Happy December!

As I was loading pictures onto my computer I was reminded of some fun times we've had this past holiday season.  We spent Thanksgiving in Idaho with my parents and sister's family.  It was great.  The weather was surprisingly warm, but the men in the family went up to the mountains to find a Christmas tree and some snow.  The highlight for my boys was being pulled on sleds tied to the back of the truck.  Some good country fun!  The other bit of "country fun" was packing all 3 adults and 4 children into the Toyota Tundra -- no, Brian, we can't take the booster seats.  :)  Luckily, everyone came home safely.  You can see the boys were pretty thrilled!

A highlight for me was going to a Cherie Call concert.  It was a small venue, probably only about 100 people there.  It was great!  I love her music and love hearing the background of why she wrote the songs.  Here's a very reflective picture of her at the concert.  :)

It has been a very dry winter here.  So when it snowed a few weeks ago I found it extra fun to see the little bird tracks across our driveway.  I got a picture before Tanner stomped on all of them.  

We had a Ward/Neighborhood Christmas Breakfast one Saturday morning.  It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed the Photo Prop booth.  Santa came at the end.  Tanner is the first of my kids to brave talking to Santa.  He wouldn't sit on his lap, but agreed to stand beside him as I took his picture.  When Santa said "What do you want for Christmas?"  Tanner hit his forehead and said "I can't remember."  Out of the blue, later that morning, Tanner said "Santa forgot to take a shower.  He did not smell good."  :)  I'm sure that suit gets pretty toasty!

We hosted family parties for both the Frankman's and Poelman's.  I have often left this to my siblings because they have roomier homes, but we decided to utilize our dusty old basement and offer to host.  It went fine and didn't seem too crowded (at least not to me.)  Here is Tanner and his good friend and cousin, Max.  We were listening to Aunt Susan's presentation on her trip to Israel and all the places Jesus lived and served.  And below is a picture of our niece, Savannah, with our newest nephew, Sam.  

When we celebrated with the Poelman's we also celebrated December birthdays.  I share my birthday with our nephew, Matthew, who was turning 4.  I don't have many pictures to share from this event because so many included me!  ugh!

We had our family parties a few days before Christmas, so our Christmas was spent with just our little family.  We had a nice time.  On Christmas Eve we watched a film about the birth of Christ, made some Ninjabread cookies for Santa, and opened a gift.  When I was young we could choose any gift from under the tree to open on Christmas Eve.  As I got older I started specifically choosing a book to open so I would have something fun to read when I struggled to sleep that Christmas Eve night.  So I've started to give the boys a book each Christmas night.  This year Andrew and Eric both got Minecraft books and Tanner a Ninja Turtle book.  

Eric kept asking what time they could get up in the morning.  Brian told him that it depended on what time they went to bed.  So as soon as we opened the books Eric went to bed.  :)  We told him we could start opening gifts at 6:30.  He came in at 5:00 AM....that wait does seem awfully long when you're a child.  

After such a dry December, we were very pleased to wake up to a lot of snow on Christmas morning.  We probably got about 7 inches at our house.  So Brian took the boys out sledding.  They had a great time and I love this picture!  (I stayed home and enjoyed the quiet.  That was fun too!)

Tanner got a Minions hat and a Harry Potter sword (I made it the night before.  He liked it, but did inform me that it should be black.  I thought the metallic brown was pretty cool!)  Tanner often has the scar drawn on his head.  And I'm amazed at how long he can wear those glasses.  He will wear them almost all day sometimes.  I guess it's good preparation for the inevitable day when he gets real glasses.

I took the kids sledding the day after Christmas too.  After a while Eric walked up to me and said "I am so cold.  My chin is freezing." I said "Maybe that's because you've been rolling around in the snow."  He said "That's lesson #1 today.  No rolling in the snow."  :)  

So I'll leave you with that little lesson to ponder on.  Hope you had a very Merry Christmas.  

Mini Quilt Swap

Okay, so I know you may have seen this mini quilt before, but since I actually sent it away to my swap partner, I thought I'd share it with the new binding.  Originally it was green....didn't like it.  So I swapped it for grey.  Much better!  I guess I forgot to take a pic with my regular camera, but here is the one I took with my phone.

And the back with the old green binding.

And last week I received a mini quilt from my swap partner.

I love the text print and the algebra print...I started out as a math major in college and I love those numbers!

I have been sewing quite a bit lately -- after this swap project I started on a couple of quilts for charity.  The BOM class I go to each month is gathering quilts for a homeless shelter.  And I've also been working on some smaller projects for gifts.  One of them I love -- but can't show it until I give it away!

Fall Fun

It's almost Thanksgiving so I've decided to take the time to talk about Halloween.  :)  We had a fun Halloween this year.  We carved pumpkins for Family Night -- Tanner picked out his own large pumpkin, Brian picked out the other two pumpkins on his way home from work one night.  Because none of us like to clean them out, he chose pretty small ones.  That wasn't what the boys would have chosen, but they were good sports.  It was a fun evening.

Tanner was sick with a cold, and because he has Asthma it hits him pretty hard.  He gets this awful cough and wheeze, but for some reason that boy still doesn't slow down!  Tanner was a Vampire for one party, and black Spiderman for Trick or Treating.  Eric decided to go easy on me with the costume purchasing and wanted to be a Soccer Player.  And Andrew got one of the Morph suits that covers your whole body (from feet to head) in one color.  However, his eyes bothered him too much with the mask over them so we were lucky enough to have his face painted at his school class party.

Okay, moving on from Halloween -- we have only had one significant snow this year so far.  I guess the East is keeping it all for themselves.  ha ha.  I love the first snow and how excited the boys get.  They spent a lot of time shoveling the yard (since it melted on the driveway.)  This is the "huge" pile they were able to make.  Here you can see they are simply amazed at the size of their creation.  :)

The boys have been studying Native American history lately.  Andrew had to create a 3-D model of a Native American dwelling.  We chose to do a Wikiup.  The Wikiup was one of the dwellings of Native American's in Southern Utah.  

Since Southern Utah has orange sand I went to a nearby baseball stadium and took some of their orange sand.  We also used a bunch of dying plants from our yard and hot glued them to the paper mache dome we made.  We finished it off by making some burlap "baskets" and filling them with seeds, roots, and berries. Andrew made the fun fire flames and we glued little "tumbleweed" plants here and there.  It was pretty fun and Andrew was pleased with the results.

On yet another topic -- I got to go to Portland to see my sister a couple of weeks ago.  We went to Time Out for Women, and her two oldest girls went to Time out for Girls.  We had a great time.  It was such a nice break (thanks to my husband who willingly took off work and stayed home with the kids -- he even got the full stay-at-home experience when Andrew got the stomach flu.)  Anyway, here is our "selfie" at Time Out for Women.  I came home from that weekend refreshed and ready to face the troops again.  

Mini Quilts

I joined a mini quilt swap recently -- my first swap ever.  (For those who don't know, a swap is where you sign up to create a specific quilt project and then mail it to an assigned partner.)  We are keeping our partners secret, and have never met them.  So we guess what they might like by looking at their blog, instagram, and any other online clues you can find.  I thought this would be a fun challenge, and since I love good mail, I thought it would be fun.

Turns out it has been fun, but it's also made me a little nervous.  I made one mini quilt and then decided maybe it wasn't right for my partner.  So I made a second.  I'm happy with the way both turned out and am happy to keep one for myself.  :)

Both are blocks from the Vintage Quilt Revival book.  I've posted a few projects from this book -- love it!  The top quilt block has wonky stars.....I made the first two (gray ones) a little too wonky and ended up cutting off the star points.  I figured it out by the time I made the blue blocks.  :)  I also tried Spiral quilting for the first time.  I love how it looks, and I wouldn't say it was difficult.  However, it was not fun for me.  All that twisting, turning, same ol' stitching...it got a little old.  I don't think I would attempt it on a large quilt, even though I love the look!

Although both of these blocks look finished, the one below is still a WIP.  The center block of the quilt is also from the same book.  I added the borders and like how it turned out.  However, I don't love the binding.  Too much green or something.  I will most likely replace the binding --- any suggestion on what color I should choose?  I would love any suggestions!

I am linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday, 

the author of that blog is also the author of the book I've been raving about!  

Trick or Treat Quilt

5 days before Halloween I finished this Trick or Treat quilt.  Now I'm too lazy to hang it up for just 5 days, but I'm sure we'll enjoy it draped over a chair for a few days anyway.

This is a pattern from Moda Bakeshop called the Neighborhood Charm Quilt.  The fabric is Boo Crew by Sweetwater.  Rather than the light colored background in the original, I decided on a Black/Gray Ombre so it looked like nighttime.

The original was quilted with straight lines -- making paths to the door, which was cute.  But I wasn't sure I'd be able to continuously quilt all the lines without stopping/starting a lot.  Since I don't know how to bury my knots (something I just need to take the time to learn) -- I decided to do my own quilt design.  I thought of all the little children meandering the streets on halloween night, and did some curved lines on the "streets."  On each house I did some echo stitching and a little door.

For the back I used up some old fall fabrics.  Don't love it but it'll be hanging on a wall so I was just happy to use up some fabrics from my stash.  Yay!

Points I pondered:

1.  Once again, I was a little unsure of what color thread to use.  I wish I would have used black on the top portion and gray on the bottom portion so it blended better.  But I went the lazy route and used all gray. I need to always use threads that match the quilt top because I'm still not a great machine quilter!

2.  Working with Ombre -- I need to think ahead a little more.  For the first two rows I didn't cut the roads (sashing) out first -- by the time I was going to cut it I was down farther in the fabric so it was lighter.  It's okay, but would do it differently next time.

3.  I didn't use my walking foot and the back looks just fine (minus the fact that the thread is gray. :))  I think my walking foot sits too low on my sewing machine and I probably need to get the Janome foot (rather than the generic) to see the real benefits of using a walking foot.

4.  I got the binding right on this one!  Yay!  I just finished a mini quilt and am still wondering if I should swap out the binding.  But for this quilt I went with this cool black/cream binding and I love it!

Below is a picture of a mini quilt I finished....I don't love the green binding.  What color would use?

I am linking up to Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

Zoo Fun

It's been a year and a half since we went to the zoo, so we decided it was time to go back again.  We knew Tanner would be particularly excited to see the animals.  A couple of times he surprised us with animal facts -- when I asked him where how he knew that, he's say "Wild Kwatts!"  (Wild Kratts is actually what Tanner is watching right now.)

We especially loved the Apes.  Unfortunately the Ape house is indoors and the pictures were too dark.  Overall the animals were kind of sleepy.  We got there about 3:00 PM.  When we were leaving around 6:00 it seems the animals were waking up for dinner.  Next time I think we'll go closer to 4:30 and hopefully see some more activity.

We always enjoy seeing the Elephants.  I just think it's amazing that there is a creature that large.  The highlight for the boys was that one of the elephants went to the bathroom while we were watching.  They laughed so hard!

Brian always loves the Rhino.  Another amazing creature.  

Here are the boys in the eagle next.  It's hard to get a picture of Tanner just smiling anymore.  Can you tell?

Last year I took pictures of the boys by the bear painting.  You can see how much they've grown when you see this years picture.  (Top pic is this year -- bottom pics are last year.  I couldn't get the boys to hold still enough for individual pictures this year.)

Brian's Birthday!

We had a great time celebrating Brian's birthday.  Birthdays are always fun with little kids around -- Tanner insisted on making Dad a football cake, getting party hats, and balloons.  

We had steak for dinner -- first time making NY Strip Steak and it was delicious.  The boys could hardly wait to have Dad open his presents.  I gave him a gift for work (Tervis cup filled with M&Ms), a gift for home (a Utes Puzzle to do with the boys), and a gift for the train (my old kindle that I loaded up with books I hope he'll like.)  Happy Birthday Brian!  We love you!

Fall Reading Quilt

In addition to quilting and watching the kids, I spend a good amount of time reading.  It's been a favorite hobby of mine since I was a kid.  I really love books.  If you need a good book to read,  "Wonder" by RJ Palacio is one of my absolute favorites.  Currently I'm reading "Ordinary Grace" by William Kent Krueger.  It's a sad one.  Very good, but sad.

So of course I like random stacked coin quilts because they remind me of stacks of books.  I decided I'd better make one myself.  I used the instructions in Block Party, a book featuring several improv projects.  It was fun to just be able to cut the "books" to whatever size I wanted, but I did find that a lot more trimming was required and time consuming.  I ended up putting a corduroy "shelf" at the bottom of the columns.  I like it.  I bound it with Corduroy too.  Like the black corduroy in my last project, the brown is also a lint magnet.  But since it's hanging on the wall it probably won't be too bad.

Points I pondered while making this quilt:

• Improv style means that you might ran out of background fabric.  Drat!  I wanted to the columns to be uneven stacks.  I used up all my background fabric, and then I squared up the quilt ended up trimming off much of the background on the left side.   
• A crooked quilt is more obvious when hanging on a wall.  I think that crooked edge might bother me every time I walk down the stairs.  Maybe I can create some diversion by adding some more decor to the shelf.  :)  I will have to look into more tips on squaring up quilts.
• I am planning on creating a quilt for each season for this particular wall, so I found a quilt hanging method that will make it easy to remove/reinstall the quilts.  I found this method on Craftsy which uses corner hanging pockets, a yardstick, and 3M Command picture hanging strips.  It was easy and looks pretty good.  The one problem was that the middle of the quilt still sagged away from the wall.  I fixed this by simple adding some special double stick tape (Hollywood Secrets Fashion Tape) to the top of the quilt and sticking it to the yardstick.  The tape is made especially for clothing, I use it often for my high fashion wardrobe (ha. ha.) and have never had a problem with it leaving residue, so I think it should be fine on the quilt.

So enough of the quilt details.  Thanks for letting me talk it all out.  It helps me kind of cement things in my brain and remember what I can do differently on future quilts.  I am linking to Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

On a completely different note -- Brian and I went to an Elton John concert last night.  It has been many years since I've been to a concert of this scale.  We actually won the tickets from a newspaper contest.  So that was pretty exciting.  The traffic was horrendous (1 hour to go 2 miles) and put a damper on the evening for us.  We had fun, but I'm not a crowd person and frankly, I'm just kinda boring.  We watched the energetic folks in front of us dance the night away -- and there we sat tapping our feet to the beat, bopping our heads a bit, and both wearing earplugs to muffle the high volume.  ha.  We are awesome. ;)  Anyway, the music was fun, and Elton John apparently isn't getting older like us -- at age 67 he sounded great!