Why 4H you may ask? & Project Liiiiiist!

I decided to use a 4H background for a few days because I think it is a great organization.  Even though my grandmother, Honey, is the one who initially taught me to sew, 4H played a big role in the process, as well.  When I was in 7th, 8th and 9th  grade I was a 4Her.  There were sewing contests and fashion shows.  Honey would help me sew whatever was required, and I would always enter the sewing contests.  The problem was that my best friend, Mary, would also enter all of these contests.  Her Aunt Lil helped her with her projects.  She ALWAYS won first, and I would win second.  That didn't deter me, though, it just made me more determined!!  

I'm embarrassed to say that I was also in a dairy food demonstration contest once!!  I made a jello salad that had cottage cheese in it.  I had never made it before and I was a NERVOUS WRECK.  I was supposed to pour the jello mixture from a bowl into a pretty dish. Well, I missed the dish and poured the sticky, red, pineapple ladened, cottage cheese, and jello stuff all over the table.  Of course, it ran off the table all over the floor.  I learned a VALUABLE lesson that day, actually two:  I'm not a cook, and if I was going to do something like that again I needed to at least do it once before I did it in front of people!!  I did NOT win that competition.

I did however, win the Share-The-Fun competition with my friend, Fran.  Share-The-Fun was a talent competition.  She and I played the ukelele!!  LOL!!!!  We sang one song named, "The Sow Caught The Measles And She Died In The Spring," and a few other silly songs.  I think we won because they thought we were a comedy act.  We were very serious about our act!  We wore matching dresses.  Hers was yellow and mine was green.  We thought we looked sooooo gooood!  We practiced walking onto the stage and sitting down and then even crossing our legs in sinc;  exactly the same way at the same time!    I think we practiced that more than we did our singing.  LOL!!  We won at the local and county level, then, went to Chattanooga to the district competition.  We did not win there.  Oh well!

 

Anyway, 4H was important to me.

My school has 4H for 4th through 8th graders.  I was the MEAN teacher who required my 6th graders to participate in the poster, speech, and demonstration contests.  I gave extra credit for any other competitions they participated in, like the cooking, and any farm related ones.  Not too many kids live on farms anymore, so not many are able to compete in those projects.  Since, I taught Language Arts, though, I could incorporate the poster (I taught about advertising through this contest), speech and demonstration (it was part of my curriculum requirements to teach speech and demonstration techniques) contests.  The kids all did their speech, etc... for my class.  Those who wanted to also do theirs for the 4H meetings could.  I always had speech winners at the county and sometimes the district and state levels!!  The demonstration competition for the county was one in which I could send as many as I wanted.  We always had to get a bus to take my kids.  Most of the time every one of my kids would win either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place.  I'm not saying this to brag, it's just that not many other schools would have as many kids at this event, so my kids had an advantage. The past few years they have had an academic competition called the Clover Bowl.  The first year our kids were in it, our 5th, 6th, and 8th graders won at the county level.  They went to the district competition where our 8th graders won 1st and our 6th graders came in 2nd!!  There were schools from all over the eastern part of the state!!   I thought it was good for them to learn to be comfortable in front of people like this.  I wish I'd had more exposure to this kind of activity.

My daughters participated in many of the 4H projects, as well. 

So, I give my thanks and appreciation to 4H for the opportunities they provide to kids!

Now, that I have my Easter sewing done, I have a list of smaller projects that I need to work on:

1.  Make a baby sling   for my daughter's friend.  I've made these for my girls and they love them!

2.  Make a pillowcase for my cousin's wife from a family heirloom linen piece that she had  for the pillow that she had as a baby.

3.  Make a new spring time wrap for my mom.  The one I made her at Christmas time is made from a fleece blanket that has a snow flake design.  I have  a new idea for how to make this.  If it turns out like I think, I will post photos.

4.  Make basket liners for a friend whose daughter is getting married.  These will line the baskets for her programs and favors.

5.  Make doll dresses to match Kellen, Jenna, and Riley's Easter dresses.  I wanted to have these done by now, but they may have to be birthday gifts for Kellen's b-day in May.  

6.  Make a pocketbook to match Emory's dress.  She doesn't have a doll for dressing just yet, so she needs a purse.  She loves them.  If I can get it done in time, I will make one for the other girls, too.

7.  Make a towel head-wrap for me, and one for little Emory.  I made some of these for Christmas gifts and Laura says that Emory WANTS one, too.  She is all of 19 months old!  I will probably try to do these for all of the girls in time for Kellen's b-day.

8.  Make Kellen's and Little Man's b-day outfits.  I used to make something for all of them when one of them had a b-day, but that was before I had Emory and Little Man to sew for, too,  So now they each get an outfit on their own b-day.

9.  Make pillowcase dresses for my great nieces from some pillowcases that were in our grandmother's things.

10.  Make a dress for a 6 ? month old and a matching outfit for a boy who's about 2 for a friend of mine who wants them for her grandchildren.  This will be a money making project!  Yea!  I hope to have more of those in the future.  I've made her grand daughter a dress before.  She wants the dress to be a lot like the yellow one I made for Riley.  I don't make two exactly the same of anything any more.  That's no fun!  

I made these out fits last spring and vowed to never make duplicates again.  There were 6 girls and two boys.  None of them were the same size or the size of the patterns I had.  I didn't get 

the fabric until about 2 weeks before they needed them for a performance!!  Never again!!