In a nutshell, Fuji Rock rocked! We had so much fun over the three days that I really wasn't ready to leave the grounds for our hotel on Sunday night. It was sad to go.
Before going to Fuji Rock, I made a quilt for us to take along. It ended up being quite perfect for dancing, relaxing and playing on. I originally saw it here and though it was so sweet. I decided to do greens with one patch of bright purple instead of yellows. I LOVED the starburst pattern though, so went with the same idea. Also, I wanted it waterproof on the bottom since it has down-poured at Fuji Rock for the past 11 years (not this year, though!!). Instead of duck cloth on the bottom, I went with a striped vinyl-type fabric. Same as the original, it folds up all nice and neat and has a handle for easy carrying.
Every time I quilt something, I always tell myself I'll never do it again. Yet I do. I don't know why I find quilting such a challenge. Perhaps all the cutting involved? Maybe the quilting itself? I don't know, but if you hear me talking about doing yet another quilt, please remind me of my issues with quilting.
It started out fairly simply. I taped a bunch of newspaper together to make the pattern. Then drew some lines and labeled the sections with numbers one to seven.
I cut out the first two segments, sewed them together and then kept cutting/sewing until the top half was done.
Then I flipped the pattern over, cut it a bit to fit the bottom sheet and did the same process. Surprisingly enough, this was quite fun and simple. Straight lines are a breeze. Even getting the middle to match up wasn't that much of a challenge.
This is where things started to fall apart. The batting wasn't wide enough, so I had to connect two pieces. I looked online about how to do this and everything seemed to recommend connecting the pieces by hand. I started to do this and got about 10 centimeters in about 30 minutes. Y finally suggested I just do it on the machine. This was way faster, but looks like Frankenstein.
Then I pinned the old quilt sandwich up and got cracking. This was a mess. The vinyl plus batting plus top layer made it really difficult to maneuver in my tiny sewing machine.
It got done, but it wasn't pretty. If you look too closely at the finished blanket you can see what I mean, but luckily no one noticed (or they were all too nice to point out my quilting skills).
Then I had to cut the batting, make the closure, and connect it all with bias tape (another thing I love the look of, yet secretly despise actually doing).
I love how it turned out. It was really nice to have a bit of padding, particularly at some of the rockier stages.
You can see the edge of the blanket while checking out K's mad dancing skills.
As above, Fuji Rock was amazing! It was really different going with a kid, but it was so kid-friendly, that it was not difficult at all. Kan loved the music and danced like a crazy person a lot of the time.
They had a kids' area that we took him to that I'm pretty sure he never would have left had we allowed it. There was an amazing jungle gym volunteers had built complete with stairs carved out of tree trunks, ropes for swinging on and jumping off of onto a huge net that acted as a trampoline. In the same area they made a stage with rocks and pieces of wood that kids could use as instruments - K loved this.
In front of the stage, as you can see, there were logs and stumps for the audience. Towards the back there were huge swings hanging from trees.
On the other side of Kids' Forest was another huge jungle gym, this one complete with a slide and sand pit.
There was a gigantic teepee to play in and get a break from the sun.
Inside tents, activities were going on all day (the photo was taken in the evening, so those activities were finished), like face painting, picture painting, instrument making and snack time.
A huge room full of toys was set up and had fans going, so the kids could get a break from the heat and sun. While we didn't need either of these things, also in the room were separate nursing rooms and a kid's toilet.
Aside from the stage where K had his Fuji Rock debut, I'm pretty sure his favorite part was the carousel. He probably rode this fifty times over the three days.
From the kids' area, you could hear the music from the main stage. I'll forever have memories of K riding the carousel to Elvis Costello.
At a few of the stages, they had priority tents set up that were meant for families or pregnant women. At the hippie stage (Field of Heaven), K had such fun looking at the artwork on the walls.
He was in awe of the walk from stage to stage. There was always so much going on - of course tons of people, but also creeks and huge, lit-up sculptures.
There were stars in the sky and eyes in the trees.
Disco balls shining light guided the way.
He used the boardwalk as train tracks and played for hours in the forest, listening to music and smiling at the people walking by.
We had a blast! It was such a great three days and although K is too young to remember, we will always have beautiful photos of him to remind him of the fun he had at Fuji Rock when he was two.
We got home this afternoon, and are headed to the US in two days. I have a lot of laundry to do before then. Ahhhh, back to reality.
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