Finished Quilt and Blech

Why did I write Blech in my post title? Because today we went to the local town fair and carnival and I stupidly went on one of these... Hmmmm the Super Loop wasn't as much fun as I remember it being as a teenager. In fact, it required an immediate trip to the bathroom where - well you can guess the rest. Yes, blech. Throwing up is not much fun! Does this mean that I am officially getting old?!

Onto much nicer things, I finally have a photo of my finished quilt. I did get it finished to be in the show, but unfortunately I didn't get it finished in time to be judged, so it was hanging for exhibit only. In a way I was glad. I have a love-hate affair with the judges critiques. It's always scary to get the judging sheet back - of course you always presume the worst, and mostly they have nice things to say, but still there are the criticisms, which are actually a good thing because it helps you to improve. But I didn't have to worry about that this time since it wasn't there in time for them to judge!

I put the borders on and I immediately knew, and my MIL confirmed, that it needed some applique. My favorite quilting word! So I sat down and drew up some shapes for the applique. Since I used a lot of polka dot fabric in the blocks I decided to do round flowers, which I thought were also a nice juxtaposition to the pointy pineapple logs. I am pleased with the result and can't wait to get back home to NH and hang it above my red couch!

There were some other lovely quilts there - I will show just a few...





And this picture is very special - it is my son and my MIL standing in front of a quilt she made him for his birthday last week. Today was the last day of the quilt show so he was finally able to take his quilt down from the show and he is sleeping under it tonight!
This is another neat photo... my MIL taught my 7 year old Sofia how to crochet a baby hat. My MIL makes a lot of them for the neo natal unit at the local hospital. Sofia was just so excited to make one, and to have it in the quilt show! These weren't judged, just on display, but Grandma made sure Sofia had a ribbon on her hat. I can't describe how excited Sofia was to see that ribbon on her hat! And even more excited that a tiny little baby would get to wear the hat she made.

Back to the carnival, we had a blast watching the annual Steel Days Parade... and I discovered today that my kids have zero fear of heights. Zero, zilch, nothing. Even my 3 and 5 year old boys were begging to go on the scary rides, and the look on their faces was pure joy and excitement! My 7 year old Sofia went on the 'blech' Super Loop ride with me - there I was sitting at the top upside down (they leave you there waaaay too long in my old lady opinion!) wanting to puke my guts out and she's screaming, "I want to get off RIGHT NOW"! Poor thing - she loved the ride but the upside down part scared her too! But she did go on the worst ride ever - you know, the one that spins around really fast (OK I know they ALL do lol) and you can hardly move - and in my opinion is worse than the 'blech' one, and she loved it. Go figure.

So that was our day. A fun time with family and the reality of getting old.

Oh, and just to show you that the son who likes to lick ice-cream off his shoe can be cute and not always gross, here's a photo from today - butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, right? Ha! Butter might not, but we all know that ice-cream would!

Ice-Cream

Don't you wish you could be a kid again sitting on the ground eating ice-cream?
And don't you wish you didn't care what anyone thought when you licked the ice-cream off your shoe?!

Finally, a Quilt

I got to playing with some fabric last night and next thing you know I am six blocks into a quilt! I have only done 6 blocks - there will be 36 in total. My friend Cathie from my MIL's quilt group has chosen this pattern for her friendship blocks made for her by the group members as their outgoing president. Hers just looked so good I had to play. I love the secondary designs the block makes. Cathie's are 9 inch blocks and in green and creams. Mine are 6 inch blocks and shades of red and blue. I haven't decided if I will do any applique on it yet. Maybe once the top is done and the border is on I might do a little bit on the border. We'll see! The American Fork quilt show is on next week so I thought heck I'm here, I might as well make something to enter. I have until Monday. Think I can do it?!!! Like the little engine that could, I think I can....I think I can....

Onto something totally different - how would you like to be a kid again and fall asleep with a popsicle stick in your mouth??!! Don't worry - it was a sugar-free popsicle:)We had a lovely day today. We went for a drive through the American Fork Canyon and it was just beautiful. We stopped at a place called Cascade Springs where the rocks form naturally cascading little mini-waterfalls on many layers of terraces. The water was crystal clear and you could see trout in the water. It is so much fun to take the kids to places that my hubby and his sister and their mother went when they were young. Everything comes around.

Fabric, Camping, and 4th of July

I have had an overdose of fabric lately. My MIL and I went to 3 quilt shops on Wednesday - Pine Needles, Elaine's, and Quilt Etc. I went a little crazy and have a new stack of fat quarters to try and fit in my suitcases to take home. I'm sorry I don't have a completed project to show you, but fabric viewing has always been a pleasure of mine, and perhaps yours too?! To my hubby all the way back in New Hampshire - this is where you turn the computer off and look no more :) There is an abundance of gorgeous fabric in the shops right now. We are just so spoiled with our available choices.

I thought you'd like to see the book room inside of one of the stores we went to, Quilt Etc. This is half the room. No shortage of quilt books in there!Now onto the camping part of the title of this post - (darling you can start reading again now!) - it was so much fun. I have never been camping in the US before. Growing up in NZ, camping was the only kind of vacation we ever had. And my Dad was a school teacher, so every school vacation we were off with his boat and the camping gear. I am pleased to report that camping appears to be the same even on the other side of the world! Tents are put up, fires are lit, food is cooked, fishing is a must, and getting dirty is mandatory. Of course in NZ you don't have the looming threat of bears, buffalo and mountain lions, but that just adds to the fun, right?!

The kids and I were in a little dome tent which my hubby and his sister camped in when they were children. Somehow, don't ask because I don't know, we managed to fit 2 twin size air mattresses in it. That equals a king size bed. In a tiny tent. It was cozy but fun!

We fished - the kids each caught a rainbow trout which we DID eat!We went gold panning... and went to Bear Country USA, went on a wilderness drive and saw buffalo, antelope, burro (which were extremely friendly), praire dogs, and many deer. Thankfully the mountain lions and rattlesnakes stayed away:) The children also earned badges from the State Park for completing various activities. This was a highlight for them.

Oh and how could I forget - yes we did go and see "the place with the Presidents in the rock" better known as Mount Rushmore. It was completely amazing, and almost made me feel patriotic, and I'm not even a citizen!But the best part of all was spending time with family and friends. Some friends of my SIL went with us and they were the perfect people to camp with - they did all the cooking and I was able to feel wonderfully useless! I can't remember the last time somebody else cooked for me for a whole week! Mike, the father, tried his hand at making Jiffy Pop. Here is a photo of his efforts. His is the mostly unpopped one. The correctly popped one was done by his young son! You will notice that Mike was trying NOT to be in the photo. Oops, sorry Mike!

So we left the camp and headed home. We stopped at the historic site, Martin's Cove. This is where pioneers crossing the plains stayed after many of them died during a freak storm. It was amazing to see handcarts all lined up and to look around and see the terrain they had to push and pull those handcarts over. It took us around 8 hours to get from that point to Salt Lake City, in a car. I can't even imagine doing it on foot, plus the many hundreds of miles they had already gone before getting to Wyoming. It is just amazing to think about!

On our way home we stopped overnight in Rock Springs, WY. We were too pooped to put up two tents, so we just did the dome tent and my SIL and Chris and one of my kids just slept outside shanty-style. Hey it worked!So that was my first American camping experience. It was a big success! And since the drive there was over 12 hours each way and my SIL, Rachel, was driving and hence in control of the music, the kids got to learn all sorts of sing-along songs which are new to them. They now could recite to you the words of Cheeseburger in Paradise, Volcano (both Jimmy Buffet), If I Had A Million Dollars, and American Pie...all 8 1/2 minutes of it.

And I really should mention 4th of July, just so I can really be caught up. We bought fireworks from my friend Nanette - her family has a stand every year - and she gave us an awesome deal which is good when you're really just burning money ;) We spent the day at my MIL's house and had good food, good fun and family time. This was a pretty funny photo of us motley crew. You can see my FIL with his hand by his mouth - he was yelling out, "Freedom" Braveheart style. Yes it's a priceless photo!If you are still reading and have left me a comment lately, I am so sorry that I haven't written back - like I said yesterday, my MIL has dial up - it takes me 8 minutes just to get into my email (yes we timed it) and my post last night took me over 4 hours instead of the usual 20 minutes! So when I get back to my SIL's place I will write and say hi to you all :)

Show and Tell

Now first I must explain my prolonged absence from blogging. We went camping to South Dakota (Custer State Park) for a week, which you all knew about, but I've been back for a week and still haven't blogged! But here's why...I am at my MIL's house and she has internet, but it's.....wait for it.....DIAL UP!!! Oh yes she does indeed have dial up and it's incredibly slow and painful to do anything online, but tonight it seems to be a little faster than normal so I am attempting to post. If you are reading this, it obviously worked!

On to the good stuff. I have been able to do some quilty things this week and have pictures to 'show and tell'. This morning we went to a quilt store in Orem UT called Mormon Handicraft and of course I had to do my best to help the local economy. They had some darling fabrics and some excellent clearance fabrics so I got a bit, of course,(not too much my dear husband lol!) but the deal of the day was a scrap bag I bought. This is what was in it... Now most of those pieces are 1/4 yards, some of them are even 1/2 yards...and it was only $3! Talk about a bargain.

Then tonight we went to the New Friends Quilt Circle which my MIL runs and there were some lovely things to see. Firstly, here is a bag my old friend (she's not old, I've just known her for a few years!) Christina made... She says she doesn't wear these colors, and that it doesn't match anything she wears but she just loved it and had to make it. Best excuse ever I'd say! Christina also made this quilt... and here is the same quilt in a different colorway by another member of the group, Joanne.... Now I am thrilled about this quilt because my MIL, Carmen designed it! Can you believe it??? She designed it for their group to make as a block of the month last year. Lucky, lucky ladies! All the blocks have Friend or Friendship as part of their name, and the stitchery sayings are about friendship too. I told her she needs to make this a commercial pattern and sell it. It rivals anything out there and I know it would be a success. She doesn't really want to do so as it would be very time consuming to write up the instructions. I'll keep working on her though! In the mean time she gave me a copy of all the patterns so it's on my to-do list for sure! She purposely designed it with a few blank spaces so the ladies had to put their own bit of personality in it too, hence you will notice family photos and Dear Jane blocks among other things in them. Isn't it amazing that two quilts can look so different just because of the color choices? They are both gorgeous in their own way.

Tomorrow we are off to Gardner Village to have lunch, feed the ducks, and go to one of my favorite quilt shops, Pine Needles. If the dial-up co-operates I will do another post tomorrow night. Plus I still have to do a post to tell you about our wonderful camping trip!