Youth Celebration 2012!

The Woodbridge Virginia Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined with six other stakes in the Northern Virginia region to produce a magnificent Youth Celebration for three days in July.  A giant Youth Conference plus Dance Festival involving about 1800 youth, it involved dance practices for the youth beginning in February, hours and hours of practice, sewing of costumes by volunteers (yes, I was one of those volunteers), building of sets, more practicing, and tons of other stuff that I am not even aware of. Dad, as the member of the Stake Presidency with responsibility for the youth, was intimately involved in all of the planning and preparations for more than a year ahead of time.  The youth performed the dance festival/youth celebration three times for a cumulative audience of over 12,000 people!  We're so grateful that Gregory had the opportunity to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime event--by all accounts, he had a fantastic experience!

Now it's time to play "I Spy Gregory Hilton", or "Where's Gregory?"

(I guarantee that Gregory is in each one of these pictures--see if you can find him!)

 Hint:  He's wearing a green shirt.

 This was the show opener.  Each stake wore a different colored t-shirt.  Imagine hundreds of kids on the field at the Patriot High School Stadium all at once in all colors of the rainbow, all dancing to the same music at the same time.  It was pretty exciting and amazing!

 Here are the Woodbridge youth in the "Hoe Down". The music they danced to was from Aaron Copeland's "Rodeo", music which Celesta and I are very familiar with because we both danced to it in our ballet days. Bear in mind that Gregory is wearing black pants and a white shirt. :)

The Priests and Laurels of our stake learned to do the waltz, and here they are in elegant formation. Gregory is in this picture, but even I am not sure which one he is! These are the dresses I helped to sew for the young women in our ward, some purple and some turquoise.

Jeffrey Graduates from High School

It was a proud moment for Jeffrey and the whole family when he walked across the stage at the Patriot Center of George Mason University to graduate from CD Hylton School on June 9. 2012.  

Next in line, waiting to hear his name called.

One happy guy!

Getting a hug and posing with his autism teacher, Joe Campagna

With Dad and Mom--look how he towers over us!

With Charles, Christina, and Gregory

In the afternoon, after graduation, we held an Open House in Jeffrey's honor.  Good food, sweet treats, and lots of friends to wish him well.  Then, of course, it was time for presents:

Showing off the kaleidoscope quilt the I made for him.

The surprise of his life--a Kindle Fire tablet and e-reader!  We loaded it in advance with books, audio books, games (uh oh, the beginning of "Angry Birds" in the house!), awesome apps like The Weather Channel, ESPN (so he can follow all his favorite teams in up-to-the-minute detail), the Oxford English Dictionary.  All in all, a really wonderful day!

RED ALERT: New Teenage Driver on the Road!

You better watch out, 

You might want to cry,

You might want to pout,

I'm telling you why, 

Gregory Hilton's driving around town!

Just kidding!  Our youngest son is really a great driver.  

Here he is about to embark on his first solo drive.  

Mom is quickly getting used to NOT being the

chauffeur anymore!

Liana's Baby Quilt--Handmade and Homemade with Love

Can't wait to see Liana wrapped up in this!

Aureliana Sky--Our "Golden" Girl!

Aureliana Sky Peterson, daughter of Claire and Jesse, granddaughter of Val and Dell, was born on August 24, 2012 at 3:29 pm in Salt Lake City, Utah. She weighed 7 lbs 10 ozs and was 20 inches long.  She has a respectable amount of light brown hair, a rosebud mouth, delicate features, and is beautiful in every way!  But then, you all can see that for yourself:

I had a delightful trip to welcome Liana to the world--the first time I've been able to see a grandchild within the first few hours of life.  Words can't describe the feeling of holding this precious little girl for the first time, to feel her soft skin and smell her sweetness, to cuddle and adore!

I can hardly wait for General Conference weekend when Val and I will fly back to Utah for Liana's blessing and another week to cuddle and love!  A word about Liana's name:  "Aureliana" means "Golden", and she is certainly a golden little lady to all of us.

Now, a word about Liana's dear mother:  

Claire, you are so awesome!  We are so proud of you!

And another word about Liana's sweet father:

Jesse, we are so proud of you, too!  What a great little family you make!

Are you going to Scarborough Faire?

Parsley

Sage

Rosemary

and Thyme

Jeffrey's Great Race!

Jeffrey with his 3rd Place ribbon for the 400M

April 30, 2011: Jeffrey's first Special Olympics track meet, held in Fredericksburg, VA at Chancellor High School.

A beautiful day, a little on the cool side, but sunshiney and exhiliarating. His first race was the 400M, and he was disappointed to come in 3rd, but happy to show off his gold ribbon!

The next race was the 200M, and he really hit his stride!

Congratulations, Jeffrey--a blue ribbon day!

Gregory's Eagle Project: FINISHED!!!

April 23, 2011: The final project work day--at Lake Ridge Park to install all the signs. I took Gregory to home Depot at 7am to rent a power auger to drill holes for the posts. People started gathering at the park by 8am, and without much ado, everyone set to work under Gregory's direction. Gregory had 8 reserve signs/name signs on posts to put in the ground at the various picnic areas and pavilions, an additional 4 name signs to attach to wooden pavilions, and a two-post sign at the docks regulating boat traffic during crew practice times to install.

Gregory sent a team out to the four wooden pavilions

to remove the existing reserve signs and screw on the

new name signs. Here are Ben Rasmussen and Kristy Graff

hard at work!

Great results!

Another team carried posts and signs to designated

areas for installation

and to drill the holes for the posts.

Again, superb results!

Dad, with a new reserve sign in the ground.

Final step, to put in the crew sign at the docks. This

took a little longer since all the cordless power drills

had lost their umph by this time, and Ben had

to go pick up another drill from Aaron Lattin.

Congratulations, Gregory! We are so proud of you!

Thanks to everyone who helped make this successful!

Gregory's Eagle Project: Part II

March 19, 2011: Gregory's next step was to put the signs together and stencil the lettering on. He had quite a group of ward members come to our house to do the work, and he directed their labors expertly.

Patrick Wells and Dave Johansen putting on hinges, hooks, and screw eyes.

The Weaver family stenciling lettering on the crew sign.

Mom making stencils with Gwen Reese's Cricut Cutter.

Christian Graff staple-gunning vinyl pockets onto reserve signs.

Name signs for the pavilions and picnic areas.

Crew sign for the docks.

Reserve signs

Looking good. . .

Gregory's Eagle Project: Part I

Gregory's Eagle Project: February 26, 2011

After much investigation and consultation with various county organizations, Gregory decided to do a service project for Lake Ridge Park in our neighborhood. Gregory rows on Gar-Field High School's Crew Team, which uses the docks at LR Park for practices, along with four other high schools, and so he felt a desire to do something to improve the park that he uses so often. The park manager, Jane England, proposed several possible projects, and Gregory chose to make reserve and name signs for the eight picnic areas and pavilions in the park; and also to make a sign for the crew teams to regulate dock usage while the teams are practicing.

Gregory approached the store manager at Home Depot about discounts and donations for the materials he needed to make the signs. Mr. Vernon Maupin was so impressed with Gregory's manner and professionalism. He agreed to give a 10% discount on all wood purchased from Home Depot, and all other materials (such as hardware, paint, hinges, etc.) would be donated free of cost.

Gregory's first work day was dedicated to painting all the wood brown--6x6 posts, 4x4 posts, and boards for signs.

Christina and her brown fingers.

Dad painting signs

Gregory painting posts.

Our own little "Stonehenge" in the garage!

Irrepressible Spring

Nothing can keep Spring from coming: not a timid groundhog who's afraid

of his shadow nor a late March snow with sub-freezing temperatures;

not last season's detritus nor an overabundance of weeds;

not 40 mph gusts of wind nor sleet and hail;

and especially not a negligent gardener (me).

I love Spring flowers!

To Quilt or Not to Quilt? What a Silly Question!

I finished piecing a quilt top this month that I started in 2005. That was the year that John and Mary Kennon were married. I told them I would make them a wedding quilt,

but they eloped to Seattle, so I figured I'd finish it for their 1st anniversary.

Life happened, including the escalating of my schoolwork with BYU,

and this ambitious project languished.

After my last summer term at BYU in 2008, I started working on it again. With about a third of it finished, John broke the news that he and Mary Kennon were separating.

We were so sad. I didn't have the heart to keep sewing on the quilt.

My final coursework for graduation from BYU kept me busy until April 2010,

but after I took the last test and finished the last paper, I found I had discretionary

time on my hands, so I exchanged one of my loves--reading, researching, and writing about literature--for another one of my loves--creating beautiful things with fabric.

Just to get started, I made myself a quilted purse out of some amazing coordinated fat quarters I had collected some years ago.

Fat Quarter Bag with multiple pockets inside

and out for organization

Next I tackled another project that had been three years in the queue. When Christina

graduated from high school I wanted to make her a quilt. We chose the pattern and bought the fabrics, but that's as far as it went. Now she was about to graduate from college, and I felt

an urgency to complete the quilt for her. By the time I needed to fly out to Utah for graduation I had finished piecing the top and had it more than half quilted. So she received a partially

completed quilt for graduation with the promise for the finished product when she started

graduate school in September.

Well, I missed that deadline, but I did finish it in October and took it to her personally when I went to visit for a long weekend.

The Campi di Flori quilt for Christina's graduation

After this achievement, I was on a roll.

I had another quilt top hanging on the upstairs banister that whispered, "Finish me, finish me." I call this my "Fall Flurry" quilt since the fabrics were leaf patterns, greens, golds, deep oranges, and maroons. I made this quilt top years ago as a "Mystery Quilt" challenge with two quilting friends, Susan Rasmussen and Carol Goe. We went to the quilt shop together and chose five fabrics that we would each use to make a specified number

of blocks in specified patterns. The border, backing, and binding fabric was our individual choice, as was how we arranged the blocks in the top. It was fun to see how differently the three quilts turned out, even though we each used the same fabrics and made the same blocks.

The "Fall Flurry" mystery quilt

I have another quilt top hanging on the banister, a "Country Village" block-of-the-month quilt that Susan, Carol, and I also did together over a year's time about ten years ago. But I think it is content to keep hanging there awhile longer because I don't hear any whisperings coming from that quarter. That's when Susan encouraged me to finish John and Mary Kennon's quilt, which I have now switched to calling the "Irish Chain" quilt.

It is a double Irish Chain pattern in two shades of blue and white with a creamy butter yellow for accent in the border. Susan felt, with justice, that if I could just get past the quilt's history, it would be perfect for my bedroom.

And of course, she's right. I love the Irish Chain pattern, and Val is partial to blues--seems a perfect fit. To give me added incentive, Susan gave me a fabulous birthday gift: when I have finished the Irish Chain quilt top, she will have me over to her house to cut fabric from her stash for me to use in a scrap quilt of my choice.

Talk about holding a carrot in front of my nose! Just what I needed to get sewing,

and now I'm finished.

And it is beautiful.

Trying out the Double Irish Chain quilt top on my bed.

Lest I forget, though, it still needs to be quilted. I'm off to the fabric store to get batting

and quilting thread! And looking forward to my date with Susan

to cut scraps!