Swirly Skies

I finally got the sky quilted.  My only disappointment is that the thread doesn't read blue against this fabric.  It blends in with the gray of the temple.

Belly Up

Globert is dead.

I'm not sure how, but I'm pretty sure it's my fault.  The first thought I had when Heidi asked if we wanted the fish was that I would kill it.  In true superstitious fashion, I didn't blog about the fish, because I was convinced the minute I mentioned him he would die.  It had been a month, so I was feeling like it was finally ok.  I was wrong.  I blogged about him on Friday and he came to his fishy end on Saturday.

Little Man and I were cleaning his bowl.  When we put Globert back in the bowl, he started swimming really fast around in circles until Little Man said, "He did a back flip, Mom.  How did he do that?"  I looked over and realized he had swum himself into a frenzy and died.  He didn't float up to the top, so the kids didn't realize something was wrong.

Joel and I talked about it.  Joel mentioned it was a good time to talk about death with them.  I said "Yes, it is.  Go get another fish."  I didn't want to deal with it when they'd only had him for a month, so during naptime Joel replaced Globert with Globert II.  He's smaller than the original and Little Man noticed he's a bit more scaley, but not that it's a new fish.  Joel asked if there's going to be a Globert III, and I don't think so.  It depends on how long Globert II decides to stay around (hopefully longer than a month).

Globert II

I have officially lied to my children.  Nobody ever tells you how hard this parenting thing is going to be.  How come there isn't some sort of manual or training?  You know- Chapter 23: What to do when your pet fish dies. 

I Love to See the Temple

The Angel Moroni has finally made his debut on my wholecloth quilt!  (In case you're wondering who in the world is Moroni (More-own-I), he's the last prophet in the Book of Mormon and the Angel who first gave Joseph Smith the records to translate into what we now call the Book of Mormon).  My kids always look for the Angel Moroni to tell if it's a temple or not.  I've heard Little Man and Little Lady many times point to a beautiful building and say, "Mom, it doesn't have Moroni, so it's not a temple."

I've almost got the entire structure quilted now.  I just have a few touch ups to do, and then I'll take care of the sky.  I'm working on the Madrid Temple, but here's a picture of the Columbus Temple that I normally go to.  Just a couple of weeks ago a whole bunch of women from my ward went together.  It was a wonderful experience.

If you've ever wondered what the difference is between a temple and a regular church building and what goes on inside a temple that's so special, this is probably the best video I've seen that explains it really well:
Why Mormons Build Temples

A Little Bit of Color

It's definitely coming along.

I used Slate Tile to make the shadowed blocks in the background of the planters. The perfectionist in me was nervous to use a design that's meant to be irregular and imperfect, but oddly enough I really like it.

Learning Process

Each day I've taken 30 minutes and tried to quilt a small section of my wholecloth quilt.  I've only ever done one other wholecloth quilt and I was completely falling the directions of Leah Day, because it was a quilt along.  We did a lot of micro-stippling on it, so I fell back on that stitch as the first real filler for this quilt, but if I had to do it all over again I would chose a design that had straight edges that imitated the form of blocks to make it match the stone on the temple a bit more.  I really didn't like the micro-stipling at all after I finished it, but I've gotten used to it, so I think we'll chalk it up to being a learning process and move on with the quilting. 

The pattern changes on the stone around the arch, so I wanted a differentiating quilt design there.  I used Sashiko Shell, and I think it works perfectly.

I have an itch to start using some of the accent colors even though I'm not done with the gray stone yet, so maybe I'll do the bushes next.

Outlined

I'm loving my wholecloth adventure so far.  I finished the outlining of the Madrid LDS Temple, and now it's on the the fun part...

I used overlapping micro-loops to get the texture of the stone pots, and then marked the lattice work above.  That will be the next thing I quilt. 

I forgot how much patience it takes when quilting micro-stitches.  It'll be worth the effort though when it's all done.

Soggy Soccer

Joel and I went to the annual Mormon Columbus Crew night.  It ended up being rainy and cold, but it was still a lot of fun. 

Purple's a good color for him, don't you think?

Luckily, most of the down pouring rain occurred while we were driving there, so it wasn't too bad.

We managed to get the only Real Salt Lake fans in all of Columbus behind us.  Holy Moly- they were big fans!  It made for great entertainment.  The game ended up being tied 1 - 1.   The game made me really excited for the World Cup!

Summer WIP

Technically, Summer doesn't start for a couple more weeks, but since school is out we are very much in Summer mode around here.  I finished up a backlog of projects, and now I'm free to work on the things I want to (gasp).  I know, when does that ever happen?

Basics Quilt Along:  I finished up the quilting for the May blocks and pieced together the June blocks.  Pinwheels are simple and quick, so during one nap time I whipped up all four in quick succession.  I love when that happens.  It makes me feel so productive.  :)

I started a brand new project that I've been wanting to start for a year now - a wholecloth of the Madrid LDS Temple.  I borrowed a light box from a friend and marked the whole thing yesterday.  The next step is to layer it and start quilting the outline. 

Other projects

do.Good Stitches- up to date

Christmas quilt - maybe I'll do that whole Christmas in July thing to force me to work on this...

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 3

Linkin' up to WIP Wednesday.