Traveling.... we are finally home!

My husband and I were done with our school year on June 2nd, I had graduate class June 4th and 5th and June 6th we began almost a month of traveling! We left Minnesota and headed west on our first trip.. driving.. we drove through Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, stopped for 3 days in Salt Lake City, Utah to visit my sister-in-law.. then she hopped in the car with us and we all headed to the Reno/Carson City/Tahoe area of Nevada for a family gathering (on the way home we went through South Dakota instead of Nebraska and Iowa). My husband's grandmother passed away in the fall of 2010 and we all met up to give our last respects to her ashes, to see her home in Carson City, and just spend some time as a family. All 5 of my husband's siblings were there along with each of their families, so all 8 grandchildren were there! Tons of fun together!

For a fun way to document the trip, I created a t-shirt for Ella to wear in each new state we drove through on our way out and back. It was fun taking pictures at each stop in a new state. I can't wait to make a book about the trip using the shirt pictures as well as the scrapbook the trip, and finally use all of these shirts along with other shirts I have made for her for special days and create a small t-shirt quilt for her.

The shirts were very simple to make. I printed out a picture of each state in black and white from online in the size I wanted for the shirt. I found a scrap of fabric to fit each state, used fusible interfacing on each scrap,traced the state backwards, cut out the state, removed the paper backing, ironed on the state and then used a tight stitch to stitch around the edge of each state. I love how they turned out, I did 7 states in about 30 minutes. 7 new shirts in a half hour! Not too shabby!

Enjoy the pics! And come back and visit.. I will be posting about all of the fun things we have been doing around our house since returning from our east coast trip in early July. That's right people.. coast to coast in the car this summer.. with a dog and a toddler! woohoo!

Minnesota

Iowa

Nebraska

Nebraska

Utah

Nevada

South Dakota

Happy Traveling!