Heritage Days

The Centennial Village in Greeley hosts a heritage day and lets schools bring there children in for a taste of historical life. Our guild was asked to bring in some quilty things and represent the quilting arena. I was asked to chair one of the days - and I laughed. This is why - I cut with rotary cutters and rulers, sew on my electric powered machine, Quilt on my electric powered Longarm, and do ALL bindings by machine. ( yes I have heard you should stitch the binding down by hand - but I have 3 boys so I win!)

Anyways I recruited people who knew how to do things the "olden" ways, and A quilter sewed on a Treadle Machine, 2 people Hand Quilted, and one Hand embroidered so all I had to do was sit and smile. Okay - I made a ton of rail Fence Red White and Blue blocks and invited ids to sign them to be made into a Quilt for Soldier - I bet you are surprised!. I don't think one child said no - they had fun signing them and adding hearts and stars.

It was an interesting day. Some of the kids from the school that my children go to were there - so I recognized faces. Most of the docents from the museum dressed in costume, I wore jeans, I did not fit in.... who knew?

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Alycia

Sue's Heartstring Quilt is Quilted

I had fun with this one - I used the Deb's Swirls Panto ( From Deb Giessler) and it looked really nice. I will finish the binding this weekend and get it to a soldier.Its a Quilt of Valor. It's good timing to be putting bindings on - the temps are cooling down in the mornings and the evenings, so it feels nice to have a quilt on your lap.

This quilt is part of the Heartstrings Project. You can find out more at http://www.heartstringsquiltproject.com/ . For the month of October there is a Pink String challenge, the guidelines are at that site. I already have 3 Pink Blocks made.... this is an accomplishment for me this week as we have been running like crazy!!

The Quiltholders are my youngest two boys. They are usually pretty happy about doing this, as the think is means they will get paid - HA they have another thing coming to them.

Have a quilty day!

Alycia

Gifts for the 25th - September

Well - I know today is the 26th but yesterday was NUTS!
I got up really early , did all the chores, got the kids to school, picked up a friend, spent most the day in Denver, got back home - threw dinner in the crockpot ( a 20 min stopover) picked the kids up from school. Took them to the orthodontist, football practice, left the younger two with Dad, and took the older one to Parent Teacher conferences..... came home, ate dinner, packed up my bucket for Wednesday. It was Heritage Days at the Centennial Village ( like a pioneer village) . Loaded the car, helped my son with algebra and ...... Sewed the backing together for my GIFT of the 25th - No pictures yet - because it is a gift, and I don't keep secrets all that well ;-)

at 10 pm I was asleep.......

organized chaos

......Abounds at my house on football weekends! Saturday was my oldest sons game - they WON! Yea team. And then I got the bug to finish things. I have been working on 4 different quilt tops at the same time ( yes I know stupid) and of course all four of them are at the top stage at the same time, and I want to see them ALL and the same time.....

So glad the Broncos played on Sunday. My Hubby watched the game while I took over the rest of the house. He didn't even seem to notice until it was time to meander to the Kitchen. He just weaved, twisted and turned different directions each time. And never said a word about the amount of "things" on the floor!

One of the tops I can't show you - it is top secret - but this is my floor. This is the heartstring quilt I have been working on . I found 4 wonky star blocks that I had learned to make in a cool class. So thought I could use those as cornerstones. But now I need a border to go in between - so there are three different choices on the floor - I think we are leaning toward the cream with the pledge of allegiance on it. This will be a Quilt of Valor ( http://qovf.org/)

And here is the rest of the floor. I have finished all the Wacky Log Cabin blocks and went thru a bunch of my scraps - althought the scrap bin still has enough for oh say another quilt!! So my youngest son layed the blocks out and we have 2 - 50 x 60 quilt tops. I think we will add a border but, will see. DS3 gave me strict instructions to not start sewing them until he comes home from school..!

We left a little walking room thru the tops - and nobody complained or even gave me a hard time - what a weekend!

Hope you all had a good one!

Alycia

My cutie patootie

This is DS#3 pretending he is rushing for a touchdown. He is a little young for the 12 yo team though - but he was having fun at Big Brothers Football game. We had a scrimmage last night against the broncos. We are the Cowboys. They did well and learned a lot. The coaches could stop play at any time and discuss the options/strategies etc. I think it taught the kids a lot.

Wednesday Hubby and I got to go to a Rockies Game - vs the LA Dodgers. Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley was there at the beginning of the game. And the Rockies WON - we were 20 rows back from home plate - great seats, until the 6ft 6in guy sat in front of me. He was cool and moved over one ;-) He also taught kindergarteners and said that sometimes the kids are in such awe of his height they forget to speak!

People are fun to watch, some dress up for the games, some need to go shopping. I had fun watching the folks walking up and down the stairs. One lady couldn't figure out if she should tug her shirt down to cover her tummy or pull it up to keep the upper parts covered. Such a conundrum - me ~I would have opted for a shirt that fit to begin with!!

I have FINALLY finished my wacky log cabin blocks and will have the boys lay them out in a pleasing presentation this weekend and get them sewn into 2 tops. I am 3 blocks shy of my first heartstrings quilt - so have been working on those today ( in between getting my truck tire fixed, laundry, ironing for dh and goofing off a bit) . All three of these will be Quilts of Valor. I also got a Heartstrings quilt that came from Sue in MN all prepped to quilt this next week.

Have a great Day! Keep Quilting.

Alycia

Its Tuesday!

Our weekend just flew right by us! We had football Pictures early saturday morning, followed by a game. 3 Kids got hit hard ( at 3 different times) and we had delays of the game. They are all fine now - but ...shew that stuff gets me.

I am preparing lots of Pink Fabrics for the October HEartstrings project - for breast cancer quilts. You can find out more at http://www.heartstringsquiltproject.com/ . My Aunt and my Mom are both Breast Cancer survivors - so it is close to my heart. I found a really neat pink at the fabric store AND it was ON Sale - so I got it for a backing for a heartstrings quilt.

This quilt is the quilt I quilted for a customer who is a math teacher. I highly suggest quilting for math teachers - she is very precise, all seams are accurate, I think this is the first perfectly square quilt I have had for a while.
I did lots of feathers in the open spaces, some croshatching and lots of SID - she liked it.

I have also been sewing 6 1/2 inc 3 rail fence blocks with a cream in the center for an autograph quilt. I will be helping at heritage days in Greeley next week. In the quilting area, we will have lots of things to show kids - and hopefully they will have time to sign a block for a quilt for our soldiers. Of course - Quilts of Valor.

Have a great day!

Alycia

My life in a Shampoo Bottle

I have three boys - I have three boys who are wonderful, caring, absolutely too fun kids! But I have three boys that are all complete opposites - how can you have three complete opposites you ask? I have no clue - but I have living proof that it can exist! Its here in my house!

So My oldest son comes home from football and want to take a shower - he yells from the bathroom - MOM there is something blue in the shampoo..... mind you the original color of the shampoo was yellow. So I head in there - yep - something is in the shampoo. Call the other boys - okay who put what in the shampoo - Not me, Not me, and Not me - are the responses.

Whoever this Not Me kid is - I DID NOT give birth or adopt it - so he must leave. He shows up at the most inconvienent times, and he is Very messy, eats all the chocolate, and leaves sticky stuff, but I digress. So I go into another bathroom, get another shampoo and let the poor child take a shower. Of course I left the original offending shampoo there in hopes that Not Me would have this guilt over take his heart and come confess....

Dear Hubby comes home and the first thing he hears is - someone put something in the shampoo... now my husband has the ultimate amount of patience - me I just don't care - it looked like a science experiment and I figured it kept one of the boys in the shower long enough to get clean, so it worked! Anyways DH gathers the boys and patiently ferreted out the dirty rotten scoundrel, who came and confessed, and then I hugged him. I said Thanks for telling the truth. His reponse - Mom it was so cool to watch the stuff crystallize - see Einstein in the Making!!

Okay - now this leads to today - they did throw the offending bottle of shampoo in the trash - but they forgot to consider that it is a liqued, and as such it might possibly leak, and drip thru the offending holes in the grocery sacks that we use for trash bags. So when the chore of emptying the trash occured this morning - there was a pretty bubbly trail from the bathroom to the mudroom. When I offered paper towels to the trash taker outer , so that he could clean up the mess - oh boy - He was not happy and proceeded to tell me it wasn't him that did it in the first place, the one who messed up the shampoo should be cleaning and it just wasn't fair. I smiled - and went back to making the lunches for the three boys that eat them..... ( see I am so generous - cooking for others when I don't cook for myself...until noon)

They sat at the counter all grumbling at each other as I proceeded to tell them that they had better have real good jobs when they grow up cuz I am going to bill them for the new carpet, new bathroom floor, and probably a new toilet ..... that made them laugh!! Go figure!

So now - I have squeaky shampooed carpet *grin* and a new bottle of shampoo in the bathroom!

I know this isn't quilty at all - and I have a picture of a quilt for you someplace - I just can't find where it got downloaded - so now I have a good excuse to post again sometime!!

Bound to the Prarie

A group of ladies took a class on the Bound to the Prarie Quilts, and oh my are they beautiful. Here are some pics of the way I quilted them. It was kind of nice - they wanted them all done the same way, so it made my planning a lot easier!

I did a lot of McCarmining ( okay its really McTavishing - but I don't know that I am as perfect as her - hence the new name) in the middles. They have more embellishments to add to it.

The borders were crosshatched. Note to quilter top makers - it is much easier to corsshatch if the borders have an even measurement to them, less of a fudge factor. These borders were really even and flat . It was a nice treat.

They were very happy with them and had them bound the next week, and are now working on the embellishments. So I was tickled.

My Photo

I am trying to update my blogger and add a photo of me - apparently I lack computer skills so I am going to try to do it again!

So this is me - I am at a Broncos Raiders Game in Oakland - hence the Black - so I don't get attacked by the diehard Raider fans - yes I am a Bronco fan - the sun sets Blue and Orange here (grin)

Today was my sons football scrimmage - they had fun. He got hot, I got sunburned - and now I am lazy and playing around on my computer. I figured out how to drag it and the phone line over to the couch - and I think I may Never leave!!

My guild has been invited to help out at a heritage day in Greeley and I have been made a chairperson for a day. I am thinking of bringing in lots of quilts, blocks for the kids ( mostly 4th graders) to look at, batting samples, and they will have a treadle machine there. I thought maybe I coud make up some Rail Fence blocks with white in the center and have the kids sign the blocks to be made into a Quilt of Valor - there should be about 100 kids - what do you think? If I just sew 2 1/2 strips together - 3 of them - should be a 6 1/2 inch block......

I got Judy Laquidara's book in the mail Wedesday and it is pretty cool - I think I could make a few of those ( not want - I mean actually do the sewing!) It was a nice thing to have arrive - as I have bonded with my couch this week. DH also went to the library and got Gwen Marstons Liberated Strings book and a quilting book for me to look at. All this inspiration - When I finally get up off the couch I should be sewing for a month!

Okay - well see if I have followed (or can follow) the directions and get a picture in my file of me - that way if you run into me on the street you won't be tempted to run away !!