Family Reunion Tees

One of the fun things we had for our family reunion last week at Ft. Robinson State Park, NE. was a reunion t-shirt designed by Emily.



It featured the family name, place where we had the reunion, year, and on the back of each shirt the number placement of when you personally entered the family, either by marriage or birth.

For example: this group of cousins and how they fit into the family.


And then the stream of little cousins.


We had 34 of the 38 family members in attendance (plus Mason the dog).  Two of the married grandkids and their spouses weren't able to make it. (#s 9,10, 37, 38)



The little kids always want to do a goofy picture, and I always say that once they cooperate for some nice ones I'll let them do funny ones.

Here we are in all our glory.


Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!

We're finishing up last minute details before our house goes on the market.
Yikes!
I just want to be done with everything.

Trio of Grad Quilts from Emily

Last week we had our family reunion and while we were there Emily gave the 3 graduating nieces their quilts she had made for them--my oldest daughter being one of them.

They are all the same pattern and design, just with different color schemes.






#1--Tiffany Blue for Miss H. who's heading off to BYU-Idaho


#2--Black and White and Pink for Miss M. who is heading to U of Nebraska Lincoln.



Back and binding

#3--Scrappy for Miss L. who is heading to BYU in Provo.



Floral back and binding


They were each pretty happy with their gift, as you can see.

Each one was quilted differently and includes their name quilted somewhere in the sashing portion---so no one else can claim the quilt for themselves.

Funeral Weekend

Life has been chaotic and busy here at my house with multiple ongoing home remodeling projects and getting close to the end of school.  We have a senior in HS and so we have stuff to do with that, and just plain life in general--like all of you.

I have some projects to post, but today I'll do something a little different.

Last weekend I flew to Utah for the funeral of my 94 yr. old grandmother on my mother's side.

Besides the fact that I left MN with 8 inches of fresh snow on the ground and 32 degrees to arrive in Utah with it being 60 and sunny, it was a lovely weekend and a great time to reflect on a life well lived, as well as the strength and blessing of good family ties.

All 23 Grandchildren of Leona Johnson (from 4 daughters)
First time we've ever had a picture of ALL of us at one time.
Ages range from 20 to 47 (yikes, that's me!)
Me and my siblings are the 6 on the right.

Emily and I will now tackle the task (slowly) of coming up with a memory quilt using her clothing.  When we did it for our other grandma it came together quickly. Emily knew right away how to use her clothing. This time around it might take us longer. Grandma J's style is so much different than Grandma F's that we'll have to think about it.  Guaranteed we'll post when we have a plan, but for now we're just going to enjoy the fact that we had a great weekend of family togetherness celebrating our lovely grandmother.

Family Reunion Quilt {Finished}

Finished up the reunion quilt.

All the details and dimensions can be found here.

My mom is coming out the first part of October, so I'll give it to her then.

I did simple quilting around each block. You can see it on the back side if you look closely.

(Close up of the backing fabric and the binding.)

The binding and the back border fabric are the same. I like how it makes the binding disappear on the back side.

I have been very happy with my last couple of bindings. I am getting pretty comfortable at hand sewing. Mom will be proud!

Family Reunion Theme Night: Hawaiian

Night Three: Hawaiian Night

Here are a few pics from that night--first the boys doing their best Mauri warrior moves....or something like that. We made them pareos (or sarongs) out of pieces of fabric. Little Mr. P. originally told his mom, Emily, that he "wasn't wearing a skirt", but as you can see, he got into it and had a fun time. (***For adult sizes you need a 1 yd. by 2 yd. piece.)

For both my M. (not shown) and B.'s dresses (on the right) I used Simplicity 8488. Although this wasn't the original site where I saw the idea you can click here for a nice tutorial on how to attach rick rack to the bottom of a hem. I put it on the sleeve hem of B.'s dress. I really like how it turned out. The bigger girls all just had a piece of fabric to use as a pareo wrap. Mom found nice authentic Hawaiian shirts for all the men at one of her thrift stores. They live near a military base and so all the transfer guys from Hawaii must give their shirts away once they realize they "aren't in Kansas in anymore".

Emily had made little pillowcase dresses for some of the nieces so that they could match everyone else in their Hawaiian garb. (2nd and 4th from the left and the 2 little ones being held by their older cousins.)
For dinner we had Hawaiian haystacks! We didn't end up doing our limbo contest, but still had a great time with our family!

Check out our whole Fam during our day trip to The Park.

Family Reunion Theme Night: Fiesta

NIGHT Two: Fiesta Night

Gotta have a pinata for Fiesta Night--we had 4 of them. We wanted to make sure that all who wanted the opportunity to whack the pinata, could. The kids thought they were awesome!

We started from youngest to oldest. The really little ones got to take a whack at it without blindfolds, but the bigger ones had to do it with.

At the end the uncles had a go at it. The kids really loved watching them swing and miss--more than once.

Here is our tip for pinatas--if you can, find the star type shown below. And instead of hanging them by the one little loop that is provided, wrap your twine, or whatever you use, around the actually body of the pinata and it will last through a lot more hits.

For food we ate super nachos (the man name for taco salad), soft tacos, refried beans, and spanish rice. And check out Leslie's creativity for our other Fiesta Night activity!

We also went here on this day.

Family Reunion Theme Night: 70's Tie Dye

(Here is the first of three theme night related posts.)

Shauna had originally suggested doing theme nights each night of our family reunion. How it worked: All family members were asked to dress up for each night in theme related attire. When the dress up idea was first thrown out, our brothers/brother-in-laws were not exactly loving the idea, but in the end even they participated and had a great time! We also had food and games that were in keeping with the nightly theme.

Night One: 70's Tie Dye

If you'll remember L. had knitted herself some legwarmers. She has worn them a couple times already, but pulled them out for the 70's night--think late 70's. We all got a kick out of her.

Our Mom thought that hula hoops would be fun to have for the 70's night. Who knew that it would seriously be such a HUGE hit with all the kids. Once they figured it out--and almost all of them did--they would just go out on the cabin patio and hula hoop for hours.

M. & S., brother and sister, each won the girl and boy division of the family hula hoop contest. We had to distract the finalists a bit in the girls division otherwise they would've been like the Energizer Bunny and kept on going and going and going and going..... Renae won the over 18 division, just barely, keeping her hula hoop at her ankles just long enough before the next hula hoop hit the ground. That contest was a much shorter lived one.

Food for 70's night was pretty basic: Hamburgers and Hot Dogs on the grill. We also did a Family Bingo game, where each square was a fact about a family member.

Here is where you can see how Emily made her tie-dye shirts. Or Here for Renae's family shirts.

Family Reunion Quilt

Here is a variation to my kids' handprint quilt that we did last week at our family reunion. Its nothing special or extrodinary other than it includes all 33 members of our family on it.

I wanted something fun and easy that everyone could do regardless of their age. It was a last minute project. Now that it's done, I'm brimming with ideas on how it could've been improved... Maybe next reunion!

My squares are 10" (25.4 cm) and the sashing is 2.5" wide (6.4 cm) before sewing. We have 33 people in our family including our parents, siblings, in-laws, nieces, and nephews. I made the quilt 5 squares by 7 squares.

Here is what Renae embroidered on the two "extra" squares.

I used this lodge-looking print for the sashing since we spent 4 days at a cabin in the mountains. I think it works perfectly.

I brought paints in different colors so everyone could take turns adding their hands and writing their names on the quilt. I made everyone go in birth/family order so that it wouldn't be completely random. (I like order! :)

Everyone was good sports about adding their hands.

I have a really great lodge-looking print for the back. I'll post a picture of the finished quilt...whenever I get it done.

Anyone else have other ideas for a "Reunion"or "Anniversary" style quilt? My in-laws 50th Wedding Anniversary is next spring and I'm trying to come up with something for them. That side of the family doesn't do crafty, so it needs to be something I can do on my own or easy (like this quilt) for everyone to be involved in. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

EDITED: FINISHED QUILT CAN BE FOUND HERE

More T-Shirt Transformations

Getting ready for the family reunion and working on our 70's night get-ups. Miss M. was more than happy to help out. We used the tie dye kits that come in boxes at either Jo-Ann's or Michaels. They do a couple different shirts at a time, but I still don't think that they can do as many as the box says. Also make sure you use gloves when you are removing the rubber bands before washing. I didn't the first time and ended up with colored hands. The directions don't tell you to wear them during that process, just during the dye application.Don't be afraid of bright or bold colors after you unwrap it from the plastic. The pictures both above and below are both the before washing pictures.

Same shirt after washing below. Personally I would rather they stay the darker/brighter colors, but I haven't figured out how to do it. Just leave the colors on as long or longer than the directions say to.

Here are the shirts all lined up and ready for the reunion. Mine below is with the iron-on decal.

I used Tulip® T-shirt Transformers which I bought on clearance at Jo-Ann's for $.97. I think it was well worth the bargain price. L. is actually coveting my shirt and she'll probably get it once the reunion is over...maybe.

And since we still had a little bit of dye left over we went ahead and colored this bag that we store our baseball bases in. I don't think we'll lose it, do you? I really just wish it would remain this bright once it gets washed. Oh well.......long live tie dye! O.K. maybe not.

One of the kits we bought also had some glitter spray that you add at the very end. All 3 girls wanted that on their shirts. I would've taken a picture but you can't really see it that way. Let me just say that they love it. It does look cool in the sunlight. We also bought some glow-in-the-dark spray for the boys' shirts. It works! We tried it out.

Tie Dye and An Experiment

As part of our family reunion activities this year, we are having theme nights each night. We've all been busy working on our "get-ups" for each of the nights.

For 70's Night it's all about the Tie Dye! Here are all my shirts!

Since I was dying so many shirts, I opted for a solid color tie dye. It was a lot less messy and way less stressful for me. I'm sure the neighbors wondered what rainbow hippie died in my backyard when I had all my shirts hanging up to dry. It was quite the sight! But all the neighbor kids were like "cool shirts!"

My husband and I will never wear ours again, I'm sure, but our kids on the other hand couldn't put theirs on fast enough! I think they'll wear them every possible day they can. The reunion should be hilarious with 30 different shirts going on. I think we should change the night to "Ugly Shirt Night" or "Neon Night." Seems a bit more appropriate than just "70's Night."

I decided that I'd experiment and try dying some white fabric along with my shirts.
After washing and drying, my fabric came out a bit lighter than I had hoped, but not too terrible for a first time experiment.

The blue had the worst amount of this marbling look to it, but again, I can live with it. The yellow came out the best.

At this point, I don't have a particular project in mind. (My pieces were half yards.)

Anyone else had any experience dying fabric? Or any tie dye stories you want to share?