DEAR JILLIAN

dear jilly:

this weekend stanley and aubrey went to the hospital to visit grandpa....he wasn't feeling too good.....

stanley climbed up on the hospital sign.....it was sort of windy so aubrey held onto stanley so he wouldn't blow away.....

stanley and aubrey hop up on grandpa's bed....grandpa had an IV in his arm to help him with the pain....if there was a wheelchair sitting around in the hallway i was going to take stanley for a ride but there was none to be found.........

before we left the hospital we snapped a picture of stanley on this really really cool mobile....some area students had made the oragami cranes and hung them all together....

(if you look out the window to the left there you will see aunt shirley and uncle floyd.....they had come to visit grandpa too!)

well that is it for now....

next post will be pictures of the field trip stanley took to aubrey's school....she took him for show and tell and took a disposable camera with her....(sorry....didn't trust her with out good camera!) as soon as i develop the pictures (yes, it's film....quite old fashioned) i will post some pictures for you.

we have many things to see before it is time to pack flat stanley up and send him back to you.....we have to make a trip to the mighty mississippi river, probably head to john deere commons to see some tractors....and whatever else seems to strike our fancy.....

STANLEY GOES TO THE DERMATOLOGIST

DEAR JILLIAN:

so we decided that if stanley was going to be out and about with us he needed to have a tougher skin......so off to work he went with uncle chuck to become laminated........

here he is laying down on the sheet.....ready to go into the machine..........

next he gets put into the laminating machine......there he goes!!

 here he is....covered in plastic and well protected!

then....before he left uncle chuck's office that day he decided to check out hugo.....that's uncle chuck's skeleton that lives in his office....he uses him when he is teaching classes.

ANOTHER FINISHED QUILT

this one has a new home........this was made for one of the ladies that works with chuck.  she is a huge st. louis cardinal fan and wanted me to make her a quilt similar to the one i did in the iowa hawkeye fabric....

this is the round robin bee block i got done last night.....i'm not even close to having all of them done.....but i think i'll work on something for myself next.

that's it for now....

stay tuned for more stanley updates coming to you soon!

Meet Stanley !

let me introduce you to STANLEY.....

officially his name would probably be,  Flat Stanley Gipson.....or is it Flat Stanley Hilbrant?  not really sure but we are so happy to have him be a guest in our home.

stanley arrived at our house on friday last week.  He must have been very cold because he was quite naked!  aubrey spent sunday afternoon coloring on his clothing......she has since made a few other outfits for him to wear.....and.....today he is going to go to work with daddy and become laminated!!  so, in this winter weather that just doesn't want to get any warmer, stanley should be nice and cozy in his new clothing.

aubrey fixed up stanley all by herself!  i had told her she could use fabric, buttons, etc. but she decided he needed to be done with colored pencils so he would be flat enough to laminate.

stanley is a project aubrey is doing for for her cousin jilly.  she was SSSSOOOOOO excited to receive the package in the mail on friday and have it be addressed to only her! 

we have many things planned to do with stanley......

first order of business was to take him to see the bald eagles down along the mississippi river.......

see....there is one in the tree in the backround........

and here are a few that we zoomed in on.....

all perfectly content to sit in the trees and rest or look for fish in the river........

there were hundreds of birds in the trees...many of them where quite close so we could get some really good pictures with the zoom lense....

jilly, we will try to take lots of pictures of stanley's many adventures while he is here visiting us....he will probably go to school with aubs one day.....visit the john deere center in moline, il. and maybe go to work with uncle chuck.....maybe even go to work with me!  (but honesstly he would probably be bored at my office!)  so stay tuned for more flat stanley post coming soon!



Catching up on some Quilting Bee Blocks

here is a shot at the block i made for joan's quilt.  this is for the round robin group that i'm in.  when i'm finished with my blocks i send them on to terrie in california.....she adds her block to the package and then puts it in the mail for our quilting buddy in austraila.....from there it goes to germany, england, canada and back to the USA....at each stop another block is made and added.  when the package arrives back to the original sender she will have enough blocks to make a complete quilt.  we also send along a journal with each package....there we add little tidbits about ourselves.  so along with the quilt we will have the history of the journey our blocks made on their way to becoming a quilt.

here is a group shot of all the blocks that go with joan's quilt.  i really like how this block went together so it just may become the block i use for my next quilt!  i think i may even have just the right fabric in mind........

as well as completing a block for my round robin group i also made some blocks for two other qulting bees that i'm apart of......these two blocks above are for Vickie in my fussy cut bee.....

and these blocks are for Jen.....she wanted to blocks, one with knomes and other with the mushroom print.  i wish i could do over the one with the mushrooms.....i cut the pieces wrong and the print doesn't show up too well.......

FIRST HAWKEYE BASKETBALL GAME