School shows and the beginning of the end!!

Welcome Back!!! I just want to take a little time to catch up on the past week! It's June, of course, and the end of the school year is fast approaching!! Sarah's school hosted their Museum of Progress which they do every two years. It is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!!! The school hallways, classrooms and stairwells are literally turned into a museum displaying scenes from books each classroom studied during the year. This year's theme was Literature Alive. My pictures do not do it justice. But here is a sneak peak at what was involved.....

The whole room below was turned into about 6 scenes from the book Milkweed...the students dressed up and participated....acting out each scene. 

We also met up with my good friend Leanne and her beautiful daughters, Kaylie and Aubrey!

Sarah's class read The Quilt Makers Gift...ironically enough. The students made tie quilts and also assembled many baskets filled with blankets, books and a sweet soft stuffed animal to give to local families in need.

Below left is a "quilt" made from word wall (vocab) words.....

Above right are some of their tie quilts....

Close up of the baskets filled with goodies...

Above is an overview of their display...it took up the entire stairwell!!!

Below...Brook poses in front of a "story quilt"!

 Farther down the hall we came upon The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, which Sarah's friend helped to do. It was amazing too! So much work and effort!!!

Downstairs there was a whole snowflake scene including the chance to use a smart board and put together our own snowflake puzzle!

Sarah's teacher from last year took over the whole stage with Peter and the Starcatchers. I just couldn't get over the elaborate decorations!

For Charlotte's Web, they actually brought in a baby pig...here he is sleeping in his crate!

On the way out, we came across Kingdom Keepers witch, Malificient! They did a scene for many of the Disney spots discussed in the book!

Below is Cindy's homeplace...and my favorite ride in Magic Kingdom!!! I had to take pics!!!

We really enjoyed our museum tour and all of the hard work and effort that went into transforming the entire school!!! Great job teachers and students!!!!

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Believe it or not, the same night was the high school's Fine Arts Show! This was equally amazing! I look forward to seeing this each year! So the girls and I headed over to my school next!

Here we are in the new gym...

The students made "paper mache" pots and creations. The paintings and drawings were gorgeous!

I loved this one.....

The woodworking was amazing...there were entire hutches and beds and dining room chairs. Below are some clocks and bedside tables.

The girls came upon a Kid Zone and got to decorate "paper bag vests" with fabric scraps! Cute!

There was a whole corner dedicated to engineering and design. The opposite corner held cake and food projects....

Back to the amazing paintings...

Out in the hallway, the walls were filled with hundreds of drawings...here were some self portraits...

The girls on our way out....

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It was a gorgeous night out sooooooo, the girls and I had one final stop....the playground to run off some final energy before showers and bedtime!!! Look at the pretty sky....

 I

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So as June rolled around, I knew the upcoming Disney release of Toy Story 3 was just around the corner. I found the most wonderful machine applique designer (and she's a seamstress too!!!). She has lots of adorable designs in her etsy store....check her out...click here.

Below is my outfit I made for Brooklyn to wear to the movie when we finally make it there later this month. I made a twirl skirt to match the applique colors.

Here is my model and sister the next morning!

Brooklyn wore it to school for her end-of-the-year celebration. Mommy and Daddy were invited to attend!!! Here is Brooklyn and her pre-school buddies entering the gym...

The kids were so happy to see their parents and "show off" their dancing and singing for them!

There was a slide show of all of the activities and trips the kids did during the school year!

There were drinks and snacks after the show! It was a good chance to chat and get pics!

Brooklyn and her sweet teacher holding the baby brother of a student. Baby Jack was only three weeks old....he was so cute!

Brooklyn and her cute friend!!! I hope they get to be in the same class next year!! They went to preschool for several years together.

The helper teacher in Brook's class is so cute! She said Brooklyn loved school and writing and playing school....boy, don't I know that!!!! LOL! It was a really fun program.

I do have to add that unfortunately there is no ceremony or anything for the kindergartners, so Devon won't get the same opportunity. I am trying not to be disappointed....I think we will have our own party next week for her. Sarah is having a "graduation" (complete with cap and gowns) from elementary school. In a few short months, she will head over to the middle school. Wow. I am swallowing hard now. More to come on this!

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So, I have been working on my quilt of course! When I last updated you I had finished the blocks and border. I had also prepared the backing and was waiting for my order. It came in finally. The next was to assemble the three layers and actually stitch (quilt) them together.

Below, I am ironing the layers before laying them out...I also took the time to cut any threads and I put them in the little bowl... a tip I found online...very handy!

I was also practicing some possible designs for the border. I was going to stipple the rest of the quilt but I thought I would do a special design for the border and corners. Here are some trial runs on different designs and sizes....

And here was my order from Joann. I bought iron baste cotton batting. It didn't require prewashing and it was so amazing that I would definitely do it again. I also bought special gloves which help you to move the quilt easily. In free quilting, you move the fabric...not the machine...and the gloves really help make the job easier! I also bought some quilt clips and bias tape. The thread is multicolor and made for stippling too.

After I ironed the layers, I laid them out on the living room floor. I smoothed them out for quite awhile and plugged in the iron. I ironed the top layer to the cotton batting. I then pinned in a few places so the bottom layer wouldn't shift. By the way, I wouldn't necessarily follow my lead since I have no idea if what I am doing is actually correct. I know there are some "quilt rules" I am breaking but I hope no one reading this will care.

And by this time of the day it was approaching lunch time. My pretty daughters came in from playing and were waiting for lunch. Devon called off some of the patterns (its one of the things they do a lot in school). She said "green/blue/green/blue"...then "pink/brown/pink/brown"...and then said, "Mommy why are there two browns together?". I said that there wasn't. She disagreed and I looked to see where she was pointing. My jaw dropped. OMGosh she was right...I sewed two blocks backwards. Ack!!! Imperfection. Well, I asked if she would mind it when she inherited the quilt in 40 years....she said no. So....my quilt is perfectly imperfect. I am positive that there are far worse things. And my friend Carla told me that the Amish intentionally make "mistakes" in their quilts since humans are not perfect and God is. I love that!!!! So I am going with that excuse!!!! LOL!!!

 Finally , I brought the three quilt layers to the ironing board and ironed the backing to the fusible batting. I can't say enough good things about ironing the layers together. I don't know how basting spray works since I have never used it for this, but it couldn't be any better than ironing things perfectly smooth!

 Later in the weekend I actually started stippling the blocks. I started in the middle and just went for it! Here is my first block done! I ended up doing a wave pattern on stripped rectangles and and "x" pattern on the small dot blocks. This will take awhile to do all 56 blocks and then the borders!!! Wish me stamina!!!!

The final step will be to scallop the edge of the quilt and bind it. I will test out the bias tape I bought on scraps and make sure it will work. I am trying to get this summer quilt done and redo my room by the end of the month!!!


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Some final sewing news...Carla is hard at work on a new pattern! She is also getting some of her physical patterns out to stores! Check out her website for locations...click here!!!
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So school is winding down and I hope everyone has a happy beginning to their vacation. I know I am always out of sorts for at least a week. I have to make up a schedule and list out some projects, goals and outings for the summer. Here is a link to some upcoming shows that should be good...Summer Ideas

I wish everyone the all the best!!!! Have a great rest of the week!!!!