#10 Visit the World’s Greatest Aunt
Check another one off of my 10 Things this Summer list. Woohoo!
I’m back from a wonderful trip to Utah to visit the World’s Greatest Aunt. We had so much fun — I wish family didn’t live so far away. The trip kicked off with a bang — fresh off the plane, I stopped to have lunch with the fabulous Nanette. I always love catching up with Nanette and this time I asked her to bring her British quilt along so I could SEE it in person. Nanette is working on a new version of the quilt with a pattern and I can’t wait to see it. (Sorry for the blurry picture — it was taken with my phone.)
Nanette, her daughter Shelbie and I had a fun visit and she gave me this super cute little zipper “cookie”. Isn’t it adorable? She also gave me a cute real cookie but I ate it before I took a picture — Nanette had more restraint than I did and she took a picture of it.
I spent several days with cousins and the World’s Greatest Aunt and we had lots of fun. We painted a bedroom and played lots of hand and foot. One of the highlights was visiting a nearby little town and meeting with Bonnie. We had lunch at a local little restaurant and then Bonnie took us on a tour of the rock (I know you guys in the Eastern part of the US call them stone, but in the west, they call them rock) house that she and her hubby have restored. It’s. Absolutely. Gorgeous. Words and pictures just don’t do this house justice.
We also got to see the famous rug that Bonnie recently finished. I was surprised to see that it has more of a checkered-type pattern than a braided pattern. Bonnie has promised to teach us how to make these pretty little rugs on a future trip.
And Look! We got to see the famous feedsack quilt too. Pictures DEFINITELY don’t show the beauty of this quilt and now I really want to make one. Bonnie did such a gorgeous job on the stitching — it’s all hand quilted. Bonnie has much better pictures Here.
What a treat to tour this beautiful home. We all felt so special and Bonnie is just as warm and wonderful in real life as she is on her blog. Our afternoon ended too soon, but not before we had a little excitement. We were standing outside Bonnie’s kitchen door saying goodbye when a gust of wind came along and blew the door shut — leaving Bonnie locked out. After a little searching, and by some miracle, Bonnie found a window that had a screen that hadn’t been fastened all the way. After a few attempts with a ladder, we tried the simple tactic of me climbing through the window head-first and Bonnie giving ye ol’ rear end a shove from behind. We laughed and laughed but didn’t manage to get a picture. I can’t say for sure (being on the other end of the event), but I imagine it looked a little like this:
It’s a good thing I was wearing jeans LOL! What a fun day we had!
I could go on and on about the rest of my trip, but I’ll spare you. Here are just a few highlights. A visit to Big Rock Candy Mountain for some white water rafting on the Sevier River. It turned out to be more like a float-along due to the low river levels, but we still had a fun time. And Big Rock CANDY Mountain — what more could you ask for?
Lots of bike riding — one of my favorite places was in an old pioneer cemetery.
A visit to the Golden Spike National Monument. In all my Utah years, I’d never been there.
It’s the site where the Union and Pacific railways were joined in 1869. Very Interesting!
A tram ride at Snowbird Ski Resort.
The views from the peak were spectacular.
Lots and lots of other fun and memories and the stuff of which vacations are made. And don’t worry, the World’s Greatest Aunt and I did manage to hit a few of Utah’s awesome quilt shops — nowhere near all of them, but enough to provide some inspiration. If you’ve never been to Utah and you’re a quilter, you’re definitely missing out!
It’s good to be back home — now, back to that summer list and catching up on lots of work around here.
Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna
