New Years Eve with the Dykstra women 2012

hello from Iowa!

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from Puerto Vallarta!

zig-zag progress

I am enjoying these--plan to make it 9 by 8 blocks, to measure 81" by 72".

zig zag

I love streak of lightning quilts, and the zig-zag I've seen on several blogs has been on my list, but it was seeing Jan's on "What a load of Scrap" (a favorite blog name of mine), and the one she was motivated by, Sujata's on "the Root Connection" that made me sweep away all other projects and get started.

I made one each of the two blocks and stack my sewn half square triangles on top of these two sample blocks to keep myself in order.

The blocks sew up quickly and look fabulous.
Of course, made with thrifted plaid shirts.

tip #25--"the mom stays in the picture"

Allison Tate wrote a wonderful piece in her blog encouraging mothers to get into their family photographs. http://allisonslatertate.com/

My sisters and I are going through photographs with our mother, and are grateful that both she and my father enjoyed taking pictures, with dad mainly taking colored slides, and mom taking black and white photographs. So, they both show up relatively frequently.

I have tried over the years to have an annual photograph of our family for Christmas cards. I have them together in one book, documenting us aging over 25 years.
I always enjoy getting photographs that include my friends, and not just their children.

When I visited Andy's mother this summer she gave me photographs of Andy as a child and of her parents.
I do wish we had pictures of Andy's father with his family. There are none. Andy's parents divorced and what photographs there were are no more.
I do not blame my mother-in-law. They may have been painful to look at. She may have given them to Andy's father. They may have been lost in a move.
What I do encourage is for aunts and uncles to step in when there is a divorce and offer to store these photographs that may be too difficult in the immediate, but may be valued years later. I saved Andy's sister's wedding snapshots (the ones we took) after her divorce should her daughter want them someday. I offered to take in the formal portraits, wedding dress and wedding rings, but that was declined.

So, moms, get in the picture. And aunties of a divorcing family, set aside a drawer for memories that may be wanted later.

precious dolls

The Volendam Dutch dolls (composite, articulated) were sent by my father to my mother when he was stationed in Germany in 1953.
The baby doll (china, articulated) was purchased by my mother at the drug store where she worked in Columbia, South Carolina when my father was stationed at Fort Jackson in 1952.

These three dolls were the most precious in our house when we were growing up. They lived in the China Cupboard and were taken out for special occasions.
We were able to hold the baby doll when we were sick.
We each were able to bring the Dutch dolls to school once for show-and-tell.

dolls-behaving in church

Because there were so many duplicates of the Raggedy Ann and Andy and of the Cabbage Patch dolls, Janna just lined them up in some pews.

 My mom made many, many Raggedy Anns and Andys for church and school fundraisers over the years. Included in the display are two of her dolls (numbers 5 and 8 from the left) and lots of fabric and yarn and doll parts ready for more!

There was a crabby gentleman at the display, saying it was sacrilegious having these dolls in church. I said to him, "I think a lot of these dolls have been to church many times over the years. And, think of how these dolls taught their owners to be good parents." He sighed, and said he could maybe see that. He still wasn't happy, but I gave him something to think about.

doll clothes

All of our dolls had many clothes made by our mother out of leftover yardage from her sewing her and our clothing.
The pictured dolls are models--not ours--we never had a real Barbie Doll. We had three of the knock-off ones.
From what I remember, Mom and our neighbor, Joyce Dykstra, made a huge pile of duplicate outfits for their daughters and nieces.All of my cousins' doll clothes got snaps and hooks & eyes, but ours never got them.
Janna thought she could talk mom into doing that about 48 years later, but Mom didn't go for it. She did wash and iron them, and a bit of mending here and there.
Alas, still no snaps or hooks & eyes.

Janna has an ingenious way of having these shows at her church--table leaves are placed over the bench backs, or card tables are placed standing on the pews. It makes a sturdy surface for display.
Past shows using this method have been for Baptism Gowns and for Military uniforms and memorabilia.  Next year will be farm toys.

doll quilts--and a sneak peak!

My sister Janna organized a doll show at her church. I'll have some photographs soon of that. Here in the choir loft she displayed doll quilts made or used by five generations of our family.
In the background is the quilt of children, An Extravagant Welcome! My mother helped me finish the binding.
I will post photographs of it once I have a good weather day along with willing and cooperative quilt holders. By the behavior of those I live with, this may be a while.