Small Scraps

All the sewing I had time for this weekend were putting together a couple of bookmarks.  It was my Sister-in-laws birthday, so I snuck down to sew a couple bookmarks to add to her gift.  This is a good little project for teeny little scraps.  I am linking up to Sewjo Saturday.

Spring Break Review

For Spring Break this year we headed down to the Phoenix, Arizona area.  I haven't been there since a quick trip for a wedding back in 1995 (or 96?)  And Brian went for a quick trip to watch his team (the Utes) in the Fiesta Bowl in 2005.  The weather was even hotter than I expected, since it's only April!  90's most days, topping out at 100 on Easter Sunday.  Perfect for swimming, but it's good we didn't go in the Summertime -- I wouldn't have left the hotel room.

On the way down to Phoenix we went to the Grand Canyon.  I have never been, and it was awesome.  It really is incredible to see it in person -- the vastness and the colors are breathtaking.  The boys liked it too.  Andrew enjoyed taking several pictures of the canyon on his 3DS.  Eric did much of a "Junior Ranger" activity booklet.  And Tanner enjoyed running around and jumping off rocks.  We took a .4 mile hike into the canyon, which was fun to do, even if it was pretty short!  Tanner still randomly cracks up and shouts "Donkey Poop!" a couple times a day.  (We saw some from the Mules that go down the trail.)

The boys wanted to swim every day.  The place had a great pool, and also had a splash pad and a kiddie pool which Tanner loved.

As mentioned in my last post, we went to an outdoor barbeque featuring some amateur bull riding.  I had high hopes, but was a little disappointed -- lots of waiting for a few seconds of bull riding.  But the boys enjoyed the show most of the time.  

One morning we went to the Railroad Park.  It had a miniature train that went around the park, a carousel, and a few playgrounds.  Also, a train museum where you walked through a train car.  It was interesting and the boys enjoyed the playgrounds.  The train car is a "Pullman" -- so even though it's spelled differently, I had to take a picture of my Poelman standing beside it.

We also spent an hour or so in Old Scottsdale -- it is much like other tourist towns like Park City, Jackson, etc -- with stores and restaurants and art.  Probably better suited for those who like to shop (rather than little boys who just want to buy candy.)  But here they are in front of a giant head statue.

One favorite part of the vacation was visiting some old friends.  Brian has a friend, Phillip, who he has been friends with since Jr. High.  I've always been impressed because Phillip calls Brian on his birthday every year.  Who is that thoughtful after 20 years of not living in the same town?  Not many.  Anyway, it was nice to meet him, his wife and their 3 girls.

After that we went over to my friends' house -- Amy was my roommate in college.  It was her wedding I went to in Mesa back in 1996.  And now, NINE children later -- Amy and Matt are as cute as ever.  The boys had a great time -- despite the fact that the youngest 7 kids are girls. :)  And here is a picture of Amy and her daughter.  Such a great family.

On Easter we found a chapel near the Mesa Temple to attend church.  Afterward we went over to the Mesa Temple to enjoy the beautiful flowers and watch some fun family films in the Visitors Center.  It was a good way to focus more on the Savior and the hope his Resurrection can bring to all of us.

So that's it!  We survived a long one-day drive home and are back in school and routine.  Hope you all had a great Spring Break too -- and Happy Easter!

A quick hello

Just a quick post -- we are on vacation, heading home tomorrow.  But since I intentionally brought a little project along with me so I could link to "Sewjo Saturday," I thought I'd better do it!  It's not an actual quilt, but a cross stitch project of a quilt block.  I have been watching this stitch along and think it's so cute.  So I pulled out my old stuff....it's been a long time!  It was perfect for our long drive.  It sure reminded me how long cross stitching takes!  I only managed to almost finish one block.  It didn't help that I messed up near the beginning and need to do some unpicking.  Argh.

 

And just for fun, here's a picture of the boys at a bull riding show we went to.  Tanner fell asleep on the way so he's a little dazed.  :)  More on the vacation later.  Oh, and Happy Easter!  It's been kind of mellow here without family!  Hope you all had a great day.

 

 

 

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A Successful Saturday

It's been a busy weekend here.  We started out Saturday morning with a soccer game and a Pinewood Derby.  Eric had his 2nd soccer game of the season.  He has the same coach as last year (yay!) and he's doing great.  They won 4-1.

Last year was our first derby, at which we lost horribly (slowest car, I'm sure....our Scout left holding back the tears.)  So this year we consulted my brother who helped us cut a more aerodynamic car, and then we piled on the weights.  We went to the race yesterday just crossing our fingers for success -- that success being that we wouldn't be dead last in the running and that Andrew wouldn't leave in tears.  

But we were surprised when Andrew's car won first place!  To say Andrew was beyond happy.  Hooray!

We also did a little birthday celebration for Eric yesterday (a little early because we'll be out of town.)  He chose Arby's for lunch and donuts for dessert.  He told me "I don't really care what presents I get.  I just want the love of my family."  It's sweet, but it kind of cracks me up -- I'm pretty sure he hears things like that in church.  And trust me, he was VERY excited about the presents.  He got a lego set, a couple of DS games, and a Pogo stick.  They played happily all afternoon.

 

And now for my sewing update for SEWJo Saturday -- I am working on a quilt using "Modern Meadows" fabric by Joel Dewberry.  I've had this fabric for a while now but have struggled with what to make. I finally settled an a herringbone design.  Here are the initial strips:

I also finished and hung my dresden plate quilt underneath our entry window, in the stairway landing.  A sunny little view before you head down to the dark basement.  :)

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Finishing up a UFO

No, not an Unidentified Flying Object....a UFO in the quilting world is an "Unfinished Object."  This is one of those projects that was once started, but never finished.  I made my first Dresden quilt a few years ago.  I really like the pattern -- but it is much more pastel and girly than I would usually make.  However as the season changes (every other day -- snow one day, warm enough to shed the jackets the next day) -- I started thinking about binding this quilt up and displaying it for Spring.  This weekend while watching General Conference I was able to sit, listen, and bind.

I am linking up to SEWjo Saturday.

P.S.  If you didn't see my last post regarding my Grandma's embroidered bird -- please feel free to scroll down and tell me what you think!  Thanks.

Easter Baskets and Birds....Must be Spring

I am linking up to Sewjo Saturday again.  I made these fabric Easter Baskets -- I have wanted to do this because we don't have a lot of extra storage space, and fabric baskets will take up much less room than the old wire ones.  I used this tutorial -- I hope Owen's Olivia is okay with me linking to it because mine aren't nearly as pretty (or as well-crafted) as hers.  But my boys don't want pretty anyway.  :)

And I'm hoping that I since I might get a couple extra people coming to this blog post, I could ask your advice.  I have these embroidered quilt blocks from my Grandma -- I would love to make a great quilt with them. So I'm thinking about the Economy Block with the bird in the middle.  As for fabric -- I'm debating between Modern Solids by Handmade by Alissa  or Happy Vintage.  What do you think?  Do I embrace the vintage-ness or go for some more modern solids? 

Birthday Wishes

After a fight over the computer, Eric (and Tanner) had the following conversation with Brian:

Eric:  "For my birthday, I'm going to wish for Andrew never to play the computer again!"
Tanner: "My birthday, me want a giant Minion cake!"
Dad: "What are you going to do with that?"
Tanner: "Eat the eye!!!"

Not exactly things on my birthday wish list, but I'm sure they wouldn't want anything on my list either. 

Lots of sewing stuff

I know, you are so excited to see all of my sewing....all at once.  Well, it is Worldwide Quilting Day, so there!  I have an excuse.

I have joined the Vintage Quilt Revival Block Along.  This means that I am trying to finish a block or two each week, then uploading the picture to Flickr, and at the end of 10 weeks I'll have a bunch of sampler blocks for a quilt.  Each week they have a random drawing to win some quilt stuff...which I was pretty sure I was going to win one of these weeks, but haven't yet!  I was so hopeful.  :)  It has been fun.  Many of the blocks are paper pieced.  I've enjoyed learning the technique, but I do not love all the fabric it uses up.  It is nice to see all those lines matching up so nicely though!  Here are a couple of the blocks.

I am looking forward to spending more time on the quilt that is on my design wall.  I love this quilt -- simple and a little more modern.

I also wanted to make a new pillow cover -- I decided on a rainbow pillow as a nod to St. Patrick's Day.  I didn't have a pattern and just decided to do it "improv"style.  I am linking up to "Sewjo Saturday"-- a link party (I think that's what it's called. :). 

Lastly, I finally finished Tanner's superman quilt.  I haven't loved it -- Superman fabric is not something I get super excited about.  But I wanted to do something that he would like, and he does love his "Huperman blanket".  I machine quilted it with big wavy lines -- it was the first time machine quilting a large piece (only done pillows or table runners a few times.)  I have to say -- it was not very fun for me.  In fact, my sister called while I was doing it and I told her "I hate this!  It is so worth paying someone $$$ to do this for me!"  

After that big quilt I decided to "practice" machine quilting on this table topper.  I started this a while ago, did some quilting on it with invisible thread (read somewhere to do that.)  That did not work out for me.  So I unpicked it (ugh) and then just let it sit for several months.  Anyway, I pulled it out again and finished it.  I showed my boys, thinking they might this it was kind of fun to have houses on the quilt.  But when I didn't readily point out that they are houses, Eric said "Are those H's?" They do look like that too.

After all the pain of machine quilting Tanner's quilt, I am ironically planning on quilting another one....though it's not quite so big and I'm straight line quilting it this time.  This is a quilt I started over a year (or two?) ago.  Lots of little pieces and so I ended up taking several breaks from it.  I think it'll look great when it's finished.

So that's what I've been doing these last several months.  Thanks for letting me share.  :)