Some Things Are In The Genes

  Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved to make crafts. Maybe this was a gift passed down in my genes from my Grandmother Tormaschy. (I know the name is a mouth full, it's Hungarian.) Her main outlet for crafting seems to sewing. She made items to sell at the hospital gift store where she lived in Yakima, Washington. My mother still has a few things she made, like a stuffed purple chicken that sat in a basket and a felt fish that was filled with bird seed and used for a pincushion.
  Myself, I am not so good at sewing. In fact, I took Home Ec in high school (It was called Culinary Arts when my son took it at HIS high school and no longer offered the sewing instructions). Half the year, we learned all about the joy of cooking and at the end of the course made a meal that the whole class choked down, er... enjoyed.
  The second half of the year, we chose a pattern and by the end of the class, we were supposed to be able to sew it. The pattern had to have certain elements that showed off our prowess at the basics, like buttons, zippers, set in pockets, etc. I chose a little jumper that had a collar and elastic waist and pockets. It turned out just fine, except I must have had a growth spurt during the year.  We measured for the pattern at the beginning of the year in class so the teacher knew we had the correct measurements. But, when I went to put on the jumper, I couldn't fit into it! So, needless to say, I never wore it. 
   One of my many sisters, Eileen, sews quilt tops and she is amazing at it. She seems to be able to whip them up in no time. Lacking the proper machine to do the quilting, she has a friend who quilts the top and back together for her. She has done a quilt for everyone in the family, and when you are talking about as large a family as ours, that's a lot! I love the colors in mine. In one year she did one for each of the "kids" in our family. That's about sixteen! Like I said amazing!