LIVING IN THE BED OF A PICKUP : Made with love

I have been sewing ever since I was twelve. I knitted my first sweater the summer I turned thirteen.

My parents were children during the depression and became adults during World War II. Money was tight. Nothing was disposable in those days. Everything was used until it fell apart or was broken. Then it was put back together or fixed and used some more.

There were six children in my family, and I was the third girl born. So I wore my sisters' hand-me-downs. By the time I was twelve, my older sisters were almost six feet tall. I was just a sixth grade little girl, swamped in my big sister’s clothes.

So I taught myself how to sew, how to turn up a hem up, put tucks in a waistline, rip out zippers, and take in side seams. I taught myself how to remake a skirt or dress to fit my size.

I sewed my school dresses and all my prom and dance dresses in junior high, high school, and through my college years.

I have never stopped sewing or knitting. All my life I have sewed and knitted clothes, quilts, dolls, stuffed animals, backpacks, hats and blankets for grandchildren, children, mothers, sisters, brother, niece, and for Dan and me.

In the picture below are two of the three dolls that I made for my daughters one Christmas over 30 years ago. I made a nightgown, a dress, pantaloons, and precious little button-up leather shoes for each doll. Then I sewed a dress for each of my three girls that matched the dress that I had made for their doll.

The dolls in this picture are standing on the baby quilt that I made in 1978. Every one of my four children had this baby quilt in their crib. This is the rocking chair that I used when I fed my babies and rocked them to sleep.

The same Christmas, I made this dinosaur for my son, Owen. He was the youngest child and all he thought about at that age was dinosaurs and being an army soldier, Green Beret.

Another Christmas years ago, I made Rachelle a warm flannel nightgown and a stuffed doll with a nightgown that matched her nightgown.

I love to create beautiful and useful items for those I love. Each stitch is made with love.

Here are some of the gifts of love that I have made in the last few years since we moved to Nuestra Casa, our home in Arizona.

Aryana’s baby blanket:

Hannah’s baby blanket:

Easton’s baby blanket:

Sebastian’s blanket:

I knitted the multicolored blue/green blanket that my sister, Silvermoon, keeps at the foot of her bed.

I had just completed making the fuchsia colored blanket that I’m holding below. It was a gift for Alison and Calvin.

The blue and green multi-colored blanket on the camp chair in the photo below is the one that I knitted for Soren. I made a blanket with the same blue and green yarn for Mom Graybill several years before. It kept her warm in the hospital on her last day of her life. Kathy and Bill now have the blanket I knitted for Mom.

I knitted this blanket while Dan had open heart surgery and during his recovery. I could not think or concentrate on anything. Knitting is the only thing that kept me sane. That and because I had the privilege of caring for my love, when he could not care for himself.

In the foreground of this picture are Dan’s feet in his dorky hospital socks. I didn’t let him out of my sight the entire time he was in the hospital, including the ICU.

This blanket is in a place of honor on our couch at Nuestra Casa.

(I knitted a blanket in the same yarn as in the picture above for our niece, Tonia.)

Jules’ blanket:

Rachelle and Ryan’s blanket (The striped blanket on the bottom was knitted by Grandma Shook’s aunt in the 1880’s):

Candice’s blanket for her new home in Tucson:

I finished this blanket when we were camping in the wilderness in Death Valley near Hunter Mountain. It is Mila and Owen’s blanket (I knitted it in Mila’s favorite color):

We liked Mila and Owen’s blanket so much, that I knitted a similar one for Dan and me to use at Nuestra Casa.

Dan and my quilt for our bed at Nuestra Casa:

It is reversible. Here is the other side of the quilt that I sewed for our bed.

Blanket for our bed:

Quilt for the Quail, our teardrop trailer (this quilt and the one on our bed are reversible):

We decided to use our Quail quilt on our bed at our cabin in Pine. I used vintage tablecloths from the states os Arizona and Utah for this quilt. Dan had given the tablecloths to me as a gift, because we have spent many wonderful months in these states during the eight years that we went on road trips in our camper.

I used all my left over blanket yarn to make a lap blanket for Dan.

Felted purses and backpacks for Marina, Stella, Ida, Tonia, and Kathy:

Felted bag for Rachelle:

Winter hats for Diane, Mila, Ida, Wilder, Alden, Stella, and Marina:

These are some of the hats that I knitted for Mom Graybill when she moved from Mesa, Arizona to Fort Collins, Colorado and needed some warm winter hats.

I took some time off last winter from making gifts for our family, and knitted a present for myself—two pairs of mittens and two hats. It’s pretty cold in the desert when we’re walking andhiking early in the morning.