Bottle Cap BBQ Table

My husband loves to grill.  I love it when my husband grills.  Several years ago we were eating at a restaurant in Kansas City.  The tables in the restaurant were tiled with beer bottle caps.  It was fun looking at all of the different bottle caps.  So, we discussed several different possibilities for doing a project involving bottle caps.  We decided to make a table to put next to Mark's grill, so he could put his trays and whatnot (his bottle of Bud light) on it while he tends to his grilling.

And when I say "We decided to make a table" I meant Mark would make the table, and I would tile the table top with  bottle caps.  Fortunately several friends volunteered to save bottle caps for us.  I am grateful for this, otherwise we would have a table tiled only with Bud light caps. 

Here are a few photos highlighting our project. 

I sorted bottle caps for several hours.  I sorted them by color.

Mark building the table.  He used Thompson's waterseal on the wood.

 

 

This is a paper pattern I made of the area to be tiled.

Laying out the caps. 

Laying the caps in the mortar.  I was glad I put painter's tape around the perimeter of the tabletop.  I am a rather messy tiler.  Fortunately, my friend Debby helped me with this step.  She and I have done several tile projects together. 

A close up photo of the caps in the mortar.  Some of the caps are really pretty.

Grouting the tabletop.

Done!

A close up of the finished table top.

Next project, another table to sit next to the smoker.  I'm pretty sure my husband was a butcher in his former life.  I'm good with that.

Where's Waldo?

This is the sunflower that Sherry gave me for my birthday last year.  It is made from farm implement parts.  I have named this sunflower Waldo.  We have been experimenting trying to figure out the best place to put Waldo.  Since my husband tends to move Waldo around when I am not paying attention, it becomes an adventure. 

Last year the rabbits ate these; must not have been so tasty this year.  I thought these were pretty.

I spent several days in Iowa while Kristy and Derek went to a conference.  Becky (the other granny nanny) and I took the boys to the park one day while Adelaide was in school.  

If you look carefully, you can see Caedmon in the striped shirt.  It took him awhile to feel comfortable climbing up through the tree house to get that far.  Later in the morning, he climbed up another part of the playground but decided he couldn't get down by himself.  So, yours truly (Grandma Lorri) climbed up the through the playground equipment to help him down.  Fortunately, there is no video of this rescue.  

Charlotte and I at the Sedgwick County Zoo.

Vada at Botanica in Wichita.

Adelaide enjoying making smores at our house over spring break. 

Guess what I'm working on now?

Kay's Tale of Two Quilts

Last year I made a quilt top of star blocks that I had  leftover from a quilt I made several years ago.  My friend Candy and I decided that our friend Pam needed a quilt.  So we decided to have this quilt top made into a quilt for her.  Now all I had to do was make a back for it.  I still had some star blocks so I used some of them.  Then I decided that it needed to have her name and the year on it also.  I used the book Word Play Quilts by Tonya Rucci for the letters and the numbers.  I had the back almost done when I realized that I switched some of the letters. It was 2012 not 2021!  So I ripped it out and fixed it.  I thought about leaving it in there, because none of my quilts are perfect but this time it really needed to be fixed.  When I finished it I thought this was too  nice for just the back .  So after consulting with a couple of people it was decided to make two quilts instead of one.  Joan Westhoff quilted both of these quilts and she did an excellent job. On the Pam quilt she used a variety of motifs that were really spectacular.  From the back it looks like a whole cloth quilt.  Candy and I gave it to her recently.  I hope she likes it.  It was really fun to make this quilt.  I see more quilts with letters and numbers in my future!

Here is the other quilt which I  posted on the blog about a month ago.  I gave it to the ladies at church.