I longed to have the make it out of cool old stuff.
It would have been so much cheaper! Make yarn covered hangers? You bet! or Waste baskets! hooray. They cost next to nothing.

But my RS during the 80s and 90s insisted on:

A full set of the nativity in ceramic that they painted themselves (starting in May so they were finished by Christmas).
There were 12 or 13 of them and about 15 inches high! I would have loved it, but each one cost more than I could afford. I had about $3 to $5 bucks I could spend on 'projects' and the nativity set was about $12 bucks a piece. (Mary, Joseph and Jesus cost $36)(Not to mention the camel, donkey, shepherds etc.)

Scrap books with beautiful pages and etc for your family photos. $20

Custom candy making. $10

A large assortment of wooden decorative objects you painted yourself, $10 to $20 a pop and the sisters would sign up for five of them and try frantically to finish them in the time allowed.
Stamps and the cards, letters and stationary you could make from them.


But it was hard to be left out of the fun and talking around the tables as the women worked. I got stuck with the only project available; tying the quilts for the baby closet. I didn't mind that really, it was just very isolating. I and the other woman who had absolutely no $$$ tied the quilts for the ward during RS.

Sometimes there wasn't a quilt to tie so we could just sit there and watch others do their projects.

Then the years that my three children (born within a four year span) were in the nursery I got 'called' to be RS nursery leader. My husband worked away from home all week. I had absolutely no adult contact all week other than a greeting at the store or post office and I got to come to RS homemaking and take care of my own children and everyone else's who would NOT take turns in the nursery with me! I needed the break, but I got the brunt.

There were some cheap projects I got to do and loved. A Pumpkin made from dryer vent tubing. It's really cute and I put it out every year. And a wonderful tye dyed baby nightgown. We brought the items and dyed them at church. It cheered my life everytime I put that nightie on my kids. It had been a plain cotton nighties going on to yellow from white and it was WOW! after RS homemaking.

But we did not have inexpensive projects. The RS definition of 'cheap' was $10. I had $3 to $5 if left me out of the loop.

Did anyone else ever get left out of RS homemaking projects because they were too expensive (NOT too cheesy)?
Or were you only in wards where money was no object when it came to RS homemaking 'projects'????

Most the time I just didn't have the money. The rest, I just thought they were tacky...

Not just tacky, I just want to know what did they cost and what were they????

I have several things I did. At the time, I was still with my husband so I could afford to do some. I only went if there was something I really wanted to do. NOW I don't use most of those things I made. Most of the crafts I have that were made at R.S. were given to me by friends or family.

BUT, my mother made a ceramic nativity set back in the early 1980s and gave it to me for Christmas. She did it very tastefully. She died a few years ago, so it means even more to me now (even though I don't know what I believe).

What I picked up from your post is the babysitting. When I was young and single--and living at home, I worked for the IRS swing shift. My mother was in the R.S. presidency. This was when they had daytime in the middle of the week R.S. Guess who got volunteered every week to babysit for R.S. because none of the married mothers would volunteer. Yep--me. I wasn't asked--I was told I was doing it. I hated it.

It was a skill and art that many don't have anymore. Making those tiny regular stitches was hard work!! And hard on the fingers. Learning how to use a thimble properly took time and skill also.

It was a skill I wanted to learn as my great grandmother was a quilter and at that time, I had some of her quilts long after she died. One was made out of tiny pieces of her husband's ties in a Sunburst pattern - he was a Christian minister, as well as his father and one of his sons. I have often wondered what happened to that quilt that was made probably in the 30's.

I don't hand quilt anymore, but I did learn to "tie" quilts and we made several in our home as I had room to put C Clamps and boards on chairs in my living room. It was a family project and the kids tied their own quilts in the 70's, some lasted until recently.
Now days quilting is a huge business.

I never did any projects, mostly because at the time, I was a college student and more focused on my classes than RS stuff. In fact, I even had a class that was held on the same night as Enrichment so I obviously went to my class instead. The other issue was that since I was a student, I didn't have the money to waste on projects, as I had to buy textbooks and other supplies every semester. I'm sure people judged me for continuing with my BA, but I didn't care what any Mollies thought.

It was like 8 a.m. and I had to prepare the room and materials for Primary so I didn't go. It was sort of creepy to me. Sterile table with a lacy tablecloth thrown over and vase of flowers and things to make the room look "homey" (and that was hard to do in those chapels). And women only singing made me think I was in a convent or something. Kinda funny when a month before I walked out at the singles ward, they "called" me as Homemaking Leader. Bwahaha. I was already exhausted and stressed out and realized it was all a sham after seeing The Godmakers, so I never went back. ;-D

I always wanted to refinish furniture pieces because power tools are cool. However, the RS presidency frowned upon such activities by women, designating them to the Priesthood.

Thank goodness for HGTV existing now!

bobcat Wrote:
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> I always wanted to refinish furniture pieces
> because power tools are cool. However, the RS
> presidency frowned upon such activities by women,
> designating them to the Priesthood.
>
> Thank goodness for HGTV existing now!

My TBM mom didn't get the memo. She spent 4 months refurbishing all of her antique furniture 15 years ago.
Power tools rule! Especially an electric sander!