Staying in Touch

Geez, it's hard to believe that in a few years I'll being having my 30th class reunion. It seems like yesterday I was a senior in school looking forward to being done and graduated.
I remember two special friends from high school that I spent quite alot of time with, Emma and Robin. Robin I hear from time to time but I seemed to have lost communication with Emma, until recently.

I sometimes wish Emma lived in Maine but she lives far away so emailing has become our way of staying in touch.
I was very surprised when Saturday my husband walked in with a package that had come in the mail. It was from Em, she sent me these adorable snowflake ornaments she found thrifting. She sent them with a wish that she hoped it brightened my day...yep, it did that!
(and I was just thinking of making these)
By God, whomever crocheted these used the smallest hook possible, they seem delicate but I actually think they can take quite a bit, least a kitty batting them around.

The other item that touched my heart is this glass frame....it states it all.

Thank-you, Em. C&G Design
And P.S. I noted the address! Smart of me-I must be getter better!

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

What Kathleen Sent Me

As I posted about before, many gifts were sent to me while I was in the hospital (I also bought over eBay so I'd have boxes to open when I arrived home). Kathleen of Rural Maine Life was sweet enough to send me a box of little dollies and I opened it up while still in the hospital!

Here is what she sent; Four celluloid dolls, you may remember my post on celluloid or find it here. The girl on the left is a Patsy look a like while the boy on the right has googly eyes.

A cute Annalee doll, seems to be missing a ball.

A dress me doll with a paper outfit and a pillow doll. Wouldn't that be cute on a larger doll bed?

This is a Topsy turvy doll, little red riding hood.

But wait! It's a Topsy turvy turn about doll, see the wolf that hides under grandma's hat?

Both of these dolls are Arranbee. The brunette is a early Littlest Angel and the blond is a Cody girl for the Cody line of make-up. I accidentally found that out while looking at the Littlest Angel.

This one reminds me of the Japanese animation, she's cute.

I don't know if this little one belongs in the box but doesn't she just make you smile?

Thank you, Kathleen! C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

What a sweetheart!

While in the hospital, I was sent several gifts and cards. I want to thank everyone who thought of me, it really brightened my day.
One of the near and dear surprises I received was from Skeeter, what a sweetheart! She sent me her vintage raggedy Ann and Andy Look at Andy's legs! Ann has the same fabric, a cute eye catching change.
Skeeter writes that her grandmother worked for a shop owner, a hairdresser, and the shop owner had displays in her window.
When the shop owner took the display down Skeeter's grandmother asked if she could pass them along to her. Skeeter believes they were made by a customer.


I feel privileged and honored that Skeeter has chosen me to give these to. They will take up a space on the love seat with the other Ann and Andy's.

C&G Design
Happy 50th to my husband!

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Retiring

Today is the last day of school and for our elementary school, it's the end of 5th and 6th grade. Due to budget cuts 3 of our 9 town elementary schools are combining certain grades, cutting positions and increasing enrollment to other locations as the numbers have dropped dramatically in the last few years.
Anyway....ever since my son went through our local school, there have been a few teachers joking about retiring due to a....group of boys..or a..gaggle of girls....etc. and our sixth grade teacher has decided to make it true this year. This teacher has been a favorite teacher of my son's, which is a hard thing to do! My daughter seems to like them all, so here is what we personally did. He likes golf.....

Wouldn't this make a nice retirement gift? It's a home set for those rainy days. I love it!

And life wouldn't be complete without a cuppa' java, this one states it all:

The good teacher explains,

The super teacher demonstrates,

The great teacher inspires.

It's from the Boyd bear collections.

And look at the inside......insert squeal here**!

We filled it full of Carmel's with netting over it.

Even the package had coordinating ape paper with a monkey card!

I had a bit of trouble wrapping so the whole thing ended up in a gift bag. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Having Christmas All Year Long...

One..... Two.....

Three.....

Four.......

Five.....

Six.....

Seven and eight!..... Pieces of cute fabric in countless yardage!

Thanks, Lola! C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Snowbabies

I hope Debbie and Gee Gee don't think it's cheesy to post on a gift I made for our get together. Me, I think I write every aspect of my week when it goes by. Day to day I do different projects and I'm content to jump around, I think it makes for a interesting and rewarding way to be. Course, I LOVE sewing and crafting, I could eat, drink and sleep, making things. These are new to me. I have a big tote of unfinished ceramics, nativities, animals, (don't forget the raggedies!) and these little snow babies. Cute.

Very tiny features taking a steady hand and a keen eye. I know the really old snow babies are all white but I wanted a landscape to blend with a Christmas tree. We did the traditional red and green. I used a face paint that has a peach glitter in it hoping for a sheen (like it did when it dried on paper) and it does have a small sheen but not as much as I'd hoped for.

I used this antique silver glitter from the Martha Stewart line and I kick myself for not purchasing more when it was on sale. It's so hard to find. It's so beautiful acting more like a diamond dust than glitter.

Well, what in the world could I use to give these away in? I hadn't thought of that. It wouldn't be prudent to just hand 'em over! Geez, I saw a perfect thing to use my newest stamp for and I really shouldn't go to Craftmania, especially now that I know they have scads of rubber stamps (just the letters) for like....$.99 to $2.99.

A velvet drawstring storage bag with this cute tag will do the trick "From.....and the year" printed on the other side.

They turned out so cute! They are very hard to photograph though. I tried and tried and tried. Every time the flash was on it looked as if the babies have all these empty spots. The glitter is just to shiny.

This is a truer photo although blurred. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Wow!

The mailman arrived the other day and look what came, another box from Lola, she is a generous lady! I just spied the orange/rust ribbon for my soft sculpture doll, oh so exciting when it all comes together.

Aren't those candles scrumptious?

and fabbbbric......thank-you Lola, Madame will be sending you a card shortly.

C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

A Nice Surprise

The other day while speaking with a customer on the phone there was a knock at my door, well it was the mailman, he knows me well enough to just pop in and set my packages inside the door. Everyone knows everyone like that in a small town I guess, nice of him though. I could see a rather medium sized box on the floor as I was upstairs and thinking it was the Frontline I ordered for the animals, I didn't hurry down to check it out.

What a surprise to find a goodies package from a commenter, Lola! I had forgotten she mailed me asking if she could pass-a-long some of her craft stuff. It was like Christmas again! What fun! This is the second time Lola sent me a package like this and I must say, Lola you are the most organized, neat person! Look at all the lace and trim, I will sure use it.

Lola put fabric in the box also, felt, cotton and check out the leopard spots! Madame will love it! And the little flowers on top there,... the best feeling fabric I've ever felt, I love the rayon type garments, so luxuriant.

Thank-you Lola! Thank-you, thank-you. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

Raggedy Ann gift wrap

I have looked everywhere for a cute collective picture of Ann and Andy to use a gift wrapping. I've had diffculty enlarging a lot of photos so I decided to make my own. This is a picture taken from the posing of a bed sheet and although Ann face is alittle squiggled on the navy dressed Ann, I think it still works.
Left click on the photo and then click print. Wa-la! Hopefully. C&G Design

Sunbonnet Sue

A nice gift for the girl newborn baby, Sunbonnet Sue crib quilt, she has been designed in quilts since the 1900. Sunbonnets have definite characteristics and folklore, the face is forever hidden and they are always doing something.


Materials: 1/2 yard of white for blocks; small pieces of print and solids for the appliques'; 1/3 yard print for sashing; 3'' x 27'' of print for the corner squares; 1/2 yard print for the borders; 1 yard print or solid for backing; 3/4 yard for the binding; 45'' x 36'' batting. (all fabric is 45'' wide)

Make a applique' template for each numbered part (in first photo), make a template of the full figure also. From white fabric cut four foundation blocks 15'' x 11'', press two guideline creases into each block; 21/2'' from the bottom; 21/2'' from the left edge. Match the guideline crease to the outline of each applique'.

First stitching should be done to the hand, applique' it to the arm, and the band to the bonnet. Note in block A and B the balloons are behind the bonnet so therefore they must be appliqued first before Sue herself. Using the graphics in photo #2 place the pieces in the approximate spots for all four blocks. Applique'.

Crosscut the 3'' x27'' into 9 3'' x 3'' corner squares, cut sashing fabric into 4 3'' x 45'', crosscut these into six 15'' x 11''. Sew 11'' to the corner blocks and the 15'' sashing strips to the blocks. (between blocks) Sew rows together.

From the border fabric, cut two side borders, each 3'' x 35'' and top and bottom borders each 3'' x 31''. Sew side borders to sash. Following the quilt mark, lightly draw lines inside each block. Smooth batting over backing, rt side down, center quilt on top with quilt right side facing up. Quilt the quilting lines. Trim the batting and backing. Cut and piece a double border, 2 1/2'' wide, overlapping corners by 2 1/2'', with appliqued side of quilt, pin the rt side of double border, stitch, miter corners. Turn double border over quilt edge, blind stitch to quilt. Using a permanent pen mark the back of the quilt with your name, saying, birth date of baby and baby's name.

Special thanks to Ms Wolff.

C&G Design

Old Fashioned Free Pattern

This is a old pattern that dates back a few ages. I thought it would be nice to pass along my ideas and thoughts on "Wheat"





I made a sampler for a friend of mine, she wanted a poem inscribed in thread. This was to be gift given at her sister in laws wedding. My first and only thought was wheat. Wheat symbolizes prosperity. My friend was tickled to see these circled wheat in all four corners of the sampler. I bordered the piece with a rose colored flowered pattern and then a rose color, all with cotton fabric.
At the time....this pillow was the source of my inspiration, I purchased it in a box lot at a antique auction. I had needed to restitch it on another piece of muslin, time had deteriorated it. It came out nice and is one of my favorites.
It also was a quick needlepoint. C & G Design.

Pin Ponies

How cute are these! I went to the mail and found a package from Connie McBride Johnson at http://clothmatters2.blogspot.com/
Connie ran a contest and I won! Madam P spent way too much time saying "AWWWW", and she has already taken her pony.

Connie gave three choices of what to make these felt ponies into, I chose pins. She is a talented pin doll artist, creates cute mascots, and I'm amazed at her puppetry.

Check her out. C & G Design.

Teacher's Apple

It has been a tradition in our family to give each child's teacher a project apple at the end of the year. It has only gone through Elementary school because Middle school and High school has far too many teachers.


Here's a list of things you'll need:

1. A one liter plastic soda bottle with the lid.

2. Spray paint, small amount of bottled brown, brush

3. Silk flower leaves

4. Items for the content

5. Scissors

6. Florist wire

7. 1'' x 14'' piece of lightweight cardboard

8. Tape, masking works best but any will do

9. Stapler

Basically what you want to do is end up with a dish that looks like a apple. You start by washing the soda bottle and removing the label. I cut the bottle 1 '' from each noticeable ridge that outlines the label, both top and bottom. Your bottle should look like this:





The next step is critical, do not skip this step! One year I thought I could do the apple a quick way by skipping this step, we were late in getting this project going AND the lid does fit snugly inside the bottom. But, if your child is transporting in a backpack, you'll need the next step, otherwise the lid gets pushed in or it pops out, spilling its content in the backpack for all to see. Wrap the piece of cardboard around the top of the lower half, raise the cardboard 1/2'' above the edge of the cut bottle. Staple, overlapping the seam. Stick tape on the upper piece, half on the bottle edge then fold tape to stick to the inside of the lid. This makes the edge smooth. Tape inside over staples if you want. Your bottle will set like this:






Up next is paint! You have reached the halfway point in the project and you can pick the color! My son and daughter were in grade school together so for the first couple of years Madam P's apple was green, her brother had red. The color seems to have stuck. Spray the inside and outside of both parts (It helps to conceal any scratches). Apply paint every hour until the color looks even, being careful to avoid drips. After 24 hours you can wire the leaf to the lid, elevating it to make the apple appear as if fresh picked.





Now your ready to fill with goodies. We have used balloons for the teacher who doesn't like sugar hype, but will do the bouncing balls! My son gave his 6th grade teacher (favorite) golf balls and tees, the teacher was hysterical. Babe mentioned that he'd need them. Whatever you chose be sure you have enough for the students to have. Transport using rubber bands placed from top to bottom of dish. Madam selected these for her teacher, a button doll with student and a apple, a refrigerator magnet.







And 21 Reese's for her friends. C&G Design

SCHOOOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMA!!!!!!