Crafts- The Monk and Eliana's Rag Quilt

Do you have a mom that saves everything you've ever made for her?  Well, I do.  When we were packing up Mom's house, we found a few treasures that I made back in middle school.  I thought you might need a good laugh on this Monday, so I'm going to share my childhood craftiness with you.  I have to say that I really enjoyed art classes growing up.  I was absolutely horrible at everything, but I enjoyed the process.
This first project is from 6th grade.  I noticed my mom had a need.  She would often take off her rings when baking and didn't have a dedicated place to put them.  When pottery days rolled around at school, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for Mom- a ring holder!  Now, I have no idea what caused me to think a FACE would make a good ring holder, but I did.  Mom was supposed to place her ring over the nose of this masterpiece.

Problem #1- I made the nose too wide for Mom's rings.
Problem #2- I painted the face pink which made Mom think it was a mouth with a tongue sticking out.
Problem #3- It was hideous!  Why did I ever think Mom would want to display this in her kitchen?  And what is this supposed to be anyway?  A face with 2 legs with 3-toed feet.  What!?!  

Moving on to 8th grade.  Same teacher, same pottery technique.  Let's see if I improved at all.  This time around, I thought Mom needed a cookie jar.  My vision was to make a chef jar where the head with big chef hat lifted off of the body and the body was where the cookies would go.  Well, I ran out of time and didn't get to make the chef's hat.  So I gave Mom this bald man cookie jar that we affectionately call "The Monk."  Doesn't it look like one? 

Seriously, what was I thinking?  I gave my Mom a monk cookie jar!  As we were packing up her house, we found the wrapped pieces labeled "Monk head" and "Monk body."  Haha!  I convinced her that she could throw these treasures away.  Of course we had to take pictures first, but then they went in the trash.

Now let's jump ahead almost 20 years and see what I made last week.  I promise, I'll stay away from pottery!
Josh's sister, Christina, is pregnant with our 2nd niece.  She is due on my birthday!  Christina is married to Brady, who is a talented musician that runs a business making custom cases of all sorts.  (http://www.bradycases.com/)  I knew I would be making a rag quilt for little Eliana (Ellie), but I wasn't happy with any of the fabric I saw in Abilene.  So, when we were in NM, we made a quick stop at Joann's.  I was trying to match the nursery colors (brown, pink, and green) but was having a hard time.  Then Josh sees this fabric and says, "How about guitars?"  I said, "For a baby?  I don't think so.  Wait!  Yes!  Absolutely for this baby!"  It was perfect!  The colors, the theme- seriously perfect!  So we picked out some coordinating fabrics and went to check out.  Mom stopped off to check out the remnant stash and found a cute flannel cupcake piece.  It ended up being a better match to the guitar fabric than the one I already had, so I bought it too.  I couldn't wait to get started on the quilt.
Here's the finished product:

Rag side

Smooth side

Close-up of fabrics

I would love to give pottery another try someday, but for now I'll stick to sewing :)  I wonder if this is why my mom taught me how to sew?  Maybe trying to refocus my creativity?  Hmm...

Bless all of you moms out there who truly treasure your kids' "art."