Family Reunions = Lots of Fun

My mother’s family just had a reunion at Estes Park, Colorado at the YMCA of the Rockies.  One of my sisters and I drove my mother to the reunion of her 2 sisters, 2 brothers and all the nieces and nephews that could make it.  My mother is the oldest living sibling now as her older sister died a few years ago and several of the spouses have passed away too.  There were only 42 of us in attendance this year but we had such a great time catching up on our lives and enjoying the lodge, YMCA and Rocky Mountain National Park.

We had the use of one of the large lodges at the YMCA and it was just beautiful.  The kitchen was huge – we fixed big breakfasts and served our other meals from this well appointed kitchen.  It had 4 dishwashers and lots of help to serve and clean up so no one person had to do much.  The lodge had a big dining room and lounge to accommodate a group and they were divided by a two sided fireplace which we did run a few times.  It got down to the upper 40s at night so was cool in the morning.  The lodge had hotel type rooms we all stayed in.

Barclay Lodge VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

My ankle felt good enough I did the walk around Bear Lake….well I only went half way then back to the start as there was snow on the last half of the trail and I sure didn’t need to be falling.  I am not known for my grace so that was probably the best decision.  Actually there is still a lot of snow in the mountains yet.

The YMCA of the Rockies is right beside the Rocky Mountain National Park so we got the chance to drive, hike and appreciate the beauty of the mountains in the park too.  We took my mother on a driving excursion and she had a wonderful time even though at Rainbow Curve it was windy and chilly.  I don’t remember for sure but think the temperature was in the 50s and it was misty up there too. 
We were among the many tourists taking photos of the many elk.  Majestic animals but we were playing it safe and didn’t get too close but some people were within a few feet of them snapping photos.  Don’t these people know that they are wild animals and could really hurt them if they took offense at the closeness or photo taking of the tourists.

 

The wild flowers were beautiful too.  I do not know what kind these were but we saw them all over.

OK, that is it for the trip photos…could bore you with lots of photos of people you don’t know but I won’t.  I will end by saying it was a beautiful place to have a reunion and so enjoyed myself and was glad my mother could go and see her family members that are scattered all over the USA.

Until Later,
Lynn

Colorful Spaghetti?

Colorful Spaghetti? VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

No – not the spaghetti you eat but plastic bowls of fabric trimmings from squaring up the blocks at the workshop last Saturday.  The bright colored bowls make the scraps really pretty.

Lynn

Scrappity-Do-Dah

These are really easy blocks to make – cut a 6” square, cut it in half diagonally, sew a 1 1/2” x 8 1/2” wide strip between and square up.  I did make a goof when I cut my small strips as I cut them at 8” instead of 8 1/2” though but it wasn’t a problem I just squared my blocks a little smaller than some of the others did.  Follow the photos below to see how I made the blocks.

		Make a Block VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

One thing I don’t understand from the pattern is that the instructions say to trim the blocks down to 5”.  What a lot of fabric to trim off – a big waste I think.  I cut my center strip too short and still could trim mine down to 5 1/2”.  Others that made the correct size center strip trimmed their blocks to 6” and I did a little figuring and if you cut the center strip 9” long you could square up the block at 6 1/4”.  I can’t see wasting as much fabric as the pattern has you trim off.  If you want to a 5”  block the beginning square should be cut smaller than 6”.

I pressed my seams all one direction so hopefully when I put them together I should be able place the blocks about anywhere by just flipping it if the seams don’t work together.  That is the plan but will have to wait until I start putting them together to know if that will work or not.

I have 90 blocks done and don’t really know how many I will make – guess when I run out of blues maybe.  Looking at my box of blue fabric I don’t think I want to make that many, even though I would love to make a bigger dent in all those fabrics.

I am not rushing to get this quilt finished and think it will be a fun project to pick up and sew when I have just a few minutes as the blocks are so simple to make.

Lynn

Guild Workshop

Saturday our local guild had a scrappy quilt workshop.  One of our members led the workshop and we got the choice of two different free patterns we all got off the web.  These were not difficult patterns and we all could have done them at home but it is so much more fun to sew all day with friends. 

I chose to make the Scrappidy-Do-Dah a free pattern from McCalls Quilting.  This was designed by Ann Weber and Joanne Rowicki. 

Here is the start of my quilt.  I chose to use all blues so cut two squares and two strips of every blue I have in my “blue box”.   I have a lot of blues

Two other member’s quilts…the one on the right is our youngest member’s blocks.  She is about 12 I believe.  We are so glad she feels comfortable at our meetings and workshops.  She is a cutie and really likes to quilt.

The second scrappy quilt was The Next Generation of the Magic 9-Patch by Lyn Brown. 

Guild Member’s Quilts in Progress VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It was a fun day with no yard work, laundry, phone calls, or cooking to do.  We have so much fun chatting, sharing tips and getting a large block of time to sew.

I will be blogging more about how I made my blocks next.

Lynn