night at the museum

waaaay back in 1994

 there was a nighttime opportunity to attend the Star Trek exhibit at what was then the Denver Museum of Natural History and i dragged took (most of) my kids to see it... 

now THAT was an eventful night - we ran outta gas on the way home and Earth Science pushed us to the nearest gas station, BUT i had already spent all the money i had at the museum and had to borrow gas money from my kids, which is another story for another time cuz THIS story is about how Melissa became enamored with museums...

Melissa lurves rocks ... she lurves to talk about the differences between sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks ... she lurves to look at rocks, search for rocks, study rocks...

 i don't know the difference between obsidian and onyx or diamonds and cubic zirconia ... a rock, to me, is a rock

and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (formerly known as the Denver Museum of Natural History) has lots and lots of rocks to look at ... so, even back in 1994 at the tender age of  8, when she was SUPPOSED to be on her way to becoming a Trekker at the Star Trek exhibit, Melissa fell in lurve with Gems & Minerals instead...

and THEN she saw the mummies and fell in lurve with Ancient Egypt...

and THEN she discovered the IMAX theatre...

and THEN she found the space hall... 

and THEN... 

well...

because she lurved the museum so much, i invested in a membership that we have used for the past twenty years... 

sometimes we go for the special exhibits. sometimes for IMAX, and sometimes just to look at the rocks...

anywho, when Massdrop offered a fat quarter bundle of Lizzy House Natural History fabrics, i pounced on it...

then bought some yardage...

 and made this...

bugs and dinosaurs and rocks and whales and stars and other fancy stuff

and the BEST part...

oooooo!!!

a fabric representation of a

Night (and several days) at the Museum

Ancient Egypt - Robots - Rocks and Gems - Mammoths and Mastodons - Mayans and Aztecs - Dinosaurs - Bugs - Space - Star Trek - Pompeii - Volcanoes - Mythical and Magical Creatures - Lewis and Clark - Poison - Sherlock Holmes - Chocolate - Whales

and, of course, two of Melissa's favorites - the Saber Tooth Tiger that growls when it's fed coins 

and the two ginormous slabs of petrified wood...

grooooowwwwllll!!!

yes, yes that IS Jamie on her shirt!!!

and, since i didn't get her scrapbook (that i've had thirty years to put together, but didn't) finished, i gave this quilt to her for her birthday, too... 

cuz that's how i roll...

design for the quilt's front was found in a quilters' magazine last year - sorry, i don't remember which magazine or the designer's name

quilting of Isis by Liz Bowman of Milan, Michigan

Larry Daley: You know how you were telling me that the key to happiness was something, but then the sun came up? I think i figured it out, It's doing what you love.

Teddy Roosevelt: I was going to say diet and exercise, but the love thing's good, too.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian