Grandma Time!

My poor little blog has been terribly neglected as I have been in Utah watching the grands while their mommy and daddy are in Europe!  We've been having a blast, although I have to admit that it is a tiring business, this chasing little children, and I've been dropping into bed as soon as they are in bed most nights.  The above pic was from the Provo Independence Day parade. It was super fun, but blistering hot, and we were all a little droopy when it was over. 

My son who lives in SLC and his girlfriend joined us, and were a huge help with these little people. 

We came back to the house, watched soccer and had an indoor picnic, as it was too hot to eat outside!

Finally, when it was cool enough, we headed to the park for a little play time!

Their subdivision has a lovely park situated in the center, and it is the perfect spot for a little before-bed wind-down!

Saturday we met again at City Creek mall in SLC and had lunch and the kids played on the splash pad!  They had a blast.  Once again Sean and Jessica were a huge help, and grandma even managed to do a little shopping, as Gymboree was having a big sale, and what grandma can resist one of those??  Sadly, none of us took pictures of the littles playing in the splash pad.  =(

One evening we went to Provo Town Center and played on the Carousel...

And I think the smiles indicate how much fun we had.

We followed it up with dinner and milkshakes at Red Robin.  Yummmm!! 

Abby comes in most mornings, and I get the most delicious cuddles.  And Britton is especially cuddly after his nap.  I have to admit, those are some of my most-favorite times with these two.  So sweet!

Sometimes, though, I wear them out.  LOL!

But we are not totally devoid of quilty stuff.  I've been working in the shop and trying not to make too many mistakes.  And Abby and I have been working on a quilt.  She worked so hard on the layout!  It was fun to observe the intensity of her concentration.

And yesterday we drove back to SLC and had dinner with Uncle Sean and then to the park nearby to play and feed the ducks!

It's been super fun to get some quality time with these fun little people!  

It's a Piece of CakeI

Last Saturday morning the hubs agreed to help me take pictures, since this quilt is too long for my usual hang-on-the-fence method and I really didn't feel like chasing the kids off the playground equipment at the park on a Saturday morning.  But between the humidity that kept fogging up the lens on the camera and the whining about "Are you done yet?" my photo shoot was pretty frustrating.  It was exceptionally humid and uncomfortable out there (which made me super grateful for my lovely air-conditioned house). 

This is the last of the quilts I started at Stash Bash, although I have yet to quilt the Single Girl.  This one is called Piece of Cake 3 by Camille Roskelly.  It's from her Craftsy Class "Playful Piecing".  The fabric is Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille.  It was super easy to put together and I really enjoyed the process of piecing this one. It was perfectly straightforward. 

1.  Slice up the layer cake.
2.  Rearrange the strips.
3.  Sew them back together.
4.  Arrange the blocks.

This one went together super fast, which was totally what I was going for.  I started it about 9:00 one evening and had the top finished before I went to bed.

I wanted something light and breezy for the quilting so I tried the cute little flowers I saw on Allison's blog.  It was really fun and fast, but I some are definitely better than others.  And next time I'm going to work on getting from one to another more gracefully.  But I'm not unhappy with this one.

With all the whining, this is the only shot I got of the back (see way up there at the top?)  I used a piece of another Bonnie and Camille fabric - I think this one is from the Happy Go Lucky line.  It was just a smidge too narrow so I added a 4" strip of that Eat Your Fruits and Veggies dot you see in the binding up the back.  Not very original, but it gave it some interest and had the added benefit of making the back of the quilt wide enough, which I thought was a real plus!

I really couldn't get a good picture of the binding at all, probably because the pieces I used were anywhere from a 6 to 18 inches, but I did a scrappy binding from pieces left over from the 2012 Block of the Month project which also used Vintage Modern.

So this was my last finish for June, which turned out to be a pretty productive month for quilting here. I hope you had a great quilty month also.

Not sure what July might bring in that area, I'm off on a "great adventure", but so looking forward to it, since it includes seeing these guys.  Can't wait!