Saturday, September 17, 2011

PFE T-Shirt Quilt

While I was visiting my parents in Washington, I bought some fabric to start a t-shirt quilt for all my school t-shirts.  When I visited my sister, we utilized her rotary cutter and got the fabric all cut and ready for the top of the quilt.  When I got back to Houston for the week before I headed to Hawaii, I cut out the t-shirts and got the top of the quilt done.
I finally decided to get back on it and get the quilt done.  I worked on the back last night and got it cut and ready.  I didn't have a quilt stand, so my aunt borrowed one and set it up at her house.  I brought my stuff over and we got started.
Here's Aunt Maylene doing some tying for me!
She got one of me too.
She showed me a quicker way to bind the quilt, and actually helped me get it all pinned and ready.  I came home and got it sewed up.
It's finished!  I really like it!
This is a little more of a close-up so you can see the fabric I used on both sides.  I've got another one to get busy on now!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Oklahoma

I decided to make a little road trip over the long weekend.  I've been meaning to visit my cousins and aunt & uncle in Oklahoma for a while now, and I finally made it out there.
My cousin Ryan made this little clubhouse for his son.  It's a got a bed a the top and a slide down just to the left.  I was really impressed.  He built it from scratch.
My cousin Heather took me to downtown Oklahoma City.  They have a riverwalk area that's really nice.  It's like a little mini San Antonio down there.  She also took me to the Oklahoma City bombing Memorial.  This is still written on the wall by the memorial.
I loved this reflecting pond between the big monuments they built on either side.
I'm standing on the outside of one of the monuments looking at the other one.  It was just before sunset.
These chair-like things were put up as a memorial for each person who died in the bombing.  They're arranged by floor.  The second floor row was sad because it had smaller chairs for all the kids from the daycare.  So sad.
We had someone take our picture looking from the other direction.  Sadly, my eyes are closed.  Oh well!
This inscription was on the outside of both of those big monuments.
They still had stuff up on those fences that people had put there just after the bombing happened and people are still putting stuff there.
That tree is called the Survivor tree.  It's pretty scarred from the explosion too.
After we left the memorial, we went to visit my aunt and uncle.  This is the view from their backyard - the Oklahoma City temple.  My Uncle Art is in the temple presidency.
 I stayed with Mike and Heather.  They're living in the house that Uncle Art built lots of years ago.  This is one little shot of their yard.
This is the house.  It's pretty cool.
The coolest part about it is that it's built into a hill so it's sort of considered underground.
The weather magically cooled down last night and has remained FANTASTIC, so we had a family dinner out on the porch.
Mike was kind enough to take one with me in it.
I always get a kick out of dirty faces and little Brooklyn had a cute one that I couldn't pass up!
Here's Ryan and Sarah and their family.  
I tried to get one of just Heather and Mike's family, but Cannon and Brooklyn jumped in for some camera time!
Here's Brooklyn again with a huge piece of powdered donut in her mouth.
Yeah for Art and Gene!
Ryan's my SkipBo nemesis.  Sadly, he has effectively kicked my trash in SkipBo this trip.  At least I won one!  He's one lucky game player.
Here are some of the boys flexing their muscles.
Somehow, the flexing turned in to a massive dance party.  It started with these 3 and ballooned into pretty much everyone.
Things kind of ended badly when Jacob took a pretty hard slap to the chest from his sister, Lily. You can see the welted hand print if you look closely.  He was so upset and hurt that he ended up throwing up.  We've had a great time other than that!