Thoughts of a Grasshopper

I'm happy to say this is my last Bench Pillow (wall hanging) to make . . . at least for now.  There are 3 I haven't done: 1. A penguin with two snowmen for January.  Where I live in New Mexico we don't get much snow, if any.  If it does snow, it is gone by noon.  I miss snow! 2. An umbrella with rain boots for April.  I like it but our rain season starts mid-June and ends in September.  However, someday we will move and I may see rain in the spring. 3.  A Happy Birthday one.  This one I intend to do, I just don't know when.  I feel I have to wait another year because some of the kids had their birthday this year.  I guess it can wait and I can focus on other projects. Let me just say for this watermelon wall hanging, I adore the fabric ric rac I made for the larger watermelon.  This has nothing to do with my skills, it was all in the directions, but to loosely stitch and then pull and have that happen.  So cool!

I went to workshop in Elephant Butte area.  I learned a lot and met new (to me) people from all over the state.  There was a skit on Women Suffrage, a presentation on the Elephant Butte dam, information on the Santa Fe trail work and preparations for the 200th anniversary, information for meetings, etc.  The above picture is of those that did a skit on "protocol".  It had to do with what we wear with our pins, how to wear them, etc.  The woman on the far right was a hoot.  I don't know if she put balloons in her leggings or what but bum was sticking out so far as she paraded around the room getting a lot of laughs!  While entertaining, I learned from that skit as well.

Pioneer Day was held in the east mountains.  They planned on 300 people attending.  I would say they got that as people came and left although most were there early on because the food was planned at the beginning. There were games for the kids and a ball game for anyone that wanted to play.

I spent my day helping the 8-11 year old girls in our Stake make toys for the animal shelter.  All of the material came from clothes that were outgrown, tops and pajamas and some leftover fleece from other projects. The above toy was the hardest for me.  While the one on the right shows a line of the colors mine ended up mixed and I didn't get that solid line.  Some girls succeeded and achieved the sample and most ended up like mine.  A great, sturdy toy for dogs. As you can see in the picture below, they were much longer than the sample.  They would make a great tug of war type of toy for dogs. The middle toy was for cats.  It was made from shirts and the material was about 1/2" x 10".  The girls chose 8 pieces of material for each toy.  These were simply tied once to knot and they had a bell attached. The toy on the far right (sorry the picture is so blurry) was another dog toy.  It was made of 3 strands of fleece like material....

I had the activity Day Girls over for a day camp at my house.  I'm not good with taking pictures of these activities.  I started off the day by having the girls choose 7 colors of embroider floss.  Some chose 2 colors and had multiple strands with their favorite being 4 strands and the alternate color 3 strands.  I cut the floss into 18" strands.  There was excess but it allowed for a mistake to be made in the beginning and to tie it off an inch or two in.  My thought was if we they were waiting for someone to be done before we moved on, they could work on it.  If we were doing a lesson, they could work on it and I wouldn't mind because they could listen and have their hands busy. (The last paragraph has more instructions.) We had a lesson on the sacrament and the symbolism of the ingredients.  The girls made bread for sacrament meeting.  We had a lesson on the Holy Ghost and recognizing the Spirit.  We decorated cakes.  We pla...

I experienced my first Bell Ringers breakfast this year.  Another chapter hosts this event annually.   It was a lovely breakfast with good company. The CAR members sold raffle tickets and had many prizes for the winners. The State Regent shared her project of having books donated to foster care facilities throughout the state.  Why the project is personal to her, the impact it will have state-wide, and the overall importance with some saddening statistics. At the end of the breakfast everyone sang Yankee Doodle and then the bells rang.  Everyone had a bell.  There were various sizes, including cow bells.

This is the wall hanging I did for the summer.  I like it because it has a flag for Independence Day and a slice of watermelon that just screams summer to me.  Watermelon is something at family reunions, after spending time outside playing, a light treat on hot day. Sunflowers are just nice, happy flowers.