Sunday, August 29, 2010

more quilts :)

Once summer is over and school is back in session, I really look forward to the weekends. I was able to get these three things done-two quilts quilted and a quilt top put together this weekend. Plus, I think I am getting the stomach flu. Bummer. I have not felt well all day, but that hasn't stopped me from doing some quilting. I sure hope I feel better tomorrow so I can go to work. It is more work to take a sick day when you are a teacher.
This first quilt I sewed about 1 3/4 years ago. It was a New Year's Sudoku quilt that was intended as a gift, but the event is looooong over. I really like this quilt and am tempted to keep it. I never keep my quilts, but maybe...
This second quilt was just a bunch of leftover random size strips. Sew them together and you have a quilt top. Backed with flannel and it is a nice sized quilt with some interest. I quilted it with the fun to quilt fern ziggle pattern.
And the quilt top is my all time favorite--Buttonberry Stashbuster. You can find the link to the pattern on the side of my blog. I've probably made over 200 of these quilts since I started quilting about 3 years ago.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Go! for it

http://www.freckledwhimsy.com
Check it out, another Go! giveaway. One of these days I have to win something :)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

How do you destress?


I like to sew.




This one is from the book The Giving Quilt and is called Stacked Books. This is the 4th quilt from this book I've tried and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It used up some of my 2 1/2 inch strips, but I have a lot more already cut.




I had a little trouble with the blocks coming out square. I still can't quite get the 1/4 inch seams perfect.


I don't have a quarter inch foot for my sewing machine and I'm still trying to figure out exactly where the 1/4 inch is on my machine.
Plus, when I iron the blocks, they get a little off square. I'm trying to do what I've read online, not using steam and pressing rather than ironing, but things aren't great. I will keep trying though.
Who knows, I may even try 1/2 square triangles soon!

Monday, August 23, 2010

another Go! contest

http://cvquiltworks.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-go-giveaway.html

I really would like to win one of these fabric cutters. Here's hoping :)

three quilts and a top

School started last Wednesday, but that hasn't slowed my quilting down too much.







I finished up these three quilts in the last two days. Two of them I just did tonight! Just goes to show that it doesn't take too long to get them quilted. This Halloween one has hung there for over a year. I got it and then didn't get it quilted in time for Halloween last year and figured what is the rush? I have plenty of time to get it done for October. Well, October is almost here again and I didn't want to miss it again so figured I'd throw it on the machine and had it done in 15 minutes. So, how long does it take to quilt a quilt? One year, 3 months and 15 minutes.
I got this quilt top finished up today as well. I started working on it this weekend and have been plugging away 15 minutes at a time. These guys take about an hour to make and are pretty mindless. Of course, I did have to rip out a couple of seams because I sewed them together backwards, but then a quilt really isn't finished until you have ripped a seam or two right?
I think I will throw one more quilt on the machine to be ready for tomorrow and pick out some border fabric for the quilt top above. I also need to cut some fabric scraps. They are taking over the kitchen table. Would be nice to be able to see that again one of these days! If only I had a Go! fabric cutter to help me out. I've entered so many contests I'm sure to win one someday.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Quilts in Rwanda







Here are three pictures of the quilts in the hands of people in Rwanda. I just love seeing the quilts I helped make half way around the world! Makes me want to stay up all night and work on more so that more people can know the warmth and love that only a quilt can bring. Thanks Tammy for taking the quilts with you and for sharing these pictures!

I want to win a Go! Cutter

http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-go-time-good-luck.html
Anybody else want a chance to win a Go! fabric cutter? There are so many different contests out there and I've been entering every one of them hoping to win one of these for myself. They claim to be able to help you cut through your fabric in about half the time. Just imagine what I could do with one of these things. Now if only I could win a little night elf who would stay up all night and cut the fabric for me :)

Saturday, August 21, 2010

My friend Lois Kay Fuller

Lois Kay Fuller
Sept. 16, 1950 -- Aug. 15, 2010
Published by The Reporter
Posted: 08/20/2010 01:03:06 AM PDT

Lois Kay Fuller, 59, of Vacaville, passed away after an accident on Sunday, Aug. 15, in Vacaville. She was born on Sept. 16, 1950, in Cresco, Iowa.
Lois was a teacher at Vacaville Christian schools for six years, retiring in 2009. She was a member and volunteer at New Hope Christian Fellowship.
Lois loved spending time with her grandchildren, watching them play sports and just loving on them. Her passion in life was always to educate and enlighten children. In the short time of her retirement, she continued tutoring and doing her best to help any child better their education. It's impossible to count the number of children's lives she has touched over the years.
Lois is survived by her husband of 35 years, Tim Fuller; daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Matthew Sumner; son and daughter-in-law, Joseph and Candice Fuller; parents, Le Roy and Marie Baethke; sisters and brothers-in-law, Linda and Mike Ragland, Karen and Dale Gesell, Marsha Baethke, Amy and John Helgeson; and grandchildren, Emily and Christina Sumner and Brighton Fuller.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 21 at New Hope Christian Fellowship. Pastor Ben Randall will officiate. Burial will be private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Arrangements are by McCune Garden Chapel, 448-6546, www.mccunechapel.com.
Visit the online guest book at www.thereporter.com.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Quilt Along anyone?

You've heard of quilt alongs, well this one is different. Check out the blog
http://afewscraps.blogspot.com
for a little lesson on free motion quilting quilt along. Here's a chance to get some lessons on using your sewing machine for more than just sewing pieces of fabric together.

I'm excited for this one to start. I'm always on the lookout for more freemotion patterns to try out and love learning things from others.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I couldn't wait! #9







Yesterday Mary Johnson and Dawn Ramirez (the Pajama Quilter) were talking about the Fern Ziggle quilting design. I had watched this part of the DVD and wanted to try it. But, after these 'famous' ladies talked about it, I decided to load a quilt and start quilting. I was going to wait until after work today, but just couldn't wait to finish quilting. It was so fun and easy and fast! I tell you, if you don't have either of Dawn's DVD's, and you want to learn free motion quilting, you really need to get them. The way she explains how to quilt will give you the confidence to try. What have you got to lose? Make up some quick stripie quilts from mary's free patterns, pop in Dawn's DVD and get started. Before you know it, you will have 100 charity quilts under your belt and 100 kids will be so happy. I promise you they won't look at your stitches and complain that they aren't perfect!




Sunday, August 15, 2010

#8 Love this one


This was pieced by my friend Nancy last year. I thought it was a sudoku quilt, but after quilting it, I see that all the blocks are the same and I love the red block in the center. Love the colors on this quilt. I used a tan flannel on the back and it is super cuddly. Somebody is gonna get a great quilt here. I like all of the quilts I do, but this one really speaks to me! Red is my favorite color.
And I did get some time to cut some fabric. I would say today was a good last day of vacation. I got a nap in too and had ice cream. Not sure what would have made it better.

the decision

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2010/08/fair-and-square-quilt-pattern.html

Found the pattern here. Needs a bit of a trim on the bottom to even it out. Not sure why those couple of rows didn't come out even, but I like the look of this one.

I have lots of solid fabric (I think from sheets) that will make lots more like this.

This one will be in the mail tomorrow to Margaret's Hope Chest.
http://www.margaretshopechest.com/

If you have extra quilt tops or want to help a great cause and have an extra hour or two, why not make one like this and send it along?

And I have one more hour to finish up a quilt. I may even get a little more fabric cutting done :)

Final hours...

Of vacation that is.

I am not sure what to do with myself. I have 7 more quilt tops from my 14 quilt challenge. Plus all of the new ones I have been working on, plus the 3 or 4 dozen in the garage.

I have lots of scraps that need cutting.

I have several (ok 50 or more) quilt kits cut out and waiting to be sewn together.

I got the new PajamaQuilter DVD yesterday in the mail and started watching it yesterday and could finish watching that.

I need to go grocery shopping, but I'm sure there is something I could throw together for dinner :)

I can't decide what to do on my final day of vacation. I took my daughter to a tennis match this morning and she lost.

Decisions...decisions...must get off the computer and do something! Work starts tomorrow.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

#7


Since hubby took our daughter to the tennis match, I had a few extra hours today. I not only got the quilt top finished up, I also found time to finish this quilt. And, when he brought in the mail, there was the Pajama Quilter, Rethreaded DVD and a special surprise book in the mail for me! What a great day this turned out to be! I can't wait to sit down tomorrow and watch the DVD. I loved the first one and know this one will provide lots of inspiration for more quilting.

If you don't know the Pajama Quilter, check out her website
http://www.pajamaquilter.com/

faster computer

The computer I use most of the time has been running SOOOOOOO slowly. It has been driving me crazy. I have been trying to get on the kids' computers whenever they aren't around because I can go through 20 pages on the internet vs. one page on this computer. I remembered today that I hadn't run a system scan on this computer in who knows how long.

A system scan takes forever! But, how much time have I been wasting waiting for the computer to load the next page? So, I just did it and now the computer is running fast again! I think I need to set a reminder to run the scan more often. I will save time, which can be used for cleaning or quilting. Which do you think I will choose?

Another top finished

I really need to get some quilting done. My friend Carla shows up at the door and my little guy, who is not supposed to answer the door says, there is a lady at the door holding quilts! So, he knows it is ok to let her in. I just hope the bad guys never find this out :)
She brought back all of the quilts I had quilted, plus all of the ones she had quilted from our binding friend, Rhoda. Rhoda is a fast binder! She said she has nothing to do all day, but sit and sew binding onto quilts. So, that means I had better get busy!!!
Here are the two quilts using the same pattern. The one on the top is the one I finished today. I made it 5 by 5 instead of 4 by 6. Why? Because I messed up the first row and made that 5 squares and figured it was easier to sew them all in rows of 5 instead of ripping out one extra block. I know, it wasn't easier, but that's how I was thinking at the time.
The one on the top is made with lots of different blocks for the centers. The one on the bottom is made with just two colors of blocks. I like them both!
I have one more quilt like the top one ready to sew. They are quick.
The one today I just found some strips for the borders. Skinny strips for the inner and thick strips for the outer. I didn't quite have enough of the thicker strips, so just cut a piece that was laying near the sewing machine and it looks like I planned the border just like it is. That's why I never clean up in the sewing room. You never know when you will need an emergency piece of fabric and are too lazy to get up, so just reach down and there you go! Who knows what would have happened to this project if I had to get up, look for fabric, cut a piece, measure and then go back to sew. I probably would have gotten distracted by either the computer or chocolate. The quilt top would never have gotten done. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

another one I couldn't do :)



I love the feeling of finishing something I thought I couldn't do. This one is called Twistin Round the Rails. Either I am really bad at piecing, or the measurements in the book are off. Because you can see from the blocks that every single block came out wrong and had to be cut. The instructions say to cut the long strips 10 1/2 inches to go around the center block which is 6 1/2 inches. Well, if you do the math, it doesn't add up. So, for the two odd blocks, which for some reason I couldn't find the two other centers for and had to substitute plain 6 1/2 inch blocks, I cut the strips at 10 1/4 inches. They came out perfect. My brain is tired and I don't want to actually calculate it, I just know that it worked.
I hate when a pattern has a mistake in it and then I feel like an idiot when it doesn't work right.
But, I am so pleased with the results. Since this was using up scraps and I ran out of the center block scraps and the darker blue scraps, I just used what I had and made the two different blocks. I could have put them in the center and that would have looked cute too. But the corners are where they ended up.
Another one ready to quilt. I am working on cutting scraps today and getting ready to go back to school Monday. My daughter has a tennis tournament at 5 today that I will be taking her to. So, my sewing time is coming to an end. I am hoping to get a quilt quilted today, but if not tomorrow for sure. Once school starts, I will be tired, especially this first week.

She's home




My oldest went back to college yesterday. It was a bit of a shock on Monday when she told me she was getting a job back there and needed to go back early. She starts this coming Monday and is excited to be making a little spending (or saving) money.
Every time she leaves, she takes a piece of my heart with her. This time I only cried for 2 minutes in the car on the way home from the airport. I'm getting better.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Go Home, Car, Go Home

So, how exactly do you ship a car across the country? You can't take it to the post office and put it in a flat rate box. Nope, you call a car shipping company, they come to your house, put it on a truck and deliver it wherever you pay them to.
I put the order in last week and they were supposed to come Thursday night or Friday sometime. The truck driver was supposed to call me 24 hours ahead of time to confirm the exact time of pickup. I got a call this morning saying he was coming in 40 minutes. What? 40 minutes? I'm not ready! We had planned to ship some stuff in the car too and nothing was packed up yet. Luckily, my daughter had packed it up last night and had it ready to go in the car.
The guy showed up 20 minutes later (not good at telling time I guess) and loaded it onto the truck. He hooked all sorts of chains to the car and took a good 30 minutes to get it completely loaded. I figured he would put it on the front of the truck since it was the first car on the truck, but he loaded it on the back. I waved goodbye and off he went. Sure hope he shows up on the other end in about a week!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

another quilt top finished



Another one that was super easy and pretty quick. This one maybe took an hour or one and a half hours to complete. This one uses 3 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch squares and is called Daddy Did It! It is pretty important to get the 1/4 inch seams because otherwise the block won't come out square and then the whole rows will be off. This one doesn't have a border, but I'm thinking of putting a border around it because when I load it to quilt, it will stretch all of the side seams. Plus, it will make it a little bigger.
I like this one and think it will make a good leader-ender project. I plan to cut more of my 3 1/2 inch strips into blocks and have a pile sitting by the machine ready to sew together when I need a mindless project or when I'm working on another project and need a quick break inbetween longer seams.
Next up...Twistin' Round the Rails. After running some errands.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I did it! My own challenge






Today's goal was to cut the fabric for the first pattern I wanted to try from the book The Giving Quilt. I not only cut the fabric, but I got the whole quilt top done too! And I cut fabric for two more quilt tops and have them kitted up and ready to sew. This pattern went together really quickly and easily. A lot of the pieces were at least partly cut already. I had spent most of Sunday cutting 2 1/2 inch strips from my 'ugly' fabric for bindings and I dug through that and then through my 6 1/2 inch squares and came up with this quilt top in about an hour.
The pattern is called Day Dreams and it will make a really nice baby quilt. The next two are going to be done with all different colors of 6 1/2 inch squares and I'm sure they will look completely different from this first one.
Exciting!
Fun!
Now, onto the next quilt pattern. I am going to start using my books. I am. I am.

#6 Where did you come from?


I thought that I had sorted all of my quilt tops by size when I rearranged my sewing room months ago. Well, somehow this little quilt top got put in with the big ones so it was nice getting to do a little top in the middle of all of the bigger ones. Super quick! I love this quilting pattern for the square quilts. It reminds me of the sun coming up and a new day. I hope this little quilt brings some sunshine to a new person too.

Monday, August 9, 2010

A new challenge

As if I didn't have enough to do :)

I've decided to challenge myself to branch out and try new things. Remember when I couldn't draw :)

Well, I can't sew a perfect 1/4 inch seam and I can't sew 1/2 square triangles.

That will end too. Last night I picked out a book off my shelf called The Giving Quilt by Cozy Quilt Designs. I just had to have this quilt book when I was at the store, oh, maybe a year ago. It had the perfect quilts in it. They look simple enough. But, what happened to the book? Just like the other 50 books on my shelf. It sat. All of the other 'must have' books that I paid good money for, it sat. I looked at it and thought, these patterns are too hard. They will take too long. I won't have the patience to finish the quilts. So, I went back to my standards and put the book back on the shelf.

Well, no longer my friend. I am going to make some if not all of the quilts in this book and then move on to a different book. Last night I picked out 6 of the 10 quilts in the book that I liked and thought, hey, I can do that. I wrote down the cutting instructions and tomorrow I plan to start cutting out one of the quilts. I hope to get the top finished before school starts.

I posted on the yahoo group stashbusters that I wish I had an accountability partner who would keep me on track and check up on me to make sure I didn't give up after 5 seconds like I normally do. I had two people email me saying they would love to help me out. So, now I am accountable to two ladies to let them know how I'm doing and I will be posting progress here for all to see.

Plus I have 8 more quilts waiting to be quilted (plus about 30 more in the garage that need digging out, but who is counting?) I quilted another one that needs to be posted, but I'm on my son's computer and don't have the camera here and I'm too lazy to go find it, so you will just have to wait until tomorrow to see quilt #6. I'm on a roll. Just hope I don't burn out before school starts next week :)

#5 What can't you do?


I can't draw. I can't sew a perfect 1/4 inch seam to save my life. I can't sew 1/2 square triangles either.



The other day I asked my daughter to pick out 4 quilting designs for me to try out. Of course, she picked out 4 that I never would have tried. She picked out the flower that looked really hard. I tried it and it turned out pretty good. She picked out some waves she wants me to practice for when I quilt the turtle quilt she is working on. She picked out a leaf and lattice pattern that looks like it will take a lot of time. And she picked out this dragonfly. What? I can't draw. This looks complicated. I can't do this one. Pick another one. Please? No, this is neat and will look good on boy quilts.
So, last night I got the book, took some paper and tried to practice. The pattern in the book was really confusing. So, I came up with my own line drawing and practiced it over and over about 7 times.
This morning I got up and tried it and look! I can draw. Not every one is perfect, but they all look like dragonflies.
And just to show off, I threw in some butterflies too :)
So, what can't you do?

Sunday, August 8, 2010

#4 a QOV

This one was finished before Church this morning. We went to our old church, Crossroads Christian Church, the whole family! It was good to have everyone together and back at church. That hasn't happened in a long time. Someone usually has somewhere to be on a Sunday and my oldest heads back to college, as early as this Friday. She may be starting a job, maybe not. Isn't life great when you can just pick up and go on a whim like that?


So, since that church service starts at 10:45, I had a whole morning to work around the house. Got the dishes done and groceries put away. I'm trying to reorganize the pantry to get ready for the new school year. Some people do spring cleaning, I do back to school panic cleaning of really random places...the pantry is one of them. Somehow I think I am going to be organized and have lunches made and dinners planned out a week in advance. I am lucky to not pick up Taco Bell every night when things get busy.


But this is a QOV, Quilt of Valor and will be going to Colorado to my friend Alycia to be given to a wounded service member returning from Iraq or Afghanistan to thank them for their service. I pieced the top last summer I think and it hung, waiting its turn for a very long time.



It was a good thing I got so much done this morning, because after church was Binky Patrol. We met the 2nd Sunday of every even month at A Quilted Heart in Vacaville. We have been meeting for 6 years. I started the group in Feb of 2004 but held the first public meeting in August 2004. Today, there was only one other lady there with me, cutting out fabric. I cut fabric for about 2 1/2 hours and hurt my back. I'm in a lot of pain and can barely move.


Another lady had dropped off blankets and one lady came with her daughter to ask some questions. She does Girl Scouts and wanted to partner with us and have us help them make blankets. They plan to come with several girls to our next meeting in October and we will help them learn to sew. I love passing along skills to the next generation.

#3 of 14


So, I'm on a roll! Not sure this will last, but I'm going with it while I can. I have the 4th one loaded and ready to go.

#2 Yay!




And a new pattern for quilting. I had my daughter go through the book and pick out 4 new quilting designs for me to try. Of course, she picked out some pretty complicated ones, but that's ok because it forces me to stretch myself and try things I wouldn't normally try on my own. Isn't that what we have friends for...to push us beyond our comfort zones?




I think the flowers turned out great. They are supposed to be columbines. I think they look like what they were supposed to look like. On to the next quilt. This one I am free to do whatever I want on.




Saturday, August 7, 2010

Procrastinating takes longer than quilting


Here's the first of the 14 quilts to finish before school starts. Do I think I will get them all done? No, but I will make a good dent in the stack and make room for the ones that had to go in the garage for the massive clean that you can't even tell happened when the boyfriend came over :)
I put this quilt off for over a year and it took maybe 20 minutes to quilt. Why so long? I have no idea. I had to piece the back because it is wider than the width of a piece of fabric and so those are all of the quilts that need working on right now. They all need the backs pieced together before I can work on them. But really, how long does that take?
So, I loaded another quilt last night and pieced another back. I hope to get both of those quilts done today. I also hope to try out some new quilting. I have a new book with quilting designs and lots of old quilting books and a couple of DVD's and keep using the same old quilting patterns on my quilts. Time to branch out and try new things. I keep going back to the standards, meandering, baptist fans, loops, stars, hearts because they are quick and I don't have to think about them, but trying something new stimulates the brain and keeps that active. At my age, you have to stimulate your brain every once in a while.
So, I'm going to make myself try something new on every other quilt. Who knows, I may find something I really like and that may become my new standard. And I need to start practicing feathers again! This was supposed to be the year of the feather and I really haven't done any this year at all. Can't get better at making feathers if you aren't even practicing. They just take so long :)
Ok, off I go. Wish me luck.

Pajama Quilter Rethreaded

http://www.pajamaquilter.com/pajamaquilter_rethreaded.html

Have you seen this DVD yet? I just ordered it and am eagerly awaiting its arrival! I have the first one and learned a lot and use the patterns on lots of my quilts. Can't wait to see what is new and try out some new quilting on these 14 quilts I'm working on.

Stash Management anyone?

http://stashmanicure.blogspot.com/2010/07/story-of-miagia.html

Check out this great idea on using up old stash. It gives me a great idea...not that I need any more ideas because my house is a mess already with me pulling fabrics for all of my current projects, but as I am cutting things, I think I will cut the leftovers into 2 1/2 inch strips for future projects to get the scraps out of the house!

Friday, August 6, 2010

14 bigger quilts


I have one week of vacation left and am trying to plan my last week off. This hanging clothes rack keeps falling over and I think it is telling me it is tired of holding up all of these quilts and backings. There are 14 of them waiting their turn, some for a couple of years! How many do you think I can get done before school starts? Let the challenge begin...

moderated comments

About 4 months ago I had to put my comments on moderation because I keep getting someone (most likely a spammer) who posts chinese comments on most of my posts. Why do I think they are a spammer? Because I guess there is no chinese symbol for Viagara or Cialis because those words I can understand. Is there any way to block the person sending these spam messages to all of my posts without having to moderate every comment?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Finished

the back


The memory quilt is finished and I'm about to find a box and get it in the mail this afternoon. I can't tell you how good it feels to have it done.
I'm working on designing a quick and easy pattern for using up my fat quarters. I have about a zillion of them (I counted them) and I hate using them because they are a pain to cut. They aren't all the same size so you can't just stack them one on top of another and get the same size pieces.
I started working on the pattern last night while watching TV and so far have come up with two different patterns and tried one out last night and cut the second one out too. They are super simple and quick and will use up these fat quarters lickity split. After all, isn't that why we get fabric? To use it up?
But, you should see my sewing room! It is a total disaster! I've started pulling fabrics for my Binky Patrol meeting on Sunday. I have a box for cutting into 6 1/2 inch strips for making more quilt kits and a box for making 2 1/2 inch binding strips. I learned a new technique for ironing the binding (a different post) and am on a binding making frenzy. I'm thinking of giving up quilting and starting a hobby of making binding. I bet I could make a lot of binding with all of the fabric I have here :)
Ok, off the computer to find a box and head to the post office before I get distracted again.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The hardest quilt I've ever made


It is almost finished. Just need to sew the binding on and get it in the mail. This is the memory quilt for my friend whose 12 year old daughter was hit and killed by a car last November. It was very difficult to make because every time I would work on it, I would get emotionally exhausted. I promised myself that I would have it finished by the end of the summer and that is next weekend for me.

Marching band camp

Picking up my son from Drum Major camp was quite the experience. I got there early so I could watch them doing their last evaluations. My son was last in his group so I got to watch all of the other kids go first. They had to beat time, salute, make calls, blow their whistles...you can tell I know all of the technical terms :) He got a lot of ribbons for marching, conducting and winning the trivia contest. He came home tired, but very happy and is looking forward to going back next year.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

just weird


So on Sunday when I went to pick up my son from Marching band camp, I looked up and saw this hot air balloon on the side of the freeway. There were several others in the sky and I guess this one had troubles and had to land. It was about 10 feet off the side of the freeway and when it landed, it scared a family of ducks right onto the freeway. There was a car that stopped completely in the middle of the freeway, in the right hand lane to avoid hitting the ducks. 65 to 0 in a matter of seconds. Well, the guy behind the stopped car wasn't paying attention or didn't realize that someone would stop for ducks and he swerved over into my lane almost hitting me.
It was crazy and scary and now you know why I will never go up in a hot air balloon. These things are crazy and unpredictable and you can't steer them very well. They sure are pretty when they are in the air though.

Home made ice cream

On the last night there, we made home made ice cream.

The rule of the house is if you don't help crank it, you don't get to eat it.
Everyone took a turn cranking the ice cream.
This is the original hand crank that my parents have had since I was a kid and you know that means it is OLD!

We had a great visit and look forward to next summer! See you soon DAD.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Parker Museum

On one of the days, my little one got sick and was throwing up. That was the day we had planned on going to the museum in Parker, Co. We waited until everyone else got back from church and left the little one with my mom and took the bigger kids to the museum in the afternoon.
The museum has lots of exhibits with real, stuffed animals and the kids had a great time looking for all of the hidden, smaller animals among the bigger, obvious ones. There are animated fake people in the exhibits too that tell the stories of each habitat and you can learn a lot about wildlife here.

We had a really great timended me a lot of the Natural history museum in Los Angeles I used to go to when I was a kid, only a lot smaller :)



That's where I am now!


They even had a dress up area for the little (or not so little) kids.