Wednesday, January 12, 2011

T-Shirts, Memories, and Quilting

When Brian was a missionary, I wanted to make several things for him as a surpirse when he returned.  One was to have his missionary blog all done into a Blurb book.  The other was to have a t-shirt quilt completed.  There were other smaller things I wanted to complete....   Well, I got Year One done of the blog book, and that's it.  I finally finished his missionary quilt the day before he flew back for school on January 2nd. - yes, of THIS year.  WOOT!  Yea, that's me - the amazing goal setter and keeper.....sigh.

My dear friend Carrie once again assisted me in this adventure, as she did when I made my first quilt for L, which I blogged about here.   I had saved t-shirts for my son from when he was a little boy and played on his very first basketball team.  I had no idea what I would do with them, but I saved them anyway.  I am so glad that I did!  What a wonderful treasure this turned out to be!

So, first I laid out all the shirts.  The design areas have to be measured and ironed on to some heavy duty pelon so they won't stretch anymore (NOTE - this is not in chronological order, so don't try this at home!).



This is quite a complicated process - and I am not good at Math.  I had to create my own pattern using graph paper and teeny bits of paper.  Once I got the hang of it, it was actually pretty fun and I enjoyed making a design!  This is not the final copy, but an example of how it works.



After the design was complete and all the strips were sewn together....


...it was time to go to Carrie's house to use her amazing Long-Arm machine.
 
 We had a few challenges with the machine.... it can be a bit stubborn...
but never fear, it all worked out.


And in the end, it was GORGEOUS!! Yes, I am bragging just a little.



Some day, I hope my wonderful son truly appreciates the hours and hours of measuring, cutting, reminiscing, adding and subtracting, rearranging, crying, trying again, driving, sewing, and picking out mistakes.  I also hope his future wife (whereEVER she is....) will let him use it and will also love it and appreciate it.  

Guess we will just have to WAIT a little while to see......

Saturday, January 8, 2011

OK, So There was ONE Christmas Project

So I thought I needed to do at least one new Christmasy, crafty thing this past Christmas season. The ONE project I did do this year was to make these cookies.  I love OUR BEST BITES.  I have used many of their recipes.  I was asked to make fancy cookies for a ward party.  While these may not be "fancy", they were time-consuming and turned out kinda pretty.   I used my own sugar cookie recipe. I used this recipe and tutorial.

I gotta say I didn't love the way the glaze tasted at all, but the affect was lovely. 
The Colors!
The practice ones.  I really wanted to make snowflakes, but I could not get it to work right.
The final looks - what I took to the party.  Eh - they're ok.... :-)

Friday, January 7, 2011

Christmas, Florida -Style

I suppose it is time to report on our Christmas Adventures, celebrating in a very non-traditional way-well, non-traditional for us.  As I explained in this post,  we went to Florida.  Things started out a little rocky, since our college son took a few days to readjust to family life, but he did just fine after a day or two of attitude.  All in all, everything went amazingly well. 

We focused on non-tangible gifts for one another, gifts which enhanced family relationships - gifts that reflect the Savior's love and purpose for family.  We gave very small purchased gifts that were well-thought out.   We did have our Christmas Devotionals.  Everyone tried hard to be cooperative as we planned our days out at the parks.  It wasn't perfect all the time, but efforts were made and patience was found.

I never sent out Christmas cards, I delivered a few goodies, I wrapped only a few presents.  I forgot our stockings in Maryland! Here is a mixture of photos from Disneyworld as well as Universal Studios.

First night - Downtown Disney
Attack of the BIRDS on the Ferry Ride to Magic Kingdom
 

Dreamers....

LOVE the parades - wish I could have seen more of them
 













Attacking a childhood nightmare - and winning this time
Hogsmeade!
 

Butter Beer- only BEER these children better ever drink.
 




Gift bags for "stocking items" since I forgot the stockings....
 






After many months in 2010 which were extremely difficult, I often teared up thinking about how thankful I was that we were all together again.  I wasn't sure that would happen.  The Lord blessed us.  We saw the holidays differently than before.  There are several things that I would repeat again the next holiday season.  I LOVED being stress-free - I can't say that enough.  I don't think I will have that luxury again, but I will certainly seek it out! 

Guess I'll have to WAIT and see......