Quilt of Valor Sew Along Cutting Instructions

As you all know - I am really into using up my patriotic pieces and making more Quilts of Valor. And it is working! I contacted a nationally known designer and asked if it was possible to use her design as a Mystery Sew Along.... and she said YES! It is a copyrighted pattern, and it belongs to her. This designer and the name of the pattern will be revealed at the end of the sew along. If you figure it out - keep it to yourself, as I will hold a drawing to see if you can guess - and there will be a prize!!
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So here we go: My cutting instructions are for scrappy - but I will try to give you an equivalent in FQ's or yardage. Using yardages you may have some leftovers.





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Cutting Instructions:

You need:

61 1 1/2 inch by 11 inch strips in a Dark. ( I used Reds in mine)
61 1 1/2 inch by 11 inch Strips in a Light. ( I used Creams and whites)

* You can get 24 - 11 inch strips per fat quarter - so by using FQ's you would use 2 1/2 FQ's for each color

61 2 1/2 inch Squares in a Light ( I used Creams and white)
244 2 1/2 inch squares in a Dark ( I used Reds)

* you can get 56 2 1/2 squares per FQ. I think you could use one for the white and use the leftovers of strip cutting to make up the next 5 square for the lights.
* for the Darks you would need 5 FQ's.

30 7 1/4 inch Squares in a Light ( again I used Creams and Whites)
30 7 1/4 inch Squares in a Dark ( I used Navy... It is peaking out under the whites in my photo)

* you can get 6 squares per 44 inch long strip of fabric. So you would need 5 strips ( 44 inches long) or 37 inches of each color.

So... are you excited?

Shall I post the clues weekly? Thats what I am thinking - especially since it is still summer.

Horses

Monday was the horse show day. We ( and by we -please know that I am referring to Wrangler Man and the 2 oldest boys. I had to hold hands with the little boy - yep - thats true!!) cleaned and washed up the horses. Made them all pretty again. They had already been washing them and keeping them as pretty as you can on a dirt ranch!
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They got the horses all pretty - then they worked on dressing themselves all up. The Horse Show definition of Cowboy wear is a little different than our torn jeans, t-shirts, and baseball caps. But the kids cleaned up nice.

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K - the middle son was working so hard with his mare, and she was really relaxed - until they got into the show ring. She immediately became a buckethead. He did so well with her though. She knocked his hat off. He was calm and cool and waited for someone to bring it back to him. After the mare had stepped on it. She was missing her partner who was waiting to come into the next class.

We think that maybe we should take the horses out more. They

were amazed at all the other horses out there! Barbie - thats the mare - didn't realize there was life off the ranch. Hmmm - sounds familiar!!

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And speaking of horses - look at this cool quilt. It is a Quilt of Valor that was made by Willa in Livermore. Joanne in IA quilted it for us - and it is just gorgeous!! Thanks ladies!

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Hope you all are having a great day. Do you have your rotary cutters all ready? Do you have a pile of Light and Dark Scraps handy? Only 2 more days until the cutting instructions are up!!

Favorite Things

Besides me having an obsession with quilts and fabrics - planes are the next thing. But not just any plane you know - the ones that fly real real fast. And that no one will let me fly. I keep telling my kids that they have to go to the Air Force and learn to fly these jets and then convince the instructors to let me in one... think it would work?

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The Thunderbirds came to Cheyenne - so we headed up. I did not realize that they have been coming for 11 years - which means we haven't missed a show yet....
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And with my little digital camera I am taking way to many pictures - bit thought these turned out okay.

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Yesterday was also our biggest fair day. We had horse shows in the morning. Then in the afternoon we turned in our projects, record books and had interviews. The Quilt judge was extremely thorough and seemed to ask a lot of questions. I was trying to eavesdrop - as it is one on one with the kids. Hard to eavesdrop with 14,000 screaming 4 -H'ers and there siblings in a metal roofed building!!

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She asked them a lot about the making of the quilt. And by her hand gestures I could see that she thought the boys had quilted the quilts on the regular sewing machine, and by their hand gestures I could see them explaining the LA machine. Then they finally showed her the pictures in the book to prove it. It was quite cute. She was a very nice judge and came to talk to me when they were done.

They forgot to put captions on their pictures - oops. But just to prove that the boys did use the LA - I will share their pictures with you too!

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I am working on another SEW ALONG Quilt of Valor project. I got permission from the author of the pattern to bring it to you step by step - right here on my little blog. I am really excited - because she is a nationally known quilter. So we will start this sew along on Friday with the cutting instructions. That way you can work over the weekend ( grin!!)

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And just so you know - it would be another great way to use up some of your scraps!

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Have a great day!

Quilted Quilts of Valor

These first two quilts were quilted by Donna S in Longmont. They were made by the Livermore Quilters. Boy are they a prolific bunch! They have kind of slowed down this summer - so we can catch up with them! Donna did a wonderful job!






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The next two quilts come from Lyn in my quilt guild. One is called a Crazy 9's, and the other is a Tossed 9 Patch - or Disappearing nine Patch. They are both just wonderful!!

My youngest son and I entered our quilts in the Weld Co Fair. We had to get ours in on Friday. After a swim meet... we made it just in time. As we were waiting in line to turn ours in a lady told me son that it was nice of him to carry his Moms quilts. He proudly informed her that this was HIS!! So we will see how he did on Wednesday ( I think)

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Hope you all are enjoying your summer. It seems to be moving very very quickly this year - and full of more stuff!!!

Taking a Breath

Today is our day to catch up. We are in all sorts of spots on our fair quilts, our show horses, our archery competitions, and swim meets..... But we press on - the deadlines are looming!
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First - we finished the conference Swim Meet - that was the bigger one with lots of teams competiting. It is a 2 day meet. The two youngest goombahs swam Friday. Which worked out great, because middle son had an archery competition Saturday. He won a bow rack - he was really excited. Came home and set it up immediately.
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Goombah number one swam on Saturday. Note the wingspan on that kid!! He had a good meet.

And he finished up early enough that we were able to hustle to the archery competition. He made it up as the last 4 shooters were going - pure luck on our part. Lucky guy won his division for compound traditional bows. Now he gets to go to State.
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Next we had another riding/ halter class practice. We ( and by we - I mean they) are getting the horses to stand up nicely and square. And to not run the kids over.
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After all that hard work they goofed off a bit in the arena... while little bit and I headed in to start quilting his quilt that is due on Friday. Nothing like waiting till the last minute huh?
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So after swim practice this morning - we headed home quickly to start finishing up the rest of the "stuff" The Quilts, The Record Books, The laundry ( just had to throw that in there).


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It is break time now - they are snacking, I am catching up on my blog...

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Hope you all have a good one!

Wonderful Quilts of Valor

The first two quilts came from T. in St Louis MO. They have really neat pictures of wildlife on them. Defineatly an outdoorsy, masculine quilt. And I know this because my guys loved them!! Thanks T!!

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The Next Two quilts were made by the Livermore Community Quilters - Laurel and Audrey. Cathie in Utah volunteered to quilt them for me - WOW did she do an awesome job!!

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The stars and Bars one is a pattern I made up - you can find it in the side bar - It's called... are you ready?.... Stars and Bars!

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Hope you all have a great day . Its supposed to be a hot one here today. We are still finishing up 4-H quilts - wish us luck!

We survived our weekend

Sort of! Thursday Nite the kids had a make up swim meet - lasted till 7pm... and we got home late. We had to be back to a different pool Friday Morning by 6:30 am. That swim meet lasted till 2pm, and we made it home by 4pm.
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Saturday we were finally able to celebrate Pipsqeak #2's birthday. He was so patient - waiting till after his birthday. But he really really wanted to take 2 friends Ice Skating... well try to coordinate that around all their "stuff"! But we did it... and I even put on a pair of skates. Please do NOT ask me how well I skate!
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Pipsqueak 2 is in the striped shirt in the center!

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We got home from Ice Skating - made dinner and reloaded for the oldest pipsqueaks "GUTS Meet" ! It didn't start till 8pm and was ALL long distances. Took a lot of guts!! I get to be the starter at the meets at our pool, so I feel important ( giggle) I get to tell all the swimmers what to do. Imagine the groans when I said "Swimmers you have a 200 Meter Butterfly - 8 lengths of the pool. Swimmers take your marks" They hated me... it was awesome!

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That meet ended at 12:30 am ( thats like Sunday morning in my world) We made it home by 1:30 am...crashed and woke up to go teach Sunday School - 3rd grade....

Got home and had some friends over to practice Halter Classes and riding events. The fair is in two weeks and the 2 oldest boys are showing horses. I love our horses - but they sort of think they are people, and sometimes are in their own world ( hunh - kind of like a kid I have...go figure) . So it took a lot of practice. The dad of the family that came is a horse judge. He was awesome. He gave us great information, as only Wrangler Man has done this Halter stuff before. We had a great time, and wore the kids out.... bonus!

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Also wore myself out - I was ready to sleep by 7:30 that night....

The Common Thread Quilters

in Idaho contributed these two Lovely Quilts for Quilts of Valor. Teri and Lola made these. They are really wonderful - ladies Thank you SO much!!
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I am really in a scrappy mood - cutting up and sewing my scraps. The quilt with the red border looks like something that I could make with my scraps. I really really like it.
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Today is our third of 3 swim meets in a row. It is a late meet - so wish me luck that I stay awake thru it. I have no worries about the kid swimming - I think he survives on one hour of sleep!!

Hope you all have a great day!

The Passionate Quilter

http://passionatequilter.blogspot.com/

Strikes again! These Two beautiful quilts came from her! I think she made one and a friend made one ( Karen??)

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They are truly gorgeous!! I can't wait to see the look on the soldiers faces who recieve these.

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We made it thru the livestock judging - they only ran about 30 minutes behind, I guess that is good. The kids did very well, and they informed me they were hungry - so lets get a move on. I said - what else is new?

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I am feeling rather unorganized at the moment. I don't like that. I have meals planned out - but they want to eat more that I have planned. And then something always changes or puts a wrench in the time frame ( like a postponed swim meet due to weather - or a new meet, not on the schedule) . I am sure I can adjust - but it is taking over my quilting time and I have to get up earlier and earlier to get "my" stuff done. Any suggestions to stay organized?

Home on the Range

I saw a link on another person's blog to a blog called the Pioneer Woman. (Pioneerwoman.com) I clicked over there and just laughed!! But one of my favorite type pictures are the ones that she posts that her husband takes - thru the ears of a horse. So I thought - well I can do this - I am on a horse a lot. But you know what?... he has to be one coordinated cowboy... I had trouble keeping the reins, the junk, and my camera all organized. I even tried to take a picture with my rope once. Just so you know - those don't turn out to well. They are kind of green - oh say - just like my rope!!

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And my horse - I am going to guess he is lazy - I had to hunker down to get his ears in the picture! I think he was playing with me. He also thought he needed to go up and down the hills all day - rough on the knees if you ask me.

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So anyways - thats us - we are out riding the fences. Only a few are accessible by road - so we were playing cowboy! And we were trying - very unsuccessfully I might add- to stay in a line. Some day we have these great ideas of trail riding on a mountain.... but I think the horses need more practice. They would rather be next to each other than behind!
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My Horse - Rojo is his name - he absolutly hates being last. Which

is quite funny - cuz most of the time I am always last. Or maybe its called bringing up the rear??

This is the older two boys in the roping chutes. And to mention quilts at least once - that is my house in the background and the bottom level - the walk out - that is my quilting room and QOV storage area. Its ALL mine I tell ya!! ( not really, but I figure if I say it enough some one will believe me someday!)

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Hope you all have a great one! We finally finished our Livestock Record books, and now we need to start our Archery ones. I guess 4-H never ends......

Not so Top Secret Project Two Part 6

Quilting the Quilt:
I quilted mine , and my youngest son quilted the Top my Mom made. So we are two more quilts ahead. But after the Quilting.... there is still one more step. You need to bind the quilt. There are lots of great tutorials out there. Instructions in Quilt Magazines and YouTube videos.
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I use 2 1/2 inch strips for my binding. I measure the quilt ( eg 54 x 72) then I add 54 + 54 +72 +72+15 and that is the length of binding that I need.


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I make a double fold binding. Then - because I don't like to do any handwork - I apply the raw binding edge to the back side of the quilt. Then I bring the Binding to the front and use a decorative stitch to sew it down.

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Now if you are sending it to a LA'er and forwarding it this way - you don't need to worry about the binding. We will get it done here. I have been recruiting even more folks to do this process!!

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Hope you all have a great day - a thunderstorm has just moved in - so I must sign off!

More on Quilts of Valor

This soldier was from Guam. He was wondering when he would be able to get back to the tropics. He was stationed here 3 years ago when we had our "Big Blizzard" It was the first time he had seen snow, and was excited for about a day. Then he said he was over that! He has had two full tours in Iraq and was injured during his third. He was a lot of fun to talk to. Since he didn't have an appointment for a half an hour - we entertained him. Or at least we thought we were - he might have been trying to get away....



This soldier was helping us carry some quilts into the vault. These will be under military security. There were a few soldiers who weren't able to make it to formations, so we made sure they would have quilts delivered to them. The one in the picture had four daughters, and he said he was wishing for a son too. So I let him have my boys - for about 2 minutes. He tried to trade - but told me his girls were very girly and would not like to do outside chores. I politely declined.

Next - we were put to work. And please note - I use the term "we" lightly. This Platoon leader said all the men in his presence must complete their P.T. So I looked very busy when he yelled hit the deck and give me 10. I was sure he was only speaking to the men - and in no way was I included in that command. I very kindly reminded him that I was a General in my own mind, so I outranked him. It seemed to work until the Chaplain was able to rescue me.....