Graduations

I attended another military graduation today, and my mind is still filled with the good feelings, and my heart says get to the table and sew, and my body is tired.... A great combination and feeling.

First off - THANKs to ALL of you who participate in Quilts of Valor in any way. I can not tell you the joy, the gratitude, and the thanksulness of the vets who recieve these quilts.

I wish I could show you the joy on their face as they look on these quilts.

I wish I could convey the feelings of love that the vets feel.

I wish I could let you know how tickled the family members are that see their vet - whether a spouse or a child or a friend, recieve their Quilt of Valor.

Buuutt...Since I forgot my camera - I hope the words will do.

Todays Graduates were led into a room, and shown the assortment of QOV's. They were each able to choose the Quilt that they so desired. Totally appropriate, since they have done all the hard work of getting to the graduation. I was watching from the edge, and listening to the comments, and totally enjoying myself.

It was interesting to hear the comments. Let me tell you - EACH - Quilt was appropriately ohhed and awwwed over. I did not train them to do that, so you know it came from their heart!

The Ranger that I followed around was looking for blues. He wanted something sort of Patriotic, but calming. He found a blue rail fence that fit him. The funny thing is - this guy is NOT calm what. so. ever!  I am thinking he knew he needed help settling down - and color was a way for him.

Airborne - he wanted bold Red White and Blue - and *surprise* found a very Bold RWB rail fence... must have been the day!

Special Forces was looking for big. He was getting married and getting the cutest little step daughter in the world, and he wanted space for snuggling. He found a beautiful Tan and (surprise) Red and Blue quilt.

I thought it was so cool how the quilt found the vet, and how totally suited they were for each other.

During the graduation I got to present the quilt to the vet in the ceremony, and as I unfurled each quilt to show the audience - the gasping was WAY cool! And the families were touched that such quilts were made specifically for there vet.

Now I am going to go plan another QOV Sew Along.... It is in my blood, and in my heart. And based on the LOVE of the rail fence patterns it may have something to do with lots of strips.... and fun, and it can't be too hard, and ........ oh boy. Would anyone like to join in? What if I had a start date of Veterans Day - November 11th? 

If you want to.....leave a comment... that way I will put the pattern on my blog.......( this does not commit you to HAVING to do it though!!)

Quilters Accountability 9/29/10

My last weeks goals were:
 1. Sew 15 minutes a day on Betty Quilt   - I got about 30 minutes over the weekend, thats it.
2. Quilt one of my own quilts ( I have it prepped.......thats a start right)  Whoo hoo, it is on the long arm machine, it has batting in it, and I have my threads all picked out and ready to go.....

Kinda boring - huh? I am not sure where this last week went to, Saturday we had visitors at all hours of the day. We were supposed to take a horse to a lady in the afternoon, until we found out it didn't like to load in trailers. So Wrangler Man and I persuaded, begged, and tried everything for about 5 hours. Then we quit. We locked her in the alleyway, with her food and water in the trailer. The next morning she was ready....and took about 45 minutes and went right in the trailer.

On Sunday we had a QOV sew day. Just a few of us showed up, but we ( and by we I mean Harriet) got 2 QOV's bound. The rest of us got 30 flag blocks and 47 Star blocks put together.
Joan is a speed sewer. I have a hard time sitting still for more than 15 minutes, so I helped deplete the M&M's stash as well as made Flag blocks and Ironed!!

I have big goals for this next weekend. I was going to go to a retreat, but it ended up being too far away, too costly, and I was needed here at home. But I have convinced the *boys* to let me start sewing on Saturday and leave me alone..... Wish me good sewing vibes!!

Here is my list:

• Quilt on My quilt at least 2 hours
• Cut my Fall Foliage quilt ( that is the fabric bundle I bought last Friday)
• Sew 10 Betty Blocks
• Make a Backing for Lime green/Black quilt
• Take Pictures of QOV's that have arrived.

To see what everyone else is up to head over to:

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

You are allowed to join in as well!!!

Quilt A Fair

CQC is the State Quilt guild, and they are VERY active. Every year in September they hold Quilt A Fair, and lots of vendors show up, and they hang a Quilt Show from the rafters.  I had three quilts hanging - one was my Remembering George quilt...
http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2010/06/quilters-accountability-week-22.html

I went on Friday, hoping that it wouldn't be as crowded as it would be on Saturday - well - that was a laugh! I still managed to find a few things I needed to have in my Quilting Stash....

 This little kit is a Cat in the Hat kit. We purchased it, as a lady was saying - I can't buy that, I don't have any little kids in the house. The boys and I were standing right there. We said - we don't either, but we are buying it!

We all LOVE Dr Suess! And one of the boys thinks this should be his next fair quilt..... ( a fight may be on!!!)

These fabrics were purchased in the bundle. I wasn't really looking for fabrics like this, and I don't know that they are colors I would normally purchase. But I did, so maybe my tastes are changing. I even came home and wrote up a pattern for it RIGHT AWAY!! Maybe you will be seeing this in the near future. I do not want to add to the stash......

I saw this moose quilt hanging up and it reminded me of my dad. Not that he will be seeing a quilt like this any time soon, unless he comes to see the pattern. But it is on my list of somedays...

And last but definitely not least - a cool book. This is written by Judy L of http://www.patchworktimes.com/   Of course, her premise is that you can sew these in a weekend... she has apparently never seen me sew.... but the patterns - Ohh laa laa. There were 3 that I want to start right away.

Seriouly, she writes these patterns so well, normal quilters probably could sew them in the time she says.

It was a great time, and I enjoyed seeing all the new things out there, as well as quilty friends. Now I just want everyone to go to bed so I can sew........

Eye Candy

Here is some more eye candy for your quilty pleasure!!! This first quilt comed from Judy in NY. She said she taught a class using the U-Tube method by the Missouri Quilt Company. And this is the quilt she made from it!

Cool - Isn't it?

Next comes 2 quilts from Becky B in MO. She is in my Heartstrings group ( http://www.heartstringsquiltproject.com )

Thanks Becky - these are awesome!!! I love the blues. I think I may be turning into a blue girl!!
I am pretty sure that these were made with coins. A while ago Heartstrings had a coin project, and there were a lot of cool results!!

Meredith in CA is a very prolific piecer, and Ron O of New Mexico is doing a great job keeping up with her. Here are  quilts she sent me!

I am pretty sure that this last one is a Disappearing 4-9 patch pattern. I have seen it in a few quilts and really like the way it turns out. I found a tutorial here:

http://sewwonderful.blogspot.com/2010/02/disappearing-4-patch-or-4-to-9-patch.html

I really really want to try it, but have a few other things on the list first!

Hope you all enjoyed these Quilts of Valor and got a little bit of eye candy!! Maybe even some inspiration!!

My Visit with Shari

was totally fun and hilarious!!

I got an email from Shari saying she was coming from AZ to NM and wanted to stop in. Now I am not the most geographically hip person in the world, but I wasn't sure that Colorado was in the middle of that route. Just to be sure I googled it.... Yep - I googled -

Come to find out it was an AZ to CO to NM trip - so I was really right in there. She came to Greeley and we met up for dinner, and a guild meeting. She was a blast! And she handled herself very well around my three boys and husband, Sometimes they can be noisy ( grin)

Shari went to my guild meeting with me and was the talk of the guild. They found out she was from AZ, and I think they all made plans to visit her this winter!! She also brought ELEVEN Quilts of Valor from her group to me! We showed Three of them at the guild.

The Quilts are Lovely! The Star quilt here caught a  lot of ladies attention and they wanted to make it. So I searched out the pattern, and also asked Shari how she did hers!

http://www.thangles.com/files/01-2splitvalorweb.pdf

http://www.thangles.com/files/03-4splitvalorweb.pdf

These are the pages of how to make it. Shari did not use the thangles and made hers a bit bigger.

As she was leaving she handed me a T Shirt - I don't think she knows a thing about me - do you?

I, of course, showed it to everyone and we all laughed and laughed because we all know the way to my heart...

I wore it to Quilt A Fair yesterday and met a whole lot of people who might never have stopped to say hi!! Great shirt Shari - Thank you!!

Quilted!!!

One of my goals this last week was to get a QOV quilted, and it worked!! I got two done. The first quilt came from my friend ,Jess and her group, sent to me. I quilted it with a pattern from Dawn R's Pajama Quilter DVD. Except that as I am typing this I totally forgot the name of it, and I am NOT getting off of the couch - its a fern thing... maybe fern ziggle???

Anyways - it was fun to do, and I think it looks pretty good.

This next quilt was made by Harriett from my quilt guild. She is a military wife, and spent many  years following her husband all of the place. I quilted it with stars. My boys helped a little here and there.

On our way home from High school this afternoon we saw a huge puff of black smoke go up. Turns out it was about 1,000 acre fire and it ended up taking down a house. We were (and still are) perfectly safe, but that was awful to watch. We have a few friends who have houses less than 1/2 mile away from it. Scary!!

Tomorrow starts Quilt A Fair at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, in Longmont. I will be visiting for a little while - so if you are there come say hi to me as I am shopping!!! ( there is FABRIC!!!)

Quilters Accountability 9/22/10

I interrupt all Quilters Accountability progress to bring you this message.....

Ha ha !!!  We are having a Quilt of Valor sew day on Sunday. Most of the time I have a ton of quilts to bind, but alas - I have only quilted 2 Quilts of Valor this month. This is actually a good sign, as it means I have been a little busier with customer quilts.... which means my kids can eat more (giggle)

So I thought I would demonstrate this block at our sew day:


And then I thought - well that didn't take to long to make. We are industrious sew'ers, I bet we could sew enough for a few tops. If we are going to sew that much, I had better have a lot cut right? So I cut - a lot - today.

Confession time: This summer I bought an AccuQuilt Go cutter. The boys loved it right away, and two of them used it to cut their fair quilts. I was a little slower to convert. It caused my brain to have to think a little differently, and there was not enough chocolate to help that process.

My thought processes are finally catching up. I cut the majority of the fabrics for the flag block with it!!! Yay Me, and it was awesome. I used the 1 1/2 strip cutter and the 3 1/2 inch strip cutter. Now I need the 2 inch strip cutter!  I loved it. I am sure it saved me a bunch of time. plus it allowed me to use a lot of my scraps.

I filled this bucket with strips from the accuquilt. Then subcut them with my rotary cutter into the lengths I needed. I cut enough for 70 blocks.... shew!!!

I have also had a few emails as to how to make the block, and if they did could they send it to me to put into a top. I think this is a great idea. If you would like the directions - here you go.

For one 9 inch block you need:
1 - 3 1/2 by 4 inch Blue Square
2 - 1 1/2 by 9 inch Red Strips
2 - 1 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch Red Strips
2 - 1 1/2 by 9 inch White Strips
1 - 1 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch White Strip
1 - 2 inch by 9 inch White Strip ( this is the very bottom strip)

If you would like to send me some blocks - email me for my address, and I would be glad to put them into a Quilt of Valor.

I have no clue if you can click on my drawings to see the doodles and notes I made to make enough blocks for a whole quilt - but it is here if it works?

QA Goals
Last week - Work on Betty Quilt - Yes, about 15 minutes a day.
Quilt a Quilt of Valor -Yep - I actually got 2 done, but forgot to take the pictures. Come back tomorrow!!!!
Cut out a quilt for our QOV sew day - Total over achiever on this one - I have 3 total cut, and blocks for someone to put into a top!!!

This weeks goals:
1. Sew 15 minutes a day on Betty Quilt
2. Quilt one of my own quilts ( I have it prepped.......thats a start right)

Wow - I was wordy tonight... caffiene is awesome!!

To see what everyone else is up to head over to:

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

You are allowed to join in as well!!!

Signs

I went to wake my son up for school and I found an interesting sign on his door.

The funny thing is, when I tucked him in at night I only used one quilt. Somehow in the middle of the night he added ALL his Quilts and blankets and his swim parka.

Apparently he was serious about this hibernation thing. So I asked him about it, because , yes I did make him GET up!!  He explained that bears hibernate for the winter, and they get to eat a lot of food before they hibernate. Then their systems start to slow down to prepare them for hibernation. ( this proves that he was listening and not staring into space!)

The food and sleep thing sounded kind of good to him, so he thought he would get in on that action!

On the Quilty Side - Does anyone recognize this Quilting pattern? Another quilter would like to use it for QOV's but I can't seem to know where it came from.

Hay and Sunshine

It is that time again when we start hauling hay for the year. Earlier this summer we were asked to give some kiddos lessons on our horses. I said NO immediately cuz you all know how much I don't like kids right????

We have know these kids for a long time so we let them come ride, and in return do a little work. You see where this is going right? 

My kids did all the loading, and our friends kids did all the unloading. It was  beautiful!!! I got to supervise, watch everyone work, chit chat a little.... you couldn't ask for a better system could you?

Wrangler Man has been breaking another horse and had him all saddled up when the kiddos arrived. The youngest boy was impressed with this horse. Romeo the horse liked the boy too. ( thats them in the top picture)

On the Quilty Side: Rubydell and I are hosting a Quilt of Valor Sew Day this Sunday afternoon. I thought that maybe I would demonstrate a new block and have who ever wanted to make them, do so. This block in unfinished 9 inches in size. Probably I will set them 6 x 8 with a border. And sort of twist them like a rail fence setting? 

 What do you think?

Quilts from Illinois

First off - Thank you so much for the well wishes for my horse. And No - Rattlesnake bites do not ususally cause death, but there is always a chance that the venom will get to the heart and cause a heart attack. Usually after the first 24 hours the risk goes down, but you still watch for 5-6 days. And then there is always the chance that the venom could have damaged the heart and you notice in later years. Sadly - this is our 4th horse to be bit in the last 12 years. The little buggers are sneaky!!!

Mac is looking better - but he still looks like he got beat up!

I recieved a box in the mail - and have been a little slow in showing you the cool Quilts of Valor that came in it. These three quilts were made by Alberta G of Illinois and quilted by Joe F in IL. They are just beautiful.

Look at these colors!! Aren't the bright and peppy - definately for a female warrior!!

This one is made with some of the same fabrics but some others are in there are well. How do I know? *grin* I looked!!! I Love these colors!!

And this last one Alberta sent is totally for a baseball lover! The backing is even apple pie - I guess you could call this the All American Quilt!!





Alberta and Joe - Thank you for collaborating on these Quilts of Valor!! They are wonderful.

Quilters Accountability 9/15/10

This was me on 9/8/2010

Blocks made: Nine Blocks total are made, 3 are in various stages of completion, 56 blocks are needed. Plus the solid blocks in the holes you see on the design wall. But I am not ready to go there yet.


Goals for next week. Finish the three blocks and sew at least 15 minutes a day on the blocks.






This is me on 9/15/2010

Blocks made: 13 blocks, and a few in the almost finished stage.

DId I get the 15 minutes a day to sew? - Nope. And truly - I know better at this time of year, but I figure if I give myself a goal I will try to do it.... I'll just keep trying.

This morning as the horses came in - wrangler man noticed one of them not looking so hot. We had just been talking about the horses we have had bit by rattlesnakes, and that this was the time of year for it. We were reminding the boys that ALL outside activites now require boots because of the snakes. and lo and behold - one of our horses got bit.

Poor dude! He is one of the older, smarter, horses, so I really think this snake just struck at him and didn't rattle at all. When he came in his nose was just starting to swell, so of course, the vet gets called - and then we started icing his nose, and tubing him to make sure he could breathe.

This is him in the first part of the morning. Sadly enough it got worse through the day, and about 4 ish started to go down enough that he could eat. He even has a hard time drinking. I had to ice his nose about every 30 minutes to help keep the swelling from moving up his face. He just looked miserable. It made me feel so bad for him!

Alright, back to Quilty Stuff -


My goals for next week:


• Quilt 1 Quilt of Valor
• Make More Blocks on my Betty Quilt
• Cut out a Quilt of Valor Group Quilt for our Sew Day






That will be pretty good for me! I have to finish 2 other customer Quilts as well.
To see what everyone else is up to head over to Bari's at

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

Writer's Block or Quilter's Block?

Can you have both Writers block and Quilters Block at the same time? I think I do - I haven't had much time to quilt for myself, so I don't have much quilty stuff to write about - so my mind is blank... sort of.

Last week there was a horrible accident at our NorthWest corner of the property. And we were there to hear it, and see the aftermath. A car hood went flying up in the air to the fences. Traffic stopped for miles, and flight for life came in, then left without picking anyone up. Turns out that was a good sign, every one was stable.

Since we had to check those fences to make sure they didn't get damaged, we decided it was probably time to check them all. We all saddled up and headed out. Turns out that was a  good thing. Although we own our land, the Natural Gas and Oil companies own the mineral rights. Technically they are not supposed to leave things on the surface, but we have learned this to be an untruth. We found lots of loose wires.

 Or more exactly, Brownie Mare ( like that name?) walked into the wire while Wrangler Man was on her, and the rest of us watching - wondering what to do. Wrangler Man is pretty handy, I kept us all away and he untangled the mare.

Of course, there was more to do then, not only remove that wire, but make sure they hadn;t left any more around. Did you know you can spend a day or two just doing that? If you didn't know - now you do *grin* and So. Do. I.

There was a volleyball game to attend, swim practices to get to, and more horse riding to do. I quilted a quilt as well. I really liked this one. It was a very scrappy log cabin.

I have about 20 minutes before we leave again for  swim practice, so maybe I will go try to unblock my quilters block, and maybe stare at my fabrics. I truly  believe they laugh at me every time I walk by.... or maybe they are taunting me... and teasing me?

Have a great one!

Quilters Accountability 9/8

Okay - I will be the first to admit it - I am a dork. I just now sat down to write my QA thinking - wow, I am going to get it done before midnight - and wrangler man informed me.... its THURSDAY....Ackkkk!!

I think Labor day messed up my schedule!

So My Quilt in Progress is my Betty Quilt. And I think I may be getting on a roll. I asked about design walls on Monday (Hunh -  maybe that was Tuesday now that I know my days are off) and got some great responses. My favorite was from Pat over at Bell Creek Quilts
 http://bellcreekquilts.blogspot.com/2010/09/national-sewing-monthday-8.html   .

I thought - I think I have some extra batting. I KNOW I have binder clips, and so I made a temporary design wall. I made it over the sliding glass door in the front room, so you know it has to be very temporary, and now Wrangler Man has some ideas to make it better for me ( whoo hoo - put him on the job and it will be great!)

Progress made: Nine Blocks total are made, 3 are in various stages of completion, 56 blocks are needed. Plus the solid blocks in the holes you see on the design wall. But I am not ready to go there yet.

Goals for next week. Finish the three blocks and sew at least 15 minutes a day on them.

See - progress... there are some empty spots on the cutting board.

If you want to see what others are up to - and who reported on the Real Wednesday - go to Baris at:

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

Science

There are science projects going on in our house. This is actually kind of fun, but I am not a science know it all!

I guess I will learn along with the kiddos - first off we had to make a decomposition station. Little bit had to choose items that he thought would decompose, mold, wilt, and not decompose. Then he had to arrange them in a plastic bottle, and put some dirt in there. Funny thing - we live amoing acres of dirt, yet it took us about half an hour to choose the *right* dirt. Most of our dirt seems like sand or manure, and neither one of us wanted to play in that!

We are still in the process of watching this experiment - as it sits on my kitchen counter!

The next science experiment required jell-o. Every one was so excited as they thought they could eat it. But after they realized we put bleach, laundry soaps and windex in little holes in the jell-o.... it might not taste too good!

This is the start of the experiment. Middle Bit was in charge of it.

This is the end. The idea was to prove that enzymes break down protien. I *think* it worked - our answers matched the ones in the answer key ( success right?)

We just thought we would share all the other happenings that have been going on around here. Didn't want anyone to think I was slacking *grin*

Design Walls

So, as I am slowly working on my Reproduction Quilt - the one that will be finished in 2031, I want a design wall.

I have stipulations - 1. It has to be portable.

                              2. It has to be Put Awayable

                              3. It has to be easy to use (because I can NOT handle many more challenges at the moment)

                             4. It can not block the sunlight for too long ( I have LOTs of windows!)

So - what do you all use for a design wall?

Ault Quilt Festival

A few Weekends ago there was a Quilt Festival up in Ault - Ault is A Unique Little Town... ( get it - Its on their sign). 

Anyways the lady that coordinated the Quilt show was short a few quilts, so she called me a wondered if I might have any quilts that I could let her display. They are displayed VERY safely, up high, in a secure gym, with Security. I thought this might be a good exposure for Quilts of Valor - so I chose 4 Quilts for her to display.

Apparently I was right - this was a great way to get the word out there, because when I went to pick up my Quilts of Valor - I came home with 6 more!!!

Want to see them?

These Three Star Quilts were made by Wilma O in Colorado. I believe these are the Star Struck pattern from Atkinson designs. I LOVE it!!

These Three were made by Sonje J in Colorado - Aren't they just beautiful?

Thanks Quilters for making these Quilts of Valor.