Quilt of the week

What better time of year than freezing cold January to feature my Hawaiian quilt! It makes me think of beaches, suntans, sunsets and pina coladas! We went to Hawaii, the island of Kauai to be exact, with Heidi and Eric back in October of 2001. Colton turned 4 while we were there and Cory was 2 1/2 and Quincy was 6 months old... it was quite the adventure! We had so much fun spending every day on the beach playing in the waves and digging in the sand. Paul & I did a scuba diving trip one day and the adults even got to work in a helicopter flight over the island -- my first and only time in a helicopter! Loved it!!!

While driving around the island one day we came across a quilt shop! And a really good one too! I bought all of the fabrics in this quilt and the pattern for the little Hawaiian shirts. It was so fun to make tiny little re-creations of those wild aloha shirts that you see everywhere over there. I whipped the shirts up very quickly after we got home but then it took me a while to create the layout I wanted. This is one of the few quilts that I have designed myself. I knew I wanted to use as much of the fabric as possible and not cut it up into tiny pieces especially since the prints are so cute and depict whales and surfboards and tropical flowers ... even aloha shirts. Finally in early 2003 I figured out a layout that I liked and finished piecing it all together. The little shirts are folded like origami and then hand stitched to hold them together. I hand appliqued the shirts to those blocks but I machine pieced the rest of the top. I finished it with hand quilting.

One of our employees loves Hawaii so it hangs above her desk at our office. She likes the "Aloha Spirit" it brings her every day. Coinsidentally, "Aloha Spirit" is the name of the quilt. I hope this quilt made you think of your favorite beach and warmed you up for just a minute or two!

37 in 2007

No I didn't turn 37 years old in 2007...close though (by about 20 years!). I counted up all the books I've read this year and was amazed to discover that I had read 37 books!

I do like to keep a list of all the books I have read. It is kind of a "check list" mentality. As soon as I finish a book I can hardly wait to go write it down in my book journal -- check!

The last book that I read in 2007 was "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson. It is a memoir of his adventures while building schools, mostly for girls, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The story is remarkable! He is remarkable! I was so fascinated by his desire to help meet this need that he became aware of after he had a failed mountain climbing experience on K-2 back in the 1990's. To read of all his interactions with people from this part of the world that we usually only hear about in very negative reports was very inspiring.

After I finished the book I went to his website and saw that he has Book Tour dates there. I clicked on to 2008 and the closest location to where I live is Twin Falls, Idaho where he will be at the College of Southern Idaho on Feb. 7th. I called the contact person and found out that his presentation is free and open to the public. I am going to be there for sure -- weather permitting. I have been so touched by this man's sincerity and generousity and perserverance that I want to meet him in person and feel of his passion and what drives him.

With all that is going on in that part of the world, especially with the assassination of Benezir Bhutto a couple weeks ago, I think it will be fascinating to hear first hand from someone who has lived and worked and associated with these people on a daily basis for so many years through so much toil and strife. He will be on a totally different level than what we hear about only through the news and media.

This is one book that has continued to make me think and be more aware of world events because of it. I just hope there will be clear roads and no snow so I can have this, to me, much anticipated experience.

Weekend favorites

This last Saturday was the first Saturday in a long time that hasn't already been planned with obligations... ok, just one. I had to go to a "meet my new Primary teacher" breakfast first thing but then we had the whole day free... what a treat! I have been so anxious to take Paul to see the shop where I bought his Christmas banjo so we decided we'd go there. We live in the south end of our city's valley and don't have much occassion to go "downtown" so it always seems like we are going on a little adventure outing when we head off in that direction.

The Intermountain Guitar and Banjo shop is very unassuming. It just sits there where it has for many many years and is known to the real folk and country music artists around here. The photo really doesn't convey it's authenticity and quirkiness (in a delightful way) completely but you can get somewhat of a feel. There is just so much packed into such a small space. It looks all cluttered and in disarray at first appearance but as you spend some time there you can see how much love and devotion and passion is what is really behind the scene. There are vintage and collectible instruments all over the walls. There are dozens and dozens of microphones from numerous eras gone by. The mixture of old and new inventory is impressive. Paul thought he might like to strum a few other banjos and make sure he had the one he would want to play for a long time. I got him about the most basic banjo there -- it didn't even have a resonator attached so Paul wanted to try a banjo with a resonator. After strumming on 3 or 4 different instruments, inexpensive to very expensive ones, he decided to keep the one I had given him.

By the time we had finished the banjo jam session, we were hungry. One of our favorite little spots to eat downtown is a wonderful restaurant, meat and cheese shop, and authentic German foods grocery store all in one location called Siegfrieds. We were so excited to go there on a Saturday because during the week, especially at lunch time, the lines are out the door. We loaded our trays up with wiener schnitzel, rot kohl, kartophen salat and spitzela (I'm sure most of that spelling is not correct) and of course, apfel strudel for dessert! Yummy! So authentic ... we felt like we were back in Salzburg or Bad Reichenhall for a few minutes.

After lunch we strolled down Main Street which on a Saturday feels like a ghost town in addition to the fact that downtown has become a giant construction site --- which will result in good things in about 10 years! We made two stops. The first one was for another meal... not to eat right then, we were already stuffed, but to make reservations at the Vienna Bistro for Valentine's day dinner. We are usually too late with our plans to get into an excellent restaurant on that day so now we are ahead of the game. Then we popped into Sam Weller's New and Used Bookstore and spent a very enjoyable 30 minutes browsing the shelves and picking up some new reading material for our upcoming escape from winter!

Oh, I lied, we actually had two obligations on Saturday. We met some dear friends for dinner. They live in Orem and we typically try to go to dinner once a year. In the past we've driven down there or they have came up here but this time we decided to meet half way so we ended up at a little restaurant in Draper and had a delightful catch-up over some really good food. So that was our Saturday and it was definately spent doing some of our favorite things, eating some of our favorite food and hanging out with some of our favorite people!

Day at the Museum

It's good that we went to the North American Museum of Ancient History at Thanksgiving Point during the daytime because I wouldn't want to meet up with this guy at night. He's called the Utah Raptor. He is just one of the many, many displays at this amazing museum.

On New Year's Day we opted for an outing instead of just another day hanging around at home feeling like we needed to be productive. I had read about an event at this museum for kids and their parents (and grandparents, too) that included a scavanger hunt, arts and craft projects, a fishing pond (for prizes not real fish) and face painting as well as exploring the displays and exhibits. I have driven past this museum lots of times as it sits right next to I-15 between Salt Lake and all points South but we have never stopped in for a visit. Turns out Collin has been there about 3 or 4 times and he loves it.

I have never seen so many dinosaurs in my life! Really, really big ones like T-Rex and teeny, tiny ones that I never even knew about. They also had a wooly mammoth -- minus all his wool! There were even underwater sea dwelling dinosaurs! The musuem is really A+.
There is room after room after room with display cases and interactive stations and lifesize models of probably over 100 dinosaurs. Collin especially enjoyed the bone quarry where kids can dig for and unearth dinosaur bones just like little archeologists.

All in all it was a great outing... I highly recommend it for kids of any age!