Recently our Possum Town Quilters had a block challenge to make a quilt to sell for auction to pay for renting the facilities at the Art Center. Here are a few of the blocks. Each block was to include a house or some sort of building and a tree.

Yesterday the youth girls came to our house along with their sewing machines and a project to sew. Here's Rosalie & Renae with their fabric.

Here they are at the end of the day with their dresses sewn up.

Here's Crystal & Mel, each with their projects.

Our table was full of sewing machines and the house buzzed with activity. We had 3 ironing stations and 4 sergers set up.

Darlene entertains Kirby with some piano playing.

Some of the girls took their hand stitching outside to work on.

In the evening the boys brought and fixed supper for everyone. Willard mixed up the pancake batter.

Gene & Lowell fried pancakes, sausage and eggs while visiting with Nathan.

They also served milk & orange juice, and had different toppings and syrup for the pancakes. It was all delicious. Serving a crowd of 30 people is no small feat from setting the table to clean up.

The kitchen did look a mess, but before everyone left it was all put back into order. Hurrah! We had a fun day.

My last post drew more comments from Chuck Norris than from the Hoover dam, so I'll try the dam again. I'm like Coleen and didn't even know who Chuck Norris was. In the elevator I had gotten a birthday call so I turned my face to the corner and stuck my finger in my other ear so I could hear my birthday greetings. This man seemed jerky and nervous. He didn't look at us much and concentrated extensively on pushing the right elevator button. The children got to talking and said they think that was Chuck Norris. Later I talked to one of the ladies working there and she said yes, that they were going to do some filming that day. And no, we didn't get his autograph. It was like he didn't want us to recognize who he was.

Notice how small the vehicles look parked at the bottom of the dam.

Looking up the Colorado River from the dam.

The spillway.

There were even art designs for the quilter. This one was inside in the granite floor.

And this Mariner's Compass was just down from the parking lot.

It was very hot the day we visited Hoover Dam.

The fellow in the white hat rode with us up the elevator at the parking lot. Do you know who he is?

This picture was taken before they began work on the dam.

And this is how it looks today. They are building a bridge south of the dam to relieve traffic.

We had an extensive tour down inside the dam.

Is this a temptation just to try us out?

Way down deep inside, looking out.

My fellow tourists in 110 degree weather. They were a great bunch to travel with.

If you could see electricity, this looks like a lot of it.

We used to have a 1958 Edsel with electric windows. It was most wonderful back in those days. It was painted black with red in the fin. Then something must have happened and Father parked it up behind the old barn, and there it sat for years with grass grown up around it.

This was a neat little store way out in the desert by itself called Hackberry General Store.

We hadn't even got out of the van when this man came out and hopped into this coup and pulled out and drove away with a wave of his hand. It was closing time!

Half a mile down the road we spotted his sign.

The sign "300 Miles Desert Ahead" was very true.

This has been a "quilty" week for me. We were privileged to host Dorinda, a quilt teacher from Jackson. Our guild ask her to come and teach us the "North Wind" block and settings.

We enjoyed her piano music and showing her around the country and house.

We quilting ladies got to the Art Center and had to wait until the doors opened.

This is Dorinda's sample quilt using the "North Wind" blocks.

Here she explains how we are to cut.

She was a good professional teacher going 'one on one' to help those with questions.

We learn how to sew the pieces of the block together.

These blocks can be set is many ways.  Here's Straight Furrows.

Here's the same blocks in the Sunshine & Shadows setting.

Here they are in the Barn Raising setting.

And here they are in a Spiral.

Dorinda showed us one of her star quilts.

And this quilt looks like twisted ribbons.

What a fun day it was.

If you know father, his false teeth were pooched out for Kirby.

This week I attended a quilting class at Annette's house. She taught us how to dye fabric using acrylic paint and shaving cream.

She also showed us how to put flowers on our newly dyed fabric and then do some free motion quilting on them.

Here's our teacher, Annette with 2 of her beautiful samples. Her husband Walter grilled hambergers and served us a wonderful lunch.

Other ladies in our class were CC and Elsie,

JoAnne and Linda,

Sandi and Sue,

and Watana and another Sue (not pictured).

Our family went to Ohio for our youngest son Craig's wedding to Angie. We stayed with Angie's folks and helped prepare for the wedding and reception. Here I'm helping some of her aunts and cousins with the fruit appetizers.

Evie & Ang chop celery for the potato salad.

I'm shredding the eggs for the potato salad.

The saying "too many cooks spoil the broth" just isn't true in this situation. Lunch was delicious and a lot of work was accomplished.

Angie's sister, Lora babysits Kirby.

Paul & the boys helped shine Ang's folks Model T to carry them from the church to the reception.

Craig helps load up the U-Haul with Ang's things.

Will all this stuff fit in that U-haul?

Greg & Irene took us all out for breakfast at the Skyline Diner.

It was decorated with all sorts of airplane stuff.

Craig & Ang

Paul & I even got a short ride in the Model T.

This picture was taken at the rehersal while practicing for the real thing.

And the wedding day has finally arrived.

The bride and groom pose with their parents.

Check out my sister Polly's site for more pictures of the wedding & reception. www.xanga.com/pollythepatchworker

Driving south from the Grand Canyon we passed the airport, to Dustin's delight. He had done some reading on this particular airport and airplanes and was thrilled when we happened by.

Paul & Dustin had a nice tour of the air museum and Dustin got an extensive inside tour of this Air Force One plane. He said Howard Huges helped design the plane and it was President Eisenhower's personal plane. It was also used in the Berlin Air Lift.

Here you can see Dustin in the yellow shirt mounting the steps.

From there we wanted to drive some on Historic Route 66, so we got off the main highway to experience traveling in the old days.

Burgers, Root Beer, & Ice Cream

Texaco

Berma Shave Road Signs