Do-it-yourself project produces a Christmas ‘village’
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FLEMING -- From homes to a diner and a town hall, what began with only two buildings has now grown into a village of 30 different pieces created by Marietta resident and retired teacher Mary Skogland, 80.
"It takes a lot of work to create something like this and a lot of time," said Skogland. "Actually 15 years."
Mary Maxim is the company where Skogland found some do-it-yourself yarn crafts all those years ago. The kits Skogland bought come with a plastic canvas and yarn to create the building.
"There's a lot of cutting and a lot of patience," said Skogland, who has dedicated her time to these works of art since retiring in 1992 from Warren Local Schools.
The village may have been created by the hands of Skogland but each piece has been a gift to Fleming resident Kathy Morrow, 58, since the two have been friends. Both are retired Warren teachers and Skogland served as a mentor to Morrow at the beginning of her career. Skogland spent 31 years in the district teaching at Barlow-Vincent Elementary School and Warren Elementary School. The two worked very closely together, they said.
"I get two buildings twice a year," said Morrow. "She has made me one for my birthday in February and Christmas. When she retired she wanted something to do so I showed her how to do these."
Skogland said she hasn't made a new building since 2008 due to tearing tendons in her shoulder as she was an active bowler, although she plans to try again.
"I have two houses to make if I want … I just don't know if my shoulder will let me do it," she said. "We went up to a Mary Maxim store in Michigan in 1992 and that's where it all began."
Skogland expressed the time and effort it took to create these masterpieces.
"Each one if different," she said. "Usually it depended on the building and cut of each building. I like to add in the little things, too."
There's a diner, a movie theater, a car shop, a candy store, a town hall, a churches and houses that fill the village displayed on top of Morrow's grand piano at her Fleming residence. Morrow said the diner and the gas station were the very first two that Skogland made.
The vintage cars that are parked outside some of the buildings like the movie theater and car shop are actually Hallmark ornaments that Morrow bought to liven up the small town. The lights that run through the town were bought from a Mary Maxim store to add to the village. Even some of Morrow's favorite Star Wars characters are on top of the movie theater.
"If you make a single cut wrong with these things you have to start all over," said Skogland. "That happened more than you think."
Skogland also said that making a single line on the plastic canvases took a long time. Before her husband passed away, he built model airplanes so the two of them kept busy with their hobbies.
Each building also has a music box inside playing a different song.
"I've never taken the time to wind them all up," said Morrow. "I do know that the candy shop plays 'My Favorite Things' though."
The music box comes with the Mary Maxim kits. Skogland has actually taken a picture and sent the village to the Mary Maxim store to show them what she's done.
"They were amazed," she said.
Unfortunately, Skogland said that Mary Maxim is beginning to phase out more parts of the village in kits for her.
"I know there can only be so much that can be in a village," she said. "I spend some of my free time making door hangings and such for the teachers at Warren Elementary."