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Hen and Chicks Studio central Iowa quilt shop and retreat centers in Conrad, Iowa, celebrating 13 years of inspiring quilters

Celebrating 4H

During National 4H Week it's always fun to dig out the 4H Record Books and reminisce about those memories. Recently I shared some of my memories of 4H. Enjoy my walk down memory lane.

It's #national4hweek and I'm going down memory lane! I loved my 10 years as an Iowa #4her . Fond memories. Dear friends. Skills to last a lifetime. #iowa4h #youth

Where you in 4H? I love club names, what was yours?

#henandchicksstudioinspiresme

Its #national4hweek and I'm taking a walk down memory lane. In my 10 years in #4h I participated in several project areas, including photography. I can remember really enjoying looking through the lens and seeing what I could capture. That has not changed one bit today! I love taking pictures, especially ones that capture the story. And I love vintage photos of our family that help piece together the stories and memories of yesterday.

I'm often asked what I do with the photos that I take. First I download off my camera and organize them in a program called Historian by @forever_inc. Then I create digital scrapbook pages on the @forever_inc program Artisian. I print them off in a variety of forms to use in picture frames, albums and to create books.

My trip down #4h memory lane continues today as we celebrate #national4hweek. Garment sewing taught me a lot about reading instructions and understanding the necessary order of steps in making something. I went to college with the goal of developing recipes which means you have to understand how to take certain ingredients and put them together in a certain way to get the desired end result.

I spent two years of my professional career as a food editor @bhg books, then had the opportunity for 15 years to be an editor at @allpeoplequilt writing quilt instructions. I did the same thing of taking pieces of fabric, knowing how to cut them up and put them back together to make a quilt.

 

I always said it was our job to figure out how to make it easy to make a quilt, because when you take a break to sew, your time should be fun, not frustrating. This all is still true today as i sell patterns at @henandchicksstudio .

You've probably heard me say how much I trust @atkinsondesigns patterns and this is why! She understands the process and how to help you make quilts successfully.

Garment sewing definitely offered me challenges and I (and my mom) were always so thankful to have wonderful friends like Jane McMullin to help me adjust the pattern to fit me!

#ilove4h #memories #impactedmylife #henandchicksstudioinspiresme #lovewritinginstructions 

On this last day of my walk down memory lane for #national4hweek, I'll show you a few of my sewing and textile projects!

In my first year in #4h (third photo) I purchased the pre-gathered red check tube material and sewed a seam to make a tube top and added straps, I did a latch hook project, and refinished a frame. (That frame hangs in our bedroom with some embroidery I did much later in life).

Folded star hoop art was all the rage in the late 70s (and again more recently!!).

But the project that impacted me the most...but that didn't become clear for years...was quilting. My grandmother Maurine Moore was a quilter. She taught me to pull threads to cut fabric with a scissors, how to mark a quarter inch seam with a guide and how to hand-stitch the pieces together. Precious memories. She would be at @henandchicksstudio every day if she were still alive. I know she's with me in spirit!

I loved quilting, cross-stiching, and working with fabric as much as a kid as I do now. When you're a kid, you dont realize how certain things will impact you. At the time, I knew I loved #4H, I knew I loved doing all the projects, presentations, being apart of the State 4H Council, etc. I was certainly taking it all in. Today, I can look back and easily see how those 10 years affected my life and how lucky I was to have those amazing experiences. And thankful for great people like Nancy Amundson, Jill Weber, Dennis Johnson, Fran Olson and so many others I got to work with.

Thank you 4H. 🍀

#memories #henandchicksstudioinspiresme #quilting #sewing #crafting #4hrecordbook

Speaking in front of groups of people has always been enjoyable to me. As I walk down memory lane during #national4hweek, I can tell you that giving presentations and doing working demonstrations rank up their as some great memories in #4h.
It's not that I dont get nervous or concerned about what I'm going to say or how I'm going to say it, but it's the exhilaration of the energy in the room when you make people smile or nod their heads, or the connection the story you're telling makes with someone else that makes me happy.

And then let's talk about the food! Baking and cooking was one of my favorite project areas. From chocolate waffle cookies to Danish puff to a healthy bread I loved to make it all.
It was one of the most stressful projects because you had to make the item as close to judging time as possible. And even if I'd practiced making it , there were always those worries if it would turn out right. And today, what 4Her doesn't love the cookie scoop so that all of our cookies are uniform in size!! #food #baking #henandchicksstudioinspiresme