she was a capable of.

Perhaps, it's the feminist in me or a reminder of the little girl I was, going to woodworking judging surrounded by boys, but that afternoon a little girl realized that girls can and being a girl shouldn't stop her. That afternoon, I got to be make a difference in one little girl and I got to watch it happen.

"Sweet Dreams" Pillow Cases

This is a set of embroidered pillow cases I made for me. Growing up, I saw embroidered pillowcases a lot more, but over the years I have seen less and less. (Probably the result of fewer people knowing how to needlepoint.)

I used pre-printed pillow cases I found at a local craft store and embroidered the flowery "Sweet Dreams" across the ends of both pillow cases. I entered one in our local county fair & took first place.

(We're never old for ribbons.) I even had a friend who called to tell me she saw them and to comment on how pretty they were.

There are certain "old fashioned" things that never seem to really go out of style & some of those things that are nice additions to personalize your world.

Needlepoint - "Listen to Your Heart"

I learned to needlepoint and hand sew as a young age, young enough I don't remember learning hoe to thread a needle. I learned embroidery first, then cross stitch. My mother was afraid if we learned cross stitch first, we'd never learn the fancier stitches. I used a pattern, but not the pre-printed kind. (I never like the way they look for cross stitch).

I entered it in our county fair, but this one didn't place.

Braided Rag Rugs

Sorted Fabric Strips for Rugs

Years ago I remember a trip to the state fair with my family that took us through our usual trip through the historical cabin. What stuck this trip was a woman sitting on the porch, in a period costume, working on a braided rag rug. It was an image that stuck with me. All my life I had been around people who could sew and do all sorts of crafts, but I had never actually seen someone braid a rag rug before and didn't know anyone that could. It was one of those memories that got filed away and years later when looking at my scrap box I got to thinking about it again. I knew I could do it, I just hadn't tried and didn't know anyone who could show me, so I'd have to take it on myself.

Using Pins to keep Place

 Using scraps I had on hand I cut them into strips and started playing with techniques and going through the process of figuring it out. I didn't want just long strips sewn together (like you see a lot of times in mass produced, store bought braided rugs). My first attempt, as I figured out what worked best ended up being a coaster. I started with sewing the ends together then braided the strips into each other as I moved outward in a circle.

Rag Rug

I started a collection of scraps from other sewing projects and discarded clothes and rag cut into strips to be used in rugs, organizing them by color. It's given me a great outlet to use scraps of fabric, lace, & ribbon as well as recycle old and otherwise discarded rags (old, worn, torn clothes, towels, etc).

At the last camp I worked at I had a lot of quiet evenings in the middle of nowhere. It gave me a lot of time to work on my own projects and rug making was a nice one for that.

They have also proven to make some great gifts. It's kind of cool to see the rugs being used and decorating the homes of friends and family that have them. I have a stack right now waiting to find homes.