Quilt of the Week

I started this quilt 2 years ago (2005) this month. My grandson Collin has always been so fascinated with construction-type trucks -- backhoes, earth movers, dump trucks, basically everything depicted on the quilt. When I saw this pattern I knew I had to make it for him. It was such a lot of fun. I loved using such vibrant primary colors and each new block was unique and challenging. I found some fabric that had lots of different little kids faces so I added faces as drivers to each of the machines and trucks. I still can't believe that I hand appliqued a quilt for a 3 year old; a quilt that I expected him to use, no less. I did have it machine quilted though. I gave it to him for Christmas that year and he was thrilled when he saw it. He still sleeps with it every night. I hope he feels like I'm hugging him all night long when he goes to bed!

Weekend, part II

After going to the Farmer's market in the morning, I got to attend a beautiful wedding in the afternoon. One of Katie's close girlfriends from high school days, Melissa, had her wedding at the Salt Lake Country Club. It is one of the fancy-smancy, members only clubs here -- needless to say, we don't go there very often; in fact, I think it is only the second time Paul & I have ever been there (the first time being for my sister's wedding luncheon back in like 1980). Melissa had bought a beautiful dress that she wanted Aspen to wear. Katie wasn't really very excited to be bringing Aspen to a formal wedding but what could she say. Aspen did look adorable and she really was quite well behaved for a 16 month old!

The second photo is actually from last week's wedding of my niece Konni. Aspen had been asked to be a flower girl for that wedding and Kalita bought her that cute pink and green polka dot dress to wear. Aspen was adorable there as well but she was definately not into posing for the camera. She wouldn't let Konni hold her so we set her on the grass and everyone else had to come down to her level. It was truly amazing we caught this shot because she was up and out of there in like 2 seconds. Both of these summer wedding were so enjoyable. We were lucky to be included.

Weekend, part I

I have been wanting to go downtown to the weekly Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park for several weeks now and I finally made it there. KJ and I put on our most comfortable walking shoes and coolest clothing (temperature-wise) and spent a couple of hours mixing and mingling with crowds of Saturday shoppers. For those that don't know SLC, Pioneer Park in downtown is about the most scary park in the city. Typically you would only go there if you wanted some drugs or you were a homeless male and needed some where to sleep. Most people avoid that place for major safety reasons but amazingly enough once a week it becomes the "it" place to hang out. There were probably about 50 separate booths selling everything from vegetables to fruits to nuts to artisian breads to honeys to plants and herbs to farm fresh eggs. And then there were another 20 or so booths selling prepared foods; everything from cupcakes to roasted almonds to slushies to Kenyan cuisine (looked a little too authentic for me). I loved the booth in the second photo that had the most unique vegetarian dishes with sprouts and pine nuts and everything looked so fresh and healthy. Then there were probably another 100 booths selling arts and crafts: jewelry, metal sculputres, knitted goods, aprons, tye dyed items -- even marshmellow guns (KJ bought 2). That was only half of the entertainment -- the other half was provided by the people that we observed as we strolled along. We kept running into this "python guy" and it was a little creepy. I finally tapped him on the shoulder and asked if I could take his photo and he readily agreed and started walking towards me -- I told him I could zoom in just fine -- whoa, people and their pets. By the time we had perused every booth, my bag was so full and heavy that it took both KJ and I each holding a strap to get it back to the car. What a fun outing! If you have a farmer's market by you, I highly recommend that you check it out.

The kicks with Route 66

I have chosen the quilt that is in Paul's office as my Quilt of the Week. You can see the wallpaper that Paul chose to have in his office is reminiscent of the good old highway "Route 66". He loves the song, he loves the nostalgia and he loves the knick knacks he has scattered about so when I ran across this fabric a few years ago I knew I had to make him a Route 66 quilt. It is just colorful and quirky. I used lots of my on hand scraps in the tiny little squares... I always love it when I can use some of what I already have stashed away. The inside border is to resemble the yellow strips along the roadway. I often try to use the left over fabric on the backside and this time I had some fun with it. I wanted those checkerboard sections to look like tire tracks. I did machine piece this one and then hand quilt it. Be sure to click on the photos for a close up view and you'll get a "kick" out of the cute fabrics.