I've been everywhere... man....

I've been everywhere....

Last Sunday I left for the first of my 600 mile trips and headed west. The way there was wonderful. The weather there wasn't so bad. I saw a cousin ( that was a bonus) I watched my oldest kid's band take second in the state, and then I sat on the Vail pass and waited for the road to open so I could go home. Really, I should have waited longer - that was the least fun drive I have EVER made....

This is me sitting on the interstate... for an hour.... and this was the best visability for a LONG time....

Only to get home to unpack and repack and go North - to the very Northern most part of Wyoming...... The roads were much better, and I didn';t have to do all the driving. I picked up a very handsome Cowboy in Cheyenne and he drove most of the way. ( By the way - I am married to the cowboy - so it was okay to pick him up)

And now I am home and ready to get back to business!!! Okay - not tonite, tonite - I am ready to put the kids to bed, and sit on the couch and drink a cup of tea....

Jane in Colorado

I recieved a call from a lady that sews in our church sewing group. Unfortuneatly I have never been able to attend do to my childrens sport schedules, but I had known about it. However - I did not know that they had heard about me.... but they had... how cool!

So Jane calls and asks if she can meet with me between services and give me a quilt for the Quilts of Valor program. I said sure - I will be standing at this location in the church and I have three boys. She found me quite easily!

But - she said she had a quilt - she wasn't exactly right about that - she had 2 finished quilt, and a bag of tops for me to quilt.  I had fun going thru them - now to get to quilting!

Thanks Jane!!

Mary in AZ

Mary in Arizona and her guild have been busy too! Look at these awesome Quilts of Valor!!

Look at the cool logo embroidered on the pillowcase!!

Thanks Mary!!! for all your hard work.

Quilts from my Quilt Guild

My quilt guild - the Pieceable Friends Quilt Guild - has been an awesome support for the Quilts of Valor program in this area. Not only have they stepped up to do a TON of the binding on these quilts - so finished ones come along as well.

This first quilt is from Myrna - she is awesome!!

The second one was made by Jan and Sandy, and quilted by them as well.

Thanks Ladies!

Quilters Accountability 10/20/10

Goals for Last Week:



1. Betty Blocks - keep making progress: I'm slowly working. Many of you have asked me what Betty Blocks are - well - My Great Aunt Betty was a quilter in Michigan and she donated many of her quilts to the Quilt museum and Michigan State University. I found a picture of one of them and am reproducing it - and calling it my Betty Quilt.
http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2010/09/quilters-accountability-91510.html  You can see some of them here.


2. Keep working on Fall Foliage:  Whoo hoo - all the pieces are sewn, and I am staring cutting the blocks out!!


3. Get my Veterans Rail Fence pattern all tested and ready to go - fabric requirements will go up on November 7th!!! ANNDDD there are two ways to do this - with yardage or with scraps....    So far so good - it's looking good and will truly be so easy - any one can make it!!! The quilt will be about 60 x 80 when its done... a perfect Quilt of Valor size!

Goals for Next Week:

• Finish instructions for Veterans Rail Fence
• Put labels on Two Quilts of Valor
• Send Shari her box ( its almost ready Shari)

And thats it - one of my son's is heading to a State Band Championship and we are tagging along. It should be good, but since its outside I am hoping that the weather stays nice!

 

If you want to see what others are up to - or join in go to Bari's blog at

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

Linda in TX

Linda in Texas has been very busy this summer!! Looky what got sent my way for the soldiers!

These are just beautiful. I do not know for sure, but my boys and I decided that they are the Dissappearing 9 patch pattern, and they were VERY impressed at how small her 9 patches started out as.

Thanks Linda!!

I am starting to feel the change to fall/winter. Although I LOVE the temperature change, and the fall colors - I do not like the change in the amount of daylight. It is making getting up VERY hard to do. Chores start at 5:30 am and I usually can handle it, but this morning .... I jumped out of bed at 6:30 and it was still dark and I was so confused. My oldest came in and said Mom - are you ok - we need to leave to school.... so I made the humbling drive to school in my pj's and a ponytail. The two other boys just went in there quilts... I envied them!  With that said - I also drew late night swim team duty, so hope tomorrow won't be too tough to get moving...

Friday Night Lights

Tonight was the homecoming Football game in our town. And the band played during halftime. Right now our marching band is ranked #1 in the state for their division.  Our football team won the game tonite, and the homecoming Queen and King was crowned. A lot of celebrating going on!.







My son is a drummer - he is the drummer on the Quads. And my pictures are very professional you know - because I am SO steady! *giggle*

Last year at this time - the Homecoming Game the snow was blowing and the wind was howling, and NO one could get warm. I was very tough and strong and thought I could take the cold - and I lasted about 10 minutes then went to the truck and sat in the heat! I watched the game from the truck, couldn't make myself get back out. And I collected children too - the colder it got, the more children joined me in the truck!

This year was much nicer - about 50deg and feeling somewhat balmy!

Quilters accountability 10/13/10

What a week!! 

Here is a picture of tonite's sunset from my deck. I think it might be the only night we have been home at this time - and that was by accident!

A few weeks ago - Nancy - at http://wyomingbreezes.blogspot.com/ sent me a Quilt of Valor to quilt. This is it! All quilted! Isn't it a lovely pattern? I have a feeling this one took a long time to make!

Here is an up close shot... I had a great time quilting it.

So - what else have I been up to? I cut up 15 yards of fabric into strips for the Veterans Day Rail Fence Quilt. I have put together 2 kits for our QOV Sew day in November.

I busted 16 yards of fabrics into backings for QOV's and..... I have been sewing 15 minutes a day - at least. I am so excited!!! My goals last week were to:

*Keep sewing on the Betty Blocks - Yep- finished 3 more!!!  I think this means that I might *might* get this done before 2032 now....

*Sew all my sets together for my Fall Foliage quilt - Oops - I got a little sidetracked and only got half of them sewn....

Here is my problem - I always say I am going to only sew one project at a time, and then I see something or get an idea and *bam* it has to be done right now, and then I think since I am cutting up fabrics I should cut some extra for this and maybe some for that.... and the next thing I know I have 3 things going on.... Do you do this too? 

Goals for Next Week:

1. Betty Blocks - keep making progress

2. Keep working on Fall Foliage

3. Get my Veterans Rail Fence pattern all tested and ready to go - fabric requirements will go up on November 7th!!!  ANNDDD there are two ways to do this - with yardage or with scraps....

If you want to see what others are up to - or join in go to Bari's blog at

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

Northwest Suburban Quilt guild

Is a very very prolific quilt guild!! I haven't emailed with them in a little bit, so imagine my surprise when a big box arrived with some Great Quilts of Valor in them.

Aren't these awesome quilts? Thanks NWSQG - you guys rock!!

I got some time today to sew - it was so nice and refreshing. We woke up to rain, much much needed rain. So it changed our plans for the morning. A nice change. It was nice to sew to the rain, and watch the plants turn a little greener, and listen to my kiddo tell me all about Napoleon. He was short ( giggle)

Enjoy!

The Amazon

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has an exhibit on the Amazon.

Amazon Voyage, Vicious Fishes and other Riches.

And they were said to have an Anaconda, which, myself, being such a great fan of snakes (gag) and other gross stuff was just begging to go.....   So we did. And we went first thing in the morning, so we had the WHOLE Amazon to ourselves for about 1 1/2 hours. We even had our own security guard - he was from Montana  - Hi Jim!! It was cool!

After we exhausted ourselves in the Amazon, chasing fish, and stingrays, and snakes, we headed over to Exploration Health. While we were there in the science station - they had an opening. Very rare. so we got to do some experiments - we look cool huh?

Of course, since we drive lots of country roads to get to a main road, my poor car picks up some bugs.! My sweet boys washed it for me! While I got to sit on the deck and drink a glass of tea.... and point out the spots that they missed!

I survived the Amazon?? Have you?? 

Quilts!!

First off - something happened to my No Soldier Forgotten page. Last time I added stuff to it, it was correct. When I went to make updates today - it had erased ALL that I had done since June!!! So - Please note that as of today it is all wrong. And I don't know that I have the energy tonite to fix it. I may just cheat and leave it be.....

Second off - I have LOVED taking pictures of these Quilts of Valor. This was a blast. I kicked the kids out of the front room, and started snapping!!

Here are 4 Quilts that came from Judy L ( http://www.patchworktimes.com ) She had a quilt a long this summer and said that if you got the top to her by a certain date she would quilt them and send them this way.

The first one is from Kathy C




This second one is from Dianne - all the way in England!

This thrid one is from Judy D

And last but not least - from Becky

In my mail I was also surprised to recieve 6 pillowcases from Wyoming! Thanks Nancy! ( http://wyomingbreezes.blogspot.com ) She also sent me a quilt to quilt - but you will have to come back to see that.... just don't wait too long *grin*

And Ruth in PA sent me a bolt of fabric for backing. I LOVE it, and have already cut into it!!

You guys are truly amazing!! I sure appreciate you!!!

Combat Veterans Cowboy Up

A few of you have asked how come I meet so many returning OIF/OEF vets. This is one of the many ways......  and right now they need a little help.....

http://www.combatveteranscowboyup.org/

helps treat returning vets suffering from PTSD, TBI as well as the phsyical visible injuries. If you would like to help, they need hay. It costs $3.75/bale -that will feed about 1 horse for a week. They have 21 horses.

We decided to give up our McDonalds for a week. The boys and I like the $1.00 cokes and small fries as a pre swim practice snack. Maybe if you could give up snack for a day and help in this project you would be helping many returning vets.

You can give by paypal by going to their website, it is a 501c3 and it is tax deductible.

If you do this - would you write in the comments that "the quilt lady sent me", or something to that nature - this is my joke to him. He thinks that all I think about is fabric. and I have totally proved that right to him MANY times over *giggle*

Hope you all have a great weekend - we are off to a day of the battle of the drums, marching bands and well, basically lots of Noise!!! Should be fun!!

Quilts of Valor

This first quilt was made by Willa in CO, and quilted by Linda in CO. Linda is such an awesome quilter, and she has really been helping me out on these tops! Thanks Linda.

 

The Next quilts came from Shari in AZ and her group. I already showed you three, but there was a total of 11!! So here are the rest of these wonderful Quilts of Valor.

Aren;t these awesome!! Thanks Shari for you and your groups hard work. And for coming to visit me!!!

Quilters Accountabilty 10-6-2010

Here is my list from last week:

Quilt on My quilt at least 2 hours Whoo Hooo I am done!! I am so excited, but now I have to put the binding on. (bummer) I learned something on this one. I really thought that I should just quilt an allover design, but since it was mine I really wanted lots of feathers. So I did it with the feathers, and it doesn't show up much. Its a pretty busy quilt, with a pretty busy back. The Green stars puffed up tho - and I LIKE it- so thats what matters in the end, ( according to me LOL

And - I even got a Quilt of Valor quilted. This one came from Jane M In AppleValley MN. I think it is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.... lovely!

Cut my Fall Foliage quilt ( that is the fabric bundle I bought last Friday) Done, and quite  afew strip sets sewn now.

 Sew 10 Betty Blocks   Even after getting Saturday sew day - I only finished seven.... 

 Make a Backing for Lime green/Black quilt   Nope - Not done


Take Pictures of QOV's that have arrived  Boy, I was close, then another box arrived... so lucky me - I get to ohh and ahh over more of them!! These are gorgeous quilts!! The soldiers will truly LOVE them!!
 
So for this next week:

• Keep Working on the Betty Blocks
• Sew all the sets together for the Fall Foliage Quilt

You can see what everyone else is up to at:
http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/


 

Quilt of Valor Delivery

Remember my QOV emergency???

Here is what happened. A soldier came back from Iraq and Afghanistan.  He has been home 2 months and has been having a rough time. His mother met my friend, my friend called me, I called the Mother, and we worked out all sorts of plans. Different ways of getting a QOV to this soldier. Who was wounded, and needing some comfort.

Plan 1 came into action at 3 pm on Sunday - right at the end of the Bronco game. Perfect timing. So we loaded up and headed out. We came to this young man and sort of surprised him.

His Mom and Dad herded him into the house, he was fixing an air conditioner. And I started opening up the quilt. I started to tell him about what a Quilt of Valor was, and how this one was made for him. And I told him how much love and hugs and comfort go into these. And then I wrapped him up in it, and sat down for a chat.

The WHOLE time that I was there, that young man did NOT remove his quilt. He hugged it, and stayed wrapped in it, and refused to take it off, even when he was hugging me goodbye.

I know that that quilt started some healing for this young man, he really thought that he was just being forgotten. I know his heart tells him otherwise now! This quilt was made by Harriett. And I thank you all for participating in QOV - so that these soldiers can start healing.

My Sew Weekend

This weekend was supposed to be the big sew weekend, and

it was, and it was fun, and I am happy  now. Well, I wasn't really unhappy before, so I guess I am just happier!

 My first goal was to get my fall foliage quilt cut out. After playing with the fabrics I am not sure fall foliage is what I should call it.... but Little Bit liked the name.
       Yes - it is cut out, and I even sewed 4, almost 6 sets together ( 5 and 6 are in the halfway stages)

My second goal was to make 10 Betty blocks - I did not get 10, I have 6 completed and three in the works. I am sort of being a perfectionist on these. If you know me, you know that perfection is tough for me to attain, but I am even Pinning these blocks so I have a chance. Do any of you pin your blocks?

My third goal was to take pictures of all the Quilts of Valor that have arrived this last week. Oh - ALMOST - I did. Today I had a bunch of Quilts out across the couches and I got called for a QOV emergency.... want to know about it? 

 Hee hee - you have to come back tomorrow - it deserves its own post!

I didn't even get to the other two goals, so they will just have to roll over.... There is always tomorrow right?