Bella Skillbuilder, Month 5

Welcome to Month 5 of the Bella Skill Builder, sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop. This month's skill-building technique consists of two blocks made from half square triangles.

I have tried different methods for making half square triangles, but the one method I have never tried before is Triangles on a Roll.

It is an interesting method, and I'm glad to finally have taken the opportunity to try it out.

You can find all the information for the Bella Skill Builder Month 5, including videos and a list of other quilters participating, on the Jolly Jabber blog.

Even though it's Month 5, it's still not too late to start the Skill Builder. Find all the information here.
Also, if you want to try Triangles on a Roll, they can be found (in multiple sizes) in the Fat Quarter Shop notions section. Happy skill building. :)

Really Random Thursday, 6/1/17

Welcome, June 2017. How did you arrive so quickly?

I was reminded that I forgot to do a Really Random Thursday post last week.

Catching up means that first is a glimpse of Manchester G.A.T.E. open house.

First, Levi's third grade room.

Studying the planets.

An Eastern Lowland Gorilla

 

 Levi's "dream house," which includes a bank, a candy room, and a time machine. Standard features of all dreams homes, I'm sure...

 Letter to me from the planet Uranus

 Letter to my brother, Jeff, from the planet Jupiter.

Charlotte's fifth grade room, where they studied the states. Each student chose a state and had to make some food item relating to that state--yummy berry cobbler.

Gabe's carnival at Robinson Elementary School.

 Put your hand all the way down in the "gross bucket" and win a prize.

 Cotton candy. Yum...

 And a picture with Batman.

Ella has discovered a new way to watch TV...

Celebrating birthdays with two of our favorites, Jill and Christa. On a side note, Mark and I usually meet their husbands, Jason and Aaron, nearly every Friday night during football season at BJs Brewhouse, aa they referee high school football with Mark. I tag along and listen to them critique the game. So when it was birthday time, we decided it would be fun to go to the same place, but with the girls only. We had a great time.

Christa was at a week-long human trafficking conference in Wisconsin. While she was gone, Mark and Aaron put the play structure together. Too bad they did it on one of the hottest days we have had so far.

Ella really wanted to "help" them. As it turns out, a 3-year-old really isn't all that helpful. So she and I stayed in the shade and watched them work.

We also had a chance to play in our back yard and get a snack at Barnes & Noble.

I did some sewing, both on my large hexie project, and on Amelia's quilt, which I'm calling A Flamboyance of Flamingos, when I learned that "flamboyance" is one of the words used to describe a flock of flamingos. Such a fabulous word.

Can you see Amelia's name on this flamingo's neck?

Years ago, working with resin was a hot crafting phase. My grandmother made many grape clusters, among other things. Does anyone remember these? I have saved one for sentimental reasons, but when Aaron said he would like to have it, I gladly passed it on to him.

Mark and I spent a very enjoyable morning at the our zoo the other day, at African Adventure. It has a great place to hang out and watch the animals, and the food is really good as well.

Here is something you don't see everyday--a cute boy wearing a swim suit...and cowboy boots. He has worn these boots nearly every single day since getting them for his Halloween costume. His parents definitely got their money's worth out of this pair of boots.

I picked him up from school the other day and he requested lunch at a McDonald's with a playland. He tried every post with Ronald that he could think of.

Mark made strawberry jam. I can verify that it tastes wonderful!

Later this evening, we are both heading up the hill to Oakhurst, where I'm giving a trunk show for the Sierra Mountain Quilters. Now to get all of these in a couple of suitcases.

I checked the guild website and was surprised to see that I was listed in their Upcoming Events page. (I don't know why that surprised me.)

My good friend, Stephanie (@stephiepeterson on Instagram) sent me this roll of washi tape. For obvious reasons :) She is always so thoughtful.

Do you ever do those questionnaires on Facebook? I never found the actual questionnaire so I'm not sure how they came up with this assessment of my personality. But I think I'll just end with this.

Really Random Thursday, 5/18/17

It's getting close to the end of the school year, so there are lots of activities.

Last Thursday, I went to Gabe's open house. He is in "transitional kindergarten," because he just missed the cut-off date for kindergarten. This boy loves to draw. So it was fascinating to see that they have spent a lot of the year learning about artists and doing related art projects.

Georgia O'Keefe:

Marc Chagall:

Eric Carle:

And of course, Leonardo da Vinci:

Charlotte has been playing club basketball--and has the most wonderful and positive coach, Dara Johnson.

Saturday, Levi had postseason baseball games. If his team lost the first game of the day, they were done for the season. If they won, they would go on to the championship game. I'm not sure we actually thought his team was going to play in the championship game, let alone WIN!!

There he is, first row, second one in on the left

One of Levi's coaches from last year, Marcy, came over and congratulated Levi, which was very cool.

Wearing the championship t-shirt.

Two silly girls who watched both of Levi's games, although "watching" mostly involved playing on the playground equipment nearby.

Sunday was Mother's Day. I received this beautiful bouquet from Mark.

And while I received a nice card and gift later in the day, this was the text I received from Aaron on Sunday morning.

Facebook didn't forget me either. At first I was confused--why was there this drawing of Vin Scully? And then Aaron reminded me that this is his Facebook avatar. Then it all made more sense.

Mark and I helped buy a basketball goal for Levi's birthday. The last two weeks have been spent preparing for putting it up. First Jason and Aaron had to cut a hole in the concrete.

Then Mark and Aaron had to mix the concrete, insert and level the bottom part of the pole, and let the concrete cure for 72 hours.

Finally on Tuesday it was time to get that pole up.

  Levi had the privilege of adding the net.

 I think he's pretty happy.

Mark referees/umpires three sports--football, basketball and girls' softball. While he's reffed football and basketball quite a few seasons, this was his first season as a softball umpire. His friend, Marvin Johnston, was the one who encouraged him to give it a go.

He's obviously done a really good job--at the end-of-the-year association dinner, he was awarded Rookie of the Year. I'm so proud of him. It just goes to show you that even at 65 years of age, it's never too late to learn something new.

Random pictures we've come across--I was probably about 10 in this one.

And Mark and I had probably been married about two years in this one.

I finished another rosette for my ongoing hexie quilt. This is number 10a--so I'm getting closer to completing it. Hopefully in 2017!

And a quilt I call "Put a Ring On It" (actually the Single Girl pattern by Denyse Schmidt) was in a Japanese publication. They sent me a copy, which arrived this week. When I texted Aaron and Christa that my quilt was in a Japanese publication, this was their response.

No clue what it says, but when I thanked Aaron for responding, this is what I got (he's on a roll....). Funny kid--at nearly 39, he still makes me laugh. A lot.

I've decided my summer project will be documenting all the quilts I've made to this point. I have a rough list already made, and I want to add pictures and details. I used to keep up with documentation while we all still used film cameras, and printed doubles of all the pictures we took. Then with digital photography, my quilt pictures are somewhere on my hard drive, and I've gotten pretty lax with documentation. Hopefully this will be the summer I update everything, and even label all the quilts without labels.

This morning, Ella and I had a snack date at the bookstore.

I hope you do something this weekend that makes you smile too.