Do You Remember Having Tea Parties When You Were Young?

I do. So I thought it would be fun to join another Pat Sloan swap. Actually it is suppose to be a Mad Hatter's Tea Cup swap, with the idea of remembering the book, Alice in Wonderland. I couldn't quite get a good idea for the quilt to wrap around Alice so I decided to change mine into remembering those days when I was a little girl and use to play "tea party". I can actually remember one time when my friends put coffee in my little cup. I was so grossed out! We had never done that before! It had ALWAYS been just Kool-Aid or water. It stunk and I didn't want to drink their "tea" so I went home.

Do you remember having tea parties with your dolls? I still have my tea set in my cedar chest, along with my dolls and stuffed animals.

For the swap, we each made 6 tea cups and exchanged them. Background fabric had to be beige and the cups had to be "bright" or "bold" colors. I actually didn't use any of the blocks I received except the one that my daughter made. I will save them for another quilt.

I am also debating if I want to applique some words around the quilt to remind me of those days gone by.

 

Bewitching

This is a pattern I bought during the Wasatch Shop Hop in Utah.

 

And this is what mine looked like before it headed to my quilter.

 

Garden Blessings

I've probably mentioned this before, but I'm not a gardener. This is the first place we have lived in our 31 years of marriage where you can actually dig in the soil and actually grow things! I have tried a few veggies in pots before but haven't had much success. The growing season is very short where we have lived. It is short here too but I am having success! We have already harvested lots of lettuce and spinach plus a couple of green and red peppers. Now lookie what we have! I planted two zucchini seeds because I have heard you always get an overabundance of them. Here are our first 2 fruits from our crop. Guess what we are having for dinner tonight?!

I have also learned that I will not plant pumpkin and zucchini close to each other again in the raised beds. Next year I will plant them both outside the beds so they won't take over everything else that I planted. Such a learning experience but it has been fun watching everything grow. I told myself that I would be happy if the plants just grow. I wasn't even expecting anything to eat. It has been fun to see that even this novice gardener can grow a few things, even with her not knowing what she is doing.

 

Been awhile, hasn't it?

I've been sewing but can't show them right now. I have 3 quilts to get to the quilter this week and have been busy trying to get them finished. I always make my appointments and then piece my quilt. I knew summer would be hard to keep sewing but I also knew I had a couple of grandbabies coming in the Fall and wanted these done before then. So all I can say is that one of the quilts is PINK.

The Baby came home today because she has a break from school. We have been visiting family tonight and loving this lil' one. He has been away from us for a month and I have missed him so!

Have also been traveling some more with the Honey and been to the cabin this weekend. It is always fun to run over there and just relax. Not that we really just sit, it always seem like we are busy doing things and come home more tired than when we left here but we love it! I love looking out the cabin windows one direction and seeing the gorgeous lake and then looking out our bedroom window when we wake up and seeing the mountains the opposite direction. The best of both worlds!

30's and B/W

It took longer than usual to get this quilt back from my quilter. I love the technique of making a block and then cutting it up and putting it back together in 4ths. It's easy and quick since you don't match up each new square. The sun is bright and hot today but I like this pic better than the one in the house. I have such crazy wall colors that it doesn't work too well taking pics against it.

 

Pic of some of the quilting. I'm happy to say I used my stash for all of this quilt! Have to admit that is mighty unusual for me. I am always buying fabric. You know I didn't make a dent in what I still have. :)

 

Scenery changes

Whirlwind business trip with Honey last week. I decided to go with him this time instead of staying home. I was excited that I was going to be able to "see" Steamboat this time around! Last year, we were late to the annual meeting and the town shut down by the time it was over. This year, almost the same thing happened. I am hoping that NEXT YEAR I can actually shop the shops and look around. It is one beautiful valley. Oh well. It was a business trip and Honey gets busy with things like...business...go figure.

I was bored with all the driving so decided to take pics of the scenery that we saw as we traveled. It's all beautiful in its own way.

First stop was Salt Lake, Utah. While Honey was in meetings, I shopped a bit, then drove around the Avenues. I love the architect of all the old houses. Got lost and found the Capital building too.

This is Meeker, Colorado. Honey loves this place. I told him I couldn't live there because they have snakes. He kept telling me that they didn't have any snakes. I told him that we passed one of the highway that was dead. He didn't believe me. Well. The manager had just caught two rattlers while on a job site and killed them. No thanks!

 

Steamboat Springs, CO. Gorgeous, beautiful, spectacular place! Now this is some place I could live (snakes or no snakes)! I picked up a couple of Home magazines that showed what was for sale around there. I don't think we are going to be moving there anytime soon. Lots of homes for $3 or 4 million. Even found one going for $20 million!!! What does someone do for a living to have that kind of cash to live in a home that expensive?! The area reminds me alot of Jackson but I think Steamboat may be a bit more upscale, if you can believe that.

 

Drove back through Meeker and then back over to Vernal, Utah.

 

Then it was time to head home. We have to pass Flaming Gorge. Quite a popular place for boaters and fishermen.

 

It was a quick 3 days, at least I got my book finally read. I hope this next week I can get some sewing in!

New purchase

I have a lil' nook in my front entry that has been empty since we moved in. I'm not much of a decorator so I have been ignoring that space for the past 2 years. Yesterday though I found something that I loved and brought it home with me. I had a gift card from a furniture store in Utah because I have been a "good" customer. I used that to get the clearance price down where it was more reasonable plus did a bit of bargaining with the salesman to lower the price even further. Now here we are in our new home! I'm so excited to have a place to put some of my quilts where I can always see them. (Yes, I know I have to learn to fold them all the same but I was excited to get them in the cabinet before I ran off to Church!)