Custom Tree Quilt

This Christmas I had such a great time making Stockings for so many families.  I met some great people, heard some great stories and have some great customers.  One of my customers decided to have a custom quilt commissioned for some friends of hers that are getting married this summer.  We have been throwing around ideas and have finally decided what it will be.

I will be making a custom quilt with a tree somewhat similar to my family tree except that it will have two separate trunks that will twist together to make one solid trunk and then bloom in to beautiful leaves.  It will have thier names and wedding dates on the trunk as well as their engagement date and their dating anniversary.  Along the bottom will be the words "When Two Become One".

This is the final concept sketch for the quilt, over the next few weeks I'll add pictures of the progress of the quilt so you can follow me through my process of creating one of my custom quilts.

President's Weekend

Thursday night before president's weekend my husband Gary says "I want to go on a road trip".  Ok, I say thinking "I need to get away too", "but we have to be back Monday night".  So off he goes to plan the trip.  "We're going to San Francisco" he tells us.  Uhhhhh that's a long way away do you think we can get there and back in time?

Well true to form nothing get's packed Thursday night and he wants to leave at 5:30 am to get an early start.  So here we are Friday morning trying to get everyone packed and going.  I don't think we actually left the driveway til about 9:30 or 10.  That's 4+ hours behind schedule and he wanted to be in Astoria for breakfast...NOT!

Late start aside we had a great time.  Here are some pictures to take you along our trip.

The first day was rainy and cold down the WA/OR coast.  The surf was sooo huge, it was GORGEOUS!

Our first pit stop for sightseeing was in Oregon at a little pull out called Devil's Cauldron.  My honey commented before making an abrupt exit from the highway "Anything with the name Devil in it is worth seeing".

"Mom, that waves HUGE.  Take the picture QUICK!"

Back in the GEOJEEP we go to get further down the coast.  After lunch we stopped at a great little beach to stretch our legs and play a little. 

The boys found a rock to climb and Sierra and I headed for the beach.

Sierra's footprints in the sand and she finds a rock her size to scale.

Family photo moment (you know I'm there cause we have a picture).

Sierra and Tanner decide to play chicken with some waves....Sierra lost.

Next we decided to try and make it to the Redwoods and see Paul Bunyon.  We made it there, but 10 minutes too late to take the tour.  Paul and Babe still greeted us for a little rest before the next stretch of driving.

We did find a cool tree to drive through though.

Day 3, we made it to San Francisco!  Too bad this is as close to Alcatraz as we could get.  We will have to spend more time next time so we can go.

As the sun set on San Francisco we headed up Highway 1 deciding we were going to give it one last try to get to the Redwoods the next day and take the tour.

Day 4, we made it!  With just an hour to spare before the tour closed, but boy it was worth it!

The Brotherhood tree is HUGE

Then we took a ride up the gondola to the top of the mountain

Check out this stump!

How'd you like a dog this size?

Tanner and the "Pooped Logger".  I'm a pooped logger after all this driving...

Well that's about all the fun we could handle, now we need to get home QUICK!  What a great vacation, we'll have to do this again.

A Box, Felt and a Can of Glue

Last night at 6:30 pm my darling daughter informed my husband and I, just as we are slicing some yummy Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner, that she needs a costume for the school play tomorrow.  After I picked my jaw up from the floor and the panicked look subsided from my husbands face we asked "what does your costume need to be?".  "I'm Spongebob" she says with a huge smile.  Ohhhh noooo, were the first thoughts that went through my head.

So to get a better idea of what I was in for I ask her what time she needs her costume for.  She explains that the parent performance is at 7:00 at night, but wait...there's more, we have a kid performance during the day so I need to take my costume with me to school.

JoAnn's doesn't open til 9, so that leaves tonight.  We finish dinner, then my husband and I set out on a mission to get supplies to make a Spongebob costume.  First stop JoAnn's.  We find Yellow Felt by the yard, White and Brown for his pants...but what else do we need?  We found a piece of fleece with Spongebob on it and realize that we need to make a big face on it, so pick up some blue for the eyes and red for the tie.  Our next dilema, how are we going to make her square.  We head over to the foam department, throw around a couple of ideas, but the cost and how to put it together are a problem.  So, we head over to the cutting counter and decide to ask for a box.  Sure, we have plenty of boxes says the nice lady behind the counter taking pity on us for having to make this costume at the last minute.  We go to the back and find the perfect box, figure out how much felt we need and off we go to try and put it together.

Gary tapes the box back together into a box shape (it had been flattened), then cuts a hole for the head, a square out of the bottom and round holes for the arms.  Now it's my turn.  I wrap the bottom in brown felt, a band of white and the top in yellow cutting out the arm and head holes.  While doing that Gary makes eyes shirt lapels and a tie.  Some spray glue later and a few more details with a sharpie and Wha Lah! Spongebob.

We look at each other and say "Who knew you could make this with a box, some felt and a can of spray glue!"