Creative Homemaker

One of the benefits to volunteering at the food bank here in my little home town is the thrift store right next door. I usually only get to run in with a donation while my kids wait in the car, or quickly scan the kitchen section for canning jars, but on Thursdays when I have a break in my food bank work, and while I have a babysitter at home, I enjoy a leisurely browse through the fabric and bedding bins, looking for scraps of 100% cotton fabrics or vintage sheets. I also scan the men's and women's button up shirt racks for treasures. I used to say that if a scrap of fabric ever made it into my house, it wouldn't emerge unless it had been made into something useful, a quilt, apron, potholder, rag rug, etc. Now the same goes for men's shirts. I may even start scanning my husband's closets for pretty patterns. I'm in the process of making two more scrappy log cabin quilts for my other two boys who share a bedroom. Their quilts will be red, blues, creams, yellows...

In honor of today being Military Spouse appreciation day, I'm writing to tell you how I came to be a military spouse. Nearly 20 years ago, my husband, myself and our son were living in a little duplex near Camel's Back Park in Boise. Jut down the street from the trendy, hip neighborhood of Hyde Park. We hobnobbed with bicycle touring, and kayaking college students. I worked at a family owned sporting goods store running their embroidery machine in the sweatshop basement. I created beautiful cheer leading outfits, band uniforms and Letterman jackets. Bear was a college student finishing up his teaching degree and had gotten frustrated with the liberalness of the department and had left the university. After much prayer and research, we decided that it would be a good life with many benefits to join the armed forces in some manner. His first choice was the Air Force, be Bear is slightly colorblind and didn't make their cut off criteria. He was a music major in college, so he ...

A dear friend of the family asked me to handquilt a quilt for her too many years ago to count. I can't remember who did the piecing, some relative of hers. I've had it on my GraceFrame hand quilting frame for a long time. I have had 5 more children since then, moved five times and carefully packed it along each time. I was determined to start finishing things while Bear is gone on this deployment. This was the UFO that gave me the most grief and added stress to my life. The guilt associated with having this quilt for so long stifled my creativity and nagged at the back of my procrastinating brain. It's done!! I pulled it off the frame a few weeks ago and finished hand sewing the binding on yesterday. I washed and dried it, and took a picture for my archives. I will attach a label before I send it off to my friend, if she still counts me as one. Even though a twin size quilt only weighs a few pounds, I feel like a TON has been lifted off my shoulders!