More Family Fun

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade. –Gertrude

Our second day of Art City celebrations started with the parade. Don't you just love a parade? My favorite are the Rodeo Queens riding their horses in fancy western gear. Love it! And pretty high up there on my list of what makes a great parade are the pageant royalty floats. Round it off with a good marching band and you're set. The Little Bugs and I had a great time at the parade this morning. I gave Grasshopper my old camera and let him loose on the floats as they came by. He really got into it. If this were the old days, he would have filled 5 rolls of film!

We also visited the car show. Local auto enthusiasts brought their collections and it was held at an auto body shop. My favorite is that little cream Porsche in the bottom right corner. I have about four pairs of shoes that would look great with that car. The green truck on the top center was also of particular interest, except it is the wrong color and year.

One of my favorite Art City Days activities is the Quilt Show, sponsored by the local quilt guild and my favorite LQS. It is very informal and not a judged show, except the guild picks two winners overall and two youth winners. A viewer's choice award is also given to the quilt that gets the most votes during the two days at the show. It is so fun to share quilts and see all the amazing things other quilters in the community have done. This year, I took Mr. Bug's T-Shirt quilt.

We ended our day with the fireworks display at just after 10:00 pm. We got a great parking spot and a great place to watch the show and it only took us about 20 minutes to get out of the tangle of traffic and back home. I think that this year's Art City Days was a success. We had lots of fun, used copious amounts of sunblock, and came out the other side tired but happy. Until next year!

Favourite Things Friday: Family Fun

Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.
–The Family: A Proclamation to the World
{emphasis added}

As a kid, summers were filled with hometown entertainment; parades and fireworks and activities that made you really enjoy the 'stay' in stay-cation. As a parent, I like doing those same kinds of things with my kids. It really isn't about the money spent. It is about the time doing fun things together as a family.

Springville is home to Utah's oldest art museum. Bronze statues and sculptures dot main street. And our festival days are called Art City Days. We enjoy taking advantage of the great activities that are offered by the city and local sponsors. We have certain favorites we do every year and this year we're doing a few things we haven't done before.

The Little Bugs and I were off to an early start this morning with a hot air balloon launch. Crews started setting up at 6:30 am and as they filled their balloons, there was hot chocolate and doughnuts and music. There were eight balloons and it was interesting to watch them as they expanded and began to rise into the air. As the balloons lifted off the ground and drifted into the sky, the occupants in the baskets threw out candy and prizes. It was quite an amazing sight.

But that wasn't the best part of the morning. After the field cleared, a ninth balloon was filled, tethered to the ground and the pilot gave rides to anyone who wanted one. Although we didn't go very high {perhaps 40 or 50 feet}, it was really fun and left you wanting more.

This morning we also enjoyed breakfast at the fire station; pancakes, eggs, ham and juice or milk prepared by our city's very own fire department. This wasn't one of the free activities, but the money went to a good cause and we had a nice time hanging out in the fire station.

Our last stop for the day was at the Children's Art Festival. This has been a favorite activity of ours and we never miss it. This year was the best yet. There were more booths than usual and the art projects at each booth were really fun {not to mention free!}. The Little Bugs were pretty tired, though, and we didn't stay as long as we usually do. The Mama must have been tired too, because I don't have any photos of the Art Festival.

Tomorrow morning there will be another balloon launch and breakfast at the fire house and I'm thinking it might be really fun to do those activities all over again. The parade is also tomorrow morning and we'll be going to the car show in the afternoon. There is a carnival going on {which we'll definitely skip} but we might swing by the craft and food boutiques. The scones {fry bread} that the Kiwanis club sells are legendary. There are a couple of concerts in the evening, which we may or may not go see and the grand finale will be fireworks tomorrow night. So my favourite thing for this Friday is time spent with the Little Bugs participating in some really great family fun.

Today's post brought to you by:

I Must Ask . . . What Is Your Favorite Season?

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. –Henry David Thoreau

Where I live, we enjoy the four seasons, each in its extreme. Winter brings cold and snow; spring, a renewal of life; summer, the need for air conditioning to keep from melting to the sidewalks; and fall, the turning of the leaves and the earth quietly going to sleep for another winter. Of those four seasons, winter is my least favorite and I could skip it every year. Some people who live around here do. They're called 'snow birds' and they have winter homes in the southern part of the state, where it stays pretty mild. I love the fun that summer brings and autumn is definitely beautiful as all the leaves change color as they burn out their last bit of life.

For me, spring is my favorite season. I love spring. The weather is mild, the days get longer and the earth is comes to life. Long-forgotten plants push up through the ground and bloom anew. Spring is really a miracle.

And not to miss an opportunity to show off my peonies, here's what is blooming today. This is called Bowl of Beauty, and it really lives up to its name. Not only is it nice to look at, it smells beautiful as well.

There are three different peony plants here. In the bottom right corner is Karl Rosenfield. The pretty pink blooms in the center are Alexander Fleming {named after the man who invented penicillin} and the dark pink bud in the back that is just starting to open is one that I picked up from a neighbor. She didn't know the name of it and I haven't been able to tell for sure what kind it is {there are about a zillion different peonies, and unless you write down what they are when you get them, you'll never remember which is which}. Behind them are some pretty peachy irises.

Now that I've shown you why spring is my favorite, I must ask . . what is your favorite season?

Last week, we did eye color. Hazel and blue tied for the lead. I have to say, I really like having blue eyes. Thanks to everyone who voted!

The Great Quilting Debate In My Head

Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. –Unknown

I'm almost ready to start quilting the Snowball Quilt. I stayed up past my bedtime and got the top all marked last night. Then I stayed up even later marking a practice sandwich so I could try out the quilting I want to do. I've been doodling it out on notebook paper and wanted to see if I could create the same doodles on a quilt. This morning I got up way earlier than I wanted to and did a little quilting practice. The machine quilting is inspired by Danielle at Nacho Mama's Quilt. Here are the results:

There is sashing between the blocks, but I left that out on my practice pad because I'm going to quilt swirls in there and I've done those before. Here is a close-up of a single snowball, front and back. I made landmarks in the snowball in order to keep the quilting even. You can see the marks on the left.

In order to help stabilize the quilt, I am going to stitch in the ditch where the sashing meets the blocks {all the best home machine quilters recommend it} before I start the free motion design.

I wanted to have this quilt finished by Friday night so I could put it in a quilt show. But after quilting out four snowballs, I estimate that it will take me at least 20 hours to get this quilted. Even if I got started with the quilting tonight {which I'd really like to}, I wouldn't have it finished in time. I'm OK with that, because there is another quilt show in July and I'll for sure have it done by then.

Now to the heart of the matter, my dilemma. Do I want the ditch quilting to be part of the quilt, or should I get some water soluble thread so that after the quilt is finished and washed only the free-motion quilting will remain?

I've been debating this back and forth with myself all day. Mr. Bug and I went to lunch today and I discussed it with him. He thought that the water soluble thread was a cool invention, but didn't have much of an opinion either way on whether I should use it for this particular quilt. I wish I would have had time to post this morning so all your experience and advice and opinions could have trickled in I could have mulled it over and made my decision.

Even though the ditch quilting won't show on the front of the quilt, I'm kind of leaning towards the water soluble thread because I think it would look nicer on the back. On the other hand, if I use regular thread to stitch in the ditch, I could get started right away. And even though I wouldn't be finished in time for the quilt show, I would be finished with one more Ph.D quilt sooner. The downside to using regular thread is that the snowballs would need to be completely outlined and there is no way to do that and the sashing in continuous lines. I would have to stitch along diagonal of the snowballs individually, which means 192 starts, 192 lines of quilting just 2¾" long and 192 stops. Blech.

I think I'll go get the snowball quilt pin basted and then I'll start working on some baby pinwheels for the back of the Pinwheel Sampler while I wait for the water soluble thread I ordered on-line while writing and editing this post to get here. Even if I decide not to use it in this quilt, there are a couple of quilts I will use it for.

P.S. Santa, if you're reading this, I would really like a Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen under my tree this year. And could we maybe do Christmas in July? Great. Thanks.

Various and Sundry Monday: Vol 10

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade? –Benjamin Franklin

Summer Is Officially Here

OK, so technically, summer doesn't start for 15 more days. But the Summer Fun has officially started at Bug Cottage. The Little Bugs have been out of school for a week and we kicked off the holidays by taking them to see Pirates last Monday. We've had an unusually cool spring, but it finally warmed up enough that we could break in our season passes at the water park on Saturday. This is one of their favorite summer-time things to do. I *think* this is our fourth summer as season pass holders. We go once a week and spend a few hours there splashing about and having a wonderful time. I like it because we get our money's worth {and then some} out of our passes, but only have to spend a few hours there each time we go {which is about all I can take anyway}. Our passes are also good at a fun center, so our summer will include at least one round of mini-golf and maybe some go-karts, bumper boats and rock climbing.

Besides all of the water sliding you care to do, we have lots of other fun things planned for the summer. Like daily math and spelling worksheets and summer reading logs. What? That doesn't sound fun to you? It doesn't sound fun to the Little Bugs either. But they have to do it anyway. And after the school work and chores are done, we're going to have a lot of 'stay-cation' kind of fun. Next week is our city's Festival Days and we have the Fireman's Breakfast, the Children's Art Festival, the Hot Air Balloon Launch, the Parade, the Car Show and Fireworks on the agenda. Following that is Grandma Week, which promises to be full of cousins, places to go and things to see, lots of sunblock and hilarious kid quotes {my favorite part}. And I heard a rumor that there will be a bouncy house at Grandma's this year.

Later in the summer, we're going to Lagoon. It has been so long since we last went that the Little Bugs hardly remember going at all. In August, we're going to take advantage of $2 Tuesdays {crossing our fingers they have it again} at Thanksgiving Point. We'll definitely visit the Dinosaur Museum and Farm Country and if I can talk them into it, the Gardens as well. It promises to be a really fun summer.

I ♥ Peonies
Another peony has started to bloom. This one is called Karl Rosenfield and it is in the front yard. This is the first year this plant has flowered. I love the color. The little purple flowers are a hardy geranium. I think they look so beautiful next to each other. There are two other peonies to the left of this one, and I hope they hurry up and bloom so I can see them all at once.

I went around counting peonies again, you know, just to make sure they are all there. And guess what? I found a peony that I thought I had lost. I'm really happy about that. It is not going to bloom this year, but the fact that it came up at all is a miracle because I haven't seen it for the last two years, and suddenly there it was. Of the 16 17 plants I have, 12 will bloom this year and that is really exciting to me. And don't worry. I'll make sure you get to see each one as it blooms.

Snowball Night: Week 53½

The snowball quilt is coming along. I finished the label, got all the baby snowballs sewn into a row and the back is all put together.

The snowballs for the top are also all together and the borders are in progress.

I'm not sure if I'll finish this quilt in time for the quilt show entry deadline, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I need to have it finished by Friday night so I can submit it for entry on Saturday. I'm going to do some pretty detailed quilting, so we'll see how it goes.