My earliest design of any importance that I recall was a 36" square 3-D replica of the center of the town I lived in - North Weymouth, Massachusetts, done while in the sixth grade. It covered probably a quarter mile square section of the town, including a large hill which was a cornfield; stores, a church, houses, a school, roads, fences, cars, telephone poles with thread for wires.

The base was a piece of plywood. The ground was made of a mixture of sawdust and other ingredients I do not remember. The mixture was molded, dried, hardened and then painted.

Everything else was made of paper, cardboard, perhaps small pieces of wood. Each item would first be drawn on paper, cut and folded or somehow shaped to make a 3-D object, then painted.

Many other children took part in building this model, but I was the designer and director. After it was on display at the school for some time, it was moved to a window of the local library. I believe it stayed there for several months. I do not know what became of it after that. I have often wished that a photograph had been taken of it.

The next project I designed and oversaw was a mural painted across the blackboard at the back of the sixth grade schoolroom. It consisted of about twelve drawings, done by my classmates and myself, of scenes from the story King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Each drawing was about 12" x 18" and was completely filled in with colored chalk. In my mind I can still see it. Again, I wish a photograph had been taken of the mural before it was ultimately erased.

After two years of sewing classes in Junior High, at age thirteen, I designed, cut and sewed two dresses without patterns. One was quite detailed - white top with plaid pleated skirt and trim. I don't remember what I sewed the dresses on - I did not have a sewing machine at the time. I purchased a Singer sewing machine, the "Junior Dressmaker" model, when I obtained my first steady job. From then on I constantly sewed things- clothing for myself and others, curtains, drapes, slipcovers, etc. About twenty years later, I acquired a Viking sewing machine. I still have my trusty Singer.

When I was fourteen, my friend Joan's parents built a new home. As usual, the cellar had large bare concrete walls. Joan was a champion drum majorette and led a marching band. Either I or someone in her family suggested that I paint a wall-sized picture of a marching band with drum majorettes. I did, with the band coming right at the viewer; with four majorettes in front, of course. Not very long ago, my friend asked new owners, who were going to remodel the house, if she could take a picture of my painting before it was destroyed. This is half of the painting. Joan is the majorette on the left.

After a year of creating a sales book containing twelve designs, many fabrics and five styles of café curtains, I sold some, but grew discouraged. Making the curtains and stenciling them was arduous and time consuming work and my small price did not pay enough to make it worthwhile. So I put away my sales book and went back to office work. I later taught stenciling for after-school projects, as a Camp Fire leader and as a director of summer arts and crafts programs.

I continued designing and sewing curtains for all of our homes. (Eleven of them - not at the same time!) Some of the curtains were stenciled. To the right is Susan, about six months old, in Falmouth, MA. She is looking out with the stenciled curtains pulled aside.

For one new home in Cherry Hill, NJ, I sewed curtains and draperies for twenty-one windows in one month. Shades were not allowed in our community. None of those curtains were stenciled; there wasn't time!