Quilt of Valor in the MQX Booth

I got to go to MQX in New Hampshire and there was a booth for the Quilt of Valor Program. The group organizer asked if I could bring a quilt that the 5th grade kids had made. So I asked them and they were waaaaay excited. We took a vote and this is the quilt that they chose to hang in the booth. I got to carry it on the plane and deliver it in person to Jackie.

We also had a photo album with tons of pictures and quotes from the kids. Mrs Dillard made that up and it was wonderful! The quilt and scrapbook got lots of compliments. There was a picture of me helping some of the kids in the scrapbook. As I was walking into the armory one day a fellow quilter - who I did not know - asked if she could give me a hug and talked to me like I should know her. I was slightly embarrassed - that maybe I should have known her but was on the wrong planet.... turns out she knew me from my picture, and now.... I do know her ;-)

This weekend has been really nice weather and we have been working outside. I got the first sunburn of the year. Usually I never burn - apparently I was too white this year - the sun attacked. So I am applying Aloe Vera very liberally and wearing jeans from now on!!

Fire Stations devastated from Hurricane Katrina

My Dad is a fire Chaplain (he is the one I made my first quilt for) and he is an international director of a fire fighter organization. I just got a newletter from him and in it was an article about a fire station that had been leveled by hurrican Katrina. I think I need to help - but don't know exactly how I need to do that. I also quilt for a charity called firehouse quilts. They provide little 45 x 45 quilts to fire trucks/EMT vehicles to use for children. Do you think this MS firehouse could use those? Here is an excerpt from the article.

"I find this situation astonishing as we are a year and a half post-Katrina. An 8 yr old boy died from an auto accident on I-10 a few weeks ago as it took 40 minutes to get a neighboring fire dept to bring a Jaws of Like to extricate him. The West Hancock, MS Fire Dept needs assistance. ........The West Hancock Fire Rescue, a 100% Volunteer Fire Dept, is the first responder to 18 miles if Interstate 10 and responsible for the emergency response to an industrial port - Port Bienville, in Mississippi - in addition to handling a wide range of emergency calls that come in to assist the residents of both Pearlington and West Hancock County. Pearlington was Ground Zero for the Hurricane Katrinas landfall. The town and its residents lost 100% of there homes. The neighboring cities in Hancock county were also virtually wiped out, so they cannot help remedy this situation. "

" as of February 10th they have about 3 weeks fuel supply left. They are in basic need of everything, unfortuneatly they don't have the funds to fix anything. They have lost more than 60% of there equipment. Every department member lost their own home and struggle to juggle there paying jobs, rebuilding there own home, and responding to the needs of a community that has lost so much. "

They have been offered a grant match support - if they can raise $11,000 they can get an additional $110,000 for funding. I know I will be helping send them support - but I am wondering (Aloud and to my quilty friends who also understand this quilty desire) if sending them some small quilts could help? I know its not something I could do overnight, but could over the next few months get some small quilts made. I even have a queen size quilt that just needs binding - do you think they would like that as well??

I guess living in my little sheltered area of Colorado I assumed that the hurricane was over - people had fixed things up, and life went on. I knew there was extreme devastation - but again assumed that was over a year ago - it should be fixed now. Boy do I feel like a dummy!

Okay - I'll send some money and keep pondering on the quilts - they do have a website - I could email them and know for sure - but....then I am committed LOL ( the website is http://www.westhancockfirerescue.org ) And by reading that I think the main need is money, but I always think in quilts...how about you?

Thanks for letting me take a lot of your time - this issue concerns me.... and talking to myself is not always the most intelligent conversation!!

Gifts for the 25th

On the 25th of each month our group encourages us to sew for Christmas. This way Christmas won't sneak up on you! So yesterday I got the borders finished on a quilt that will be a gift. AND this is also my oldest UFO - it was just blocks from a BOM that I didn't know what to do with. And then I heard one of my relatives would like a quilt , and they like these colors - so Bingo!!! Now I will need to get it quilted - but since I am a Machine Quilter I know it shouldn't be too hard to get an appointment with me - I just hope I have quick turn around Ha Ha!!

And I got the pieces cut out for half of the next gift quilt - not too bad if I do say so myself.

The Cool Boys

My Guys are getting ready for summer - and then today it decided to rain and Slush - that is what we are calling it, its pretty wet snow! Anyways my cousin in NY sent these cool shirts to my kids. They got all gussied up to go to church and since they were clean and presentable - I thought - Aha! Picture time.

Now to the quilty stuff - last week I got to go to New Hampshire to MQX - and it was fun. The quilts were amazing - so of course I took a few pics - I mean - how can you not - so I thought I would share a few.

I am so enchanted by wholecloth quilts . I have never seen many, nor thought much about them, but now that I have seen so many - I am wondering what else I have been missing!!

My little Helper

Well this last week has been really busy - and a little too much ~ so I decided I needed to get in my 15 minutes of sewing - just needed to feel like I got something accomplished. So I got up early, got my chores done, kids fed etc and decided I would get 15 minutes in before taking the kids to school. I had a little helper. My youngest decided he wanted to help - so he sewed on my lap while I ran the foot pedal.

Friday morning he woke up real early and came into wake me up. He said Mom - should we get up now? I need to get my 15 min. of sewing in before school....he is too cute. Anyways this is the block we have been working on - you can see more of them on the floor. It is the weedwhacker from Bonnie Hunter. We have renamed it the Scrap Whacker - cuz man is it whacking up the scraps!!! This is him being goofy ;-)

All these scraps are left overs from the backings of the 18 Quilts of Valor we have been working on for this years delivery.

First Quilt

The topic of the week is How did you get started Quilting, and what was your first quilt. My dad is a Firefighter/EMT. He got Called to Ground Zero in New York on September 12th 2001 - the day after. He worked with many many many Fireighters, emergency personnel etc and they all traded patches from the various departments.

He came home with about 40 patches. He wanted a cool way to display them. I, being a seamstress - I owned a Maternity Manufacturing Company - brilliantly thought - wow lets make a quilt and put them on it! Well the patches continued to grow in number as I was planning the quilt. So I just added more blocks. I had decided to make a log cabin quilt - becasue that looked easy to me....(cough cough sputter spew) I had never used a rotary cutter. Nevertheless I conquered - and ended up with a King Plus size quilt with all these patches. I did not have a long arm ( now I do) did not know such machines existed, so I threw the monster on my little Janome and struggled to sew the patches on it.

Then not know that binding was a seperate step, I folded the back over, mitered it and stitched it down - with the machine. It took forever! But it was done. It now resides on my Dads bed and is looked on with a lot of love.

Well it isn't perfect, but it was the intro to quilting. I had a lot of fun with that quilt, so I got a quilting magazine. There was a picture of a blue and white quilt I just loved - so I decided to make it for my Cousin and his new wife. I asked them there favorite colors, found the quilt shop ( who knew those things existed) walked in and told her ( she is now a great friend) I want to make this quilt in these colors. How do I do that? and voila - a quilter was born! Now I have a long arm and everything!!

Getting Closer

We are getting closer to two things - 1.) one of the Quilts of Valor that the kids have been working on so hard will be going to MQX ( machine quilters expo) in New Hampshire next week. The kids voted on it and we decided that we should have a picture of all the kids accompany it! and 2.) Delivery of 18 quilts to Fort Carson - I am so excited - 18!! thats 2 times as many as last year. Of course my quilt guild has helped, and the 2nd graders got involved !! I'm happy ( and worn out from all the machine quilting LOL )



I also have some more Mystery quilts from my Guild to show you. I love the combo Red White and Blue - and its variances - like Maroon Blue and Tan - These look awesome!! This one was made by Betty Q - and she gave it to me all quilted!!!

This one was made by Cheryl P.

And last but not least - the last quilt that came from the guild for our trip to Fort Carson was made by Rosalie. I love how each one turned out and I think a soldier will be glad to get them.

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And on the home front - yesterday when we went to go to school there was a new cat at the house. He was somewhat nervous, but a pretty sleek looking kitty - maybe had been previously very loved. But yesterday he was VERY hungry - so I showed him where I fed my cat, and where the water was for my cat and he seemed to be just fine. My cat is a white barn cat, he is nice but he doesn't like to be hugged much, and loves to chase mice - so we LOVE him.




Anyways this new cat - the boys named him Garfield 2 , ate up and dissappeared - so I thought maybe he was just lost - and then this morning there he was again. On the deck, ready to come IN the house - I don't have house animals - they make me sneeze. He seems a lot more comfy around our place today. I think someone drove out to the country and dropped him off - and he found our place, and now that he is full and can find water - I think he thinks this is his new home. Fine with me - he seems very nice. But he wasn;t too sure what to think of those huge horses that came in from the pasture. It was kind of funny watching Garfield2's face as he looked up at those HUGE horses - I think it was a mix of fear and amazement :-)




So now our cat population has increased to 2 cats - hope he is a good mouser too - or maybe Whitey can teach him ;-)

More Mystery Quilts of Valor

These are still tops - but the quilting will begin soon - we have a delivery date planned - I am on a deadline - and of course as with all deadlines..... I find a way to procrastinate! Okay I am really eating lunch - but how long should that take??

This quilt is the mystery quilt top too It was made by Cecelia -

and of course my quilt holders are on the job again! The next one was made by Cecily - it will be bound with the blue and white stripe fabrics - I think that will look very cool. There is one more from this group - The one on the left was done by Gayle. I just love how all of these turned out - I have three more that were given to me all ready quilted and BOUND ( yay) So I will get my trusty quilt holder back in business and get those photos taken.

Have a quilty day -

I have seen on other blogs people saying what they are grateful for - I like this alot - it gives everyone a positive look on life I think -

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Things I am grateful for today:

1. The laundry is done and we all have enough socks.

2. My kids love to help me pick out fabrics - its kind of a fun family thing.

3. The quilts are getting closer to done for delivery!

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My boys birthday

My youngest son turned 6 on Friday. Hes the one in the center in the Dark Blue Shirt. He had a birthday party at the bowling alley and they had a blast! Then Friday he got to take cupcakes to school and he grinned from ear to ear as they all sang to him. Annnnd ( see how spoiled he is) we got to go to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa.

He got home and found a bike waiting for him. And then of course Saturday was horrible weather so we rode the bike down the hallway. But Today - oh my - I think he rode miles on that thing. He is so happy.

I got another block done on my Lessons quilt - and a lot of laundry done ugh! So now I am ironing - but somehow some of my quilt blocks got into the ironing pile..hmmmm wonder how that happened??