Chelsea's Wedding

My cousin Chelsea got married over the holidays in the St. George Temple.  It was a special event and I am so glad I was able to attend.

 

A few days before she sent us a message inviting us to download the app Weddingsnap for her wedding.  It's a fun little app where you can take pictures on your phone and they're are automatically uploaded to the same site.  Chelsea had a projection screen up at her reception and it was fun to see pictures from different people. 

 

Most of the following are from snaps taken by my Uncle Garrin.  He had fun coaching people into different positions and "motivations."

 

Justus was told to look bored, he really had a fabulous time and also took me on the dance floor.

 

My cousin's husband Skyler "proposing" to my three year-old cousin, Sammy

 

Lisa, my awesome sister, and I doing "Charlies Angels"  I think I will be slightly sad when this pose loses it's ability to relate to younger generations

The beautiful Carli and Sarah.  Love these girls!

 

My little bro striking his pose

My cousin Chelsea and her new husband.  Congrats Chelsea!

Math Problems - A Quilt Story

I am a methodical quilter.  I graph out my design, I calculate the yardage that I need, and I cut out my pieces carefully.  However, this last project was not as cool and calculated. 

I found a tutorial to make four flying geese blocks quickly and easily.  I played with patterns in my head, but never on paper.  The tutorial is awesome.  It's here if you're interested.

I used my handy "design wall" aka the back of a vinyl tablecloth.

As I start to arrange the flying geese into the quilt, I realize that fabric I intended for the center of the "stars" will not go at all.  Why didn't I sketch like I normally do?  After a few days, I took Justus' suggestion and went with white centers.  I love it!

Oh, yeah, the title of this post alluded to math woes... the math woes came when figuring out the white center dimensions.  I "field measured" (construction term!) meaning I took my ruler and physically measured each area.  After I cut out all of the squares and starting sewing the rows together, I discovered I'd made a mistake.  I forgot about the 1/4" allowance between each the stars, which affected the dimensions of some of the squares.  Grrr. Face to palm.  Luckilly I got it fixed with only a few minor "bunches." I'm hand-quilting this one with an exciting rocket themed print for the backing.

A little fun with the IRS...

Yes.  Over the past few months (almost a year) Justus and I were having a little fun with the IRS defending our 2010 tax return.  Between all of the paperwork that went in with our taxes, Arizona State University (ASU) managed to send up a red flag.  The IRS did not believe that Justus paid his tuition to ASU and therefore was not owed the education tax credits we claimed.  The amount owed plus interest accrued over two years was not easy on the eyes or stomach. 

So we played the bureaucratic games with the government.  We started with statements from our bank showing we paid, then we submitted statements from Justus' student account online, and then finally Justus spent several frustrating hours at ASU's cashier's/financial office to obtain a slip of paper showing payments received.  With the timing of it all, we ended up submitting this final paperwork just before Christmas. 

I was anxious through out the holidays and into January.  Justus had to keep reminding me that everything would work out and worse case, we could afford to pay the IRS what they claimed we owed.  Yesterday I checked the mail with much anticipation (like every single day since January 2nd) and was happy to find a piece of mail from the IRS.  Enclosed was a single piece of paper stating the amount owed: $0.00.  "Your issued has been resolved." Oh, happy day!

Sarah Learns to Quilt

At the beginning of December, my little sister, Sarah started to drop hints that she wanted to learn how to quilt.  After a family get together, I took Sarah to the local quilt shop (Cutting Edge Quilts) and she picked out her own set of charm squares and complimenting border fabric.  All of the ladies in the shop were great with her and told her that she needed to return with the finished quilt.  She picked an adorable charm pack from Bonnie and Camille's Marmalade collection.  Once she had fabric in her hands she was anxious to get started.  With the holidays and travel to a wedding, Sarah's excitement had to be put on hold.

On New Years Day, I came over to the house and helped Sarah with her first quilt.  We initially started on our mom's Featherweight machine, but the machine was feeling tempermental.  We then switched over to my machine and enjoyed some smoothing sewing. 

It was great to help teach someone who was so excited to learn. Within the next few days, Sarah had completed the whole top of the quilt on her own. Way to go Sarah-Bear!  Now, to teach her how to hand-quilt... maybe Mom can help her with this one.

Bikes and Zombies

Over the holidays, Justus and I spent time in St. George, Utah for a wedding.  We were able to stay with Justus' brother, Jordan and his family.  On my birthday we rode bikes to the park and then played Zombie tag!  The grown ups were zombies as we chased the kiddos around the playground.  After some practice, Justus and Jordan are the best zombies, but Aunt Katie Kate still needs some work.  How does one take that criticism?

Safety first!

Jordan tries out Kayl's bike

The look of "you can't catch me"

A Zombie slide assault

Justus the Zombie

Whenever Justus and Jordan get together, all of the conservations seem to go back to New York and their memories from growing up there.  I love hearing all of their stories and seeing their faces light up. 

Dinosaur and Modern Mix Quilts Finished

This was one of the best reactions I have ever received to a quilt gift.  My niece and nephew were thrilled to receive their quilt gifts and immediately requested to be put into "brittos" or made into burritos.  We wrapped them up and they proceeded to crawl around like little worms. Then my niece danced around the living room with her quilt.  Yes, these kids are good at receiving gifts.

My nephew received a dinosaur print themed quilt, which was squares bordered with alternating colors of red, green, orange, and blue. To keep it less "predictable," I only repeated the blue every other time in the pattern and I liked the overall effect.

My niece received the modern quilt I attempted a year or so back and she loved all of the fabrics, especially the floral.

Fabric: various sources (stash!) and patterns: original. Machine quilting by Cutting Edge Quilt Shop, meander pattern.

Christmas Photo Dump

We were lucky to have Lisa and the girls come down for Christmas this year.  Mom was happy to have a house full of all her children.  Here's a quick photo dump of Christmas.  We even painted my two year-old niece's nails.

Mom's Christmas garland on stairs

Pretty toes

Ready for Santa to come!

Lisa's cute girls

Sarah joins the fun

Max inserts himself into the photo

Lisa enjoys time with Rody :)

Christmas PJs - Arizona Style

Every other year, Justus and I participate in a Hickman Family tradition: Christmas pajamas.  For those of you familiar with Arizona weather, you cannot wear pajama pants eight months out of the year.  It is just too plain hot!

 

So for Christmas this year, Justus requested pajama shorts.  I took a pair of pajama pants and "hemmed" them into a pair of shorts.  In the words of one of my nephews I "shorted" them.

 

Below is Justus' modeling shoot Christmas Eve.  Just look at that happy man :)

 

Hope everyone enjoyed the Holidays.  Now back to the grind!